The Stone Age: Culture begins - The Universal Story

The Stone Age: The Start Of Our Humanity

A shiny world of screens and ideas;
it all starts in the caves, right here.

The Stone Age

People really overlook down on the Stone Age. They see it as a brief transition period between humans evolving (300,000 years ago – see our post here) and us settling down and building civilizations (10,000 years ago – see our page here). They didn’t have any metal, or any cool technology, just a few rocks!? They can’t be worth studying right?

Wrong. People in the Stone Age could:
– do basic neurosurgery – probably used to treat neurological disorders like epilepsy;
– build enormous temples and structures (i.e. Stonehenge and gobekli tepe);
– do basic astronomy – understanding the positioning of a few of the planets; and
– create complex clothing and material technology – producing some warm clothes that are still the best ice clothes that our species has ever produced.

It’s time to learn a bit more about the incredible Stone Age.

The Stone Age: What was it?

The most iconic image of the Stone Age would definitely be Stonehenge. It was built pretty late, somewhere from 3,000 to 2,000 BC, so almost certainly after the pyramids were built in Egypt, and after some metalwork had begun in Sumeria. But in Britain, these things were still a way off (Image: Flickr).

The stone age is a very rough term used to refer to the period lasting from early humans (300,000 years ago) to about until the first metal tools (10,000 years ago). It is meant to distinguish from the Bronze and Iron Ages, where humans started to developed metalwork. It includes the last bits of the ice age and Neanderthals were around for the early bits of it. But mostly, it’s about modern humans.

There are many problems with this definition. The main one is that different peoples went through this period of technological development at different times. For example, indigenous Australians never developed any metalwork so in theory were in the “Stone Age” until they were invaded by the British. Whereas the ancient Sumerians developed some basic metalwork roughly 10,000 years ago, so in theory were out of the stone age before almost everyone else. However, there was a period in human history, before metalwork or farming, where humans lived in nomadic tribes and used stone tools, even if it lasted for different periods at different times.

The Stone Age is mainly a story about humans developing increasingly complex tools, art and ways of living. At the very beginning of the stone age, humans were using incredibly simple handaxes – no shafts, basically just rocks that have been chipped into a blade. By the end of the period, there were spears, shafted axes, arrowheads and some basic pottery.

Similarly, with art, there were some very basic carvings, and people certainly seemed to carry around unusual objects, such as colored rocks and crystals. But there is no evidence of carvings, cave paintings until right near the end of the Stone Age. The Stone Age is about humans, learning to be human.

Stone Age Tools: Hand axes and spears

The main tools of the Stone Age, were increasingly sophisticated hand axes carved from specific types of rock. The far left is an Oldowan tool, probably made about 3 million years ago by Australopithecines in Africa. Then they get increasingly sophisticated until you get to the far right, an extremely sharp flint knife, probably made in the last 20,000 years in Europe (more details here).

Stone tools in the stone age range from incredibly basic to gorgeous and complex. The earliest stone tools were made by early human ancestors like Australopithecus Afarensis (see more on them here) more than 3 million years ago. They were essentially big river pebbles that had a few chunks knocked out of them, by another river peddle. They were probably only useful for butchery, breaking bones to get marrow and removing meat from carcasses (see the Oldowan rock industry) . Over time the tools got more sophisticated as people started being more selective with the rocks they used, and used other blades to maintain and sharpen the rocks. By 15,000 years ago, the flint blades that were being used across the world were as sharp, if not sharper than most modern metal knives.

Evidence around wooden and bone tools, like spears and arrows, is very difficult to find. Wood and bone are much more fragile and therefore generally don’t survive as long as stone and metal. However, it is very likely that early humans were using wooden and bone tools, as regularly as stone ones throughout the stone age. We have evidence of some bone arrowheads from up to 60,000 years ago for basic bows and arrows. We have an incredible trove of spears that survived over 400,000 years, so actually pre-date the Neanderthals. The spears are amazing and have a quality that is equivalent to modern tournament javelins and can be thrown 70 meters.

It’s easy to look down on a lot of these tools – from our modern technological world. We almost can’t imagine a world without metal. And having seen lots of films with knights and swords, it’s easy to be pretty underwhelmed. I mean, they didn’t even have handles?

This is an absurd instinct. Making tools is really really hard. We take a lot of our tools for granted assuming it’s easy to make something sharp or flat. But if you just go outside, and pick up a rock, and try and turn it into a blade, it is incredibly difficult. All the rocks you pick up are either too hard, so they don’t chip at all, or their two crumbly, so they just can’t hold an edge. Then the rock you use to sharpen your main rock can get too hard or chip, instead of the main rock. So really you need to learn what the right types of rocks are, and constantly be on the lookout for them. It’s also best to keep a few semi-sharp rocks with you at all times, so you can test new ones and used them to sharpen each other (see more on stone tools).

