Stone Age

during this period as well but are rarely preserved in the

archaeological record. The Stone Age is further subdivided by the types of stone tools in use.
The Stone Age is the rst of the three-age system of
archaeology, which divides human technological prehistory into three periods:
The Stone Age
The Bronze Age
The Iron Age
gantija temples in Gozo, Malta. Some of the worlds oldest freestanding structures.

1 Historical signicance

For other uses, see Stone Age (disambiguation).

The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during The Stone Age is contemporaneous with the evolution of
the genus Homo, the only exception possibly being at the
very beginning, when species prior to Homo may have
manufactured tools. According to the age and location
of the current evidence, the cradle of the genus is the
East African Rift System, especially toward the north in
Ethiopia, where it is bordered by grasslands. The closest
relative among the other living Primates, the genus Pan,
represents a branch that continued on in the deep forest,
where the primates evolved. The rift served as a conduit
for movement into southern Africa and also north down
the Nile into North Africa and through the continuation
of the rift in the Levant to the vast grasslands of Asia.
Starting from about 3 million years ago (mya) a single
biome established itself from South Africa through the
rift, North Africa, and across Asia to modern China,
which has been called transcontinental 'savannahstan'"
recently.[2] Starting in the grasslands of the rift, Homo
erectus, the predecessor of modern humans, found an
ecological niche as a tool-maker and developed a dependence on it, becoming a tool equipped savanna
dweller.[3]

Modern Awash River, Ethiopia, descendant of the PalaeoAwash, source of the sediments in which the oldest Stone Age
tools have been found

which stone was widely used to make implements with 2 The Stone Age in archaeology
a sharp edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between
2.1 Beginning of the Stone Age
6000 BC (or BCE) and 2000 BC (BCE) with the advent
of metalworking.[1]
During 2010, fossilised animal bones bearing marks from
Stone Age artifacts include tools used by modern humans stone tools were found in the Lower Awash Valley in
and by their predecessor species in the genus Homo, and Ethiopia. Discovered by an international team led by
possibly by the earlier partly contemporaneous genera Shannon McPherron, at 3.4 million years old they are
Australopithecus and Paranthropus. Bone tools were used the oldest indirect evidence of stone tool use ever found
1

2 THE STONE AGE IN ARCHAEOLOGY

unknown.
Fragments of Australopithecus garhi,
Australopithecus aethiopicus[8] and Homo, possibly Homo
habilis, have been found in sites near the age of the Gona
tools.[9]

2.2 End of the Stone Age

Innovation of the technique of smelting ore ended the
Stone Age and began the Bronze Age. The rst most
signicant metal manufactured was bronze, an alloy of
copper and tin, each of which was smelted separately.
The transition from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age was
a period during which modern people could smelt copper, but did not yet manufacture bronze, a time known
as the Copper Age, or more technically the Chalcolithic,
copper-stone age. The Chalcolithic by convention is
the initial period of the Bronze Age and is unquestionably
part of the Age of Metals. The Bronze Age was followed
by the Iron Age. During this entire time stone remained
in use in parallel with the metals for some objects, including those also used in the Neolithic, such as stone pottery.

Obsidian projectile point

anywhere in the world.[1] Archaeological discoveries in

Kenya in 2015, identifying possibly the oldest known evidence of hominin use of tools to date, have indicated
that Kenyanthropus platyops ( a 3.2 to 3.5-million-yearold Pliocene hominin fossil discovered in Lake Turkana,
Kenya in 1999 ) may have been the earliest tool-users
known.[4]
The oldest known stone tools have been excavated from
the site of Lomekwi 3 in West Turkana, northwestern
Kenya, and date to 3.3 million years old.[5] Prior to the
discovery of these Lomekwian tools, the oldest known
stone tools had been found several sites at Gona, Ethiopia,
on the sediments of the paleo-Awash River, which serve
to date them. All the tools come from the Busidama
Formation, which lies above a disconformity, or missing
layer, which would have been from 2.9 to 2.7 mya. The
oldest sites containing tools are dated to 2.62.55 mya.[6]
One of the most striking circumstances about these sites
is that they are from the Late Pliocene, where previous
to their discovery tools were thought to have evolved only
in the Pleistocene. Rogers and Semaw, excavators at the
locality, point out that:[7]
"...the earliest stone tool makers were skilled
intknappers .... The possible reasons behind
this seeming abrupt transition from the absence
of stone tools to the presence thereof include ...
gaps in the geological record.

The transition out of the Stone Age occurred between 6000 BCE and 2500 BCE for much of humanity living in North Africa and Eurasia. The rst evidence of human metallurgy dates to between the 5th
and 6th millennium BCE in the archaeological sites of
Majdanpek, Yarmovac, and Plonik in modern-day Serbia (a copper axe from 5500 BCE belonging to the Vinca
culture), though not conventionally considered part of the
Chalcolithic or Copper Age, this provides the earliest
known example of copper metallurgy.[10] Note the Rudna
Glava mine in Serbia. tzi the Iceman, a mummy from
about 3300 BCE carried with him a copper axe and a int
knife.
In regions such as Subsaharan Africa, the Stone Age was
followed directly by the Iron Age. The Middle East and
southeastern Asian regions progressed past Stone Age
technology around 6000 BCE. Europe, and the rest of
Asia became postStone Age societies by about 4000
BCE. The proto-Inca cultures of South America continued at a Stone Age level until around 2000 BCE, when
gold, copper and silver made their entrance, the rest following later. Australia remained in the Stone Age until
European contact in the 17th century. Stone tool manufacture continued even after the Stone Age ended in a
given area. In Europe and North America, millstones
were in use until well into the 20th century, and still are
in many parts of the world.

2.3 The concept of Stone Age

The terms Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age

were never meant to suggest that advancement and time
periods in prehistory are only measured by the type of
tool material, rather than, for example, social organizaThe species who made the Pliocene tools remains tion, food sources exploited, adaptation to climate, adop-

2.4

The three-stage system

tion of agriculture, cooking, settlement and religion. Like

pottery, the typology of the stone tools combined with the
relative sequence of the types in various regions provide
a chronological framework for the evolution of man and
society. They serve as diagnostics of date, rather than
characterizing the people or the society.
Lithic analysis is a major and specialised form of archaeological investigation. It involves the measurement
of the stone tools to determine their typology, function
and the technology involved. It includes scientic study
of the lithic reduction of the raw materials, examining
how the artifacts were made. Much of this study takes
place in the laboratory in the presence of various specialists. In experimental archaeology, researchers attempt to
create replica tools, to understand how they were made.
Flintknappers are craftsmen who use sharp tools to reduce intstone to int tool.

