"The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with the advent of metalworking."
The methods and techniques used by early humans to create and use tools made from stone, which evolved over the course of the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods.
Lithic raw material procurement: The selection, transportation, and processing of stone materials for tool-making.
Tool-making techniques: Flaking, knapping, grinding, polishing, and hafting.
Use-wear analysis: The analysis of microscopic wear patterns on stone tools to understand their function.
Tool typology: Classification of different tool types based on their distinctive features.
Biface technology: The production and use of bifaces (stone tools with two worked faces).
Flake technology: The production and use of flakes (small pieces of stone that have been struck off a larger stone core).
Microlithic technology: The production and use of small, specialized stone tools.
Regional variation: The variation in stone tool technology across different regions and time periods.
Raw material availability and its impact on stone tool technology: The topic of raw material availability and its impact on stone tool technology examines how the accessibility of different stones influenced the development and diversity of stone tool technology throughout human history.
The evolution of stone tool technology over time: From Oldowan, Acheulian, and Mousterian to Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic technology.
Use of fire in tool-making and tool use: The topic of the use of fire in tool-making and tool use pertains to the early human practice of harnessing fire for shaping, hardening, or enhancing stone tools and utilizing tools for various purposes.
Social and cultural aspects of stone tool technology: How stone tools were used and exchanged by early human communities.
Functional analysis of stone tools: How they were used for hunting, gathering, butchering, and other tasks by early humans.
Experimental archaeology: The recreation of Stone Age tools and techniques through experimentation.
Environmental influences on stone tool technology.: The study of how environmental factors shaped the development and adaptation of stone tool technology throughout history.
Oldowan tools: It is the oldest known stone tool technology that originated around 2.6 million years ago. These tools were made by striking flakes from a core stone to create simple choppers, scrapers, and hammers.
Acheulean tools: This type of technology emerged around 1.76 million years ago and was characterized by bifacial tools that had a wide range of uses, including butchery, woodworking, and hunting.
Mousterian tools: This technology emerged during the Middle Paleolithic period around 300,000 to 40,000 years ago. Mousterian tools were characterized by their finely crafted flakes that took on a variety of shapes, including spear blades, scrapers, and knives.
Aurignacian tools: It is a type of tool technology that emerged around 40,000 years ago during the Upper Paleolithic era. This type of tool technology included finely crafted blades, burins, and bone tools.
Solutrean tools: It is a type of tool technology that emerged around 22,000 years ago during the upper Paleolithic era. The Solutrean technology was characterized by finely crafted bifacial points and blades, as well as bone tools.
Magdalenian tools: It is a type of tool technology that emerged around 17,000 years ago during the Upper Paleolithic era. Magdalenian technology was characterized by finely crafted bone and antler tools, as well as projectile points and blades.
Clovis tools: Clovis technology emerged during the Paleo-Indian era around 13,000 years ago. Clovis tools were characterized by their distinctive fluted points and were used by some of the earliest humans in North America.
Folsom tools: Folsom technology emerged around 10,000 years ago during the Archaic period in North America. Folsom points were smaller and more finely crafted than Clovis points and were used to hunt a variety of large game.
Mesolithic tools: Mesolithic tools emerged around 10,000 years ago during a transitional period between the end of the Ice Age and the onset of agriculture. These tools were characterized by an increased use of microliths, or small, finely crafted stone blades.
Neolithic tools: Neolithic tools were developed between 10,000 and 4,500 years ago during the dawn of agriculture. These tools were characterized by the use of ground stone tools, including axes, hoes, and plows.
Bronze Age tools: Bronze Age tools emerged around 5,000 years ago and were characterized by the use of bronze, a tin and copper alloy that allowed for more precise and durable tools and weapons.
Iron Age tools: Iron Age tools emerged around 3,000 years ago and were characterized by the widespread use of iron, which allowed for even more precise and durable tools and weapons.
"It is the melting and smelting of copper that marks the end of the Stone Age. In Western Asia, this occurred by about 3,000 BC, when bronze became widespread."
"Though some simple metalworking of malleable metals, particularly the use of gold and copper for purposes of ornamentation, was known in the Stone Age..."
"The term Bronze Age is used to describe the period that followed the Stone Age, as well as to describe cultures that had developed techniques and technologies for working copper alloys... This occurred by about 3,000 BC when bronze became widespread."
"Stone Age artifacts that have been discovered include tools used by modern humans, by their predecessor species in the genus Homo, and possibly by the earlier partly contemporaneous genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus."
"Bone tools have been discovered that were used during this period as well..."
"The Stone Age is further subdivided by the types of stone tools in use."
"The next two periods are the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, respectively."
"The Stone Age is commonly divided into three distinct periods: the earliest and most primitive being the Paleolithic era; a transitional period with finer tools known as the Mesolithic era; and the final stage known as the Neolithic era."
"Neolithic peoples were the first to transition away from hunter-gatherer societies into the settled lifestyle of inhabiting towns and villages as agriculture became widespread."
"Bronze: originally copper and arsenic, later copper and tin."
"In Western Asia, the Stone Age ended by about 3,000 BC with the widespread use of bronze."
"Stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface."
"Some simple metalworking of malleable metals, particularly the use of gold and copper for purposes of ornamentation, was known in the Stone Age..."
"Copper alloys (bronze: originally copper and arsenic, later copper and tin) into tools, supplanting stone in many uses."
"In the chronology of prehistory, the Neolithic era usually overlaps with the Chalcolithic ('Copper') era preceding the Bronze Age."
"The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years..."
"The next two periods in the three-age system are the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, respectively."
"Stone Age artifacts that have been discovered include tools used by modern humans, by their predecessor species in the genus Homo, and possibly by the earlier partly contemporaneous genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus."
"Neolithic peoples were the first to transition away from hunter-gatherer societies into the settled lifestyle of inhabiting towns and villages as agriculture became widespread."