Re: Microliths in West Europe

Hi Alexander

You wrote

> I have a question concerning usage of microliths in West European
> microlithic cultures.
> It is clear why gatherers of wild cereals (and later cultivators of
> domesticated cereals) needed microliths - they inserted them into
> sickles. But I guess that the way of life in West European
> Mesolithic societies was quite different - they were individual
> hunters, fishermen and sea gatherers.
>
> How did they use microliths? Particularly, is it possible to use
> microliths in arrows instead of classical arrowheads?

Yes, definitely. This is how the arrowheads were made in the Oranian
culture. It was found binding microliths in a saw-toothe pattern with
resins made a particularly light-weight and deadly arrow. Microliths
were later used in Australia on hunting spears for a similar purpose.

The Tardenoisian, Maglemose and Swidderian cultures that came
north out of Western Europe north of the Pyrenees even adapted
microliths to harpoons for fishing as well.

In fact microlithic technologies enabled a number of different
technologies to be used, just by varying the position and attachment
of the microlith to the wooden substrate.

Hope this helps

Regards

John