Editing Stone Age (section)

==Chronology==
[[File:Five Myr Climate Change.svg|thumb|upright=1.4|Time series plot of temperature over the previous 5&nbsp;million years]]

In 1859 [[Jens Jacob Worsaae]] first proposed a division of the Stone Age into older and younger parts based on his work with Danish [[kitchen midden]]s that began in 1851.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | title=Worsaae, Jens Jacob Asmussen | encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] }}</ref> In the subsequent decades this simple distinction developed into the archaeological periods of today. The major subdivisions of the Three-age Stone Age cross two [[epoch (geology)|epoch]] boundaries on the [[geologic time scale]]:
* The geologic [[Pliocene]]–[[Pleistocene]] boundary (highly glaciated climate)
** The [[Paleolithic]] period of archaeology
* The geologic [[Pleistocene]]–[[Holocene]] boundary (modern climate)
** [[Mesolithic]] or [[Epipaleolithic]] period of archaeology
** [[Neolithic]] period of archaeology
The succession of these phases varies enormously from one region (and [[archaeological culture|culture]]) to another.

===Three-age chronology===
{{Main|Paleolithic|Human evolution|Three-age system}}
The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (from Greek: παλαιός, ''palaios'', "old"; and λίθος, ''[[lithos]]'', "stone" lit. "old stone", coined by archaeologist [[John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury|John Lubbock]] and published in 1865) is the earliest division of the Stone Age. It covers the greatest portion of humanity's time (roughly 99% of "human technological history",<ref name=Thoth&Schick>{{Cite book |title=Handbook of Paleoanthropology | first1=Nicholas | last1=Toth |series=Volume | first2=Kathy | last2=Schick | year=2007 | volume=3 | contribution=21 Overview of Paleolithic Archaeology | editor-first=H.C. Winfried | editor-last=Henke | editor2-first=Thorolf | editor2-last=Hardt | editor3-first=Ian | editor3-last=Tattersall | location=Berlin; Heidelberg; New York | publisher=Springer-Verlag |isbn=978-3-540-32474-4 | page=1944 |doi=10.1007/978-3-540-33761-4_64 }}</ref> where "human" and "humanity" are interpreted to mean the genus ''[[Homo]]''), extending from 2.5 or 2.6&nbsp;million years ago, with the first documented use of stone tools by [[hominin]]s such as ''[[Homo habilis]]'', to the end of the [[Pleistocene]] around 10,000&nbsp;BC.<ref name="Thoth&Schick"/> The Paleolithic era ended with the [[Mesolithic]], or in areas with an early [[Neolithic Revolution|neolithisation]], the [[Epipaleolithic]].

====Lower Paleolithic====
{{main|Lower Paleolithic}}
[[File:Shaping marks on the upper surfaces of object 1033 and on the underlying treetrunk.webp|thumb|[[Kalambo structure]]]]
At sites dating from the Lower Paleolithic Period (about 2,500,000 to 200,000 years ago), simple pebble tools have been found in association with the remains of what may have been the earliest human ancestors. A somewhat more sophisticated Lower Paleolithic tradition, known as the [[Chopping tool|Chopper chopping tool]] industry, is widely distributed in the Eastern Hemisphere. This tradition is thought to have been the work of the hominin species named ''[[Homo erectus]]''. Although no such fossil tools have yet been found, it is believed that ''H.&nbsp;erectus'' probably made tools of wood and bone as well as stone.
About 700,000 years ago, a new Lower Paleolithic tool, the hand axe, appeared. The earliest European hand axes are assigned to the [[Abbevillian Industry|Abbevillian industry]], which developed in northern France in the valley of the [[Somme River]]; a later, more refined hand-axe tradition is seen in the [[Acheulean industry|Acheulian industry]], evidence of which has been found in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Some of the earliest known hand axes were found at [[Olduvai Gorge]] (Tanzania) in association with remains of ''H.&nbsp;erectus''. Alongside the hand-axe tradition, there developed a distinct and very different stone-tool industry, based on flakes of stone: special tools were made from worked (carefully shaped) flakes of flint. In Europe, the [[Clactonian Industry|Clactonian industry]] is one example of a flake tradition. The early flake industries probably contributed to the development of the [[Middle Paleolithic]] flake tools of the [[Mousterian Industry|Mousterian industry]], which is associated with the remains of [[Neanderthal Man|Neanderthal man]].<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/439507/Paleolithic-Period | title=Paleolithic Period &#124; Definition, Dates, & Facts| date=7 August 2023}}</ref>

=====Oldowan in Africa=====
{{Main|Oldowan}}
[[File:Canto tallado 2-Guelmim-Es Semara.jpg|thumb|A Mode 1, or Oldowan, [[stone tool]] from the western Sahara]]

The earliest documented [[stone tool]]s have been found in eastern Africa, manufacturers unknown, at the 3.3 million-year-old site of Lomekwi 3 in Kenya.<ref name="Harmand 2015" /> Better known are the later tools belonging to an [[archaeological industry|industry]] known as [[Oldowan]], after the type site of [[Olduvai Gorge]] in Tanzania.

