How did Stone Age hunter-gatherers live?

Stone Age hunter-gatherers had to catch or find everything they ate. They moved from place to place in search of food.
Early Stone Age people hunted with sharpened sticks. Later, they used bows and arrows and spears tipped with flint or bone. People gathered nuts and fruits and dug up roots. They went fishing using nets and harpoons.
Stone Age people cut up their food with sharpened stones and cooked it on a fire. They used animal skins to make clothes and shelters. After a good day’s hunting people could feast on meat. But the next day they had to start finding food again!

Climate change during the Stone Age caused animal life in Britain to go through several changes.
During the Ice Ages, Britain was covered by ice and snow. Herds of mammoths, reindeer and woolly rhinoceroses roamed across the snow and brown bears sheltered in caves.
In the warm periods between the Ice Ages, Britain became as hot as Africa is today! Elephants, hippos, rhinos and hyenas all moved north through Europe to live in Britain.
The last Ice Age ended around 15,000 years ago and the British climate became very similar to how it is today. The forests were full of foxes and red squirrels. Wolves and bears lived in the hills.
Britain was home to most of the species of birds, fish and shellfish we have today, so people had a wide range of food to eat.

Stone Age Britons made necklaces and bracelets from tusks, bones and shells. They also drew patterns on their bodies, using a kind of paint made from ochre (a type of red clay).
People living in caves decorated their walls with pictures of animals. Carvings found on cave walls show giant bulls, stags, horses, bison and birds.
No cave paintings have been found in Britain, but Stone Age Britons probably painted scenes like the ones found at Lascaux in France. The Lascaux cave paintings were created around 14,000 years ago. They show animals as well as some human hunters.
Some historians believe that Stone Age paintings had a religious meaning. They think the painted animals were meant to represent powerful spirits.

BY WILLIAM AGE:9