Radiocarbon chronology and the correlation of hunter-gatherer sociocultural change with abrupt palaeoclimate change: the Middle Mesolithic in the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt area of northwest Europe

► Revised radiocarbon chronology for the Mesolithic in the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt area. ► The Middle Mesolithic was bound by two Early Holocene abrupt cooling events. ► Variable chronological resolution for contemporaneity of climate and culture change. ► Problems of evaluating impact of gradual versus punctuated environmental change.