Major Lithic Cultures from the Old World: The Lower Paleolithic Archaeological Period DateHomininsLocation Oldowan The Oldowan culture is the world’s oldest known lithic culture million years ago Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis, possibly Australopithecus boisei, possibly Australopithecus garhi Africa Acheulean The Acheulean is characterized by large handaxes and is the first known lithic culture to appear outside of Africa mya – 100,000 ya Homo ergaster, Homo erectus Africa, Asia, Europe Acheulean with Levallois flake tools Levallois tools are produced by flaking around the edge of a core and then knocking off a flake. The Levallois continues into the Middle Paleolithic. 600,000 – 100,000 yaHomo heidelburgensis Africa, parts of Europe

Major Lithic Cultures from the Old World: The Middle Paleolithic Archaeological Period DateHomininsLocation Mousterian The Mousterian includes the Levallois and five other variants: Typical, Ferrassie, Quina, Denticulate and the Mousterian of Acheulean. 300,000 – 30,000 yaHomo neandertalensis, Homo sapiens Africa, the Levant (Near and Middle East), Europe Aterian The Aterian evolved from the Mousterian- Levallois as an adaptation to Saharan conditions. 60,000 – 30,000 yaHomo sapiensSaharan Africa Howiesons Poort Howieson’s Poort is always found stratified between other Middle Paleolithic layers, but contains artifacts that would be classified as Upper Paleolithic if found in Europe. 106,000 – 69,000 yaHomo sapiens Southern Africa

Major Lithic Cultures from the Old World: The Upper Paleolithic Archaeological Period DateHomininsLocation Châtelperronian The Châtelperronian is the oldest Upper Paleolithic culture, derived from the Neandertal Mousterian. It is unclear if it was invented independently of the Aurignacian. 40,000 – 29,000 yaHomo neandertalensis France, Spain Aurignacian The Aurignacian is the first widespread Upper Paleolithic culture and the first created by Homo sapiens. 40,000 – 23,000 yaHomo sapiensEurope, SW Asia, parts of Saharan Africa Gravettian The Gravettian is divided into two regional groups: the western Gravettian, known mostly from cave sites in France, and the eastern Gravettian, known mainly from open air sites in eastern Europe and Russia. 28,000 – 22,000 yaHomo sapiensEurope

Major Lithic Cultures from the Old World: The Upper Paleolithic (continued) Archaeological Period DateHomininsLocation Solutrean The Solutrean represents a culture using techniques never seen before and not rediscovered for millennia after this culture’s abrupt disappareance. 19,000 – 15,000 yaHomo sapiensEurope Magdalenian The Magdalenian represents one of the last Upper Paleolithic cultures and is best known for big game hunting in late Ice Age Europe. 18,000 – 10,000 yaHomo sapiensEurope, including possible sites in the UK

Major Lithic Cultures from the Old World: The Mesolithic and Neolithic PeriodDateHomininsLocation Mesolithic The Mesolithic is characterized by small composite chert tools, fishing tackles, stone adzes, canoes and bows. However, artifacts from this period are fairly rare. This is also the period with the first indication of deforestation ,000 –11,000 ya (Levant) 10,000 – 7,000 ya (Europe) Homo sapiensLevant, Europe Neolithic The Neolithic is the last period of the Paleolithic and signals the beginning of agriculture. Farming was limited to a narrow range of domesticated crops. It also included the domestication and herding of sheep and goats. 10,500 – 5,500 yaHomo sapiensLevant, Middle East, Southern Mesopotamia, Egypt, Europe, South and East Asia (Also in Mesoamerica)