The Mesolithic period, usually an enigma in British and European prehistory, spans some 6,000 years and is eventually replaced by a dispersed Neolithic package. For undergraduates and later prehistorians alike, this period has been considered sterile: a period dominated by specialized lithic tool kits and hunter/fisher/gatherer strategies. However, periodically there are milestones that re-address these rather entrenched attitudes, including Clive Bonsall's The Mesolithic in Europe (1989), Andres Fischer's Man and Sea in the Mesolithic (1995) and now Bailey and Spikins's Mesolithic Europe. This short review cannot really do justice to this book and the complexities the Mesolithic embraces.

First published in hardback (in 2008), the price of this wholesome volume was way out of the reach of the student, so full marks to Cambridge University Press for bringing it out in paperback at a shade under £30. The contributions take in most of the core areas of Mesolithic Europe, including Atlantic Iberia (Lawrence Guy Straus), the Baltic (Marek Zvelebil), the British Isles (Chris Tolan-Smith), coastal Mediterranean Europe (Mark Pluciennik), France (Nicolas Valdeyron), Norway (Hein Bjartmann Bjerck) and southern Scandinavia (Hans Peter Blankholm), to pick out but seven of the fourteen chapters. Spikins (Chapter 1) and Bailey (Chapter 14) flank this comprehensive piece of work with a series of poignant and personal observations, some of this comment reflecting on the large corpus of material that occupies the book. Spikins, in particular, offers a sometimes controversial view of this distant past, claiming that hunter/fisher/gatherers are very different to people in the modern world (I am sure there is an extended paper here). Bailey, on the other hand, takes a more conservative approach: first talking about the book itself, but also including extended comment on symbolism and art and the demise of what was Mesolithic to what became Neolithic. Although the conclusion is short, Bailey's stance is robust and well researched.

This arguably dense volume does not constitute an easy-to-read guide on the Mesolithic, but nor should it. The book represents a set of new ideas that expose the diversity and ethnicity of the various regions discussed; clearly the Mesolithic of Europe is not universal. Moreover, each of the contributors has skilfully crafted into each of their chapters an essential overview which is supported by a series of recognizable type-sites that illustrate what the Mesolithic was! Moreover, and pertinent to my area of research, many of the contributors have ventured beyond the usual (and secure) stance of producing an empirical discourse that focuses on what this reviewer would term ‘the mundane’. Instead, readers are treated to the ritual and symbolic nature of Mesolithic life. For example, I was particularly impressed with Tolan-Smith's chapter, which mentions the production and use of shale beads, and Leo Verhart's, which includes the symbolic nature of burial within the Low Countries. These inclusions, along with the regional (archaeological) frameworks, establish an essential guide to understanding the European mind-sets of this very distant past.

Supported by an invaluable bibliography and an extensive chapter reference to the latest chronometric dating, this book is a milestone in solid academic research, pan-European in approach and integrating archaeological evidence and philosophical thought from many regions; notable chapters include those by Clive Bonsall, Mark Pluciennik and Marek Zvelebil, each imposing their indefatigable stance on what is a complex period in early prehistory. Minor criticisms include the quality of some of the illustrations, in particular several of the lithic drawings, which I consider scruffy (pp 228 and 325), and the referencing of secondary sources (for example, using Tilley (1996) when Müller (1918) is more appropriate).

Bonsall, C (ed) 1989. The Mesolithic in Europe: papers presented at the Third International Symposium, Edinburgh, 1985, Edinburgh: John Donald

Fischer, A (ed) 1995. Man and Sea in the Mesolithic: coastal settlement above and below present sea level, Oxbow Monogr Archaeol 53, Oxford: Oxbow Books

Müller, S 1918. Stenalders Kunst i Danmark, Copenhagen

Tilley, C 1996. An Ethnography of the Neolithic: early prehistoric societies in southern Scandinavia, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press