- What was the Mesolithic period?
- How does the Mesolithic period begin?
- General characteristics of the Mesolithic
- Mesolithic climate
- Mesolithic economy
- Mesolithic art
- The Neolithic period
We explain what the Mesolithic Period of the Stone Age was, its beginning, climate, economy, art and other characteristics.
What was the Mesolithic period?
The Mesolithic is the prehistoric period between the paleolithic and the Neolithic, which would become the intermediate stage of the Stone age. In fact, its name means "intermediate stone" (from the Greek mesos, "Intermediate", and lithos, "stone").
The term was coined by the British banker and researcher John Lubbock (1834-1913) in his work Prehistoric times . At that time it was thought that the Mesolithic period had been only a transitional stage between the other two, and therefore it was not of great importance.
However, studies from the beginning of the 20th century revealed that in this period there was an undeniable cultural continuity in the processes initiated in the early Stone Age, for which a new term was necessary: the Epipaleolithic or Subneolithic. There is still debate about what name to use, or even if these terms designate the same thing or not.
Like the Paleolithic and Neolithic, the Mesolithic is part of the prehistory human, that is, the enormous period of time elapsed since the origin of the species Homo sapiens, until the invention of writing (which formally begins the History).
How does the Mesolithic period begin?
The Mesolithic begins at the end of the Palaeolithic, around 12,000 years BC. C., with the transition from the Pleisocene to the Holocene. Its initial event is the appearance of producer models of life, instead of hunters and gatherers, in some geographies of our planet.
It was a preview of what was later called the Neolithic Revolution. In fact, there are authors who consider that there was a true "Mesolithic Revolution" in that sense.
Similarly, the Mesolithic period ended around 5,000 BC. C., when the formal entry into the Neolithic occurred with the adoption of the farming and sedentary lifestyle.
General characteristics of the Mesolithic
The human being from the Mesolithic era it was fundamentally nomadic, dependent on the exploitation of nearby resources. However, he used summer settlements and shelters during winter, adapted to the climatic conditions and therefore took a step towards sedentary lifestyle.
It is common in the archaeological remains of this period to find circular tents. These temporary dwellings had in their vicinity silos or deposits of collected wild cereals, or primitive cemeteries.
The first indicates a change in the traditional diet, which moves away from the hunter / gatherer model, and the second the presence of funeral rites linked to the land and, therefore, with the sense of belonging to it.
Mesolithic climate
The Mesolithic coincides with the last moments of the last glacial period, so it was a period of global warming and expansion of the woods. A predominant weather tropicalized and humid.
There was also growth of the steppe or desert strips at the equatorial level, and this led to the extinction of not a few typical Pleistocene species, while other animals migrated to the more northern regions. Many of them had traditions wooded and not very gregarious (that is, they do not herd), being therefore much more difficult to hunt.
Mesolithic economy
Mesolithic humanity continued to rely heavily on hunting, fishing, and gathering. However, the conditions of climate change and the restriction of available resources brought the need to produce food.
Thus the first steps were taken towards the emergence of agriculture, and the domestication of animals, such as the goat, abundant in the Near East, or the dog, the first domesticated animal in history, and which was an ideal hunting companion.
However, there was significant diversification of the diet, which included snails, roots, open ocean fish, shellfish, etc. This in turn required the production of new tools and implements, based on materials such as bone, wood, animal tendons and the like.
On the other hand, from this time come the first vestiges of hierarchy and stratification in the populations, which increased in the coming periods.
Mesolithic art
During the Mesolithic era, post-Palaeolithic art abounds, expressing new motifs in the face of a changing world and which is very difficult to date. It usually consists of parietal art and personal belongings.
It was characterized by the appearance of geometric forms and of a certain rationality. East rock art already exhibits schematic forms to represent the movement, along with symbols and signs such as arrows, suns or points.
The Neolithic period
The Neolithic (whose name comes from the Latin neo, "New", and from the Greek lithos, “Stone”), is the last period of the Stone Age. In it, one of the greatest revolutions in the history of mankind took place: the transition from nomadic or semi-nomadic life dedicated to hunting and gathering, to sedentary life guided by agricultural and livestock activities.
This involved the domestication of animals and plant species. In addition, the first settlements were founded that later gave rise to the first cities. The Neolithic period culminated sometime around 3,000 BC. C., with the appearance of metallurgy and the foundry of the metals, thus initiating the Age of metals.