The tools were formed by knocking pieces off a river pebble, or stones like it, with a hammerstone to obtain large and small pieces with one or more sharp edges. The original stone is called a core; the resultant pieces, flakes. Typically, but not necessarily, small pieces are detached from a larger piece, in which case the larger piece may be called the [[lithic core|core]] and the smaller pieces the [[lithic flake|flakes]]. The prevalent usage, however, is to call all the results flakes, which can be confusing. A split in half is called bipolar flaking.

Consequently, the method is often called "core-and-flake". More recently, the tradition has been called "small flake" since the flakes were small compared to subsequent [[Acheulean#Acheulean stone tools|Acheulean tools]].<ref>{{harvnb|Barham|Mitchell|2008|p=130}}.</ref>

{{quote|The essence of the Oldowan is the making and often immediate use of small flakes.{{attribution needed|date=October 2024}}}}

Another naming scheme is "Pebble Core Technology (PBC)":<ref>{{harvnb|Shea|2010|p=49}}</ref>

{{quote|Pebble cores are ... artifacts that have been shaped by varying amounts of hard-hammer percussion.{{attribution needed|date=October 2024}}}}

Various refinements in the shape have been called choppers, discoids, polyhedrons, subspheroid, etc. To date no reasons for the variants have been ascertained:<ref name=Shea50>{{harvnb|Shea|2010|p=50}}</ref>

{{quote|From a functional standpoint, pebble cores seem designed for no specific purpose.{{attribution needed|date=October 2024}}}}

However, they would not have been manufactured for no purpose:<ref name=Shea50/>

{{quote|Pebble cores can be useful in many cutting, scraping or chopping tasks, but ... they are not particularly more efficient in such tasks than a sharp-edged rock.{{attribution needed|date=October 2024}}}}

The whole point of their utility is that each is a "sharp-edged rock" in locations where nature has not provided any. There is additional evidence that Oldowan, or Mode 1, tools were used in "percussion technology"; that is, they were designed to be gripped at the blunt end and strike something with the edge, from which use they were given the name of [[Chopper (archaeology)|choppers]]. Modern science has been able to detect mammalian blood cells on Mode 1 tools at [[Sterkfontein]], Member 5 East, in South Africa. As the blood must have come from a fresh kill, the tool users are likely to have done the killing and used the tools for butchering. Plant residues bonded to the [[silicon]] of some tools confirm the use to chop plants.<ref name="Barham 2008 132">{{harvnb|Barham|Mitchell|2008|p=132}}</ref>

Although the exact species authoring the tools remains unknown, Mode 1 tools in Africa were manufactured and used predominantly by ''[[Homo habilis]]''. They cannot be said to have developed these tools or to have contributed the tradition to technology. They continued a tradition of yet unknown origin. As [[Common chimpanzee|chimpanzee]]s sometimes naturally use percussion to extract or prepare food in the wild, and may use either unmodified stones or stones that they have split, creating an Oldowan tool, the tradition may well be far older than its current record.{{citation needed|reason=Original Research?|date=November 2015}}

Towards the end of Oldowan in Africa the new species ''Homo erectus'' appeared over the range of ''Homo habilis''. The earliest "unambiguous" evidence is a whole [[cranium]], KNM-ER 3733 (a find identifier) from [[Koobi Fora]] in Kenya, dated to 1.78&nbsp;mya.<ref name=B&M126-127>{{harvnb|Barham|Mitchell|2008|pp=126–127}}.</ref> An early skull fragment, KNM-ER 2598, dated to 1.9&nbsp;mya, is considered a good candidate also.<ref name=B&M128>{{harvnb|Barham|Mitchell|2008|p=128}}</ref> Transitions in paleoanthropology are always hard to find, if not impossible, but based on the "long-legged" [[Comparative foot morphology|limb morphology]] shared by ''H.&nbsp;habilis'' and ''[[H. rudolfensis|H.&nbsp;rudolfensis]]'' in East Africa, an evolution from one of those two has been suggested.<ref name=B&M145>{{harvnb|Barham|Mitchell|2008|p=145}}</ref>

The most immediate cause of the new adjustments appears to have been an increasing aridity in the region and consequent contraction of parkland [[savanna]], interspersed with trees and groves, in favor of open grassland, dated 1.8–1.7 mya. During that transitional period the percentage of grazers among the fossil species increased from around 15–25% to 45%, dispersing the food supply and requiring a facility among the hunters to travel longer distances comfortably, which ''H.&nbsp;erectus'' obviously had.<ref>{{harvnb|Barham|Mitchell|2008|p=146}}.</ref> The ultimate proof is the "dispersal" of ''H.&nbsp;erectus'' "across much of Africa and Asia, substantially before the development of the Mode 2 technology and use of fire".<ref name=B&M145/> ''H.&nbsp;erectus'' carried Mode 1 tools over Eurasia.

