Review: The Stone Age by Hourly History

Title: The Stone Age: A History from Beginning to End
Author: Hourly History
Publication: January 2, 2024 by Hourly History
Genre: Nonfiction, History, Prehistory
Find it on:Amazon
Rating: 3/5★

The cave dwellers of the Stone Age were brutish and primitive compared to the human civilizations that would follow. Their technological developments were limited, and their society and culture provided few lasting legacies. Until surprisingly recently, this was the general view of the period of prehistory known as the Stone Age, an age that lasted for over 2 million years and ended only around 5,000 years ago. Now, this ancient period of human history has been extensively reappraised. We have come to learn that the people of the Stone Age produced art, practiced some form of religion, carried out successful medical procedures, and used building technology that we still cannot fully explain. They also pioneered international exploration and trade and seem to have carried out the first investigations to try to understand our planet and its place in the cosmos.

Because they left no written records, all our knowledge of this long period comes from the analysis of fragmentary archaeological artifacts, but what they demonstrate is surprising and revelatory. The people of the Stone Age may have lacked the ability to work metal, and they do not seem to have had any equivalent to writing or money, but they were far more advanced and much closer to contemporary society than you might have guessed. This is the astounding and still unfolding story of the Stone Age.

I know I’m usually all about ancient history set in Egypt, Greece and Rome but I’m also really fascinated by prehistory so when I saw this book I thought it would be perfect for me. At 64 pages it’s a very quick read and, although it doesn’t go very deep into all things about the Stone Age, it was still a fascinating subject to me.

The chapter included things like the first Mesolithic societies, Stone Age art and religion, Stone Age exploration, Stone Age medicine and health and a whole lot more. But the ones I just mentioned were the most interesting, in my opinion. There was at time a little repetition in this book that I felt I had already read in a previous chapter and it wasn’t the best book about the subject I have ever read but other than that it was good enough and quick book if you want to start learning about the Stone Age.

Interesting things I learned:

✨ We still use the system of classifying ancient civilizations that Christian J. Thomsen developed in the early 19th century: the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. (from the introduction)

✨ It was guessed for a long time that the lifestyle of hunter-gatherers was generally cut short by famine, disease or injury but a number of discoveries have shown that these people lived a more complex and vibrant life than was first believed. (from chapter three)

✨ The Stone Age covers over 99% of all human history but we still don’t know a lot about it. (from the conclusion)

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