Yabba dabba don't: archaeology needs to leave the stone age behind

A label doesn't just describe, it shapes our imaginations - so let's ditch stone age with its limited range and Flintstones mischaracterisations

'Stone age' is shorthand, for many, for a human past before the dawn of civilisation. Cavemen, clad in furs, throwing stone-tipped spears at woolly mammoths. Perhaps some dinosaurs parading around in the background. Maybe these humans are a little heavy of brow and shaggy of hair.

Notwithstanding the dinosaur bit (non-avian dinosaurs were all wiped out in a mass extinction event around 66 million years ago, long before any hominids existed), 'the stone age' is a label that encompasses the vast majority of human existence.