Research into the Mesolithic has recently undergone important transformations, making it one of the most dynamic fields of archaeological research today. These changes are the result of a combination of factors: new and exciting discoveries, the impact of innovative scientific methods, and the introduction of fresh interpretative approaches. Situated within a long period defined by significant environmental, demographic, and social change, the European Mesolithic period provides key insights to answer the ""big questions"" in archaeology, including the deep history of migration, diversity, and adaptation. It also provides resources for elucidating answers to complex questions about human relationships, diet, economy, and identity. New theoretical approaches to the Mesolithic in Europe have expanded research into new areas such as lived experience, ritual, cosmology, art, identity, the body, and human-animal relationships. These new research questions have added important nuance, and provided a more complete understanding of the period. With contributions from leading scholars in the field and from across the continent, The Oxford Handbook of Mesolithic Europe provides the first comprehensive overview of the rich archaeology of Mesolithic Europe. Chapters on different European regions, as well as neighboring areas in North Africa and the Middle East, provide a synoptic view, with thematic chapters examining the lived experience of different kinds of landscapes and adaptations, different forms of technology, and aspects of Mesolithic life, death, ritual, cosmology, and art. The volume highlights both the significance of interdisciplinary research for the field, and the importance of combining perspectives and approaches when studying the deep past.
Part I: MESOLITHIC EUROPE 1: Liv Nilsson Stutz, Rita Peyrotero Stjerna, and Mari Tõrv: Introduction: The Archaeology of Mesolithic Europe 2: Graeme Warren: The Mesolithic: What is it and Why Should We Care? 3: Philippe Crombé: Early and Middle Holocene Climate and Environmental Change 4: Rick J. Schulting and Christopher Meiklejohn: Time Matters: Chronology in the European Mesolithic 5: Peter Rowley-Conwy: Mesolithic Landscapes and Niche Construction: A Great Capability for Misunderstanding Part II: MESOLITHIC GEOGRAPHIES 6: Ekaterina Dolbunova and Andrey Mazurkevich: Eastern Europe 7: Daniel Groß and Tomas Rimkus: The Baltic Basin: Northern Germany to the Baltic States 8: Kjel Knutsson: Northern Scandinavia 9: T. Douglas Price: Southern Scandinavia 10: James Walker, Vince Gaffney, Simon Fitch, and Andy Fraser: Doggerland 11: Catriona Pickard and Clive Bonsall: Britain and Ireland 12: Witold Grużdź, Daniel Groß, Katarzyna Pyżewicz, and Aliaksandr Vashanau: Continental European Plain 13: Paolo Biagi: The Black Sea Area 14: Ana Cristina Araújo and Grégor Marchand†: The Atlantic Coast (Western France, Northern Spain and Portugal) 15: Hans Vandendriessche, Colas Guéret, Benjamin Marquebielle, and Philippe Crombé: Continental France and the Benelux 16: Federica Fontana: Alpine Region (Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, and Northern Italy) 17: Thomas Perrin: The Western Mediterranean Coast and Islands (Spain, Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia, France, Italy, Sicily, and North Africa) 18: Nena Galanidou, Nikola Vukosavljević, and Catherine Perlès: The Eastern Mediterranean 19: Clive Bonsall, Adina Boroneanț, and Monica Mărgărit: Southeast Europe (The Balkans and the Danube) 20: Aaron Jonas Stutz: The Natufian Archaeological Culture in Southwestern Asian Epipalaeolithic Context Part III: HUNTER-GATHERER LANDSCAPES 21: Hein B. Bjerck: Sea 22: Ivana Živaljević: Rivers 23: Ingrid Fuglestvedt: The Pioneer Experience: A Perspective from the Early Mesolithic Site Complex at Pauler, Eastern Norway 24: Davide Visentin: Mountains and High Altitudes 25: Catherine Dupont and Igor Gutiérrez-Zugasti: Shell Middens and Shells 26: Barry Taylor: Wetland Landscapes 27: Alexander Verpoorte and Fulco Scherjon: Inland/Forest Part IV: MESOLITHIC LIFE 28: Luciana G. Simões and Torsten Günther: Who Were the Mesolithic People: The Archaeogenomic Perspective 29: Daniela Holst: Hunter-Gatherer Mobility and Sedentism 30: Solange Rigaud and Aimée Little: Identity, Gender, and Power: Life Histories of Personal Ornaments, Stone Tools, and