This book focuses on the archaeology of the hunter-gatherer societies that inhabited Europe in the millennia between the last Ice Age and the spread of agriculture, between ten thousand and five thousand years ago. Traditionally viewed as a period of cultural stagnation, new data now demonstrate that this was a period of radical change and innovation. This was the period that witnessed the colonisation of extensive new territory at high latitudes and high altitudes following postglacial climatic change, the development of seafaring, and the synthesis of the technological, economic, and social capabilities that underpinned the later development of agricultural and urban societies. Providing a pan-European overview, Mesolithic Europe includes regional syntheses written by experts in each region as well as a diversity of theoretical perspectives.
1. Mesolithic Europe - glimpses of another world Penny Spikins; 2. Innovating hunter-gatherers: the Mesolithic in the Baltic Marek Zvelebil; 3. Norwegian Mesolithic trends: a review Hein Bjerck; 4. Southern Scandinavia Hans Peter Blankholm; 5. Mesolithic Britain Chris Tolan-Smith; 6. New developments in the study of the Mesolithic of the low countries Leo Verhardt; 7. The Mesolithic in France Nicolas Valdeyron; 8. The Mesolithic of the Upper Danube and the Upper Rhine Michael Jochim; 9. The Mesolithic of the Middle Danube and Upper Elbe rivers Jiri Svoboda; 10. The Mesolithic of the iron gates Clive Bonsall; 11. The Mesolithic of European Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine Pavel Doluckanov; 12. The Mesolithic of Atlantic Iberia Lawrence Guy Straus; 13. The coastal Mesolithic of the European Mediterranean Mark Pluciennik; 14. Mesolithic Europe, overview and new problems Geoff Bailey.
