7 Misconceptions About the Stone Age

The Stone Age encompasses more than 95 percent of human history. It began at least 2.6 million years ago, when researchers found the earliest evidence of humans using stone tools, and lasted until about 3300 BCE with the birth of the Bronze Age and the use of metal tools. To simplify things, we break the Stone Age into three distinct periods: the Paleolithic Period, or the Old Stone Age; Mesolithic Period, or Mid Stone Age; and Neolithic Period, or New Stone Age.

Because of just how long ago it was, we tend to think there wasn’t a whole lot that connects our modern world to our ancestors’. But as we’ll see, most of our basic needs haven’t changed much, especially when it comes to satisfying our craving for some savory meats and wonderful carbs. Here are a few common myths about the Stone Age, adapted from an episode of Misconceptions on YouTube.

Misconception: Stone Age medical practices were nonexistent.

Over the years, archaeologists have found more than 1500 Neolithic skulls in Europe, Asia, and the Americas that have holes in them. Some researchers have concluded that this is evidence of an early form of trepanning, a once-common procedure in which a hole would be drilled or cut into a person’s skull to relieve pressure after an injury.

New bone growth around the edges of the holes suggests some of these patients actually lived for months or years after the procedures. Archaeologists have even found a cow skull with a similar hole in it, suggesting that there were either Stone Age vets at work or that the bovine was used for practice. 

Scientists observed evidence of brain disease or head injuries in some of the skulls, which might explain why Dr. Caveman turned to such a procedure. Other times, though, there were no previous traumas to be found, leading many to believe that some of these procedures were performed solely as rituals.

Prehistoric societies might have also attempted to take care of their teeth better than we once assumed. In 2017, an international team of researchers wrote about two teeth they found in Italy dating back 13,000 years. The two incisors had holes chiseled into them and had diseased tissue scraped out, likely with the help of a sharp stone. The teeth were then packed with bitumen, a type of waterproof tar. If that sounds a little bit like your last trip to the dentist, it should—while there’s no way of knowing for sure, the researchers theorize that this could have been an early attempt at filling a cavity. Just be thankful we have anesthesia now.

Misconception: Stone Age food was unrecognizable.

It turns out that prehistoric meals might not have been all that different from your last takeout order. In 1991, a 5300-year-old mummy was discovered in a glacier in Europe. When the mummy, whom scientists nicknamed Ötzi, had the contents of his stomach examined, they found the remains of some goat meat. That in itself wasn’t strange, but then they realized the meat wasn’t cooked; it was dry-cured. Or, to put it another way, Ötzi’s last meal was basically goat bacon. 

We also know that late Stone Age chefs were cooking with many of the spices in your cabinet today. Fossilized turmeric, capers, and coriander have all been found in prehistoric cooking vessels, along with charred meat and fish. Predating even that, pots found in Germany from around 6000 years ago have traces of garlic mustard seeds and possibly deer meat. According to researchers, this is the earliest evidence we have of spices being used in food. Archaeologist Hayley Saul, who led the study, emphasized that the discovery of the spices helped change the way we perceive our ancestors. She told NPR that these meals weren’t just about delivering calories; early humans were also enjoying their food and exercising a bit of creativity to find new flavors.

You might assume, from the Paleo Diet, that people of that time ate mounds of meaty steak and no grains, but that's yet another myth. Figuring out what prehistoric peoples ate is an ever-evolving field of study, and considering we’re talking about thousands of years, trends probably changed. But what we do know is that grains were on the menu. Ötzi had einkorn wheat in his stomach, and there’s evidence that some cultures were making bread as far back as 14,000 years ago, predating the advent of agriculture by about 4000 years. In terms of taste, think of it like a multigrain flatbread. Slap some roasted gazelle on it, and you’ve got yourself a Paleolithic wrap. 

Misconception: Stone Age life was relentlessly serious and oppressive.

On the subject of bread: since it required so much time and ingredients that were harder to come by, scientists theorize that it was usually made for feasts and other celebrations. That’s because, while it’s easy to imagine Stone Age life as an endless barrage of hunting, hunger, and violence, there was more than enough room for some partying along the way. 

During the late Neolithic period, the areas surrounding Stonehenge may have played host to massive feasts and celebrations that included travelers from all over what is today the United Kingdom. Archaeologists have unearthed tens of thousands of animal bones from the area, many of which were young pigs around 9 months old that showed clear signs of butchery and scorch marks, likely from being roasted.  

Further analysis concluded they were probably eaten as part of a midwinter celebration. It’s believed that a tenth of the population of Britain at the time might have attended this massive feast, with some of the pigs coming from as far as Scotland. In addition to celebrating the midwinter festivities, the food was probably eaten by early humans as they built the mysterious megaliths of Stonehenge.

