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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 .
It covers the greatest portion of humanity's time (roughly 99% of "human technological history", [28] where "human" and "humanity" are interpreted to mean the genus Homo), extending from 2.5 or 2.6 million years ago, with the first documented use of stone tools by hominins such as Homo habilis, to the end of the Pleistocene around 10,000 BC. [28]
The Scandinavian Peninsula became ice-free around the end of the last ice age.The Nordic Stone Age begins at that time, with the Upper Paleolithic Ahrensburg culture, giving way to the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers by the 7th millennium BC (Maglemosian culture c. 7500 – 6000 BC, Kongemose culture c. 6000 – 5200 BC, Ertebølle culture c. 5300 – 3950 BC).
The oldest human skeletal remains are the 40ky old Lake Mungo remains in New South Wales, but human ornaments discovered at Devil's Lair in Western Australia have been dated to 48 kya and artifacts at Madjedbebe in Northern Territory are dated to at least 50 kya, and to 62.1 ± 2.9 ka in one 2017 study. [26] [27] [28] [29]
Tests of animal bones found nearby suggest that the climate was harsh — comparable to modern-day Siberia. That means humans were having success in an extreme climate some 45,000 years ago.
Most present-day Europeans have a 40–60% WHG ratio, and the 8,000 year old Mesolithic Loschbour man seems to have had a similar genetic makeup. Near Eastern Neolithic farmers which split from the European hunter-gatherers about 40,000 years ago started to spread out across Europe by 8,000 years ago, ushering in the Neolithic with Early ...
Remains found in a tomb in northwestern Spain are likely to belong to a ninth-century bishop believed to have helped create the Camino de Santiago, one of Christianity's most popular pilgrimages ...
Workers found human bones by Hoover Dam in 2009. 15 years later, officials identified the John Doe. Jordan D. Brown, CNN. November 7, 2024 at 4:00 AM. ... but the detectives hit a dead end. For ...