The Mesolithic Britain
Mesolithic means Middle Stone (in Greek 'mesos' means middle and 'lithos' means stone) or the 'Middle Stone Age'
With the end of the Ice Age around 8,500 - 10,000 years ago, the temperature rose quite near to today's level and caused an increase in dense rain forests and other small-medium sized forests, flora and fauna etc. With the melting water level growing, Britain was cut off from the entire continent for the final time and when the sea water started rising it forced the coastal dwellings further inland until Britain was left as an island.
It was the time when archaeologists believe that humans living in caves came out from them and started building their own houses & tents and dwelled in them. Caves were left as a hiding place in case of any natural disasters striking unexpectedly. Anyone could build their own house and live in it anywhere on the land. Humans preferred to live by the sea as it could bring them more seafood along with warmer sea water and of course you could get lots of pebbles to make tools for hunting which was still the primary food resource. Hunting was easier on the grasslands compared to chasing the animals in the forests which provided lots of hiding places making it harder to hunt them down.
Farming and agriculture was introduced and were implemented near eastern areas by the end of Pleistocene. Farming was of a very poor standard but crops were still being grown using such poor agricultural practices. Regions with greater and larger environmental experiences had a longer Mesolithic era, which lasted almost a millennia.
Societies were able to have a good supply of food from the marshlands in northern Europe because of the warmer weather. Due to the consistent food supply, humans developed distinct behaviours found in the Maglemosian and Azilian cultures. This factor as estimated by archaeologists also delayed the arrival of the Neolithic until around 5000 BC.
Flint tools like fishing tackle, wooden canoes, bows, harpoons, spears, stone adzes etc were discovered in most areas in northern Europe. Some of the tools were used to take off the flesh of the hunted animal. Like their predecessors, the Paleolithic, there were tools found from one of the sites, which were like flint blades, used for the purpose of woodworking. Apart from the tools being used for the purpose of hunting, the use of dogs was implemented. Being a domestic animal, the dogs helped in commissioning successful hunting in those wetland environments and the warmer weathers.
By this time the environmental changes had an impact on the social surroundings making Britain a better place to live in, with abundant food supply. Many groups of Homo sapiens moved from one place to another eventually reaching up to Scotland. Archaeologists have found sites of those times naming them as Star Carr in Yorkshire and Oronsay in Orkney. A major break through was achieved by archaeologists when they discovered excavations at Howick in Northumberland discovering much more evidence, by far the best, of a large circular building which was estimated to be built around 7,600 BC and was considered to be a kind of house.
Archaeologists will always remember this period as the time stamp of the human development in technology between the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods, The Stone Age.
Original Authors: Rohit Maini
Edit Update Authors: M.Harris
Updated On: 12/05/2008
