Paleolithic Handaxe, FrancePaleolithic is simply defined as the Stone Age. In the Paleolithic era we see the earliest cultures that used stone tools. The Stone Age as a larger category is divided into three eras: the Paleolithic, the oldest Stone Age, the Mesolithic, or middle Stone Age, and the Neolithic, or new Stone Age. The Paleolithic is a time frame roughly known as the Ice Age, and It lasted until 10,000 BC, when glaciers began melting and humans developed new stone