Mesolithic Fireplaces and the Enculturation of Early Holocene Landscapes in Britain, with a Case Study from Western Scotland

Abstract

In light of the enculturation of landscapes by ethnographically documented hunter-gatherers, we should expect Mesolithic hunter-gatherers to have endowed their early Holocene landscapes with meaning. Attempts to find evidence for this have focussed on the unusual and exotic – those aspects of the archaeological record that seem immediately unrelated to subsistence. In this contribution, I suggest that fireplaces, ubiquitous on Mesolithic sites and often swiftly passed over in site reports as evidence for cooking alone, had played a key role in the process of landscape enculturation. Although we cannot reconstruct the specific meanings once attached to early Holocene landscapes, by appreciating the social and cultural significance of fireplaces we gain a more holistic view of the Mesolithic than is currently the case, whether in those studies that focus on settlement and subsistence or those that cite examples of ritual. In the course of making this argument, I summarise the evidence for fireplaces from Mesolithic Britain, noting the need for more systematic reporting. Finally, I provide a case study from western Scotland that seeks to view a suite of fireplaces in the context of the landscape topography, early Holocene environments, subsistence economy, and by drawing on selected ethnographic analogies.

Nocturnal selective pressures on the evolution of human musicality as a missing piece of the adaptationist puzzle

“…Fire provided our ancestors with heat, light, protection against predators and hostile conspecifics, smoke repellent of insects, aid in hunting and in preparing tasty, sterilized, preserved, and easily digestible cooked food, cremation of the dead, even improving flaking properties of stones, and aiding other tool manufacturing ( Rolland, 2004 ; Coolidge and Wynn, 2006 ; Fessler, 2006 ; Brown et al, 2009 ; Wrangham, 2009 ; Dunbar and Gowlett, 2014 ). These benefits of habitual fire use set the stage for cognitive ( Twomey, 2013 ), socioecological ( Rolland, 2004 ; Dunbar and Gowlett, 2014 ), and cultural ( Mithen, 2019 ) evolutionary change.…”

Mesolithic Pyrotechnology: Practices and Perceptions in Early Holocene Coastal Norway

“…Recent publications have emphasized the role of hearths for social and ritual purposes (Mansrud & Eymundsson, 2016; Mithen, 2019), but here the focus is on the interaction between humans and their environment and on the impact of this interplay on human understanding. Our perceptions come into being through this active interplay, a dynamic relationship between the needs and practices of humans and the provisions and potentials offered by their surroundings.…”

How Long was the Mesolithic–Neolithic Overlap in Western Scotland? Evidence from the 4th Millenniumbcon the Isle of Islay and the Evaluation of Three Scenarios for Mesolithic–Neolithic Interaction

“…A possible indication of continuity comes from Staosnaig, Colosany. Its scale of hazelnut shell exploitation, with their shells potentially used as a glowing fuel source within a large pit (Mithen et al 2001;Mithen 2019), suggests feasting of a type not dissimilar to that Steven Mithen. SCENARIOS FOR THE MESOLITHIC-NEOLITHIC INTERACTION IN WESTERN SCOTLAND proposed for the Neolithic in the Outer Hebrides (Copper & Armit 2018).…”