The Paleolithic period is referring to the period between 200,000 and 2.5Million years ago).  It is also referred to the Mesolithic period (also called the “Middle Stone Age”).The word Mesolithic usually refers specifically to a development in northwestern Europe that began about 8000 BC, and lasted until about 2700 BC.

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By the beginning of the Neolithic period, (the period following the Mesolithic period, during which men became herdsmen and cultivators, and modifiers of their environment, and the social structure became more complex), the small communities of hunters of earlier times had been replaced by agricultural settlements, with some stock breeding and widespread use of stone implements and pottery.

 

Painted vessels that seem to have been influenced by contemporary styles originating in Greece, have been found at Castellaro Vecchio on the island of Lipari.