Mesolithic

Question 1

Mesolithic

Answer 1

• Middle Stone Age c. 9600-4000 BC
• After the last Ice Age and before farming
• Rapid warming c. 9600 BC

Question 2

Sea Level

Answer 2

• Water caught up in ice
• Land mass depressed by weight of ice
• Interplay of two processes when ice melts
– Sea level rise
– Land rebound

Question 3

Models of Mesolithic Settlement

Answer 3

Clark (1972) – winter base camp – on basis of shed antlers

• Pitts (1979) – specialised site for working antler and tanning hides – antler artefacts, end-scrapers, awls, birch bark
• Legge and Rowley-Conwy (1988) – summer hunting camp – tooth eruption in deer mandibles
• Dumont (1989) – wide range of activities carried out – i.e. not specialist site – microwear
• Milner – aggregation site

Question 4

Plant and animal resources

Answer 4

• Red deer, elk, aurochs, roe deer, wild boar
• Star Carr: domestic dog, wild birds, beaver
• Oronsay middens: birds, crabs, seals, shellfish, fish
• Fur-bearing animals: beaver, badger, pine marten
• Plants: hazelnuts, etc.
• Use of antler mattocks to break ground or weed

Question 5

Ritual

Answer 5

Burial of animal bones, axes, use of ochre

Question 6

More intensive exploitation of the landscape?

Answer 6

• e.g. evidence for burning, clearance
• or respectful relationship with the landscape?
• landscape of the as social, meaningful

Question 7

Death and burial

Answer 7

• Aveline’s Hole, Mendip – 50-100 individuals
• c. 8400-8200 BC
• complete skeletons lying parallel to one another?
• others disarticulated
• double inhumation burial
• Ochre, intact and perforated red deer and bovid teeth, 7 ammonites