3
used stone for tools until European colonisation began.
The archaeologists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries CE, who adapted the three-age system to their
ideas, hoped to combine cultural anthropology and archaeology in such a way that a specic contemporaneous
tribe can be used to illustrate the way of life and beliefs
of the people exercising a specic Stone-Age technology.
As a description of people living today, the term stone age
is controversial. The Association of Social Anthropologists discourages this use, asserting:[11]
To describe any living group as 'primitive'
or 'Stone Age' inevitably implies that they are
living representatives of some earlier stage of
human development that the majority of humankind has left behind.

2.4 The three-stage system

In the 1920s, South African archaeologists organizing the
stone tool collections of that country observed that they
did not t the newly detailed Three-Age System. In the
words of J. Desmond Clark,[12]
It was early realized that the threefold division of culture into Stone, Bronze and Iron
Ages adopted in the nineteenth century for Europe had no validity in Africa outside the Nile
valley.
A variety of stone tools

In addition to lithic analysis, the eld prehistorian utilizes a wide range of techniques derived from multiple
elds. The work of the archaeologist in determining the
paleocontext and relative sequence of the layers is supplemented by the eorts of the geologic specialist in identifying layers of rock over geologic time, of the paleontological specialist in identifying bones and animals, of the
palynologist in discovering and identifying plant species,
of the physicist and chemist in laboratories determining
dates by the carbon-14, potassium-argon and other methods. Study of the Stone Age has never been mainly about
stone tools and archaeology, which are only one form of
evidence. The chief focus has always been on the society
and the physical people who belonged to it.

Consequently, they proposed a new system for Africa, the

Three-stage System. Clark regarded the Three-age System as valid for North Africa; in sub-Saharan Africa, the
Three-stage System was best.[13] In practice, the failure
of African archaeologists either to keep this distinction
in mind, or to explain which one they mean, contributes
to the considerable equivocation already present in the literature. There are in eect two Stone Ages, one part of
the Three-age and the other constituting the Three-stage.
They refer to one and the same artifacts and the same
technologies, but vary by locality and time.
The Three-stage System was proposed in 1929 by Astley
John Hilary Goodwin, a professional archaeologist, and
Clarence van Riet Lowe, a civil engineer and amateur archaeologist, in an article titled Stone Age Cultures of
South Africa in the journal Annals of the South African
Museum. By then, the dates of the Early Stone Age, or
Paleolithic, and Late Stone Age, or Neolithic (neo = new),
were fairly solid and were regarded by Goodwin as absolute. He therefore proposed a relative chronology of periods with oating dates, to be called the Earlier and Later
Stone Age. The Middle Stone Age would not change its
name, but it would not mean Mesolithic.[14]

Useful as it has been, the concept of the Stone Age has its
limitations. The date range of this period is ambiguous,
disputed, and variable according to the region in question. While it is possible to speak of a general 'stone
age' period for the whole of humanity, some groups never
developed metal-smelting technology, so remained in a
'stone age' until they encountered technologically developed cultures. The term was innovated to describe the
archaeological cultures of Europe. It may not always be The duo thus reinvented the Stone Age. In Sub-Saharan
the best in relation to regions such as some parts of the Africa, however, it was ended by the intrusion of the Iron
Indies and Oceania, where farmers or hunter-gatherers Age from the north. The Neolithic and the Bronze Age

never occurred. Moreover, the technologies included in

those 'stages, as Goodwin called them, were not exactly
the same. Since then, the original relative terms have become identied with the technologies of the Paleolithic
and Mesolithic, so that they are no longer relative. Moreover, there has been a tendency to drop the comparative
degree in favor of the positive: resulting in two sets of
Early, Middle and Late Stone Ages of quite dierent content and chronologies.
By voluntary agreement, archaeologists respect the decisions of the Pan-African Congress of Prehistory, which
meets every four years to resolve archaeological business
brought before it. Delegates are actually international; the
organization takes its name from the topic. Louis Leakey
hosted the rst one in Nairobi in 1947. It adopted Goodwin and Lowes 3-stage system at that time, the stages to
be called Early, Middle and Later.

2.5

The problem of the transitions

CHRONOLOGY

logic basis for denition was entirely relative. With the

arrival of scientic means of nding an absolute chronology, the two intermediates turned out to be will-of-thewisps. They were in fact Middle and Lower Paleolithic.
Fauresmith is now considered to be a facies of Acheulean,
while Sangoan is a facies of Lupemban.[15] Magosian is
an articial mix of two dierent periods.[16]
Once seriously questioned, the intermediates did not wait
for the next Pan African Congress two years hence,
but were ocially rejected in 1965 (again on an advisory basis) by Burg Wartenstein Conference #29, Systematic Investigation of the African Later Tertiary and
Quaternary,[17] a conference in anthropology held by the
Wenner-Gren Foundation, at Burg Wartenstein Castle,
which it then owned in Austria, attended by the same
scholars that attended the Pan African Congress, including Louis Leakey and Mary Leakey, who was delivering
a pilot presentation of her typological analysis of Early
Stone Age tools, to be included in her 1971 contribution
to Olduvai Gorge, Excavations in Beds I and II, 1960
1963.[18]

18

O Benthic
Carbonate (per mil)

Equivalent
Vostok T (C)

The problem of the transitions in archaeology is a branch However, although the intermediate periods were gone,
of the general philosophic continuity problem, which the search for the transitions continued.
examines how discrete objects of any sort that are
contiguous in any way can be presumed to have a relationship of any sort. In archaeology, the relationship is 3 Chronology
one of causality. If Period B can be presumed to descend
from Period A, there must be a boundary between A and
2
2
B, the AB boundary. The problem is in the nature of
41 kyr cycle
100 kyr cycle
2.5
0
this boundary. If there is no distinct boundary, then the
-2
3
population of A suddenly stopped using the customs charFive Million Years of
-4
3.5
acteristic of A and suddenly started using those of B, an
Climate Change
-6
4
unlikely scenario in the process of evolution. More real-8 From Sediment Cores
4.5
istically, a distinct border period, the A/B transition, exMillions of Years Ago
isted, in which the customs of A were gradually dropped
and those of B acquired. If transitions do not exist, then Time series plot of temperature over the previous 5 million years
there is no proof of any continuity between A and B.
The Stone Age of Europe is characteristically in decit In 1859 Jens Jacob Worsaae rst proposed a division of
of known transitions. The 19th and early 20th-century the Stone Age into older and younger parts based on his
[19]
innovators of the modern three-age system recognized work with Danish kitchen middens that began in 1851.
the problem of the initial transition, the gap between In the subsequent decades this simple distinction develthe Paleolithic and the Neolithic. Louis Leakey provided oped into the archaeological periods of today. The major
something of an answer by proving that man evolved in subdivisions of the Three-age Stone Age cross two epoch
Africa. The Stone Age must have begun there to be car- boundaries on the geologic time scale:
ried repeatedly to Europe by migrant populations. The
The geologic PliocenePleistocene boundary
dierent phases of the Stone Age thus could appear there
(highly glaciated climate)
without transitions. The burden on African archaeologists became all the greater, because now they must nd
The Paleolithic period of archaeology
the missing transitions in Africa. The problem is dicult
The geologic PleistoceneHolocene boundary
and ongoing.
(modern climate)
After its adoption by the First Pan African Congress in
Mesolithic or Epipaleolithic period of archae1947, the Three-Stage Chronology was amended by the
ology
Third Congress in 1955 to include a First Intermediate Period between Early and Middle, to encompass the
Neolithic period of archaeology
Fauresmith and Sangoan technologies, and the Second Intermediate Period between Middle and Later, to encom- The succession of these phases varies enormously from
pass the Magosian technology and others. The chrono- one region (and culture) to another.

