Paleolithic Period &

Neolithic Period

Paleolithic = Old Stone Age2 million B.C. to 10,000 B.C.

• The Paleolithic Age is a prehistoric era distinguished by the development of the first stone tools

• During the Paleolithic, humans grouped together in small societies such as bands and subsisted by gathering plants and hunting or scavenging wild animals.

• The term Paleolithic was coined by archaeologist John Lubbock in 1865. It derives from Greek: palaios, "old"; and lithos, "stone", literally meaning "old age of the stone" or "Old Stone Age”

• Hunters and Gatherers

• Handmade tools

• Made up of tribes and bands

• Religious– believe in afterlife, special burials

• Wholly mammoths roamed the area

Neolithic PeriodNew Stone Age

• Handmade tools

• Agriculture

• Domestication of plants and animals

• Greek neos=new, lithos=stone, or New Stone Age” coined by John Lubbock

• Mainly in what is now the Middle East and India

First Neolithic Villages1. Catalhuyuk – mounds found in present

Turkey ended about at the Bronze Age

2. Jericho – Built between 10,000/9000 B.C. In today Israeli but controlled by Palestine. It is believed to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities of the world!

Jericho• Through out much of her

history, the ancient town of Jericho has been associated with walls. The most notable story of Jericho is that of Joshua, who according to Biblical accounts, caused the walls to "come tumbling down." The natural walls surrounding Jericho also are of historical importance to the ancient settlement.

• The original walls of Jericho are the result of seismographic activity producing a great rift extending from the Sea of Galilee to Northern Africa. The land in this region dropped some 3,000 feet and settled at least 900 feet below sea level. At this low elevation we find one of the oldest ancient urban dwellings of recorded history, Jericho.

Paleolithic Age I Neolithic Age • Stone tools• Bury their dead• Clothes from skins of

animals• Fire• Language• Spear, bow & arrow• Harpoons, fishhooks• Lived in wood poles

covered with skins• Cave paintings• Ice age• Neanderthals• World population around 2

million (approx)

• Domesticating animals• Agriculture• Animals for work• Permanent settlements• Jewelry• Religion• Trading• Weaving cloth• Cheese• Kept recorders• Wheel• Calendar• Larger populations – why?