This paper explores the impact of environmental, e.g. sea level rise, and climatic events, e.g. abrupt cooling events, on Mesolithic populations (ca. 11,350 to 6600 cal BP) living in the western Scheldt basin of Belgium and Northern France. The Mesolithic in this study-area has been extensively studied during the last few decades, leading to an extensive database of radiocarbon dates (n = 418), sites (n = 157) and excavated loci (n = 145). A multi-proxy analysis of this database reveals important changes both chronologically and geographically, which are interpreted in terms of population dynamics and changing mobility and land-use. The results suggest a population peak and high residential mobility in the Early Mesolithic, followed by a population shift and increased intra-basin mobility in the Middle Mesolithic, possibly triggered by the rapid inundation of the North Sea basin. The situation during the Late Mesolithic remains less clear but a possible reduction in the mobility seems likely. Currently there is little evidence supporting a causal link between these diachronic changes in human behavior and the 9.3 and 8.2 ka cooling events. Most of the observed changes seem more in response to long-term climatic and environmental changes during the Early and Middle Holocene, hinting at considerable resilience.

本文探讨了环境（例如海平面上升）和气候事件（例如突然变冷事件）对生活在比利时斯海尔德盆地西部和法国北部的中石器时代人口（约 11,350 至 6600 cal BP）的影响。在过去的几十年中，该研究区的中石器时代得到了广泛的研究，从而形成了一个广泛的放射性碳日期 (n = 418)、地点 (n = 157) 和挖掘地点 (n = 145) 的数据库。对该数据库的多代理分析揭示了按时间顺序和地理顺序的重要变化，这些变化是根据人口动态和不断变化的流动性和土地利用来解释的。结果表明，中石器时代早期人口高峰和居民流动性高，随后中石器时代人口转移和流域内流动性增加，可能是由北海盆地的快速淹没引发的。中石器时代晚期的情况仍然不太清楚，但似乎可能会减少流动性。目前，几乎没有证据支持人类行为的这些历时变化与 9.3 和 8.2 ka 降温事件之间存在因果关系。大多数观察到的变化似乎更多地响应了全新世早期和中期的长期气候和环境变化，暗示了相当大的弹性。