The First Societies

Paleolithic, in Greek means “old age of the stone" which consumed 99% of humanities existence. Small groups or tribes of people were clumped together, no more than 25 to 50 people per community. All tribes were nomads, and they mastered the ways of hunting and gathering to survive. Everybody was nomadic so not much time was spent on their shelters. All tribes also were about at the same level technologically using; stone hand axes and choppers and scrapers. The women were responsible for gathering plants and firewood and the men went hunting and scavenging for meat. Other tools used for hunting included bows spears and harpoons.

When a great hunter would return home with a freshly killed prize all members of the clan would look down upon the meat and criticize it. In this way everyone would stay socially equal. This was very important to these early societies. Meat was only 30% of their diet though. In this primitive time the life expectancy rate was only 35 years which is equal to that of a modern day African elephant.

The climate of the Paleolithic Period spanned two geologic epochs known as the Pliocene and the Pleistocene. Both of these periods experienced important geographic and climatic changes that affected human Paleolithic societies such as the beginning and the end of the world wide ice age. The invention of fire was a great aid to the Paleolithic people as it served as a defense and it allowed them to defrost meat which also added to their life spans. These primitive people struggled to survive daily, but this is how humans lived from 2.5 million B.C.E and 10,000 B.C.E.

The Neolithic or “new stone age”, was a period in the development of human technology that is traditionally the last part of the Stone Age. The Neolithic era follows the beginning with the rise of farming, which produced the "Neolithic Revolution”, and ending when metal tools became widespread in the Copper Age or Bronze Age or developing directly into the Iron Age, depending on geographical region. Early Neolithic farming was limited to a narrow range of crops, both wild and domesticated, which included einkorn wheat, millet and spelt and the keeping of dogs, sheep and goats. By about 7000 BC it included domesticated cattle and pigs, the establishment of permanently or seasonally inhabited settlements, and the use of pottery. The shelter of the early people changed dramatically from the Paleolithic era to the Neolithic era. In the Paleolithic, people did not normally live in permanent constructions. In the Neolithic, mud brick houses started appearing that were coated with plaster. The growth of agriculture made permanent houses possible. Doorways were made on the roof, with ladders positioned both on the inside and outside of the houses. The roof was supported by beams