1. Mesolithic Greek: μεσος (mesos) “middle" + λίθος (lithos) "stone"
Meso means ‘middle’ and lithic means ‘stone’ – so the Mesolithic is the Middle Stone Age.
Use the first slides as an introduction to help pupils find out more about the Mesolithic in general.
Then explore the map to find out more about specific archaeological sites in Britain.
PAGE DOWN/RETURN: By this time only our own species of human was present.
Modern man (Homo sapiens sapiens)
Greek:
μεσος (mesos) “middle" + λίθος (lithos) "stone"
= “Middle Stone Age”
Historic England education

2. It dates from the end of the last ice age around 11,000 years ago until the appearance of farming in Britain 5000 years later.
People continued to use stone tools, which were often very small (known as ‘microliths’).
They were still nomadic hunter-gatherers, but we have some evidence of the types of houses and campsites they lived in.
A few structures are known that could be called monuments.
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3. During the Mesolithic, sea levels gradually rose.
Doggerland is the name archaeologists have given to an area between Britain, the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark which is now under the North Sea.
Doggerland gradually flooded as a result of climate change and sea level rise from the melting of glaciers after the last ice age.
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4. At the start of the Mesolithic Doggerland was a very large area, and would have been lived in by numerous groups.
The area flooded gradually, and finally disappeared about 7500 years ago.
Until that time Doggerland would have provided a connection between Britain and Europe, people would have traded and exchanged things, and might have spoken a common language.
After Britain became an island, they would have needed boats to travel to the continent and there is less evidence for contact.
QUESTION: How did climate change affect Mesolithic people?
What things can we do to prevent climate change that were not possible in the Mesolithic?
  Doggerland
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5. It is not until the middle of the Mesolithic that Britain finally becomes an island, about 8000 years ago. After Britain became an island, people would have needed boats to travel to the rest of Europe. As a result archaeologists have found less evidence for contact with the continent during the rest of the Mesolithic.
This slide shows that by about 6,000 years ago the coast of Britain looked much as we would recognise it today.
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6. Mesolithic people hunted wild animals, fished and gathered wild plants.
They would have moved widely, depending on when and where different resources were available.
Some sites have evidence for use in particular seasons.
Mesolithic settlements vary greatly in size from small campsites used for anything from a single afternoon or a few months, to areas where large groups gathered at certain times of year.
The reconstruction drawing shows what a Mesolithic camp might have looked like.
The first evidence for houses in Britain comes from this period, but most of our archaeological evidence comes from camps, that are now marked only by scatters of stone tools.
However, these can be very informative about how old the site is and what tasks took place there.
QUESTION:
What types of wild food would you try and collect if you were a hunter-gatherer?
ACTIVITY:
Plan (and have?) a Mesolithic picnic.
IMAGE:
Mesolithic camp. © Historic England
  A Mesolithic camp
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7. Stone tools: Microliths
The most characteristic Mesolithic stone tools are called ‘microliths’, which means ‘small stones’.
Microliths can range from a few millimetres long up to about 5cm.
They were made by knocking bits off longer flint blades and come in a range of forms, including narrow rods, triangles and crescents.
Microliths may have been used for a range of tasks, often stuck onto wooden handles using glue made from tree sap.
Archaeologists have found examples of arrowheads made from several triangular microliths stuck onto a wooden arrow shaft.
QUESTION:
Why might Mesolithic people have made tools from lots of little flints, rather than large stones?
IMAGE:
Mesolithic flint-tipped arrow from Sweden, showing how microliths were hafted © Antiquity
  Stone tools: Microliths
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8. As well as the small microliths, Mesolithic people also needed larger stone tools, such as axes for woodworking. When the cutting edges of these axes became blunt they could quickly be resharpened by striking another flake (known as a ‘tranchet’ flake) off the edge.
Unlike earlier handaxes Mesolithic axeheads were fixed into handles made of wood. Although they were carefully shaped they were not polished like axes of the Neolithic period.
QUESTION:
What sort of tasks would Mesolithic people have used stone axes for?
IMAGE:
Extract from DP Mesolithic tranchet stone axe. © Historic England
  Stone tools: Axe
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9. Bone and antler objects
Barbed points are one of the most famous Mesolithic artefact types.
They are long rods of antler or bone with ‘barbs’ (points projecting backwards from the main point) down one or both sides.
They might have been used as harpoons for fishing, or as spears for hunting large animals on the land.
IMAGE:
Barbed bone points. © Nation Museum of Scotland
  Bone and antler objects
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10. Stonehenge and Blick Mead
Oronsay
Howick
Click on each red dot to find out more about each location’
Star Carr
March Hill
Aveline’s Hole
Stonehenge and Blick Mead
Bouldnor Cliff, Isle of Wight
Historic England education

11. Howick, Northumberland
Occasionally in the Mesolithic people spent longer periods in one place and built substantial huts or houses.
Much of our evidence for these comes from northern parts of Britain, including Howick on the coast of Northumberland, where Mesolithic people were living almost 10,000 years ago.
Mesolithic houses were circular and were built from wooden posts.
They were probably home to an extended family, including children, parents, and grandparents or uncles and aunts.
At Howick, the hut was made from a hollow in the ground, about 6m across, containing a central fireplace and a ring of holes that would have held posts. These post would have been used to hold up the roof and walls – like in the photo above.
