Aarushhh/wikipedia-simple-splitted huggingface dataset:
Home education or homeschooling is a form of education where the parent or guardian is the instructor. The reason for this form of education is usually the guardian is not happy with the nearby schools, or sometimes for religious or moral purposes. Many people also want to protect children from bullying and violence. In recent years, it became popular in many countries.

Before starting homeschooling, it can be a good idea to deschool first. In some countries, such as the United Kingdom, any homeschool arrangement must by law satisfy inspectors that the children's education is sound. This is because, under the Education Act of 1944, parents or guardians are legally obliged to send children to school. The possibility of other methods has been added as a possibility, subject to certain checks.
A common situation is for several families to come together to provide the skills needed. This serves two purposes. First, the range of knowledge and skills is wider, and the schooling has a more social angle, which itself is good for the development of children.

In most countries, homeschooling is a legal alternative to going to a school.

Unschooling is a very free type of homeschooling.
History and publications 
The idea of home schools came to life in the 1960s, when the effectiveness of classroom education was challenged. There were a number of critical publications:
Skinner B.F. 1968. The technology of teaching. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. This includes a valuable discussion of the weaknesses of classroom teaching.
Illich, Ivan 1971. Deschooling society. . A radical critical discourse on education as practised in modern society. Hugely influential in its day. Illich was motivated by leftist political ideas. One of his main objections to traditional schooling was its tendency to train young people to fit in to the existing society.
Holt, John 1963. How children fail. 2nd ed 1982. According to him, schooling does more harm than good to a child's ability and desire to truly learn. A million-plus best-seller.
Holt, John 1963. How children learn. 2nd ed 1983.
Alternatives and dangers 
Some private schools try to achieve similar objectives by other means. Summerhill attempts to make a school more flexible and responsive to the needs of individual children.

Dangers of home education include the possibility of it being used for religious and political propaganda, and the vulnerability of children to unsupervised adults.  Education may be uneven, leaving children with a patchy grasp of many subjects.  The children would also get to know fewer other children than they would ordinarily. Also, it is obvious that some parents are better placed to organise home education than others.

In theory, visits by the inspectors of schools might be able to identify problems. However, at least in the United Kingdom, schools are not inspected every year. If we cannot inspect all schools annually, how can we expect to monitor individual families?

Related pages
Deschooling
Fushūgaku

References

Other websites
National Home Education Research Institute

Education
is a railway station in Shinjuku and Shibuya wards in Tokyo, Japan. According to the Guinness Book of Records, it is the busiest train station in the world.

Adjacent stations

Other websites

 JR East Shinjuku Station
 
 Keio Shinjuku Station
 
 Odakyu Shinjuku Station
 Tokyo Metro Shinkuku Station
 Toei Shinjuku Station

References

Railway stations in Tokyo
The Dominican city of San Pedro de Macorís is the head municipality of the San Pedro de Macorís province, on the southeast of the country.

It has the nickname of Macorís del mar ("Macorís by the sea") to differentiate it from San Francisco de Macorís, in the Duarte Province.

History
There were two very small towns on the left side of the mouth of the river Macorís (or Higuamo): Mosquito (because there were too many mosquitos) and Sol (English: "Sun", because there were not trees). Even today, San Pedro de Macorís is called sometimes Mosquitisol after those two old and small towns.

Since 1852, there was a military post in this place: the Military Post of Macorís, part of the Hato Mayor del Rey municipality in the El Seibo Province.

In 1856, the priest Pedro Carrasco built a Catholic church with the name San Pedro Apóstol; the church was between the two towns of Mosquito and Sol. Both towns grew in direction of the church, forming one town called San Pedro de Macorís.
When the country was again a Spanish colony, San Pedro de Macorís was made a "Comandancia de Armas" (an Spanish military category). When the country was free again, in 1865, every town with the category of "Comandancia de Armas" became a municipality. But San Pedro de Macorís was still a very small town of the El Seibo Province.

After 1868, with the sugarcane plantations and the sugar factories, San Pedro de Macorís began to grow and it became one of the most important city in the Dominican Republic. Many people from Cuba and Puerto Rico came to live here during the last years of the 19th century and the first years of the 20th century. Later came people from Spain and the Middle East (Lebanon, Syria) to work in businesses.

To work in the sugarcane fields and factories, people from Haiti and the British West Indies came to San Pedro de Macorís and other regions of the country.
Population
The city had, in , a total population of 195,307: 94,562 men and 100,745 women. The urban population was  of the total population.

Geography
San Pedro de Macorís is along the coast on the left side of the Higuamo river, also called Macorís. It has a total area of , about  of the total area of the province of San Pedro de Macorís. The city is at an elevation of  above sea level, and at  to the east of Santo Domingo. It does not have any municipal district (subdivisions of a municipality);

The municipality of San Pedro de Macorís is surrounded by the other municipalities of the province: Ramón Santana to the east, Quisqueya to the west and Consuelo to the north. To the south is the Caribbean Sea.

Climate
San Pedro de Macorís has a tropical wet and dry/savanna climate (Köppen-Geiger classification: Aw) with a pronounced dry season in winter.
The average amount of rainfall for the year in the city is . The month with the most precipitation on average is October with  of rainfall, followed by September with .

