Printable ScholarPaleolithic vs. Neolithic: Old Stone Age and New Stone Age Compared
The Paleolithic, or Old Stone Age, is the long time when people lived by hunting and gathering, from the first stone tools about 3.3 million years ago until about 12,000 years ago. The Neolithic, or New Stone Age, began when people started to farm: in Southwest Asia about 9500 BC, and later in other places. This free chart asks students to compare the two on six rows: when, how people got food, tools, homes, way of life, and art and beliefs. The filled-in chart below is the answer key.
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Paleolithic vs. Neolithic: chart and answer key
PDFs sized for US Letter paper, in color and black and white.
Paleolithic vs. Neolithic chart
Two columns and six rows to fill in from the readings: when, food, tools, homes, way of life, art and beliefs.
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Answer key
Model answers for every box (this key page also holds the Neolithic Revolution key).
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What changed between the two ages
Food
Paleolithic people hunted, fished and gathered wild plants. Neolithic people planted wheat, barley, lentils and peas and herded sheep, goats, cattle and pigs.
Homes
Hunter-gatherers moved camp with the seasons and lived in tents, huts and rock overhangs. Farmers settled in one place all year in mud-brick villages and towns such as Jericho and Çatalhöyük.
Tools
Old Stone Age toolmakers chipped choppers, hand axes, blades and scrapers. New Stone Age people also ground and polished stone axes, and made grinding stones and clay pots.
Why it matters
Farming fed more people from the same land. Villages grew into towns, and thousands of years later the first cities and writing began in Mesopotamia, about 3200 BC.
The chart, filled in
| Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) | Neolithic (New Stone Age) | |
|---|---|---|
| When | About 3.3 million to 12,000 years ago (until about 10,000 BC). | In Southwest Asia, about 9500 to 3000 BC (about 11,500 to 5,000 years ago). |
| How people got food | Hunting animals, fishing and gathering wild plants, nuts, seeds and shellfish. | Farming wheat, barley, lentils and peas; herding sheep, goats, cattle and pigs. |
| Tools | Stone choppers, hand axes, blades and scrapers; bone needles; spear-throwers. | Polished stone axes, grinding stones, clay pots and sharp obsidian blades. |
| Homes | Tents and huts of poles and hides, rock overhangs, mammoth-bone huts. | Mud-brick houses in villages and towns, such as Jericho and Çatalhöyük. |
| Way of life | Moved camp with the seasons, in bands of about 25 to 50 people. | Settled in one place all year; towns of thousands, like Çatalhöyük. |
| Art and beliefs | Cave paintings, the Lion Man, bone flutes; some dead buried with ochre. | Wall paintings of wild bulls at Çatalhöyük; the dead buried under house floors; some skulls at Jericho covered with plaster shaped like faces. |
Frequently asked questions
What does Paleolithic mean?
Paleolithic means “Old Stone Age”. It is the time from the first stone tools, about 3.3 million years ago, to about 12,000 years ago, when people lived by hunting and gathering.
What does Neolithic mean?
Neolithic means “New Stone Age”. It began when people started farming: in the Fertile Crescent of Southwest Asia about 9500 BC, and at different times in other places.
Why did the New Stone Age end?
As people learned to make tools of copper and then bronze, the Stone Age slowly ended, at different times in different places. Ötzi the Iceman, about 3300 BC, carried a copper axe and flint tools.