#MesolithicMonday
LightNews LightNews
antiquity.ac.uk
For #MesolithicMonday, here's an elk tooth pendant from a burial at Donkalnis, Lithuania, engraved with unusually systematic horizontal lines. Could they be a kind of recording system or mnemonic aid? Let us know your thoughts!

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Engraved tooth pendant made from a Eurasian elk incisor, showing the labial (A), distal (B), mesial (C) and lingual (D) views (credit: T. Rimkus). Illustrations of the labial (A), distal (B), mesial (C) and lingual (D) views of the engraved tooth pendant, highlighting linear incisions along its length (credit: M. Gintalas).
March 10, 2025 at 1:25 PM
hillfortian.bsky.social
#MesolithicMonday... Is it a thing? It is now! Look at this cracking rod microlith (not to be confused with Rod Stewart) found in the lowest sequence in a tiny cave @RickSchulting is investigating on the Gower. I was chuffed to unearth it!
November 23, 2024 at 5:13 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
This bone fleshing tool is fearsomely named 'the Niezabyszewo flesher'. #MesolithicMonday 🏺
The engraved markings on its surface were made at different times, indicating that the artefact was used over a long period.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
Sketch of the flesher, showing engraved markings across its surface.
April 21, 2025 at 8:15 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Mesolithic remains from the site of Le Plasker, part of the Carnac megalithic landscape, France #MesolithicMonday 🏺

Neolithic standing stones were constructed on the remains of a Mesolithic hut, indicating the complex has its origins much earlier than expected.

Learn more 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
Diagrams indicating stratigraphic sections and a plan of the Mesolithic remains, depicting a circular ditch with several monoliths, postholes and stone wedging blocks. A photograph of one of the monoliths (a triangular stone with a wide, flat base and two tenons) is inset.
July 14, 2025 at 7:13 AM
antiquity.ac.uk
Elk tooth pendant from a burial at Donkalnis, Lithuania, engraved with unusually systematic horizontal lines. Could they be a kind of recording system or mnemonic aid? #MesolithicMonday 🏺

Learn more 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
Engraved tooth pendant made from a Eurasian elk incisor, showing the labial (A), distal (B), mesial (C) and lingual (D) views (credit: T. Rimkus).
May 19, 2025 at 4:15 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Ornamented antler objects from Mesolithic Poland. During the Mesolithic, new types of objects were decorated with different geometric motifs.

Radiocarbon dating of these artefacts revealed cultural ties across the Baltic #MesolithicMonday 🏺 #Archaeology

Learn more 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
A baton, awl, flesher and harpoon, made from antler and engraved with geometric patterns.
September 1, 2025 at 1:25 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Axe wall at the British Museum 'World of Stonehenge' exhibition, displaying stone axeheads from the Mesolithic to Early Bronze Age #MesolithicMonday
This is a poignant indication of the scale of transformation associated with Neolithic land clearance.

🆓 https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2024.71
A wall in a museum, on which 89 stone axeheads are attached. © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence).
February 10, 2025 at 2:25 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Engravings on an elk-tooth pendant from Mesolithic Lithuania #MesolithicMonday
Engravings on animal-tooth pendants are very rare. These grooves are systematic, engraved in multiples of six. Was this an early mnemonic aid? 🏺 #Archaeology

Learn more 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
Elk tooth, perforated at one end and engraved with several linear grooves in groups of six. Microscopic imaging provides close-up views of the groove patterns.
August 25, 2025 at 8:15 PM