Prehistoric Period

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During the Paleolithic, humans grouped together in small societies such as bands, and subsisted by gathering plants and hunting or scavenging wild animals. The Paleolithic is characterized by the use of knapped stone tools, although at the time humans also used wood and bone tools. Other organic commodities were adapted for use as tools, including leather and vegetable fibers; however, due to their nature, these have not been preserved to any great degree. Surviving artifacts of the Paleolithic era are known as Paleoliths. Humankind gradually evolved from early members of the genus Homo such as Homo habilis — who used simple stone tools — into fully behaviorally and anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) during the Paleolithic era.

The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 B.C.E. in the Middle East that is traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age. The Neolithic followed the terminal Holocene Epipalaeolithic period, beginning with the rise of farming, which produced the "Neolithic Revolution" and ending when metal tools became widespread in the Copper Age or Bronze Age or developing directly into the Iron Age, depending on geographical region. The Neolithic is not a specific chronological period, but rather a suite of behavioral and cultural characteristics, including the use of wild and domestic crops and the use of domesticated animals.

Finally, around 3500 B.C. man ventured into the Age of Metal. The first metal which he learned to work was copper. This metal is extremely soft, melts easily in a simple campfire and can be worked into tools with relative ease. Copper was used to make jewelry, copper beads could easily be strung together to make a necklace. Copper was probable first discovered as beads which leaked out of rocks used to surround campfires. If copper bearing rocks had been used for the evening campfire, man would find the melted...
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