The Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age, dates from the end of the last Ice Age at c. 9600 BC until the adoption of farming at approximately 4000 BC. At this time, varied communities of hunter-gatherers settle the space now called Scotland. These groups lived from the wild resources available in the diverse, striking, and changing landscapes. that surrounded them. For approximately half of Scotland's past it has been a land of hunter-gatherers: and yet the stories of those lives are rarely told.

This book seeks to redress some of this loss. Introducing a rich variety of evidence, from pollen analysis through to deliberate deposition of human bones, Graeme Warren's account focuses on understandings of landscape, skilled practices such as seafaring, scales of community, and the routines that constituted the fundamental rhythms of life. Other discussions include environmental and landscape change, appropriate scales and methods for analysis, and interpreting mesolithic stone tool manufacture.

Written for the general reader, evening class student, undergraduate or postgraduate student and a professional audience, and including the latest research, this book offers a vivid archaeology of the distant past that can be found in some very familiar places in the Scottish landscape.