The Mesolithic Period

The Mesolithic Period, or Middle Stone Age, is the archaeological period bridging the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods, generally dated from around 15,000 to 5,000 BCE depending on region, defined by the cultural adaptations hunter-gatherer societies made to the changing environments following the end of the last Ice Age. As glaciers retreated and forests, wetlands and coastlines expanded across much of Eurasia, Mesolithic peoples developed smaller, more specialized stone tools known as microliths, often mounted in composite implements, along with new technologies including the bow and arrow and early fishing equipment, adapted to hunting smaller forest game and exploiting aquatic and coastal food sources. Some Mesolithic communities, particularly in resource-rich coastal and riverine environments, developed relatively settled lifestyles well before the adoption of agriculture. The period ends, at different times in different regions, with the transition to Neolithic farming, earliest in the Fertile Crescent around 10,000 BCE.