Lower Paleolithic

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Lower Paleolithic

The Lower Paleolithic (or Lower Palaeolithic) is the earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic

Paleolithic

The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic or "Old Stone" era is a Prehistory era distinguished by the development of the first stone tools, and covers roughly 99% of human history....
or Old Stone Age

Stone Age

The Stone Age is a broad prehistory time period during which humans widely used Rock for toolmaking.Stone tools were made from a variety of different kinds of stone....
. It spans the time from around 2.5 million year

1 E13 s

To help compare orders of magnitude of different times this page lists times between 320 000 years and 3 200 000 years See also Orders of magnitude ....
s ago when the first evidence of craft and use of stone tool

Stone tool

Hominidae

The Hominidae form a taxonomic biological family, including four extant genus: Homo s, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans.A number of known extinct genera are grouped with humans in the Hominina subtribe, others with orangutans in the Ponginae subtribe....
s appears in the current archaeological record

Archaeological record

The archaeological record is a term used in archaeology to denote all archaeological evidence, including the physical remains of past human activities which archaeologists seek out and record in an attempt to analyze and reconstruct the past....
, until around 100,000 years

1 E12 s

To help compare orders of magnitude of different times this page lists times between 32 000 years and 320 000 years . See also Orders of magnitude ...
ago when important evolutionary and technological changes (behavioral modernity

Behavioral modernity

Behavioral modernity is a term used in anthropology, archeology and sociology to refer to a list of traits that distinguish present day humans and their recent ancestors from both living primates and other extinct hominid lineages....
) ushered in the Middle Paleolithic

Middle Paleolithic

The Middle Paleolithic is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. The term Middle Stone Age is used as an equivalent or a synonym for the Middle Paleolithic in African archeology....
.

earliest hominids, known as australopithecine

Australopithecine

The term australopithecine refers to two very closely related genus within the Hominina subtribe of the Hominini tribe . They appeared in the Pliocene:...
s (personified by the famous find of Lucy

Australopithecus afarensis

'Australopithecus afarensis' is an extinct hominid which lived between 3.9 and 2.9 million years ago. In common with the younger Australopithecus africanus, A....
in Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast....
) were not advanced stone tool

Stone tool

A stone tool is, in the most cave general sense, any tool made of Rock . Although stone-tool-dependent cultures exist even today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric societies that no longer exist....
users and were likely to have been common prey for larger animals.

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Encyclopedia

The Lower Paleolithic (or Lower Palaeolithic) is the earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic

Paleolithic

The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic or "Old Stone" era is a Prehistory era distinguished by the development of the first stone tools, and covers roughly 99% of human history....
or Old Stone Age

Stone Age

1 E13 s

Stone tool

Hominidae

Archaeological record

1 E12 s

Behavioral modernity

Middle Paleolithic

Early species

The earliest hominids, known as australopithecine

Australopithecine

Australopithecus afarensis

'Australopithecus afarensis' is an extinct hominid which lived between 3.9 and 2.9 million years ago. In common with the younger Australopithecus africanus, A....
in Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Stone tool

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
s that may be called Homo appear in the archaeological record. They may have evolved from the australopithecines or come from another phylogenetic

Phylogenetics

In biology, phylogenetics is the study of evolutionary relatedness among various groups of organisms , which is discovered through molecular sequencing data and morphological data matrices....
branch of the primate

Primate

A primate is a member of the biological order Primates , the group that contains lemurs, the Aye-aye, Lorisidaes, galagos, tarsiers, monkeys, and apes, with the last category including humans....
s.

Homo habilis
Homo habilis

Homo habilis is a species of the genus Homo , which lived from approximately 2.5 million to at least 1.6 million years ago at the beginning of the Pleistocene....
remains, such as those from Olduvai Gorge

Olduvai Gorge

The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge is commonly referred to as "The Cradle of Mankind." It is a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley, which stretches along eastern Africa....
, are much more recognisable as humans. Stone-tool use was developed by these people around 2.5 million years ago before they were replaced by Homo erectus
Homo Erectus

Homo Erectus is a 2007 comedy film about cavemen that was written and directed by Adam Rifkin, and starring Giuseppe Andrews, Gary Busey, David Carradine, Ron Jeremy, Ali Larter, Hayes MacArthur, Adam Rifkin, and Talia Shire....
about 1.5 million years ago. Members of Homo habilis
Homo habilis

Homo habilis is a species of the genus Homo , which lived from approximately 2.5 million to at least 1.6 million years ago at the beginning of the Pleistocene....
used Olduwan

Olduwan

Oldowan is an anthropology designation for an industrial complex of stone tools used by prehistoric hominins of the Lower Paleolithic. The Oldowan is the first known industrial complex in prehistory....
tools and had learned to control fire

Fire

Fire is the oxidation of a combustion material releasing heat, light, and various Chemical reaction products such as carbon dioxide and water....
to support the hunter-gatherer method of subsistence.

