Paleolithic

The Paleolithic (or Palæolithic) Age, Era or Period, is a prehistoric period of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_history" title="Human history" class="mw-redirect" >human history</a>distinguished by the development of the most primitive <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_tool" title="Stone tool" >stone tools</a> discovered (Modes I and II), and covers roughly 99% of human technological <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistory" title="Prehistory" >prehistory</a>. It extends from the earliest known use of stone tools, probably by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hominina" title="Hominina" >Hominins</a> such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australopithecines" title="Australopithecines" class="mw-redirect" >Australopithecines</a>, 2.6 million years ago, to the end of the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleistocene" title="Pleistocene" >Pleistocene</a> around 10,000 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Before_Present" title="Before Present" >BP</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic#cite_note-Thoth.26Schick-0" >[1]</a> The Paleolithic era is followed by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesolithic" title="Mesolithic" >Mesolithic</a>. The date of the Paleolithic—Mesolithic boundary may vary by locality as much as several thousand years.

During the Paleolithic, humans grouped together in small societies such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Band_society" title="Band society" >bands</a>, and subsisted by gathering plants and hunting or scavenging wild animals.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic#cite_note-McClellan-1" >[2]</a> The Paleolithic is characterized by the use of<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithic_reduction" title="Lithic reduction" >knapped</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone" title="Stone" class="mw-redirect" >stone</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tool" title="Tool" >tools</a>, although at the time humans also used <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood" title="Wood" >wood</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone" title="Bone" >bone</a> tools. Other organic commodities were adapted for use as tools, including <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leather" title="Leather" >leather</a> and vegetable <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibers" title="Fibers" class="mw-redirect" >fibers</a>; however, due to their nature, these have not been preserved to any great degree. Surviving artifacts of the Paleolithic era are known as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolith" title="Paleolith" >paleoliths</a>. Humankind gradually evolved from early members of the genus <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_genus" title="Homo genus" class="mw-redirect" >Homo</a> such as<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_habilis" title="Homo habilis" >Homo habilis</a> — who used simple stone tools — into fully behaviorally and anatomically modern humans (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_sapiens_sapiens" title="Homo sapiens sapiens" class="mw-redirect" >Homo sapiens sapiens</a>) during the Paleolithic era.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic#cite_note-encarta.msn.com-2" >[3]</a> During the end of the Paleolithic, specifically the Middle and or Upper Paleolithic, humans began to produce the earliest works of art and engage in religious and spiritual behavior such as burial and ritual.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic#cite_note-McClellan-1" >[2]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic#cite_note-3" >[4]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic#cite_note-Kusimba_2003_285-4" >[5]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic#cite_note-ScienceDaily-5" >[6]</a> The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate" title="Climate" >climate</a> during the Paleolithic consisted of a set of glacial and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interglacial_period" title="Interglacial period" class="mw-redirect" >interglacial periods</a> in which the climate periodically fluctuated between warm and cool temperatures.

The term <a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Paleolithic" class="extiw" title="wikt:Paleolithic" >Paleolithic</a> was coined by archaeologist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lubbock,_1st_Baron_Avebury" title="John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury" >John Lubbock</a> in 1865. It derives from Greek: <a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CF%80%CE%B1%CE%BB%CE%B1%CE%B9%CF%8C%CF%82" class="extiw" title="wikt:παλαιός" >παλαιός</a>,palaios, "old"; and <a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%BB%CE%AF%CE%B8%CE%BF%CF%82" class="extiw" title="wikt:λίθος" >λίθος</a>, lithos, "stone", literally meaning "old age of the stone" or "Old <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Age" title="Stone Age" >Stone Age</a>."

One rich source of Paleothic artifacts has been the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphrates" title="Euphrates" >Euphrates</a> river valley. Excavations started in the 1960s, when the Turkish government built the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keban" title="Keban" class="mw-redirect" >Keban</a> dam on the river. The Keban historical salvage project was organized by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemal_Kurdas" title="Kemal Kurdas" >Kemal Kurdas</a>, then rector of Middle East Technical University, and a team of Turkish, American and Dutch archeologists led by Maurits van Loon excavated. Later more dams were built and salvage operations took place, unearthing settlements going back to the Paleolithic.

Paleolithic

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