description of life in the paleolithic age

1. PALEOLITHIC
CIVILIZATION

2. PALEOLITHIC AGE
 The Paleolithic means(from greek) Paleo – “old” + Lithos
– “stone”.
 The Paleolithic Age is a prehistoric era distinguished by
the development of the most primitive stone tools yet
discovered and covers roughly 99% of human
technological prehistory.
 During the Paleolithic, humans grouped together in small
societies such as bands, and sustained by gathering
plants and hunting or scavenging wild animals.

3. • The Paleolithic is the first period of the Stone Age, i.e.,
Old Stone Age.
• Paleolithic dates from the first stone tool makers (approx.
2 million BCE) to about10,000 BCE.It was a period of
time that lasted until about 12,000 to 70,000 years ago.
• The Paleolithic era mainly consisted three periods as
below:
• Lower Paleolithic (2 million-100,000 B.C.)
• Middle Paleolithic (100,000-30,000 B.C.)
• Upper Paleolithic (30,000-10,000 B.C.)
Lower Middle Upper

5. HUMAN
TIMELINE
HUMAN MIGRATION
- Earliest human migrations and expansions of archaic
and modern humans across continents began 2 million
years ago with the migration out of Africa of Homo
erectus.
- This was followed by the migrations of other pre-
modern humans, the likely ancestors of both modern
humans and Neanderthals.
- Finally, Homo sapiens ventured out of Africa around
100,000 years ago, spread across Asia around
60,000 years ago and arrived on new continents and
islands since then.
- Knowledge of early human migrations, a major topic
of archeology, has been achieved by the study of human
fossils, occasionally by stone-age artifacts and more
recently has been assisted
by archaeogenetics. Cultural and ethnic migrations are
estimated by combining archaeogenetics and comparative
linguistics.

6. MIGRATION OF EARLY HUMANS (HOMO ERECTUS):
- Homo erectus migrated from out of Africa via the Levantine
corridor and Horn of Africa to Eurasia during the Early Pleistocene,
possibly as a result of the operation of the Saharan pump, around 1.9
million years ago, and dispersed throughout most of the Old World,
reaching as far as Southeast Asia.
- Key sites for this early migration out of Africa are Riwat in
Pakistan, Ubeidiya in the Levant and Dmanisi in the Caucasus.
- Southeast Asia (Java) was reached about 1.7 million years ago
(Meganthropus).
- Western Europe was first populated around 1.2 million years ago
(Atapuerca).
Anthropologists believe that H. erectus was the first hominid to control fire.
Homo Erectus
MIGRATION OF HUMANS (HOMO SAPIENS):
When modern humans reached the Near East 125,000 years ago, evidence suggests they
retreated back to Africa, as their settlements were replaced by Neanderthals.
- It is now believed that the first modern humans to spread east across Asia left Africa
about 75,000 years ago.
- From the Near East, some of these people went east to South Asia by 50,000 years ago,
- On to Australia by 46,000 years ago at the latest, when for the first time H.
sapiens reached territory never reached by H. erectus.
- H. sapiens reached Europe around 43,000 years ago
- East Asia was reached by 30,000 years ago. Archaeological and genetic data suggest
that the source populations of Paleolithic humans survived in sparsely wooded areas
and dispersed through areas of high primary productivity while avoiding dense forest
cover.

7. CHARACTERISTICS
 The people were hunters and gatherers.
 They lived in small groups of about 20-30 people.
 Absolute dependence on by gathering food and hunting
animals.
 Developed simple tools from stone, bone or wood.
 Nomadic way of life (moving from place to place to hunt)
 Cave paintings and religious rituals.
 Sexual division of labor.
 Invented clothing.

