PREHISTORIC AGE

Chronology

The three-age system divides human technological prehistory into three periods:
•The Stone Age
•The Bronze Age
•The Iron Age
A more modern periodization of the Stone Age stretches from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic in the
following scheme
•Pleistocene epoch (highly glaciated climate)
•Paleolithic age
•Holocene epoch (modern climate)
•Mesolithic or Epipaleolithic age
•Neolithic age
•Copper Age
•Bronze Age
•Iron Age
•Historical period (written record begins)
STONE AGE (pre-metallurgic period )

The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric time period during which humans widely
used stone for toolmaking

The period starts with the widespread of humanity from the savannas of East
Africa to the rest of the world.

It ends with the development of agriculture, the domestication of certain animals

and the smelting of copper ore to produce metal.

It is termed prehistoric, since humanity had not yet started writing -- the traditional
start of history
Paleolithic Age (old stone age)

It covers nearly 99% of human history

It extend from 2.5or 2.6 million years ago
The humans were grouped together in small scale societies such as bands and
gained their subsistence from gathering plants and hunting wild animals
Tools
• Made from stone
• Multipurpose and can be used for more than one task
• Simple weapons (Homo habilis)
• Scrapers, hand axes, spear heads, flint for fire, ….

During the end of the Paleolithic specifically the Middle and or Upper
Paleolithic humans began to produce the earliest works of art and engage
in religious and spiritual behavior such as burial and ritual.
Lower Palaeolithic

• In Africa, an early ancestor of modern

humans, called Homo habilis, developed
the earliest known stone tools. These
were relatively simple tools known as
choppers.
• These humans likely subsisted on
scavenged meat and wild plants, rather
than hunted prey.
Poulnabrone dolmen in County
• Around 1.5 million years ago, a more
Clare, Ireland
evolved human species, Homo erectus,
appeared. H. erectus learned to control
fire and created more complex chopper
tools, as well as expanding out of Africa
to reach Asia.
MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC – END OF THE ICE AGE

This period began about 200,000 years ago and is most well-known as being the
era during which the Neanderthals lived (c. 120,000–35,000 years ago).
The stone artifact technology of the Neanderthals is generally known as the
Mousterian.

Although often identified in the public's mind as primitive, there is evidence that
Neanderthals nursed their elderly and practiced ritual burial indicating an
organised society.

Middle Paleolithic peoples demonstrate

the earliest undisputed evidence for art and
other expressions of abstract thought
such as intentional burial of the dead.
UPPER PALEOLITHIC 35,000 to 10,000 years ago
The cave art of Lascaux is an example
of Upper Paleolithic culture
modern humans spread out
further across the Earth during
the period known as the Upper
Paleolithic.
After the arrival of the first modern humans (Cro-Magnons) in Europe a relatively rapid
succession of often complex stone artifact technologies took place during this period.
The Americas were colonised via the Bering land bridge which was exposed during this
period by lower sea levels. These people are called the Paleo Indians, and the earliest
accepted dates are those of the Clovis culture sites, some 13,500 years ago.
Globally, societies were hunter-gatherers but evidence of regional identities begins to
appear in the wide variety of stone tool types being developed to suit different
environments.
Epipaleolithic / Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) AROUND 10,000 to 6,000 years ago

Rise in sea levels

Environment changes occurs
Need to find new food sources.

The development of microlith tools began (in response to these changes)

They were derived from the previous Paleolithic tools(hence Epipaleolithic).
However, in Europe the term Mesolithic is used, as the tools (and way of life) were
imported from the Near East.
Microlith tools permitted more efficient hunting
More complex settlements, such as Lepenski Vir developed based around fishing
Domestication of the dog as a hunting companion
The earliest known battle occurred during the Mesolithic period at a site in Egypt known as
Cemetery
NEOLITHIC (New Stone Age) around 7000 BC
Adoption of agriculture (Neolithic Revolution)
The development of pottery
More complex, larger settlements such as Catal Huyük and Jericho.
The first Neolithic cultures started around 7000 BC in the fertile crescent. Agriculture and
the culture it led to spread to the Mediterranean, the Indus valley, China and Southeast
Asia.
Due to the increased need to harvest and process plants, ground stone and polished
stone artefacts became much more widespread, including tools for grinding, cutting, and
chopping. The first large-scale constructions were built, including settlement towers and
walls, eg: Jericho and ceremonial sites,
eg: Stonehenge.
These show that there was sufficient resources and co-operation to enable large groups to
work on these projects. To what extent this was a basis for the development of elites and
social hierarchies is a matter of on-going debate.
NEOLITHIC (New Stone Age) around 7000 BC

