Like the song says, let’s start at the very beginning – it’s a very good place to start! So for our first blog, here are 8 great conversation-starters to get children talking about the Stone Age.
There’s more than one “Stone Age”
The Stone Age is actually divided into three periods: the Palaeolithic or old stone age (palaeo = old and lithic = stone), the Mesolithic (middle stone age) and Neolithic (new stone age).
The palaeolithic is the oldest and longest of all, lasting from 3.3 million years ago to around 10,000 years ago. This covers the entire period from the first use of stones as tools through to the development of finely worked flint points and hafted weapons.
Teaching idea: Line up a class of 30 children to represent the whole Stone Age. The palaeolithic will stretch from the first child right to the knuckles of the very last child, and the neolithic will just be their fingertips!
Humans didn’t invent stone tools!
It’s easy to imagine an early human being using a stone spear to hunt mammoth, but the first people to use stone tools weren’t technically human!
Stone tools have been found dating from 3.3 million years ago, and modern humans (Homo Sapiens) didn’t turn up until around 300,000 years ago. So who was using stone tools 3 million years before humans existed?
Archaeologists think that the culprit was Australopithecus – a primate who was likely one of our early ancestors. By the time humans came along, 3 million years later, tools had evolved from simple rock hammers to knapped flint blades, spear heads and arrows.
Teaching idea: Look at different kinds of stone tools and what they might have been used for. Put them on a timeline to see how they developed.
You probably have Neanderthal DNA!
When modern humans evolved, around 300,000 years ago, they were not the only hominins on the planet. Several other human-like species co-existed with us, like Neanderthals who died out about 40,000 years ago.
DNA evidence shows us that modern humans can have up to 4% Neanderthal DNA, meaning that at some point we must have interbred! People from Africa generally have less than people from other areas, but they can still have up to 0.5% Neanderthal DNA.
Teaching idea: Research Neanderthals and discuss differences and similarities to modern humans. Discuss why Neanderthal DNA might be useful to modern humans.
Credit: Trougnouf (Benoit Brummer) – Own work, CC BY 4.0
Europeans had dark skin!
The discovery of a 10,000 year old mesolithic (middle stone age) man from Cheddar, Somerset, UK, showed just how recent the evolution of pale skin really is. Cheddar Man’s genome was recently analysed by a team of scientists and it was found that his skin was likely dark to black, and his eyes pale blue.
Of course one individual does not represent a whole population, but there have been several other findings of similar skeletons in Europe who also had dark skin. It’s now thought that pale skin didn’t evolve in Europe until after the introduction of farming, some 8000 years ago.
Teaching idea: Discuss why pale skin might have evolved, and why it would be needed in northern climates. Current theories include better Vitamin D production in weaker sunlight, and less need for the body to put energy into creating melanin, saving energy for other things.
The oldest stone tools found outside Africa are in Britain!
The quiet north Norfolk coast is not the kind of place you would expect to find ground-breaking evidence of early humans. That changed in 2003 when a flint hand axe was discovered near Happisburgh (pronounced Haysborough) which still had a sharp point after 700,000 years!
The likely creator of this hand axe was Homo Antecessor – an ancestor of modern humans who walked upright. They also left footprints on the beach at Happisburgh which were preserved for 800,000 years until their discovery in 2013.
Teaching idea: Research different kinds of evidence for humans and their ancestors in Britain (bones, footprints, tools, settlements, art, and evidence of fire making). What kinds of evidence would you not find from the Stone Age? (Photos, writing, documents etc.)
Cavemen didn’t live in caves!
While our earliest ancestors certainly used caves for shelter, for most of the Stone Age humans were hunter-gatherers. Following herds of animals for food meant setting up home wherever the animals went, and that required moveable shelters.
Tents made of animal skins would have been common, along with temporary houses made of wood, grasses and mud, and animal bones. At Kostenki (in modern day Russia) archaeologists discovered a 25,000 year old building made from the bones of around 60 mammoths!
Later in the neolithic, humans invented farming. This meant that permanent settlements could develop, as there was no need to follow the herds. The largest became cities of mud brick and stone buildings, and could have a population of up to 8,000 people!
Teaching idea: Look at building materials available to early man. Have children build their own model shelters from various materials including grass, sticks, leather (or leatherette), clay and cloth. What designs stand up best?
Image credit: Milos Tod, via Wikimedia Commons
Stone Age children played with toys
Children in the stone age would have spent most of their time learning skills from their parents; how to hunt, what to gather, and how to make everything they needed to survive. But there was still time for play!
Stone age child burials have turned up a variety of objects: models of animals carved from wood and bone, doll-like figurines, and miniature versions of weapons like spears and arrows. Beads, shells and other small items were also commonly buried alongside their owners, and may have been used as baby rattles.
This spinning disk toy was found in south-western France is around 14-21,000 years old. It features a deer laying down on one side, and standing up on the other. When spun on a string through the central hole, it gives the impression that the deer is moving.
© Passé Simple, Antiquity 2012
Teaching idea: Have children make their own spinning disk toy (thaumatrope) from card. Draw a picture on one side and a slightly different one on the other, thread string through the middle and spin to see the “moving” picture.
Stone Age people used medicine!
While there were probably religious and ritual elements to Stone Age healing due to the likely belief that evil spirits/Gods were responsible for disease, practical medicine was also used.
Various types to earth could be eaten to kill intestinal parasites, for minerals, and to aid digestion. Some indigenous populations around the world still use this form of medicine today.
Clay could be used to set broken bones, and herbs and plants were used for their medicinal qualities. There’s even evidence of people using psychoactive compounds like those found in “magic” mushrooms.
Neolithic people were also performing surgery! This skull is from a neolithic woman who had survived trepanning; a hole was drilled into the cranium, possibly as a way to relieve headaches, migraines or mental illness, or as part of a religious ritual. The healing around the hole indicates that she survived the procedure. At a neolithic site in France, 40 out of 120 recovered skulls showed signs of trepanation, with around 40% having survived.
Teaching idea: Discuss what counts as medicine. What kind of evidence would tell us about Stone Age medicine. How could looking at living indigenous cultures help us interpret archaeological finds? What makes modern medicine different from Stone Age medicine? Discuss scientific method vs trial-and-error. Were Stone Age people using “faith healing” or “real medicine”?
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