Station: [117] Mesolithic Workshop

The Mesolithic hunters’ stone tools are clearly different to the ones we have looked at up until now. In the showcase you’ll see small tools known as microliths. These are often geometrically shaped and trapeze and triangular-shapes are just as prevalent as pointed tips, small round or semi-circular scratchers, scrapers and micro blades. In contrast the large tools known as macroliths such as pointed picks, gravel picks, clubs and cylinder hatchets are astonishing, and some of these have hand-made holes in them.

These new shapes probably have something to do with life in the forest. Microliths had many uses, one being arrowheads, and wood was worked with the large tools. We also have proof that fish were caught with nets and spears, and had the soil conditions in Saxony been different we would certainly have discovered equipment made of wood, bark, bone, antler or leather. Mesolithic sites can be found in the area around Rochlitz on the river Mulde between Wurzen and Trebsen for example, or along the river Elbe and there is a mass of them in Oberlausitz to the north, but most have only revealed stone tools because these don’t decay so quickly in our soil.