• Neolithic cultures were noticeably

more hierarchical than the
Paleolithic cultures that preceded
them and Hunter-gatherer cultures
in general.
• The earliest evidence for
established trade exists in the
Neolithic with newly settled
people importing exotic goods
over distances of many hundreds
of miles.
Skara Brae, Scotland. Europe's most
• Skara Brae located on Orkney
complete Neolithic village
island off Scotland is one of
Europe's best examples of a
Neolithic village. The community
contains stone beds, shelves and
even an indoor toilet linked to a
stream.
AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION
NEW MODE OF LIFE
1. Dependency on few plants
2. Greater vulnerability to weather
3. Complete dependency on harvest times
4. Need for intense physical labor
Cluster of houses (above) is from one of the world's
5. Population growth earliest towns, Catal Huyak,Turkey.
6. Diseases
Animals were kept in very close proximity to
Opportunities of the new way of life human living quarters. The flat roof-tops of
houses were used as living space in the evening.
• sedentary way of life Later, open central courtyards were developed.

• Development of technology
• building permanent dwellings -
variety of solid dwellings of a more
or less permanent sort using the
local building materials.
• specialization becomes possible
In the earliest phase of development,
pioneer farmers used techniques and
tools which had long been familiar to
hunter-gatherers: the stone axe, hoe, and
sickle (left) for preparation of the fields
and harvesting the grain.
The primitive milling device for
grinding seeds between two stones (the
"quern," below) to process the grain into
edible form had been in use for
thousands of years by peoples who
collected seeds but did not plant them
Development of Agriculture
Basis of civilization
innovations like the use of fire and the development of agriculture
the development of tools, language and writing.

From Hunter/Gatherer to Horticulturist to Agriculturist

Agricultural origins can be traced to the Neolithic Age

(around 8,000 B.C.). Plant domestication seems to have
occurred independently in various regions possessing
favorable environmental conditions and that include a
diversity of habitats in a relatively small area, mild climate,
abundant water and wildlife. An important center appears to
be Greater Mesopotamia (present day Iraq). This is a rich
flood plain where wheat, barley, and oats are believed to
have originated. The image below shows the Zagros
mountains of Iraq where the landscape appears much as it
probably was 10,000 years ago.
Pottery
Weaving
Metallurgy
Domestication of animals and
plants
• Milk
• Worker
• Meat
• To provide leather, wool, hides
• Manure for soil conditioning
 surpluses of food were fed to workers who are not
engaged directly in food production.
Building such large walls and towers also requires
extensive cooperation or coordination within the
community. In fact, the level of cooperation
necessary to create walls on this scale implies
organization with a directing, managing function--
in short, a government.
a new mode of social organization emerges--a
division between those who direct and manage and
those who are directed. As specializations emerged
in the economy, inequalities of wealth and status
An early agricultural village compound in
emerged with them. In short, hierarchies of wealth,
Turkey - the world's oldest town site at
status and power began to characterize the new
Jericho (9000 years old). The picture below
societies.
depict one of the paradoxes of the new way of
life. Settled agricultural villages - the
accumulation of storable food-stuffs and other
wealth.
But what can be stored can also be stolen.
Hence, large investments of labor in building
walls or other measures to protect that
vulnerable wealth.
The stone tower located just below the gate is
approximately 30 feet tall and 30 feet broad at
the base.
 Age Period Tools Economy Dwelling Sites Society Religion

