THE BEGINNINGS OF CIVILIZATION

A. THE STONE AGE

PALEOLITHIC ERA

- The Paleolithic era, also known as the Old Stone Age, began approximately 2.6 million years
ago and lasted until around 12,000 years ago.
- In Greek, paleolithic means "old stone." Therefore, the Paleolithic Age is also called the Old Stone
Age.
- The onset of the Paleolithic Period has traditionally coincided with the first evidence of tool
construction and use by Homo some 2.58 million years ago, near the beginning of the
Pleistocene Epoch (2.58 million to 11,700 years ago).
How Paleolithic began

- The Paleolithic era, also known as the Old Stone Age, began approximately 2.6 million years
ago and lasted until around 12,000 years ago.
- In Greek, paleolithic means "old stone." Therefore, the Paleolithic Age is also called the Old Stone
Age.
- The onset of the Paleolithic Period has traditionally coincided with the first evidence of tool
construction and use by Homo some 2.58 million years ago, near the beginning of the
Pleistocene Epoch (2.58 million to 11,700 years ago).

How human lived in paleolithic

- During the Paleolithic Age, hominins grouped together in small societies such as bands and
subsisted by gathering plants, fishing, and hunting or scavenging wild animals.
- Lived in caves or simple huts or tepees were hunters and gatherers.
- Used basic stone and bone tools, crude stone axes, for hunting birds and wild animal.
- Cooked their prey, fished, and collected berries, fruits, and nuts.
- Ancient humans in the Paleolithic period were also the first to leave behind art.
- They used combinations of minerals, ochres, burnt bone meal and charcoal mixed into water,
blood, animal fats and tree saps to etch humans, animals, and signs.
- They also carved small figurines from stones, clay, bones and antlers.
- Paleolithic people often moved around in search of food. They were nomads (NOH • mads), or
people who regularly move from place to place to survive. They traveled in groups, or bands,
of about 20 or 30 members.
- Paleolithic people survived by hunting and gathering. The search for food was their main
activity, and it was often difficult. They had to learn which animals to hunt and which plants to
eat. Paleolithic people hunted buffalo, bison, wild goats, reindeer, and other animals,
depending on where they lived. Along coastal areas, they fished. These early people also
gathered wild nuts, berries, fruits, wild grains, and green plants.
- Paleolithic men and women performed different tasks within the group. Men—not women—
hunted large animals. They often had to search far from their camp. Men had to learn how
animals behaved and how to hunt them. They had to develop tracking methods. At first, men
used clubs or drove the animals off cliffs to kill them. Over time, however, Paleolithic people
developed tools and weapons to help them hunt. The traps and spears they made increased
their chances of killing their prey.
- Women stayed close to the camp, which was often located near a stream or other body of
water. They looked after the children and searched nearby woods and meadows for berries,
nuts, and grains. Everyone worked to find food, because it was the key to the group's survival.

Development of Tools

➢ Early Stone Age Tools

- The earliest stone toolmaking developed by at least 2.6 million years ago. The Early Stone Age
includes the most basic stone toolkits made by early humans. The Early Stone Age in Africa is
equivalent to what is called the Lower Paleolithic in Europe and Asia.
- The oldest stone tools, known as the Oldowan toolkit, consist of at least:
o Hammerstones that show battering on their surfaces
 o Stone cores that show a series of flake scars along one or more edges
o Sharp stone flakes that were struck from the cores and offer useful cutting edges, along
with lots of debris from the process of percussion flaking
o By about 1.76 million years ago, early humans began to strike really large flakes and then
continue to shape them by striking smaller flakes from around the edges. The resulting
implements included a new kind of tool called a handaxe. These tools and other kinds of
‘large cutting tools’ characterize the Acheulean toolkit.
o The basic toolkit, including a variety of novel forms of stone core, continued to be made.
It and the Acheulean toolkit were made for an immense period of time – ending in
different places by around 400,000 to 250,000 years ago.

The Lower Paleolithic is traditionally divided into the

- Oldowan Stage (about 2.6 million to 1 million years ago), which saw the development of pebble
(chopping) tools,
- Acheulean Stage (1.7–1.5 million years ago to about 250,000–200,000 years ago), in which more
sophisticated hand axes and cleaving tools emerged.
- Lomekwian Stage, to account for 700,000 years of early hammering and other rock-chipping
tools that predated the Oldowan Stage.
- Pebble tools have been found in association with the remains of what may have been some of
the earliest human ancestors.

