Sea

Abstract

This chapter gives a regional and temporal overview of the Mesolithic archaeological record, and demonstrates a wide range of styles of marine foraging and seafaring along the European shores. Marine resources are varied and stable, encompass wide-ranging nutritional values and raw materials, and were beyond depletion by the Mesolithic pre-industrial means of harvesting. Also, seafaring increased mobility range, reach, and speed, and also the capacity to carry people, equipment, and produce far and wide by a variety of vessels. The Mesolithic seas were as affluent as they were risky to exploit. Humans at sea are always ‘cyborgs’—depending on material devices that now are integrated in the Mesolithic archaeological record, and may be analysed by the discipline’s scientific methods. This leaves us with an optimistic starting point for addressing ‘Sea’ in Mesolithic Europe. However, a very large part of the Mesolithic coastal areas was flooded by the 130 m postglacial sea-level rise, and hence little explored.