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WeÕve examined the formation of the Tribe, which established some precedents and implications that still underlies human behavior in modern times - here at the beginning of the 21st century. This is a type of cultural conditioning that is buried very deep. These motivations must be acknowledged to gain control of our actions and avoid reacting mindlessly to circumstances. This period is somewhat pre-archaeological with few facts to confirm or disconfirm our speculations. Now let us move into the factual zone of archaeological. Note that this period is still prehistoric - no words yet.
Before we start throwing around archaeological terms with abandon, let us set a framework. First prehistoric times were divided into the three ages, i.e. Stone, Bronze and Iron, by the Danish archaeologist Christian Thomse in 1836 in order to organize archaeological artifacts. Later in 1865 the English archaeologist John Lubbock, further divided the Stone Age into three parts Š the Paleolithic, the Mesolithic, and the Neolithic, i.e. old, middle and new stone ages. The Paleolithic artifacts were chipped stone tools, while the Neolithic artifacts were polished stone tools. The Mesolithic was considered transitional. Remember these categorizations were set up solely to organize archaeological finds.
As the dating of artifacts became more and more accurate, the scientists found that these artifact categories also had cultural connections. They found that the chipped stone tools of the Paleolithic were primarily associated with small hunter-gatherer societies.
Furthermore they found that the polished stone tools tended to be associated with farming societies. Miles Burkitt, an English archaeologist, working in the 1920s, characterized the Neolithic by four cultural traits, i.e. polished stone tools, agriculture, domestication of animals, and pottery. At present only the domestication of plants and animals are considered essentially Neolithic, even though polished tools, pottery and even woven fabric frequently accompany this age. (Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, 1997: Neolithic) In many cases the lag time between the introduction of agriculture and the discovery of pottery is substantial. Hence the Neolithic Age has been disassociated with its original association with polished stone tools and is now associated with the agricultural revolution, while the Paleolithic is still associated with the hunter-gatherer cultures.
Technically the Bronze Age is associated with the development of Bronze technology. Because of the complications in creating Bronze, it takes a highly coordinated social organization to create it. Hence Bronze can only be created by a society that has gone through quite a bit of social evolution. Traditionally the development of Bronze technology has been associated with the development of larger cities and even countries, with the building of larger architectural monuments, the development of writing, and highly stratified societies with a priest-god-king at the top of the hierarchy. Traditionally the Bronze Age is considered an essential step towards modern civilization based upon an urban society.
The Iron Age follows the Bronze Age. During this Age, as in the last, there are further technological improvements that theoretically improve the plight of primitive man living in his primitive world. The emphasis of this line of thinking is purely technological. The assumption has been that primitive manÕs life has always been violent and difficult and that any improvements in technology must certainly improve this savage life. This is the traditional thinking that considers the Iron Age an improvement of the Bronze Age, which in turn is an improvement on the Neolithic, which in turn was an improvement on the Paleolithic. We shall see that while the cultural ages represent distinct stages of technological progress, human rights take major steps backwards, particularly womenÕs rights.