Stone Age

Table of Contents

Introduction & Top Questions
Europe
- Paleolithic
  - Lower Paleolithic
  - Middle Paleolithic
  - Upper Paleolithic
    - Périgordian
    - Aurignacian
    - Solutrean
    - Magdalenian
- Mesolithic
  - The cultures
    - The Maglemosian
    - The Nachikufan
  - The general picture
- Neolithic
  - The zones
  - Cultural elements
    - Rural economy
    - Houses
    - Stone tools
    - Ax factories and flint mines
    - Art
    - Trade
Asia
- Paleolithic
  - Middle East
  - Central Asia
  - South Asia
  - East and Southeast Asia
  - Siberia
- Mesolithic–Neolithic: the rise of village-farming communities
  - Middle East
    - Incipient cultivation and domestication
    - The Natufian and Karim Shahirian
    - The effective village-farming community
    - Fully established village sequences in the Middle East
    - General cultural level of the early villages
    - The threshold of town and city life in the Middle East
    - General cultural level of the Ubaidian Phase
  - South and East Asia
  - Central Asia and Siberia
    - European cultures
    - Asian cultures
Africa
- Paleolithic
  - North Africa
  - Egypt
  - East Africa
  - Southern Africa
  - Central Africa
- Mesolithic–Neolithic
The Americas
- Early cultures
  - Paleo-Indian tradition
  - Desert tradition
- Rise of agriculture
- Other developments
  - Archaic tradition
  - Western North America
  - South and Middle America
- Village farming and towns
  - Hopewell culture
  - Mississippian culture
  - Pueblos
  - South America
  - The general picture
Oceania

References & Edit History Related Topics

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Female figurine in the form of a jar

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Written and fact-checked by The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

News •

Stone Age tombs for Irish royalty aren't what they seem, new DNA analysis reveals • Apr. 18, 2025, 6:41 AM ET (Live Science)

Neanderthals made their home in China, not just Europe, Stone Age find suggests • Apr. 8, 2025, 11:41 PM ET (South China Morning Post)

Photos and Videos

La Roche aux Fées

Uniface blade and three end scrapers

Aurignacian-Gravettian sculpture

Magdalenian cave painting of a bison

La Roche aux Fées

Carved entrance stone

Female figurine in the form of a jar

See a researcher making an Oldowan flint flake from obsidian through a technique known as knapping

See All Videos and Images →

Topics

stone tool industry human being history prehistoric peoples

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Quiz

Three flint axes from the stone age. (prehistoric, tools, early humans, culture, archaeology, implements)

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