Epipaleolithic

Azilian points, microliths from epipaleolithic northern Spain and southern France.

The Stone Age
↑ before Homo (Pliocene)
Paleolithic Lower Paleolithic Early Stone Age Homo Control of fire Stone tools Middle Paleolithic Middle Stone Age Homo neanderthalensis Homo sapiens Recent African origin of modern humans Upper Paleolithic Late Stone Age Behavioral modernity, Atlatl, Origin of the domestic dog Mesolithic Microliths, Bow, Canoe Natufian Khiamian Tahunian Neolithic Heavy Neolithic Shepherd Neolithic Trihedral Neolithic Pre-Pottery Neolithic Neolithic Revolution, Domestication Pottery Neolithic Pottery
↓ Chalcolithic

"Epipaleolithic" is a term used for the "final Upper Palaeolithic industries occurring at the end of the final glaciation which appear to merge technologically into the Mesolithic".

The term is sometimes used as a synonym of "Mesolithic". When a distinction is made, "Epipaleolithic" stresses the continuity with the Upper Paleolithic, while "Mesolithic" stresses the subsequent transition to the Neolithic. Alfonso Moure says in this respect:

In the language of Prehistorical Archaeology, the most extended trend is to use the term "Epipaleolithic" for the industrial complexes of the post-glacial hunter-gatherer groups. Inversely, those that are in transitional ways towards artificial production of food are inscribed in the "Mesolithic".

Epipalaeolithic hunter-gatherers made relatively advanced tools from small flint or obsidian blades, known as microliths that were hafted in wooden implements. They were generally nomadic.

Some authors reserve the term "Mesolithic" for the cultures of Europe, where the extinction of the Megafauna had a great impact on the Paleolithic populations at the end of the Ice Age, from about 8000 BCE until the advent of the Neolithic (Sauveterrian, Tardenoisian, Maglemosian, etc.).