3.1

3.1

Three-age chronology

Three-age chronology

Main articles: Paleolithic, Human evolution and Threeage system

The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (from Greek: ,
palaios, old"; and , lithos, stone lit. old stone,
coined by archaeologist John Lubbock and published in
1865) is the earliest division of the Stone Age. It covers the greatest portion of humanitys time (roughly 99%
of human technological history,[20] where human and
humanity are interpreted to mean the genus Homo),
extending from 2.5 or 2.6 million years ago, with the
rst documented use of stone tools by hominans such as
Homo habilis, to the end of the Pleistocene around 10,000 This is a Mode 1, or Oldowan, stone tool from the western SaBCE.[20] The Paleolithic era ended with the Mesolithic, hara.
or in areas with an early neolithisation, the Epipaleolithic.
are the later tools belonging to an industry known as
Oldowan, after the type site of Olduvai Gorge in Tan3.1.1 Lower Paleolithic
zania.
Main article: Lower Paleolithic
At sites dating from the Lower Paleolithic Period (about
2,500,000 to 200,000 years ago), simple pebble tools
have been found in association with the remains of what
may have been the earliest human ancestors. A somewhat
more sophisticated Lower Paleolithic tradition, known as
the Chopper chopping-tool industry, is widely distributed
in the Eastern Hemisphere. This tradition is thought
to have been the work of the hominin species named
Homo erectus. Although no such fossil tools have yet
been found, it is believed that H. erectus probably made
tools of wood and bone as well as stone. About 700,000
years ago, a new Lower Paleolithic tool, the hand ax, appeared. The earliest European hand axes are assigned
to the Abbevillian industry, which developed in northern
France in the valley of the Somme River; a later, more rened hand-ax tradition is seen in the Acheulian industry,
evidence of which has been found in Europe, Africa, the
Middle East, and Asia. Some of the earliest known hand
axes were found at Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania) in association with remains of H. erectus. Alongside the handaxe tradition there developed a distinct and very dierent stone-tool industry, based on akes of stone: special
tools were made from worked (carefully shaped) akes of
int. In Europe, the Clactonian industry is one example
of a ake tradition. The early ake industries probably
contributed to the development of the Middle Paleolithic
ake tools of the Mousterian industry, which is associated
with the remains of Neanderthal man.[21]
Oldowan in Africa Main article: Oldowan
The earliest documented stone tools have been found in
eastern Africa, manufacturers unknown, at the 3.3 million year old site of Lomekwi 3 in Kenya.[5] Better known

The tools were formed by knocking pieces o a river pebble, or stones like it, with a hammerstone to obtain large
and small pieces with one or more sharp edges. The original stone is called a core; the resultant pieces, akes. Typically, but not necessarily, small pieces are detached from
a larger piece, in which case the larger piece may be called
the core and the smaller pieces the akes. The prevalent
usage, however, is to call all the results akes, which can
be confusing. A split in half is called bipolar aking.
Consequently, the method is often called core-andake. More recently, the tradition has been called small
ake since the akes were small compared to subsequent
Acheulean tools.[22]
The essence of the Oldowan is the making
and often immediate use of small akes.
Another naming scheme is Pebble Core Technology
(PBC)":[23]
Pebble cores are ... artifacts that have
been shaped by varying amounts of hardhammer percussion.
Various renements in the shape have been called choppers, discoids, polyhedrons, subspheroid, etc. To date no
reasons for the variants have been ascertained:[24]
From a functional standpoint, pebble
cores seem designed for no specic purpose.
However, they would not have been manufactured for no
purpose:[24]
Pebble cores can be useful in many cutting, scraping or chopping tasks, but ... they

3
are not particularly more ecient in such tasks
than a sharp-edged rock ....

CHRONOLOGY

According to this chronology Mode 1 was inherited by Homo from unknown Hominans, probably
Australopithecus and Paranthropus, who must have continued on with Mode 1 and then with Mode 2 until their
extinction no later than 1.1 mya. Meanwhile, living contemporaneously in the same regions H. habilis inherited
the tools around 2.3 mya. At about 1.9 mya H. erectus
came on stage and lived contemporaneously with the others. Mode 1 was now being shared by a number of Hominans over the same ranges, presumably subsisting in different niches, but the archaeology is not precise enough
to say which.

