What were the main differences between Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic societies?

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What were the main differences between Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic societies? Illustrate your answer with a discussion of the evidence from two archaeological sites.

The departure of ice sheets from the British Isles in circa 18,000 B.P. led to reoccupation in about c.12,500 B.P.  At this time, the climate was harsh, terrain baron, food scarce and survival difficult.  To occupy such a disagreeable place, the glacial hunters of the Upper Palaeolithic were hardened nomads who followed food supplies.  Their main food sources were fish, elk, deer and mammoths.  They probably seasonally migrated back and forth to continental Europe.  Beginning around 8,000 B.C. however, the climate began to warm up and sea levels rose separating Britain from Europe stopping the seasonal migration.  This climate change led to a change in food and plant life being more diverse and plentiful.  As a result, life during the Mesolithic was considerably more comfortable than during the Upper Palaeolithic.  Mesolithic society changed as a result and the differences in the two periods’ societies will be explored in this essay.

Upper Palaeolithic Britain was resembled the tundra of Northern Canada today.  The flora was sparse consisting of inedible ferns and pine and boreal trees towards the end of the era and these were of little value for woodworking.  The fauna would have been fierce to cope with such living conditions and animals such as mammoths would clearly pose a challenge to even the most proficient hunting society.  These people constantly moved and usually inhabited caves.

Places that naturally have little flint sources have been host to discoveries of flint tools suggesting the Upper Paleolithic people were highly mobile.  An example of this is Kent’s Cavern in Devon where flint was sourced from the Salisbury Plain 100 miles east and it has been posited that groups also travelled to meet and trade goods and perhaps sent out dedicated expeditions to acquire flint.

Creswell Crags is a series of caves in a gorge inhabited during the Upper Palaeolithic in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.  Artefacts recovered from this site and recently discovered cave art show a degree of sophistication of Upper Palaeolithic society.  Decorative finds include a bone engraved with a horse picture, mammoth ivory pin’s with etched lines as well as many well made flint butchery tools and weapons come from this site. (Dawkins and Mello, 1879)  Creswell Crags is considered an important Palaeolithic site as it was previously thought no cave art from this time existed in Britain. (Pike, Gilmour and Pettitt, 2005, pp. 49-50) A wealth of flint tools and few cut marks on animal bones show butchery was conducted with great skill here.  Animal hides were likely to have been removed for clothing and tent covers.  Despite evidence of a hunting and butchery proficient society, and the special cave art, Creswell Crags shows us the Upper Palaeolithic society was rudimentary.

Overall, the Upper Palaeolithic seems an inhospitable time.  The inhabitants of Britain endured these very unfortunate conditions they had to live with.  With very low temperatures in winter and diminutive food sources, they are commendable to be able to survive at all let alone tackle immense mammoths and have the culture they did. Though, evidence for dire times has been recovered from Upper Palaeolithic Gough’s Cave in Somerset, where human bones with post-mortem scratch marks indicate cannibalism.  Luckily for humans, the succeeding period in prehistory was not as dismal by far.

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Evidence from the pollen record shows the Mesolithic period saw Britain gradually gain a more stable environment and became warmer overall, bringing a wide array of new fauna and lush flora resources from roughly c.8,000 B.C. after the final retreat of the ice sheets.  Britain was divided from the rest of Europe in about c.6,500 B.C. therefore, ending the seasonal migration practised by the former Palaeolithic inhabitants.  From c.3,000 B.C. the flora became essentially the same deciduous trees that Britain has today with, oak and elm being dominant.  These trees are of much better quality for woodworking than the ...

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