Scientists have discovered stone tools in Ethiopia that appear to be 2.6 million years old, making them the “oldest known artifacts from anywhere in the world,” says Rutgers University paleoanthropologist Sileshi Semaw.

3.3 million years

2.5 to 1.2 million years

The early Stone Age (also known as the Lower Paleolithic) saw the development of the first stone tools by Homo habilis, one of the earliest members of the human family. These were basically stone cores with flakes removed from them to create a sharpened edge that could be used for cutting, chopping or scraping.

Hammerstones are some of the earliest and simplest stone tools. Prehistoric humans used hammerstones to chip other stones into sharp-edged flakes. They also used hammerstones to break apart nuts, seeds and bones and to grind clay into pigment. Archaeologists refer to these earliest stone tools as the Oldowan toolkit.

Stone Age animals include, the Andrewsarchus, Chalicotherium, Dinohyus, Glyptodon, Indricotherium, Mastodon and Megatherium. The most commonly known include, the Sabre-toothed cat, the Mammoth and the Woolly Rhinoceros. Stone Age animals closest living relatives range from the Elephant to the Sloth!

Blackberries, elderberries, sloes and crab apples are all sour fruits with very little sugar. They require several bags of sugar to make an alcoholic drink. So there were only two options in Neolithic Britain: honey for making mead, and cereals for malting, mashing and brewing into ale or beer.

The Zagros Mountain range, which lies at the border between Iran and Iraq, was home to some of the world’s earliest farmers. Sometime around 12,000 years ago, our hunter-gatherer ancestors began trying their hand at farming.

The early farmers grew wheat and barley, which they ground into flour. Some farmers grew beans and peas. Others grew a plant called flax, which they made into linen for clothes. Neolithic farmers kept lots of animals.

Iron replaced bronze as the main metal for making tools and weapons. Better tools for agriculture improved farming and this meant that the population began to rise. Soon people protected themselves by settling in hillforts, which were groups of roundhouses and farming land protected by stone walls.

The Iron Age followed the Bronze Age. This was the period of time when people made tools of iron. Iron tools were stronger than bronze tools. Iron weapons began in the Middle East and in southeastern Europe around 1200 BCE.

Wild grains were collected and eaten from at least 105,000 years ago. From around 11,500 years ago, the eight Neolithic founder crops, emmer and einkorn wheat, hulled barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax were cultivated in the Levant.

The contemporary view recognizes the evolving role of agriculture in development, roughly definable in four phases: (i) Beginning phase—agricultural labor productivity starts to increase; (ii) Agricultural surplus—agricultural productivity growth generates surplus towards the development of the nonagricultural sector; …