AGES AND AGES

To deal with the massive spans of time in this period, archaeologists traditionally
divide prehistory into three main periods: the Stone, Bronze and Iron ages, named
after the main technologies used at the time. And each period is subdivided – for
example, the Stone Age into the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic (Old,
Middle and New Stone Ages).
Archaeologists are using some of the most cutting-edge technology to find out
more about our distant past. Recent archaeological finds, as well as new scientific
techniques, have overturned old certainties. Isotopic and DNA analysis of animal
and human remains, chemical analysis of stone tools and pottery, and new ways of
interpreting radiocarbon dating are all helping to challenge long-held ideas and
raise new questions about this fascinating opening chapter of England’s story.

STONE AGE
The Stone Age marks a period of prehistory in which humans used primitive stone
tools. Lasting roughly 2.5 million years, the Stone Age ended around 5,000 years
ago when humans in the Near East began working with metal and making tools
and weapons from bronze.
During the Stone Age, humans shared the planet with a number of now-extinct
hominin relatives, including
WHEN WAS THE STONE AGE?
The Stone Age began about 2.6 million years ago, when researchers found the
earliest evidence of humans using stone tools, and lasted until about 3,300 B.C.
when the Bronze Age began. It is typically broken into three distinct periods: the
Paleolithic Period, Mesolithic Period and Neolithic Period.
Some experts believe the use of stone tools may have developed even earlier in
our primate ancestors, since some modern apes, including bonobos, can also use
stone tools to get food.
Stone artifacts tell anthropologists a lot about early humans, including how they
made things, how they lived and how human behavior evolved over time.
Paleolithic Period (Zaman Paleolitikum)
The Paleolithic Age, or Old Stone Age, spanned from around 30,000 BCE until
10,000 BCE and produced the first accomplishments in human creativity. Due to a
lack of written records from this time period, nearly all of our knowledge of
Paleolithic human culture and way of life comes from archaeological and
ethnographic comparisons to modern hunter-gatherer cultures. The Paleolithic
lasted until the retreat of the ice, when farming and use of metals were adopted.
THE EARLIEST HUMANS.
In 2010 archaeologists working near Happisburgh in Norfolk uncovered flint tools
dated to about 900,000 years ago. The people who used them were early humans
(known as hominoids) who periodically visited Britain in warmer eras between Ice
Ages.
During this time Britain wasn’t an island, but a peninsula of the European
continent. What is now the river Thames ran into the North Sea at Happisburgh.
The oldest human remains so far found in England date from about 500,000 years
ago, and belonged to a six-foot tall man of the species Homo heidelbergensis.
Shorter, stockier Neanderthals visited Britain between 300,000 and 35,000 years
ago, followed by the direct ancestors of modern humans.
Ice Age humans created the earliest known cave art in England at Creswell Crags
in Derbyshire about 13,000 years ago.

Paleolithic Societies
A typical Paleolithic society followed a hunter-gatherer economy. Humans hunted
wild animals for meat and gathered food, firewood, and materials for their tools,
clothes, or shelters. The adoption of both technologies—clothing and shelter—
cannot be dated exactly, but they were key to humanity's progress. As the
Paleolithic era progressed, dwellings became more sophisticated, more elaborate,
and more house-like. At the end of the Paleolithic era, humans began to produce
works of art such as cave paintings, rock art, and jewelry, and began to engage in
religious behavior such as burial and rituals .
Dwellings and Shelters
Early men chose locations that could be defended against predators and rivals and
that were shielded from inclement weather. Many such locations could be found
near rivers, lakes, and streams, perhaps with low hilltops nearby that could serve as
refuges. Since water can erode and change landscapes quite drastically, many of
these campsites have been destroyed. Our understanding of Paleolithic dwellings is
therefore limited.
As early as 380,000 BCE, humans were constructing temporary wood huts . Other
types of houses exist; these were more frequently campsites in caves or in the open
air with little in the way of formal structure. The oldest examples are shelters
within caves, followed by houses of wood, straw, and rock. A few examples exist
of houses built out of bones.

