To what extent Indo-European migrations replaced the indigenous Mesolithic peoples is debated.

While primarily hunters, it is assumed that the mesolithic people were also foraging, fishing, and even farming on a most primitive scale.

Dartmoor is thought to have been occupied by Mesolithic hunter-gatherer peoples from about 6000 BC.

Some Mesolithic peoples continued with intensive hunting.

Mesolithic people hunted a number of animals including red and roe deer, elk, aurochs and wild boar.

Mesolithic people did not have major rituals associated with burial, unlike those of the Neolithic (New Stone Age) period.

Mesolithic people, although still nomadic, lived quite local lives, being born, living, and dying perhaps in the same general location.

Another possibility is that all or part of the segments of the name came from the Mesolithic people inhabiting the region.

Until about 6,000 BC, Mesolithic people appear to have exploited their environment as they found it.

This vicinity is known to be an early habitation site by Mesolithic peoples.