Key facts about the Stone Age

  • The Stone Age covers more than 99% of our history
  • It runs from about 3.4 million years ago until about 2500BCE
  • The Stone Age was an important time for change, physically, intellectually and socially

The Stone Age is the name given for human prehistory (that happened before history, that’s not written down) from the first humans who used tools through to the use of metal.tooltip It is called the Stone Age because much of the physical evidence left behind by humans (apart from bones and some monuments) is stone tools. Stone tools, being made of stone, last a long time, and so these tools are mostly what we have left of the people who used them. That doesn't mean that they didn't use other things, such as wood, just that the wooden tools haven’t lasted as long.tooltip

The Stone Age can be difficult to study, because what we know about it changes all the time as new discoveries are made, and because we don't have the quality or quantity of information we have for other periods. However, this can make it a very interesting time to study.

Because the Stone Age covers such a huge amount of time, it is broken down into smaller parts. These are:

  • The Palaeolithic, or Old Stone Age. This in turn is split into subdivisions of Lower (which is the oldest), Middle and Upper Palaeolithic;
  • The Mesolithic, or Middle Stone Age; and
  • The Neolithic, or New Stone Age

Each period contains significant events: the Palaeolithic is where modern humans, or Homo sapiens, evolved and when we saw huge variations in the weather; the Mesolithic, which began after the last retreat of the ice,tooltip marks a time of development of human culture; and the Neolithic saw a huge change to the lives of humans through the introduction of farming.

Most of human history (or prehistory) is covered by the Stone Age. During this time, human species came, went and evolved, as did many plants and animals including the large species (or megafauna) such as mammoths and sabre-toothed cats. The earth changed dramatically, as the ice sheets moved down from the north, drying the land and the seas, before retreating again, causing waves of floods. The last time this happened was about 10,000 years ago, after which the English Channel was again created and cut Britain off from the rest of Europe. Not just human species, but also human society and ability, were shaped during this time. Elements such as the use of tools, the way we gather or farm food, the way we eat, how we talk and interact with other people, with the land, and with animals, and what we believe, were all honed during this time.

Things to think about

  • How are new discoveries changing the way we think about the Stone Age?
  • Why is the Stone Age important?
  • How can we study the Stone Age?

Further reading

It is always difficult to recommend books on prehistoric Britain because they become out of date as soon as they are published. But without a shadow of doubt the best book on the market at the moment is Stringer and Dinnis' book Britain: One Million Years of the Human Story.