s period is based on the relics of the past, such as tools and weapons, fossils and rocks, fallen buildings and standing monuments. Archaeologists and the anthropologists are able to reconstruct the story of mankind right from man’s first appearance on this earth, on the basis of a few human skulls and bones found in different parts of the world, as also on the tools and weapons used at that time. Pre-history is divided into 3 periods, according to the materiel used for making tools, namely, 1. The Stone Age (50,000 BC to 4000 BC), 2. The Bronze Age (4000 to 2000 BC), and 3. The Iron Age (1500 BC onwards). The Stone Age is divided into two periods, the Old Stone Age or the Paleolithic Age (50000 to 12000 BC) and the New Stone Age or the Neolithic Age (12000 to 4000 BC). This distinction is based on the stone implements which were crude, rough and unpolished in the Old Stone Age, and they were pointed, smooth and polished in the New Stone Age. The Old Stone Age is also considered to be the Age of food-gatherers, while the New Stone Age is referred to as the Age of food producers. The Age of civilization began to dawn towards the end of the Neolithic Age. 1.3 Early Civilizations World history gives a picture of the progress of civilization, which denotes the material progress achieved by man in the economic, political, moral and psychological spheres. Civilization comes from the Latin word ’civitas’ meaning city. According to H. A. Davies "Civilization implies settlement in definite territories, the building of cities, the evolution of ordered methods of government, the development of trade and commerce, and a capacity for progress which is unrestricted." The earliest civilizations developed almost simultaneously in the three great river valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates called Mesopotamia, the Indus (now in Pakistan) and the Nile in North Africa in Egypt. The Egyptian civilization is probably the oldest known to m...
