Life in the Mesolithic period
The Stone Age in Britain took place between around 15000BC to 2500BC. The Mesolithic period is known as the middle stone age.
Humans were hunter-gatherers and had to catch or find everything they ate. They moved from place to place in search of food. This is called a nomadic lifestyle. Humans lived this way during the Palaeolithic (early stone age) and Mesolithic periods.
How did humans survive?
Hunting and gathering food was the focus of everyone’s lives. It only began to change when humans began to farm. In the early Stone Age, people made simple hand-axes out of stones. They made hammers from bones or antlers and they sharpened sticks to use as hunting spears.
Early Stone Age people hunted with sharpened sticks. Later, they used bows and arrows and spears tipped with flint or bone. People gathered nuts and fruits and dug up roots. They went fishing using nets and harpoons.
Stone Age people cut up their food with sharpened stones and cooked it on a fire. After a good day’s hunting people could feast on meat. But the next day they had to start finding food again!
They used animal skins to make clothes and shelters.
Watch: how were tools and weapons made?
Raksha Dave finds out how our ancient ancestors made tools and weapons from flint.
[BLEATING]
RAKSHA DAVE: A very long time ago, in ancient Britain, there were no written words. This was the time before history was recorded. It's prehistory. The only clues to life back then come from the objects, burials, cave paintings and monuments, which speak to us about Britain's ancient past.
My name is Raksha Dave, I'm an archaeologist and I'm in search of Britain's Ancient Voices. My job as an archaeologist means I spend a lot of my time searching for clues about ancient Britain.And sometimes, if I'm lucky, I get to find something like this. You might be mistaken for thinking that this is just a lump of rock, but in fact it's a very carefully-shaped tool called a hand axe, made out of flint.
These tools were made a very, very long time ago — over 10,000 years ago, in what we now call the Stone Age. And to show how long ago that is, I'm going to walk back in time. This is today.
Imagine that every step I took was equal to 100 years, then to go back to the Stone Age, I'd have to take 100 steps.This could take quite a while.One, two, three, four, five…
After taking 20 steps, I've gone back 2,000 years. This is the first time that history was written down, and now I'm going back into prehistory.
And 100 steps back in time is 10,000 years ago. This is the Stone Age. Britain looked very different back then.There was no internet, there were no houses that were built out of brick, no cars, there wasn't even any metal.
Just thick, dark forests with animals hiding in them, so Stone Age people needed sharp, strong tools to cut trees down and to hunt the animals for food. And this is where a stone called flint came in. There's a real skill to making tools out of flint.
IAN DENNIS: A Stone Age man could work these fantastically into all sorts of tools to do with everyday life.
First thing we would do is take a small piece of flint, and if you want to take a flake off like this — as you can see one's come off here — you would hit it with a stone, what we call the hammerstone. So you aim and you'll strike here and you'll get a little flake, OK?
RAKSHA: So I hold it like this?
IAN: Tight.
RAKSHA:And then I need to aim for — is it this bit here?
IAN: Yeah, just on the ridge there.
RAKSHA:OK.
IAN: That's it. That's it. There you go. Sounded quite good to me!
RAKSHA: Oh!
IAN: There you go. One little flake.
RAKSHA: Excellent. So this is actually really skilled work, this.
IAN: Yes, the people in the Stone Age, they knew everything about how to strike that flint off.
RAKSHA: The flakes that we've actually managed to knock off — they're actually really sharp, aren't they?
IAN:They are indeed, and we can actually drag a piece of flint…
RAKSHA: Wow!
IAN:…straight through.Once you've knocked off all your flakes, you can make a nice arrow.
RAKSHA: They look rather deadly, but what I'm wondering is how do you actually stick these pieces on? Is this Stone Age glue?
IAN: It is a Stone Age glue and it's actually made from pine resin and beeswax, mixed with a bit of charcoal. And this would be very effective at killing the deer to bring home your dinner for your family or your tribe.
RAKSHA: So, hang on, that would kill a large deer?
IAN: Easily.
RAKSHA: That's pretty impressive.
IAN: Easily.
RAKSHA: Animals were very important to Stone Age people — and not just for food. Their skins were used for clothes, bags, and their bones were particularly useful for small things like tools, jewellery and even instruments. But none of this would've been possible without the people who made tools out of stone.
What animals lived in prehistoric Britain?
Climate change during the Stone Age caused animal life in Britain to go through several changes.
During the Ice Ages, Britain was covered by ice and snow. Herds of mammoths, reindeer and woolly rhinoceroses roamed across the snow and brown bears sheltered in caves.
In the warm periods between the Ice Ages, Britain became as hot as Africa is today! Elephants, hippos, rhinos and hyenas all moved north through Europe to live in Britain.
The last Ice Age ended around 15,000 years ago and the British climate became very similar to how it is today. The forests were full of foxes and red squirrels. Wolves and bears lived in the hills.
Britain was home to most of the species of birds, fish and shellfish we have today, so people had a wide range of food to eat.
What kind of art did humans make?
Stone Age Britons made necklaces and bracelets from tusks, bones and shells. They also drew patterns on their bodies, using a kind of paint made from ochre (a type of red clay).
Evidence from elsewhere in Europe shows that people living in caves decorated their walls with pictures of animals. Carvings found on cave walls show giant bulls, stags, horses, bison and birds.
No cave paintings have been found in Britain, but Stone Age Britons probably painted scenes like the ones found at Lascaux in France. The Lascaux cave paintings were created around 14,000 years ago. They show animals as well as some human hunters.
Some historians believe that Stone Age paintings had a religious meaning. They think the painted animals were meant to represent powerful spirits. Sadly, no one really knows the truth of their meaning.
Activities
Activity 1: Explore Stone Age cave art
Explore this picture to find out about Grey Otter, an imaginary Stone Age boy. Details about his way of life are based on evidence found at a camp in Star Carr in Yorkshire.
Activity 2: Explore footprints, bones and tools
Explore the image below to find out what footprints, bones and tools can tell us about prehistoric people.
Activity 3: Mesolithic Stone Age quiz
Watch: Life in Mesolithic Britain
This video from BBC Bitesize for Teachers uses archaeological evidence that has been found to imagine what the lives of people could have been like.
Can you listen out for evidence that you have read about on this page that is depicted in the video?
The young wolf that is mentioned is the start of a process called domestication. This is where animals begin to live amongst humans like the pets we have today.
An introduction to the precarious nature of life in Mesolithic Britain through the eyes of a typical family.
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