INTRODUCTION

By about ten thousand years ago, the Pleistocene glaciers in Scandinavia and the Alps had retreated more or less to their current locations. The warmer climate allowed forests to arise over much of Europe that previously had been covered by ice and tundra. Rivers, lakes, and seas teemed with fish, while forests were full of game and edible plants. Such an environment presented many new possibilities for the hunting and gathering peoples who inhabited it. They responded to these challenges and opportunities with technological, social, and symbolic innovations.

This period, which began over ten thousand years ago and ended with the establishment of agriculture, is called the “Mesolithic” to indicate that it falls between the Palaeolithic, the “old” Stone Age of the glacial epochs, and the Neolithic, the “new” Stone Age of agriculture. In southern Europe, where the changes were not quite so dramatic, the term “Epipalaeolithic” is often used by archaeologists for this period. Until about the early 1970s, the Mesolithic did not receive much attention from archaeologists. Many regarded this period as one of cultural stagnation and poverty relieved only by the eventual appearance of agriculture. In the decades since, however, experts have come to view the time following the establishment of a mild, modern climate in Europe as one in which great changes resulted in a reasonably comfortable way of life. In some areas, the adoption of agriculture may even have been delayed by the natural abundance and the human responses to it. The Mesolithic period throughout Europe sets the stage for the developments in the millennia that followed. We have therefore chosen to begin the coverage in this encyclopedia with the postglacial hunters of the European forests and coasts.

The migratory reindeer herds that had provided so much of the diet during the final millennia of the Ice Age retreated to northern Scandinavia by about 8000 B. C. or even earlier. Territorial game such as deer and wild pigs colonized the new forests, so hunters no longer had to follow reindeer herds over vast distances. Instead, they could confine their hunting to a smaller territory. The forests also contained many edible plants that could be gathered easily. This allowed children to contribute to the family's food supply by collecting nuts, berries, and mushrooms. Hazelnuts, which would have been harvested in large quantities and stored, provided an abundant and reliable supply of food. Tubers and rhizomes (the fleshy edible roots of plants) would have been another important source of nourishment. Evidence from pollen diagrams indicates that the postglacial foragers altered the forest by using axes and fire to create artificial clearings where hazel and other shrubs could flourish and where animals would gather. Runs of migratory fish, such as salmon, in the pristine European rivers would have provided seasonal abundances that needed to be preserved for later consumption by smoking and drying. Along the coasts, shellfish could be found in great quantities, and fish could be caught with spears, nets, and lines.

The coastline of Europe had not yet reached its modern shape, however. A hunter could walk across

What is now the southern part of the North Sea and get his feet wet only when he had to ford the common estuary of the Thames and Rhine. The Baltic was initially a freshwater lake dammed by land bridges between Denmark and Sweden. Rising sea levels eventually inundated these land bridges. At the same time, the land previously compressed under billions of tons of ice began to spring back upward. The combination of rising seas and rising land had a large impact on the archaeological record. Many sites that were once on dry land are now submerged, as indicated by the finds of artifacts on the floor of the North Sea and in Danish coastal bays. Elsewhere, such as in central Sweden, sites that were once located on the coast or on islands are now far inland and high above modern sea level.

The Mesolithic foragers adapted their technology to the new climatic conditions. Tiny flint pieces called microliths were inserted in handles of wood and antler to form composite spearpoints and knives. Antler was used to make a wide variety of harpoons. A particularly clever and effective fishing tool called a leister had two curving serrated pieces of antler or wood attached to the end of a handle. It would have been thrust down over the back of a fish to seize it. Willow and hazel branches were used to make conical fish traps that were set into streams and estuaries such that the fish could swim into them but could not escape. In some places, many such traps were set across wide bodies of water, which permitted the capture of fish on an immense scale. Underwater investigations in Denmark have revealed the scale of such fish trapping. The development of such large facilities would not have been possible in the absence of some notion of property rights, since a community, or even a single household, would not invest its time in building such installations if their yield could be claimed by outsiders.

During the Mesolithic, dugout canoes begin to appear often in the archaeological record. Although they are usually found waterlogged in the bogs of northern Europe, we can infer that they were in general use throughout the continent at this time. The emergence of such watercraft had an important effect on Mesolithic society. It permitted foragers to exploit resources much farther from home, provided they could reach them by water, while maintaining their permanent settlement in one place for a large part of the year. A new concept of place and home replaced that of territory and home range held by the Ice Age hunting bands.

Archaeologists are only now beginning to consider such social aspects of the postglacial foragers. Evidence for their social lives can be gleaned from the many burials that have been discovered since the 1970s. Cemeteries at sites like Vedbxk in Denmark, Skateholm in Sweden, and Oleneostrovskii Mogil-nik in Russia provide evidence of ritual behavior and perhaps social distinctions. Great care was taken in Mesolithic burial rituals. In many cases, red ochre (iron oxide) was sprinkled on the bodies. Objects such as red deer antlers and flint tools were often included in the grave with the body. At Skateholm, dogs were buried with the same care as people, reflecting their importance in Mesolithic life.

In central and southern Europe, Mesolithic foragers congregated around lake basins in the Alpine foothills and took advantage of the vertical distribution of resources in mountainous areas. Many new postglacial forager sites have been found in the Alps and in other upland regions in the 1990s and early 2000s. Caves near the Mediterranean coast and in the limestone areas at the head of the Adriatic were also attractive locations for settlement. In southern Greece, Franchthi Cave frequently was occupied by foragers throughout this period. By 8,500 years ago, following rises in the sea level, the coastline was only about a kilometer away from the cave. An increasing amount of fish and shellfish are found among the food remains in the area, along with many different plant species. Along the Atlantic coasts of Portugal and Spain foragers also took advantage of the rich marine life.

In the interior of the Balkans, an important and unusual series of Mesolithic sites has been found in the Iron Gates gorges of the Danube River, on the border between Yugoslavia and Romania. Here, at sites like Lepenski Vir, Padina, and Vlasac, people took advantage of the abundant fish in the river and game on the adjacent slopes. They lived in small huts, each with a stone-lined hearth, and buried their dead among the houses. A distinctive trait of the Iron Gates settlements is a style of sculpture that features human-like heads carved from the local limestone.

The postglacial foragers of Europe were remarkably creative in the ways in which they adjusted to new environmental conditions. Recognition of this creativity has earned them greater respect from archaeologists, who now see this period as one of immense transformation rather than impoverishment. As a result of their successful adaptation to postglacial conditions, the Mesolithic foragers were generally not anxious to adopt agriculture when it appeared nearly nine thousand years ago in southeastern Europe, but after some delay they integrated crops and livestock into their diet and blended into the farming population.

Peter Bogucki