Three-age System Resumptive Table
| Age | Period | Tools | Economy | Dwelling sites | Society | Religion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stone age | Palaeolithic | Handmade tools and objects found in nature – cudgel, club, sharpened stone, chopper, handaxe, scraper, spear, harpoon, needle, scratch awl. In general stone tools of Modes I—IV. | Hunting and gathering | Mobile lifestyle – caves, huts, tooth or skin hovels, mostly by rivers and lakes | A band of edible-plant gatherers and hunters (25–100 people) | Evidence for belief in the afterlife first appears in the Upper Palaeolithic, marked by the appearance of burial rituals and ancestor worship. Priests and sanctuary servants appear in the prehistory. |
| Mesolithic (other name epipalaeolithic) | Mode V tools employed in composite devices – harpoon, bow and arrow. Other devices such as fish – basket, boats | Intensive hunting and gathering, porting of wild animals and seeds of wild plants for domestic use and planting | Temporary villages at opportune locations for economic activities | Tribes and bands | ||
| Neolithic | Polished stone tools, devices useful in subsistence farming and defense – chisel, hoe, plough, yoke, reaping-hook, grain pourer, loom, earthenware (pottery) and weapons | Neolithic Revolution - domestication of plants and animals used in agriculture and herding, supplementary gathering, hunting, and fishing. Warfare. | Permanent settlements varying in size from villages to walled cities, public works. | Tribes and formation of chiefdoms in some Neolithic societies the end of the period | Polytheism presided over by the mother goddess | |
| Bronze Age | Copper Age | Copper tools, potter's wheel | Civilization, including craft, trade | Urban centers surrounded by politically attached communities | City-states* | Ethnic gods, state religion |
| Bronze Age | stone age | |||||
| Iron Age | Iron tools | National economy presided over by the government | cities connected by roads, capital city | Countries, empires | One or more religions sanctioned by the state | |
* Formation of states starts during the Early Bronze Age in Egypt and Mesopotamia and during the Late Bronze Age first empires are founded.
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