Stone Age

Stone Age is a period in human prehistory distinguished by the original development of stone tools that covers more than 95% of human technological prehistory. It begins with the earliest known use of stone tools by hominins, ancient ancestors to humans, approximately 3.3 million years ago.

Overview

The Stone Age is further subdivided by the types of stone tools in use. The Stone Age is the first period of the Three-age system of archaeology, which divides human technological prehistory into three periods: The Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age.

Paleolithic

The Paleolithic or Old Stone Age originated around 2.5 million years ago and ended around 10,000 BCE. It is characterized by the use of knapped stone tools, although at the time humans also used wood and bone tools.

Lower Paleolithic

The Lower Paleolithic is the earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. It spans the time from around 2.5 million years ago when the first evidence of craft and use of stone tools by hominids appears in the current archaeological record, until around 300,000 years ago, spanning the Oldowan "mode 1" and Acheulean "mode 2" lithic technology.

Middle Paleolithic

The Middle Paleolithic (or Middle Stone Age) is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. The term Middle Stone Age is used as an equivalent or a synonym for the Middle Paleolithic in African archeology. The Middle Paleolithic broadly spanned from 300,000 to 30,000 years ago.

Upper Paleolithic

The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Stone Age) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago, according to some theories coinciding with the appearance of behavioral modernity and before the advent of agriculture.

Mesolithic

The Mesolithic (or Middle Stone Age) is a period in the development of human technology between the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods of the Stone Age.

Neolithic

The Neolithic (or New Stone Age) was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 10,200 BC, according to the ASPRO chronology, in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world.

See also

• Prehistoric technology
• Prehistoric music
• Prehistoric art

External links

• Britannica Online Encyclopedia

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