The whole point of their utility is that each is a sharpedged rock in locations where nature has not provided
any. There is additional evidence that Oldowan, or Mode
1, tools were utilized in percussion technology"; that is,
they were designed to be gripped at the blunt end and
strike something with the edge, from which use they were
given the name of choppers. Modern science has been
able to detect mammalian blood cells on Mode 1 tools
at Sterkfontein, Member 5 East, in South Africa. As the
blood must have come from a fresh kill, the tool users
are likely to have done the killing and used the tools for
butchering. Plant residues bonded to the silicon of some Oldowan out of Africa Tools of the Oldowan tradition rst came to archaeological attention in Europe,
tools conrm the use to chop plants.[25]
where, being intrusive and not well dened, compared
Although the exact species authoring the tools remains
to the Acheulean, they were puzzling to archaeologists.
unknown, Mode 1 tools in Africa were manufactured and
The mystery would be elucidated by African archaeolused predominantly by Homo habilis. They cannot be said
ogy at Olduvai, but meanwhile, in the early 20th century,
to have developed these tools or to have contributed the
the term Pre-Acheulean came into use in climatology.
tradition to technology. They continued a tradition of yet
C.E.P, Brooks, a British climatologist working in the
unknown origin. As chimpanzees sometimes naturally
United States, used the term to describe a chalky boulder
use percussion to extract or prepare food in the wild, and
clay underlying a layer of gravel at Hoxne, central Engmay use either unmodied stones or stones that they have
land, where Acheulean tools had been found.[33] Whether
split, creating an Oldowan tool, the tradition may well be
any tools would be found in it and what type was not
far older than its current record.
known. Hugo Obermaier, a contemporary German arTowards the end of Oldowan in Africa a new species ap- chaeologist working in Spain, quipped:
peared over the range of Homo habilis: Homo erectus.
The earliest unambiguous evidence is a whole cranium,
Unfortunately, the stage of human indusKNM-ER 3733 (a nd identier) from Koobi Fora in
try
which
corresponds to these deposits cannot
[26]
An early skull fragment,
Kenya, dated to 1.78 mya.
be
positively
identied. All we can say is that
KNM-ER 2598, dated to 1.9 mya, is considered a good
it
is
pre-Acheulean....
[27]
candidate also.
Transitions in paleoanthropology are
always hard to nd, if not impossible, but based on the
long-legged limb morphology shared by H. habilis and This uncertainty was claried by the subsequent excavaH. rudolfensis in East Africa, an evolution from one of tions at Olduvai; nevertheless, the term is still in use for
those two has been suggested.[28]
pre-Acheulean contexts, mainly across Eurasia, that are
The most immediate cause of the new adjustments ap- yet unspecied or uncertain but with the understanding
that they are or will turn out to be pebble-tool.[34]
pears to have been an increasing aridity in the region and
consequent contraction of parkland savanna, interspersed There are ample associations of Mode 2 with H. erectus in
with trees and groves, in favor of open grassland, dated Eurasia. H. erectus Mode 1 associations are scantier but
1.81.7 mya. During that transitional period the percent- they do exist, especially in the Far East. One strong piece
age of grazers among the fossil species increased from of evidence prevents the conclusion that only H. erectus
1525% to 45%, dispersing the food supply and requir- reached Eurasia: at Yiron, Israel, Mode 1 tools have been
ing a facility among the hunters to travel longer distances found dating to 2.4 mya,[35] about 0.5 my earlier than the
comfortably, which H. erectus obviously had.[29] The ul- known H. erectus nds. If the date is correct, either antimate proof is the dispersal of H. erectus across much other Hominan preceded H. erectus out of Africa or the
of Africa and Asia, substantially before the development earliest H. erectus has yet to be found.
of the Mode 2 technology and use of re ....[28] H. erectus After the initial appearance at Gona in Ethiopia at 2.7
carried Mode 1 tools over Eurasia.
mya, pebble tools date from 2.0 mya at Sterkfontein,
According to the current evidence (which may change at
any time) Mode 1 tools are documented from about 2.6
mya to about 1.5 mya in Africa,[30] and to 0.5 mya outside
of it.[31] The genus Homo is known from H. habilis and
H. rudolfensis from 2.3 to 2.0 mya, with the latest habilis
being an upper jaw from Koobi Fora, Kenya, from 1.4
mya. H. erectus is dated 1.80.6 mya.[32]

Member 5, South Africa, and from 1.8 mya at El Kherba,

Algeria, North Africa. The manufacturers had already
left pebble tools at Yiron, Israel, at 2.4 mya, Riwat, Pakistan, at 2.0 mya, and Renzidong, South China, at over 2
mya.[36] The identication of a fossil skull at Mojokerta,
Pernung Peninsula on Java, dated to 1.8 mya, as H. erectus, suggests that the African nds are not the earliest to

3.1

Three-age chronology

be found in Africa, or that, in fact, erectus did not originate in Africa after all but on the plains of Asia.[28] The
outcome of the issue waits for more substantial evidence.
Erectus was found also at Dmanisi, Georgia, from 1.75
mya in association with pebble tools.
Pebble tools are found the latest rst in southern Europe
and then in northern. They begin in the open areas of Italy
and Spain, the earliest dated to 1.6 mya at Pirro Nord,
Italy. The mountains of Italy are rising at a rapid rate
in the framework of geologic time; at 1.6 mya they were
lower and covered with grassland (as much of the highlands still are). Europe was otherwise mountainous and
covered over with dense forest, a formidable terrain for
warm-weather savanna dwellers. Similarly there is no evidence that the Mediterranean was passable at Gibraltar
or anywhere else to H. erectus or earlier hominans. They
might have reached Italy and Spain along the coasts.
In northern Europe pebble tools are found earliest at
Happisburgh, United Kingdom, from 0.8 mya. The
last traces are from Kents Cavern, dated 0.5 mya. By
that time H. erectus is regarded as having been extinct; however, a more modern version apparently had
evolved, Homo heidelbergensis, who must have inherited
the tools.[37] He also explains the last of the Acheulean in
Germany at 0.4 mya.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries archaeologists
worked on the assumptions that a succession of Hominans and cultures prevailed, that one replaced another.
Today the presence of multiple hominans living contemporaneously near each other for long periods is accepted
as proved true; moreover, by the time the previously assumed earliest culture arrived in northern Europe, the
rest of Africa and Eurasia had progressed to the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic, so that across the earth all
three were for a time contemporaneous. In any given region there was a progression from Oldowan to Acheulean,
Lower to Upper, no doubt.
Acheulean in Africa Main article: Acheulean
The end of Oldowan in Africa was brought on by the
appearance of Acheulean, or Mode 2, stone tools. The
earliest known instances are in the 1.71.6 mya layer
at Kokiselei, West Turkana, Kenya.[27] At Sterkfontein,
South Africa, they are in Member 5 West, 1.71.4
mya.[25] The 1.7 is a fairly certain, fairly standard date.
Mode 2 is often found in association with H. erectus. It
makes sense that the most advanced tools should have
been innovated by the most advanced Hominan; consequently, they are typically given credit for the innovation.

