Late Stone Age Hunters of the British Isles

"Late Stone Age Hunters of the British Isles" places the archaeological evidence for the Late Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods, viewed mainly as stone tools and animal bones, within a wider, ecological context. The book examines aspects of the hunter-gatherer way of life and how it can be studied from archaeological evidence. Christopher Smith reviews the environmental change in this period.

Three chapters are devoted to case studies in which different examples of hunter-gatherer activity are examined within their ecological context: late-glacial tundra grasslands; early post-glacial lakes and forests; deciduous woodlands, river valleys, and coastlines and islands. In a concluding study, the temporal and spatial development of the settlement pattern as a whole is mapped and summarized within the regional context.

For 7,000 years after the last ice age, the people of the British Isles subsisted by hunting wild game and gathering fruits of the forest and foreshore. Belonging to the late Upper Palaelithic and Mesolithic periods, these hunter-gatherers have hitherto been viewed mainly in terms of stone tool typologies. late Stone Age Hunters of the British Isles departs from this conventional approach, reassessing the archaeological evidence and placing it within a wider ecological and geographical context. This well illustrated study, which includes case studies, maps and photographs, provides a balanced approach to the study of a period that demands multi-disciplinary treatment. It outlines a range of considerations that have a bearing on the study of early societies in the British Isles, and also forms a useful guide to communiites themselves as represented by known archaeological sites.

1. Introduction 2. Hunters and Gatherers in Action 3. Hunters and Gatherers in the Archaeological Record 4. An Interpretative Framework 5. The Late glacial and Early Postglacial Environment 6. Case Studies 1: Hunters of the Lateglacial Tundra 7. Case Studies 2: Hunters of the Boreal Forests and Deciduous Woodlands 8. Case Studies 3: Coastal Adaptations 9. The Late glacial and Early Postglacial Settlement of the British Isles