The Early, Middle and the Late Stone Ages

Did you know there was an Early Stone Age

a Middle Stone Age

and a Late Stone Age?

The Early Stone Age is also known as the Palaeolithic Period.

The Middle Stone Age is know as  the Mesolithic Period.

The Late Stone Age is known as the Neolithic Period.

The Early Stone Age – the Palaeolithic Period

lascaux_painting William Cromar via Compfight

In the Early Stone Age people lived in caves.

They made tools and weapons from stone.

They hunted animals for food.

They were hunter gatherers.

The Middle Stone Age – the Mesolithic Period

new huntergatherer houseCreative Commons License Hans Splinter via Compfight

The earliest recorded people living in Ireland,

seem to have arrive around 8000 BC during the Middle Stone Age.

It is believed they travelled by boat from Britain.

They were hunter gatherers. They often settled by water.

Can you guess why?

The Late Stone Age – the Neolithic Period

Neolithic HousesCreative Commons License Amanda Slater via Compfight

In the Late Stone Age people had learned to farm.

The Late Stone Age was the time of The Early Farmers.

They lived in houses.

These houses were not like our houses.

The walls were wattle and daub.

Wattle and DaubCreative Commons License Filter Forge via Compfight

You can read more about daub and wattle HERE.

The first farmers came to Ireland around 4000BC.

They brought big changes.

They knew how to grow crops and

how to keep animals such as cows, sheep and goats.

Rathdown – 4,500 years ago

The very first visitors to Greystones,

4,500 years ago didn’t stay where the town is today,

but instead they settled at Rathdown, just to the north.

This was when the Stone Age people came.

In 1992, part of the cliff at Rathdown collapsed into the sea.

Newspaper reports at the time say that

Neolithic flints were among the finds.

The Neolithic era is sometimes called the New Stone Age.

 

1. The Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age came first.

It lasted from 2,700 million years ago

to around 10,000 years ago.

During this time men were hunter gatherers.

Tools were mostly made of stone

but also of wood, bone and leather.

 

2.During the Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age

smaller stone tools such as arrow or spear heads were made .

The first boats were made

so men could now fish as well as hunt.

Man’s best friend the dog was tamed during this time.

 

3.During the Neolithic or New Stone Age

man started to farm the land.

Can you imagine the early farmers

working on the land at Rathdown?

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This is a flint that a student found in the school playground.