An Acheulean tool, not worked over the entire surface

cussion on an anvil stone. Finally the edge is retouched:

small akes are hit o with a bone or wood soft hammer to sharpen or resharpen it. The core can be either
the blank or another ake. Blanks are ported for manufacturing supply in places where nature has provided no
suitable stone.
Although most Mode 2 tools are easily distinguished from
Mode 1, there is a close similarity of some Oldowan and
some Acheulean, which can lead to confusion. Some
Oldowan tools are more carefully prepared to form a
more regular edge. One distinguishing criterion is the
size of the akes. In contrast to the Oldowan small ake
tradition, Acheulean is large ake:" The primary technological distinction remaining between Oldowan and
the Acheulean is the preference for large akes (>10
cm) as blanks for making large cutting tools (handaxes
and cleavers) in the Acheulean.[38] Large Cutting Tool
(LCT)" has become part of the standard terminology as
well.[24]

In North Africa, the presence of Mode 2 remains a mystery, as the oldest nds are from Thomas Quarry in
Morocco at 0.9 mya.[36] Archaeological attention, however, shifts to the Jordan Rift Valley, an extension of
the East African Rift Valley (the east bank of the Jordan is slowly sliding northward as East Africa is thrust
away from Africa). Evidence of use of the Nile Valley
is in decit, but Hominans could easily have reached the
palaeo-Jordan river from Ethiopia along the shores of the
Red Sea, one side or the other. A crossing would not have
been necessary, but it is more likely there than over a theA Mode 2 tool is a biface consisting of two concave oretical but unproven land bridge through either Gibraltar
surfaces intersecting to form a cutting edge all the way or Sicily.
around, except in the case of tools intended to feature a Meanwhile, Acheulean went on in Africa past the 1.0 mya
point. More work and planning go into the manufacture mark and also past the extinction of H. erectus there. The
of a Mode 2 tool. The manufacturer hits a slab o a larger last Acheulean in East Africa is at Olorgesailie, Kenya,
rock to use as a blank. Then large akes are struck o dated to about 0.9 mya. Its owner was still H. erectus,[36]
the blank and worked into bifaces by hard-hammer per- but in South Africa, Acheulean at Elandsfontein, 1.0

8
0.6 mya, is associated with Saldanha man, classied as
H. heidelbergensis, a more advanced, but not yet modern, descendant most likely of H. erectus. The Thoman
Quarry Hominans in Morocco similarly are most likely
Homo rhodesiensis,[39] in the same evolutionary status as
H. heidelbergensis.

CHRONOLOGY

aking down the sides. In Athirampakkam at Chennai in

Tamil Nadu the Acheulean age started at 1.51 mya and it
is also prior than North India and Europe.[47]

The cause of the Movius Line remains speculative,

whether it represents a real change in technology or a limitation of archeology, but after 1 mya evidence not available to Movius indicates the prevalence of Acheulean.
For example, the Acheulean site at Bose, China, is dated
Acheulean out of Africa Mode 2 is rst known out 0.8033K mya.[48] The authors of this chronologically
of Africa at 'Ubeidiya, Israel, a site now on the Jordan later East Asian Acheulean remain unknown, as does
River, then frequented over the long term (hundreds of whether it evolved in the region or was brought in.
thousands of years) by Homo on the shore of a variableThere is no named boundary line between Mode 1 and
level palaeo-lake, long since vanished. The geology was
Mode 2 on the west; nevertheless, Mode 2 is equally late
created by successive transgression and regression of
in Europe as it is in the Far East. The earliest comes
the lake[40] resulting in four cycles of layers. The tools
from a rock shelter at Estrecho de Qupar in Spain, dated
are located in the rst two, Cycles Li (Limnic Inferior)
to greater than 0.9 mya. Teeth from an undetermined
and Fi (Fluviatile Inferior), but mostly in Fi. The cyHominan were found there also.[49] The last Mode 2 in
cles represent dierent ecologies and therefore dierent
Southern Europe is from a deposit at Fontana Ranuccio
cross-sections of fauna, which makes it possible to date
near Anagni in Italy dated to 0.45 mya, which is generally
them. They appear to be the same faunal assemblages as
linked to Homo cepranensis, a late variant of H. erectus",
the Ferenta Faunal Unit in Italy, known from excavations
a fragment of whose skull was found at Ceprano nearby,
at Selvella and Pietertta, dated to 1.61.2 mya.[41]
dated 0.46 mya.[50]
At 'Ubeidiya the marks on the bones of the animal species
found there indicate that the manufacturers of the tools
butchered the kills of large predators, an activity that has 3.1.2 Middle Paleolithic
been termed scavenging.[42] There are no living oors,
nor did they process bones to obtain the marrow. These Main article: Middle Paleolithic
activities cannot be understood therefore as the only or
even the typical economic activity of Hominans. Their
This period is best known as the era during which the
interests were selective: they were primarily harvesting
Neanderthals lived in Europe and the Near East (c.
the meat of Cervids,[43] which is estimated to have been
300,00028,000 years ago). Their technology is mainly
available without spoiling for up to four days after the kill.
the Mousterian, but Neanderthal physical characterisThe majority of the animals at the site were of tics have been found also in ambiguous association with
Palaearctic biogeographic origin.[44] However, these the more recent Chtelperronian archeological culture
overlapped in range on 3060% of African biogeo- in Western Europe and several local industries like the
graphic origin.[45] The biome was Mediterranean, not Szeletian in Eastern Europe/Eurasia. There is no evisavanna. The animals were not passing through; there dence for Neanderthals in Africa, Australia or the Amerwas simply an overlap of normal ranges. Of the Homi- icas.
nans, H. erectus left several cranial fragments. Teeth of
Neanderthals nursed their elderly and practised ritual
undetermined species may have been H. ergaster.[46] The
burial indicating an organised society. The earliest evitools are classied as Lower Acheulean and Developed
dence (Mungo Man) of settlement in Australia dates to
Oldowan. The latter is a disputed classication created
around 40,000 years ago when modern humans likely
by Mary Leakey to describe an Acheulean-like tradition
crossed from Asia by island-hopping. Evidence for symin Bed II at Olduvai. It is dated 1.531.27 mya. The date
bolic behavior such as body ornamentation and burial is
of the tools therefore probably does not exceed 1.5 mya;
ambiguous for the Middle Paleolithic and still subject to
1.4 is often given as a date. This chronology, which is
debate. The Bhimbetka rock shelters exhibit the earliest
denitely later than in Kenya, supports the out of Africa
traces of human life in India, some of which are approxhypothesis for Acheulean, if not for the Hominans.
imately 30,000 years old.
From Southwest Asia, as the Levant is now called, the
Acheulean extended itself more slowly eastward, arriving
at Isampur, India, about 1.2 mya. It does not appear in 3.1.3 Upper Paleolithic
China and Korea until after 1mya and not at all in Indonesia. There is a discernible boundary marking the furthest Main article: Upper Paleolithic
extent of the Acheulean eastward before 1 mya, called the From 50,000 to 10,000 years ago in Europe, the Upper
Movius Line, after its proposer, Hallam L. Movius. On Paleolithic ends with the end of the Pleistocene and onset
the east side of the line the small ake tradition contin- of the Holocene era (the end of the last ice age). Modues, but the tools are additionally worked Mode 1, with ern humans spread out further across the Earth during the

3.1

Three-age chronology

9
tion of the archaeologists excavating the site. Microliths
were used in the manufacture of more ecient composite
tools, resulting in an intensication of hunting and shing and with increasing social activity the development
of more complex settlements, such as Lepenski Vir. Domestication of the dog as a hunting companion probably
dates to this period.
The earliest known battle occurred during the Mesolithic
period at a site in Egypt known as Cemetery 117.
3.1.5 Neolithic

Bradshaw rock paintings found in the north-west Kimberley region of Western Australia.

