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In archaeology, mesolithic (Greek: μεσος, ''mesos'' "middle"; λιθος, ''lithos'' "stone") is the culture between paleolithic and neolithic. The term "Epipaleolithic" is often used for areas outside northern Europe, but was also the preferred synonym used by French archaeologists until the 1960s. Mesolithic has different time spans in different parts of Eurasia. It was originally post-Pleistocene, pre-agricultural material in northwest Europe about 10,000 to 5,000 BC, but material from the Levant (about 20,000 to 9,500 BC) is also labelled mesolithic. ==Information== The term "Mesolithic" is in competition with another term, "Epipaleolithic", which means the "final Upper Palaeolithic industries occurring at the end of the final glaciation which appear to merge technologically into the Mesolithic".〔Bahn, Paul, ''The Penguin Archaeology Guide'', Penguin, London, pp. 141. ISBN 0-14-051448-1.〕 In the archaeology of northern Europe, for example for archaeological sites in Great Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, Ukraine, and Russia, the term "Mesolithic" is almost always used. In the archaeology of other areas, the term "Epipaleolithic" may be preferred by most authors, or there may be divergences between authors over which term to use or what meaning to assign to each. In the New World, neither term is used (except provisionally in the Arctic). * Some authors use the term "Epipaleolithic" for those cultures that are late developments of hunter-gatherer traditions but not in transition toward agriculture, reserving the term "Mesolithic" for those cultures, like the Natufian culture, that are transitional between hunter-gatherer and agricultural practices. * Other authors use the term Mesolithic for a variety of Late Paleolithic cultures subsequent to the end of the last glacial period whether they are transitional towards agriculture or not. A Spanish scholar, Alfonso Moure, says in this regard:〔A. Moure. ''El Origen del Hombre'', 1999. ISBN 84-7679-127-5.〕 In the terminology of prehistoric archeology, the most widespread trend is to use the term "Epipaleolithic" for the industrial complexes of post-glacial hunter-gatherer groups. Conversely, those that are in course of transition toward artificial food production are assigned to the "Mesolithic". In the archaeology of sub-Saharan Africa, Lower Paleolithic is replaced by "Early Stone Age", Middle Paleolithic is replaced by "Middle Stone Age" and Upper Paleolithic by "Later Stone Age" according to the terminology introduced by John Hilary Goodman and Clarence van Riet Lowe of South Africa in the early 20th century. Therefore, care must be taken in translating "Mesolithic" as "Middle Stone Age", as the latter term has an unrelated technical meaning in the context of African archaeology. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mesolithic」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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