During the nineteenth century museum curators, archaeologists, and others interested in the prehistoric past did not have a way of accurately dating the age of sites, artifacts, and archaeological features. Dating was relative: that is, it was known only that some items were older or younger than others. Christian Jurgensen Thomsen, the curator of the Danish National Museum, began to classify cutting tools according to the material used to make them: stone, bronze, and iron. He then extended this classification to other materials which were found with them. This gave rise to a chronological scheme known as the Three-Age System: Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age.
In 1865, Sir John Lubbock published his popular book Prehistoric Times in which he divided the Stone Age into two parts: Paleolithic (the Old Stone Age) and Neolithic (the New Stone Age). Later archaeologists working in Europe would add a third era—the Mesolithic (the Middle Stone Age)—to this sequence.
The European Mesolithic is the period between the retreat of the ice sheets about 10,000 years ago and the introduction of farming. The Mesolithic is a period which is still poorly understood. During this time large areas of the coastal lowlands, which would have been valuable hunting areas during the Paleolithic, were lost due to rising sea levels. Consequently, many Mesolithic sites are underwater.
Overall, the Mesolithic was a major period of transformation during which ranked hierarchies and farming appeared. Steven Mithen, writing in The Oxford Companion to Archaeology, reports:
“From the well-preserved organic remains of northern Europe, and the reconstruction of extensive and complex settlement patterns, the Mesolithic emerges as the period when humans achieved one of the most intensive exploitations of the natural world which was possible with a hunting and gathering mode of existence.”
Steven Mithen also reports:
“The rapid environmental change during the Mesolithic, and the diversity of animal and plant communities across Europe, make it difficult to generalize about Mesolithic communities.”
Writing about Britain in their book The Origins of Britain, Lloyd and Jennifer Lang write:
“This early post-glacial period is known archaeologically as the Mesolithic (middle Stone Age) and marks the adaptation of the upper Paleolithic societies to the changing environment. Men followed the rapidly migrating herds of animals, and spread out through the forests that gradually covered much of Britain.”
During this time, hunting and gathering societies managed a fairly comfortable way of life. As the climate warmed, the migratory herds of reindeer shifted north and were replaced by woodland game such as deer and wild pig.
In order to survive the people had to have intimate knowledge of their ecology. They had to understand more than just what plants, animals, and fish could provide them with food, they also had to know when and where these resources would be available. If they went to an area to harvest berries, for example, and arrived a few days too early or a few days too late, they could miss the harvest and face starvation. It was important that they be able to keep track of the seasons by watching the skies.
As with more modern hunting and gathering peoples, the Mesolithic people also appear to have modified the environment to enhance the land’s yield of game and plants. Archaeological evidence from the English Mesolithic site of Star Carr shows that they burned the area around the site. This encouraged the growth of fresh shoots which, in turn, attracted and sustained game animals. The archaeological data at Star Carr shows that the people ate red deer, roe deer, elk, ox and pig (in order of amount consumed). At Star Carr, archaeologists have found some of the earliest evidence of the domesticated dog.
With regard to tools, the Mesolithic hunters and gatherers often used microliths—tools in which tiny flint triangles and rhomboids were inserted into handles of wood and antler. Microliths were used for knives and composite spear points.
As a part of the Mesolithic subsistence pattern, fishing was also important in some areas. Willow and hazel branches were used to fashion fishtraps which were placed in streams to harvest the migrating salmon.
In addition to stone tools, the Mesolithic people also made tools from antlers and bones. These tools included bone awls, bone pins, and antler mattock heads.
In general, the Mesolithic Europeans tended to live in small, relatively mobile bands following a seasonal round of resource collection in a particular territory. With regard to the British Mesolithic, Lesley Adkins and Roy Adkins, in their book A Thesaurus of British Archaeology, write:
“The settlement sites which have been properly investigated appear to have been occupied intermittently, probably seasonally. They were probably camping sites with temporary shelters made from organic materials, although only the barest evidence for these shelters has survived.”
Ireland was first occupied during the Mesolithic. Mount Sandel in County Derry dates to 7900 to 7600 BCE and is the earliest known evidence of human settlement in Ireland. The Mount Sandel site appears to have been occupied year-round. The people at this site built circular huts: placing the butt-end of a sapling in the ground and then bending it over, they created a bowl-like structure.
The migration to Ireland required some type of watercraft, perhaps large dugout canoes. In his book Ancient Ireland: Life Before the Celts, Laurence Flanagan writes:
“It is generally agreed among archaeologists that Ireland’s Mesolithic settlers came here from some place or places in Britain, from which many features on or near the Irish coast are visible.”
Religion
The European Mesolithic was a time of environmental change which required cultures, including religion, to also change to meet the new environmental conditions. Conditions sometimes changed very rapidly. In their book The Complete Practical Encyclopedia of Archaeology, Christopher Catling and Paul Bahn write:
“Perhaps it is no surprise that this is a period in which archaeologists find increasing amounts of evidence for ritualistic or religious practice and for a growing sense of social organization—which could be interpreted as a banding together to form a common front against an uncertain world.”
With regard to religion, the Mesolithic people were animistic rather than deistic and their ceremonies focused on hunting, fishing, and gathering rituals. The presence of deer antlers at a number of sites has suggested to archaeologists that these were used in ceremonies in which dancers imitated the actions of deer. Reporting on the deer antler frontlets found at Star Carr in England, Lloyd and Jennifer Laing, in their book The Origins of Britain, write:
“The form closely recalls the head-dresses worn in English folk customs, notably the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance.”
The archaeological evidence from the Mesolithic also indicates some monument building as well as ritual feasting. Archaeological data from the Heathrow Terminal 5 site in southern England, for example, suggests that ritual feasting occurred regularly over many years.
DNA
It has long been assumed by archaeologists that farming moved across Europe, starting in the Neolithic period, with colonization. That is, the farmers moved in and replaced the earlier Mesolithic hunter-gatherer peoples. However, findings from the Mesolithic site of Gough Cave in England’s Cheddar Gorge has challenged this assumption. Human remains found in the cave have been dated to 10,250 years ago which places it in the Mesolithic. DNA was extracted from one of the men’s teeth and it was found that he belonged to Haplogroup U5, a mitochondrial haplogroup which has been found in other Mesolithic human remains.
Bryan Sykes of Oxford University, who had first sequenced the mitochondrial DNA of Cheddar Man, also looked at the mitochondrial DNA of present-day people living in the nearby Cheddar Village. He found two exact matches and one match with a single mutation. The two exact matches were schoolchildren, and their names were not released. The close match was a history teacher named Adrian Targett. In other words, the descendants of the ancient Mesolithic hunter-gatherers who used Gough Cave still live in the area. Since mitochondrial DNA is passed from mother to child, it looks as though some of the Mesolithic women had children with the Neolithic colonists.
Maglemosian
One of the lithic technologies which is associated with the early Mesolithic Period is Maglemosian. This archaeological culture is named for the Magle Mose bogland of Zealand where archaeologists first found it. Robert Jameson, writing in A Dictionary of Archaeology, reports:
“The lithic industry is characterized by the presence of axes with obliquely blunted points and flints in the shape of large isosceles triangles.”
The tool kit suggests a greater emphasis on wood-working, a reflection of the more thickly forested environment at this time. Lloyd and Jennifer Laing, in their book The Origins of Britain, write:
“The Maglemosians must have spent much of their lives in a green forest twilight. They fashioned a few stone axes to help them cut their way through lighter woodlands. The rest of their toolkit comprised very small flints indeed—the microliths so characteristic of Mesolithic communities. These were mounted up in wooden hafts to make composite tools such as saws or knives.”