The "Ice Age"--during Paleolithic and beginning of Mesolithic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_glacial_period
Timeline of Human Prehistory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_human_prehistory:
Middle Paleolithic[edit]
- 200,000 years ago: first appearance of Homo sapiens in Africa.[1]
- 200,000–180,000 years ago: time of mitochondrial Eve and Y-chromosomal Adam.[2]
- 195,000 years ago: oldest Homo sapiens fossil—from Omo, Ethiopia.[3]
- 170,000 years ago: humans are wearing clothing by this date.[4]
- 125,000 years ago: peak of the Eemian interglacial period.
- 120,000–90,000 years ago: Abbassia Pluvial in North Africa—the Sahara desert region is wet and fertile.
- 82,000 years ago: small perforated seashell beads from Taforalt in Morocco are the earliest evidence of personal adornment found anywhere in the world.[5]
- 75,000 years ago: Toba Volcano supereruption.[6]
- 70,000 years ago: earliest example of abstract art or symbolic art from Blombos Cave, South Africa—stones engraved with grid or cross-hatch patterns.[7]
- 64,000 years ago: The bow and arrow first replace the spear thrower in Africa.
Upper Paleolithic[edit]
- 50,000 years ago: earliest sewing needle found. Made and used by Denisovans.[8]
- 50,000–30,000 years ago: Mousterian Pluvial in North Africa. The Sahara desert region is wet and fertile. Later Stone Age begins in Africa.
- 45,000–43,000 years ago: Cro-Magnon colonization of Europe.[9]
- 45,000–40,000 years ago: Châtelperronian culture in France.[10]
- 42,000 years ago: Paleolithic flutes in Germany.[11]
- 42,000 years ago: earliest evidence of advanced deep sea fishing technology at the Jerimalai cave site in East Timor—demonstrates high-level maritime skills and by implication the technology needed to make ocean crossings to reach Australia and other islands, as they were catching and consuming large numbers of big deep sea fish such as tuna.[12][13]
- 41,000 years ago: Denisova hominin lives in the Altai Mountains.
- 40,000 years ago: extinction of Homo neanderthalensis.[10]
- 40,000 years ago: Aurignacian culture begins in Europe.[14]
- 40,000 years ago: oldest known figurative art the zoomorphic Löwenmensch figurine.[15]
- 40,000–30,000 years ago: First human settlement (Aboriginal Australians) in Sydney,[16][17] Perth[18] and Melbourne.[19]
- 40,000–20,000 years ago: oldest known ritual cremation, the Mungo Lady, in Lake Mungo, Australia.
- 35,000 years ago: oldest known figurative art of a human figure as opposed to a zoomorphic figure (Venus of Hohle Fels).
- 33,000 years ago: oldest known domesticated dog skulls show they existed in both Europe and Siberia by this time.[20][21]
- 30,000 years ago: rock paintings tradition begins in Bhimbetka rock shelters in India, which presently as a collection is the densest known concentration of rock art. In an area about 10 km2, there are about 800 rock shelters of which 500 contain paintings.[22]
- 29,000 years ago: The earliest ovens found.
- 28,500 years ago: New Guinea is populated by colonists from Asia or Australia.[23]
- 28,000 years ago: oldest known twisted rope.
- 28,000–20,000 years ago: Gravettian period in Europe. Harpoons and saws invented.
- 28,000–24,000 years ago: oldest known pottery—used to make figurines rather than cooking or storage vessels (Venus of Dolní Věstonice).[24]
- 26,000 years ago: people around the world use fibers to make baby carriers, clothes, bags, baskets, and nets.
- 26,000–20,000 years ago: Last Glacial Maximum.
- 25,000 years ago: a hamlet consisting of huts built of rocks and of mammoth bones is founded in what is now Dolní Věstonice in Moravia in the Czech Republic. This is the oldest human permanent settlement that has yet been found by archaeologists.[25]
- 21,000 years ago: artifacts suggests early human activity occurred in Canberra, the capital city of Australia.[26]
