THE NORTH BOHEMIAN MESOLITHIC REVISITED: THE EXCAVATION SEASONS 1998–1999

Rockshelters, a typical feature of the Northern Bohemian landscape, are promising for archaeology of the last foragers and for contextual studies of Holocene paleoclimatology, environment, settlement strategies, and resource exploitation. In 1998–1999, this research achieved a higher level of a systematic collaborative project and its geographic scope expanded into new regions: The Dubá area in the south (6 newly excavated rockshelters) and the Labe-River Sandstones in the north (4 rockshelters). Basing on the conventional C-14 chronology, the Mesolithic occupation flourished during the two millennia between 7000–9000 B.P.; a few Mesolithic dates are earlier (Nízká Lešnice, around 10,000 B.P.) and later (Pod zubem – upper Mesolithic layers, until 6500 B.P.). Whereas most of the lithic assemblages in the southern part of the studied region are small but include also some bone artifacts, two of the northern rockshelters, Švédův rockshelter and Arba, provided surprisingly large lithic assemblages rich in microlithic triangles. The isolated human tooth, found in 1997 at the site Pod zubem, is recently being completed by three more human teeth (Vysoká Lešnice, Šídelník I) and one little fragment of a human skull (Nízká Lešnice). The teeth belong to older individuals and are heavily worn.