Prehistory: The Stone Age
The Stone Age is the long prehistoric period when people made tools from stone, hunted and gathered food, and later began farming.
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The Stone Age is the long prehistoric period when people made tools from stone, hunted and gathered food, and later began farming.
- Palaeolithic hunters were nomadic
- Neolithic people farmed
- Cave paintings show early art
🧠 Quick quiz
Three questions. Score 2 or more to complete the topic.
What is Prehistory: The Stone Age?
Within History, which covers ancient civilisations, empires, revolutions, world wars and the making of the modern world, this topic explains Prehistory: The Stone Age. History topics connect events, people and ideas across time, so each one here gives a clear summary and a way to test your understanding.
Check that you can explain Prehistory: The Stone Age in your own words and give one example from everyday life. If you can do that, you have understood the core idea.
Understanding Prehistory: The Stone Age helps you explain change over time and judge why events happened, which is the core skill in history essays.
Prehistory: The Stone Age in detail
Prehistory is the long period before written records, and the Stone Age is named after the main material for tools. In the Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age), people were hunter-gatherers who moved around to find food, made tools from flint, used fire, and made cave paintings such as those at Lascaux.
In the Mesolithic they adapted to a warming climate after the last Ice Age, and in the Neolithic (New Stone Age) they began to farm and settle. Our knowledge comes from archaeology, including bones, tools and sites such as Skara Brae and Stonehenge, which means interpretations can change with new discoveries and techniques such as carbon dating.
How the interactive helps you understand Prehistory: The Stone Age
Watch the timeline in the interactive. Use any sliders or buttons it offers to change the values and see how the timeline responds.
Before you change anything, predict the result. Then change one value at a time and check whether your prediction was right. This is a quick way to build a correct mental model of Prehistory: The Stone Age.
Real-life uses and examples
- Compare Prehistory: The Stone Age with another event to spot patterns of change and continuity.
- Build a timeline that shows when Prehistory: The Stone Age happened and what came before and after.
- Judge how important Prehistory: The Stone Age was by weighing evidence from more than one source.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Treating one source as the whole story when you study Prehistory: The Stone Age.
- Describing events without explaining why they happened.
- Learning the definition without testing it. Use the quiz and the interactive to check that you can apply the idea.
Frequently asked questions about Prehistory: The Stone Age
What is Prehistory: The Stone Age?
The Stone Age is the long prehistoric period when people made tools from stone, hunted and gathered food, and later began farming.
What are the most important points about Prehistory: The Stone Age?
The main points are: Palaeolithic hunters were nomadic; Neolithic people farmed; Cave paintings show early art.
Why is Prehistory: The Stone Age useful?
Understanding Prehistory: The Stone Age helps you explain change over time and judge why events happened, which is the core skill in history essays.
How can I practise Prehistory: The Stone Age?
Open the interactive at the top of this page and change the controls one at a time. Predict the result before each change, then take the three-question quiz. A score of two or more marks the topic as complete on this device.
Which topics are related to Prehistory: The Stone Age?
Related topics in History include Ancient Mesopotamia, The Indus Valley Civilisation, Athens and Sparta.