Epipalaeolithic

The Epipaleolithic or "peripheral old Stone Age" is a term used for the hunter-gatherer cultures that existed after the end of the last Ice Age, before the Neolithic.

The term is sometimes confused with Mesolithic, and the two are sometimes used as synonyms. Yet, when a distinction is made, 'Epipaleolithic' describes cultures that were not much affected by the ending of the Ice Age.^[1] Meanwhile, the term 'Mesolithic' is reserved for Western Europe, where the extinction of the Megafauna had a great influence on the Palaeolithic populations at the end of the Ice Age.