Main article: Neolithic

The Neolithic, New Stone Age, was approximately

period known as the Upper Paleolithic.

The Upper Paleolithic is marked by a relatively rapid
succession of often complex stone artifact technologies
and a large increase in the creation of art and personal ornaments. During period between 35 and 10
kya evolved: from 38 to 30 kya Chtelperronian, 40
28 Aurignacian, 2822 Gravettian, 2217 Solutrean, and
1810 Magdalenian. All of these industries except the
Chtelperronian are associated with anatomically modern humans. Authorship of the Chtelperronian is still
the subject of much debate.
Most scholars date the arrival of humans in Australia at
40,000 to 50,000 years ago, with a possible range of up
to 125,000 years ago. The earliest anatomically modern Skara Brae, Scotland. Europes most complete Neolithic village
human remains found in Australia (and outside of Africa)
are those of Mungo Man; they have been dated at 42,000 characterized by the adoption of agriculture, the shift
years old.[51][52]
from food gathering to food producing in itself is one
The Americas were colonised via the Bering land bridge of the most revolutionary changes in human history sowhich was exposed during this period by lower sea levels. called Neolithic Revolution, the development of pottery,
These people are called the Paleo-Indians, and the earli- polished stone tools and more complex, larger settleest accepted dates are those of the Clovis culture sites, ments such as Gbekli Tepe and atal Hyk. Some
some 13,500 years ago. Globally, societies were hunter- of these features began in certain localities even earlier,
gatherers but evidence of regional identities begins to ap- in the transitional Mesolithic. The rst Neolithic culpear in the wide variety of stone tool types being devel- tures started around 7000 BCE in the fertile crescent and
spread concentrically to other areas of the world; howoped to suit very dierent environments.
ever, the Near East was probably not the only nucleus
of agriculture, the cultivation of maize in Meso-America
and of rice in the Far East being others.
3.1.4 Epipaleolithic/Mesolithic
Main articles: Epipaleolithic, Mesolithic
The period starting from the end of the last ice age,
10,000 years ago, to around 6,000 years ago was characterized by rising sea levels and a need to adapt to a changing environment and nd new food sources. The development of Mode 5 (microlith) tools began in response to
these changes. They were derived from the previous Paleolithic tools, hence the term Epipaleolithic, or were intermediate between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic, hence
the term Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age). The choice of
a word depends on exact circumstances and the inclina-

Due to the increased need to harvest and process plants,

ground stone and polished stone artifacts became much
more widespread, including tools for grinding, cutting,
and chopping. Skara Brae located on Orkney island
o Scotland is one of Europes best examples of a Neolithic village. The community contains stone beds,
shelves and even an indoor toilet linked to a stream. The
rst large-scale constructions were built, including settlement towers and walls, e.g., Jericho and ceremonial
sites, e.g.: Stonehenge. The gantija temples of Gozo
in the Maltese archipelago are the oldest surviving free
standing structures in the world, erected c. 36002500
BCE. The earliest evidence for established trade exists in

10

4 MATERIAL CULTURE

the Neolithic with newly settled people importing exotic gies, Oldowan and Acheulean, which produced Mode 1
goods over distances of many hundreds of miles.
and Mode 2 stone tools respectively. A distinct regional
term
is warranted, however, by the location and chronolThese facts show that there were sucient resources and
ogy
of
the sites and the exact typology.
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 ongoing
debate.[53] Although some late Neolithic societies formed
complex stratied chiefdoms similar to Polynesian societies such as the Ancient Hawaiians, based on the societies of modern tribesmen at an equivalent technological
level, most Neolithic societies were relatively simple and
egalitarian.[54] A comparison of art in the two ages leads
some theorists to conclude that Neolithic cultures were
noticeably more hierarchical than the Paleolithic cultures
that preceded them.[55]

3.2
3.2.1

Three-stage chronology
The Earlier or Early Stone Age (ESA)

3.2.2 The Middle Stone Age (MSA)

Main article: Middle Stone Age
The Middle Stone Age was a period of African prehistory between Early Stone Age and Late Stone Age. It began around 300,000 years ago and ended around 50,000
years ago.[57] It is considered as an equivalent of European Middle Paleolithic.[58] It is associated with anatomically modern or almost modern Homo sapiens. Early
physical evidence comes from Omo [59] and Herto,[60]
both in Ethiopia and dated respectively at c. 195 ka and
at c. 160 ka.

Main articles: Paleolithic and Lower Paleolithic

This period is not to be identied with Old Stone Age, 3.2.3 The Later Stone Age (LSA)
Main article: Later Stone Age
The Later Stone Age (LSA, sometimes also called the
Late Stone Age) refers to a period in African prehistory.
Its beginnings are roughly contemporaneous with the European Upper Paleolithic. It lasts until historical times
and this includes cultures corresponding to Mesolithic
and Neolithic in other regions.

4 Material culture
4.1 Tools
Stone tools were made from a variety of stones. For example, int and chert were shaped (or chipped) for use
as cutting tools and weapons, while basalt and sandstone
were used for ground stone tools, such as quern-stones.
Wood, bone, shell, antler (deer) and other materials were
widely used, as well. During the most recent part of
the period, sediments (such as clay) were used to make
Acheulean biface from Lake Langano area, Ethiopia.
pottery. Agriculture was developed and certain animals
a translation of Paleolithic, or with Paleolithic, or with were domesticated as well.
the Earlier Stone Age that originally meant what be- Some species of non-primates are able to use stone tools,
came the Paleolithic and Mesolithic. In the initial decades such as the sea otter, which breaks abalone shells with
of its denition by the Pan-African Congress of Prehis- them. Primates can both use and manufacture stone tools.
tory, it was parallel in Africa to the Upper and Middle This combination of abilities is more marked in apes and
Paleolithic. However, since then Radiocarbon dating has men, but only men, or more generally Hominans, depend
shown that the Middle Stone Age is in fact contempo- on tool use for survival.[61] The key anatomical and beraneous with the Middle Paleolithic.[56] The Early Stone havioral features required for tool manufacture, which are
Age therefore is contemporaneous with the Lower Pale- possessed only by Hominans, are the larger thumb and the
olithic and happens to include the same main technolo- ability to hold by means of an assortment of grips.[62]

