Paleolithic Timeline

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c. 2600000 BCE - c. 250000 BCE
Lower- or Early Palaeolithic industry.
c. 2600000 BCE
First known tool use (stone ones) by early hominins, discovered in present-day Ethiopia.
c. 400000 BCE
From around this time, the habitual use of fire by humans becomes visible in the archaeological record.
c. 250000 BCE - c. 30000 BCE
Middle Palaeolithic industry (carried on until c. 30,000 years ago in certain areas, while other populations can already be paired with the Upper Palaeolithic industry from between c. 50,000-40,000 years ago onwards)
c. 50000 BCE - c. 10000 BCE
Upper- or Late Palaeolithic industry (began popping up somewhere between c. 50,000-40,000 years ago)
c. 12000 BCE
End of the most recent Ice Age. End of the Pleistocene and beginning of the Holocene epoch.