Our PreHistory – Paleolithic People of the Stone Age

Paleolithic people of the old stone age used simple stone tools, and were the earliest people that we know of who had the ability to make tools. Stone tools came in very handy to the Paleolithic people as they learned that tools could change their physical environment. These people also developed a better understanding of their environment, and learned which animals to hunt, what wild plants to eat, and what wild berries, nuts, fruits, and grains were safe to eat.

As the Paleolithic people evolved, so did their tools. For example, the spear, bow and arrow, harpoons, and fishhooks made of bones were among the new, better tools created. Hunting was a huge part of the Paleolithic people’s lives, they were nomads, because their food sources; buffalo, horses, bison, etc, all migrated and/or had vegetation cycles. Both men and women played important roles in the small twenty to thirty groups of different nomads. The women bore and raised children, and collected berries, nuts, and grains. The men hunted large animals. Paleolithic men and women were believed to have a rough equality among one another.

These people also found other ways to survive, by building shelters out of wood poles, sticks, or the bones of large animals, covered with hides. They also used caves as shelter, and sometimes to paint 100’s of painting’s of lions, oxen, owls, panthers, and other animals.

Another great ability of the early people was perhaps their ability to make deliberately make fire. This helped them when they migrated to colder regions. Early people also learned that fire not only gave warmth, but could be used to cook food, and scare away wild animals.

As Quoted from Glenoce World History, (page 25): “The importance of art to human life is evident in one basic fact: art exsisted even in pre-history among the Paleolithic people.” Often, caves found today in present time, which once belonged to Paleolithic people; show 100’s of pictures, and many of these animals are in realistic forms. The Paleolithic people crushed minderal ores, and combined them with animal fat to create red, yellow, and black paint. They painted with their fingertips, crushed twigs, and even the earlies form of a paintbrush: animal hairs! Hollow reeds were an excellent painting device for the Paleolithic people to blow thin lines of paint on the cave walls.

The Paleolithic world’s survival was challenged when ice ages began. Thick sheets of ice covered large parts of the continents, and human life had to learn how to adapt or we would have no survival! These early humans adapted by changing their environment, not themselves.