What was the Stone Age?
The Stone Age was the long prehistoric period when humans made tools mainly from stone. It began more than 3 million years ago and ended in different regions between about 6000 and 2000 BC, when metalworking spread.
The Stone Age is divided into three parts. The Paleolithic, or Old Stone Age, covers most of human history, when people lived as hunter-gatherers and used chipped stone tools. During this time, humans learned to control fire, made cave paintings and spread around the world.
The Mesolithic, or Middle Stone Age, was a transition period after the last Ice Age, with smaller, more refined tools. The Neolithic, or New Stone Age, began around 10,000 BC in the Middle East, when people started farming, domesticating animals, making pottery and building permanent villages.
Stone Age art
Stone Age people created remarkable art, such as the cave paintings at Lascaux and Chauvet in France and at Altamira in Spain. Some cave art in Indonesia is more than 45,000 years old. Monuments like Stonehenge in England were built at the end of the Stone Age.
Did You Know?
The oldest known stone tools, found at Lomekwi in Kenya, are about 3.3 million years old, older than the genus Homo.