Mr Scott's stone age visit to Oak Class

Oak Class had an exciting visit from Mr Scott, from Cirencester College, who taught them all about the three periods of the stone age here at Cranham. In the cold Palaeolithic beginning 2 million years ago, the land around Cranham was populated with mammoths, woolly rhinos and sabre-toothed tigers, and ancient humans first began using stone to make tools. When the climate warmed in the Mesolithic around 10,000 years ago, bands of hunter-gatherers lived nomadically, making the most of the abundance of fish in the Severn and the deer herds of the Cotswolds. Finally, the Neolithic period, beginning around 6,000 years ago is when we see permanent settlements and farming begin. Mr Scott brought lots of interesting artefacts including a 60,000-year-old hand-axe and a Neanderthal skull. He brought lots of flints which had been found recently from around the Cranham area, including some beautiful flint arrowheads, scrapers and blades. It’s just amazing to imagine the people who would have been living right here so long ago – I wonder if any of them were our ancestors? We’re hoping this inspires us with our history learning and our story writing.

Stone Age learning