The driest season is winter. The month with the least rainfall on average is February with an average of  and the second is January with .

San Pedro de Macorís is in a hot region; the average temperature for the year is . The warmest month, on average, is August with an average temperature of . The coolest month on average is January, with an average temperature of .

Economy
The economy of San Pedro de Macorís grew around the sugar production; there were several sugar factories and most of that sugar was sent to other countries through its port and then it became one of the most important port of the country. Rum is also produced in the city; rum is made with alcohol from the sugar cane.

There are also some important industries, mainly to produce cement and textiles to send to other countries.

References
References

Settlements in the Dominican Republic
1856 establishments
19th-century establishments in the Spanish West Indies
1850s establishments in North America
The Epistle to the Galatians (or Galatians) is the forty-eighth book in the Bible (and ninth in the New Testament), written by the Apostle Paul. The book was written to the people of Galatia, a part of modern day Turkey, with whom Paul had earlier preached and founded the congregation in their area.

It is not known for sure, but most believe that the book was written around 57 A.D. One of the curious verses in the letter is where Paul says "See with what large letters I am writing this in my own hand". (Chapter 6, verse 11).  This is understood to mean that normally Paul used a secretary to write down as he spoke his letters.  However he wanted the Galatians to be sure it was he himself that was the author of the letter they would receive so he wrote a few lines himself. Some believe he had poor eyesight and so had to write with "large letters".

Content
Paul's letter is to settle an important question of that day.  It is if the gentile Christians must first join the Jewish religion and keep the Law of Moses. Paul says that the gentile Galatians do not need to keep the old Laws such as the need for  circumcision, which is the removal of some skin around the male sex organ, done by Jews and Muslims as an act of religious obedience to God. Paul says that this is no longer important since Jesus has come. Paul says it is not good that the community has turned from the gospel (Chapter 1, verses 6–10) He says there is only one gospel and one way of being saved through faith in Christ and that adding to that makes it another gospel. He talks about his early life as a Jew, (Chapter 1, verses 13–14), how he met Christ, often called the conversion of Paul, (Chapter 1, verses 15–16), and his early work (Chapter 1 verses 17–24). He tells about meeting with the other Christian leaders in Jerusalem as reported in Acts chapter 15, verses 2:1–10
. He says that they agreed with him that the gentiles did not need to be become practicing Jews first. In Chapter 2 he tells about a meeting with Peter where he told Peter that he was not acting properly towards the gentile Christians by not eating with them. Then he says that Jews, like Gentiles, are not made right with God by keeping the old Law but by trusting in what Jesus did for them when He died on the cross. Later in the book he tells that the Law was given to show us how sinful we are so that we would see the need for forgiveness.  He says that when we love others we have fulfilled the true meaning of the Law. He writes that when we have faith, God sends the Holy Spirit who helps us live a good life and keep from bad things. He gives a list of those bad and good actions.  (Chapter 5)
Importance

The  Epistle to the Galatians has been very important in the history of Christianity, the development of Christian theology, and the study of the apostle Paul.

The book contains some of the most known Bible teachings, such as that all have need of salvation (Galatians 3:28-29), and the Fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).

References

Other websites 
Galatians (KJV)
Galatians (NIV)

Pauline epistles
New Testament books
A label can have several meanings:

A category or classification - a term used to identify something or someone
A brand or a trademark
A strip or narrow piece of something, especially one used to identify something
promotional tab used in  philately
A molding over a door or window
The Neanderthal, a species of the genus Homo, was a near relative of our own species. Its scientific name is Homo neanderthalensis or Homo sapiens neanderthalensis.

Neanderthal fossils were only found in Europe, Asia Minor and up to central Asia. The first fossil was found in a limestone quarry near Düsseldorf: One of the workers found part of a skeleton, in a valley called Neanderthal. Experts Johann Carl Fuhlrott and Hermann Schaaffhausen said the bones belonged to an older form of modern humans. These bones are known as Neanderthal 1 today.

Recent research suggests Neanderthals became extinct about 40,000 years ago. Earlier research had suggested a later date; the problem is the dating of the archaeological sites where their remains have been found.

Neanderthals perhaps evolved from Homo heidelbergensis and split off (last common ancestor) from modern humans between 700,000 and 300,000 years ago.
Neanderthals used to be classified as a subspecies of modern humans (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis). Now, they are usually classified as a separate human species (Homo neanderthalensis).

Neanderthal remains have been found in most of Europe south of land covered by ice including the south coast of Great Britain. Finds have also been made outside of Europe in the Zagros Mountains and in the Levant.

Mental capacity 
The size of the Neanderthal brain shows that Neanderthals were probably intelligent. On average, they had larger brains than modern humans. Large brains have their disadvantages. That is because they use lots of energy, make the skull more likely to be damaged, and cause difficulties during birth. These disadvantages may be less than the advantages, for example, better problem-solving, better social co-operation, language and tool-making.
Neanderthal flint tools (for example, hand axes) were more finely made than those of early man. They were much less varied and finely made than the neolithic tools of modern man. Known Neanderthal art is much less complex than contemporary art from H. sapiens.

