ABSTRACT
The study of past hunter-gatherers is one where the dichotomies that have often characterised the ways archaeologists view past societies are becoming increasingly indistinct (Price and Brown 1985; Zvelebil 1986; Bettinger 1991; Burch and Ellanna 1994; Kelly 1995): divisions between nature and society, between simple and complex behaviours, between wild and domesticated resources, between environmental and cultural influences on behaviour, between typological/cultural divides such as Mesolithic and Neolithic, and between hunter-gatherers themselves and agriculturalists. This also extends to the way archaeologists investigate such societies. In many parts of the world, environmental archaeology in some form has long played a relatively important role in the study of past hunter-gatherers, if in part only by default because the quantity and variety of surviving material culture is generally small relative to that of agrarian societies. In fact, Mithen (1999:477) suggests that in the study of the European Mesolithic, archaeological ‘culturally orientated’ approaches and ‘environmental’ approaches are ‘thoroughly intertwined’. However, for various reasons, discussed further below, archaeobotany is rarely fully integrated within the study of past hunter-gatherers.