The Middle Paleolithic

- Which was characterized by flake tools and the widespread use of fire, lasted from about
250,000 to 30,000 years ago.
- Between about 400,000 and 200,000 years ago, the pace of innovation in stone technology
began to accelerate very slightly. By the beginning of this time, handaxes were made with
exquisite craftsmanship, and eventually gave way to smaller, more diverse toolkits, with an
emphasis on flake tools rather than larger core tools. These toolkits were established by at least
285,000 years in some parts of Africa, and by 250,000-200,000 years in Europe and parts of
western Asia.
- One of the main innovations was the application of ‘prepared core technique,’ in which a core
was carefully flaked on one side so that for a flake of predetermined size and shape could be
produced in a single blow. This technique probably raised the level of standardization and
predictability in stone technology.
- Middle Stone Age toolkits included points, which could be hafted on to shafts to make spears.
When smaller points were eventually made, they could be attached to smaller, sleeker shafts to
make darts, arrows, and other projectile weapons. Stone awls, which could have been used to
perforate hides, and scrapers that were useful in preparing hide, wood, and other materials,
were also typical tools of the Middle Stone Age.
- ‘Middle Stone Age’ includes a variety of toolkits from Africa and also the toolkits usually referred
to as the Middle Paleolithic in Europe. These toolkits last until at least 50,000 to 28,000 years ago.
In Africa, the Middle Stone Age toolkits sometimes include blades and other types of
archeological evidence (beads and artifacts that indicate the use of color and symbols) that
are typical of the Upper Paleolithic in Europe.

The Upper Paleolithic

- Which saw the emergence of more sophisticated tools, lasted from about 50,000–40,000 years
ago until about 10,000 years ago.
- The Upper Paleolithic (ca 40,000-10,000 years BP) was a period of great transition in the world.
The Neanderthals in Europe became edged out and disappeared by 33,000 years ago, and
modern humans began to have the world to themselves. While the notion of a "creative
explosion" has given way to a recognition of a long history of the development of human
behaviors long before we humans left Africa, there is no doubt that things really got cooking
during the UP.
- Stone tools of the Upper Paleolithic were primarily blade-based technology. Blades are stone
pieces that are twice as long as they are wide and, generally, have parallel sides. They were
used to create an astonishing range of formal tools, tools created to specific, wide-spread
patterns with specific purposes. In addition, bone, antler, shell and wood were used to a great
 degree for both artistic and working tool types, including the first eyed needles presumably for
making clothing about 21,000 years ago.
- The UP is perhaps best known for the cave art, wall paintings and engravings of animals and
abstractions at caves such as Altamira, Lascaux, and Coa. Another development during the UP
is mobiliary art (basically, mobiliary art is that which can be carried), including the famous Venus
figurines and sculpted batons of antler and bone carved with representations of animals.
- People living during the Upper Paleolithic lived in houses, some built of mammoth bone, but
most huts with semi-subterranean (dugout) floors, hearths, and windbreaks.
- Hunting became specialized, and sophisticated planning is shown by the culling of animals,
selective choices by season, and selective butchery: the first hunter-gatherer economy.
Occasional mass animal killings suggest that in some places and at some times, food storage
was practiced. Some evidence (different site types and the so-called schlep effect) suggest
that small groups of people went on hunting trips and returned with meat to the base camps.
- The first domesticated animal appears during the Upper Paleolithic: the dog, companion to us
humans for over 15,000 years.
- Stone Age tools include the toolkits called ‘Upper Paleolithic’ in Europe and ‘Late Stone Age’ in
Africa. These toolkits are very diverse and reflect stronger cultural diversity than in earlier times.
The pace of innovations rose. Groups of Homo sapiens experimented with diverse raw materials
(bone, ivory, and antler, as well as stone), the level of craftsmanship increased, and different
groups sought their

