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The pre-history of humans, known as Paleolithic or old stone age is crucial to know and understand how we have started. It is the basic knowledge of history that involves how humans managed to live, use the resources and fetch for themselves.
Here humans used handmade stone chipped tools for their work purposes. The Paleolithic age gives us an idea of how ancient men made and lived off stone tools, pebbles or choppers.
What is prehistory?
It comprises the stage where humans have just started. It is at this stage that they started making stone tools by hominids. The prehistory stage was never in the recorded form of written history and took place around 3 million years ago.
Prehistory witnessed several stages and ended in different ways at different times. One of the most significant stages of this period was the Paleolithic age. This age is where the development of humans just started and was known as their first and ancient cultural stage.
The Paleolithic age
The importance of the Paleolithic period lies in the making of handmade tools. Here, humans have just started the process of evolution. They made stone chipped tools or tools with rocks and pebbles.
The just evolved humans started hunting and gathering for their food and survival. The usage of tools was very basic and simply made. The Paleolithic age also encouraged nomadic life among themselves. The study of the Paleolithic era is divided into three stages
Lower Paleolithic
This period mostly covered the lower Pleistocene and the bulk of the Middle Pleistocene epoch. The stage witnessed the formations of terraces and rivers. Humans at this stage preferred to live by the river and the nearby water supply.
The stone tools were mostly made and found in these river areas. The tool making traditions were further broken down into hand-axe traditions and flake traditions
Middle Paleolithic
The core tool found here is the one with the flake traditions. Chellean-Acheulean hand- axes are completely replaced here. Levalloisian culture began from the Middle Acheulian stage and was also known as Proto Mousterian, later named as Levalloiso- Mousterian
Upper Paleolithic
This is the third and last stage of the Paleolithic era. This stage was the end of the old stone age. The upper Paleolithic is also known as the shortest period of the whole Paleolithic age. This shortest period witnessed most of human advancement. In this period humans made and used tools based on sharp blades.
These blade tools replaced the hand axe and flake tools completely. Ivory and antlers were also used to support these tools and their girth. The upper Paleolithic stage was a creative, cultural and also artistic stage. The cave drawings were initially done on the stage.
Conclusion
The stone age or Paleolithic age is very important for knowing the basic history. The Paleolithic period is the basic knowledge that indulges us in knowing how the evolution of humans took place over time. The prehistory field of study is not only interesting but also gives us the scientific base from where to start with humans and their stages.
