the stone age the earliest people

Earliest humans

Hunter-gatherers living millions of years ago who depended directly on nature for survival.

Palaeolithic Age

The Old Stone Age when people primarily hunted and gathered food, lived in caves or temporary shelters, and used roughly shaped stone tools.

Mesolithic Age

The Middle Stone Age marked by smaller, more specialized tools called microliths and a gradual attachment to particular places.

Neolithic Age

The New Stone Age characterized by the beginning of agriculture, animal domestication, and the development of pottery and weaving.

Importance of fire

Used by early humans for cooking food, keeping warm, protecting from wild animals, providing light, and aiding in tool-making.

Rock art

Paintings or engravings showing animals, hunting scenes, and everyday activities, providing clues about early human life.

Agriculture

The shift from hunting and gathering to cultivating crops and domesticating animals, a major change in human history.

Domestication of animals

The process of keeping certain animals and controlling their breeding for food, materials, and labor.

Settled communities

Developments resulting from agriculture and domestication, leading to permanent settlements and complex social organizations.

Evidence of early humans

Historians and archaeologists study stone tools, bones, pottery, rock paintings, and settlement remains to learn about early human life.