History - The Stone Age/Neolithic Period 10,000 BCE - 3, 000 BCE

 

In the early Stone Age people lived in caves and sometimes tents made of animal pelts.  People then lived in small protected villages filled with rectangular shaped houses that were constructed from timber. These were called Hill Forts. The houses from that time don't exist anymore but we can still see the foundations and some houses had thatched roofs and used mud and straw with woven wood for the walls. There was no plumbing, and no toilets, so people had to go outdoors - usually quite a walk from the home. Some houses began to be made of stone like Scara Brae. Scara Brae is the most complete Stone Age village in Europe, and it's in the Orkney islands off the coast of Scotland. 

A recreated Stone Age house

Scara Brae

They ate meat from wild animals and they gathered nuts, fruit, leaves and dug up roots to eat. They also ate fish by catching them by using harpoons and nets. Every part of an animal was used from the blood to the brains and the skins would have been used for clothing. They ate deer, hares, wooly rhinos and mammoths! As the stone age progressed, people began to domesticate and farm animals. This meant that their diet changed as people discovered how to grow and produce their own food.

Woolly Rhinocerous

In stone age when it was cold, people used to wear tunics which were two pieces of leather sewn together by a needle made out of a bone but when it was warm they made clothing out of linen since linen was cool and light. In the early stone age people had weapons like spears, harpoons, hammer stones, sharpened sticks and nets. People also couldn't read or write but they could draw cave paintings these were drawn at the back of caves as a symbol of good luck for hunting. Archeologists believe Stone Henge was built at the end of the Stone Age. One theory about Stone Henge is that it was built as a burial site and monument to the dead.