Paleolithic Man“The Old Stone Age”
250,000 BCE to 10,000 BCE
Early Homo Sapien Life
Characteristics of Paleolithic Life I• Economy: Hunting & Gathering:
– Animals: bears, lions, rhinoceros, mammoths, wolves, deer, bulls, pigs, donkeys, beavers, badgers birds, fish.
– Gathering: berries, nuts, roots, grains, honey
• Work was usually completed in 3-5 hours per day, leaving plenty of leisure time.
• Little surplus was acquired.• People continually migrated, moving to where plants and
animals were available-- nomadic life.
• Stone tools were used to hunt (arrowheads), process grains (grindstones), make clothes (needles).
Paleolithic LifePaleolithic Life
Tools
The word technology refers to the ability of human beings to make things that sustain them and give them some control over their environment. The technology available at the beginning of human history was quite simple. It consisted primarily of the ability to make stone tools.
Paleolithic Stone and Bone Tools
Paleolithic Needles
Paleolithic Grindstone
Paleolithic Arrowheads
Characteristics of Paleolithic Life II• Demography: Low populations but steady growth
– 100,000 years ago: 10,000 people– 30,000 years ago: 500,000 people– 10,000 years ago: 6 million people
• Social Organization: – Egalitarian: men and women were of relatively equal
status– Women gathered, providing 70% of food supply– Men hunted, providing 30% of food supply
• Life span: roughly 35 years
Characteristics of Paleolithic Life III• Culture: A Rich Spiritual Life
– Lack of Writing demands attention to art and burial rituals.
• Evidence of Culture: (no writing means art is key)– Caves were ceremonial spaces filled with art and
room for religious rituals– Part-time shamans visited the spirit world by
ingesting psychoactive substances– Complex burial sites– Varied religious beliefs:
• Some believed in a Creator God (monotheism)• Some believed in levels of supernatural beings and
ancestral spirits (polytheism)
4 Main Areas of Discovered Cave Art
Contemporary France
What THEMES do you detect in the following pieces of Paleolithic art?
What Themes did you detect?
Paleolithic Burial
Paleolithic Burial II
Paleolithic Burial II
Paleolithic Societies vs. Agricultural Societies
• Better Nourishment, More Varied Diet
• Didn’t Work as Hard, More Leisure time
• Longer life-spans, Less disease
– Better sanitation, Less crowding
– Less contact with domesticated animals
• Rich Cultural Life
• More Egalitarian Gender Relations
Which logically raises what question?
