"The Mesolithic is often portrayed as the ‘Dark Age’ of prehistory in Europe" Is this view really justified? ... Part One

The most famous 'Dark Age' is the post-Roman Dark Age of Europe which is generally seen as a period of cultural stagnation. The common belief is that much of Europe exhibited a descent from an ordered stable society into chaotic barbarism. The cultural accomplishments of a previous age were discarded and replaced with something far baser in nature and cruder in execution. Whether this is a valid description of the period is a moot point.

Whatever the case for post-Roman Europe, the term 'Dark Age' has been applied to the Mesolithic, implying a backward step from the cultural heights of the Palaeolithic period. I decided to take a closer look at the Mesolithic (between 11,000 and 5,500 years ago) and question whether this opinion was accurate or fair.

It is difficult to even begin to debate such a question when the whole notion of linear cultural change is so largely discredited. To define one culture as more advanced than another is something we feel rightly uncomfortable about. Secondly a look at the archaeological record reveals that we really have very little evidence of the nature of either Mesolithic or Palaeolithic cultures.

The whole basis of the idea that there was some sort of degeneration or stagnation seems to come from the fact that while we have remarkable Palaeolithic cave paintings, we have none from the later Mesolithic period. It is true that the cave paintings from Lascaux, Altamira et al are often stunningly beautiful; however, they are unique to the Franco-Cantabrian border. [1] They are also totally sheltered from the environment and it is probable that this is the primary reason for their survival.

This led me to my first conclusion that just because a particular local culture ceased large-scale rock painting in caves is no proof of any sort of pan-European backward slide. The ending of the rock-painting tradition could be readily interpreted as resulting from environmental change to a less hostile climate. Once the dramatic warming at the end of the Devensian glaciation began, cave dwellers set out to explore newly accessible territories, becoming more nomadic. As less sedentary people there would perhaps be fewer reasons to retain a cultural tradition of cave painting.

When we look at the classic tools of the Mesolithic, we find microliths. These appear in the recod as fingernail size flakes of stone which do look particularly unimpressive. At first glance they certainly appear cruder than the symetrical willow leaf points of the earlier period, but archaeologists now agree that microliths embeded in wood or bone handles actually represented a considerable improvement on earlier technologies.

The evidence from both 'art' and technology shows that that the we cannot sustain a definition of a Mesolithic Dark Age that is based upon any idea of cultural degradation.

In my next article I examine the idea that a 'Mesolithic Dark Age' might either refer to an absence of evidence, or more contraversially, might derive from the effect of market economics in research funding allocation.

Chris Brown April 2002

Bibliography:

Page 74: Forde-Johnston, J. 1974 History from the Earth. BCA (Phaidon Press) London