Introduction: the scope of the present volume Marek Zvelebil; Part I. The Mesolithic Context of the Transition to Farming; 1. Mesolithic prelude and Neolithic revolution Marek Zvelebil; 2. Between cave painters and crop planters: aspects of the temperate European Mesolithic Peter Rowley-Conwy; 3. The Mesolithic sandwich: ecological approaches and the archaeological record of the early post-glacial Clive Gamble; 4. The role of hunting-gathering populations in the transition to farming: a Central-European perspective Slavomil Vencl; Part II. Regional Studies: 5. The transition to food production: a Mediterranean perspective James Lewthwaite; 6. Foragers and farmers in Atlantic Europe Marek Zvelebil and Peter Rowley-Conwy; 7. Foragers of Central Europe and their acculturation Janusz K. Koztowski and Stefan K. Koztowski; 8. The late mesolithic and the transition to food production in Eastern Europe P. M. Dolukhanov; 9. Foragers and farmers in west-Central Asia P. M. Dolukhanov; 10. The Mesolithic and Neolithic in the southern Urals and Central Asia G. Matyushin; 11. Hunter-gatherer adaptations and the transition to food production in Japan Takeru Akazawa; 12. Mesolithic societies and the transition to farming: problems of time, scale and organisation Marek Zvelebil; Index.