Mesolithic

The Mesolithic ^[1] was a period in the development of human technology between the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods of the Stone Age.

In the Palaeolithic, people were pure hunter-gatherers. In the Neolithic they were farmers in settlements with domesticated animals and wheat, with over 100 kinds of tools and with pottery. The Mesolithic was a transitional period between the two. It happened at different times in different places. Mesolithic tools are small tools produced by chipping, and are hunter-gatherer tools, often arrowheads and points. Neolithic tools are often polished and far more varied. They are tools of more settled societies with some agriculture.

The term 'Mesolithic' was introduced by Hodder Westrop in 1877, though the idea had been used earlier.^[2] It was not much used until V. Gordon Childe popularized it in his book The dawn of Europe (1947). There is another term, 'Epipalaeolithic', which is sometimes used instead.

1. ↑ from the Greek "mesos," "middle," and "lithos," "stone". However, it is not right to use the term 'Middle Stone Age' here because that is used for a much earlier stage in African archaeology.
2. ↑ Trigger, Bruce G. 1989. A history of archaeological thought. Cambridge University Press. p148