What time period is covered by the Paleolithic?

What time period is covered by the Paleolithic?

• A. 3 million years ago until 10,000 BC
• B. 2 million years ago to 5,000 BC
• C. 10,000 BC to 1 AD
• D. 100,000 to 50 BC

Answer: (A)

The Paleolithic covers the long stretch of human prehistory when people lived as hunter-gatherers and used simple stone tools. It begins with the earliest known use of stone tools, around three million years ago, and ends around 10,000 BCE, when farming and settled village life started in various regions. That broad span—from roughly three million years ago to about 10,000 BCE—fits the period best, because it encompasses the entire era of early tool-making and hunter-gatherer societies before the rise of agriculture. Other ranges either start too late, end too late, or omit this long beginning-to-end timeline, so they don’t align with how the Paleolithic is defined.

The Paleolithic covers the long stretch of human prehistory when people lived as hunter-gatherers and used simple stone tools. It begins with the earliest known use of stone tools, around three million years ago, and ends around 10,000 BCE, when farming and settled village life started in various regions. That broad span—from roughly three million years ago to about 10,000 BCE—fits the period best, because it encompasses the entire era of early tool-making and hunter-gatherer societies before the rise of agriculture. Other ranges either start too late, end too late, or omit this long beginning-to-end timeline, so they don’t align with how the Paleolithic is defined.