Handmade tools and Hunting and Mobile A band of Evidence

Stone Paleolithic objects found in gathering lifestyle – edible-plant for belief
age nature – cudgel,
gatherers in the
club, sharpened caves, huts,
stone, chopper, and hunters afterlife
handaxe, scraper,
tooth or skin (25-100 first
spear, Bow and hovels, mostly people) appears in
arrow, harpoon, by rivers and the Middle
needle, scratch awl
lakes Paleolithic
or Upper
Mesolithic Handmade tools Paleolithic,
Tribes and marked by
(known as the and objects found Bands
Epipalaeolithic in nature – bow the
in areas not and arrow, fish – appearance
effected by the basket, boats of burial
Ice Age (such rituals and
as Africa)) ancestor
worship.
Priests and
sanctuary
  Neolithic Handmade tools and Agriculture Farmsteads Tribes and the servants
objects found in Gathering, hunting, during the formation of appear in
nature – chisel, hoe, fishing and chiefdoms in the
plough, yoke, domestication
Neolithic and the some
Bronze Age prehistory.
reaping-hook, grain Neolithic
pourer, barley, loom, Formation of societies at the
earthenware cities during the end of the
(pottery) and Bronze Age Neolithic
weapons period' States
and chiefdoms
during the
Bronze Age

Bronze Age Copper and bronze Agriculture –

tools, potter's wheel cattle – breeding,
agriculture, craft,
trade  
Iron Age Iron tools
Hunting & Gathering Agriculture

Small bands (25-250), semi-nomadic existence sedentism, expanding population

seasonal migration permanent living sites

wide variety of food sources (typically 350 replaces diversity with
plant varieties) monoculture
exploits territory extensively exploits intensively

security through diversity security through specialization

tool kit, technology expands
small (portable) tool kit
exponentially
Social Organization/Control

Hunting &Gathering Agriculture

communal life private life, property increasing

little specialization in social or
social and economic specialization
economic roles
gender roles (?) gender-specific roles

relatively egalitarian social hierarchy emerges

cultural/technical information is cultural/technical information expands and
widely diffused becomes a form of property
custom, tradition rule coercion becomes necessary
The story that emerges from countless studies on the process of domestication is that
social groups of hunters/gatherers made a slow transition into a more settled lifestyle
closely associated with the regular cultivation of plants, especially cereals. However,
see one anthropological perspective on the relationship between horticulture and
agriculture.

Although crops of relatively minor importance have been

developed anew since the Middle Ages, all important
crop plants and all domesticated animals were brought
under human management ('domestication') in prehistoric
times. The process of domestication was probably a
gradual affair, involving the cultivation of specific
groups of plants and the selection ('differential
reproduction') of superior types. The first humans to
domesticate plants were also the first 'plant breeders'
(many believe they were probably women). Plant
breeding has been defined as 'applied genetics', but
effective breeding was obviously practiced before the
principles of genetics were elucidated by Gregor Mendel
in the 1850's.
Sedentism - living permanently in one place
it formed the basis for a new way of life which
we call civilization
                                                                                         
         

A wooden Mesolithic flint axe Mesolithic Adze head

axe. Adze with Adze on digging
mounted wooden tool
directly handle
onto
handle

                                                     

     
                                                                                               

Beaker-period Neolithic leaf- Arrows, as used Flint Early flint arrow

Flint arrowheads shaped Flint c. 6000 BC Arrowheads, c.
arrowheads 2000 BC

                                                                           

art work of flint three drawings Flint arrowhead, 10000-year-old

head of arrow of flint heads, at least 4,000 Sickle, Flint
traditional, years old Arrowheads
missing,
incurved
                                                                            

A mammoth As above. A hunter Ice age hunters

gatherer trapping a
couple mammoth,
while others
collect spear...

                                                                                              

Man Early Man Man An early

stoking woman standing pulling farmer
coals in a making next to a horses by a
fire with a clothing on sheep. rope.
long stick. a wooden
threading
machine.
                                                                                               

Reconstruction Reconstruction Two hunters Circular Neanderthal

of Habiline of Homo shelters one Natufian huts settlementwith
settlement at sapiens sapiens Perian one cooking,
Olduvai Gorge, dwelling Russian skinning and
Tanzan... excavated at toolmaking
P... go...
                    

           
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