Paleolithic

The Palaeolithic ('Old Stone Age') makes up the earliest chunk of the Stone Age – the large swathe of time during which hominins used stone to make tools – and ranges from the first known tool use roughly 2,6 million years ago to the end of the last Ice Age c. 12,000 years ago, with part of its stone tool culture continuing up until c. 10,000 years ago in some areas. As such, it corresponds neatly with the timeframe of the geological epoch the Pleistocene, which saw waves of glacials and interglacials sweep across the planet. The term's connotations extend beyond the characteristics of its stone industries, however, as the Palaeolithic is also more generally associated with the cultures and lifestyles of the hunter-gatherers who produced the tools in question.