Today i'm going to talk about mesolithic

Mesolithic period or Middle Stone Age, period in human development between the end of the Paleolithic period and the beginning of the Neolithic period . It began with the end of the last glacial period over 10,000 years ago and evolved into the Neolithic period; this change involved the gradual domestication of plants and animals and the formation of settled communities at various times and places. While Mesolithic cultures lasted in Europe until almost 3000 BC, Neolithic communities developed in the Middle East between 9000 and 6000 BC Mesolithic cultures represent a wide variety of hunting, fishing, and food gathering techniques. This variety may be the result of adaptations to changed ecological conditions associated with the retreat of glaciers, the growth of forests in Europe and deserts in N Africa, and the disappearance of the large game of the Ice Age. Characteristic of the period were hunting and fishing settlements along rivers and on lake shores, where fish and mollusks were abundant. Microliths, the typical stone implements of the Mesolithic period, are smaller and more delicate than those of the late Paleolithic period. Pottery and the use of the bow developed, although their presence in Mesolithic cultures may only indicate contact with early Neolithic peoples. The Azilian culture, which was centered in the Pyrenees region but spread to Switzerland, Belgium, and Scotland, was one of the earliest representatives of Mesolithic culture in Europe. The Azilian was followed by the Tardenoisian culture, which covered much of Europe; most of these settlements are found on dunes or sandy areas. The Maglemosian, named for a site in Denmark, is found in the Baltic region and N England. It occurs in the middle of the Mesolithic period. It is there that hafted axes, an improvement over the Paleolithic hand axe, and bone tools are found. The Ertebolle culture, also named for a site in Denmark, spans most of the late Mesolithic. It is also known as the kitchen-midden culture for the large deposits of mollusk shells found around the settlements. Other late Mesolithic cultures are the Campignian and Asturian, both of which may have had Neolithic contacts. The Mesolithic period in other areas is represented by the Natufian in the Middle East, the Badarian and Gerzean in Egypt, and the Capsian in N Africa. The Natufian culture provides the earliest evidence of an evolution from a Mesolithic to a Neolithic way of life.

Today I'm going to talk about The Stone Age.


Specially of art.

Stone Age Artists
This is clear in the cave art, sculptures, paintings and engravings of the Upper Palaeolithic Age, from about 40,000 to 12,000 BC, especially in the decorated caves in France and Spain. These were executed by the earlier representatives of homo sapiens, and not infrequently they occur on the walls of deep and tortuous limestone caverns, often in nooks and crannies and obscure positions none too easy to reach.
To make a first-hand study of this very important aspect of prehistoric religion the best centre is Les Eyzies on the banks of the Vezere in the Dordogne, within easy reach of which are a number of the principal examples, such as that known as Font-de-Gaume, less than a kilometre and a half from the village. A little further along the Sarlat road in the valley of the Beune is a long subterranean tunnel called Les Combarelles with a number of engravings. Not far away at Laussel a rock-shelter contained a frieze depicting an obese nude female carved on a block of stone, apparently in an advanced stage of pregnancy and holding in her right hand what seems to be the horn of a bison. The figure had been covered with red ochre to increase- its life-giving properties and female potency. Some 48 kilometres up-stream from Lez Eyzies the recently discovered cave at Lascaux near Montignac, about which more will be said later. important are the regions of Ariege in the Pyrenees and San-tander in northern Spain.
In several of the more popular decorated caves the installation of electric lighting has made it possible to get a better view of the remarkable polychrome paintings and the less accessible figures than ever before, but with disastrous effects upon them at Lascaux. Moreover, it has destroyed the numinous atmosphere, the aura of awe and wonder, and the conditions in which they were originally fashioned, obscuring their purpose and significance. Thus, at Font-de-Gaume in a sacred chamber beyond a stalactite barrier at the end of the cave there is the figure of a woolly rhinoceros in red ochre high up on a narrow crevice, together with engravings of a lion and horses. It would appear that the prehistoric artist could only have done these while standing on the shoulders of an assistant, having only a flickering lamp burning marrow or fat with a wick of moss. It is inconceivable that this was done merely for aesthetic reasons as 'art for art's sake' on an almost vertical wall 3 metres (10 feet) above the floor.


In the photograf you can see the cave painting.

Today i'm going to talk about Neolithic Cultures.

Neolithic has four phases:

Early Neolithic (ca. 6000-5300 b.c.)
The three subdivisions of this period are based on changes in the pottery. The numbeers and settlement stability of the EN occupation in Thessaly are striking in view of the dearth of Mesolithic sites in the region. Demoule and Perlìs report 120 EN sites in eastern Thessaly alone, with an average intersite spacing of less than 5 kms.; no less than 75% of these continue to be occupied in the subsequent MN period.

Middle Neolithic (or "Sesklo culture") (ca. 5300-4400 b.c. at Sesklo itself)
The culture of this period in Thessaly develops directly from the Proto-Sesklo culture of the Early Neolithic period and differs from its predecessor largely in being richer, more complex, and more uniform. The Sesklo culture extends from Servia in western Macedonia south to Lianokladhi in Phthiotis, an area of distribution comparable in size to that occupied by the contemporary MN culture of southern Greece characterized by Urfirnis pottery. The type site for this Thessalian phase, during which the total number of sites and the average size of individual sites both increase, is Sesklo. The hallmark of the period is the elaborately decorated red-on-white-painted Sesklo ware. Monochrome red-slipped ware is also very popular.

Late Neolithic (ca. 4300-3300 b.c.)
The Late Neolithic in Thessaly is often referred to as the "Dimini culture" (for example, by Vermeule), but this is misleading in that the rich finds from Dimini itself represent a provincial eastern Thessalian variant of the later LN period in Thessaly as a whole. Milojcic and his German co-workers have divided the Late Neolithic period in Thessaly into four phases on the basis of changes in ceramics.

Final Neolithic (ca. 3300-2500 b.c.)
Thessalian Final Neolithic is known as the Rachmani phase, a long period which overlaps with southern Greek Final Neolithic but which extends well beyond it so that its end is contemporary with the phase of the southern Greek Early Bronze Age known as Early Helladic II.

In the photo you can see a circular mound with chamber bedside Cairn T

Here I have found one link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHknZr8w690