The Divje Babe flute 

The oldest flute ever discovered may be the so-called Divje Babe flute, found in the Slovenian cave Divje Babe I in 1995. It is about 43,100 years old. It is from a juvenile cave bear femur at the Divje Babe site, near a Mousterian hearth. Archaeologists ask two key questions:

Is it a flute? This has been discussed at length. The best summary is that it is certainly possible for it to be a flute, but it is unproved (not certain).
If it is a flute, was it made by Neanderthals? Again, this is not decided. It is on public display as a flute in the National Museum of Slovenia (Narodni Muzej Slovenije) in Ljubljana. The museum's visitor leaflet says that manufacture by Neanderthals "is reliably proven". This is not a general view, and again it is best to describe the idea as "not proven".

Capacity for speech 
For a long time, people have wondered whether Neanderthals could talk. Many people believe they could, because the large brain size would be hard to understand if they could not. When an undamaged Neanderthal hyoid bone was discovered, it made people think Neanderthals could talk. That is because, in humans, the hyoid is a support for the voice box. Computer analysis has shown that the Neanderthal hyoid was very similar to human hyoids. Researchers say "our findings are consistent with a capacity for speech in the Neanderthals".
History of discoveries 
In August 1856 the specimen that was to become known as Neanderthal 1 was discovered in the Neander Valley, Germany. The material was found in a limestone quarry near Düsseldorf. A skull cap was first discovered, followed by two femurs, five arm bones, part of the left pelvis, and fragments of a shoulder blade and ribs.

Actually, some remains had been found earlier, but not recognised as a separate species from us. The Engis child from Belgium was the first Neanderthal discovered, in 1829. The second discovered was the Forbes Quarry find from Gibralter in 1848.

Anatomy 

Neanderthal men were about 164–168 cm (5.3 ft) tall  and averaged 77.6 kg (171 lbs) in weight. Neanderthal women stood about 154 cm (5 ft)  tall and averaged 66.4 kg (146 lbs) in weight.

Neanderthals had stronger (more robust) build and distinctive morphological features, especially of the skull. They were much stronger than modern humans; especially in the upper body.
Neanderthal long bones and joints are thicker than ours, and some long bones have a slight curve. Both the thickness and the curve suggest the need for more strength than our species.

Young Neanderthals 
Since 2007, tooth age can be directly calculated using the noninvasive imaging of growth patterns in tooth enamel by means of x-ray synchrotron microtomography.

This research suggests much more rapid physical development in Neanderthals than in modern human children. The x-ray synchrotron microtomography study of early H. sapiens argues that this difference existed between the two species as far back as 160,000 years before present.

Fractures
Neanderthals seemed to suffer a high frequency of fractures. These fractures are often healed and show little or no sign of infection, suggesting that injured individuals were cared for during times of incapacitation.
Neanderthals showed a frequency of such injuries comparable to that of modern rodeo professionals, showing frequent contact with large, combative mammals. The fractures suggest they may have hunted by leaping onto their prey and stabbing or even wrestling it to the ground.

Life style 
They lived in Eurasia during the ice ages of the Pleistocene, and hunted large mammals, such as bison, auroch (an ancestor of living cattle), deer, reindeer, musk ox and mammoth.

The skulls are slightly larger than Homo sapiens, and this implies intelligence and probably the use of language. The skeleton, on the other hand, suggests they tended to solve their problems (such as hunting) more by force than we do.

Neanderthal stone tools are called Mousterian, and are an advance on the Acheulean tools made by earlier species of Man. Homo sapiens stone tools are far more varied still, and suggest that our species relied more on tools than the Neanderthals.
Neanderthals were almost exclusively meat eaters although their diet did include cooked vegetables. They made good tools and lived in complex social groups. Research on their remains has shown that it is possible that they had a spoken language but the nature of any such language is unknown.

There are a number of theories that try to explain why the Neanderthals died out. It has been suggested that they may have been unable to adapt to the changing climate. Alternatively it has been suggested that they were unable to successfully compete with the ancestors of modern humans.

References

Further reading 
Stringer, Chris and Gamble, Clive 1993. In search of the Neanderthals: solving the puzzle of human origins. Thames & Hudson, London. 
Stringer, Chris and Andrews, Peter 2005. The complete world of human evolution. Thames & Hudson, London.
Dennis O'Neil 2004. Neandertals  retrieved 12/26/2004

Other websites
Other websites 

 Smithsonian 
 Archaeology Info 
 Greenwych.ca  - 'Neanderthal Flute: Oldest Musical Instrument's 4 Notes Matches 4 of Do, Re, Mi Scale - evidence of natural foundation to diatonic scale (oldest known musical instrument), Greenwich Publishing
 Neanderthal DNA - 'Neanderthal DNA' Includes Neanderthal mtDNA sequences
 Neanderthal manifactured pitch 
 Homo neanderthalensis reconstruction  - Electronic articles published by the Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History.
 Scientists decode Neanderthal genes 
 Scientists build 'Frankenstein' Neanderthal skeleton
 A Neanderthal's DNA tale 
 How Neanderthal molar teeth grew

Hominins
Oldenzaal is a municipality and city in the province of Overijssel, the Netherlands. About 32,000 people were living there in 2021. It lies in Twente region.

