1. Early
Settlements
By:- Bhakti Dhoria
Amit Sharma
Shalin Patel
Koosh Vyas
Jeel Shah
2. Stone Age
• The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period
during which stone was widely used to
make implements with a sharp edge, a
point, or a percussion surface.
• The period lasted roughly 3.4 million
years, and ended between 4500 BC and
2000 BC with the advent of metalworking.
3.
4.
5.
6. Stone Age artifacts include tools used by humans
and by their predecessor species in the
genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly
contemporaneous genera Australopithecus and P
aranthropus.
Bone tools were used during this period as well,
but are more rarely preserved in the
archaeological record. The Stone Age is further
subdivided by the types of stone tools in use.
7.
8. Historical Significance
The Stone Age is nearly 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, toward the north in Ethiopia
9. 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.
The grasslands of the rift, the ancestors of man found
an ecological niche as a tool-maker and developed a
dependence on it. Homo erectus, the predecessor of
modern humans, became a "tool
equipped savanna dweller.―
11. Family tree showing the extant hominoids:
humans (genus Homo), chimpanzees and
bonobos (genus Pan), gorillas (genus Gorilla).
12.
13. The Stone Age in archaeology
In 2010, fossilised animal bones
bearing marks from stone tools were
found in the Lower Awash Valley in
Ethiopia.
Discovered by an international team
led by Shannon McPherron, they are
the oldest evidence of stone tool use
ever found anywhere in the world.
14. The species who made the Pliocene tools
remains unknown. Fragments of
Australopithecus garhi, Australopithecus
aethiopicus and Homo, possibly Homo
habilis, have been found in sites near the
age of the oldest tools.
15. The oldest known stone tools have been
excavated from several sites at
Gona, Ethiopia, on the sediments of the
paleo-Awash River, which serve to date
them.
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.
17. The major subdivisions of the Three-age Stone
Age cross two epoch boundaries on the
geologic time scale:
The geologic Pliocene—Pleistocene boundary (highly
glaciated climate)
The Paleolithic period of archaeology
The geologic Pleistocene—Holocene boundary
(modern climate)
Mesolithic or Epipaleolithic period of archaeology
Neolithic period of archaeology.
18. End of the Stone Age
Innovation of the technique
of smelting ore ended the Stone Age and
began the Age of Metals. The first most
significant metal manufactured
was bronze, an alloy of copper and tin,
each of which was smelted separately.
19. 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.
20. 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.
The transition out of the Stone Age occurred between
6000 BCE and 2500 BCE for much of humanity living
in North Africa and Eurasia.
21. 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 find new food
sources.
22. Microliths were used in the manufacture of
more efficient composite tools, resulting in an
intensification of hunting and fishing 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.
24. Neolithic
The Neolithic, New Stone Age, was
approximately characterized by the
adoption of agriculture, the shift from food
gathering to food producing in itself is one
of the most revolutionary changes in
human history so-called Neolithic
Revolution, the development
of pottery, polished stone tools and more
complex, larger settlements such as Çatal
Hüyük and Jericho.
25. Some of these features began in certain
localities even earlier, in the transitional
Mesolithic. The first Neolithic cultures started
around 7000 BCE in the fertile crescent and
spread concentrically to other areas of the
world.
However, 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.
27. The Earlier or Early Stone
Age (ESA)
This period is not to be identified with "Old
Stone Age", a translation of Paleolithic, or
with Paleolithic, or with the "Earlier Stone
Age" that originally meant what became the
Paleolithic and Mesolithic.
In the initial decades of its definition by the
Pan-African Congress of Prehistory, it was
parallel in Africa to the Upper and Middle
Paleolithic. However, since then Radiocarbon
dating has shown that the Middle Stone Age
is in fact contemporaneous with the Middle
Paleolithic.
28. The Early Stone Age therefore is
contemporaneous with the Lower
Paleolithic and happens to include the same
main
technologies, Oldowan and Acheulean, which
produced Mode 1 and Mode 2 stone
tools respectively.
A distinct regional term is
warranted, however, by the location and
chronology of the sites and the exact
typology.
30. The Middle Stone Age (MSA)
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. It is considered as an
equivalent of European Middle Paleolithic.
It is associated with anatomically modern or
almost modern Homo sapiens.
Early physical evidence comes from Omo and
Herto, both in Ethiopia and dated respectively at
c. 195 ka and at c. 160 ka.
31. The Later Stone Age (LSA)
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 thus
includes cultures corresponding to
Mesolithic and Neolithic in other
regions.
32. Material culture
Tools
Stone tools were made from a variety of stone. For
example, flint 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 pottery. Agriculture was
developed and certain animals were domesticated.
33. Some species of non-Primates are able to use stone
tools, such as the Sea Otter, which
breaks Abalone shells with them. Primates can both
use and manufacture stone tools. This combination of
abilities is more marked in apes and men, but only
men, or more generally Hominans, depend on tool
use for survival.
