what are the characteristics of stone age
Answers
Explanation:
The Paleolithic era is defined by the appearance and development of the earliest cultures to use stone tools. The Stone Age as a larger category is divided into three eras: the Paleolithic, the oldest Stone Age; the Mesolithic, or middle Stone Age; and the Neolithic, or new Stone Age.
Answer:
The Paleolithic Era
In the broadest terms, the Paleolithic is simply defined as the Stone Age. The Paleolithic era is defined by the appearance and development of the earliest cultures to use stone tools. The Stone Age as a larger category is divided into three eras: the Paleolithic, the oldest Stone Age; the Mesolithic, or middle Stone Age; and the Neolithic, or new Stone Age.
The Paleolithic corresponds to the time frame roughly known as the Ice Age, also called the Pleistocene by geologists. It lasted until 10,000 BC, when glaciers began melting and humans developed new stone tools. The official beginning of the Paleolithic, as recognized by archeologists, is roughly 2.6 million years ago. That's a long time ago, and yes, that is before humans. The very first stone tools were not created by humans, but by our ancestors, and the story of the Paleolithic begins with them.
Stone Tools Before Humans
The evidence of stone tools goes all the way back to 2.6 million years ago, when early members of the Homo genus, our evolutionary cousins, evolved big enough brains to take two rocks, hit them together and make a sharp edge. These tools tended to be rough, rudimentary, and somewhat crude. The process of making stone tools, called knapping, is intense. It could take hours, and with a single wrong move, the entire tool could shatter into a hundred pieces of worthless stone.
A later species, Homo erectus, had a slightly larger brain and developed more complex stone tools that could be used for a variety of daily chores. Homo erectus means upright man because they had a fully upright posture that was much less ape-like than its ancestors. They developed the Acheulean style of stone tools, which were small hand-axes that showed evidence of being crafted carefully and had sharp edges on both sides. The desired stone was hit with a harder rock, breaking off a large chunk that had sharp edges. Those edges were then chipped and refined into aconsistent ridge that was more efficient for cutting. They were the most advanced tools created by any species of Earth. Until, that is, the rise of Homo sapiens.