Oldenzaal got city rights in 1249.

People 
 Gert Timmerman (1935-2017), a singer and musician ("Gert and Hermien")

References 
 Plaatsengids.nl

Cities in Overijssel
Municipalities of Overijssel
Twente
Homo erectus (Latin: "upright man") is an extinct species of the genus Homo. Fossil remains were found in Java (1890s) and in China (1921). Nearly all of them were lost during World War II, but there are casts that are considered to be reliable evidence.

Early in the 20th century it was believed that the first modern humans lived in Asia. But during the 1950s and 1970s, many fossil finds from East Africa (Kenya) showed that the oldest hominins came from there.

Some characteristics

Skull and brain 
H. erectus had a cranial capacity (brain size) greater than that the earlier Homo habilis. The earliest H. erectus remains have a cranial capacity of 850 cm³, while the latest Javan specimens measure up to 1100 cm³. This overlaps that of H. sapiens: the frontal bone is less sloped and the dental arcade smaller than in australopithecines. The face is more vertical (less protrusive) than either the australopithecines or H. habilis, with large brow-ridges and less prominent cheekbones.
Hair 
This obvious difference between apes and men often goes without comment. It is hard to explain.

Body hair protects the skin from wounds, bites, heat, cold, and UV radiation. Also, it is used as a communication tool and as a camouflage.

The first member of the genus Homo to be hairless was Homo erectus, originating about 1.6 million years ago. The dissipation of body heat remains the most widely accepted evolutionary explanation for the loss of body hair in early members of the genus Homo. The reduction in hair, and the increase in sweat glands, made it easier for their bodies to cool. Man's ancestors moved from living in shady forest to open savanna. This change in environment resulted in a change in diet, from largely vegetarian to hunting. Hunting game on the savanna also increased the need for the regulation of body heat.
Anthropologist and paleo-biologist Nina Jablonski thinks the ability to lose body heat through sweating helped make possible the dramatic enlargement of the brain. The brain is the most temperature-sensitive human organ. The loss of fur was also a factor in other adaptations. Some of these changes are thought to be the result of sexual selection. By selecting more hairless mates, humans accelerated changes which were first done by natural selection. Sexual selection may also account for the remaining human hair in the pubic area and armpits, which are sites for pheromones, while hair on the head continued to provide protection from the Sun. Humans had hairlessness, upright posture, and high brain capacity by 260,000 to 350,000 years ago.

Height and sexual dimorphism 
These early hominins stood about , Only 17 percent of modern male humans are taller. They were slender, with long arms and legs.
The sexual dimorphism between males and females was slightly greater than modern man, with males being about 25% larger than females. The discovery of the skeleton KNM-WT 15000, "Turkana boy" (Homo ergaster), made near Lake Turkana, Kenya by Richard Leakey and Kamoya Kimeu in 1984, is one of the most complete hominid-skeletons discovered, and has contributed greatly to the interpretation of human physiological evolution.

Tools 
The most distinctive tool of erectus was the Acheulean hand axe, first invented 1.8 million years ago (mya). This hand axe was made by chipping a suitable stone with a hammer stone. Later, the neanderthals used a soft hammer made of deer antler bone to make better tools. The Acheulean hand axe lasted for over a million years as the main tool. Its main use was for butchering meat. This we know because different uses leave different micro-wear on the hand axe surfaces.
Descendants and subspecies 
Homo erectus remains one of the most successful and long-lived species of the Homo genus.  It is generally considered to have given rise to a number of descendant species and subspecies. The oldest known specimen of the ancient human was found in southern Africa.

 Homo erectus:
Homo ergaster,
Homo erectus pekinensis,

Other related species:
Homo antecessor,
Homo cepranensis,
Homo floresiensis,
Homo georgicus
Homo heidelbergensis,
Homo neanderthalensis,
Homo rhodesiensis,
Homo sapiens,

Individual fossils 

Some of the major Homo erectus fossils:
 Indonesia (island of Java): Trinil 2 (holotype), Sangiran collection, Sambungmachan collection, Ngandong collection
 China: Lantian (Gongwangling and Chenjiawo), Yunxian, Zhoukoudian, Nanjing, Hexian
 India: Narmada (taxonomic status debated!)
 Kenya: WT 15000 (Nariokotome), ER 3883, ER 3733
 Tanzania: OH 9
 Vietnam: Northern, Tham Khuyen, Hoa Binh
 Republic of Georgia: Dmanisi collection
 Turkey: Kocabas fossil
Recent research 
Fossil H. erectus skulls found in Java in the 1930s have recently been redated. There are 12 skullcaps (top part of skull) and two lower leg bones. The recent research shows that on Java, H. erectus survived to about 100,000 years ago. The research gives a definitive age of between 117,000 and 108,000 years ago. That is much a much longer survival than in any other part of the world, so far as is known. This means, says the report, that H. erectus was still around when our own species was [elsewhere] walking the Earth. Java is an island, and presumably it had not yet been discovered by Neanderthals or our own species. Remains suggest that our own species  did not reach Java until about 39,000 years ago.