CONTRIBUTIONS OF PALEOLITHIC

- Language, art, scientific inquiry, and spiritual life

- Tools and fire were two important technological developments of Paleolithic people.
Throughout history, people have used new technology to help them survive when the
environment changes. The ice ages were major environmental disturbances. The changes they
brought about threatened the very survival of humans.
- One important advancement was the development of spoken language. Up until this time,
early people communicated through sounds and physical gestures. Then they began to
develop language.
- Ancient peoples started to express themselves in words for the same reasons we do. We use
language to communicate information and emotions. Language makes it easier for us to work
together and to pass on knowledge. We also use words to express our thoughts and feelings.
The spoken language of early people was constantly growing and changing. New technology
and more complicated experiences, for example, required new words.
- Early people also expressed themselves through art. Some of this art can still be seen today,
even though it is thousands of years old. For example, in 1879 a young girl named Maria de
Sautuola wandered into a cave on her grandfather's farm near Altamira, Spain. She was startled
by what she discovered on the walls of that cave

B. THE NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION

NEOLITHIC ERA

- 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.
- 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.
- Early humans had to move from place to place, following the herds and finding plants. During
the Neolithic Age, humans began planting crops, providing a regular food source.
 - Domestication of animals, adapting them for human use, added a reliable source of meat, milk,
and wool. Animals could also be used to do work. Growing crops and taming food-producing
animals caused an agricultural revolution.
- Because there was enough food, humans had more control over their lives. It also meant they
could give up their nomadic ways of life and begin to live in settled communities. Some historians
believe this revolution was the single most important development in human history.
- This shift to food producing from hunting and gathering was not as sudden as was once
believed. During the Mesolithic Age (“Middle Stone Age,” about 10,000 to 7000 b.c.) there was
a gradual shift from the old food-gathering and hunting economy to a food-producing one.
There was also a gradual taming of animals. Moreover, throughout the Neolithic period, hunting
and gathering remained a way of life for many people around the world

NEOLITHIC TOOLS

➢ AXES

- During the Neolithic period, humans developed polished stone axes. Like other tools prior to this
era, the ax was shaped through flaking – a process which involved chipping away at the stone
until the desired shape and texture was achieved – and then smoothed down. This tool was
vital for the spread of agriculture and the settlement into permanent communities. And axes
had another important use: While they were effective for clearing land and fashioning materials
for building structures, they were also formidable weapons.
➢ SCRAPERS

- These early stone tools appeared prior to the Neolithic Age, but they maintained a spot in the
tool box because of their function: Scrapers were used in the butchering of animals and
rendering of hides, some of which would be used for clothing. The outfits might not have been
fashionable by any later standard, but they certainly kept their designers warm and protected.
- Scrapers were generally flat stones with long, slightly curved edges. Like all tools produced
before the Neolithic period, scrapers were made in a similar way to that of axes – by banging,
or chipping, off parts of the rock. This technique was known as “knapping..
➢ BLADES

- Blades were commonly used for hunting and butchering animals, but also for cutting up the
fruits and vegetables produced as agriculture developed during the Neolithic Age. In addition,
blades were used for tilling, which involved breaking up and loosening soil to prepare land for
crops. Because blades were finer than scrapers, they were harder to create. Skill and care were
necessary to prevent them from snapping in two during the knapping process.
- The difficult process was well worth the effort. Blades helped plant the seeds for future
development, and were critical to advancing the prehistoric world into the agricultural
revolution
➢ ARROWHEADS AND SPEARHEADS

- Even more difficult to create than blades were arrowheads and spearheads. Their shape and
thinness were challenging to make, and, once crafted, they had to be secured to shafts using
thread or sinew (a fibrous tissue collected from bones and tendons) and notches. The assembly
process required a higher degree of skill and innovation than the tools and weapons of previous
periods.
➢ LEAF-SHAPED FLINT

- Flint was one of the most important materials to early humans, as the rock would flake into sharp
edges. The process for crafting leaf-shaped flint, which has been found throughout Neolithic
sites, was similar to the method for making arrows and spears. This leaf shape is an ancient
design. It was first developed in the pre-neolithic era from materials like bones and wood. During
the Neolithic era early humans applied the design to flint. One drawback was that flint dulled
easily, but it could be easily sharpened. It did the trick for its time, and Neolithic humans made
use of this tool until they discovered stronger materials during the Bronze Age, when sharpened
stone was replaced by smelting (just as stone had replaced bone and wood before that).
➢ ADZES

- Another tool which greatly facilitated the transition to agricultural societies was the adze. Adzes
are made by fastening a flat blade to a handle, and they are used for woodworking. The tool is
operated by gouging out chips of wood from a larger piece of wood, and is still used to this
day. The adze made it possible to hollow out logs quickly, and helped with building on land and
developing even more tools to contribute to the newly settled communities, as well as preparing
land for cultivation. Adzes also aided in the future of transportation, a common use being to
carve out canoes. Progress can be an upstream struggle, but adzes made the journey
smoother.
 ➢ HAMMERS

- Where would we be without hammers today? Arguably one of the most influential Neolithic
technologies on this list (or at least the most common one today), this tool has stood the test of
time. Hammers eased the creation of new tools, and also made the construction of homes and
settlements a little less painstaking. The first hammers were created by carving a hole through a
rounded rock to form the head and fastening this to a handle with rope or sinew. These early
hammers may not be as vegan as the ones we have today, but they got the job done.

NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION

➢ The Neolithic agricultural revolution caused dramatic changes that affected how people would
live to the present day. Once people began settling in villages or towns, they saw the need to
build walls for protection and storehouses for goods. Storing surplus products encouraged trade.
Trading encouraged more people to learn crafts. This led to the division of labor.
➢ As artisans became more skilled, they made more refined tools. Flint blades were used to make
sickles and hoes for farming. Eventually, many of the food plants still in use today began to be
cultivated. Some plants, such as flax and cotton, were used to make yarn and cloth
➢ The change to systematic agriculture also had consequences for how men and women related
to one another. Men became more active in farming and herding animals, jobs that took them
away from the settlement. Instead of the whole family moving as in earlier times, women
remained behind. They cared for children, wove cloth for clothes, and did other tasks that kept
them in one place. As men took on more and more responsibility for obtaining food and
protecting the settlement, they began to play a more dominant role in society
➢ Effects of the Neolithic Revolution on Society
- The traditional view is that the shift to agricultural food production supported a denser
population, which in turn supported larger sedentary communities, the accumulation of goods
and tools, and specialization in diverse forms of new labor. Overall a population could increase
its size more rapidly when resources were more available. The resulting larger societies led to the
development of different means of decision making and governmental organization. Food
surpluses made possible the development of a social elite freed from labor, who dominated
their communities and monopolized decision-making. There were deep social divisions and
inequality between the sexes, with women’s status declining as men took on greater roles as
leaders and warriors. Social class was determined by occupation, with farmers and craftsmen
at the lower end, and priests and warriors at the higher.
➢ Effects of the Neolithic Revolution on Health
- Neolithic populations generally had poorer nutrition, shorter life expectancies, and a more
labor-intensive lifestyle than hunter-gatherers. Diseases jumped from animals to humans, and
 agriculturalists suffered from more anemia, vitamin deficiencies, spinal deformations, and dental
pathologies.
➢ Overall Impact of the Neolithic Revolution on Modern Life
- The way we live today is directly related to the advances made in the Neolithic Revolution. From
the governments we live under, to the specialized work laborers do, to the trade of goods and
food, humans were irrevocably changed by the switch to sedentary agriculture and
domestication of animals. Human population swelled from five million to seven billion today.
C. METAL AGE

➢ Metals have shaped history—magnifying our efforts, providing leisure time, and creating
empires—because metals allow us to shape our environment like no other materials. Ironically,
the first recognized metal, gold, is unchanging and nearly useless.
➢ Gold exists in an almost pure state in nature. It does not rust or corrode, and, undoubtedly, it
gleamed out from rocks or streambeds, catching the attention of humans in prehistoric times.
Gold can be easily shaped, but it is so soft that it cannot be used for weapons or tools.
➢ It was copper, beginning in about 4000 b.c., that allowed humans to extend the techniques of
metallurgy. Smelting, the use of heat to extract metal from ores, may have been discovered
accidentally by potters. Kilns are hot enough to form of copper if the malachite and other
copper-containing minerals are present during the firing process.
➢ Copper is too brittle to be cold hammered, but it could be hot hammered into sheets.
Concentrating copper would have required the melting together of smaller pieces. Copper is
a relatively soft metal, but it can be cast into tools and weapons.
➢ Copper became the starting point for the invention of alloys. This might have been helped out
by natural contamination, mistakes (such as confusion caused by the similarity of the flames
from copper and arsenic), or scarcity of ores. Whatever the source, it led to the creation of
bronze, the metal that ended the Stone Age, in about 3000 b.c.
➢
➢ The great advance in metallurgy occurred with the invention of bronze.
➢ It was used to produce very hard, resistant objects (swords and knives). The Metal Ages began
about 6,000 years ago. During the Metal Ages people started using metals, like copper, tin,
bronze and iron, to make tools and weapons. They heated and shaped the metals in hot
furnaces. People often used precious metals, like gold and silver, to make jewelry. With all these
changes, people’s lives became easier. Villages and towns also became bigger and more
prosperous. In time, people started building the first cities.
➢ The Metal Age is divided into three stages: the Copper Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age.
➢ The Metal Ages was the period when human beings advanced intricate techniques to work
metals, such as copper, bronze and iron. This skill allowed some civilizations to introduce other
economic, social, and cultural changes.

