Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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 .
The dates for each age can vary by region. On the geologic time scale, the Holocene epoch starts at the end of the last glacial period of the current ice age (c. 10,000 BC) and continues to the present. The beginning of the Mesolithic is usually considered to correspond to the beginning of the Holocene epoch.
The Awash Valley. The term "Middle Stone Age" (MSA) was proposed to the African Archaeological Congress by Goodwin and Van Riet Lowe in 1929. The use of these terms was officially abandoned in 1965, [8] although the term remains in use in the context of sub-Saharan Africa, beginning with a transitional late Acheulean period known as the Fauresmith industry.
There was then limited occupation by Ahrensburgian hunter gatherers, but this came to an end when there was a final downturn in temperature which lasted from around 9,400 to 9,200 BC. Mesolithic people occupied Britain by around 9,000 BC, and it has been occupied ever since. [25]
Iron Gates mesolithic sites are found in modern Serbia, south-west Romania and Montenegro. At Ostrovul Banului, the Cuina Turcului rock shelter in the Danube gorges and in the nearby caves of Climente, there are finds that people of that time made relatively advanced bone and lithic tools (i.e. end-scrapers, blade lets, and flakes).
The upper body of the Cheddar Man a Mesolithic skeleton. c. 9335–9275 BC The earliest date for structures and artefacts at Star Carr, Yorkshire, a site then inhabited for around 800 years. [17] c. 7600 BC Howick house, Northumberland, a Mesolithic building with stone tools, nut shells and bone fragments. c. 7150 BC
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).