The Three Stone Ages

Paleolithic – Mesolithic - Neolithic

The Stone Age

• The Croods Clip

Pre-History

• Everything that happened before records began.

• All evidence comes from material remains left behind.

The Three Stone Ages

• All three words have the root word “lithic” in common.

• What does “lithic” mean?– Have you ever heard of a lithium

battery?– Lithos means Stone.

Paleolithic Mesolithic Neolithic

Three Stone Ages

Paleolithic Mesolithic Neolithic

Old or Ancient Stone Age

Middle Stone Age New Stone Age

The age in human culture characterized by the use of rough or chipped stone tools.

The age in human culture characterized by moving from a food-gathering society to a food-production society. Tools in this age often had “barbs” or hooks, or interchangeable blades.

The age in human culture characterized by the use of stone tools used to farm, pottery, weaving cloth, and baskets.

The Three Stone Ages

Paleolithic Age Mesolithic Age Neolithic Age25 million to 40,000 years ago 40,000 to 8,000 BC 8,000 to 3,500 BC

Human Migration

During the last ice age between 100,000 B.C. and 8000 B.C. the water level in the oceans dropped

revealing a land bridge over the Bering Strait connecting Asia and North America

The Spread of Homo Sapiens

Bering Land Bridge

Bering Land Bridge

• A Bering Strait crossing is a hypothetical bridge or tunnel spanning the relatively narrow and shallow Bering Strait between the Chukotka Peninsula in Russia and the Seward Peninsula in the U.S. state of Alaska. In principle, the bridge or tunnel would provide an overland connection linking Asia with North America, although there is little infrastructure in the nearby parts of Alaska and Russia.

Stone Age

• 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 6000 BCE and 2000 BCE with the advent of metalworking.

Paleolithic

• Of, relating to, or denoting the early phase of the Stone Age, lasting about 2.5 million years, when primitive stone implements were used.

Mesolithic

• Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a transitional period of the Stone Age intermediate between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic periods, characterized by adaptation to a hunting, collecting, and fishing economy based on the use of forest, lakeside, and seashore environments.

Neolithic

• Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the last phase of the Stone Age, marked by the domestication of animals, the development of agriculture, and the manufacture of pottery and textiles: commonly thought to have begun c 9000–8000 BC in the Middle East.

Human Migration

• The movement by people from one place to another with the intention of settling temporarily or permanently in the new location. The movement is typically over long distances and from one country to another, but internal migration is also possible.