Three primary research themes have been identified for future investigation, broken down into specific questions, many of which have drawn upon other regional, national or thematic frameworks across the country. They have changed from those in the 1999 framework in order to reflect the focus in this framework document on purely Mesolithic research and the advances made in the last fourteen years. The themes are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Mesolithic is notable for a number of recognised climatic and natural environmental phenomena including rapid climate change at the start of the Holocene, the Preboreal oscillation (Hoek and Bos 2007), the 8.2 kiloyear event (Alley and \u00c1g\u00fastsd\u00f3ttir 2005; Edwards et al 2006), a tsunami caused by the Storegga slide (Weninger et al 2008), and the creation of the British Isles as an archipelago of islands as a result of rising sea levels, the breaching of the strait of Dover (Gupta et al 2007) and the final submersion of Doggerland (Gaffney et al 2007). At the same time there is widespread evidence for anthropogenic change in a landscape enriched by successions of flora and fauna adapting to local conditions. The following questions aim to address the relationship and interaction between human populations and the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n
Social narratives of the period have become more prevalent in recent years, highlighting Mesolithic people as primary agents of change. These perspectives have not sidelined traditional approaches. Rather, new theoretical perspectives have added a social dimension to understanding various aspects of Mesolithic archaeology, such as technology (Conneller 2000b; Warren 2006; Elliott and Milner 2010; Finlay 2003), death (Conneller 2006), settlement and mobility (Spikins 2000; Milner 1999; McFadyen 2006), ritual (Bevan 2003; Chatterton 2006; Conneller 2004), and diet (Milner 2005; 2009). The following questions aim to address aspects of the human experience during the Mesolithic and work out how to build narratives based around the material evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n