According to the current evidence (which may change at any time) Mode 1 tools are documented from about 2.6&nbsp;mya to about 1.5&nbsp;mya in Africa,<ref>{{harvnb|Barham|Mitchell|2008|p=112}}</ref> and to 0.5&nbsp;mya outside of it.<ref>{{harvnb|Shea|2010|p=57}}</ref> The genus Homo is known from ''H.&nbsp;habilis'' and ''H.&nbsp;rudolfensis'' from 2.3 to 2.0&nbsp;mya, with the latest habilis being an upper jaw from Koobi Fora, Kenya, from 1.4&nbsp;mya. ''H.&nbsp;erectus'' is dated 1.8–0.6 mya.<ref>{{harvnb|Barham|Mitchell|2008|p=73}}</ref> <!--Tool manufacture is not species-specific: It had been an early Leakey hypothesis at Olduvai that Mode 1 tools implied ''Homo habilis'' and Mode 2, ''Homo erectus''. Subsequent methods of obtaining more precise dates made that hypothesis at least partially obsolete.<ref name=B&M126-127>{{harvnb|Barham|Mitchell|2008|pp=126–127}}.</ref>-->

According to this chronology Mode 1 was inherited by ''Homo'' from unknown [[Hominina|Hominans]], probably ''[[Australopithecus]]'' and ''[[Paranthropus]]'', who must have continued on with Mode 1 and then with Mode 2 until their extinction no later than 1.1&nbsp;mya. Meanwhile, living contemporaneously in the same regions ''H.&nbsp;habilis'' inherited the tools around 2.3&nbsp;mya. At about 1.9&nbsp;mya ''H.&nbsp;erectus'' came on stage and lived contemporaneously with the others. Mode 1 was now being shared by a number of Hominans over the same ranges, presumably subsisting in different niches, but the archaeology is not precise enough to say which.

=====Oldowan out of Africa=====
Tools of the Oldowan tradition first came to archaeological attention in Europe, where, being intrusive and not well defined, compared to the Acheulean, they were puzzling to archaeologists. The mystery would be elucidated by African archaeology at Olduvai, but meanwhile, in the early 20th century, the term "Pre-Acheulean" came into use in [[climatology]]. C.&nbsp;E.&nbsp;P. Brooks, a British climatologist working in the United States, used the term to describe a "chalky boulder clay" underlying a layer of gravel at [[Hoxne]], central England, where Acheulean tools had been found.<ref>{{citation | first=Charles E. P. |last=Brooks | contribution=The Correlation of the Quaternary Deposits of the British Isles with Those of the Continent of Europe | title=Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution 1917 | year=1919 | location=Washington | publisher=Government Pronting Office | page=277}}</ref> Whether any tools would be found in it and what type was not known. [[Hugo Obermaier]], a contemporary German archaeologist working in Spain, stated:<!--previously "quipped" which implies humour, but this is not humorous-->

{{quote|Unfortunately, the stage of human industry which corresponds to these deposits cannot be positively identified. All we can say is that it is pre-Acheulean.}}

This uncertainty was clarified by the subsequent excavations at Olduvai; nevertheless, the term is still in use for pre-Acheulean contexts, mainly across Eurasia, that are yet unspecified or uncertain but with the understanding that they are or will turn out to be pebble-tool.<ref>{{cite book | first=Hugo |last=Obermaier | author-link=Hugo Obermaier |author2=Christine Matthew |author3=Henry Osborne | title=Fossil Man in Spain | location=New Haven | publisher=Yale University Press for the Hispanic Society of America | year=1924 | page=272}}</ref>

There are ample associations of Mode 2 with ''H.&nbsp;erectus'' in Eurasia. ''H.&nbsp;erectus''&nbsp;– Mode 1 associations are scantier but they do exist, especially in the Far East. One strong piece of evidence prevents the conclusion that only ''H.&nbsp;erectus'' reached Eurasia: at [[Yiron]], Israel, Mode 1 tools have been found dating to 2.4&nbsp;mya,<ref>{{harvnb|Barham|Mitchell|2008|pp=106–107}}</ref> about 0.5&nbsp;my earlier than the known ''H.&nbsp;erectus'' finds. If the date is correct, either another Hominan preceded ''H.&nbsp;erectus'' out of Africa or the earliest ''H.&nbsp;erectus'' has yet to be found.

