Question

Which period is the longest in the human history?
1. Palaeolithic age
2. Magalithic age
3. Mesolithic age
4. Neolithic age

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 1 : Palaeolithic age

The earliest and longest period of the Stone Age is called the Paleolithic Age. This comes from the Greek word Palaios, meaning "long ago" or "old," and lithos, meaning "stone" — put together, Paleolithic Age means Old Stone Age.

The Old Stone Age began approximately 4.5 million years ago. It lasted until about 25 thousand years ago — relatively recently in terms of the overall age of the earth. It was at the beginning of the Old Stone Age, approximately 4.4 million years ago, that the first human ancestors made their appearance on earth.

The earliest age in history is called Old Stone Age or Palaeolithic.

This period is divided into-

1. Lower Palaeolithic culture
2. Middle Palaeolithic culture
3. Upper Palaeolithic culture 

The period after the Old Stone Age (Palaeolithic) is called the Mesolithic Age. 

• The period that followed the Mesolithic is called the Neolithic Age.
• This is the age in which animal and plant domestication developed, leading to food production.
• The classification of these cultures is done on the basis of stratigraphic, chronological and lithic (stone tool) evidence.

Lower Palaeolithic Culture

• The first Palaeolithic tools were identified at the site of Pallavaram near Chennai by Robert Bruce Foote in 1863.
• Robert found many prehistoric sites when he extensively surveyed different parts of South India.

Middle Palaeolithic culture

• In India, the Middle Palaeolithic phase was first identified by H.D. Sankalia on the Pravara River at Nevasa.
• Indian Middle Palaeolithic probably maybe as old as the African Middle Palaeolithic culture.

Upper Palaeolithic culture 

This period is marked by innovation in tool technology and increased cognitive capability of humans.

 

Years ago	Epoch (Geological)	Homind Species	Famous Finds	Cultural stage	Cultural flashpoints
4.4 million	End of pilocene	Ardipithecus	Remains found by Tim White, etc.	Paleolithic (Old Stone Age)	Pebble tools, hand axes, choppers
3.2 million		Australopithecus	Lucy
1.8 million		Australopithecus	Zinjanthropus Man
1.6 million		Homo Habilis	Cindy
1 million	Pleistocene (Ice Age Glacial Epoch)
700,000		Homo Erectus	Pithecanthropus(Java Man)
500,000		Homo Erectus Homo Erectus	Heidelberg Beijing Man		Fire
200,000		Homo Sapiens	Rhodesian Man		Flake tools
60,000		Homo Sapiens	Neanderthal Man		Buried their dead
50,000		Homo Sapiens	Old Man		Cave painting, sewing, spears
25,000		Homo Sapiens	Cro-Magnon
10,000	Holocene	all modern people		Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age)	Use of animals, farming bows and arrows, harpoons, canoes
8,000				Neolitihic (New Stone Age)	Villages, saws, drills, pottery, weaving, plow
5,000				Bronze Age	Wheels, cities, writing
3,000				Iron Age	Use of iron, alphabets, empires