Archaeologists and
historians taking the invention of writing as a turning point in the
human evolution, examine the history of civilizations under two separate
headings, " Prehistoric Ages " and " Historic Ages ". Old Stone Age
covers the longest period of time among all levels of civilizations.
Living conditions were hard
and the nature was cruel to human being. The life was totally wild. They
lived in the caves or occupied the rock and wood shelters. They tended
to stay in large groups and had to share their food with other family
members.
If we had had a chance to take a look at those people, we would have
seen a crowded flog of people living like animals. Basically their
living conditions depended on their hunting and fishing abilities, or
collecting edible plants from the nature around them. In this sense, we
can say these earliest groups were just consumers as they didn't know
yet to produce any thing and they always tried to take advantage of the
nature. The remains of bones and other remains of wild animals have been
found in the caves in large quantities, so we understand that these
people just ate their food and left the remains there in their cave. All
the tools they had had to be obtained from the nature such as flint
axes, obsidian cutters and scrapers. It was too early yet for the human
to build sophisticated and complicated weapons and tools. Also, they
didn't have a settled life yet, whenever the food sources around them
diminished, they had to move on to other locations. The natural
conditions were quiet equal for human and wild animals. However, towards
the end of the Paleolithic Age, human produced some art as well, they
painted their cave walls with the depiction of their everyday lives,
such as hunting scenes, symbolic paintings related to fertility, and
wild animals. The art they produced was the most distinctive element
which differs human being from the wild animals. The archaeological
excavations have revealed that the Paleolithic life was available in
almost every part of Anatolia. Especially, the diggings in the Euphrates
basin in the SW Turkey have brought many Paleolithic settlements to the
light.
If we give some examples of
Paleolithic sites in Anatolia, " Karain Cave " from Antalya /
Mediterranean region reflects the best preserved cave with some
paintings on the walls. Also from the same region, we can count Beldibi,
Belbasi, Okuzini, Kumbucagi and Kadiini Caves.
The best examples of the
tools and other artifacts produced by Paleolithic People are on display
at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara, and at the
Archaeological Museum of Antalya.
Coming Next : The human
being getting more civilized and organized....( Mesolithic/Middle Stone
Age )
