Palaeolithic literally means the ‘Old Stone Age’, i.e. the first and longest part of the Stone Age, spanning the period from the very first recognizable stone tools (c.2.5 million years ago) to the retreat of the glacial ice in the northern hemisphere around 10,000 years ago. Throughout this long period, people lived as hunter-gatherers. The Palaeolithic in some parts of the Old World is subdivided into three phases – the Lower Palaeolithic (the period of early human forms), the Middle (generally associated with Neanderthals in some areas) and Upper (the period of fully modern humans). The equivalent term in the New World is Palaeoindian — Dr Paul Bahn