Stone Age
Poland's Stone Age is divided into the Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic eras.
The Paleolithic era extended from about 500,000 BC to 8,000 BC and is subdivided into periods—the Lower Paleolithic, 500,000 to 350,000 BC; the Middle Paleolithic, 350,000 to 40,000 BC; the Upper Paleolithic, 40,000 to 10,000 BC; and the Final Paleolithic, 10,000 to 8,000 BC.
The Mesolithic era lasted from 8,000 to 5,500 BC; and the Neolithic, from 5,500 to 2,300 BC.
The Neolithic is subdivided into the Neolithic proper, 5,500 – 2,900 BC; and the Copper Age, 2,900 – 2,300 BC.
Poland's Stone Age lasted 500,000 years and involved three distinct Homo species: Homo erectus, Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens (humans). The Stone Age cultures ranged from early human groups with primitive tools, to advanced agricultural and stratified societies that used sophisticated stone tools, built fortified settlements, and developed copper metallurgy.
As elsewhere in Central Europe, Poland's Stone Age cultures passed through stages known as the Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic, each of which brought refinements in stone-tool-making techniques. Paleolithic human activities (whose earliest sites are 500,000 years old) were intermittent because of recurring glaciations. A general climate warming and a resulting increase in ecologic diversity were characteristic of the Mesolithic (9,000–8,000 BC).
The Neolithic ushered in the first settled agricultural communities, whose founders had migrated in from the Danube River area, beginning about 5,500 BC. Later the native post-Mesolithic populations would also adopt and further develop the agricultural way of life (between 4,400 and about 2,000 BC).
Read more about this topic: Prehistory Of Poland (until 966)
Famous quotes containing the words stone and/or age:
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A personality is an indefinite quantum of traits which is subject to constant flux, change, and growth from the birth of the individual in the world to his death. A character, on the other hand, is a fixed and definite quantum of traits which, though it may be interpreted with slight differences from age to age and actor to actor, is nevertheless in its essentials forever fixed.”
—Hubert C. Heffner (1901–1985)