The location of artefacts found in the huts shows that different areas were used for different activities, including food preparation, making stone tools, and sleeping.
The excavators found thousands of burnt hazelnuts, which Mesolithic people would have roasted, stored and eaten during the winter.
QUESTION:
What do you think the roof and walls of the Mesolithic house would have been made of?
How does it compare to where you live?
IMAGE:
Archaeologists building a reconstruction of the Mesolithic house from Howick © ARS Ltd
  Howick, Northumberland
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12. Image? Star Carr, Yorkshire Back to map
Star Carr is an early Mesolithic site near Scarborough in North Yorkshire, which was inhabited not long after the end of the last ice age, around 11,000 years ago. It lies on the shore of a former lake where Mesolithic people built a wooden platform and other structures.
Star Carr is unusual in several ways: it is larger than most Mesolithic sites, which are small hunting camps, while the wet conditions at the edge of the lake have preserved objects of wood and bone which do not normally survive on very old sites. These organic objects include barbed points and antler frontlets.
People would have travelled widely in the landscape around Star Carr to hunt animals, collect antlers, gather plants, and collect flint for making stone tools.
QUESTION: Why do you think the people who came to Star Carr chose to live by a lake?
IMAGE:
Star Carr site © York University
  Star Carr, Yorkshire
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13. Aveline’s Hole cave, Somerset
Aveline’s Hole cave in Somerset is the largest Mesolithic cemetery in Britain. It was used between about 8400 and 8200 BC.
The cave was excavated in the 19th century when skeletons of 50 or more Mesolithic people were found, although many of the remains have since been lost.
As well as the bones of people, beads made from animal teeth and shells, a red mineral, and fossils were recovered. These may be from the clothes or jewellery of the people buried in the cave, or might have been specially selected to be buried with them.
Recently discovered carved rock art from the cave may also belong to the Mesolithic period.
QUESTION:
Why do you think Mesolithic people chose a cave to bury their dead in?
IMAGE:
Mesolithic burial practices at Aveline’s Hole imagined by an artist.
© English Heritage [IC035_015]
  Aveline’s Hole cave, Somerset
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14. Bouldnor Cliff, Isle of Wight
Bouldnor Cliff is an underwater site off the Isle of Wight.
Because the site was submerged by rising seas about 8000 years ago, wooden remains are preserved, as well as stone tools.
Some of the wood has evidence of Mesolithic carpentry techniques, which is very rare.
The waterlogging at the site has also preserved evidence of food remains, and the use of plants to make fibres --- Mesolithic string!
Because the site is in shallow water it has been excavated by maritime archaeologists using diving equipment.
This approach is very specialised, and requires a lot of training.
Here you can see a maritime archaeologist using a frame to record the locations of finds.
QUESTION:
How would you feel about working underwater?
IMAGE:
Underwater remains from the Mesolithic site at Bouldnor Clliffs under excavation.
© Maritime Archaeology Trust and Roland Brooks
  Bouldnor Cliff, Isle of Wight
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15. March Hill, West Yorkshire
This area of the South Pennines was a focus for late Mesolithic groups.
People were present at sites like March Hill for at least 1000 years from around 7000 to 6000 years ago.
We do not believe that people were living up here permanently, but thousands of tiny microliths are found all over the hills, especially at locations overlooking small, narrow valleys.
These might have been good look-outs for hunting.
The types of stone used here to make tools come from the east and west coasts of northern England.
Mesolithic people camping in the Pennines might have travelled widely to collect good stone, or could have swapped things for it with other groups.
QUESTION: If you were a Mesolithic person what could you swap for good stone to make tools?
IMAGE:
March Hill. © Seren Griffiths
  March Hill, West Yorkshire
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16. Oronsay, Inner Hebrides
Mesolithic people living by the coast often collected shellfish for food and discarded the remains in rubbish dumps called shell middens.
Most of these middens are quite small but on the little Hebridean island of Oronsay are a number of large mounded middens, dating to the late Mesolithic around 6000 years ago.
The mounds are composed mainly of limpet shells, but other items found within them include cowrie shells used as jewellery and the bones of various animals including seals, dolphins, fish and sea-birds.
Human bones have also been found in the Oronsay middens, suggesting they may have been used for funerary rituals.
QUESTION: What do you do with your food waste and rubbish? Where does it end up?
IMAGE:
Oronsay midden © RCAHMS
  Oronsay, Inner Hebrides
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17. Stonehenge and Blick Mead, Wiltshire
The area where Stonehenge was later built saw some significant activity in the Mesolithic period and it is possible that this may help explain why the site was so important in later periods.
During construction of a car-park near the stones, archaeologists found a group of very large post-holes that held large timbers of pine at different times during the Mesolithic.
It is possible that these posts would have been carved like totem poles.
Nearby, at a site called Blick Mead, many thousands of stone tools have been found near a spring which would have formed a convenient location for settlement.
Nomadic Mesolithic people probably gathered here seasonally.
QUESTION:
Why do you think Mesolithic people might have raised large posts?
IMAGE:
IC0095/068 Simple reconstruction illustration depicting new and old timber posts erected to the north-west of Stonehenge in the Mesolithic era, between circa 8500BC and circa 7000BC. By John Ronayne. May 2013.
  Stonehenge and Blick Mead, Wiltshire
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