A time spanning 2 million years BC. The earliest period being known by historians as the "Eolithic" period. The word is taken from the Greek word "eos" meaning dawn, and "lithos" meaning stone. Eolithic artefacts are usually very crudely made and are therefore difficult to identify.

The next Stone Age period was known as the "Palaeolithic" period, again taken from the Greek "palios" meaning ancient, and "lithos" meaning stone. The "Palaeolithic" period is split into three sub sections being the middle, upper, and lower period, lower being the oldest. The Palaeolithic period spanned several hundred thousand years, and again most of the artefacts found relating to this time are usually crudely made. At the end of this period items were becoming less crude to the more sophisticated palaeoliths.

Next was the "Mesolithic" period from the Greek "meso" meaning middle, and "lithos" meaning stone. The Mesolithic period covered from around 8,000 to 3,500 BC.

This was followed by the more commonly known "Neolithic" period from the Greek "neos" meaning new, and "lithos" meaning stone. The Neolithic period covered between 3,500 to 2,500 BC, and by this time our ancestors were becoming more skilful, with hand tools being less crude. Polished stone axe heads are indications of the advances made during the Neolithic period, as well as arrowheads and knives. Also signs of early pottery, weaved material, and the keeping of animals, rather than their predecessors just hunting them.

Archaeological evidence exists for prehistoric items from the Stone Age with hunting items of bows, spears, arrows, knives, axe heads, made from flint and other types of stone. As the Stone Age covers a huge area of time for our ancestors and their developing skills, from 2 Million years BC to 2500 years BC, artefacts from this period can vary in style from the crudely made early Eolithic period, to the more sophisticated late Neolithic period.