Social and spatial dimensions of Mesolithic mobility

A great deal of congruence is seen among the papers contributed to the special issue of the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology on Mesolithic mobility, exchange, and interaction. There are at least three major areas of agreement. First, contact, exchange, and interaction among Mesolithic groups occurred at multiple spatial scales. Second, different kinds of contact, exchange, and interaction are characteristic of these different scales. Finally, the contacts, exchanges, and interactions at these different scales often have specific archaeological signatures. These common conclusions should be helpful and significant in guiding future research on the Mesolithic, and on the archaeology of hunter-gatherer bands generally.