The Mesolithic Period in Cornwall

Introduction The Mesolithic has been regarded as the first major period of human occupation in Cornwall and covers the period from the end of the last Ice Age (c. 8000 bc) to the onset of the Neolithic (c. 3500 bc). Despite the length of time involved, surprisingly little information is available about the hunter-gatherers who lived in Cornwall during the Mesolithic. In this paper we review the existing knowledge of the period in this area. We also briefly survey the preceding Palaeolithic period in which Cornwall seems to have had at least intermittent visits by human groups. Prior to the formation of the Cornish Archaeological Society (CAS) in 1961, little work had taken place on the postglacial hunter-gatherers of Cornwall. In fact in 1958 Charles Thomas pointed out that the extent of knowledge and the distribution of known Mesolithic sites in Cornwall had changed little from that presented in Grahame Clark's seminal work on the British Mesolithic in 1932. Unfortunately the lack of work continued for another decade, despite the completion of Geoffrey Wainwright's doctoral thesis on the Mesolithic of South Western Britain and Wales in 1961. However, in the early 1970s interest in the subject began to grow and continues to rise. The advances in Cornish Mesolithic studies, which owe much to CAS involvement, are substantial but further research is imperative. It is to be hoped that the CAS will continue to support work on this period of Cornish prehistory.