4.4

4.2

Art

Food and drink

11

4.4 Art

Main articles: Paleolithic diet and Paleolithic diet and Prehistoric art is visible in the artifacts. Prehistoric music
nutrition
is inferred from found instruments, while parietal art can
be found on rocks of any kind. The latter are petroglyphs
Food sources of the Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers were and rock paintings. The art may or may not have had a
wild plants and animals harvested from the environment. religious function.
They liked animal organ meats, including the livers,
kidneys and brains. Large seeded legumes were part
of the human diet long before the agricultural revolution, as is evident from archaeobotanical nds from the
Mousterian layers of Kebara Cave, in Israel.[63] Moreover, recent evidence indicates that humans processed
and consumed wild cereal grains as far back as 23,000
years ago in the Upper Paleolithic.[64]

4.4.1 Petroglyphs
Main article: Petroglyph
Petroglyphs appeared in the Neolithic. A Petroglyph is an
intaglio abstract or symbolic image engraved on natural
stone by various methods, usually by prehistoric peoples.
They were a dominant form of pre-writing symbols. Petroglyphs have been discovered in dierent parts of the
world, including Asia (Bhimbetka, India), North America (Death Valley National Park), South America (Cumbe
Mayo, Peru), and Europe (Finnmark, Norway).

Near the end of the Wisconsin glaciation, 15,000 to 9,000

years ago, mass extinction of Megafauna such as the
Wooly mammoth occurred in Asia, Europe, North America and Australia. This was the rst Holocene extinction event. It possibly forced modication in the dietary
habits of the humans of that age and with the emergence
of agricultural practices, plant-based foods also became
a regular part of the diet. A number of factors have been 4.4.2 Rock paintings
suggested for the extinction: certainly over-hunting, but
also deforestation and climate change.[65] The net eect
was to fragment the vast ranges required by the large animals and extinguish them piecemeal in each fragment.

4.3

Shelter and habitat

Around 2 million years ago, Homo habilis is believed

to have constructed the rst man-made structure in East
Africa, consisting of simple arrangements of stones to
hold branches of trees in position. A similar stone circular arrangement believed to be around 380,000 years
old was discovered at Terra Amata, near Nice, France.
(Concerns about the dating have been raised, see Terra Rock painting at Bhimbetka, India, a World heritage site
Amata). Several human habitats dating back to the Stone
Age have been discovered around the globe, including:
Main article: Cave painting
A tent-like structure inside a cave near the Grotte du
In paleolithic times, mostly animals were painted, in theLazaret, Nice, France.
ory ones that were used as food or represented strength,
A structure with a roof supported with timber, dis- such as the rhinoceros or large cats (as in the Chauvet
covered in Dolni Vestonice, the Czech Republic, Cave). Signs such as dots were sometimes drawn.
dates to around 23,000 BCE. The walls were made Rare human representations include handprints and halfhuman/half-animal gures. The Cave of Chauvet in the
of packed clay blocks and stones.
Ardche dpartement, France, contains the most impor Many huts made of mammoth bones were found in tant cave paintings of the paleolithic era, dating from
Eastern Europe and Siberia. The people who made about 31,000 BCE. The Altamira cave paintings in Spain
these huts were expert mammoth hunters. Exam- were done 14,000 to 12,000 BCE and show, among othples have been found along the Dniepr river valley ers, bisons. The hall of bulls in Lascaux, Dordogne,
of Ukraine, including near Chernihiv, in Moravia, France, dates from about 15,000 to 10,000 BCE.
Czech Republic and in southern Poland.
The meaning of many of these paintings remains un An animal hide tent dated to around 15000 to 10000 known. They may have been used for seasonal rituBCE, in the Magdalenian, was discovered at Plateau als. The animals are accompanied by signs that suggest
Parain, France.
a possible magic use. Arrow-like symbols in Lascaux are

12

MODERN POPULAR CULTURE AND THE STONE AGE

sometimes interpreted as calendar or almanac use, but the from the Stone Age indicate certain rituals and beliefs of
evidence remains interpretative.[66]
the people in those prehistoric times. It is now believed
Some scenes of the Mesolithic, however, can be typed that activities of the Stone Age humans went beyond the
and therefore, judging from their various modications, immediate requirements of procuring food, body coverare fairly clear. One of these is the battle scene between ings, and shelters. Specic rites relating to death and
organized bands of archers. For example, the marching burial were practiced, though certainly diering in style
Warriors, a rock painting at Cingle de la Mola, Castelln and execution between cultures.
in Spain, dated to about 7,0004,000 BCE, depicts about
50 bowmen in two groups marching or running in step
toward each other, each man carrying a bow in one hand
and a stful of arrows in the other. A le of ve men leads
one band, one of whom is a gure with a high crowned
hat. In other scenes elsewhere, the men wear headdresses and knee ornaments but otherwise ght nude.
Some scenes depict the dead and wounded, bristling with
arrows.[67] One is reminded of tzi the Iceman, a Copper
Age mummy revealed by an Alpine melting glacier, who
collapsed from loss of blood due to an arrow wound in
the back.

4.5

Megalithic tombs, multichambered, and dolmens,

single-chambered, were graves with a huge stone
slab stacked over other similarly large stone slabs;
they have been discovered all across Europe and
Asia and were built in the Neolithic and the Bronze
Age.

5 Modern popular culture and the

Stone Age

Stone Age rituals and beliefs

Main articles: Paleolithic religion, Prehistoric religion

and Mother goddess
Modern studies and the in-depth analysis of nds dating

Imaginative depiction of the Stone Age, by Viktor Vasnetsov

Poulnabrone dolmen in County Clare, Ireland

Monte Bubbonia dolmen (single-chambered tomb), Sicily[68]

The image of the caveman is commonly associated with

the Stone Age. For example, the 2003 documentary series showing the evolution of humans through the Stone
Age was called Walking with Cavemen, although only the
last programme showed humans living in caves. While
the idea that human beings and dinosaurs coexisted is
sometimes portrayed in popular culture in cartoons, lms
and computer games, such as The Flintstones, One Million
Years B.C. and Chuck Rock, the notion of hominids and
non-avian dinosaurs co-existing is not supported by any
scientic evidence.
Other depictions of the Stone Age include the best-selling
Earths Children series of books by Jean M. Auel, which
are set in the Paleolithic and are loosely based on archaeological and anthropological ndings. The 1981 lm
Quest for Fire by Jean-Jacques Annaud tells the story of
a group of neanderthals searching for their lost re. A
twenty rst century series, Chronicles of Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver tells of two New Stone Age children ghting to full a prophecy and save their clan.

