What is the first major stone tool tradition, about 2.6 million years old, called?
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The Oldowan
Named after Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania: cobbles with a few deliberate flakes removed. The oldest such finds are about 2.6 million years old.
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Which tool culture produced the hand axe?
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The Acheulean
From about 1.7 million years ago, named after Saint-Acheul in France. A hand axe requires a mental image of the result before the first blow.
Which Neanderthal technique releases a pre-shaped piece with a single blow?
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The Levallois technique
The core is trimmed first, like a mould: only then comes the decisive strike. A multi-stage plan in stone.
Where were the world's oldest known stone tools found?
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At Lomekwi in Kenya
3.3 million years old: older than the genus Homo. Who made them is unknown; a late Australopithecus is a candidate.
Foto: P. Pfarr NLD · CC BY-SA 3.0 de · Wikimedia Commons
Where were the oldest completely preserved wooden hunting weapons found?
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At Schöningen in Lower Saxony
Spruce throwing spears about 200,000 years old (redated in 2025), preserved in the groundwater of a lignite mine. They prove planned group hunting long before Homo sapiens.
Foto: Dagmar Hollmann · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Which 40,000-year-old ivory figurine from southern Germany is the oldest sculpture of a hybrid being?
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The lion-man
Carved from a mammoth tusk, found in Stadel Cave. A creature that never existed: the oldest evidence of imagination made material.
Foto: Mariano · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Which cave images were made by blowing pigment around fingers and palm held against the wall?
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Hand stencils
In caves from Spain to Indonesia and Argentina. Some are over 40,000 years old: an "I was here" without writing.
What was most Stone Age equipment made of that we can no longer find?
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Wood
Spears, digging sticks, hafts, containers, traps: everything organic decays. Our picture of the Stone Age is therefore systematically skewed: in favour of stone.
Which South African site yielded 75,000-year-old engraved ochre?
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Blombos Cave
Cross-hatched patterns in red ochre and pierced shell beads: the most widely accepted early evidence of symbolic behaviour.
Which invention made close-fitting, warm clothing possible?
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The sewing needle
Eyed bone needles, attested for about 40,000 years. Only tailored clothing allowed life in truly cold regions: clothing lice date the start even earlier.
Which device extends the throwing arm and nearly doubles the range of the hunting weapon?
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The spear-thrower
Also called an atlatl, attested for some 20,000 years: some Ice Age examples are carved with animal figures of great artistry.
Which French cave holds paintings of lions and rhinos over 35,000 years old?
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Chauvet Cave
Discovered in 1994 and sealed at once to protect it: visitors see a faithful replica. Lascaux had shown what breath does to 17,000-year-old pigment.
Foto: User:MatthiasKabel · CC BY 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons
What are the small Ice Age female statuettes, such as the one from Willendorf, called?
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Venus figurines
The oldest, the Venus of Hohle Fels, is about 40,000 years old. Their meaning is unknown: fertility symbol, self-portrait, protective figure: all guesses.
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