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The Stone Age refers to a long period of time in which the strongest material for tools made by humans was stone. Scientists believe this time lasted from about 2.5 million years ago to only 6,000 years ago, when people learned of metals. That cut-off point was the Bronze Age. It must be noted that different groups of people around the world entered the Bronze Age at different periods of history. Some native tribal cultures still live a Stone Age lifestyle. The Stone Age is also known as prehistory, since people had not yet learned to write or otherwise record their thoughts and actions. Because of this, what we know of Stone Age people all comes from the investigative work of archaeologists and anthropologists, usually surmised through the evidence of fossils and other preserved artifacts.
The first Stone Age people are regarded as coming from Africa and are of the species, Australopithecus garhi. Modern humans, Homo sapiens, would not come onto the scene for another 2 million years. Since the Stone Age lasted so long, it encompassed many different species of hominids in many different environments. Because of this, it is not possible to say that all people of the time lived in one type of housing. We like to think of them living in caves, and many did just that, but, the same as today, there are no caves in most of the places where people live.
The truth is that most Stone Age people had the ability to make shelters. Of course, many of the shelters were made of stone. The first were stone structures made by putting a big rock slab on top of two rock walls. They were probably covered with leaves or other vegetation for further protection. 25,000 years ago, still in the Stone Age, we have the first evidence of homes made from wood. The wood was reinforced with clay and smaller stones. We have also discovered Stone Age homes made from the bones of Mammoths and tent or tepee-like structures made from animal skins about 10,000 years old.
 Posted 5417 day ago
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