Lower Old Stone Age

The first appearance of man

The Lower Old Stone Age or the Lower Paleolithic is the age in which the first trace of human remains was found. Some human bones as well as tools by humans belonging to that age have been found yet it is impossible for us to determine in which stage and from how many thousands of years BCE man appeared in the world. All what can be confirmed with regards to this is that man appeared on earth in the very distant past. Moderate estimates say that man appeared on earth several thousands of years ago. During that very long age, great changes that are so clear have taken place. Such changes are not only confined to shapes of tools, methods of making them and the shape of humans who used them but go beyond that and include also changes in the environment that surrounded it which resulted in total change in animals and plants that lived and grew in it. This age we are discussing lies at the beginning of the Tetracene. During that time period the atmosphere changed from cold to hot as geologist have proved.

During that age, ice spread covering high mountains then recessed once again which resulted in a decrease in temperature. What concerns us here is that the Lower Stone Age started at the end of an era during which an ice recession was taking place while both the Middle and Upper Stone Ages coincide with the succeeding ice age. With the appearance of the New Stone Age, a new period of ice recession started and is still continuing till today.

Lower Old Stone Age

This age is characterized by a hot humid weather similar to that of equatorial regions of today. Yet it lent towards gradual coldness. This state in Europe applies to North Africa as well. Our brief description of Egypt at the down of prehistory can also be applied to the regions north of the Mediterranean. We have a lot of evidence to support this from bone remnants that have been dug out from the sediments of the Pleistocene. We know that mammals grew in Europe during that era amidst thick forests and at the shores of water streams. Those animals were of great sizes such as water buffalo, unicorn, large elephant, bear, hyena, dear, horse and ~arki dear. Many of these types of animals have disappeared now while some have migrated later towards the equatorial regions escaping the extreme coldness that rushed in during the age that followed.

Mauer Jaw

Some human remains were found mixed with remains of modern animals. Yet all what was found was nothing but parts of sculls such as the popular “Mauer Jaw” or a few bones. The moderate temperature of that age made it easy for man to live in the open air at the shores of rivers and lakes or in forests living in huts made out of tree branches. As for their tombs, it seems that they have been turned upside down by means of floods which severely damaged such areas. That is why no mentionable amount of artifacts from such age have been found.

Primitiveness of humans during that period

Yet such few remains found in sediments, which are of great value to use for sure, made us know that man during that period was very primitive. However, the inability to find a complete corpus did not allow us to come up with a decisive view about the physical structure of man of that age.

Tools of that age

As for crafts that have prevailed during that age, our knowledge about them has increased because some of the materials used by man during that age are almost indestructible despite the passing of time. It is true that wooden pins that have handle  as well as other things made of destructible materials such as animal leather and tree parts used by that man as cover have not been preserved for us, yet hunting weapons, ~spades as well as tools which man used for cutting his hunt were made out of solid sharp edged rock. Such tool shave resisted the effects of time and remained till our age. These tools have been found neglected at the shores of rivers buried under thick layers of pebbles that have been brought by fast water currents. During that age, when man was unable to find flint, which was the most important material for making his tools, he used quartz or volcanic rocks or solid white lime stone instead.

The heavy bolt and how it was made

The most important tool used during that age was the heavy rounded bolt which could also be triangle shaped of sharp edges connected with a sharp cutting blade. These tools were made from a natural piece of flint by removing equal bits from the edges of this piece of flint using a ~bolt. Such tools were of great danger in the hands of warriors yet were also used for other purposes. One type of such tools was smoothed from one side only and was sued for splitting bones from meat.

In contrast to bifaced tools which can sometimes reach an size, man during that age used small splints which he got by cutting a piece of flint from the top and leaving the core of the flint itself. It has always been observed that every splint cut using this method has a rounded protrusion at the point where it has broken which leaves a trace in the shape of a hollow in the core of the flint itself. This sign is considered to be a distinctive feature of the factory in which it was made which proves to us that such splint had been cut and smoothed by purpose something that is not found in natural splints.

Properties of this craft

These splints are sharp as a cutting blade. They were thus used instead of knives and sometimes used as a peeler after mending one of its faces or its ending.

Single faced tools

Such mending did not alter the upper face of the splint which led to its being called single-faced tools. Under the single-faced tools lies splints that were made using this method for preparing leather and bones used by man of that age.

As for the behavior and customs of those people, we know almost nothing about except for that they did not greatly differ from the dwarf tribes that wander the tropical forests and live on hunting and fishing.

Despite our lack of knowledge about such people from the social, behavioral and religions sides since such areas are still areas of speculation, yet we are able to deduce some information about such people from the tools they made which are now within our reach. These tools indicate that such people were sophisticated people who were able through their intelligence to control animals that attacked them daily. In addition to that, those people were able to invent and improve on all what was within their hands. They knew how to make a fire and cook despite their lack of knowledge of making pottery till that time.

Unique Acheulean crafts replacing coarse Cheulian crafts

The potential of those people for sophisticated life appears clearly when we move from one class to the other in the areas that have been researched at the places that date back to the Old Stone Age. For instance, we notice that the coarsely made heavy bolt found at the lowest layer of the Stone Age becomes lighter at higher layers and is replaced by better made tools. The coarse Cheulian craft is thus replaced by Acheulean craft that has produced tools considered as unique pieces of art.

European crafts coincide with what was found in Egypt

All what has been discovered till now from the Lower Old Stone Age in Europe coincides in general with all what has been found in Egypt. Moreover, numerous studies that have been done in North Africa agrees with what has been discovered in Europe. Prehistory scientists have declared all life along the shores of the Mediterranean were similar. During those times, the Strait of Gibraltar was no doubt open at the start of the Pleistocene epoch. This cancels the old connection that was present between Spain and Morocco. Yet at the same time it is believed that there had been a huge natural bridge connecting Tunisia with Sicily and North Italy. This belief is doubted yet in all cases communication was not difficult between the two shores of an internal sea that had been narrower than the current Mediterranean.

We can liken that region, the inhabited part of which has shrunk to a narrow shoreline, to a paradise under which rivers flowed. Heavy rain caused it to be covered with vivid green colors, forests surrounding the high Atlas Mountains and trees covering plains. Water springs and rivers flowed in it attracting different types of African animals such as camels, Ethiopian donkeys, monkeys and various types of deer and bulls that look like the animals of Europe at that time. In that region in which animals for hunting were plentiful, we find the remains of human activity everywhere across thousands of kilometers around the current residence area.

City of North Africa Similar to Egyptian City

The Nile Valley that was only separated by a desert separator from the neighboring kingdoms at that time enjoyed an atmosphere similar to those kingdoms and had similar animals some of the remains of which have been found yet those remains do not reveal a clear picture to us. Teeth and bones discovered at the mouth of the Nile at the current Abbaseya plain have filled a gap which had been present in the series of observations made by paleontologists for that age from Morocco to Tunisia. Despite the fact that such remains have not yet been studied, yet we do know that such remains are remains of crocodiles and large mammals such as elephants, water buffalos and bulls. These bones and teeth look like the bones of animals of the Lower Old Stone Age found in North Africa. Although Nile sediments have not revealed to us till now any human remains, yet on the other hand we have found Cheulean and Acheulean tools similar to those found in Europe from that period. Thus it has become clear to us that animals and atmosphere on both sides were similar. Indeed, scattered bolts as well as groups of bolts have been found on the earth surface almost everywhere. We find them on plateaus that surrounded the river at that time, on heights from which water had dried, in valleys and in its slopes.