Reading Practice 15

[1] The Stone Age consists of seven subdivisions, including the Paleolithic Age (from 2 million to 10,000 years BC) – about 3000 years after the Ice Age – and The Neolithic period (‘New’ Stone Age), from 1000 to about 2,500 BC. The discovery of fossils indicates that scavenging and hunting began in the Stone Age. However, researchers believe that early humans lived not only on meat but also on plants from foraging in the forest. Ancient humans used skins and mats – made of leaves – to collect plants such as berries, seeds, and fruit. Archaeologists think that people used doughnut-shaped stones to serve as weights to make wooden digging sticks effective.

 

[2] The vast caverns of Lascaux, discovered in 1940, reveal the earliest human works of art. Along with the cave paintings of Spain and the discovery of stone tools, there is much evidence of the rich skills and culture that date back to ancient civilization. The art of stone tool-making first appeared around 2 million years ago. Many tools, however, were not just made of stone but also of bone, skin, and wood. Ancient humans used these tools to pulverize grain, cut grass and chop meat for cooking and eating.

 

[3] During the Stone Age, the development of domesticated plants is considered to have occurred in two stages: firstly, taking plant cuttings, particularly vines and root crops, and secondly, using seeds based on grains which are more common in temperate zones. Starchy yams have been grown and processed as far back as 100,000 years ago in the Middle Stone Age. Observation and evidence date the consumption of yams back to Neanderthals in fact, as proven by fossilized deposits of yams in the teeth and gums of Neanderthal remains. Furthermore, archaeologists, such as Julio Mercader, have recovered several stone tools from caves in Mozambique that indicate that wild sorghum, bananas, and wild oranges were consumed by humans.

 

[4] Cooking food makes it tastier to eat and easier to digest. Cooking could have been discovered by accident after wildfires burned food. Evidence of cooking, however, dates back to 12,500 years ago with the discovery of clay cooking pots in East Asia. Early cave art suggests that men hunted and women gathered food. Early foragers lived together to defend themselves from predators. People built huts to protect themselves from harsh weather and climate, and they used animal skins as clothing. The earliest clothing actually dates back to 26,000 years ago. As groups spent only a few hours searching for food and shelter, they would have had plenty of time for tool-making, socializing, and artistic pursuits.

 

[5] The beginnings of science, art, and religion lie in the Stone Age period. People learned which plants were edible, developed herbal remedies and an awareness of the use of plants for other purposes began. Stone Age people studied the behavior of animals, experimented with material for clothing, and began to identify minerals for paint and tools.

 

[6] The cavern paintings in European and North Africa show hunting scenes as well as people dressed in animal skins and paint, such as the cave at Vallon Pont-d’Arc in southern France. Researchers suggest that these markings show the first attempt at writing and counting. The religious belief at this time is unclear, although graves from around 100,000 years ago have stone implements and red-ochre powder, showing a reverence for their leaders and a possible belief in immortality.