After the initial appearance at Gona in Ethiopia at 2.7 mya, pebble tools date from 2.0&nbsp;mya at [[Sterkfontein]], Member 5, South Africa, and from 1.8&nbsp;mya at El Kherba, Algeria, North Africa. The manufacturers had already left pebble tools at [[Yiron]], Israel, at 2.4 mya, [[Riwat]], Pakistan, at 2.0&nbsp;mya, and Renzidong, South China, at over 2&nbsp;mya.<ref name=Shea55-57>{{harvnb|Shea|2010|pp=55–57}}</ref> The identification of a fossil skull at Mojokerta, Pernung Peninsula on [[Java]], dated to 1.8&nbsp;mya, as ''H.&nbsp;erectus'', suggests that the African finds are not the earliest to be found in Africa, or that, in fact, erectus did not originate in Africa after all but on the plains of Asia.<ref name=B&M145/> The outcome of the issue waits for more substantial evidence. Erectus was found also at [[Dmanisi]], Georgia, from 1.75&nbsp;mya in association with pebble tools.

Pebble tools are found the latest first in southern Europe and then in northern Europe. They begin in the open areas of Italy and Spain, the earliest dated to 1.6&nbsp;mya at Pirro Nord, Italy. The mountains of Italy are rising at a rapid rate in the framework of geologic time; at 1.6&nbsp;mya they were lower and covered with grassland (as much of the highlands still are). Europe was otherwise mountainous and covered over with dense forest, a formidable terrain for warm-weather savanna dwellers. Similarly there is no evidence that the Mediterranean was passable at Gibraltar or anywhere else to ''H.&nbsp;erectus'' or earlier hominins. They might have reached Italy and Spain along the coasts.

In northern Europe, pebble tools are found earliest at [[Happisburgh]], United Kingdom, from 0.8&nbsp;mya. The last traces are from [[Kent's Cavern]], dated 0.5&nbsp;mya. By that time ''H.&nbsp;erectus'' is regarded as having been extinct; however, a more modern version apparently had evolved, ''[[Homo heidelbergensis]]'', who must have inherited the tools.<ref>{{harvnb|Barham|Mitchell|2008|p=24}}</ref> He{{who?|date=October 2024}} also explains the last of the Acheulean in Germany at 0.4&nbsp;mya.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, archaeologists worked on the assumption that a succession of hominins and cultures prevailed, that one replaced another. Today the presence of multiple hominins living contemporaneously near each other for long periods is accepted as proven true; moreover, by the time the previously assumed "earliest" culture arrived in northern Europe, the rest of Africa and Eurasia had progressed to the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic, so that across the earth all three were for a time contemporaneous. In any given region there was a progression from Oldowan to Acheulean, Lower to Upper, no doubt.

=====Acheulean in Africa=====
{{Main|Acheulean}}
[[File:Raedera.png|thumb|upright|An [[Acheulean]] tool, not worked over the entire surface]]

The end of Oldowan in Africa was brought on by the appearance of [[Acheulean]], or Mode 2, [[stone tool]]s. The earliest known instances are in the 1.7–1.6 mya layer at [[Kokiselei]], West Turkana, Kenya.<ref name=B&M128/> At [[Sterkfontein]], South Africa, they are in Member 5 West, 1.7–1.4 mya.<ref name="Barham 2008 132"/> The 1.7 is a fairly certain, fairly standard date. Mode 2 is often found in association with ''H.&nbsp;erectus''. It makes sense that the most advanced tools should have been innovated by the most advanced hominin; consequently, they are typically given credit for the innovation.

A Mode 2 tool is a biface consisting of two concave surfaces intersecting to form a cutting edge all the way around, except in the case of tools intended to feature a point. More work and planning go into the manufacture of a Mode 2 tool. The manufacturer hits a slab off a larger rock to use as a blank. Then large flakes are struck off the blank and worked into bifaces by hard-hammer percussion on an anvil stone. Finally the edge is retouched: small flakes are hit off with a bone or wood soft hammer to sharpen or resharpen it. The core can be either the blank or another flake. Blanks are ported for manufacturing supply in places where nature has provided no suitable stone.

Although most Mode 2 tools are easily distinguished from Mode 1, there is a close similarity of some Oldowan and some Acheulean, which can lead to confusion. Some Oldowan tools are more carefully prepared to form a more regular edge. One distinguishing criterion is the size of the flakes. In contrast to the Oldowan "small flake" tradition, Acheulean is "large flake": "The primary technological distinction remaining between Oldowan and the Acheulean is the preference for large flakes (>10 cm) as blanks for making large cutting tools (handaxes and cleavers) in the Acheulean."<ref>{{harvnb|Barham|Mitchell|2008|p=130}}</ref> "Large Cutting Tool" (LCT) has become part of the standard terminology as well.<ref name="Shea50"/>

In North Africa, the presence of Mode 2 remains a mystery, as the oldest finds are from Thomas Quarry in [[Morocco]] at 0.9&nbsp;mya.<ref name=Shea55-57/> Archaeological attention, however, shifts to the Jordan Rift Valley, an extension of the East African Rift Valley (the east bank of the Jordan is slowly sliding northward as East Africa is thrust away from Africa). Evidence of use of the Nile Valley is in deficit, but Hominans could easily have reached the palaeo-[[Jordan River]] from [[Ethiopia]] along the shores of the [[Red Sea]], one side or the other. A crossing would not have been necessary, but it is more likely there than over a theoretical but unproven land bridge through either [[Gibraltar]] or [[Sicily]].

