The long period of prehistoric times is divided into different ages which are named from the material which man used in the manufacture of his weapons and tools. They are as follows:
1. Paleolithic or Old Stone Age
2. Neolithic or New Stone Age
3. Age of Metals.
The division lines between these ages are not sharply drawn. In most countries the epochs run into and overlap one another, just as in modern times the Age of Steam runs into and overlaps the Age of Electricity.
The Paleolithic or Old Stone Age:
In the Old Stone Age man's implements were usually made of stone, and particularly of easily chipped flints, though sometimes bones, horns, tusks, and other materials were used in their manufacture. These rude tools and weapons of Paleolithic man, found in gravel beds and in caves, are the very oldest things in existence shaped by human hands.
The man of the Old Stone Age saw t he retreating glaciers of the last great ice age, of which geology tells us. Among the animals which lived with him on the continent of Europe were the mammoth, the cave bear, the elk, the rhinoceros, the wild horse, and the reindeer. As the climate gradually grew warmer they either became extinct or retreated up the mountains or migrated towards the north.
1. Paleolithic or Old Stone Age
2. Neolithic or New Stone Age
3. Age of Metals.
The division lines between these ages are not sharply drawn. In most countries the epochs run into and overlap one another, just as in modern times the Age of Steam runs into and overlaps the Age of Electricity.
The Paleolithic or Old Stone Age:
In the Old Stone Age man's implements were usually made of stone, and particularly of easily chipped flints, though sometimes bones, horns, tusks, and other materials were used in their manufacture. These rude tools and weapons of Paleolithic man, found in gravel beds and in caves, are the very oldest things in existence shaped by human hands.
The man of the Old Stone Age saw t he retreating glaciers of the last great ice age, of which geology tells us. Among the animals which lived with him on the continent of Europe were the mammoth, the cave bear, the elk, the rhinoceros, the wild horse, and the reindeer. As the climate gradually grew warmer they either became extinct or retreated up the mountains or migrated towards the north.
What we know of Paleolithic man may be summed up as follows:
He was a hunter and fisher; his habitation was a cave or a rock shelter; his implements were in the main roughly shaped flints; he had no domestic animals save possibly the dog and the reindeer; he was practically ignorant of the art of making pottery; he had no belief in a future life, at least we have no evidence that he buried his dead after the manner of those folks who have come to hold such a belief.
Before the end of the age man had learned the use of fire, as we know from the traces of fire found in the caves which were his abode, and had invented the bow and arrow, as is evidenced by arrowheads of flint and of bone which have been discovered. This important invention gave man what was to be one of his chief weapons in the chase and in war down to and even after the invention of firearms late in the historic age.
But most prophetic of the great future before this savage or semi-savage cave man is the sense of form and beauty which he possessed; for, strange as it may seem, the man of this epoch was in his way an artist. Hundreds of specimens of drawings or carvings, chiefly of animals, on bone-or on ivory have been discovered.
The Neolithic or New Stone Age:
The Old Stone Age was followed by the New. Chipped or hammered stone implements still continued to be used, but what characterizes this period was the use of ground or polished implements.
Neolithic man was in many respects much advanced over Paleolithic man. He had learned to cultivate the soil; he had learned to make pottery, to spin, and to weave; he had domesticated various wild animals; he built houses and constructed great earthen forts; and he buried his dead in such a manner--with " accompanying gifts "--as to show that he had come to believe in a future life.
The Age of Metals:
Finally the long ages of stone passed into the Age of Metals. This age falls into three subdivisions:
1. Age of Copper
2. Age of Bronze and
3. Age of Iron.
Some people, like the sub-Saharan African passed directly from the use of stone to the use of iron; but in most of the countries of the Orient and of Europe the three metals came into use one after the other and in the order named.
Speaking broadly, we may say that the Age of Metals embraces the five millenniums preceding the opening of our era. This means that for some people, as for instance the Egyptians and the Babylonians, these epochs or stages of culture fall within their historic period, while for others, as for instance the Greeks and the Romans, they begin in their prehistoric and overlap their historic age.
