The 'Mesolithic' period begins with the end of the last Ice Age, when the glacial meltwaters turned Britain into an island. It is the last part of the hunter-gatherer period and the middle part of the Stone Age, between the Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age) and the Neolithic (New Stone Age), when agriculture and animal husbandry were introduced. In Britain, where it lasted from approximately 10,000 to 4500 BC (the date for the beginning of the Neolithic period is still debated), it is marked by the emergence of sophisticated groups of hunter-gatherers who used spears and harpoons that incorporated very small sharp blades called microliths.

Neolithic