Other Artefacts 31: Aaron Jonas Stutz: Demography, Life Histories, and Population Dynamics 32: Jörg Orschiedt: Violence 33: Ben Elliot: Sensory Experiences 34: Gunilla Eriksson and Kerstin Lidén: Food and Diet: A Châine Opératoire Perspective on Hunter-Gatherer Food Practice 35: Mariana Diniz: Coexistence with Neolithic Neighbours 36: Barry Taylor and Nick J. Overton: Relationships with the Environment: Plants and Animals Part V: MEANINGFUL TECHNOLOGY 37: Ole Grøn: Shelter and Dwellings 38: Nick J. Overton: Hunting 39: Harry K. Robson, Adam Boethius, and Kenneth Ritchie: Fishing 40: Lucy Kubiak-Martens: The Plant Food Diet of Mesolithic Northwestern Europe 41: Ekaterina Kashina: Art and Symbolism: The Forms and Meanings of the Portable Art of the East European Plain Hunter-Gatherer-Fishers 42: Miriam Cubas and Harry K. Robson: Pottery Production among European Foragers 43: Mikkel Sørensen: Lithic Technology 44: Eva David: Bone Tool Technology 45: Astrid J. Nyland: Quarrying and Lithic Procurement 46: Kurt J. Gron: Animal Domestication in the Mesolithic 47: Kristiina Johanson, Dagmara H. Werra, Aivar Kriiska, and Javier Mangado Llach: Flint Exchange 48: Aija Macane and Kerkko Nordqvist: Exchange of Amber 49: Andrew Langley and Aimée Little: Birch, Pine, and Other Adhesive Technologies Part VI: DEATH AND THE DEAD 50: Amy Gray Jones: Human Remains in Non-Burial Contexts 51: Mari Torv and Rita Peyroteo Stjerna: From the Treatment of the Body to the Places of the Dead 52: Rock Images of the Dead: Glimpses of Past Mortuary Processes or Pictures of a Plaguea 53: Liv Nilsson Stutz: The Handling of the Dead Body: Transformations from Life to Death Part VII: COSMOLOGIES, RITUAL, AND SYMBOLISM 54: Charlotte Damm: Forager Cosmologies in Northernmost Europe 55: Kristiina Mannermaa: Human-Animal Relationships 56: Chantal Conneller and Ben Elliott: Metamorphosis 57: Tomasz Płonka: Sculpture and Art (Portable and Non-Portable) 58: Antti Lahelma and Jan Magne Gjerde: Rock Art 59: Mathias Bjørnevad-Ahlqvist: Hoarding
Liv Nilsson Stutz is Professor of Archaeology at Linnaeus University and has a background in archaeology and biological anthropology. She is a specialist in burial archaeology with a particular focus on archeothanatology, ritual practice, ritual theory, and body theory, which she has applied in a reinterpretation of Mesolithic mortuary practices with case studies in Scandinavia, the Eastern Baltic, and Portugal. Her work also engages concepts of hunter gatherer cosmology and ontology. She has published broadly on the archaeology of death, archaeological method and theory, ritual theory, and on issues of research ethics. Rita Peyroteo Stjerna is a Researcher at the Department of Organismal Biology, Upssala University. She is a bioarchaeologist specializing in mortuary archaeology.She is trained in archaeothanatology, ancient DNA, radiocarbon, and stable isotopes. She thrives in interdisciplinary environments and has been working with archaeological human remains in museums in Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia. She holds a PhD in archaeology from Uppsala University, focusing on the role of mortuary ritual practice in Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, and she has published on Holocene hunter-gatherers in Western Europe integrating multiple disciplines. Her main interests are mortuary archaeology, archaeological science, and ethical issues concerning the biomolecular research of ancient human remains. Mari Tõrv is Associate Professor in Archaeology at the Institute of History and Archaeology, University of Tartu. She is an archaeologist with a multi-disciplinary background in archaeology, human osteology, archaeothanatology, stable isotope studies, and ritual studies. Her research interests are wide, extending from hunter-gatherer mortuary practices and identities to the genetic history of Nordic and Eastern European populations together with life and death ways of early farmers and first Christians. Currently, her work bridges archaeology and chemistry to reconstruct past food ways and explore the research potential of archaeological human remains in general. Her work involves the application of the state-of-the-art methods in stable isotope studies and their combination with other biomolecular analysis to form narratives about past lifestyles.