References

Related pages
 Australopithecus
 Human timeline
 Life timeline

Other websites 
 MNSU 
 Archaeology Info 
 Smithsonian 
 Homo erectus at Stanford University 
 Possible co-existence with Homo Habilis - BBC News
 John Hawk's discussion of the Kocabas fossil
Hominins
Prehistoric Africa
Paramilitary describes forces which are organised as military forces, but are not part of the Armed Forces. Examples of such forces are police forces guarding the borders of a country. There are paramilitary groups that are official (run by a country), and others that are not.

The name comes from Greek para (which means beside) and Latin miles (which means soldier).

Military compared to paramilitary
Though a paramilitary is not a military force, it is usually equivalent to a military's light infantry force in terms of intensity, firepower, and organizational structure. Paramilitary forces and organisations use "military" equipment, skills, tactics etc that are compatable with the civilian sector (IE: Urban environments etc). During peacetime, Paramilitary professions are usually found in areas such as high profile non-military sites such as laboratories, nuclear power plants, industrial explosive factories, seaports, airports, borders and government sites such as embassies, palaces, political summits etc tasked with roles of VIP protection, anti-terrorism etc. A paramilitary may also commonly fall under the command of a military, even despite not being part of the military or play an assisting role for the military in times of war.

Paramilitary forces can also include private military company missions.
Quasi-military compared to Paramilitary
Although similar, a quasi-military organisation has more near-identical to military aspects (i.e., militia, mercenary, insurgency, guerrilla, terrorist, rebel, drug cartel, private army, etc.) whereas a paramilitary is its own (i.e., internal security, SWAT, coast guard, border guard, etc.).

Examples of Paramilitary Organizations

Law Enforcement 
 Police departments of many countries are organized in a manner similar to military forces.
 SWAT teams of some American police departments: trained to handle high-risk situations that regular police officers are not as qualified to handle such as hostage rescue, counter-terrorism missions, and arresting particularly dangerous criminals.
Government Agencies
 Special Activities Center of the Central Intelligence Agency: a unit of the CIA whose missions often require a great deal of secrecy and carefulness. Most members of this unit are recruited from special forces units from all over the United States military. Their main mission is to collect intelligence on countries hostile to the United States; most CIA operatives killed in the line of duty have been members of the Special Activities Division.

Political
 The SS and SA of Nazi Germany: the SS was the successor to the SA, but for the most part, both groups handled the same responsibilities. They were originally bodyguards to Adolf Hitler, but as the war heated up, they were assigned to oversee concentration camps as guards and administrators. While not an official part of Germany's military, the SS had an armed branch that was trained as a regular military unit.

References

Military occupations
Champagne is a town and commune of the Ardèche département, in the southern part of France.

Related pages
Communes of the Ardèche department

Communes in Ardèche
Champis is a commune in the Ardèche département in southeast France.

Related pages
Communes of the Ardèche department

Communes in Ardèche
Chandolas is a town and commune of the Ardèche département, in the southern part of France.

Related pages
Communes of the Ardèche department

Communes in Ardèche
Chanéac is a town and commune of the Ardèche département, in the southern part of France.

Related pages
Communes of the Ardèche department

Communes in Ardèche
Charmes-sur-Rhône is a town and commune of the Ardèche département, in the southern part of France.

Related pages
Communes of the Ardèche department

Communes in Ardèche
Charnas is a town and commune of the Ardèche département, in the southern part of France. About 715 or 722 people lived there in 2008.

Related pages
Communes of the Ardèche department

References 

 INSEE

Communes in Ardèche
The Palaeolithic (or Paleolithic) was a period of prehistory when humans made stone tools.  It was the first and longest part of the Stone Age. It began around 3.3 million years ago and ended around 11,650 years ago.  About 99% of human history happened in the Palaeolithic.

The Palaeolithic began when hominids (early humans) started to use stones as tools for bashing, cutting, and scraping. All members of the genus Homo made stone tools, starting with relatively crude tools made by Homo habilis and Homo erectus. In Europe, the large-brained Neanderthal Man (Homo neanderthalensis) made tools of high quality. Our own species, Homo sapiens, made even higher-quality tools. These tools are the first cultural products which have survived to modern times.
The oldest stone tools ever found are about 3.3 million years old. Archaeologists found these tools in the Great Rift Valley of Africa. Australopithecines probably made them. Archaeologists have found stone tools in continental Europe from about one million years ago, and in Britain from about 700,000 years ago.

During the Palaeolithic Age, humans grouped together in small bands. They lived by gathering plants and hunting wild animals. They made tools out of wood and bone as well as stone. They probably also used leather and vegetable fibers, but these do not last as long as stone and have not survived to modern times.

The Palaeolithic ended around 11,650 years ago, when humans began to make smaller, finer tools. In Western Europe, this was the beginning of the Mesolithic period. In warmer climates like Africa, the Epipaleolithic period came after the Palaeolithic.
The Pleistocene geological epoch (also called the Ice Age) happened at the same time as the Palaeolithic. In some areas, like Western Europe, this ice age affected the way people lived. In the Middle East, people began to switch from hunting and gathering to agriculture. Both the Palaeolithic and the Pliestocene ended around the same time.

