PREHISTORIC AGES

Old Stone Age,

PALEOLITHIC 2 million years ago

Middle Stone Age,

MESOLITHIC 20-18,000 BCE to 12,150 BCE

New Stone Age

NEOLITHIC 9000 BCE 4500 BCE

PREHISTORIC AGE
 PALEOLITHIC AGES
Division of Labor
Men hunting game animals
women gathering fruits, berries, and other edibles
Developed simple tools
Spears & axes made from bone, wood, & stone

Spirituality and Religion may

have begun to develop

Nomadic hunters and food

gatherers

PREHISTORIC AGE
 MESOLITHIC AGES
20-18,000 BC to 12,150 BC
Small Composite flint tools,
Fishing tackle,
Stone adzes and
Wooden objects such as canoes and bows
Characterized by the introduction of agriculture

NEOLITHIC AGES
10,000 BCE:
Humans cultivate crops and domesticate animals
Villages continued to divide work between men and women
Women's status declined men took lead in most areas of early societies

PREHISTORIC AGE
9000 BC - 4500 BC: NEOLITHIC
First permanent settlements appear AGES
Domestication of plants (notably wheat), animals (goats and sheep)
Produced decorated pottery and figurines
From clay may indicate they were a war-like people
Irrigation systems and more advanced burial site

Calendar to keep track of planting and harvesting

Simple metal tools such as plows

Used animals to pull plows

Metal weapons developed as villages needed to protect their valuable

resources.

PREHISTORIC AGE
NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION and RISE OF
CIVILIZATIONS
Early humans were nomadic hunters &
gatherers & had to move around to find
their food

Some hunters & gatherers were advanced,

but were never able to develop complex
societies because they had to migrate to
find food

PREHISTORIC AGE
 NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION and RISE OF
CIVILIZATIONS
Around 8,000 B.C.,
the Neolithic
Revolution occurred
& early humans
discovered how
to farm &
domesticate animals

Farming changed the

way humans lived

People no longer had

to be nomads

Food surpluses led to

population increases

Farming villages became

established along river valleys for
PREHISTORIC AGE their good soil & irrigation
 NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION and RISE OF
CIVILIZATIONS

PREHISTORIC AGE
 NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION and RISE OF
CIVILIZATIONS

?
Around 3,000 B.C., some farming villages became complex
civilizations.

PREHISTORIC AGE
NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION and RISE OF
CIVILIZATIONS
?
? ?
? ?
PREHISTORIC AGE
 NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION and RISE OF
CIVILIZATIONS
Civilizations must have cities that are centers of trade for large areas

PREHISTORIC AGE
 NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION and RISE OF
CIVILIZATIONS
Civilizations must have technologies that make their lives easier

PREHISTORIC AGE
 NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION and RISE OF
CIVILIZATIONS
Civilizations must have writing in order to keep records of taxes,
laws, or trade.

PREHISTORIC AGE
 NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION and RISE OF
Civilizations must haveCIVILIZATIONS
specialized workers
that create a class
system

PREHISTORIC AGE
 NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION and RISE OF
Civilizations must haveCIVILIZATIONS
complex institutions
like government &
religion to keep order

PREHISTORIC AGE
NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION and RISE OF
CIVILIZATIONS

PREHISTORIC AGE
EVOLUTION OF SHELTER
The origins of architecture, although lost in the mists of antiquity, must
have been connected intimately with the endeavors of man to provide for
his physical wants.
It has been truly said that protection from the inclemency of the seasons
was the mother of architecture.
According to Vitruvius, man in his primitive savage state began to imitate
the nests of birds and the lairs of beasts, commencing with arbours of
twigs covered with mud, then huts formed of branches of trees and
covered with turf.
Three types of primitive dwellings the caves, or rocks or those occupied
in hunting or fishing, the hut for the agriculturist and the tent for those
such as shepherds leading a nomadic life.
PREHISTORIC AGE
EVOLUTION OF SHELTER
Structures of the prehistoric period, although interesting for
archaeological reasons have little or no architectural value and will only be
lightly touched upon.
i) Monoliths, or single upright stones, also known as menhirs, a well-
known example 63 high, 14 in dia and weighing 260 tons, being at
carnac, Brittany.
ii) Dolmens (Daul, a table, and maen, a stone), consisting of one large flat
stone supported by upright stones. Examples are found in Ireland,
Northern France, the channel Islands, Italy and India.
iii) Cromlechs, or circles of stone, as at Stonehenge, Avebury and
elsewhere, consisting of a series of upright stones arranged in a circle
and supporting horizontal slabs.
PREHISTORIC AGE
EVOLUTION OF SHELTER
iv) Tumuli, or burial mounds, were probably prototypes of the Pyramids
of Egypt and the beehive huts found in Wales, Cornwall, Ireland and
elsewhere.
v) Lake Dwellings, as discovered in the lakes of Switzerland, Italy and
Ireland consisted of wooden huts supported on piles, and were so
placed for protection against hostile attacks of all kinds.

PREHISTORIC AGE
EVOLUTION OF SHELTER

PREHISTORIC AGE
EVOLUTION OF SHELTER

PREHISTORIC AGE
EVOLUTION OF SHELTER

DOLOMEN

PREHISTORIC AGE
EVOLUTION OF SHELTER

PREHISTORIC AGE
 NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION and RISE OF
CIVILIZATIONS

The discovery of farming during

the Neolithic Revolution allowed
nomadic people to settle into
civilizations

River Valley Civilizations

PREHISTORIC AGE