The prehistoric ages are a vast expanse of human history, long before the era of written records. The basic division of prehistory is into Paleolithic Age or Old Stone Age, Mesolithic Age or Middle Stone Age, Neolithic Age or New Stone Age, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age, and Iron Age. The Paleolithic Age is further divided into three sub-periods: lower Paleolithic, middle Paleolithic, and upper Paleolithic. The lower Paleolithic era began around 2.5 million years ago and was the Stone Age of the Stone Age. People back then used basic tools, like Cleavers and hand axes, to cut, chop, and butcher animals for food. Homo abilis and Homo erectus were the early hominins who started to shape rocks into tools and master their environment.
The middle Paleolithic era, from about 300,000 to 30,000 years ago, saw an upgrade in tools, with the development of the Mousterian tool industry. The stars of the show were the Neanderthals, who were skillful hunters and gatherers with a close relationship with their environment. The upper Paleolithic era, from around 40,000 to 10,000 BC, was the age of high-tech stone tools, and blade tools were the rock stars of this period.
