Stefan Karol Kozlowski. Thinking Mesolithic.

Stefan Karol Kozlowski. Thinking Mesolithic. STEFAN KAROL KOZLOWSKI. Thinking Mesolithic. xiv+546 pages,numerous illustrations. 2009. Oxford: Oxbow; 978-1-84217-335-0 hardback60 [pounds sterling]. This is archaeology as it used to be done; archaeology on a grandscale. At first glance it is a confusing book: there are old papers, newpapers, and new comments on old papers. There are sections in English,French and Italian. There are illustrations galore. Few people will readit from cover to cover in the way that is the lot of the reviewer, butit is well worth the effort, if sometimes frustrating. The English isoccasionally note-like (but I'd not attempt to write in Polish, norin most European languages); perhaps most irritating is the lack ofreferences in the text. A lengthy bibliography at the end is useful buthard to relate to individual facts. Illustrations are referenced, butsometimes difficult to trace. The lack of an index may also frustratethe researcher, though the clearly headed, largely geographical, layoutof the text does help to locate specific information. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Kozlowski sets out with a definition of the Mesolithic drawn from1973 that is both chronological ('between the Palaeolithic and theNeolithic', p. 1) and 'economic-developmental'; by 2006he modifies this to emphasise chronology over behaviour. In the firstchapter the author goes on to look at the development of Mesolithicstudies through the filter of the various Mesolithic in Europeconferences that have taken place from 1971 in Potsdam to 2000 inStockholm. Subsequent chapters run through a generalised (and extremelyuseful) consideration of Mesolithic material culture across Europe, to abrief examination of environment and resource, a summary of location,and a discussion of date. From chapter six there is, perhaps, the meatof the volume, in the form of a well-illustrated corpus of principallithic types, key sites, and geographical and chronologicaldevelopments. For anyone wishing to hunt for parallels or trace the findspots of particular styles of stone tool this is a fantastic resource.There are certainly shortcomings in individual detail (Scotland issummed up through the 'Obanian' erroneously attributed to theOrcade Islands [sic], p. 331) but the book could hardly have been longer(or weightier) and this reviewer has already found it most useful as acomprehensive gazetteer of lithic types and information. There is achapter on pre-neolithisation/castelnovisation before final sections onbone, antler and amber artefacts, and a magnificent summary in chapter13, 'The Final Score'. This is, overtly, a very personal view of the Mesolithic, and soperhaps the shortcomings reflect individual preference. There are fewreferences to some of the concerns that occupy current 'Mesolithicminds'. Stable isotope studies, the examination of residues andgenetic analysis are nowhere mentioned. Landscape is considered in onlythe most general sense: forest landscapes, or the industries of thesteppe, rather than the relationship of people to the world around them.The submerged landscapes of Doggerland do feature, but there is nodetailed consideration of resource exploitation. Ritual behaviours arenoted, but not discussed in detail. One might note the general absenceof people: from skeletal remains to lifestyles, there is a lot that hasbeen left unsaid. One might complain that this is the Mesolithicpresented purely as microlith, scraper and tanged point and it is truethat lithics predominate, but that is, after all, a reflection of theevidence. And who, nowadays, has such an encyclopaedic knowledge of whatwas found where, right across Europe? The principal tool types of eachregion are clearly illustrated: even ten minutes spent flicking frompage to page produces a fascinating overview and some absorbingparallels from place to place. If anything, the volume is testament tojust how much information we can get out of the lithic typologies if wetry. Those of us privileged to own this volume (it is not cheap) havebought the accumulated wisdom of one of Mesolithic Europe'sforemost scholars. We have also bought the contributions of hiscolleagues and many contacts, both overtly in terms of joint pieces oftext and covertly in terms of their influence on his thoughts. Koztowskiis to be commended for laying bare the foundations and development ofhis thoughts: how many of us would wish to re-publish (or even drawattention to) the papers we wrote over 30 years ago? We live in an agewhere broad sweeping interpretations on the scale practiced by GordonChilde or Grahame Clark are rare. This book is an exception. We shouldcongratulate Kozlowski for the assiduous compilation of the details onwhich his understanding of Mesolithic Europe is founded. C.R. WICKHAM-JONES Department of Archaeology, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK(Email: c.wickham-jones@abdn.ac.uk)