PRE HISTORIC ERA IS BROKEN IN TO 3 SUB ERAS

PALEOLITHIC (OLD STONE AGE)

MESOLITHIC (MIDDLE STONE AGE)
NEOLITHIC (NEW STONE AGE)


In the Paleolithic Age the people were nomadic. They lived in
caves and made art on the walls. In the Mesolithic Age people
started to settle into communities, they grew plants and
watched over animals, some also began to make pottery. In
the Neolithic Age people lived in towns, they had farms and
kept domesticated animals.


Below are some pictures of what we think they might have
lived in.
Late Paleolithic man gradually became more
settled and started staying in favorable spots
for longer than previously. This change in
culture is called the Neolithic Age.
As a general rule, the first Neolithic settlements can
be said to have been established around 10,000
BC, In many parts of Europe, the longest lasting
remnants of this era are the megaliths ("large
stones") which may have had some religious or
recreational purpose. Massive blocks of stone, and
sometimes wood, were moved great distances
and erected in chosen areas throughout Europe,
from Britain right across the continent.

The most famous of these megalith sites is
Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England, which was built
in stages, the first part being erected between
3500 BC and 3000 BC.
Above:
Stonehenge,
England, circa
3500 - 1500 BC.
Neolithic Period.
Stonehenge
Stonehenge is a Neolithic and Bronze Age
megalithic monument located near Amesbury in
the English county of Wiltshire, about 8 miles (13
km) northwest of Salisbury. It is composed of
earthworks surrounding a circular setting of large
standing stones and is one of the most famous
prehistoric sites in the world.
Stone circle
A stone circle is a circular space, delimited by
purposefully erected stones and often containing
burials.
The earliest circles were erected around five thousand
years ago during the Neolithic period and may have
evolved from earlier burial mounds which often covered
timber or stone mortuary houses
Above: Building Megaliths was no easy task. The effort required to pull
one of the massive stones erect was in itself a marathon effort, and then
raising the equally huge lintels onto the top of other stones required a
great deal of planning and foresight. Exactly how the early Whites did it is
still a puzzle to archeology. These illustrations of how the stones were
raised and of how a lintel was placed are the most commonly accepted
theories of how these superhuman feats were achieved thousands of years
ago.
WORLD'S OLDEST CITIES - 7000 BC
The growth of Neolithic settlements in Europe were matched by the
growth of similar settlements in the Middle and Near East, (a tradition
which was most pronounced in Egypt).
By 7000 BC a town of mud brick houses and town walls had been built
by Mediterraneans at the site now known as Jericho in Palestine. In
Anatolia, Turkey, remains of another major city, Catal Hoyuk, have
been excavated, dating from approximately 6200 BC. This city also
possessed brick making facilities, as well as the already established
cereal crop cultivations.
A reconstruction of the first city in the
world, Catal Huyuk, Anatolia, present
day Turkey. This city flourished from
about 6250 BC to 5400 BC, and was
excavated in part in 1961. The photo
shows the rectangular shape of the
buildings: as there is no readily
available stone to build defensive walls,
the buildings were made to face
inwards, with no windows on the
outside. The only entrance to the city
was through ladders leading onto the
roofs of the outside buildings. The
streetless city offered a high degree of
protection from outside attackers in this
way - if under attack, the outside
ladders were withdrawn, and any
would be attacker was faced with a
solid wall and no gate or other weak
point. This city marked a revolution in
Neolithic settlements. The people of
Catal Huyuk were most likely farmers
and cattle herders who needed to live
closely to the broad plain stretching to
the north of the city.
Catalhoyuk, the high level of Civilization of Neolithic period
Final Neolithic or the Early Bronze Age

The settlement of the Early Bronze Age was
gradually extended on an area of 13.500-
15.000 square metres.
It was comprised of entirely stone-built
buildings with rectangular or irregular rooms
and yards, organized in building insulae of
various sizes.
The exemplary town planning of the
settlement which offered shelter to at least
1500 inhabitants during the last phase-
Poliochini has got the following features:

the existence of a fortification wall, the
functional roads, the two squares with public
wells, the extensive sewage system under the
carefully paved streets, the squares and
courts, all give the picture of a well-organized
town, already
from the beginning of the 3rd millenium BC.
Poliochni, Yellow
period. View of
megaron 605 and
dependecies
. The coordination and realization of works of public interest, such as the
fortification system, the roads, the wells, suggest the existence of a
coordinating body as well as the consent and participation of all the
inhabitants in matters of public interest. The "Communal storehouse", which
is known as "Granary", and the oldest in Europe "Communal assembly
room", known as "Bouleuterion" around the south gate of the wall, as well
as the monumental megaron 317 dominating over the north and largest
square of the settlement, constitute irrefutable evidence of the political
organization of Poliochni in the beginning of the 3rd millenium BC
Skyros, Palamari. Architectural remains of the
Early Bronze Age settlement.

Rhodes, Asomatos.
General view of the
settlement buildings. Early
Bronze Age.