What are the stages of the Mesolithic

One of the most unknown periods of the Stone Age was the Mesolithic, being a stage of great changes for the human being, but that having similar characteristics to the Paleolithic and Neolithic is often confused with these. Like the rest of the periods of the Stone Age, the Mesolithic has differences in its stages, which have great differences. For all this, in this lesson of UnProfesor we must talk about what are the stages of the Mesolithic?

He Mesolithic It is the intermediate period of the Stone Age, since it is located between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic, being therefore also called the Middle Stone Age. Its position as a bridge between the Paleolithic and Neolithic makes it a period of great changes, with common characteristics of both periods.

Regarding the years in which the Mesolithic happened, we must understand that they are not completely fixed years, since the period can vary depending on the region we are talking about. An example of this is that some historians do not consider that this stage existed,

and a large part of its characteristics only appeared in Europe. In general we can say that more or less the dates should be between 12,000 years ago and 9000 B.C. c., although these dates vary depending on the area.

The Mesolithic was a very important period. and much more relevant than you think. During this period there was the beginning of agriculture and livestock, gradually replacing hunting and gathering. also brought the end of the ice ages and the extension of large mammals, transforming all this to the human being from a nomadic being to a sedentary one.

Regarding its Mesolithic stages, we must understand that there are two major stages in this period, being the Epipaleolithic and Protoneolithic. Contrary to other divisions of the prehistoric periods, in the case of the Mesolithic it is not usual to find this division, as they are two very similar stages. Coming up next, we tell you.

Here we discover the main characteristics of the Mesolithic.

The Epipaleolithic is the first period of the so-called Mesolithic. receiving its name for happening just after the end of the Paleolithic. Regarding its chronology, we must understand that it takes place during 1000 BC. C., having a way of life quite similar to the Paleolithic, but appearing the first elements that were going to transform society.

To understand this stage, and see why it differed from the Paleolithic, and was marking the main characteristics of the Mesolithic we must talk about the main ideas that defined them, being the following:

• The human mobility It was less and less, since they began to move to a sedentary system to replace their nomadic life.
• are adopted new forms of relationships between human beings, since until then the relationships were family, and in this period the first relationships between different groups begin to emerge. These relationships are considered to give rise to towns and cities.
• The period was marked by microlithization, which made it possible to create smaller lithic instruments every time.
• Occurred the end of the ice age, so that the human being had to adapt to a new way of understanding the environment and especially the rise in temperatures.
• Large mammals went extinct, so human beings had to change their diet to be able to adapt to life without those species that, due to their enormous extensions, could feed huge groups of people.
• Regionalization has become customary, causing that there were small cultural groups with their own characteristics throughout Europe.

To continue this lesson on the Mesolithic stages, we must talk about the second of these stages. He protoneolithic It is the second of the stages that make up the Mesolithic, being so called because it happened just before the Neolithic, and therefore having several characteristics similar to this period.

The main difference of this period with its predecessor is that in this period agriculture began to have real weight in the economy. It was thanks to the advances in agriculture that the human being was able to evolve, in what is considered the step towards the Mesolithic.

To understand in depth the elements that define the Protoneolithic we must talk about its main characteristics, which will allow us to differentiate it from other periods. For this reason the main characteristics of the protoneolithic are the following:

• It was a totally focused on agriculture, being the most important economic model. The relevance of agriculture made the entire population focus on it, since they discovered that it could be the center of society.
• The human diet became cereals, fruits and vegetables, since the great advances in agriculture allowed the base of the diet to become the one achieved by it.
• Cities and towns began to emerge, since agriculture forced them to be located in one place constantly. It could be said that at this stage it was the absolute transition from nomadic to sedentary life.
• The manufacture of tools stone became more focused on these being for work the field, since the priority of the moment was to build everything that will facilitate this task.
• Social relations changed completely, and social groups were no longer families, but rather entire towns.