Caves
Caves are the most famous example of Paleolithic shelters, though the number of
caves used by Paleolithic people is drastically small relative to the number of
hominids thought to have lived on Earth at the time. Most hominids probably never
entered a cave, much less lived in one. Nonetheless, the remains of hominid
settlements show interesting patterns. In one cave, a tribe of Neanderthals kept a
hearth fire burning for a thousand years, leaving behind an accumulation of coals
and ash. In another cave, post holes in the dirt floor reveal that the residents built
some sort of shelter or enclosure with a roof to protect themselves from water
dripping on them from the cave ceiling. They often used the rear portions of the
cave as middens, depositing their garbage there.
In the Upper Paleolithic (the latest part of the Paleolithic), caves ceased to act as
houses. Instead, they likely became places for early people to gather for ritual and
religious purposes.
Tents and Huts
Modern archaeologists know of a few types of shelter used by ancient peoples
other than caves. Some examples do exist, but they are quite rare. In Siberia, a
group of Russian scientists uncovered a house or tent with a frame constructed of
mammoth bones. The great tusks supported the roof, while the skulls and
thighbones formed the walls of the tent. Several families could live inside, where
three small hearts, little more than rings of stones, kept people warm during the
winter. Around 50,000 years ago, a group of Paleolithic humans camped on a
lakeshore in southern France. At Terra Amata, these hunter-gatherers built a long
and narrow house. The foundation was a ring of stones, with a flat threshold stone
for a door at either end. Vertical posts down the middle of the house supported
roofs and walls of sticks and twigs, probably covered over with a layer of straw. A
hearth outside served as the kitchen, while a smaller hearth inside kept people
warm. Their residents could easily abandon both dwellings. This is why they are
not considered true houses, which was a development of the Neolithic period rather
than the Paleolithic period.

Paleolithic Artifacts
The Paleolithic era has a number of artifacts that range from stone, bone, and wood
tools to stone sculptures.
The Paleolithic or Old Stone Age originated around 30,000 BCE, lasting until
10,000 BCE, and is separated into three periods: the Lower Paleolithic (the earliest
subdivision), Middle Paleolithic, and Upper Paleolithic. The Paleolithic era is
characterized by the use of 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 .
The Mesolithic Period (Zaman Mesolitikum)
Mesolithic Art
During the Mesolithic period, humans developed cave paintings, engravings, and
ceramics to reflect their daily lives.
The Mesolithic Period, or Middle Stone Age, is an archaeological term describing
specific cultures that fall between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic Periods. While
the start and end dates of the Mesolithic Period vary by geographical region, it
dated approximately from 10,000 BCE to 8,000 BCE.

The Paleolithic was an age of purely hunting and gathering, but toward the
Mesolithic period the development of agriculture contributed to the rise of
permanent settlements. The later Neolithic period is distinguished by the
domestication of plants and animals. Some Mesolithic people continued with
intensive hunting, while others practiced the initial stages of domestication. Some
Mesolithic settlements were villages of huts , others walled cities.

