The Stone Age

The Stone Age

Image Credit: Flickr User Frits Ahlefeld, via CC

The Stone Age was a time thousands of years ago, when early humans lived in caves and jungles. Life was simple, and there were only two main things to do – to protect themselves from the wild animals and to gather food. It started almost with the evolution of mankind.

For both purposes, people made tools from stone. The oldest stone tool that we have as an evidence is almost 3.4 million years old . It was found in Lower Awash Valley in Ethiopia. Stones were also used to make fire. And since in those times humans used stone for almost everything they did, we call it The Stone Age. The Stone Age ended somewhere in between 6000 BC to 2500 BC; around this time stone tools got replaced by tools made of copper.

In the early years of the Stone Age, humans used stones besides wood and bone tools for chopping tasks (these were the choppers). Later, they learnt to develop a special kind of sharp stone called flint – which was used to cut and chip things quickly. As the humans became smarter they started to make even more complex tools than before. The flints were probably used as barbs on arrows, spears and other composite tools.

The Stone Age people just ate animals and plants. They wrapped themselves in animal fur and sat around fire to keep warm. Stone Age people could communicate with written symbols. All their words and ideas were expressed in symbols. They were talented artists.

The Stone Age went on for a long time. Obviously in the beginning of the Stone Age rock shelters were the way to go. Any signs of trouble and the humans would go hiding in the caves. In India, the Bhimbetka rock shelters show the earliest signs of human life in the region. They are almost 30,000 years old. Some researchers have discovered Stone Age art in European caves. The inside walls of the cave are adorned with paintings of animals like horses, deer, and mammoths !

With time the stone age humans moved out of their rock shelters and needed to live near water sources. An early settlement near the banks river Danube in Serbia called Lepenski Vir is a village like settlement with a lot of sculptures carved out of stones and cobbles. This was the time when for the first time humans kept dogs as pets. Wow! dogs have been our best friends for a long time then.

The last stage of Stone Age was when people discovered farming and life became more systematic. Pots and pans were made out of clay. Large scale buildings were built. Stone walls and straw roof were common. Stonehenge is a wonderful example of that time.

Now, let us see if you can guess the name of a very popular cartoon which is about Stone Age men and how they lived?

The Flintstones!

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85 comments

  3. do you have any facts about animal because i am doing a poster on the stone ange animals in school :)?

    Reply

    • I’m doing a poster about stone age animals in school to. Please can you put can you put down some information about animals as well.

  13. i really liked this programe. you can improve it by adding more facts about stone age because it would help me on my school project. it was still very helpful. thank you

    Reply

    • Awsome I think you can do a little quiz at the end!! It will help me and other people learn!!!!!!!!! By the way I’m giving you a tip and now for your comment…

      This is so helpful my teacher will be impressed with this :D!!!!
      😛 well that’s it.

  19. more facts on food plz I’m doing homework and this isn’t enough can you more about their jobs more about what they ate and all stuff plz like how the children lived thanks this just isn’t enough

    Reply

  20. I think this website is amazing!
    This is so useful,plus can you please add some more facts about their homes?
    My school is studying their homes.
    Also THNX!

    Reply

  39. Do you have any more facts about their cloths? it would so help me and my mates – need more facts about discovery of fire, domestication of animals and plants etc. So helpful so far

    Reply

  41. This website is great for me. I’m doing an Essay and this website gives out a lot of information for the early peoples past and how they used things like fire. This website is great!

    Reply

  43. I recently learned that the Stone Age was divided into 3 parts:- Palaeolithic Age, Mesolithic Age and Neolithic Age:- old, middle and new respectively

    Reply

  49. hello thank you for the important facts i need it for the project im doing i would like if you can add to this website adding more about the houses they lived in thank you very much

    Reply

  53. I have written down some of the facts down for my homework. I wrote down three. I did not know they lived in jungles i thought only caves. And i did not know they even made tools or had tools so i surely did not know they made tools. good job! i guess it must of took ages to write all of it. i love the facts! <3

    Reply

  61. really helpful! I used this web when we were researching at school, and it was so good I came straight to it when doing my homework! Thanks sooooooooooooooo much!!! You guys make me feel ❤

    Reply

  64. I need to know what different things the men, the women and the children did. Can you please have some facts about that? It would make my project so much easier.

    Reply

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