From K. Kris Hirst,
Your Guide to Archaeology.
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Definition: The Stone Age (known to scholars as the Paleolithic era) in human prehistory is the name given to the period between about 2.5 million and 20,000 years ago. It begins with the earliest human-like behaviors of crude stone tool manufacture, and ends with fully modern human hunting and gathering societies. The Paleolithic is the earliest archaeology; anything older is paleontology. Scholars traditionally divide the Paleolithic into three categories, more or less as follows.

Lower Paleolithic (Early Stone Age)

The Lower Paleolithic lasted between 2.5 million-200,000 years ago (or at least according to one permutation), and it was when the Hominin ancestors of human beings, including Australopithecus, Homo habilis, Homo erectus and Homo ergaster, roamed most of the earth and began making the first stone tools.

See the Lower Paleolithic Definition and Timeline for sites and details.

Middle Paleolithic (Middle Stone Age)

The Middle Paleolithic (ca 200,000 to 45,000 years ago) witnessed the evolution of Neanderthals and the first anatomically modern Homo sapiens sapiens, and some of the first glimmers of modern behaviors: sophisticated stone tools, caring for the elderly, hunting and gathering and some amount of symbolic or ritual behavior.

See the Middle Paleolithic Timeline and Definition for specific sites and more information.

Late Stone Age (Upper Paleolithic), 45,000-20,000 years ago
By the LSA, only fully modern humans were left, and we spread all over the planet. The LSA is characterized by fully modern behaviors such as cave art, hunting, and a wide range of tools.

See the section on Upper Paleolithic for specific sites and more information.

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Also Known As: Paleolithic Period, Stone Age

Alternate Spellings: Palaeolithic

Common Misspellings: paleolihtic