The type of tool used is a distinguishing factor among these cultures. Mesolithic
tools were generally composite devices manufactured with small chipped stone
tools called microliths and retouched bladelets. The Paleolithic utilized more
primitive stone treatments, and the Neolithic mainly used polished rather than
chipped stone tools.
Art from this period reflects the change to a warmer climate and adaptation to a
relatively sedentary lifestyle, population size, and consumption of plants—all
evidence of the transition to agriculture and eventually the Neolithic period. Still,
food was not always available everywhere, and Mesolithic populations were often
forced to become migrating hunters and settle in rock shelters. It is difficult to find
a unique type of artistic production during the Mesolithic Period, and art forms
developed during the Upper Paleolithic (the latest period of the Paleolithic) were
likely continued. These included cave paintings and engravings, small sculptural
artifacts, and early architecture.
Mesolithic Rock Art
A number of notable Mesolithic rock art sites exist on the Mediterranean coast of
Spain. The art consists of small painted figures of humans and animals, which are
the most advanced and widespread surviving from this period in Europe and
possibly worldwide. Notably, this collection is the largest concentration of such art
in Europe. The human figure is frequently the main theme in painted scenes. When
in the same scene as animals, the human runs towards them. Hunting scenes are the
most common, but there are also scenes of battle and dancing, and possibly
agricultural tasks and managing domesticated animals. In some scenes gathering
honey is shown, most famously at Cuevas de la Araña en Bicorp.
The painting known as The Dancers of Cogul is a good example of the depiction of
movement in static art. In this scene, nine women are depicted, something new in
art of this region, some painted in black and others in red. They are shown dancing
around a male figure with abnormally large phallus, a figure that was rare if not
absent in Paleolithic art. Along with humans, several animals, including a dead
deer or buck impaled by an arrow or atlatl, are depicted.
Findings from Archaeological Excavations
Excavation of some megalithic monuments in Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia, and
France has revealed evidence of ritual activity, sometimes involving architecture,
during the Mesolithic Period. One megalith (circa 9350 BCE), found submerged in
the Strait of Sicily, was over 39 feet long and weighing nearly 530,000 pounds. Its
purpose remains unknown. In some cases, however, megalith monuments are so
far removed in time from their successors that continuity is unlikely. In other cases,
the early dates or the exact character of activity are controversial.

An engraved shale pendant unearthed in Star Carr, England in 2015 is believed to

be the oldest Mesolithic art form on the island of Great Britain. Engraved jewelry
from this period outside of Scandinavia is extremely rare. Although the hole in the
upper angle of the rock suggests that it was worn, archaeologists are currently
analyzing the object to determine whether this was the case. The incised patterns
are similar to those on pendants found in Denmark, which suggests contact with
cultures on the continent or migration from the continent to Britain. However,
these possibilities remain under investigation.
In northeastern Europe, Siberia, and certain southern European and North African
sites, a “Ceramic Mesolithic” can be distinguished between 7,000-3,850 BCE.
Russian archaeologists prefer to describe such pottery-making cultures as
Neolithic, even though farming is absent. These pottery-making Mesolithic
cultures were peripheral to the sedentary Neolithic cultures. They created a
distinctive type of pottery with point or knob base and flared rims, manufactured
by methods not used by the Neolithic farmers. Though each area of Mesolithic
ceramics developed an individual style , common features suggest a single point of
origin. The earliest manifestation of this type of pottery may have been around
Lake Baikal in Siberia.
Neolithic Revolution
The Neolithic Revolution, also called the Agricultural Revolution, marked the
transition in human history from small, nomadic bands of hunter-gatherers to
larger, agricultural settlements and early civilization. The Neolithic Revolution
started around 10,000 B.C. in the Fertile Crescent, a boomerang-shaped region of
the Middle East where humans first took up farming. Shortly after, Stone Age
humans in other parts of the world also began to practice agriculture. Civilizations
and cities grew out of the innovations of the Neolithic Revolution.
Neolithic Age ( Zaman Neolitikum)
The Neolithic Age is sometimes called the New Stone Age. Neolithic humans used
stone tools like their earlier Stone Age ancestors, who eked out a marginal
existence in small bands of hunter-gatherers during the last Ice Age.
Australian archaeologist V. Gordon Childe coined the term “Neolithic Revolution”
in 1935 to describe the radical and important period of change in which humans
began cultivating plants, breeding animals for food and forming permanent
settlements. The advent of agriculture separated Neolithic people from their
Paleolithic ancestors.
Many facets of modern civilization can be traced to this moment in history when
people started living together in communities.
V. Gordon Childe

V. Gordon Childe, in full Vere Gordon Childe, (born April 14, 1892, Sydney, New
South Wales, Australia—died October 19, 1957, Mount Victoria, New South
Wales), Australian-born British historian, linguist, and archaeologist whose study
of European prehistory of the 2nd and 3rd millennia BCE sought to evaluate the
relationship between Europe and the Middle East and to examine the structure and
character of the preliterate cultures of the Western world in antiquity. He also
directed the excavations at the important Neolithic site Skara Brae in Scotland's
Orkney Islands.