Cultures

Oldowan 

Hominids began to make Oldowan tools around 2.6 million years ago. They continued to make these tools until about 1.7 million years ago. After that, hominids began to make more sophisticated tools, which archaeologists call Acheulean. 

Oldowan tools are named after Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, where Oldowan tools were first found. The archaeologist Louis Leakey made this discovery in the 1930s. For a long time after that, archaeologists thought that the Oldowan were the earliest tools ever made. Now they know that hominids made stone tools much earlier in history - about 3.3 million years ago. This was before the genus Homo had evolved.
Archaeologists do not know for sure which species actually created and used Oldowan tools. The use of these tools reached its peak with early species of Homo, such as H. habilis and H. ergaster. Archaeologists think that early Homo erectus inherited Oldowan technology, then refined it into the Acheulean industry beginning about 1.7 million years ago. Oldowan tools are sometimes called pebble tools, because the blanks chosen for their production already resemble, in pebble form, the final product. They are sometimes subdivided into types, such as choppers, scrapers and pounders, based on their main uses.

Acheulean 
Around 1.7 million years ago, Homo habilis began to make oval- and pear-shaped hand axes. Archaeologists call these tools Acheulean. They were more sophisticated than Oldowan tools, and had more uses. Early humans made these tools in Africa, western Asia, and Europe during the Lower Palaeolithic era. They are usually found with Homo erectus remains.
Acheulean tools were the dominant technology for most of human history. More than a million years ago, Acheulean tool users left Africa to colonize Eurasia. Although it developed in Africa, the Acheulean industry is named after the type site of Saint-Acheul, where archaeologists first found Acheulean tools in the 19th century. This area is now a suburb of Amiens in northern France.

John Frere was the first to suggest in writing that hominids started making Acheulean tools during "a very ancient period." In 1797, Frere sent two examples of Acheulean tools to the Royal Academy in London from Hoxne in Suffolk. He had found them in prehistoric lake deposits, along with the bones of extinct animals. He concluded that they were made by people "who had not the use of metals" and said they belonged to a "very ancient period indeed, even beyond the present world". However, other archaeologist still held a pre-Darwinian view of human evolution, and they ignored Frere's ideas.

Dating the Acheulean
In individual regions, scientists can use radiometric dating to determine the age of a tool much more precisely. For example, Acheulean methods did not reach Europe until around 400,000 years ago. In smaller study areas, scientists can narrow down a tool's age even more. However, numerical dates can be misleading. It is common to associate examples of this early human tool industry with one or more glacial or interglacial periods, or with a particular species of early human. The earliest user of Acheulean tools was Homo ergaster, who first appeared about 1.8 million years ago. Some researchers prefer to call these hominids early Homo erectus. Later forms of early humans also used Acheulean techniques. These are described below.
There is considerable time overlap in early prehistoric stone-working industries. In some regions, Acheulean tool-using groups were contemporary with other, less sophisticated industries such as the Clactonian. Then, later, Acheulean tools occur at the same time as the more sophisticated Mousterian. The Acheulean was not a neatly defined period, but a tool-making technique which flourished especially well in early prehistory. It was a basic method for making stone tools which was shared across much of the Old World.

Clactonian 

In Europe, early humans began to make flint tools during the early part of the interglacial period, around 400,000 years ago. Archaeologists call these Clactonian tools. Homo erectus made Clactonian tools; modern humans did not. Early, crude flint tools from other regions, made using similar methods, are either called Clactonian tools or core & flake technology.
These tools are named after Clacton-on-Sea in the English county of Essex. There, in 1911, archaeologists found Clactonian artifacts along with the remains of a giant elephant and hippopotamus. These artifacts included flint chopping tools, flint flakes, and the tip of a worked wooden shaft.  Archaeologists have found other Clactonian tools at sites in Swanscombe, Kent, and Barnham in Suffolk. Evidence shows that early humans made this type of tool throughout Northern Europe.

To make Clactonian tools, early humans struck thick, irregular flakes from a core of flint. They used the flint core as a chopper, and used the flakes as crude knives or scrapers. Archaeologists have found Clactonian tools which were notched, implying that they were attached to a handle or shaft.
The Clactonian and Acheulean industries might have existed at the same time. However, in 2004, archaeologists excavated a butchered Pleistocene elephant near Dartford, Kent. They found many Clactonian flint tools, but no hand axes. Since hand axes would have been more useful than choppers to dismember an elephant carcass, this is evidence that the Clactonian was a separate industry. Flint of sufficient quality was available in the area, so archaeologists think the people who carved up the elephant did not know how to make hand axes.

Mousterian 

The Mousterian is an industry of stone tools associated with Neanderthal Man (Homo neanderthalensis). Early humans started making these tools around 300,000 years ago, and continued to make them until about 30,000 years ago. There are up to thirty types of Mousterian tools, compared to about six in the Acheulean style.
The Mousterian was named after the type site of Le Moustier, a rock shelter in the Dordogne region of France. Archaeologists have found similar flintwork all over unglaciated Europe, as well as the Near East and North Africa. Mousterian hand axes usually had long blades and points. Overall, these tools are finished more perfectly than any previous style of toolmaking. 

