Stone Age (7000BC-2500BC) Flashcards
1
Q
Date of Stone Age
A
7000bc-2500bc
2
Q
3 Stages of Stone Age
A
- Early Stone Age
- Middle Stone Age
- New Stone Age
3
Q
Mesolithic Period definition and date
A
Middle Stone Age (7000-3700BC)
4
Q
Mesolithic Period
A
- First human settlers lived by hunting & gathering
- Settled mostly near riverbanks & lakes
- Early housing consisted of animal skins spread over a bowl-shaped timber frame
5
Q
Neolithic period
A
New Stone Age
6
Q
Megalithic
A
Large stone monuments
7
Q
Portal Dolmen
A
Megalithic monument based off a tripod, eg. Poulnabrone Co. Clare
8
Q
Lithos
A
Large stone
9
Q
Court Cairn
A
Megalithic monument made up of upright stones divided into different chambers. Eg. Creevykeel, Co. Sligo
10
Q
Megas
A
Big
11
Q
Neolithic Period - Developments
A
- Time of great change
- Development of farming
- Harvesting of cereal crops (wheat and barley)
- Breeding of animals into fields
- Land was cleared of trees and divided
- Tools - stone axes made to chop trees
- Contact with lands overseas
- Highly organised people, can be seen from house plans, stone tools, pottery fragments, stone tombs
- Housing more permanent with dwellings of circular + rectangular shapes
12
Q
Technology during Neolithic Period (tools and weapons)
A
- Wood + stone only materials available
- Some hard stones could used as knives, scrapers, chisels, axes, spearheads, arrowheads
- Axes for felling trees + chopping wood were made by tying carefully shaped + polished stone axe heads onto wooden handles
- Wood used to make tools for digging + ploughing + some vessels
- Large stones for buildings/structures moved by dragging & levering + possibly using logs as rollers to ease progress of largest stones
13
Q
Megalithic Monuments (huge stone monuments) Function
A
- Resting places for the dead
- Lasting monuments to ancestors
- Perhaps symbols of power
14
Q
3 types of megalithic tombs
A
- Portal dolmens
- Court cairn
- Passage grave
15
Q
Passage tombs
A
- On elevated ground
- Often found in groups
- Newgrange, Knowth, Dowth - Boyne Valley
- Narrow passage to central burial chamber
- Upright slabs of rock + roof by horizontal slabs
- Corbelled sone roof
- Covered by circular mound of earth + small stones
- Surrounded by large slabs (kerbstones)
16
Q
Brú na Bóinne : Boyne Valley Culture
A
- Neolithic Boyne Valley culture
- On bend of River Boyne
- Neolithic farming population
- Forty passage tombs
- Largest collection of megalithic art in western Europe
17
Q
Newgrange Passage Grave topics
A
- Construction - when
- Location
- Structure
- Construction techniques
- Materials used
- Function
- Decoration
- Stone Carving Techniques
18
Q
Functions of passage tombs
A
- Hold remains of important people
- Astronomically align with sun for solstices / equinoxes
- Enact sun worship
- Hold pagan rituals relating to belief in an afterlife or a ‘cult of the dead’
- Indicate tribal territories