The Mesolithic Frontlet Phenomenon

Press enter or click to view image in full size

Image generated using the prompt: “A Mesolithic shaman with an antler frontlet” by GPT image version 1.5, OpenAI, February 25, 2026 (https://chat.openai.com/).

At the end of the Last Ice Age, during the early Post-Glacial era, much of the Earth’s water was trapped in ice caps across the globe. This meant that the level of the sea was lowered so shallow pieces of land were exposed. As part of that, there was a land bridge between Britain and Europe (known as Doggerland) which became vegetated and populated. Then, about 12,000 years ago, the climate changed. So, things started to warm up and the waters began to rise again.

This was particularly true in the north-facing coastal area, which was ripe with waterways that began to swell as the valley was increasingly brought to life, more and more. As the Pleistocene gave way to the Holocene, red deer expanded north out of the southern refugia.…