To make Mousterian tools, early humans used the Levallois technique. This is a prepared-core technique: the toolmaker works on the core of the stone for so that they can strike off a long, fine blade. For this quality of work, early humans had to use a 'soft' hammer made of something like deer antler, not a stone hammer. Neanderthals had larger brains than humans; this may have helped them develop Mousterian technology.
All cultures of modern humans, Homo sapiens, used the Mousterian style. It is characteristic of our species to produce many more tools, all specialised for particular tasks. There are at least 100 types of tools in the Upper Palaeolithic, compared to a maximum of 30 tools in the Mousterian.

Chronology of Palaeolithic and following periods 
The Palaeolithic is sometimes divided into three (somewhat overlapping) periods which mark technological and cultural advances in different human communities:
 Palaeolithic
 Lower Palaeolithic (c2.6 or 2.5 million years ago–100,000 years ago)
 Middle Palaeolithic (c300,000–30,000 years ago)
 Upper Palaeolithic (c45,000 or 40,000–10,000 years ago).
The Mesolithic and Neolithic eras followed the Palaeolithic. The Neolithic ended around 1900 BC. At this time, the Stone Age ended and the Bronze Age began. Later, when the Bronze Age ended, the Iron Age began.

Overview of the main features of these periods

Venus figurines
Venus figurines 

Venus figurines may be some of the first pieces of art ever made. These are very small statues of women, mostly pregnant with visible breasts. Archaeologists have found them in areas of Western Europe, stretching to Siberia. 

Most of the Venus figurines that archaeologists have found are between 20,000 and 30,000 years old. However, they have found two figurines that are much older. The Venus of Tan-Tan, found in Morocco, is 300,000 to 500,000 years old. The Venus of Berekhat Ram, found on the Golan Heights, is between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago. These may be the some of the earliest things that show the human form.

Early humans used different kinds of stone, bones, and ivory to make these figurines. They also made Venus figurines out of clay, then hardened the clay by heating it in a fire. This is one of the earliest known uses of ceramics.
Archaeologists do not know what these figurines meant to the people who made them. There are two basic theories:
 They may be representations of human fertility, or they may have been made to help increase fertility.
 They may represent (fertility) goddesses.
Scientists know that these figurines were not linked to the fertility of fields, because agriculture had not been discovered when the figurines were made.

The two older Venus figurines may have formed mostly through natural processes. The Venus of Tan-Tan was covered with a substance that could have been some kind of paint. The substance contained traces of iron and manganese. The figurine of Berekhat Ram has traces of tool marks. A study done in 1997 states that nature alone could not have left these traces.
Cave paintings 
Cave paintings have been found in about 350 caves in Europe. Many were done in the Palaeolothic Age, between about 15,000 and 30,000 years ago. Some of the most famous are in the Cave of Altamira in Spain and the Lascaux Cave in France.p545 Usually, cave paintings show animals, like aurochs, bisons or horses. 

Nobody knows why these paintings were done. However, archaeologists know that people did not create cave paintings just to decorate their living spaces. Usually, there are no signs that humans ever lived in the caves where people painted.

The oldest known cave paintings are in the Chauvet Cave in France. There are two groups of paintings in this cave. The first group was painted 33,000 to 30,000 years ago. The second group was done 26,000 to 27,000 years ago.p546 We know this because scientists did radiocarbon dating of "black from drawings, from torch marks and from the floors". By 1999, scientists had dated 31 samples from the cave. The oldest were from 33,390-32,410 years ago.
Some archaeologists say this timeline is incorrect. Christian Züchner studied the style of the Chauvet paintings and compared it to paintings done at other caves. He thought one group of paintings was done between 28,000 and 23,000 years ago. He said the other group was between 18,000 and 10,000 years old. Pettitt and Bahn also think the Chauvet painting styles do not match the dates identified through radiocarbon dating.

People from the Palaeolithic era drew well. They knew about perspective, and they knew of different ways to draw. They were able to observe the behaviour of animals they painted. Some of the paintings show how the animals behaved. The paintings may have been important for rituals.

