Palaeolithic Period: UPSC Mind Map

Key Concepts in this Mind Map

• Palaeolithic Period (Old Stone Age)
• - Timeframe: ~2.5 million years ago to ~10,000 BCE
• - Definition: Longest period in human history, characterized by stone tool use
• - Etymology: 'Palaios' (old) + 'lithos' (stone)
• Phases & Characteristics
• Lower Palaeolithic (Early Stone Age)
• - Time: ~2.5 MYA - 100,000 BCE
• - Hominins: Homo habilis, Homo erectus (first hominin to leave Africa)
• - Tools: Crude, large core tools (hand axes, cleavers, choppers)
• - Acheulean and Oldowan traditions
• - Lifestyle: Nomadic hunter-gatherers, limited communication
• - Key Discoveries: First evidence of fire control (later part)
• Middle Palaeolithic (Middle Stone Age)
• - Time: ~100,000 - 40,000 BCE
• - Hominins: Neanderthals (Europe), early Homo sapiens
• - Tools: Flake tools (scrapers, borers, points)
• - Levallois technique for producing standardized flakes
• - Lifestyle: Specialized hunter-gatherers, use of animal hides
• Upper Palaeolithic (Late Stone Age)
• - Time: ~40,000 - 10,000 BCE
• - Hominins: Fully modern Homo sapiens (Cro-Magnon Man)
• - Specialization and diversification of tools
• - Lifestyle: More complex social structures, systematic hunting, fishing
• - Evidence of abstract thought, ritual, and religion