Causes of the Neolithic Revolution

There was no single factor that led humans to begin farming roughly 12,000 years
ago. The causes of the Neolithic Revolution may have varied from region to
region.
The Earth entered a warming trend around 14,000 years ago at the end of the last
Ice Age. Some scientists theorize that climate changes drove the Agricultural
Revolution.
In the Fertile Crescent, bounded on the west by the Mediterranean Sea and on the
east by the Persian Gulf, wild wheat and barley began to grow as it got warmer.
Pre-Neolithic people called Natufians started building permanent houses in the
region.
Other scientists suggest that intellectual advances in the human brain may have
caused people to settle down. Religious artifacts and artistic imagery—progenitors
of human civilization—have been uncovered at the earliest Neolithic settlements.
The Neolithic Era began when some groups of humans gave up the nomadic,
hunter-gatherer lifestyle completely to begin farming. It may have taken humans
hundreds or even thousands of years to transition fully from a lifestyle of
subsisting on wild plants to keeping small gardens and later tending large crop
fields.
FIRST FARMERS (4000 BC)
Perhaps the most important development in human history, farming was first
introduced to Britain around 4000 BC. The people who brought the techniques to
the island must have travelled from Europe by boat.
Although they farmed pulses, barley and wheat, people still relied on wild food and
resources. And rather than settle in one place, they still moved around within
territories. These territories were focused on great communal monuments. Some
were gathering places like the causewayed enclosure at Windmill Hill, Wiltshire
(built about 3650 BC). Others were burial sites with impressive long barrows.
Many had stone chambered tombs, such as Belas Knap, Gloucestershire, West
Kennet Long Barrow, Wiltshire (both about 3650 BC), and Wayland's Smithy,
Oxfordshire (about 3400 BC).
Neolithic Humans
The archaeological site of atalhöyük in southern Turkey is one of the best-
preserved Neolithic settlements. Studying atalhöyük has given researchers a better
understanding of the transition from a nomadic life of hunting and gathering to an
agriculture lifestyle.
Archaeologists have unearthed more than a dozen mud-brick dwellings at the
9,500 year-old atalhöyük. They estimate that as many as 8,000 people may have
lived here at one time. The houses were clustered so closely back-to-back that
residents had to enter the homes through a hole in the roof.
The inhabitants of atalhöyük appear to have valued art and spirituality. They buried
their dead under the floors of their houses. The walls of the homes are covered
with murals of men hunting, cattle and female goddesses.
Some of the earliest evidence of farming comes from the archaeological site of Tell
Abu Hureyra, a small village located along the Euphrates River in modern Syria.
The village was inhabited from roughly 11,500 to 7,000 B.C.

