History Overview of Stone Age in the Heart of Europe

The start of humanity, of history, of stone age, begins with the Paleolithic. This was the longest period in our history, and saw slow but steady development of human biology, as well as tools and artistic forms. This was the time of the last Ice age of Pleistocene, which contained multiple colder, glacial periods which were separated by warmer, interglacial periods.

The Paleolithic begins with the earliest examples of discovered stone tools, so-called choppers, which date as far back as 2.5 million years ago from the heartland of human origin - Africa. The first examples of human presence in Europe were found in Spain, at the site of Gran Dolina, and are approximately one million years old.

The people of Paleolithic and later Mesolithic lived in nomadic hunter-gatherer communities - hordes. In the early, Lower Paleolithic, Europe was inhabited by Homo heidelbergensis, also called archaic Homo sapiens. It is from this Europe-dwelling branch that the Neanderthals developed from. Meanwhile, the anatomically modern humans (homo sapiens sapiens) developed from the population of Homo heidelbergensis that remained in Africa. This theory has recently been disputed though, suggesting that the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans was much older.

With the Neanderthals began the Middle Paleolithic in Europe, approximately 250.000 years ago. They were physically well-adapted for life in the ice age with their stocky, muscled frame and short limbs to limit warmth loss. Neanderthals spent most of their life out in the open, where they could hunt and gather food. But it is in the caves, which served Neanderthals as a refuge, where archeologists have found most artifacts. Neanderthals were the first inhabitants of Europe to produce clothes, jewelry, music, art, and buried their dead along with grave goods - all even before the arrival of anatomically modern humans.

Neanderthals’ extinction wasn’t sudden, but occurred gradually over 10000 years. Their extinction during this time coincides with the arrival of anatomically modern humans, homo sapiens sapiens.

With the arrival of anatomically modern humans, Cro-Magnons, began the late, Upper Paleolithic, which lasted from 40000 to 11,500 years ago. Like the previous and future historical and archaeological periods, these ranges can vary across the continent and the world, due to varying cultural and technological progress.

With the end of the Ice age of Pleistocene, around 11500 years ago, came the post-glacial period of Holocene - the same geological period in which we live today. At approximately the same time, historians mark the end of the Paleolithic and the beginning of a new period: Mesolithic. In general it could be said that people continued to live as they did in the preceding Paleolithic, while the environment around them changed.

What we call now “The Neolithic Revolution”, was a drastic change of the prehistoric lifestyle. People gradually abandoned their hunter-gatherer way of life, and started building permanent settlements. Instead of traveling to different areas in search for food, they started cultivating it right at their doorsteps. This was the origin of agriculture and animal-husbandry in the heart of Europe. People went from passively benefiting from nature to actively transforming it.

These, among many other changes, mark the transition into the Neolithic age - The Late Stone Age. They came gradually, from the 7th to 4th millennium BC, from the Near East and pushed deep into Europe. Neolithic ended with the arrival of metal ages, with the Copper age being the first one among them. Just like with the Neolithic, this transition wasn’t sudden.

Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mnK9tpEvz9UgeVWuUh8fPFaoJ3QNLQOYiG7Q2jz1zZI/edit?usp=sharing

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