Ancient Europe

POSTGLACIAL ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSFORMATION (POSTGLACIAL FORAGERS, 8000–4000 B.C.) (Ancient Europe)

The Holocene interglacial epoch began around 9500 b.c. with an abrupt warming of the climate across most of Europe. Although interglacial conditions were established rather quickly, it would be wrong to imagine that the natural environments of the Early Holocene were identical to those of the present day or that they have remained static since […]

THE MESOLITHIC OF NORTHERN EUROPE (POSTGLACIAL FORAGERS, 8000–4000 B.C.)

After the glaciers retreated from northern Europe at the end of the Ice Age, forests were soon established across northern Germany and Poland, southern Sweden and Norway, and all of Denmark. These forests were inhabited by hunter-gatherers who exploited the abundant game animals and the rich plant life found in these woodlands and the aquatic […]

SKATEHOLM (POSTGLACIAL FORAGERS, 8000–4000 B.C.) (Ancient Europe)

Skateholm is a small coastal village located in the southernmost part of Sweden. A major part of the area close to the coastline comprises a wetland about 4 kilometers in length, running more or less parallel to the present coastline. During the Late Atlantic chronozone (c. 6800-4000 b.c.), which included several transgressions, an inlet was […]

TYBRIND VIG (POSTGLACIAL FORAGERS, 8000–4000 B.C.) (Ancient Europe)

The Late Mesolithic Stone Age settlement of Ty-brind Vig, which today is submerged, is located on the west coast of the Danish island Fyn (central Denmark) facing a sea called Lillebxlt. Originally, it was a coastal settlement, but because of a geological tilting of the southwestern part of Denmark that has taken place since the […]

THE MESOLITHIC OF NORTHWEST EUROPE (POSTGLACIAL FORAGERS, 8000–4000 B.C.)

The Mesolithic of northwest Europe is the period between the end of the last Ice Age and the widespread adoption of agriculture. During the Meso-lithic the region was occupied by hunter-gatherers, but the term itself refers specifically to a technological stage. Translated literally, it means "Middle Stone Age" and was adopted in the 1920s, when […]

MOUNT SANDEL (POSTGLACIAL FORAGERS, 8000–4000 B.C.) (Ancient Europe)

Mount Sandel is best known as the name of a Meso-lithic settlement site that generally is regarded as producing the earliest securely dated evidence of human settlement in Ireland. The name of the site derives from a nearby prominent earthen fortification, which was used from the early medieval period to the seventeenth century. The fortification […]

STAR CARR (POSTGLACIAL FORAGERS, 8000–4000 B.C.) (Ancient Europe)

The Early Mesolithic site of Star Carr lies in North Yorkshire, England, 7 kilometers to the south of Scarborough, on the northern margins of an area of flat, peat-covered ground that in the early stages of the postglacial era (c. 8000-9000 b.c.) was occupied by a large lake, approximately 5 kilometers by 2 kilometers in […]

THE MESOLITHIC OF IBERIA (POSTGLACIAL FORAGERS, 8000–4000 B.C.) (Ancient Europe)

Until the end of the Ice Age hunter-gatherer settlement in the interior of Iberia must have been as important and permanent as that of the coastal regions of Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque country, Portuguese Estremadura, and the Mediterranean arch (from Gibraltar to the eastern flank of the Pyrenees). This is best exemplified by the open-air […]

MUGE SHELL MIDDENS (POSTGLACIAL FORAGERS, 8000–4000 B.C.) (Ancient Europe)

The existence of Mesolithic shell middens in the lower valley of the Tagus River, located some 50 kilometers northeast of Lisbon, was first reported in 1863 by Carlos Ribeiro, who immediately recognized them as counterparts of the recently discovered Danish "kitchen middens." The sites are located near the confluence with the Tagus of the Muge […]

THE MESOLITHIC OF UPLAND CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN EUROPE (POSTGLACIAL FORAGERS, 8000–4000 B.C.)

There was a surge of active research into the Holocene hunter-gatherers of central and southern Europe during the late 1980s and 1990s. Among the many reasons for growth in the intensity of investigation has been the increasingly strong argument for the role of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in the spread and adoption of agriculture in Europe. Furthermore, […]

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