Meanwhile, Acheulean went on in Africa past the 1.0&nbsp;mya mark and also past the extinction of ''H.&nbsp;erectus'' there. The last Acheulean in East Africa is at [[Olorgesailie]], Kenya, dated to about 0.9&nbsp;mya. Its owner was still ''H.&nbsp;erectus'',<ref name=Shea55-57/> but in South Africa, Acheulean at [[Hopefield, South Africa|Elandsfontein]], 1.0–0.6 mya, is associated with [[Saldanha man]], classified as ''H.&nbsp;heidelbergensis'', a more advanced, but not yet modern, descendant most likely of ''H.&nbsp;erectus''. The Thoman Quarry Hominans in [[Morocco]] similarly are most likely [[Homo rhodesiensis]],<ref>{{cite journal | journal=Quaternary International | issue=223–224 | year=2010 | pages=369–382 | title=Hominid Cave at Thomas Quarry I (Casablanca, Morocco): Recent findings and their context | author=Jean-Paul Raynal | url=http://www.eva.mpg.de/evolution/staff/hublin/pdf/Raynal%20et%20al%202010%20Quat%20Intl.pdf | display-authors=etal | doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2010.03.011 | volume=223–224 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110228231758/http://www.eva.mpg.de/evolution/staff/hublin/pdf/Raynal%20et%20al%202010%20Quat%20Intl.pdf | archive-date=28 February 2011 | df=dmy-all | bibcode=2010QuInt.223..369R }}</ref> in the same evolutionary status as ''H.&nbsp;heidelbergensis''.
<!--''H. erectus'' learned to control fire and created more complex chopper tools, as well as expanding [[Single-origin hypothesis|out of Africa]] to reach Asia, as shown by sites such as [[Zhoukoudian]] in China. By 1 million years ago, the earliest evidence of humans in Europe is known, as well as use of the more advanced [[handaxe]] tool.-->

=====Acheulean out of Africa=====
Mode 2 is first known out of Africa at '[[Ubeidiya prehistoric site|Ubeidiya]], Israel, a site now on the [[Jordan River]], then frequented over the long term (hundreds of thousands of years) by [[Homo]] on the shore of a variable-level palaeo-lake, long since vanished. The geology was created by successive "transgression and regression" of the lake<ref>{{harvnb|Belmaker|2006|p=9}}</ref> resulting in four cycles of layers. The tools are located in the first two, Cycles Li (Limnic Inferior) and Fi (Fluviatile Inferior), but mostly in Fi. The cycles represent different ecologies and therefore different cross-sections of fauna, which makes it possible to date them. They appear to be the same faunal assemblages as the Ferenta Faunal Unit in Italy, known from excavations at Selvella and Pieterfitta, dated to 1.6–1.2&nbsp;mya.<ref>{{harvnb|Belmaker|2006|pp=119–120}}</ref>

At 'Ubeidiya the marks on the bones of the animal species found there indicate that the manufacturers of the tools butchered the kills of large predators, an activity that has been termed "scavenging".<ref>{{harvnb|Belmaker|2006|p=149}}</ref> There are no living floors, nor did they process bones to obtain the marrow. These activities cannot be understood therefore as the only or even the typical economic activity of Hominans. Their interests were selective: they were primarily harvesting the meat of [[Cervid]]s,<ref>{{harvnb|Belmaker|2006|p=147}}</ref> which is estimated to have been available without spoiling for up to four days after the kill.

The majority of the animals at the site were of "Palaearctic biogeographic origin".<ref>{{harvnb|Belmaker|2006|p=67}}</ref> However, these overlapped in range on 30–60% of "African biogeographic origin".<ref>{{harvnb|Belmaker|2006|p=21}}</ref> The [[biome]] was Mediterranean, not savanna. The animals were not passing through; there was simply an overlap of normal ranges. Of the Hominans, ''H.&nbsp;erectus'' left several cranial fragments. Teeth of undetermined species may have been ''H.&nbsp;ergaster''.<ref>{{harvnb|Belmaker|2006|p=20}}</ref> The tools are classified as "Lower Acheulean" and "Developed Oldowan". The latter is a disputed classification created by [[Mary Leakey]] to describe an Acheulean-like tradition in Bed II at [[Olduvai Gorge|Olduvai]]. It is dated 1.53–1.27 mya. The date of the tools therefore probably does not exceed 1.5&nbsp;mya; 1.4 is often given as a date. This chronology, which is definitely later than in Kenya, supports the "out of Africa" hypothesis for Acheulean, if not for the Hominans.