The key anatomical and behavioral features required
for tool manufacture, which are possessed only by
Hominans, are the larger thumb and the ability to
hold by means of an assortment of grips.
34. 2. Food and drink
Food sources of the Palaeolithic hunter-
gatherers were wild plants and animals harvested
from the environment. 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 finds from
the Mousterian layers of Kebara Cave, in Israel.
35. Moreover, recent evidence indicates that humans
processed and consumed wild cereal grains as far
back as 23,000 years ago in the Upper Paleolithic.
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 first Holocene extinction event. A number of
factors have been suggested for the extinction:
certainly over-hunting, but also deforestation and
climate change.
36. During the last glacial, clans hunted herds
of bison, horses, reindeer and mammoths that roamed
the tundra and grasslands. At first they used stone axes
and wooden spears. Later, spears with bone or flint
barbs were developed, and spear-throwers were used
to throw the spear further and harder. Animals were
attacked directly or caught in pitfall traps or snares.
Alternatively, a whole herd might be chased over a cliff
or into an ambush. This was a good way to build up a
large supply of meat. Every part of a kill was used. The
meat was cooked for food or dried to preserve it.
37. 3. Shelter And Habitat
Around 2 million years ago, Homo habilis is believed to
have constructed the first 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 thousand years old was discovered
at Terra Amata, near Nice, France. (Concerns about
the dating have been raised, see Terra Amata).
Several human habitats dating back to the Stone Age
have been discovered around the globe, including:
38. A tent-like structure inside a cave near the Grotte du
Lazaret, Nice, France.
A structure with a roof supported with
timber, discovered in Dolni Vestonice, The Czech
Republic, dates to around 23,000 BCE. The walls
were made of packed clay blocks and stones.
Many huts made of mammoth bones were found in
Eastern Europe and Siberia. The people who made
these huts were expert mammoth hunters. Examples
have been found along the Dniepr river valley
of Ukraine, including
near Chernihiv, in Moravia, Czech Republic and in
southern Poland.
39. An animal hide tent dated to around 15000
to 10000 BCE, in the Magdalenian, was discovered
at Plateau Parain, France.
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.
41. An artist's rendering of a temporary wood house,
based on evidence found at Terra Amata (in Nice, France)
and dated to the Lower Paleolithic (c. 400,000 BP)
42. 4. Rock paintings
In paleolithic times, mostly animals were painted, in
theory ones that were used as food or represented
strength, such as the rhinoceros or large cats (as in
the Chauvet Cave). Signs such as dots were sometimes
drawn. Rare human representations include handprints
and half-human/half-animal figures. The Cave of Chauvet
in the Ardèche département,
The Altamira cave paintings in Spain were done 14,000 to
12,000 BCE and show, among others, bisons. The hall of
bulls in Lascaux, Dordogne, France, dates from about
15,000 to 10,000 BCE.
43. The meaning of many of these paintings remains
unknown. They may have been used for seasonal
rituals. The animals are accompanied by signs that
suggest a possible magic use. Arrow-like symbols
in Lascaux are sometimes interpreted
as calendar or almanac use, but the evidence
remains interpretative.
Some scenes of the Mesolithic, however, can be
typed and therefore, judging from their various
modifications, are fairly clear. One of these is the
battle scene between organized bands of archers.
45. A modern interpretation of the bison from
the Altamira cave ceiling,
one of the most famous paintings in the cave.
46. 5.Technology
Paleolithic humans made tools of stone, bone, and
wood. The earliest Paleolithic stone tool industry,
the Olduwan, was developed by the earliest
members of the genus Homo such as Homo
habilis, around 2.6 million years ago.
It contained tools such as
choppers, burins and awls. It was completely
replaced around 250,000 years ago by the more
complex Acheulean industry, which was first
conceived by Homo ergaster around 1.8 or 1.65
million years ago.
47. The most recent Lower Paleolithic (Acheulean)
implements completely vanished from the archeological
record around 100,000 years ago and were replaced by
more complex Middle Paleolithic/Middle Stone Age tool
kits such as the Mousterian and the Aterian industries.
Lower Paleolithic humans used a variety of stone
tools, including hand axes and choppers. Although they
appear to have used hand axes often, there is
disagreement about their use. Interpretations range from
cutting and chopping tools, to digging implements, flake
cores, the use in traps and a purely ritual
significance, maybe in courting behavior.
48. Choppers and scrapers were likely used for
skinning and butchering scavenged animals and
sharp ended sticks were often obtained for digging
up edible roots. Presumably, early humans used
wooden spears as early as 5 million years ago to
hunt small animals, much as their
relatives, chimpanzees, have been observed to do
in Senegal, Africa. Lower Paleolithic humans
constructed shelters such as the possible wood hut
at Terra Amata.
Period.
49. Fire was used by the Lower Paleolithic
hominid Homo erectus/Homo ergaster as early as
300,000 or 1.5 million years ago and possibly even
earlier by the early Lower Paleolithic (Oldowan)
hominid Homo habilis and/or by robust
australopithecines such
as Paranthropus. However, the use of fire only
became common in the societies of the
following Middle Stone Age/Middle Paleolithic
50. Use of fire reduced mortality rates and provided protection
against predators. Early hominids may have begun to cook
their food as early as the Lower Paleolithic (c. 1.9 million
years ago) or at the latest in the early Middle Paleolithic
(c. 250,000 years ago). Some scientists have hypothesized
that Hominids began cooking food to defrost frozen meat,
which would help ensure their survival in cold regions.
51. Modern popular culture and
the Stone Age
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.
Other depictions of the Stone Age
include a group of neanderthals
searching for their lost fire.
52.
53. Paleolithic
The Paleolithic (also
spelt Palaeolithic or Palæolithic) Age, Era or Period, is a
prehistoric period of human history distinguished by the
development of the most primitive stone tools discovered
(Modes I and II), and covers roughly 99% of human
technological prehistory.
It extends from the earliest known use of stone
tools, probably by Hominins such as Australopithecines, 2.6
million years ago, to the end of the Pleistocene around
10,000 BP. The Paleolithic era is followed by the Mesolithic.
The date of the Paleolithic—Mesolithic boundary may vary
by locality as much as several thousand years.
54. • During the Paleolithic, humans grouped
together in small societies such as bands,
and subsisted by gathering plants and
hunting or scavenging wild animals.
55. The Paleolithic is characterized by the use
of knapped stone tools, although at the time humans also
used wood and bone tools. Other organic commodities were
adapted for use as tools, including leather and vegetable fibers;
however, due to their nature, these have not been preserved to
any great degree. Surviving artifacts of the Paleolithic era are
known as paleoliths. Humankind gradually evolved from early
members of the genus Homo such as Homo habilis – who used
simple stone tools – into fully behaviorally and anatomically
modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) during the Paleolithic
era. During the end of the Paleolithic, specifically the Middle and
or Upper Paleolithic, humans began to produce the earliest works
of art and engage in religious and spiritual behavior such as
burial and ritual.
56. The climate during the Paleolithic
consisted of a set of glacial
and interglacial periods in which the
climate periodically fluctuated between
warm and cool temperatures.
58. The Paleolithic is characterized by the use of knapped stone tools,
although at the time humans also used wood and bone tools. Other
organic commodities were adapted for use as tools,
including leather and vegetable fibers; however, due to their nature,
these have not been preserved to any great degree. Surviving
artifacts of the Paleolithic era are known as paleoliths.
Humankind gradually evolved from early members of the
genus Homo such as Homo habilis – who used simple stone tools –
into fully behaviorally and anatomically modern humans (Homo
sapiens sapiens) during the Paleolithic era.
59. During the end of the Paleolithic, specifically the
Middle and or Upper Paleolithic, humans began to
produce the earliest works of art and engage in
religious and spiritual behavior such as burial and
ritual.
The climate during the Paleolithic consisted of a set
of glacial and interglacial periods in which the climate
periodically fluctuated between warm and cool
temperatures.
60. This cranium, of Homo heidelbergensis,
a Lower Paleolithic predecessor to Homo neanderthalensis
and possibly Homo sapiens,
dates to sometime between 500,000 to 400,000 BP.
61. Paleogeography And Climate
The climate of the Paleolithic Period spanned two
geologic epochs known as the Pliocene and the
Pleistocene. Both of these epochs experienced
important geographic and climatic changes that
affected human societies.
During the Pliocene, continents continued
to drift from possibly as far as 250 km from their
present locations to positions only 70 km from their
current location.
62. The formation of the Isthmus had major
consequences on global
temperatures, because warm equatorial ocean
currents were cut off, and the cold Arctic and
Antarctic waters lowered temperatures in the
now-isolated Atlantic Ocean. Central
America formed completely during the
Pliocene, allowing fauna from North and South
America to leave their native habitats and
colonize new areas.
63. Africa's collision with Asia created the Mediterranean Sea,
cutting off the remnants of the Tethys Ocean. During
the Pleistocene, the modern continents were essentially at
their present positions; the tectonic plates on which they sit
have probably moved at most 100 km from each other since
the beginning of the period.
Climates during the Pliocene became cooler and drier, and
seasonal, similar to modern climates. Ice sheets grew
on Antarctica. The formation of an Arctic ice cap around 3
Ma is signaled by an abrupt shift in oxygen isotope ratios
and ice-rafted cobbles in the North Atlantic and
North Pacific ocean beds. Mid-latitude glaciation probably
began before the end of the epoch. The global cooling that
occurred during the Pliocene may have spurred on the
disappearance of forests and the spread
of grasslands and savannas.
64. 1. The Paleolithic climate consisted of a
set of glacial and interglacial periods
65. Many great mammals such as wooly
mammoths, wooly rhinoceros, and cave
lions inhabited places like Siberia during the
Pleistocene
66. Paleoindians hunting a glyptodon.
Glyptodons were hunted to extinction within
2 millennia after humans' arrival to South America.
