Stone Age

The territory of the Czech Republic was an area where different prehistoric cultures lived and mixed. However, different geographic conditions on the territory of Bohemia and Moravia were the main cause of significant differences in their development. Moravia was always close to event in the Carpathian Basin, while Bohemia was influenced by the situation in Western Europe.

The first and longest period of the human past is called the Palaeolithic (c. 1.8 million years BC – 8,000 BC). For a long time, stone tools were the only type of moveable artefacts that have been preserved and that represent a source of information about humans. Hunting and gathering were the only sources of food.

Homo erectus, a predecessor to modern man, dating from the Lower Palaeolithic (1.8 million years BC – 300,000 BC) has been attested on the territory of the current Czech Republic. The first evidence of artistic expression and cave settlements (Šipka, Kůlna, etc.) date from the Middle Palaeolithic (300,000 BC – 40,000 BC). Skeletal remains from the later period already indicate the presence of Homo sapiens neanderthalensis (from c. 100,000 BC). Its culture on the territory of the current Czech Republic was replaced by modern man (Homo sapiens sapiens) in the Upper Palaeolithic (40,000 BC – 8,000 BC). The Mesolithic (8,000 BC – 6,000/5500 BC) is one of the least researched prehistoric periods on the Czech territory.

The following period, called the Neolithic (c. 5500 BC – 4500/4400 BC) was marked by a transition to growing cereals and other crops, and the domestication of some animals, which resulted in a sedentary lifestyle. There were innovations in the production of stone tools, clay pottery (ceramics), and residential buildings built on the surface had a unified appearance. Burial practices were not yet universal; there were both burials of skeletal remains and cremations. At the end of the Neolithic, there were buildings of the rondel type and ploughs were used for land cultivation.

The last developmental phase of the Stone Age is the Eneolithic (4500/4400 BC – 2200 BC), sometimes called the Copper Age. It is a transitional period between Stone Age and Bronze Age, when man began systematically using metal tools. A number of archaeological cultures were present on the territory of the Czech Republic: the Funnelbeaker culture, the Baden culture, the Řivnáč culture, the Corded Ware culture, the Bell Beaker culture, etc.