Strategy 3: Scientific methods

There is enormous potential for a range of scientific techniques, both established and new, to be applied to Mesolithic datasets. There is also the potential for re-examining curated material currently held in archives in addition to any newly excavated samples.

Mesolithic archaeology has a history of applying scientific techniques, particularly those connected with the palaeoenvironment and economy, since Grahame Clark’s seminal study of Star Carr (Clark 1954). The need to understand the palaeoenvironment and palaeoclimate has not gone away, and further high-resolution techniques have been developed which are critical for answering questions related to Research Theme 1 ‘Living in a changing world’ (T1.1-T.1.4) and issues of environmental change through time (T3.1, T3.3, T3.9).

Grahame Clark carried out some very early radiocarbon dating on material from Star Carr, but approaches to dating have since gone through several revolutions, the latest being the application of Bayesian modelling which has been most notably applied to Howick, and is currently being applied to recent dates at Star Carr and Low Hauxley. There is a critical need for many more good-quality dates on Mesolithic samples in order to answer all of the questions set out in Research Theme 3 ‘Investigating change and diversity’ (T3.1-T3.17).

Biomolecular approaches have also revolutionised the ways in which we can address archaeological questions and many techniques have significant value for Mesolithic studies, particularly in addressing issues concerning people and animals (T2.11-T2.15). For instance, stable isotope studies have been used to interpret the relative contribution of animal and marine resources to the diet patterns of humans and animals (eg Schulting 2010; Schulting and Richards 2002). In addition, some forensic approaches can also be applied to stone and organic tools which can further enhance our understanding of technology and use (T2.1, T2.3, T3.6). Geochemical approaches and studies of raw materials would help us better understand the movement of stone, in turn helping to answer questions of settlement and mobility (T2.2-T2.4, T2.8-T2.10, T3.9, T3.14).

Dating

S3.1: The desirability of AMS dates, and where possible the application of Bayesian modelling, should be emphasised. Where this is not possible (eg due to a lack of stratigraphy), direct dating of secure, short-lived materials, such as human or animal bone or hazelnuts, is essential in order to expand the database of Mesolithic dates and to provide a better chronological framework for the period.

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S3.2: Dating linked to lithic assemblage types is essential to underpin the development of typochronologies that can then be applied to lithic assemblages where no directly datable material survives. This should be accompanied by precision in typological description and appropriate illustration to engender confidence in lithics assessments (see Saville 2009).

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S3.3: Dates should be calibrated and expressed preferably in BC terms. Bayesian modelling depends on calibration, and use of cal BC for the entire Holocene will help overcome disjunctures across the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition.

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S3.4: Other dating techniques, such as TL (Thermoluminescence) and OSL (Optically Stimulated Luminescence), should also be considered with appropriate specialist advice.

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S3.5: Tephrochronology is relevant to some sites and can provide an important chronostratigraphic underpinning of environmental sequences. The recent recognition of cryptotephra deposits provides an expanded series of volcanic ash isochrons for potential synchronisation of environmental and archaeological records in the Lateglacial and Early Holocene.

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S3.6: Dendrochronology is a technique becoming increasingly relevant to the Mesolithic and is particularly important when dating submerged forests (eg see Bell 2007).

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S3.7: A national on-line database would be a desirable development which would include both archaeological sites and palaeoenvironmental data. It is important that dates are shared and communicated if patterns of change and continuity are to be discerned across the country.

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Case Study: Erosion of in situ Mesolithic remains at Low Hauxley, Northumberland. Clive Waddington, Archaeological Research Services Ltd

Biomolecular techniques

S3.8: There is great potential for aDNA studies in order to understand population history and movement of people better. Major advances have recently been made and with a developing dataset it should be possible to carry out ground-breaking research, as in other parts of Europe. aDNA analysis on animal remains should also be extended in order to understand animal demography, arrivals and extinctions.

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Linked Question(s):
T3.04 – What were the origins of the people who occupied Britain at the start of the Holocene?
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S3.9: A better understanding of human and animal mobility can also be achieved through strontium and oxygen isotope analysis, which has been used to great effect in later prehistory.

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Linked Question(s):
T2.08 – How did mobility strategies develop from the Lateglacial to the end of the Mesolithic?
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S3.10: Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis has provided insights into human diet, including proportions of marine and terrestrial dietary components, and temporal and regional patterning. This should be continued as more human skeletal material is discovered.

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Linked Question(s):
T2.11 – What did people eat and how varied were their diets?
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S3.11: Zooms (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry) is a technique which uses subtle differences in collagen sequences to identify tiny bone fragments to a high taxonomic resolution (genus or species level). This is being trialled for a number of Mesolithic sites and has the potential to revolutionise the way in which bone is identified.

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S3.12: Forensic approaches to tool use, such as use-wear analysis and residue analysis, are being used more widely, particularly in other parts of Europe, to help discern the cultural biographies of stone and organic tools. Further applications in Britain are needed in order to understand how tools were used.

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Stone raw materials

S3.13: The establishment of national/regional lithics raw material reference collections should be undertaken in collaboration with geologists, geomorphologists and Quaternary scientists. The comparison of archaeological material with geological examples, and access to the most recent geological research, would be of great benefit in facilitating progress in an area that has been persistently slow to develop. Typochronologies with supporting dates should also be analysed with a focus on raw material selection.

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S3.14: Further investigation is needed into the potential of geochemical approaches to establish the location of lithic sources, and how trace element analysis can develop ideas of settlement and mobility.

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Climate and environment

S3.15: Well-dated palaeoenvironmental studies should continue to be undertaken to develop understanding of the temporal and spatial scales of human interaction with the environment. These should include palaeoenvironmental dating work to synchronise our chronological, environmental and archaeological records: targeted high-resolution work at coincident palaeoenvironmental and archaeological sites is key.

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S3.16: There is a need to refine understanding of the burning episodes which occur in the Mesolithic and are attributed to human agency, with the consequent need to understand patterns of wildfire occurrence and their relationship to climatic episodes favourable for burning.

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S3.17: A better understanding of the exploitation and use of plant resources in the Mesolithic is required, the data for England being very limited. An extension to this is investigating whether evidence exists for the management of woodland (eg for coppicing or nut production).

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S3.18: The archaeological and palaeoenvironmental potential of Lateglacial and Postglacial landscape features such as kettle-holes, palaeochannels and areas of waterlogged deposits should be recognised and targeted. Palaeochannels are highlighted here for their potential to bear archaeological evidence of fishing, such as fish-traps and dugout canoes, that can be dated to the Mesolithic with certainty. As such they should not be discounted in schemes of investigation.

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S3.19: Submerged forests are also important, as their archaeological potential extends from submarine, through intertidal and reclaimed wetland areas. Many of those in western Britain relate to the final millennia of the Mesolithic and represent tracts of Mesolithic landscape with known Mesolithic sites, eg Westward Ho!, Devon. Elsewhere in north-west and north-east England peats have recently been dated from the Windermere Interstadial through to the Late Mesolithic and these represent a very important and, as yet, barely tapped resource.

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Case Study: Potential for palaeoenvironmental data. Martin Bell, University of Reading

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