Abstract: Research projects undertaken in the Cantabrian region since 1980 have produced new, high-quality information about the neolithisation process(es) in this area. It is now necessary to review this archaeological information and test the main hypotheses put forward to explain it. This paper presents an update on the archaeological evidence (sites, chronological dates, archaeozoological, archaeobotanical and technological information) for the early Neolithic in the Cantabrian region. It summarizes recent research on neolithisation in the region, and assesses the impact of this process during the early Neolithic, and its later consolidation. Although the available information is still incomplete, it is now possible to identify the focal point of the introduction of elements characteristic of the Neolithic way of life in the region. Current evidence suggests that it is in the eastern sector, where the earliest arrival of domesticates and new technologies such as pottery has been attested. The existence of continuities—such as sustained reliance on hunting and gathering and the coexistence of old and new funerary rites—suggests the persistence of native populations, which gradually participated in the neolithisation process after an ‘availability phase’.

Abstract: The datasets described in this paper comprise the core spatial and temporal structure of the Cultural Evolution of Neolithic Europe project (EUROEVOL), led by Professor Stephen Shennan, UCL. This is one of three datasets resulting from the EUROEVOL project, the other two comprising the faunal (EUROEVOL Dataset 2) and archaeobotanical (EUROEVOL Dataset 3) data ( http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1469811/ ). The dataset offers the largest repository of archaeological site and radiocarbon data from Neolithic Europe (4,757 sites and 14,053 radiocarbon samples), dating between the late Mesolithic and Early Bronze Age (Figure 1). It also offers the core archaeological information structured at the site and phase level, which provide the primary links between the datasets.

Abstract: For the past 15 years, a succession of stable isotope studies have documented the abrupt dietary transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic in Western and Northern Europe. Portugal, with its Late Mesolithic shell middens and burials apparently coexisting with the earliest Neolithic, further illustrates the nature of that transition. Individuals from Neolithic contexts there had significantly different diets to their Mesolithic counterparts. No evidence was found for a transitional phase between the marine-oriented Mesolithic subsistence regimes and the domesticated, terrestrial Neolithic diet. Two later Neolithic individuals, however, showed evidence for partial reliance on marine or aquatic foods. This raises questions about the possible persistence of marine dietary regimes beyond the Mesolithic period. This article is followed by a brief note by Mary Jackes and David Lubell.

Abstract: Despite ongoing fieldwork focusing on the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods of the Aegean, the eastern part of this region, especially western Turkey, remains almost entirely unexplored in terms of early prehistory. There is virtually no evidence from this area that can contribute to broader research themes such as the dispersal of early hominins, the distribution of Early Holocene foragers and early forager-farmer interactions. The primary aim of the Karaburun Archaeological Survey Project is to address this situation by collecting data from the eastern side of the Aegean Sea, thereby contributing to the currently debated issues of Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean prehistory.

Abstract: This paper details the characterisation of four obsidian artefacts from the Mesolithic site of Livari Skiadi, one of only a handful of such pre-Neolithic sites on Crete. Elemental analysis using EDXRF sources the raw materials to Sta Nychia on Melos; in concert with other data, it can be suggested that this was the preferred Melian source for Late Pleistocene – Early Holocene populations. The Livari material represents the earliest Melian obsidian on Crete and by implication the first evidence of its inhabitants' connections to the Cycladic islands. When located within a broader review of Melian obsidian use in the Upper Palaeolithic – Mesolithic Aegean, it can be shown that the main consumers of these raw materials were island-based groups with immediate access to waterways that led to the Cyclades. It is suggested that distinctions between island and mainland toolkits (technical and raw material choices) may have been the product of seasonal, and environmental influences, rather than reflecting the products of different populations. Finally, certain datasets, including Livari, suggest the procurement of obsidian via intermediaries. These exchanges are viewed in avowedly social terms, with gift-giving a fundamental manner through which inter-group relations were created and maintained, whereby the circulation of obsidian can be viewed as one of those mechanisms through which Mesolithic Aegean cultural traditions came to be produced and reproduced.

Abstract: The earliest coastal sites in Alaska are found on Anangula Island (Anangula Blade site at 8500 b.p.) in the eastern Aleutian Islands, and on the mainland and islands of the Alexander Archipelago in southeast Alaska (GHB 2 and Hidden Falls sites, dating between 9500 and 9000 b.p.). These two disparate regions were characterized by two distinct lithic techno-complexes that have different origins as reflected in the type of microblade cores utilized. The older southeast Alaskan complex, with frontally fluted, wedge-shaped microblade cores, appears to have been derived from the late Paleolithic Diuktai cultural complex of Siberia via a cultural nexus in west or central Alaska. The later Anangula Island complex reflects the technological innovations in blade manufacture that led to the development of prismatic to conical blade/microblade core types associated with Siberian Mesolithic to early Neolithic industries. For a limited time, each area maintained its separate cultural integrity until a new cultural dynamic, perhaps associated with the spread of a ground stone industry and innovations in social forms, broke down the local barriers and provided the matrix for cultural expansion.

