The Dawn of the Mesolithic on the Plains of Poland
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The Dawn of the Mesolithic on the Plains of Poland Tomasz Płonka1 · Dariusz Bobak2 · Michał Szuta1
© The Author(s) 2020
Abstract In this article we take a fresh look at the population dynamics of the Polish Plain in the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene, using Bayesian analysis and modelling of radiocarbon dates, and contrast the results with data from the North German Plain. We argue against simple adaptationalist models and instead see the cultural landscape as a complex patchwork of old forms and the emerging new traits of the early Mesolithic. We argue that the Mesolithic directly follows the Final Palaeolithic on the Polish Plain, without the chronological hiatus of 150–300 years that is often assumed for that region; while, by contrast, the two cultural patterns—Final Palaeolithic and microlith-based Mesolithic—overlapped significantly in time on the adjacent North German Plain. Keywords Late Palaeolithic · Early Mesolithic · Radiocarbon dating · Pleistocene/ Holocene transition · Settlement hiatus · Migration
Introduction Notwithstanding many years of studies, the mechanism through which hunter-gatherer societies of northern and Central Europe adapted to environmental changes at the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene has not yet been satisfactorily described. Clearly, the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene is a period of dramatic climate change accompanied by the profound economic and cultural transformation of hunter-gatherer societies worldwide. These changes are particularly visible in the northern portions of America and Europe, where the significant warming of the climate brought about the replacement of tundra by woodlands with Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s1096 3-020-09146-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Tomasz Płonka [email protected] 1
Institute of Archaeology, University of Wrocław, ul. Szewska 48, 50‑362 Wrocław, Poland
2
Institute of Archaeology, University of Rzeszów, ul. Moniuszki 10, 35‑015 Rzeszów, Poland
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Vol.:(0123456789)
Journal of World Prehistory
their associated fauna. In the eyes of many scholars studying this period, the transition from the Palaeolithic to the Mesolithic on the plains of Poland was accompanied by major population changes, as Palaeolithic hunters followed herds of reindeer on their northward migration, thus abandoning the area. Subsequently, and after a hiatus of up to three hundred years, the depopulated plains were thought to have been resettled by hunter-gatherers with Mesolithic cultural traditions. In this paper we challenge this simplistic view and argue that the relationship between the pace of global climatic changes and transformations of society and culture was more complex than usually assumed in simple adaptationist theories. In focussing on the Final Palaeolithic and early Mesolithic in the central section of the European Plain—in the Polish Plain and the uplands bordering i
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