Reconstruction of a "temporary" Mesolithic house in Ireland; waterside sites offered good food resources.
Alternative names
Epipaleolithic (for the Near East)
Geographical range
Europe
Period
Middle of Stone Age
Dates
20,000 to 10,000 BP (Middle East) 15,000–5,000 BP (Europe)
Preceded by
Upper Paleolithic
Followed by
Neolithic
The Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, mesos 'middle' + λίθος, lithos 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymously, especially for outside northern Europe, and for the corresponding period in the Levant and Caucasus. The Mesolithic has different time spans in different parts of Eurasia. It refers to the final period of hunter-gatherer cultures in Europe and the Middle East, between the end of the Last Glacial Maximum and the Neolithic Revolution. In Europe it spans roughly 15,000 to 5,000 BP; in the Middle East (the Epipalaeolithic Near East) roughly 20,000 to 10,000 BP. The term is less used of areas farther east, and not at all beyond Eurasia and North Africa.
The type of culture associated with the Mesolithic varies between areas, but it is associated with a decline in the group hunting of large animals in favour of a broader hunter-gatherer way of life, and the development of more sophisticated and typically smaller lithic tools and weapons than the heavy-chipped equivalents typical of the Paleolithic. Depending on the region, some use of pottery and textiles may be found in sites allocated to the Mesolithic, but generally indications of agriculture are taken as marking transition into the Neolithic. The more permanent settlements tend to be close to the sea or inland waters offering a good supply of food. Mesolithic societies are not seen as very complex, and burials are fairly simple; in contrast, grandiose burial mounds are a mark of the Neolithic.
The Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, mesos 'middle' + λίθος, lithos 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic...
Valley of Qvirila river, to the north of the Trialetian region, display a Mesolithic culture.[citation needed] The subsistence of these groups were based on...
human activity during the Mesolithic period in Irish history has been found in excavations at the Mount Sandel Mesolithic site in the north of the island...
are a series of modified deer skulls, probably worn by people, from the Mesolithic site at Star Carr in North Yorkshire. The site at Star Carr was first...
conventionally divided into smaller periods, such as Upper Paleolithic, Holocene Mesolithic/Epipaleolithic, Neolithic Revolution, expansion of Proto-Indo-Europeans...
three occasions, indicating hunting during the Mesolithic. A few Neolithic monuments overlie Mesolithic sites but little continuity can be demonstrated...
Star Carr is a Mesolithic archaeological site in North Yorkshire, England. It is around five miles (8 km) south of Scarborough. It is generally regarded...
The Mount Sandel Mesolithic site is in Coleraine, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, just to the east of the Iron Age Mount Sandel Fort. It is one of...
The Iron Gates Mesolithic is a Mesolithic archaeological culture dated to between 13,000 and 6,000 years cal BCE, in the Iron Gates region of the Danube...
the case of Indigenous Australian "highways" known as songlines. The Mesolithic, or Middle Stone Age (from the Greek mesos, 'middle', and lithos, 'stone')...
The South Asian Stone Age covers the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic periods in the Indian subcontinent. Evidence for the most ancient Homo sapiens...
an archaeological site in central India that spans the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods, as well as the historic period. It exhibits the earliest traces...
notable insight into the dietary habits of the Mesolithic Irish. For example, the proximity of Mesolithic settlements to water systems point to groups or...
Jutland. It was probably a rich habitat with human habitation in the Mesolithic period, although rising sea levels gradually reduced it to low-lying islands...
an ancient boat on the Nile is a rock art pictograph that dates to the Mesolithic. The El Salha Archaeological Project of the Italian Institute for African...
The prehistory of Southern Africa spans from the earliest human presence in the region until the emergence of the Iron Age in Southern Africa. In 1,000...
Groups continued to live in or seasonally visit the cave throughout the Mesolithic and Neolithic eras, with occasional short episodes of apparent abandonment...
occurring between the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic during the Stone Age. Mesolithic also falls between these two periods, and the two are sometimes confused...
the Roman conquest of Britain c. 43 CE, encompassing the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Iron Age periods. Throughout this era Cornwall...
Paleolithic era; a transitional period with finer tools known as the Mesolithic era; and the final stage known as the Neolithic era. Neolithic peoples...
The prehistory of East Africa spans from the earliest human presence in the region until the emergence of the Iron Age in East Africa. Between 1,600,000...
characterised by the presence of microliths. She identified this with the Mesolithic, a transitional period between the Palaeolithic and the Neolithic which...
is sometimes removed before cooking. In 1995, evidence of large-scale Mesolithic nut processing, some 8,000 years old, was found in a midden pit on the...
native populations of Europe largely descend from three distinct lineages: Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, descended from populations associated with the Paleolithic...
may have destroyed traces of human habitation that existed before the Mesolithic period. Glaciers then scoured their way across most of Britain, and it...
and arrow. From Mesolithic Maglemosian-like tribes (c. 8000 BC), the world's oldest canoe was found in Drenthe. Indigenous late Mesolithic hunter-gatherers...
submerged prehistoric settlement site in the Solent. The site dates from the Mesolithic era and is in approximately 11 metres (6 fathoms) of water just offshore...
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