There are several concepts which we all tend to use regularly in mesolithic research without investing much thought in their meaning. For example the category 'mesolithic hunter-gatherer' generally rolls off the tongue or pen without much consideration of its further implications but brings with it additional sets of assumptions relating to subsistence economy, social organization, division of labour, gender roles and settlement mobility, to name but a few. My contribution here will primarily look at the last of these with a special focus on recent approaches taken to hunter-gatherer and mesolithic mobility in archaeology. I will begin with a critical review of the ways in which we approach mobility in mesolithic research. After this I will move on to offer different ways of thinking about movement and, based on these, an alternative approach to mobility in mesolithic research. I will then explore this approach somewhat further in practical terms in the form of a number of short case studies based on my own research in Ireland. These case studies are specifically geared towards studying and understanding human movement in the early prehistoric past.
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Last updated: Tues Oct 2 2007