What is the Mesolithic?

The term Mesolithic means “Middle Stone Age,” and it’s between the Paleolithic (“Old Stone Age”) and the Neolithic (“New Stone Age”) periods.

Image from http://www.costatropical.net/Almunecar/Almunecar_History_Prehistoric.asp

It’s often thought of as a transition period between the other two, since a lot of things (diet, technology, architecture, where people live) change from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic.  During the Paleolithic, people were usually hunting and gathering, and they had eventually developed agriculture by the beginning of the Neolithic.  However, defining the Mesolithic is a little more complicated than that. 

The Paleolithic ended with the last Ice Age (10,500 years ago) (Rudgley 1999: 10-11), so that’s usually considered the starting point of the Mesolithic in Africa, Europe, and Asia.  It’s harder to assign a date to the end, though, because the different time periods are classified based on traits.  Farming is a defining feature of the Neolithic and is a clear sign that the Mesolithic has ended, but it shows up at different times in different places.  For example, it starts in the Near East around 10,000 years ago, but it shows up in Britain and other far-flung places after 4,000 BC (Rudgley 1999: 10-11).  So, when talking about Europe at least, scholars usually say that the Mesolithic occurred roughly from 11,000-5,000 BC, because most of the evidence for the Mesolithic is from this time period, and it’s just easier to have a rough chronology in mind.

Regardless of when exactly the Mesolithic began and ended, the Mesolithic was a significant change from the Paleolithic.  Europe was warming up from the previous Ice Age, and a lot of new land was available to people.  Glaciers across Europe had melted, so the coastline had changed drastically.  People started living along the coast and had boats that they used for fishing and for long-distance trade.  There’s more evidence for cooperation in the form of communal buildings and trade, but also for increased violence between groups.  Pottery was developed.  In the midst of all these changes, did the diets change as well?