ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on research into the portrayal of the British Mesolithic in academic and popular media. Narratives developed in academic writings are compared and contrasted to those used in fictional novels and short stories. The use of imagination has not been part of the traditional academic investigation of the lifeways of the post-glacial hunter-gatherers of the Mesolithic. Early studies were based on value-laden assumptions about lifestyles whereby simple hunter-gatherers were seen as primitive and uncivilised. This was replaced by an approach based on a scientific understanding of cultural ecology, which effectively reduced Mesolithic people to ciphers acting out basic food-collecting tasks in reaction to their environment. Archaeological approaches that seek to understand the social and symbolic aspects of the human experience have been slow to develop in Mesolithic studies. In spite of exciting new discoveries over the last 15 years, the best exploration and depictions of Mesolithic life have been produced by novelists and short story writers, using empathy, imagination and narratives. This chapter explores the advantages and disadvantages of using narrative fiction to redress the shortcomings of academic writing.
