According to the latest archaeological data available the earliest known human culture is recorded in the form of quartz or quartzite pebbles which have been shaped by our earliest culture making ancestors. These have been excavated from Olduvian beds in East Africa. However, the earliest culture in Europe is known from Clacton-on-sea in Great Britain and Terra Amata in French Riviera. Both these sites give fairly strong indication of substantial human activity from the second glacial period.
Before proceeding further it would be necessary to have some idea about a large collection of stone tools from beyond Palaeolithic. These are known as Eoliths. Many such tools made on flint have been discovered from France, Belgium, Spain and England. Since their human workmanship is still doubted and many prehistorians dismiss them as pieces of stone resembling the earliest tools but not fabricated by man, these may not be categorised as‘tools’in any scheme of tcol typology.Some such tools like rostrocranate resembling an upside down boat belong to Pliocene.
The time span of Palaeolithic is too wide to be studied under one banner. Hence, it is divided into three distinct phases as suggested for the first time by Lartet in 1870.
- (1) Lower Palaeolithic
- (2) Middle Palaeolithic
- (3) Upper Palaeolithic