Stone Age Inventions

The old saying, “necessity is the mother of all invention,” certainly applies to inventions in the Stone Ages. After all, Stone Age people were preoccupied with simply trying to find food, water, shelter, and survive the many dangers they faced from day-to-day. So, all of their inventions were tied to survival. How can we become more efficient hunters? How can we gather wild foods more effectively? How can we stay warm? These questions led to inventions.

Stone Age Farming

The earliest crops that were farmed in the Neolithic or New Stone Age were likely barley, wheat, peas, and flax. This probably took place first in Mesopotamia, India, and Egypt. Farming then also began in China (rice) and North and South America (corn, beans, and tomatoes, potatoes), and central and southern Africa.

Stone Age Clothes

A Stone Age (Paleolithic) woman worked on a mammoth hide to prepare it to be used as clothing or a blanket. After scraping the meat off of the hide, she rubbed the animal’s brains on the hide to “tan” it. Tanning is a process, still used today, by which animal hides are preserved and turned into leather. Tanned hides last much longer than untanned ones. Bone or antler was used to make pins that could hold animal hides together for use as clothing.

What is the Paleolithic Age?

The Paleolithic Age is a time period from prehistory when humans and their ancestors primarily used stone tools. The word Paleolithic comes from the Greek words for old and stone, hence the term Old Stone Age. This period started about 2.5 million years ago and lasted until about 10,000 years ago. For most of human history, we were Paleolithic people.

Effects of Domestication of Animals on Neolithic People

First let's review what the Neolithic or New Stone Age was. It was a period of time after humans learned to farm but before they figured out how to make tools out of metal instead of stone. Life was easier than it was before farming, but it was still difficult. Neolithic societies were not really true civilizations yet.

The Paleolithic or Old Stone Age

The Paleolithic or Old Stone Age began between 500,000 and 2 million years ago and lasted until about 10,000 years ago.

Neolithic (New Stone Age) Revolution

The Neolithic or New Stone Age was a time of great development for early humans. During the Neolithic Age, humans went from depending on hunting and gathering to being able to farm their own crops and breed and herd animals for their own use.