Stone Tools in the Stone Age – A New Advent in the Human History
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The Stone Age demarcates the prehistoric ages where human beings use these primitive stone tools to make their life easy. The stone age lasted roughly 2.5 million years. The Stone Age came to an end around 5,000 years ago when the human beings who lived in the Near East began to work with metal and made tools and weapons out of bronze.
We are going to learn about this amazing age in the history of human life – The Stone Age. This was one of the advents to the modern hood. The stone age is also known as Paleolithic Age, so let us know more about it.
What do the stone artifacts talk about the Early humans? – Three different periods of Stones Ages
The Stone Age dawned 2.6 million years ago when the researchers had found that the earliest evidence of human using tools lasted until about 3,300 B.C. when the Bronze Age had begun. The Stone Age is divided into three different periods:
Paleolithic Period
Mesolithic Period
Neolithic Period
Some historians and experts believe that the use of the stone tools may have developed even in the earlier time period like in our primate ancestors since when some of the modern apes were included in the bonobos, can also use as the stone tools to get some food.
Stone artifacts tell the anthropologists a lot about the early humans, like how they made things, how they lived, and how did human beings behave with the changing time period.
Paleolithic Age
Paleolithic is the old Stone Age which lasted for roughly 2.5 million years ago to approximately 10,000 B.C. The early human beings lived in the caves or simply in the huts or tepees. They were basically hunters and gatherers. They used the basic stone and the bone tools, like the crude stone axes, for hunting the birds and other wild animals. With the heap of stones, they could now create the fire and cook their prey. They also fished and collected berries, fruit, and nuts which were high hanging in the trees by throwing the stones.
The ancient human beings in the Paleolithic period were also the first to leave behind the mastery of the art. They used the combinations of minerals, ochres, burnt bone meal, and charcoal which were mixed into water, blood, and in animal fats and tree, saps to etch the humans, animals and the signs. They also carved small figurines out of stones, clay, bones, and from antlers.
The Stone Age Tools
We know about life in the Stone Age and the Stone Age people from the tools which they had left behind.
The hammerstones made out of stones were some of the earliest and the most-simple stone tools. The Prehistoric humans used these hammerstones to chip other types of stones into a sharp-edged flake. They also used hammerstones to break apart the nuts, seeds, and bones in order to grind the clay into pigment.
The archaeologists in recent times refer to these earliest stone tools as the Oldowan toolkit. Oldowan stone tools dating back nearly 2.6 million years, which were first discovered in Tanzania in the 1930s by the archaeologist Louis Leaky.
Hunting and Cutting the Wild with Stone Tools
Early during the Stone Age time, when the humans lived in the small, nomadic clusters the majority portion of the earth was still in an Ice Age – a period of colder global temperatures and glacial experience.
During this time, mastodons, saber-toothed cats, giant ground sloths, and other megafauna roamed in the earth’s mass. The Stone Age humans hunted these large mammals which also included the woolly mammoths, the giant bison, and the deer. After killing them, they used the stone tools to cut, pound, and further crush the flesh of these animals which made it suitable for extracting meat and other nutrients from the animals and plants than done by their early ancestors.
Stone Age Art History
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The archaeologists have found the oldest known Stone Age art which dates back to a later Stone Age period that is known as the Upper Paleolithic which is about 40,000 years ago. This art began to appear around this time in many different parts of Europe, like near the Near East region of Asia and in Africa.
The earliest known stone art depiction is of a human in Stone Age art which has a small ivory sculpture of a female figure with feminine features. The figurine was named the ‘Venus of Hohle Fels’, this structure was found in the cave of Germany which is about 40,000 years old.
Did You Know?
Humans were not the first ones to make or use stone tools. Around 3.3 million years ago, an ancient species who have lived on the shores of Lake Turkana in the part of Kenya earned a different distinction with a full 700,000 years which comes before the earliest members of the Homo genus which emerged during the time.
There were 4 different types of humans who lived during the stone age
In the early stone age period, humans resided in the caves.
In those times, humans only looked for two things – food and protection against wild animals.
Humans learned to farm during the Stone Age
Humans used animal skins to keep them warm and content.
Some of the animals who used to live in the stone age are presently extinct.
Dogs were domesticated since the stone age
In the prehistoric ages, human life created documentation of human history. This roughly dated from around 2.5 million years ago to 1,200 B.C. The prehistoric period is generally categorized into three archaeological periods that is the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. Here we have learned about the Stone Age which was an important age in human history.
FAQs on Stone Age
1. What exactly was the Stone Age?
The Stone Age is a prehistoric period when early humans widely used stone to make tools with a sharp edge, a point, or a percussion surface. It's called the Stone Age because stone was the primary material for technology, long before humans learned to use metals.
2. What are the three main periods of the Stone Age?
The Stone Age is divided into three main periods based on the sophistication of the stone tools created. These are:
- Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age): The longest period, where people were mostly hunter-gatherers using simple chipped stone tools.
- Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age): A transitional period with smaller, more refined stone tools called microliths.
- Neolithic (New Stone Age): The final period, marked by the development of polished or ground stone tools, the beginning of farming, and permanent settlements.
3. What was daily life like for people during this era?
Daily life in the Stone Age was focused on survival. People were nomadic hunter-gatherers, moving from place to place to find food. They hunted animals, fished, and gathered plants, nuts, and berries. They lived in small groups, often taking shelter in caves or simple huts made from wood and animal skins.
4. How did the discovery of fire change life in the Stone Age?
The discovery and control of fire was a massive turning point for Stone Age people. It provided warmth in cold climates, offered protection by scaring away dangerous predators, and allowed them to cook food, which made it easier to digest and safer to eat. Fire also became a social gathering point for communities.
5. Was the Stone Age the same as the Ice Age?
No, they are not the same, but they did overlap. The Ice Age refers to a long period of global cooling when glaciers covered large parts of the Earth. The Stone Age, particularly the Palaeolithic period, took place during the last Ice Age. So, many Stone Age people lived and adapted to the cold, icy environment of the Ice Age.
6. What kind of tools did people use during the Stone Age?
Stone Age tools were made from stone, bone, and wood. Early tools were very simple, like sharp-edged rocks used for cutting. Over time, they became more complex, including hand-axes for chopping, spear points for hunting, and smaller, finer blades called microliths for more detailed work like carving.
7. What brought the Stone Age to an end?
The Stone Age ended when early humans discovered how to extract and use metal from the earth. This new technology, a process called smelting, led to the creation of metal tools and weapons. This marked the beginning of a new era, known as the Bronze Age, which was followed by the Iron Age.
