Paradigms in the history of Mesolithic study

A philosophical approach to the history of studying specific areas of archaeological knowledge allows us to shed new light on some classical problems of archaeology. One of such problems is the definition of the Mesolithic and its criteria. Purpose. The aim of this work is to consider the formation and development of theories and concepts as well as some patterns of development concerning the concept of «mesolithic» in terms of the theory of paradigms and scientific revolutions. Thomas Kun gave the meaning of the term paradigm in his book «The Structure of Scientific Revolutions» as follows: a paradigm consists of «universally recognized scientific achievements that, for a time, provide model problems and solutions for a community of practitioners». He defines sciences as going through alternating periods of «normal» science, when the existing model of reality dominates the protracted period of puzzle-solving, and «revolution», when the model of reality itself undergoes a sudden drastic change. If we consider the history of archaeology of the Stone Age, we can identify all the stages of the paradigm existence as described by Kun, as well as some of its shifts. The same is true about the history of the Mesolithic Europe archaeology. Results. At the end of the XIX century the paradigm of the Stone Age was formed which consisted of three periods: the Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic. Since that time the paradigm of the Mesolithic has been established. Further the accumulation of data came, which was the period of «normal» science. In the middle of the XX century anomalies appeared in the development of the existing paradigm. They were connected with the development of the concept of post-Pleistocene adaptation, which led to the establishment of the theory of post-Pleistocene adaptations paradigm, and two paths of the ancient society development were considered. However, the paradigm of the Mesolithic has not been established on the territory of the USSR - Russia yet. It is connected with the fact that there is no clear periodization scheme for the vast and diverse territory developed yet, and the term Mesolithic has been transferred from the European periodization schemes quite mechanically. Now it appears to refer to the archaeological content with different regional variations. The archaeological content of the Soviet-Russian «Mesolithic period» most often is not in line with the European Mesolithic. Conclusion. Multiple approaches to the definition of the Mesolithic period speak for the existence of an extraordinary science that goes through the period of a scientific revolution rather than development of «normal» science. Thus, we witness a «successive transition from one paradigm to another via revolution», which is «the usual developmental pattern of mature science».