[[File:Biface (trihedral) Amar Merdeg, Mehran, Ilam, Lower Paleolithic, National Museum of Iran.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Biface (trihedral) from [[Amar Merdeg]] at [[Zagros]] foothill, [[Ilam, Iran|Ilam]], National Museum of Iran]]

From Southwest Asia, as the Levant is now called, the Acheulean extended itself more slowly eastward, arriving at [[Isampur]], India, about 1.2&nbsp;mya. It does not appear in China and Korea until after 1mya and not at all in Indonesia. There is a discernible boundary marking the furthest extent of the Acheulean eastward before 1&nbsp;mya, called the [[Movius Line]], after its proposer, [[Hallam L. Movius]]. On the east side of the line the small flake tradition continues, but the tools are additionally worked Mode 1, with flaking down the sides. In Athirampakkam at [[Chennai]] in [[Tamil Nadu]] the Acheulean age started at 1.51&nbsp;mya and it is also prior than North India and Europe.<ref>{{cite web|title=Acheulian stone tools discovered near Chennai|url=http://www.hindu.com/2011/03/25/stories/2011032564021300.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110823111619/http://www.hindu.com/2011/03/25/stories/2011032564021300.htm|url-status=dead|work=[[The Hindu]]|date=2011-03-25|archive-date=2011-08-23}}</ref>

The cause of the Movius Line remains speculative, whether it represents a real change in technology or a limitation of archeology, but after 1&nbsp;mya evidence not available to Movius indicates the prevalence of Acheulean. For example, the Acheulean site at Bose, China, is dated 0.803±3K mya.<ref>{{cite web | title=Bose, China | work=What Does It Mean to be Human? | publisher=Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History | url=http://humanorigins.si.edu/research/asian-research/bose-china| date=28 January 2010 }}</ref> The authors of this chronologically later East Asian Acheulean remain unknown, as does whether it evolved in the region or was brought in.

There is no named boundary line between Mode 1 and Mode 2 on the west; nevertheless, Mode 2 is equally late in Europe as it is in the Far East. The earliest comes from a rock shelter at Estrecho de Quípar in Spain, dated to greater than 0.9&nbsp;mya. Teeth from an undetermined Hominan were found there also.<ref>{{cite journal | first=Rex | last=Dalton | title=Europe's oldest axes discovered | journal=Nature News | date=2 September 2009 | url=http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090902/full/news.2009.878.html | doi=10.1038/news.2009.878}}</ref> The last Mode 2 in Southern Europe is from a deposit at Fontana Ranuccio near [[Anagni]] in Italy dated to 0.45&nbsp;mya, which is generally linked to ''[[Homo cepranensis]]'', a "late variant of ''H.&nbsp;erectus''", a fragment of whose skull was found at Ceprano nearby, dated 0.46&nbsp;mya.<ref>{{cite journal | journal=Earth and Planetary Science Letters | volume=286 | issue=1–2 | year=2009 | pages=255–268 | doi=10.1016/j.epsl.2009.06.032 |author=Giovanni Muttoni | title=Pleistocene magnetochronology of early hominid sites at Ceprano and Fontana Ranuccio, Italy | url=http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~dvk/dvk_REPRINTS/Muttoni+2009b.pdf|display-authors=etal | bibcode=2009E&PSL.286..255M}}</ref>

====Middle Paleolithic====
{{main|Middle Paleolithic}}
This period is best known as the era during which the [[Neanderthal]]s lived in Europe and the Near East (c. 300,000–28,000 years ago). Their technology is mainly the [[Mousterian]], but Neanderthal physical characteristics have been found also in ambiguous association with the more recent [[Châtelperronian]] archeological culture in Western Europe and several local industries like the [[Szeletian]] in Eastern Europe/Eurasia. There is no evidence for Neanderthals in Africa, Australia or the Americas.

Neanderthals nursed their elderly and practised [[ritual]] burial indicating an organised society. The earliest evidence ([[Mungo Man]]) of settlement in Australia dates to around [[Prehistory of Australia|40,000 years ago]] when modern humans likely crossed from Asia by island-hopping. Evidence for symbolic behavior such as body ornamentation and burial is ambiguous for the Middle Paleolithic and still subject to debate. The [[Bhimbetka rock shelters]] exhibit the earliest traces of human life in India, some of which are approximately 30,000 years old.

====Upper Paleolithic====
{{main|Upper Paleolithic}}
[[File:Bradshaw rock paintings.jpg|thumb|[[Gwion Gwion rock paintings]] found in the north-west [[Kimberley region of Western Australia]]]]

From 50,000 to 10,000 years ago in Europe, the Upper Paleolithic ends with the end of the Pleistocene and onset of the Holocene era (the end of the [[Last Glacial Period]]). Modern humans spread out further across the Earth during the period known as the Upper Paleolithic.