Europe

The Oldowan tool making culture moved into Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
from Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
, where it had originated. In the north the Olduwan tradition (known in Europe as Abbevillian

Abbevillian

Abbevillian is a currently obsolescent name for a tool tradition that is increasingly coming to be called Oldowan. The original artifacts were collected from road construction sites on the Somme river near Abbeville by a French customs officer, Boucher de Perthes....
) split into two parallel traditions, the Clactonian

Clactonian

The Clactonian is the name given by archaeologists to an archaeological industry of European flint tool manufacture that dates to the early part of the interglacial period known as the Hoxnian Stage, the Mindel-Riss or the Hoxnian Stage ....
, a flake tradition, and the Acheulean

Acheulean

Acheulean is the name given to an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture associated with prehistoric hominins during the Lower Palaeolithic era across Africa and much of West Asia and Europe....
, a hand-axe tradition. The Levallois

Levallois

Levallois may refer to:*Levallois-Perret, a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France.*Levallois technique *Nicolas-Eug?ne Levallois...
technique for knapping flint

Flint

Flint is a hard, sedimentary rock cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as Nodule s and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones....
developed during this time.

The carrier species from Africa to Europe undoubtedly was Homo erectus

Homo Erectus

Homo Erectus is a 2007 comedy film about cavemen that was written and directed by Adam Rifkin, and starring Giuseppe Andrews, Gary Busey, David Carradine, Ron Jeremy, Ali Larter, Hayes MacArthur, Adam Rifkin, and Talia Shire....
. This type of human is more clearly linked to the flake tradition, which spread across southern Europe through the Balkans

Balkans

The Balkans is the historical name of a geographic subregion of southeastern Europe. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains, which run through the centre of Bulgaria into eastern Serbia....
to appear relatively densely in southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India and north of Australia....
. Many Mousterian

Mousterian

Mousterian is a name given by archaeologists to a style of predominantly flint tools associated primarily with Neanderthal and dating to the Middle Paleolithic, the middle part of the Old Stone Age....
finds in the Middle Paleolithic

Middle Paleolithic

Levallois technique

The Levallois technique is a name given by archaeologists to a distinctive type of lithic reduction developed by humans during the Palaeolithic period....
, suggesting that Neanderthals evolved from Homo erectus.

Also in Europe appeared a type of human intermediate between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens, typified by such fossils as those found at Swanscombe, Steinheim

Steinheim Skull

The Steinheim skull is a fossilized skull of an archaic Archaic Homo sapiens or Homo heidelbergensis found in 1933 near Steinheim an der Murr ....
, Tautavel, and Vertesszollos (Homo palaeohungaricus). Although it is unwise, given the current state of knowledge, to assume an exclusive association of any type of human with any specific type of tool, the intermediates seem responsible for the hand-axe tradition. Such an association does not imply that they necessarily evolved in Europe.

Flakes and axes coexisted in Europe, sometimes at the same site. The axe tradition, however, spread to a different range in the east. It appears in Arabia and India, but more importantly, it does not appear in southeast Asia.

At the site of Monte Poggiolo

Monte Poggiolo

Monte Poggiolo is a hill near Forl?, Italy in the Emilia-Romagna area. At Monte Poggiolo is an ancient castle named Ca? Belvedere .The area has become known since excavations have uncovered thousands Paleolithic-era artifacts in strata dated about 800,000 years before the present....
, near Forlì

Forlì

Forl? is a comune and city in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, famed as the birthplace of the great painter Melozzo da Forl?, of the Renaissance humanism historian Flavio Biondo, of the famous physicians Geronimo Mercuriali and Giovanni Battista Morgagni....
, thousands of stone handaxes have been found that date from 800,000 years ago.

External links

Lower Paleolithic in Ancient Egypt
, Libor Balák at the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Archaeology in Brno, The Center for Paleolithic and Paleoethnological Research
at Indiana University Bloomington