Stone Age
Lower Paleolithic Era

Topics covered in this section:

Introduction

The Lower Paleolithic covers a 900,000 year period, between 1,000,000 and 100,000 BP (before present).

Nine hundred thousand years is a very long time! However, change came slowly to the Lower Paleolithic world. Pretty much the same technology existed throughout the entire period.

Archaeological Markers

Archaeologists have identified the typical characteristics of artifacts that are found at Lower Paleolithic sites, although there are many exceptions to these stereotypes.

Crude Stone Tools

Most of the tools were made by working with stone, either by chipping or flaking. Common among these stone tools were stone blades and hand axes. These stone axes were simple, crudely sharpened stones that lacked a handle, and were held in one or both hands while hacking away at a tree to gather firewood. On the other hand, stone blades were used to chop off hunks of meat during butchering.

Local Raw Materials

The raw materials used to manufacture these tools were mostly from local sources. Most of the raw materials were transported over very short distances, usually only 10-15 meters (30-50 ft).

Thus, the time required to forage for raw materials was on the order of minutes or, at most, hours.

Simple Living Spaces

Living spaces lacked most of the features that will in later periods make up a campsite. There were no permanent fireplaces or hearths, for example.

Also, there was a conspicuous absence of post holes, indicating that the people didn't build huts or pitch tents.

Primitive Disposal

In later periods, settlements will have a well segregated area for rubbish or for the disposal of human waste. But these elements of sanitation were absent from most Lower Paleolithic sites.

Migrations

Most of the major migrations of Lower Paleolithic (Stone Age) peoples into Europe occurred, or at least began, some time during the Pleistocene Epoch (a geological age), around 600,000 years ago.

Popular Theories Questioned

Hunters Need to Use a Language

We are taught in school and in Hollywood movies to think of Paleolithic people as skilled hunters, out there on the plains or ice sheets, tracking down and killing huge mastodons. Or forcing whole herds of bison to plunge to their deaths over cliffs.

While that viewpoint might be accurate, we need to exercise caution.

Killing large animals or manipulating entire herds required many hunters and, more importantly, the use of language to coordinate the hunt.

Did They Lack a Language?

Archaeology can't tell us if they had a language, of course. However, when we study their stone tools, we get the impression that each person worked at their craft independently. Based on the archaeological evidence, there doesn't appear to have been any form of craftsman-apprentice interaction.

In other words, there doesn't appear to have been any formal training, enabling the best craftsmen to teach others. The lack of similarities in tool designs implies that artisans didn't communicate their methods to others.

This hints that they didn't possess the language necessary for skilled craftsmen to pass on their designs to their students.

Scavengers, Not Hunters?

If — and that's a big "if" — they lacked a language, then major hunts would have been beyond their abilities. And perhaps, instead of hunters, they might have foraged for carcasses, which had either died as winter mortalities or been brought down by carnivores.

Scavenging for "megafauna" like aurochs or mastodons, with their huge reserves of fat and marrow, makes more sense than trying to stone them to death or to get close enough to stab them with stone-tipped spears.

Might Explain Site Location

If Lower Paleolithic peoples were scavengers instead of hunters, it might help explain the concentration of sites along rivers and around lakes, since that's where most mortalities would tend to occur. Many carnivores tend to make their kills while their prey is busy drinking water. Then an opportunistic human could scavenge whatever was left behind.

Most likely, however, Stone Age peoples used a combination of the two techniques. They probably hunted whenever they could and scavenged when the opportunity presented itself.

Romanian Archaeology

Pebble Tool Culture

Lower Paleolithic stone tools of the Pebble Tool culture have been unearthed in several areas, including: the Dîrjov valley in Wallachia; at Căpuşu Mic near Cluj; at Mitoc, on the Prut River; at Ripiceni and Valea Lupului (in Moldavia); in Bucharest; and in Giurgiu.

These tools included hand axes (in the Dîrjov valley); flint flakes at Dobromira, Fărcaşele, and Valea Lupului; flints at Ripiceni, Bucharest, and Giurgiu; and a hearth at Mitoc.

Pronunciation Help

To help American readers, the following pronunciation guide to Romanian words used above is provided. The sounds shown are only approximations, however.

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