Paleolithic Age: The Era of Hominids
By Avik, Gaea News NetworkTuesday, August 10, 2010
KOLKATA, INDIA (GaeaTimes.com) — Paleolithic Age redirects 750,000 years back in history. Paleo and Lithos are both Greek words. Paleo means old and Lithos means Stone. It is commonly known as the ‘old stone age’ or simply stone age. This is a prehistoric era dominated by the hominids. It ends with the development of agriculture, the domestication of certain animals, and the smelting of copper ore to produce metal. It is regarded as pre-historic since details of the era had not been recorded.
This age marked the evolution of religious beliefs, ethical codes, death and burial rites. “The People” in this era became more organized and understood the meaning of co-operation.
Food Habits
It was a time when hunting and stocking were the two most important activities regarding day in day out way of life. Both plants and animals served as food material. Animal meats, including the liver, kidneys, and brains were also taken in. They also consumed little dairy food or carbohydrate-rich plant foods like legumes or cereal grains. Large game animals such as deer were an important source of protein in Middle and Upper Paleolithic diets. People may have first fermented grapes in animal skin pouches to create wine during the Paleolithic age.
Technology
People started off with the invention of most simple utensils and arms for day to day use. Handmade tools and objects were found in nature cudgel, club, sharpened stone, chopper, hand axe, scraper, spear, Bow and arrow, harpoon, needle, scratch awl. Paleolithic humans made tools of stone, bone, and wood. The Olduwan, was developed by the earliest members of the genus Homo such as Homo habilis, around 2.6 million years ago.
Arts and Music
The various cave art and rock paintings depict the fact that the people of the paleolithic era developed a taste in arts. Upper Paleolithic humans produced works of art such as cave paintings, Venus figurines, animal carvings and rock paintings. Blombos cave is a proof of their artistic sense. Some say that the paintings were related to some sort of pre-historic ritual that they followed. The existence of Lions, Saber-toothed cats, half-human half-animal beings in cave paintings are yet to receive an explanation. R.Dale Gutrie’s stated that the Venus figurines may represent stone-age pornography. In absence of any archaeological evidence it is hard to state their knowledge in music but it is for sure that the earliest forms of music involved more vocals than instruments.
Religious Faith and Belief
The Paleolithic Humans were the first ever to have developed devotional feelings and spiritual beliefs. They even developed burial systems and sites. Totemisn and animal worship found its way into civilization through Paleolithic era. The existence of anthropomorphic images and half-human, half-animal images in the Upper Paleolithic period may further indicate that Upper Paleolithic humans were the first people to believe in a pantheon of gods or supernatural beings.
