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The Paleolithic Past
The Paleolithic Age, also called the Old Stone Age, is by far the longest era of humankind's past.
It began more than two million years ago and lasted until about 12,000 B.C. The end of the
Paleolithic Age coincided with the end of the last great ice age, a geological era during
which polar ice caps were expanding and Earth’s temperature was falling. The Paleolithic Age
is often divided into three periods named for the position of the excavated layers: Lower, Middle, and Upper.
The Upper Paleolithic Period, which began around 35,000 B.C., saw the appearance of our ancestor,
Homo sapiens sapiens, "wise human." This species co-existed for a time with the Neanderthal humans
(Homo sapiens neanderthalensis), but eventually supplanted them. During the Upper Paleolithic Period,
the climate changed significantly, first cooling with the spread of the polar ice, and then warming
with its retreat. With each change, the plant and animal life of the affected regions—including northern
Europe and Asia—changed as well. The nomadic peoples surviving these changes became adaptable hunters and gatherers.
The Secrets of the Caves
Since the Upper Paleolithic Period predated written records by tens of thousands of years,
archaeologists must rely upon unearthed material remains to piece together the general pattern
of human life at the time. Cave paintings were discovered beginning in the late 1800s and have
revealed some of the extraordinary achievements of prehistoric peoples. In far-flung places across
the globe, early peoples decorated rocks and caves between 20,000 and 10,000 years ago.
Scientists and art historians can only speculate about the purposes of these paintings.
They may have had religious significance; they may have been expressions of hunting magic.
They demonstrate such a remarkable level of skill and artistic imagination that many scholars
have concluded that there was a skilled class of artists among the hunter-gatherers. These
creative specialists likely passed their skill on from generation to generation.
Credits: Hall of Bulls at Lascaux Sisse Brimberg/National Geographic Image Collection.
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