The Mesolithic period corresponds to the geological period of the Holocene, which was characterized by a stabilization in geological and climatic conditions, with direct consequences on habitation and economy. The Mesolithic in the Greek area covers a period from 11,000 BP to 6800 BC.

The few so far known Mesolithic sites in Greece are coastal caves and open sites. The study and analysis of some of the most famous sites, like Franchthi, Sidari, Ulbrich Cave and Zaimi Cave, have not been able to provide a complete picture of Mesolithic habitation in Greece. Nevertheless, surveys (Kleisoura gorge, Prefecture of Preveza) and excavations (Theopetra, Yioura, Alonnisos, Maroulas) conducted in the last fifteen years, have broadened our knowledge considerably on the habitation and the economy of that period. The issue has now taken on a new focus: whether the transition from the Mesolithic economy, characterized by hunter-gatherers and fishermen, to the Neolithic way of life (systematic agriculture and farming) occurred gradually or whether it was introduced from Asia Minor via the islands.

The transition from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Mesolithic did not occur simultaneously in every area in Greece. On the eastern mainland and the islands of the Aegean, the Mesolithic sites are older than the ones in western Greece. This fact is assigned to the different climatic conditions between the eastern and the western part of Greece. It is also worth pointing out that the sites of the Middle or the Upper Palaeolithic were inhabited again, after an interval of hundreds of years, during the Mesolithic (Alonnisos, Theopetra, Franchthi).

According to archaeological data the Mesolithic people seemed to prefer coastal open sites (Sidari, Maroulas) and coastal caves (Franchthi) with obvious consequences on their economic activities: systematic fishing, navigation of the open sea for tuna and the extraction of Melian obsidian used for resistant tools as well as the transportation of andesite (volcanic rock) from the islands of the Saronic Gulf to Franchthi for the construction of suitable millstones for grinding grains.

The discovery of settlements with stone-built foundations, (Sidari, Maroulas), cemeteries or isolated burials outside the caves (Franchthi) or on open sites (Maroulas on Kythnos), are the first signs of permanent habitation by mesolithic hunters-fishermen.