13

See also
Megalith
Prehistoric warfare
Ice Age
Pleistocene
Homo
List of Stone Age art
Timeline of the Stone Age

Notes

[17] Barham & Mitchell 2008, p. 477

[18] History: Systematic Investigation of the African Later
Tertiary and Quaternary. The Wenner-Gren Foundation.
Retrieved 3 March 2011.
[19] Worsaae, Jens Jacob Asmussen. Encyclopdia Britannica.
[20] Toth, Nicholas; Schick, Kathy (2007). 21 Overview
of Paleolithic Archaeology. In Henke, H.C. Winfried;
Hardt, Thorolf; Tattersall, Ian. Handbook of Paleoanthropology. Volume 3. Berlin; Heidelberg; New York:
Springer-Verlag. p. 1944. ISBN 978-3-540-32474-4
[21] http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/439507/
Paleolithic-Period
[22] Barham & Mitchell 2008, p. 130.
[23] Shea 2010, p. 49

[1] http://www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/news/2010/august/
oldest-tool-use-and-meat-eating-revealed75831.html

[24] Shea 2010, p. 50

[2] Barham & Mitchell 2008, p. 106

[25] Barham & Mitchell 2008, p. 132

[3] Barham & Mitchell 2008, p. 147

[4] BBC News, 21/05/2015: Oldest stone tools pre-date earliest humans

[26] Barham & Mitchell 2008, pp. 126127.

[27] Barham & Mitchell 2008, p. 128
[28] Barham & Mitchell 2008, p. 145

[5] Harmand, Sonia; et al. (21 May 2015). 3.3-million-yearold stone tools from Lomekwi 3, West Turkana, Kenya.
Nature 521: 310315. doi:10.1038/nature14464.

[29] Barham & Mitchell 2008, p. 146.

[6] Rogers & Semaw 2009, pp. 162163

[31] Shea 2010, p. 57

[7] Rogers & Semaw 2009, p. 155

[32] Barham & Mitchell 2008, p. 73

[8] As to whether aethiopicus is the genus Australopithecus or

the genus Paranthropus, broken out to include the more
robust forms, anthropological opinion is divided and both
usages occur in the professional sources.

[33] Brooks, Charles E.P. (1919), The Correlation of the

Quaternary Deposits of the British Isles with Those of
the Continent of Europe, Annual Report of the Board of
Regents of the Smithsonian Institution 1917, Washington:
Government Pronting Oce, p. 277

[9] Rogers & Semaw 2009, p. 164

[10] Neolithic Vinca was a metallurgical culture. Archaeo
News. Reuters. 17 November 2007. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
[11] ASA Statement on the use of 'primitive' as a descriptor of
contemporary human groups. ASA News (Association of
Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth).
27 August 2007.
[12] Clark 1970, p. 22
[13] Clark 1970, pp. 1819
[14] Deacon & Deacon 1999, pp. 56
[15] Isaac, Glynn (1982). The Earliest Archaeological
Traces. In Clark, J. Desmond. The Cambridge History
of Africa. Volume. I: From the Earliest Times to C. 500
BC. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 246.
[16] Willoughby, Pamela R. (2007). The evolution of modern
humans in Africa: a comprehensive guide. Lanham, MD:
AltaMira Press. p. 54.

[30] Barham & Mitchell 2008, p. 112

[34] Hugo Obermaier; Christine Matthew; Henry Osborne

(1924). Fossil Man in Spain. New Haven: Yale University
Press for the Hispanic Society of America. p. 272.
[35] Barham & Mitchell 2008, pp. 106107
[36] Shea 2010, pp. 5557
[37] Barham & Mitchell 2008, p. 24
[38] Barham & Mitchell 2008, p. 130
[39] Jean-Paul Raynal; et al. (2010). Hominid Cave
at Thomas Quarry I (Casablanca, Morocco): Recent ndings and their context (PDF). Quaternary International. 223-224 (223224): 369382.
doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2010.03.011.
[40] Belmaker 2006, p. 9
[41] Belmaker 2006, pp. 119120
[42] Belmaker 2006, p. 149
[43] Belmaker 2006, p. 147

14

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[45] Belmaker 2006, p. 21

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Prehistoric Dolmens of Sicily. Thornham/Norfolk
(UK): Brazen Head Publishing.
Rogers, Michael J.; Semaw, Sileshi (2009). From
Nothing to Something: The Appearance and Context of the Earliest Archaeological Record. In
Camps i Calbet, Marta; Chauhan, Parth R. Sourcebook of paleolithic transitions: methods, theories,
and interpretations. New York: Springer.

15
Schick, Kathy D.; Nicholas Toth (1993). Making Silent Stones Speak: Human Evolution and the
Dawn of Technology. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-69371-9. Cite uses deprecated parameter |coauthors= (help)
Shea, John J. (2010). Stone Age Visiting Cards Revisited: a Strategic Perspective on the Lithic Technology of Early Hominin Dispersal. In Fleagle,
John G.; Shea, John J.; Grine, Frederick E.; Boden,
Andrea L.; Leakey, Richard E,. Out of Africa I: the
First Hominin Colonization of Eurasia. Dordrecht;
Heidelberg; London; New York: Springer. pp. 47
64.

Further reading
Scarre, Christopher (ed.) (1988). Past Worlds: The
Times Atlas of Archaeology. London: Times Books.
ISBN 0-7230-0306-8.

10

External links

Giusepi, Robert A. (2000). The Stone Age. History World International. Retrieved 22 February
2011.
Kowalski, D.R. Stone Age Hand-axes. AerobiologicalEngineering.com. Retrieved 22 February
2011.
Kowalski, D.R. Stone Age Habitats. AerobiologicalEngineering.com. Retrieved 22 February 2011.
PanAfrican Archaeological Association.
trieved 28 February 2011.

Re-

Society of Africanist Archaeologists. Retrieved 3

March 2011.
The ASA. Association of Social Anthropologists
of the UK and Commonwealth.

16

11

11
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roCarGT, Titchybear, Verryniceguy2, Dexbot, T v shah, Lugia2453, Ak5791, Frosty, Schiltron, Darth Sitges, PizzaHutCreeper, Ruby
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