The Mesolithic Period

(syn; Mezzolithic)

Appox. 10,000 BC to 6,000 BC

The long term climate of Britain was now on the change with the weather getting warmer and wetter. This climate change also forced a change in the flora and fauna. The receding ice left at first what was to become tundra like grasslands but as the climate warmed this was replaced by woodland that were eventually to develop into dense forests.

The big move! It was during this period than humankind finally moved house out of the caves and into dwellings that they constructed themselves. This opened a new opportunity as until now you had to live where the shelter was but now you could choose your own site. There appears to have been a shift of location to a more coastal venue. Living by the sea can have advantages, it is usually warmer, you can catch fish, there are loads of pebbles for you to make tools. Hunting on the old grasslands was easy but the forests now posed a different problem chasing animals now was much more difficult.

The population still appears to have been of the hunter/gatherer type but the ability to frequently construct dwellings establishes that a distinct level of communal cooperation had been reached by this time and opened up new opportunities to help them deal with the changes being wrought upon them. Finding these sites is a challenge not the least being that as a result of the receding ice sea level was constantly rising throughout the entire period therefore those dwellings that were on the coast are now under water. It was during this period that Britain became an island once again.