Mesolithic Horizons [Hardback]

Mesolithic Horizons marks the publication of the proceedings of the seventh international conference on 'The Mesolithic in Europe' (Belfast 2005). The numbers attending these five-yearly conferences continue to grow - testimony to the growing interest in a period that less than fifty years ago was seen by many as either a 'hiatus' between two more interesting periods, or as a poorly understood phase of little consequence. This is an enormous compendium of research published in two volumes with over 140 papers drawn from the whole of Europe, ranging from the European Arctic to many parts of the Mediterranean, and from the British Isles to Russia. These papers cover recent research on virtually all aspects of the European Mesolithic. They are grouped into twelve thematic sections that cover topics as diverse as regional studies which explore settlement, economic identity and mobility, as well as the critical analysis of individual settlement sites, and the significance of ritual. The crucial issue of the process of colonisation that took place at the end of the Ice Age and issues of transitions in the Mesolithic are extensively covered. For the first time the publication of the conference contains an index and consolidated bibliography which will make these volumes invaluable research tools.

Introduction: Mapping the European Mesolithic (S. K. Kozlowski); The Mesolithic in Europe – some retrospective perspectives (Lars Larsson); The way forward (T. Douglas Price); Ireland’s place in the European Mesolithic: why it’s ok to be different (Peter C. Woodman); The Mesolithic and the 21st century (Marek Zvelebil)

New Lands: Introduction (Peter C. Woodman); Climate change, demography and social relations: an alternative view of the Late Palaeolithic pioneer colonization of southern Scandinavia (Felix Riede); Late Palaeolithic reindeer hunters – from a coastal perspective (Bent Nordqvist); Colonizing seascapes: comparative perspectives on the development of maritime relations in the Pleistocene/Holocene transition in north-west Europe (Hein Bjartmann Bjerck); Entering new shores. Colonization processes in early archipelagos in eastern central Sweden (Roger Wikell and Mattias Pettersson); The flint collection from the Ristola site in Lahti and the cultural contacts of the earliest Postglacial settlement of southern Finland (Henna Takala); The Sujala site in Utsjoki: Post-Swiderian in northern Lapland? (Jarmo Kankaanpää and Tuija Rankama); Hunter-gatherers of the Istrian peninsula: the value of lithic raw material analysis to study small-scale colonization processes (Paolo Pellegatti); Early farmers on the coast: lithic procurement strategies of colonists in the eastern Adriatic (Niels H. Andreasen); The colonisation of eastern alpine territories: the Val di Non case study and the ‘Regole’ field camps (Trento, Italy) (Giampaolo Dalmeri, Klaus Kompatscher, Maria Hrozny Kompatscher, Anna Cusinato and Michele Bassetti)

"If, then, this elusive world of Europes last hunter-gatherers holds an unsatisfied interest, these books are for you.'"
Mike Pitts
British Archaeology (May-June 2010)

"The papers published in this volume reveal a wonderful breadth of empirical research being carried out across Europe. The synthesis and interpretation of these sites now await us.'"
Oliver Harris
European Journal of Archaeology, 14.1-2 (2011)