The Metal Ages is a period for which no fixed and absolute dating can be established. The term is
exclusively used in relation to populations in certain areas of the Near East, northern Egypt, and Europe.
The development of metallurgical techniques by the different populations was uneven, and an exact
date that would allow for a shared chronology for all cannot be precisely determined.

Nevertheless, a broad and indicative dating can be established, dividing the Metal Ages into the
following stages:
 ➢ Copper Age or Chalcolithic. This stage marks the beginnings of copper metallurgy, the origin of
urban life in the Near East (proto-urbanism), and the development of the first complex societies
(having social hierarchies). Timelines vary according to location: while in the East the
Chalcolithic begins around 5000 BC, in the Iberian Peninsula it begins in the 3rd millennium BC.
➢ Bronze Age. This stage roughly spans the period from 3000 to 800 BC. It was characterized by
the discovery of alloying as a technique for smelting different metals. The alloying of copper
with tin gave rise to bronze, a more durable metal. Urban life emerged in several European
populations and chiefdoms appeared.
➢ Iron Age. This stage saw the emergence of the first states, the widespread use of iron for the
manufacture of weapons and tools, and the transition to the historical era, with the invention of
writing. As population density rose across territories, warfare increased, making iron a preferred
substance in the development of metallurgical techniques.

End of the Metal Ages

The end of the Metal Ages is marked by the invention and adoption of writing. With the first written
records, Prehistory ends and History begins (with the period called Ancient history). However, the
advent of writing occurred at different times for different populations, being often linked to the
emergence of centralized states.

In the Near East, Prehistory ended around 3300 BC, with the emergence of Sumerian script at Uruk. In
Egypt, it occurred around 3000 BC, with the rise of the first pharaonic dynasties and the appearance
of the earliest written records in Abydos. In contrast, in Greece, the Metal Ages ended around 800 BC,
and in Italy not until around 500 BC. In several regions of Northern Europe, the Iron Age extends up to
the 6th century AD.

Major inventions of the Metal Ages

➢ The stone furnace, used for smelting metals, crafting pottery, or heating food.
➢ Pottery, including the manufacture of molds for metal casting.
➢ The manufacture of weapons and armor for warfare.
➢ Weaving with single yarns.
➢ Irrigation canals to supply vast harvests.
➢ The grain mill for grinding cereals.
➢ Early boats, made of logs and, later, provided with a type of sail for wind propulsion, allowing
for the transport of heavier goods.
➢ The wheel and, consequently, the cart as a basic transportation tool, making trade over greater
distances possible.
https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/behavior/stone-tools/later-stone-age-tools

https://nsms6thgradesocialstudies.weebly.com/hunter-
gatherers.html#:~:text=Paleolithic%20people%20survived%20by%20hunting,and%20which%20plants%
20to%20eat.

https://www.britannica.com/event/Paleolithic-Period

https://www.thoughtco.com/upper-paleolithic-modern-humans-173073

https://www.magellantv.com/articles/tools-of-the-neolithic-era-inventing-a-new-age

Chap 1 - the first humans.pdf

https://xtec.gencat.cat/web/.content/alfresco/d/d/workspace/SpacesStore/0034/123e50f1-ff9a-
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https://humanidades.com/en/metal-ages/

Metallurgy through the Ages | Encyclopedia.com

ACTIVITY

“STO-LK SHOW”

- A stone age era talk show

MECHANICS:

- The class will be divided into three groups

o Group 1 – PALEOLITHIC
o Group 2 – NEOLITHIC
o Group 3 – METAL AGE
- The groups will gather information through the reading material about the following:
o Background
o Way of life
o Tools invented
o Greatest invention/contribution
- The groups will make a short talk show segment with the information they gathered.
- The groups will present their presentation through a talk show presentation

RUBRICS:

Content – 10

Presentation – 10

Cooperation – 5