Early Humans and the Stone Age

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The Stone Age, beginning about 2.6 million years ago, is named for early humans' main tool material. In the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age), hominins such as Homo habilis, Homo erectus and later Homo sapiens made chipped-stone tools, learned to control fire, and lived in small nomadic bands of hunter-gatherers following animals and ripening plants. The period makes up over 99% of human history, so nearly everything about being human was invented here.

Over time people developed language, clothing, shelters and art such as the cave paintings at Lascaux and Altamira. Fire gave warmth, protection and cooked food, which is easier to digest and may have helped brains grow. Tools improved from simple choppers to carefully flaked hand axes and later to blades, needles and spear-throwers. The Mesolithic and Neolithic that followed brought finer tools and, eventually, farming.

Imagine a band of thirty people moving with the seasons: they gather nuts and berries, hunt deer together, and shelter in caves or hide tents. Everyone shared food because no one could store much. Archaeologists reconstruct this life from bones, tools, hearths and paintings, since there are no written records. A common misconception is that cave people were dim or lived alongside dinosaurs. In fact they were fully intelligent, adaptable and cooperative, and dinosaurs died out tens of millions of years earlier.