The use of copper seems to have begun among the people of the Orient before 5000 B.C. It is a soft metal, and tools and weapons made of it were not so greatly superior to the stone. But either by accident or through experiment it was discovered that by mixing about nine parts of copper with one part of the a new metal, called bronze, much harder than either tin or copper, could be made.
So greatly superior were bronze to stone implements that their introduction caused the use of stone for tools and weapons to be discontinued, and consequently the Age of Bronze constitutes a well-defined and important epoch in the history of culture. Bronze seems to have been used by the first kings of Egypt, about 4500 B.C. From the East the metal was carried into Europe. Iron was already in use among the Oriental people about 1500 B.C., and was gradually introduced among the European tribes.
He was a hunter and fisher; his habitation was a cave or a rock shelter; his implements were in the main roughly shaped flints; he had no domestic animals save possibly the dog and the reindeer; he was practically ignorant of the art of making pottery; he had no belief in a future life, at least we have no evidence that he buried his dead after the manner of those folks who have come to hold such a belief.
Before the end of the age man had learned the use of fire, as we know from the traces of fire found in the caves which were his abode, and had invented the bow and arrow, as is evidenced by arrowheads of flint and of bone which have been discovered. This important invention gave man what was to be one of his chief weapons in the chase and in war down to and even after the invention of firearms late in the historic age.
But most prophetic of the great future before this savage or semi-savage cave man is the sense of form and beauty which he possessed; for, strange as it may seem, the man of this epoch was in his way an artist. Hundreds of specimens of drawings or carvings, chiefly of animals, on bone-or on ivory have been discovered.
The Neolithic or New Stone Age:
The Old Stone Age was followed by the New. Chipped or hammered stone implements still continued to be used, but what characterizes this period was the use of ground or polished implements.
Neolithic man was in many respects much advanced over Paleolithic man. He had learned to cultivate the soil; he had learned to make pottery, to spin, and to weave; he had domesticated various wild animals; he built houses and constructed great earthen forts; and he buried his dead in such a manner--with " accompanying gifts "--as to show that he had come to believe in a future life.
The Age of Metals:
Finally the long ages of stone passed into the Age of Metals. This age falls into three subdivisions:
1. Age of Copper
2. Age of Bronze and
3. Age of Iron.
Some people, like the sub-Saharan African passed directly from the use of stone to the use of iron; but in most of the countries of the Orient and of Europe the three metals came into use one after the other and in the order named.
Speaking broadly, we may say that the Age of Metals embraces the five millenniums preceding the opening of our era. This means that for some people, as for instance the Egyptians and the Babylonians, these epochs or stages of culture fall within their historic period, while for others, as for instance the Greeks and the Romans, they begin in their prehistoric and overlap their historic age.
The use of copper seems to have begun among the people of the Orient before 5000 B.C. It is a soft metal, and tools and weapons made of it were not so greatly superior to the stone. But either by accident or through experiment it was discovered that by mixing about nine parts of copper with one part of the a new metal, called bronze, much harder than either tin or copper, could be made.
So greatly superior were bronze to stone implements that their introduction caused the use of stone for tools and weapons to be discontinued, and consequently the Age of Bronze constitutes a well-defined and important epoch in the history of culture. Bronze seems to have been used by the first kings of Egypt, about 4500 B.C. From the East the metal was carried into Europe. Iron was already in use among the Oriental people about 1500 B.C., and was gradually introduced among the European tribes.
The history of metals has been declared to be the history of civilization. Indeed, it would be almost impossible to overestimate their importance to man. Man could do very little with stone implements compared with what he could do with metal implements.
It was a great labor for primitive man, even with the aid of fire, to fell a tree with a stone axe and to hollow out the trunk for a boat. He was hampered in all his tasks by the rudeness of his tools. It was only as the bearer of metal implements and weapons that he began really to subdue the earth and to get dominion over nature. All the higher cultures of the ancient world with which history begins were based on the knowledge and use of metals.
Source: Philip Van Ness Myers - Ancient History