Making things from scratch is hard. Even the simplest and easiest-looking objects have millions of years of history and struggle behind them, that we generally take for granted. Hopefully, that provides you a bit of solace, the next time you get angry about how bad your wifi is.

Stone Age Art: Art, buildings and other technology

*The variety of art and carving from the Stone Age is truly astounding. It really takes your breath away.* These are a collection of ice age carvings from all around the world dating from 300,000 years ago to about 10,000 years ago. They include animals, human figures and every type, color, and texture of rock imaginable (Image: Bradshaw Foundation).

Stone Age art was mainly carving. Again, like with technology, it is very difficult to start Art from scratch. They couldn’t go to their local art store and buy supplies or paints. All they had was the basic stuff around them. And without pens, paper, paint, or any flat surfaces to do anything on, the obvious thing to do, is carve.

The carvings of the Stone Age are beautiful. We have more on Stone Age art, in particular, the development of cave paintings here. The carvings come from all over the world, and are generally carvings of animals or occasionally a human figure, often female. Sometimes they were on rock faces, but generally, they were small portable objects that people carried around with them as they moved and hunted. Often they were even functional objects like spear throwers.

The technology late stone age people had was incredibly impressive. There is strong evidence of a practice called ‘trepanning’ basically drilling a small hole in the skull. This would be used to relieve pressure in the brain and treat some simple neurological conditions. People often survived these procedures, the wounds found in skeletons healed for several years after they were made. Similarly, there was drilling and removing of teeth if they got infected and the use of certain plants to treat diseases.

The clothing of the Stone Age was particularly impressive. It is very difficult to get a good sense of the clothing that was worn – but there is one miraculous find that gives us a lot of detail, Utzi the iceman. Utzi was a preserved Stone Age hunter found in Austria in 1991. He died high up in the Austrian alps and was immediately covered in snow, so large amounts of soft materials he was carrying with him have been very well preserved – his clothes, his food his tools, etc. Utzi had some incredible clothing. Particularly amazingly, none of it was made from woven plant material, like our modern clothing. He had:

a hide jacket that went down to his knees, covering his body and thighs, combined strips of sheet and goat hide, with the fur on the outside, stiched together with animal sinew;
a larger grass cape which kept most of the snow off that covered his jacket;
a loincloth was made of strips of sheep hide;
a belt, with a sown in a pouch containing tinder, a few fungi and flint tools;
bearskin shoes and a bearskin cap, possibly made of different bears.

All together Utzi’s clothing probably involved more than 50 separate animals, most of which he probably made and maintained entirely himself. This degree of craftsmanship from raw natural materials is probably beyond the skill of anyone alive today. The Stone Age was a time of geniuses.

There is a lot going on here. These are images of ‘Otzi’ a very well preserved stone-age man found in Germany. He fell into a bog, so large amounts of the soft tissue and clothing was well preserved. The image on the top right is him being discovered by researchers (he was so well preserved initially, people called the police, as they thought someone might have been murdered, which he probably had been). On the left are a series of images of the surviving portions of his clothes. On the right is a drawing of the complete clothes being put on (Images: Iceman museum).

Why we should appreciate the stoneage?

These lions are paintings from the Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc caves in France. They are roughly 30,000 years old. The cave has paintings of hundreds of animals, at least 13 different species. This particular series is of cave lions, a now extinct lion that used to live in caves across most of Asia and Europe. We think they are some of the most beautiful art humans have ever produced (*Image: C Valette, Wikimedia).*

The Stone Age demonstrates human ingenuity more than any other period of history. Because much of the technology of the period is so basic, it is easy to look down on it and think the achievements and improvements of the period were straightforward. That you, dropped into the stone age, would probably do okay. They are all just cavemen right?!?

You would be wrong. Surviving in a land with only your wits and what you could make from rocks and wood, is hard. While modern technology and the improvements we make from one generation of computer to the next are incredible, they all start from a very high base. The step of originally creating the first tools, and try and understand the world around you, is so much harder. All of the history of mankind, all of the technologies we created, from laptop screens to space ships, started with the technologies we cobbled together here. There is probably noone alive on the planet anymore who has the set of skills and knowledge that would be required to survive without all these things, in a Stone Age world. We stand on the shoulders of giants. And nowhere is that clearer than in the Stone Age.

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