Inhabitants of Tell Abu Hureyra initially hunted gazelle and other game. Around
9,700 B.C. they began to harvest wild grains. Several large stone tools for grinding
grain have been found at the site.
Agricultural Inventions
Plant domestication: Cereals such as emmer wheat, einkorn wheat and barley were
among the first crops domesticated by Neolithic farming communities in the Fertile
Crescent. These early farmers also domesticated lentils, chickpeas, peas and flax.
Domestication is the process by which farmers select for desirable traits by
breeding successive generations of a plant or animal. Over time, a domestic species
becomes different from its wild relative.
Neolithic farmers selected for crops that harvested easily. Wild wheat, for instance,
falls to the ground and shatters when it is ripe. Early humans bred for wheat that
stayed on the stem for easier harvesting.
Around the same time that farmers were beginning to sow wheat in the Fertile
Crescent, people in Asia started to grow rice and millet. Scientists have discovered
archaeological remnants of Stone Age rice paddies in Chinese swamps dating back
at least 7,700 years.
In Mexico, squash cultivation began about 10,000 years ago, while corn-like crops
emerged around 9,000 years ago.
Livestock: The first livestock were domesticated from animals that Neolithic
humans hunted for meat. Domestic pigs were bred from wild boars, for instance,
while goats came from the Persian ibex. Domesticated animals made the hard,
physical labor of farming possible while their milk and meat added variety to the
human diet. They also carried infectious diseases: smallpox, influenza and the
measles all spread from domesticated animals to humans.

The first farm animals also included sheep and cattle. These originated in
Mesopotamia between 10,000 and 13,000 years ago. Water buffalo and yak were
domesticated shortly after in China, India and Tibet.
Draft animals including oxen, donkeys and camels appeared much later—around
4,000 B.C.—as humans developed trade routes for transporting goods.
Effects of the Neolithic Revolution
The Neolithic Revolution led to masses of people establishing permanent
settlements supported by farming and agriculture. It paved the way for the
innovations of the ensuing Bronze Age and Iron Age, when advancements in
creating tools for farming, wars and art swept the world and brought civilizations
together through trade and conquest.

BRONZE AGE (2300 – 800 BC)

In about 2300 BC the first metal weapons and jewellery began to arrive in Britain,
along with a new kind of pottery known as Beaker. People were buried with these
objects in individual graves, some of which were covered with round barrows. At
first the metal used was copper, but by about 2200 BC bronze (an alloy of copper
and tin) was being worked in Britain.
During the early Bronze Age, some people were buried in rich graves within round
barrows, accompanied by exotic imported goods. These burials have been found in
the area around Stonehenge, but also in Yorkshire and Derbyshire.
Often these burials were grouped in barrow cemeteries, such as Flowerdown
Barrows, Hampshire, and Winterbourne Poor Lot Barrows, Dorset. These rich,
individual burials signify a shift from the great Neolithic communal monuments.
During the middle and late Bronze Age, landscapes were divided up by great field
systems and people built permanent round houses, often grouped into villages such
as Grimspound in Devon. Elsewhere, competition for land and a need for security
prompted the construction of the earliest hillforts.

IRON AGE (800 BC – AD 50 )

In the early and middle Iron Age people built bigger and more elaborate hillforts
like Maiden Castle in Dorset and Old Oswestry in Shropshire. They also began to
make weapons and tools out of iron. Evidence of ritual offerings of military
equipment and fine metalwork suggest the dominance of a warrior aristocracy and
the emergence of tribal territories.
The late Iron Age saw the first coinage and the emergence of tribal centres such as
Lexden Earthworks, Essex, and Stanwick Iron Age Fortifications, North Yorkshire.
And it’s during this period that Britain came into contact with the Roman world, as
at Silchester, Hampshire.
And with this contact came the first written records of life on the island, from
Greeks and Romans. The most famous notes were made by Julius Caesar, who
raided Britain in 55–54 BC. Accounts from the period mention chariot warfare and
religious leaders called Druids, who supposedly worshipped in oak groves and
performed sacrifices.
Nearly a hundred years after Caesar’s raids, the emperor Claudius ordered a full
scale invasion – and this time the Romans intended to stay.

Source: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/story-of-
england/prehistory/
https://www.history.com/topics/pre-history/stone-age
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-
arthistory/chapter/the-paleolithic-period/
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-
arthistory/chapter/the-mesolithic-period/
https://www.history.com/topics/pre-history/neolithic-revolution
The Development of Agriculture; National Geographic .
The Seeds of Civilization; Smithsonian Magazine .