8. AwlChopper
Burin
Hand axe
Mousterian
Aterian
Adze

9. PALEOLITHIC TOOLS
Upper Paleolithic tools were made by anatomically modern humans and
incorporated a range of techniques. These people also made tools from bone
and ivory. As well, people of the Upper Paleolithic made figurines and painted
extremely sophisticated art, often called "cave paintings.“
• Flints were very popular, as they helped
the people create fires. Humans also made
thin stone blades which they used as
spear heads
• The bow and arrow was created in 20
000 BCE and helped hunters kill animals
easier.
• Hand Axe: a stone tool with a cutting edge; the stone is held in the hand
and used for chopping
• Flint: a very hard, fine-grained stone that sparks for fire when struck
• Spearhead: the sharp-pointed head that forms the piercing end of a spear

10. Mousterian
Tools were
made by
Neanderthals. A
specialized core
technique called
Levallois was
used to
manufacture
flakes, which
could then be
made into points
or other
implements.
Some of the
technique and
tools shapes
may have been
dictated by
slighlty less
dextrous
Neanderthal
hands.
Acheulean (also spelled
Acheulian) tools were
made by Homo erectus.
Most were chopping and
cutting tools. Many were
well formed hand axes
and cleavers.
- Acheulean , is
an archaeological
industry of stone
tool manufacture
characterized by
distinctive oval and
pear-shaped "hand-
axes" associated
with early humans.
Acheulean tools were
produced during
the Lower
Palaeolithic era across
Africa and much of West
Asia, South Asia, and
Europe, and are typically
found with Homo
erectus remains.
PALEOLITHIC TOOLS

11. GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE
 The Paleolithic climate consisted of a set of glacial and
interglacial periods in which the climate periodically
fluctuated between warm and cool temperatures.
 The climate of the Paleolithic Period spanned two
geologic epochs known as the Pliocene and the
Pleistocene. Both of these epochs experienced important
geographic and climatic changes that affected human
societies.
 Climates during the Pliocene became cooler and drier,
and seasonal, similar to modern climates.
 The Pleistocene climate was
characterized by repeated glacial
cycles.

12. DIET AND NUTRITION
• People first began fermenting grapes in animal skin pouches
to create wine.
• Paleolithic hunting and gathering peoples ate primarily meat,
fish, shellfish, leafy vegetables, fruits, nuts and insects in
varying proportion.
• Paleolithic human may have consumed plants and animal
food based diet ingeneral.

13. • The relative proportions of plant and animal foods in the diet of
Paleolithic people probably varied between regions.
• The hunters gathers in tropical regions such as Africa probably
consumed a plant based diet.
• While populations in colder regions such as northern Europe
most likely obtained most of their food from meat.
• In Paleolithic age, they experienced less famine and
malnutrition than Neolithic farming tribes that follow them,
because Paleolithic hunters – gatherers had excess to a wider
variety of plants and other foods.

14. NOMADS LIFE
 Paleolithic people of the old stone age used simple stone
tools, and were the earliest people that we know of who
had the ability to make tools.
 Hunting was a huge part of the Paleolithic peoples lives,
they were nomads, because their food sources; buffalo,
horses, bison, etc, all migrated and/or had vegetation
cycles.
 They learned to lit fire by hitting two fire stones and
rubbing sticks.

15. RELIGIOUS BEILIEFS
 High degree of spirituality and connection to nature by
practicing Animism and Polytheism
 Religious behavior may combine (for example) ritual,
spirituality, mythology and magical thinking or animism.
 When they buried their dead, they buried tools and
utensils along with the dead body as they believed that
the dead person might need it in the afterlife.

16. RELIGION AND ART
 Cave paintings were a conventional representation of a
concept
 The oldest known symbols created with the purpose of
communication through time are the cave paintings, a form
of rock art, dating to the Middle and or Upper Paleolithic.
 Though not well standardized, those paintings contained
increasing amounts of information.
 Cultural explosion in art as more
tools, jewelry, and sculptures/
figurines of clay, ivory and stone
emerged.
 More advanced spiritual practices
with graves found jewellery and
spears made of mammoth tusks
buried with bodies (this suggests
a ritual belief with a view of an
afterlife).

17. BIBLIOGRAPHY:
•The Landscape of man.
- Geofrey and Susan Jellicoe
•History of Urban Form
- A.E.J. Morris
•www.slideshare.net
•www.wikipedia.com

18. THANK YOU