With all that roast pig, you’d probably want a beer to wash it all down. The discovery of beer usually gets lumped into the early days of the Bronze Age some 5000 years ago, but a team of scientists, led by Li Liu of Stanford University, believes it found traces of prehistoric suds at a Natufian burial site in a cave near Haifa in Israel. This rudimentary alcoholic drink was apparently made of wheat and barley that was stored in 25-inch-deep stone mortars that were likely used for storing food around 13,000 years ago. The scientists say it was weaker and more gruel-like than beers of today, but it was still a fermented, grain-based alcohol that was wetting whistles thousands of years before the previous historical record could account for.

Misconception: Life took place mostly in caves. 

It’s not necessarily a misconception that Stone Age people lived in caves and grunted and carried around big honkin’ clubs. They most certainly did some of those things at some point. But that doesn’t account for the entire 2-plus-million-year timespan of the age. In the early Neolithic period, around 4000 to 3600 BCE, people constructed their own freestanding homes, complete with fireplaces. We even know that many helped make grand halls of timber for their communities, remnants of which have been found throughout the UK.

One house, discovered in North Yorkshire, dates back more than 10,000 years, when Britain was still part of the European mainland. According to a report out of the University of Manchester, scientists concluded that generations of hunters occupied the house for anywhere from 200 to 500 years, and that it underwent repairs and rebuilds at various points. 

The findings were reported in 2010, and it illustrates how some of these seemingly nomadic hunter-gatherers after the last Ice Age may have actually stuck around in single communities and had more of an attachment to their land than we thought.

Misconception: We know exactly who first settled in the Americas.

Back in grade school, you might have learned about the crossing of the Bering Strait. It’s the theory that, around 13,000 years ago, a group of Stone Agers, known as the Clovis culture, crossed the then-exposed land bridge between Siberia and Alaska. From there, they spread out across North and South America over the next centuries. 

But people were probably moseying around the Americas well before that. 

In 2015, archaeologists found stone tools and the remains of animals and plants in Monte Verde, Chile, dating back some 15,000 years. That means prehistoric people had gotten all the way down to South America around 2000 years before the Clovis people. 

And in Florida’s Aucilla River, researchers discovered more tools and mastodon bones in a 30-foot sinkhole. These all date back around 14,500 years. 

But news from 2020 completely upended even those two discoveries when researchers announced the existence of limestone tools found in a cave in Mexico dating back 33,000 years. While not all archaeologists are convinced, it’s likely likely that the people who created them, whoever they were, came to the continent through the Pacific coast, further rewriting our theories of arrival.

Misconception: Stone Age women didn’t get involved in the action. 

In 2018, a team of archaeologists in Peru found the skeletal remains of what looked like a prehistoric male hunter who was buried alongside weaponry and other hunter-gatherer tools around 9000 years ago. The team assumed they had simply discovered the resting place of a high-ranking chief, which would have been a nice find, but nothing worthy of too many headlines … until they observed that the bones were lighter than usual. 

After more examination, they found the skeleton was actually that of a young woman 17 to 19 years old, which means it’s likely that at least some women were involved in bringing down game in different Stone Age societies.

This young hunter isn’t alone; we’ve found other skeletons of women across the Americas who were buried with hunting tools, suggesting that our conception of men as the only hunters in Stone Age societies is an oversimplification, at best.

Even when Stone Age societies shifted toward agriculture during the Neolithic era, women still provided an integral, physical role in their communities’ survival. And whatever they were doing on those early farms must have been rigorous, because when scientists tested a group of skeletons of women from a prehistoric agricultural society who lived around 7400 years ago, they found that their arm bones would have been 11 to 16 percent stronger than the women on Cambridge’s 2017 championship rowing team.

Misconception: Neanderthals were hunched-over, hairy oafs. 

There’s a picture of Neanderthals that our modern culture just can’t seem to shake: it’s of the short, thick-browed brute who walked hunched over and was covered head to toe in matted, mud-caked body hair. There's a lot that's wrong about that image. 

A 2019 study out of the University of Zurich used computer modeling of a Neanderthal skeleton found in La Chapelle-aux-Saints, France, in the early 20th century. Their analysis suggests that this Neanderthal had the same lower back and neck curvatures as we do today. This means he likely stood as upright as our more recent Homo sapiens ancestors. And Neanderthals might have done so without all that excess body hair you got to know while watching Captain Caveman. In fact, they might not have been much hairier than we are today. 

Neanderthals’ hairiness, furriness, or relatively close resemblance to modern humans is an open question in the field. One 2003 study speculated Neanderthals had a sparse covering of 1.5-inch hairs across the entire body, which might have been as warm as a light layer of clothing—perfect for those Ice Age nights, but not as hairy as some would have it. It’s quite plausible that we’ll never know how exactly how they looked, since we haven’t stumbled upon any perfectly preserved Neanderthals.

But remember, while humans didn't evolve from genetic mutations within Neanderthals, many of us do have some Neanderthal DNA in us today, due to the forbidden dance of interspecies romance. Unless you’re solely of African ancestry, chances are you have about 1 to 4 percent Neanderthal DNA in every cell. And scientists have discovered that some of these gene variants can have an impact on things you’re dealing with on a daily basis, such as whether you pick up smoking, get sunburned often, or are prone to depression.

Read More Stories About Human Origins: