Knowra Stone Age Stone Age The prehistoric period when people made most tools from stone, preceding widespread use of metal tools. It spans the earliest human toolmaking through the development of metallurgy.
Paleolithic : The earliest and longest subdivision of the Stone Age, characterized by stone-tool use and mobile foraging. It covers most of the Stone Age, from early toolmaking to the end of the last Ice Age.
Stone tool : A tool made by shaping or using stone, often through flaking or grinding. Stone tools are the defining material technology of the period.
Lomekwian : An archaeological stone-tool industry dated to about 3.3 million years ago at Lomekwi, Kenya. Its tools are among the earliest known evidence of stone toolmaking.
Clovis culture : A prehistoric North American archaeological culture known for distinctive fluted stone projectile points. Clovis points show a recognizable regional technology within the later Stone Age.
Bronze Age : The prehistoric period when bronze became a major material for tools, weapons, and objects. It followed Stone Age traditions where copper and tin alloying took hold.
Mesolithic : A transitional Stone Age period between the Paleolithic and Neolithic, especially associated with postglacial adaptations. In some regions it names the transition from Ice Age foraging to later lifeways.
Lithic reduction : The process of shaping stone by removing flakes to produce tools or usable sharp edges. Flaking techniques turned suitable stone into cutting, scraping, and hunting implements.
Oldowan : An early stone-tool industry characterized by simple cores and flakes, first identified in East Africa. Oldowan artifacts document a widespread early phase of stone technology.
Mousterian : A Middle Paleolithic stone-tool industry commonly associated with Neanderthals in Europe and western Asia. Its prepared-core methods illustrate sophisticated Paleolithic tool production.
Iron Age : The period when ironworking became widespread in a society's tools and weapons. Its material technology marks a later transition beyond stone-tool reliance.
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