PREHISTORY periods and their characteristics

Since the beginning of time, human beings have tried to create separations in history to order in a better way centuries of events that have been happening, the first of these periods being that of Prehistory. The Prehistory it's the whole history of human beings before the appearance of writing, being a huge period that we have divided into two great stages depending on the predominant material at the time. To know the parts of this division, in this lesson from a Teacher we must talk about Prehistoric periods and their characteristics.

The first period of Prehistory is known as Stone age, being framed between 2.6 million years ago and 4,000 years ago. Therefore, it is the period of human history with the longest duration and encompassing an enormous evolution of the human being. The main characteristic of this period is the use of stone, since it was during this time that human beings began to use tools made of this material, completely transforming society.

The tool creation, both made of stone and other materials such as bone or leather, caused human beings to achieve great feats, facilitating elements such as

hunting or creating agricultural tools, and therefore making the human intellect and society advance. The reason why stone is talked about over other materials is because, having no sources written, arisen after prehistory, we only know these societies by archaeological remains found; and stone, being much more resistant than other materials, has caused many more stone tools to be found than bone or leather.

But stone tools are not the only important element that we can find in the Stone Age, since there were many elements that caused a rapid and extraordinary change in human societies of this time. Some of these transformations of which we have evidence is from emergence of culture as shown by artistic works such as paintings or the Venuses, or the discovery of the agriculture and livestock as ways to create food and not have to search for it.

Together with the discovery of agriculture and livestock we must bear in mind that one of the great changes of the Stone Age was the passage of the nomadic way of life, of changing residence to escape the cold and look for food, yet sedentary life system in which people had their own village, created their own food and sheltered from the cold in buildings similar to what would be houses.

Stages of the Stone Age

To continue talking about the periods of Prehistory, specifically, the Stone Age, we must list its different stages and what are the main characteristics of each of they. The three stages into which the Stone Age is divided are the following:

• Paleolithic: The first part of the Stone Age covers from the first stone tools manufactured by the beings humans until the end of the Great Ice Age, so we can place it between 2.6 million years ago and 9600 to. C. It is the longest period of the three and therefore one of the longest in the history of our planet and of human beings. Among its main characteristics we can talk about the first tools of both stone and other materials such as bone, the appearances of the first examples of art cave, the first attempts to decorate using materials such as precious stones, the discovery of fire, or maintaining a nomadic life moving between caves to survive.
• Mesolithic: The intermediate stage of the Stone Age begins in 9600 a. C with the end of what is known as the Ice Age, and ends between 7,000 and 4,000 BC. C. after the discovery of agriculture and livestock. Humans begin to live outdoors, as the change in climate to a warmer temperature allows them not to have to be protected from the cold in the caves, and it is this position on flat ground and with good temperature that allows them to work the Earth. Changes in temperature also affect animals and plants, being a time of great changes in which many species had to adapt, changing the world in which humans they lived. Among the main characteristics of the Mesolithic we can find the creation of transport to facilitate hunting and fishing, the creation of huts and elements similar to the first peoples, perfection of stone tools making them smaller, the first animals were domesticated, the first cemeteries arose, and the passage towards the sedentary lifestyle.
• Neolithic: The last stage of the Stone Age arises with the appearance of agriculture between the year 9000 and 4000 a. C. and ends with the emergence of copper as a tool-making element, thus moving to the Metal Age. It was one of the human periods in which the human being had a greater evolution, changing our existence forever and advancing in many elements towards what we are today. Some of the main characteristics of the human being at this time are the discovery of how to polish the stone, learning how agriculture worked and livestock, the transition to a sedentary society, the emergence of societies as the basis of cities, trade arises as an economic form between peoples.

To continue with this lesson on the periods of Prehistory and their characteristics we must talk about the second great stage of this period, being known as Age of metals, a period in which humans learned to work with various metals, creating tools and elements of this material, but it was also a period marked by a series of great changes that ended the Prehistory.

Regarding the chronology we can say that Prehistory begins about 4000 years ago. C. with the emergence of agriculture and livestock, and therefore the step towards a sedentary society, and that ends with the appearance of writing, being the event that marks the passage from Prehistory to the Age Ancient. The enormous changes that made society achieve create writing make the Metal Age one of the most important stages of the human being, managing to change towards what we are today and leaving Prehistory behind.

Stages of the Metal Age

Like the Stone Age, this period also has a series of stages, although in this case they are marked by the material most used in each one of them, since the evolution of metal was key for society to human was advancing and the use of increasingly resistant and strong materials means that we must differentiate these materials from one to the other. others. The stages of the Metal Ageare as follows:

• Copper Age: The first metal that man was able to use massively, especially for tools much more resistant than stone, although in this period it was only used naturally as the mechanisms were not known cast iron. At this stage, demography increases, with the emergence of the first large cities in the world, and large societies appearing in them. hierarchical, being the basis for the appearance of the first large cities of which we have evidence a few centuries later, being a example Troy. Among the main characteristics of the period we can speak of walled cities, cultural differentiation between cities, improvement of agriculture, and domestication of wild animals.
• Bronze Age: Investigating how to improve copper, humans mixed it with tin and created bronze, a harder and more resistant material than bronze, and therefore more useful for creating tools. Among the main characteristics of this stage we can name the first elements similar to numbers and writing that are marked on small tablets of bronze whose origin is not certain, creation of the first common cemeteries that served so that large cities had a common place to rest their remains, the creation of more dangerous weapons with bronze being a more dangerous material than copper or stone, the first social and economic differences between people arise creating the classes that already at this time were linked to military, political and religious life, and the first great states emerged among which we already found well-known and influential peoples in our history.
• Iron age: The last of the Prehistoric periods is the Iron Age, a time when the most used material was the iron, much more common and resistant than the rest of the metals, and serving as the basis for the end of the Prehistory. The main characteristics of the Iron Age are the emergence of important peoples such as Egypt, Greece or Mesopotamia, creation of writing, mathematics and astronomy, the rise of great armies thanks to iron weapons and armor, religion took a more important role, iron made agricultural tools more resistant and durable, so that production increased like never before, and the great social states arose.

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Lloréns, S. R. (2004). Metallurgical technology and cultural change in the Prehistory of the Iberian Peninsula. Norba: History Magazine, (17), 9-40.