Abstract: (p. 142) In 1971 Prof.Dr. R.W. Ehrich, one of the excavators of the settlement of Starcevo, asked me to study the animal remains which were collected during the excavations in 1932, 1969 and 1970. Some years later Dr. B. Jovanovic invited me to study the faunal remains which were collected during the excavation of the Late Mesolithic / Early Neolithic settlement of Padina in the Djerdap region (Iron Gate). Since both sites are situated on a bank of the Danube in Yugoslavia (fig. 1), and both are important for our understanding of the end of the Mesolithic period and the introduction of agriculture in Central Europe, I decided to review the results of both studies together.

Abstract: The early Mesolithic is a key time in British prehistory. During the preceding Upper Palaeolithic period – when sea-level was lower – Britain was a marginal upland area of northwest Europe. Occupation was climate dependent, usually relatively fleeting, with human groups often operating at the margins of their ranges. The Mesolithic by contrast represents the start of the continuous occupation of the British Isles. This process saw colonisation by groups moving along river systems in the south and along the coast in the north (Conneller and Higham 2015), and, over time, the gradual infilling of the British landscape. Places gained meaning and histories for the first time, and particular places were marked out as important, with evidence for long-term occupation, seemingly from the very start of the period (Conneller et al 2012).

Abstract: It is widely accepted that between the beginning of the Early Neolithic period and the end of the Early Bronze Age different regions of Britain were connected to one another by sea, but little is known about the nature of maritime contacts before plank-built boats developed during the 2nd millennium bc. This paper considers a series of coastal sites, some of which were first settled from Mesolithic times. From the early 4th millennium they were also associated with artefact production and the use of imported objects and raw materials. Their distribution focuses on the region of isostatic uplift in northern Britain where the ancient shoreline still survives. It is considered in relation to a new model of coastal change which suggests that these locations were characterised by natural havens sheltered behind islands or bars. The sites can be compared with the ‘landing places’ and ‘beach markets’ discussed by historical archaeologists in recent years.

Abstract: This paper details the results of a survey of the obsidian sources on the island of Giali in the Dodecanese, Greece, together with a review of these raw materials’ use from the Mesolithic to the Late Bronze Age (ninth to second millennium Cal bc). Elemental characterization of 76 geological samples from 11 sampling locations demonstrates the existence of two geochemically distinct sources, termed ‘Giali A’, and ‘Giali B’. The latter material, available in small cobble form on the island’s southwestern half, seems to have only been exploited by local residents during the Final Neolithic (fourth millennium Cal bc). In contrast, Giali A obsidian comprises a distinctive white-spotted raw material, available in large boulders on the northeastern half of Giali, whose use changed significantly over time. During the Mesolithic to later Neolithic it was mainly used for flake-based tool-production by local Dodecanesian populations. Further away, handfuls of Giali A obsidian are documented from Early Neolithic to Early Bronze Age sites in Crete, the Cyclades, and western Anatolia. The distribution of this material is likely indicative of population movement, and regional socio-economic interaction more generally, rather than a significant desire for, and trade of, the material itself. This changed in the Middle Bronze Age (second millennium Cal bc), when Giali A obsidian was reconceptualized as a valued raw material, and used by Cretan palace-based lapidaries to make prestige goods. This radical shift in traditions of consumption resulted from Cretan factions appropriating Anatolian and Egyptian elite value regimes and craft practices as a means of creating new means of social distinction within a larger Eastern Mediterranean political arena.

Abstract: Abstract This multi-proxy study of a small floodplain in the Rhone catchment area, at the northern edge of the Mediterranean morphoclimatic system, provides valuable information concerning the impact of mid-Holocene climate variability (8.5–7.0 ka) and the effects of two rapid climatic changes (8.2 and 7.7/7.1 ka) on an alluvial plain, its basin and the first farming societies of the Rhone valley. Around 7.7/7.1 ka, the combined effects of (1) a strong rate of change in insolation and (2) variations in solar activity amplified marine and atmospheric circulation in the north-west Atlantic (Bond event 5b), which imply continental hydrological, soil and vegetation changes in the small catchment area. For this period, strong fluctuations in the plant cover ratio have been identified, related to a regime of sustained and regular fires, as well as abundant erosion of the hill slopes and frequent fluvial metamorphoses which led to braiding of the watercourse in this floodplain. There are few data available to evaluate the impact of natural events on prehistoric communities. This continental archive offers clear multi-proxy data for discussion of these aspects, having 4 cultural layers interbedded in the fluvial sequence (1 Late Mesolithic, 3 Cardial/Epicardial). Earlier data indicate the difficulty in recognizing such cultural features in the low alluvial plains of southern France during the Mesolithic/Early Neolithic transition, which should lead to caution when developing settlement models for this period.

Abstract: A major assemblage of Mesolithic and Neolithic wooden artefacts has been recovered from the bed of the River Užava at Sise, in the coastal belt of western Latvia. New archaeological investigation h...