The Upper Paleolithic is marked by a relatively rapid succession of often complex stone artifact technologies and a large increase in the creation of art and personal ornaments. During period between 35 and 10&nbsp;kya evolved: from 38 to 30 kya [[Châtelperronian]], 40–28 [[Aurignacian]], 28–22 [[Gravettian]], 22–17 [[Solutrean]], and 18–10 [[Magdalenian]]. All of these industries except the Châtelperronian are associated with anatomically modern humans. Authorship of the Châtelperronian is still the subject of much debate.

Most scholars date the arrival of [[Indigenous Australians|humans in Australia]] at 40,000 to 50,000 years ago, with a possible range of up to 125,000 years ago. The earliest [[modern human|anatomically modern human]] remains found in Australia (and outside of Africa) are those of [[Mungo Man]]; they have been dated at 42,000 years old.<ref name = "pmid1259451">{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1038/nature01383| pmid = 12594511| title = New ages for human occupation and climatic change at Lake Mungo, Australia| journal = Nature| volume = 421| issue = 6925| pages = 837–840| year = 2003| last1 = Bowler | first1 = J.M. | last2 = Johnston | first2 = H. | last3 = Olley | first3 = J. M. | last4 = Prescott | first4 = J. R. | last5 = Roberts | first5 = R. G. | last6 = Shawcross | first6 = W. | last7 = Spooner | first7 = N. A. | bibcode = 2003Natur.421..837B| s2cid = 4365526}}</ref><ref name = "doisj.quascirev.2005.07.022">{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1016/j.quascirev.2005.07.022| title = Single-grain optical dating of grave-infill associated with human burials at Lake Mungo, Australia| journal = Quaternary Science Reviews| volume = 25| issue = 19–20| pages = 2469–2474| year = 2006| last1 = Olley | first1 = J. M. | last2 = Roberts | first2 = R. G. | last3 = Yoshida | first3 = H. | last4 = Bowler | first4 = J. M. | bibcode = 2006QSRv...25.2469O}}</ref>

The Americas were colonised via the [[Bering land bridge]] which was exposed during this period by lower sea levels. These people are called the [[Paleo-Indians]], and the earliest accepted dates are those of the [[Clovis culture]] sites, some 13,500 years ago. Globally, societies were [[hunter-gatherer]]s but evidence of regional identities begins to appear in the wide variety of stone tool types being developed to suit very different environments.

====Epipaleolithic/Mesolithic====
{{main|Epipaleolithic|Mesolithic}}
The period starting from the end of the last [[ice age]], 10,000 years ago, to around 6,000 years ago was characterized by [[sea level rise|rising sea levels]] and a need to adapt to a changing environment and find new food sources. The development of Mode 5 ([[microlith]]) tools began in response to these changes. They were derived from the previous Paleolithic tools, hence the term Epipaleolithic, or were intermediate between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic, hence the term [[Mesolithic]] (Middle Stone Age), used for parts of Eurasia, but not outside it. The choice of a word depends on exact circumstances and the inclination of the archaeologists excavating the site. Microliths were used in the manufacture of more efficient composite tools, resulting in an intensification of hunting and fishing and with increasing social activity the development of more complex settlements, such as [[Lepenski Vir]]. Domestication of the dog as a hunting companion probably dates to this period.

The earliest known battle occurred during the Mesolithic period at a site in Egypt known as [[Cemetery 117]].

====Neolithic====
{{Main|Neolithic}}
[[File:Skara Brae house 9.jpg|thumb|[[Skara Brae]], Scotland: Europe's most complete [[Neolithic]] village]]
[[File:Fleche Cartailhac MHNT PRE 2009.0.9232.1.jpg|thumb|Different views of one arrowhead from [[chert]], 3300 to 2400&nbsp;BC, [[Saint-Léons]], France]]

The [[Neolithic]], or New Stone Age, was approximately characterized by the adoption of agriculture. The shift from food gathering to food producing, in itself one of the most revolutionary changes in human history, was accompanied by the so-called [[Neolithic Revolution]]: the development of [[pottery]], polished stone tools, and construction of more complex, larger settlements such as [[Göbekli Tepe]] and [[Çatalhöyük]]. Some of these features began in certain localities even earlier, in the transitional Mesolithic. The first Neolithic cultures started around 7000&nbsp;BC in the [[fertile crescent]] and spread concentrically to other areas of the world; however, the Near East was probably not the only nucleus of agriculture, the cultivation of maize in Meso-America and of [[Oryza sativa|rice]] in the Far East being others.

