We often talk about the Stone Age, but to help archaeologists get their heads around this huge amount of time (about 2.5 million years!) we break it down into smaller chunks.
The Stone Age is divided into three periods; the Palaeolithic (old Stone Age), Mesolithic (middle Stone Age) and the Neolithic (new Stone Age):
These divisions are just to help us today, Stone Age people never woke up one morning and said "Right, today we're in the Mesolithic".
By breaking the Stone Age down into digestible chunks archaeologists can organise their discoveries and focus on unique moments in the past.
For example, fire was invented in the Palaeolithic; The Ice Age ended at the start of the Mesolithic; And farming was introduced in the Neolithic.
