Mesolithic landscapes and where to hunt big game: everywhere or???
Résumé
As much as ‘hunting’ is a central theme in archaeological hunter-gatherer research, as
little do we actually know about the specificities of hunting strategies and how this has
influenced the cultural structuring of landscapes. It is often assumed that game was
hunted anywhere, but the question is whether this was the case. Firstly, the archaeological
picture of hunting practices and technology is biased by the overrepresentation of sites
characterised by quantities of knapped lithics – the interpretation of sites with no or
only little lithics is difficult, notably due to the fact that non-lithic materials are often not
preserved. Secondly, there is an underestimation of the importance of non-lithic material
culture directly or indirectly related to hunting and landscape exploitation. Thirdly,
hunting can encompass various strategies, which are associated with different uses of
materials and structures in different parts of the landscape. Choices that have been made
will certainly have depended on the knowledge about animal behaviour and landscape
structure, with an important role for rivers, lakes and seashores. Taking differences in
geographical and environmental conditions, as well as variability in hunting strategies
and technology into consideration, this paper attempts to identify some tendencies with
regard to the hunting of key species of big game (reindeer/caribou; elk/moose; red deer;
roe deer; wild boar) in Mesolithic/Late Stone Age landscapes in north-western Europe.
The most important aspects of the behaviour of these species are discussed, notably
seasonal variations with regard to group composition, occurrence in the landscape,
and daily feeding and drinking patterns. Next, we discuss aspects of hunting, notably
the establishment of the presence of game, the spotting and approaching prey, and the
wounding and following of prey. This is followed by a brief look at the archaeological
evidence for big game hunting and aspects of landscape structure in the Mesolithic of
north-western Europe. In this context, the presence of sites with deep pits in various part
of the region is particularly interesting in contrast to sites characterised by high densities
of lithics. Drawing from these insights, we discuss some factors that may have influenced the emergence of archaeological patterns of geographical diversity in parts of Scandinavia
and the Netherlands, corresponding to landscape zones with relatively high densities of
lithics, in contrast to sites and landscape zones with no or very few lithics.