Due to the increased need to harvest and process plants, ground stone and polished stone artifacts became much more widespread, including tools for grinding, cutting, and chopping. [[Skara Brae]], located in [[Orkney]], [[Scotland]], is one of Europe's best examples of a Neolithic village. The community contains stone beds, shelves and even an indoor toilet linked to a stream. The first large-scale constructions were built, including settlement towers and walls, e.g., Jericho ([[Tell es-Sultan]]) and ceremonial sites, e.g. [[Stonehenge]]. The [[Ġgantija]] temples of Gozo in the Maltese archipelago are the oldest surviving free standing structures in the world, erected {{Circa|3600}}–2500 BC. The earliest evidence for established trade exists in the [[Neolithic]] with newly settled people importing exotic goods over distances of many hundreds of miles.

These facts show that there were sufficient resources and co-operation to enable large groups to work on these projects. To what extent this was a basis for the development of elites and social hierarchies is a matter of ongoing debate.<ref>{{Cite book | first=Ian | last=Kuijt | editor-first=Ian |editor-last=Kuijt | year=2000 | title=Life in Neolithic Farming Communities: Social Organization, Identity, and differentiation | contribution=Chapter 13: Near Eastern Neolithic Research: Directions and Trends | series=Fundamental Issues in Archaeology | page=317 | location=New York | publisher=Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers }}</ref> Although some late Neolithic societies formed complex stratified chiefdoms similar to Polynesian societies such as the [[Ancient Hawaii]]ans, based on the societies of modern tribesmen at an equivalent technological level, most Neolithic societies were relatively simple and [[egalitarian]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Evolutionary Origins of Morality: Cross-disciplinary Perspectives | editor-first=Leonard D. | editor-last=Katz |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=inmTyPPdR5oC&q=Neolithic+egalitarianism&pg=RA1-PA158 | year=2000 | first=Christopher | last=Boehm | contribution=The Origin of Morality as Social Control | location=Thorverton | page=158 | publisher=Imprint Academic | series=Journal of Consciousness Studies |volume=7 | isbn=978-0-7190-5612-3 }}</ref> A comparison of art in the two ages leads some theorists to conclude that Neolithic cultures were noticeably more hierarchical than the [[Paleolithic]] cultures that preceded them.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3u6JNwMyMCEC&q=paleolithic+history+violence&pg=PA422 | title=The Nature of Paleolithic Art | first=Russell Dale | last=Guthrie | pages=419–420 | location=Chicago | publisher=University of Chicago Press | year=2005 | isbn=978-0-226-31126-5}}</ref>

===African chronology===
{{main|African archaeology}}

====Early Stone Age (ESA)====
{{main|Paleolithic|Lower Paleolithic}}
[[File:Obsidienne biface ethiopie.jpg|thumb|upright=.7|Acheulean biface from Lake Langano area, Ethiopia]]

The [[Africa#Early Stone Age Africa|Early Stone Age in Africa]] is not to be identified with "Old Stone Age", a translation of Paleolithic, or with Paleolithic, or with the "Earlier Stone Age" that originally meant what became the Paleolithic and Mesolithic. In the initial decades of its definition by the Pan-African Congress of Prehistory, it was parallel in Africa to the [[Upper Paleolithic|Upper]] and [[Middle Paleolithic]]. However, since then [[Radiocarbon dating]] has shown that the Middle Stone Age is in fact contemporaneous with the [[Middle Paleolithic]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | first=J. Desmond | last=Clark | author-link=J. Desmond Clark | title=The Culture of the Middle Paleolithic/Middle Stone Age | editor-first=J. Desmond | series=Volume | editor-last=Clark | encyclopedia=The Cambridge History of Africa | volume=I: From the Earliest Times to C. 500 BC | page=248 | location=Cambridge | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=1982 }}</ref> The Early Stone Age therefore is contemporaneous with the [[Lower Paleolithic]] and happens to include the same main technologies, [[Oldowan]] and [[Acheulean]], which produced Mode 1 and Mode 2 [[stone tool]]s respectively. A distinct regional term is warranted, however, by the location and chronology of the sites and the exact typology.

====Middle Stone Age (MSA)====
{{main|Middle Stone Age}}
The Middle Stone Age was a period of African prehistory between Early Stone Age and Late Stone Age. It began around 300,000 years ago and ended around 50,000 years ago.<ref>McBrearty and Brooks 2000</ref> It is considered as an equivalent of European [[Middle Paleolithic]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.accessexcellence.org/BF/bf02/klein/bf02e3.html|title=Biological origins of modern humans}}</ref> It is associated with anatomically modern or almost modern ''[[Homo sapiens]]''. Early physical evidence comes from Omo<ref>McDougall et al. 2005</ref> and Herto,<ref>White et al. 2003</ref> both in Ethiopia and dated respectively at c. 195 ka and at c. 160 ka.

====Later Stone Age (LSA)====
{{main|Later Stone Age}}
The Later Stone Age (LSA, sometimes also called the '''Late Stone Age''') refers to a period in African prehistory. Its beginnings are roughly contemporaneous with the European Upper Paleolithic. It lasts until historical times and this includes cultures corresponding to Mesolithic and Neolithic in other regions.