PREHISTORY

Prehistory

Prehistory

Background

One of the markers of historical progress has been the ability of a people or culture to work metal and its alloys. Primitive peoples used hard things to cut and slice and to tip their arrows, the most suitable materials being stone (typically, flint) and animal bone. Prior to the discovery that metals would serve better, such cultures are typically divided into Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic, for "old stone", "middle stone", and "new stone" ages.

Precedence

Paleolithic or "Old Stone Age" is a term used to define the oldest period in the human history. The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic - lit. old stone from the Greek paleos=old and lithos=stone. It began about 2 million years ago, from the use of first stone tools and ended of the Pleistocene epoch, with the close of the last ice age about 13,000 BC.

Subdivisions of the Paleolithic include the: Lower Paleolithic (Oldowan, Clactonian, Abbevillian, Acheulean), Middle Paleolithic, the time of the hand axe-industries (Mousterian) and Upper Paleolithic (Châtelperronian, Aurignacian, Solutrean, Gravettian, Magdalenian). The Paleolithic is followed by the Mesolithic or Epipaleolithic.

The Lower spans the time from around 4 million years ago when the first humans appear in the archaeological record, to around 120,000 years ago when important evolutionary and technological changes ushered in the Middle Palaeolithic.

In the Paleolithic, which seems to be go back at least two and a half million years, stone tools used were, first, those found which had a reasonable cutting edge, and, later, those which could be chipped into such a state. Flint lends itself admirably to this purpose, and is why most stone age tools found are of this material. Flint is a hard mineral, a form of quartz with very tiny pores. It is easily worked or shaped by virtue of its even grain, and when flint is struck with another hard rock, produces smooth, curved chips. (Later, another attribute of flint would prove to be of equal value: when struck against iron it produces a spark - a portable source of fire.) (Cooney, 2000)

Old Stone Age, the earliest period of human development and the longest phase of mankind's history. It is approximately coextensive with the Pleistocene geologic epoch, beginning about 2 million years ago and ending in various places between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago, when it was succeeded by the Mesolithic period. By far the most outstanding feature of the Paleolithic period was the evolution of the human species from an apelike creature, or near human, to true Homo sapiens. This development was exceedingly slow and continued through the three successive divisions of the period, the Lower, Middle, and Upper Paleolithic. The most abundant remains of Paleolithic cultures are a variety of stone tools whose distinct characteristics provide the basis for a system of classification containing several tool making traditions or industries.

Location

The oldest recognizable tools made by members of the family of man are simple stone choppers, such as those discovered at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. These tools may have been made over million years ago by Australopithecus, ...