# Mesolithic foragers settle lakes and rivers (-8000)

URL: https://poland-history.com/timeline/-8000-mesolithic-foragers-settle-lakes-and-rivers
Location: Poland

In the warmer Holocene forests, Mesolithic hunter-gatherers lived by fishing, hunting and gathering around lakes and river valleys, using microlithic flint tools. Within the broader Prehistoric Poland period: From the first Palaeolithic hunters to the Bronze Age, the lands between the Oder and the Vistula saw waves of migration, the arrival of farming and the growth of ever more complex communities long before any state existed. At this point in the timeline (c. 8,000 BCE), the governing authority was Prehistoric communities (No single ruler). The lands of present-day Poland were inhabited by successive Palaeolithic hunters and Neolithic and Bronze Age farming communities; there was no state or single ruler. Mesolithic foragers settle lakes and rivers mattered because it offers material evidence of how people lived on Polish soil long before written records, and helps date the region's earliest cultures. The event is placed here so readers can follow it alongside changes in government, warfare, society, religion and culture across Polish history.

## Why it matters
Mesolithic foragers settle lakes and rivers mattered because it offers material evidence of how people lived on Polish soil long before written records, and helps date the region's earliest cultures.

Ruler at the time: [Prehistoric communities](https://poland-history.com/rulers/prehistoric-communities)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Mesolithic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesolithic#Europe)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica topic lookup — Mesolithic foragers settle lakes and rivers](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=Mesolithic+foragers+settle+lakes+and+rivers)
- [Wikipedia — Prehistory and protohistory of Poland (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistory_and_protohistory_of_Poland)