Diet and nutrition

In general
In general

Paleolithic hunter-gatherers ate leafy vegetables, fruit, nuts, insects, meat, shellfish, and other types of fish. Because there is little direct evidence, it is almost impossible to determine how much of their diet was plant food and how much was meat. Even the idea that most humans of a given period shared the same diet is problematic. The Paleolithic was an extended period of time. During that time, there were many technological advances, many of which had impact on human dietary structure. For example, until the Middle Palaeolithic, humans probably did not have control of fire, or the tools needed to do extensive fishing. On the other hand, archaeologists generally agree that both of these technologies were widely available to humans by the end of the Paleolithic. (This allowed humans in some regions of the planet to rely heavily on fishing and hunting.)
Anthropologists have different opinions about the proportions of plant and animal foods consumed. Just as with still existing hunters and gatherers, there were many varied "diets" - in different groups -of fruit and vegetables. The relative proportions of plant and animal foods in the diets of Paleolithic people often varied between regions; in colder regions, more meat was necessary. These regions were not populated by anatomically modern humans until 30,000-50,000 BP. It is generally agreed that many modern hunting and fishing tools, such as fish hooks, nets, bows, and poisons, were not introduced until the Upper Palaeolithic and possibly even Neolithic.  The only hunting tools widely available to humans during any significant part of the Paleolithic period were hand-held spears and harpoons. There's evidence of Paleolithic people killing and eating seals and elands as far as 100,000 years BP
. On the other hand, buffalo bones found in African caves from the same period are typically of very young or very old individuals, and there's no evidence that pigs, elephants or rhinos were hunted by humans at the time.
Another view is that until the Upper Paleolithic, humans were frugivores (fruit eaters) who supplemented their meals with carrion, eggs, and small prey such as baby birds and mussels. Only on rare occasions did they manage to kill and consume big game such as antelopes. This view is supported by studies of higher apes, particularly chimpanzees. Chimpanzees are the closest to humans genetically. They share more than 96% of their DNA code with humans, and their digestive tract is functionally very similar. Chimpanzees are primarily frugivores, but they could and would consume and digest animal flesh, given the opportunity. In general, their actual diet in the wild is about 95% plant-based, with the remaining 5% filled with insects, eggs, and baby animals. In some ecosystems, however, chimpanzees are predatory, forming parties to hunt monkeys
. Some comparative studies of human and higher primate digestive tracts do suggest that humans have evolved to obtain greater amounts of calories from sources such as animal foods, allowing them to shrink the size of the gastrointestinal tract relative to body mass and to increase the brain mass instead.
Paleolithic peoples suffered less famine and malnutrition than the Neolithic farming tribes that followed them. This was partly because Paleolithic hunter-gatherers accessed to a wider variety natural foods, which allowed them a more nutritious diet and a decreased risk of famine. Many of the famines experienced by Neolithic (and some modern) farmers were caused or amplified by their dependence on a small number of crops. It is thought that wild foods can have a significantly different nutritional profile than cultivated foods. The greater amount of meat obtained by hunting big game animals in Paleolithic diets than Neolithic diets may have also allowed Paleolithic hunter-gatherers to enjoy a more nutritious diet than Neolithic agriculturalists. It has been argued that the shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture resulted in an increasing focus on a limited variety of foods, with meat likely taking a back seat to plants
. It is also unlikely that Paleolithic hunter-gatherers were affected by modern diseases of affluence such as Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular disease, because they ate mostly lean meats and plants and frequently engaged in intense physical activity, and because the average lifespan was shorter than the age of common-onset of these conditions.
Large-seeded legumes were part of the human diet long before the Neolithic agricultural revolution, as evident from archaeobotanical finds from the Mousterian layers of Kebara Cave, in Israel. There is evidence suggesting that Paleolithic societies were gathering wild cereals for food use at least as early as 30,000 years ago. However, seeds, such as grains and beans, were rarely eaten and never in large quantities on a daily basis. Recent archeological evidence also indicates that winemaking may have originated in the Paleolithic, when early humans drank the juice of naturally fermented wild grapes from animal-skin pouches. Paleolithic humans consumed animal organ meats, including the livers, kidneys and brains. Upper Paleolithic cultures appear to have had significant knowledge about plants and herbs and may have, albeit very rarely, practiced rudimentary forms of horticulture. In particular, bananas and tubers may have been cultivated as early as 25,000 BP in southeast Asia
. Late Upper Paleolithic societies also appear to have occasionally practiced pastoralism and animal husbandry, presumably for dietary reasons. For instance, some European late Upper Paleolithic cultures domesticated and raised reindeer, presumably for their meat or milk, as early as 14,000 BP. Humans also probably consumed hallucinogenic plants during the Paleolithic period. The Australian Aborigines have been consuming a variety of native animal and plant foods, called bushfood, for an estimated 60,000 years, since the Middle Paleolithic.
People during the Middle Paleolithic, such as the Neanderthals and Middle Paleolithic Homo sapiens in Africa, began to catch shellfish for food as revealed by shellfish cooking in Neanderthal sites in Italy about 110,000 years ago and Middle Paleolithic Homo sapiens sites at Pinnacle Point, in Africa around 164,000 BP. Although fishing only became common during the Upper Paleolithic, fish have been part of human diets long before the dawn of the Upper Paleolithic and have certainly been consumed by humans since at least the Middle Paleolithic. For example, the Middle Paleolithic Homo sapiens in the region now occupied by the Democratic Republic of the Congo hunted large -long catfish with specialized barbed fishing points as early as 90,000 years ago. The invention of fishing allowed some Upper Paleolithic and later hunter-gatherer societies to become sedentary or semi-nomadic, which altered their social structures
. Example societies are the Lepenski Vir as well as some contemporary hunter-gatherers such as the Tlingit. In some instances (at least the Tlingit) they developed social stratification, slavery and complex social structures such as chiefdoms.