Prehistoric Cultures

In this post we’ll discuss worldbuilding prehistoric cultures, looking at how intelligent species go from building fires and using axes, to settling down and developing civilisations of their own.

Hey everyone, my name is Matthew, at least that’s what archaeologists will one day decide, and this post is part of a series where I will be going through a science-adjacent worldbuilding process step-by-step. Last time we discussed constructing languages, more commonly called conlang, and how to easily design languages for the intelligent species in your worldbuilding projects.

For today’s discussion, we’ll be looking at worldbuilding the cultures that existed across periods like the stone age before any records began, and discussing how this era sets the stage for the early empires that we’ll be worldbuilding moving forward.

Prehistory, by its literal definition, refers to all periods of time before records began being kept, which can technically be extended back to the beginning of the universe. However, it is more generally considered to refer to either the time since life began, or the period since human-like beings appeared. This final definition, which describes the prehistoric era as starting with the emergence of the first sapient species, is what we’ll be focusing on today.

Where prehistory ends though varies depending on which parts of the world we are looking at. However, we consider our species transition out of prehistory to be when the first writing emerged in Eurasia, and so prehistory on a species level therefore refers to the time before any records exist anywhere and concludes for the species thereafter, even if not all cultures within that species have reached the same point. Moving forward, it is with this species-wide lens that all dates and timeframes we’ll be discussing will be viewed through.

We often don’t call our human prehistory ‘prehistory’ however, instead referring to it as 'The Stone Age’, in reference to the materials used to create tools at the time. On Earth, the stone age began 3.3 million years ago, and concluded 4,000 years ago, and is divided into the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic periods. This division however is somewhat misrepresentative, as the Paleolithic makes up over 99% of the entire stone age, and the Mesolithic and Neolithic are comparatively short periods that signify the transition into the next age.

As worldbuilders, while fictional species may not follow the EXACT path that we humans did through prehistory towards establishing civilisations, it’s reasonably expected that any earth-like planets with human-like land-dwelling sapient species will at least follow a similar path, so here we’ll look at how to worldbuild through this time period.

The Paleolithic refers to the era where basic stone tools were used and progressively refined as part of a primitive migratory hunting lifestyle. To begin with, in the era we refer to as the ‘Lower Paleolithic’, tools will be exceptionally simple, including instruments like cutting and scraping stones. It is also during this period that the use of fire would begin, used for both cooking food and as a source of warmth, allowing sapient species the means of spreading into environments that would otherwise have been too cold to support them.

This is the map of Locus, the fictional planet that we’ve been worldbuilding throughout this series. On Locus, the four sapient species we’ve designed are the rainforest dwelling humans, the Silarin of the savannah plains, the Na’quil of the subtropical wetlands, and the Urakan of the subarctic forests. The resources required for basic stone tools are present in the environments of all four races, though we would likely see some trends based on the needs of each species.

When it comes to fire, the Silarin are perhaps the obvious choice to discover how to use it first, due to their home in the savannah being a fire-prone setting. The dry tropical plains not only provide excellent conditions for fire to start, but the wildfires of the area expose the species to its presence more regularly. As intelligent creatures, it is likely the Silarin would be able to observe the way that fire affects their environment, and once they learn how to create it for themselves, would be fast-tracked towards utilising it effectively, allowing their expansion poleward. However, even with fire as a resource, as cold-blooded creatures the Silarin have body temperatures largely determined by the surrounding ambient temperature, and so are unlikely to spread further than the lower temperate band, with it simply being too cold for them to progress without advanced equipment.

For humans, the rainforests of Locus are home to self-combusting plants called Ignistella, and so the humans of Locus would be able to utilise these plants as sources of fire even though the environment would usually be unfavourable. In fact, it’s entirely probable that these humans would use fire for potentially thousands of years without even understanding how fire is created outside of these plants. Eventually however, they too would unlock the secrets of fire creation and spread out away from the equator, though wouldn’t be able to compete with the Silarin for dominance of the plains, and so for the most part, humans would still stick to the forests, at least in the northern hemisphere.

The cold subarctic environment the Urakan live in is likely to hinder their discovery of fire for at least a few tens of thousands of years, though they too will eventually establish fire usage of their own, able to spread out to dominate the arctic band.

The Na’quil however have a very different story, with the subtropical wetlands providing an unsuitable environment for fire. As creatures reliant on their semi-aquatic environments to live and breed, they’re likely to stay relatively within their current environment, and as they exist on the other continent compared to our other three species, they are at this stage relatively free from competition.

As the Paleolithic progresses into the ‘Middle Paleolithic’, crude tools will be tinkered with to better suit specific tasks, and simple handles may be fastened to them, creating the first tools that we would recognise today, like knives, hammers, and axes. Also, while archaeologists disagree on the exact dates, there is strong suggestion that it is during this period that the first clothes were created, likely by the cultures that spread poleward into colder climates than they were used to. The first worn textiles are most likely to be developed by humans, especially by any cultures that migrate more poleward. It’s likely that this would lead some humans into conflict with the Urakan over their pelts, though these conflicts would be isolated enough for it to not be a widespread problem, and the Urakan through exposure would rapidly develop clothes of their own, now allowing them to continue their activities throughout the harsh winters.

In contrast, the Silarin and Na’qwuil don’t produce body heat, and therefore would gain far less benefit from wearing clothes. Instead, the Silarin’s first textiles are more likely to be items akin to sleeping bags designed to keep themselves warm at night, as they can heat their bodies during the day from the sun, and then use textiles to retain that heat after sundown. The Na’qwuil, having not spread out into colder environments, have no pressure to establish textiles, and so at this stage wouldn’t at all.

It is also towards the end of the Middle Paleolithic that the first rafts will be made, allowing sapient species to travel over large bodies of water. The Urakan not only have access to the most abundant sources of wood but are also physically the strongest sapient species on Locus, meaning that they are well equipped to be the first species to become seafaring. They would spread out across the north-eastern island chain here, and eventually arrive on the eastern continent, though their preference for colder climates would for the most part keep them away from the Na’quil.

Once the Silarin and humans establish seafaring, they too will be able to spread across the globe, with tropical and temperate islands being fought over, though for the most part these conflicts would be isolated, and without long distance communication possible, any island-based conflicts are likely to lead to one side being completely wiped out, with the rest of the species being unaware of what’s occurred.

When they land on the eastern continent and encounter the Na’quil however, a bloodier long-term picture is painted. Between the expansionistic nature of humans and the parasitic nature of the Na’quil, contact between the two races would quickly turn violent, and the first prehistoric wars of Locus would begin. Who here is really surprised that humans are involved in the first wars on the planet?

In the thick wetlands, the humans’ adaptations won’t be particularly helpful, and so the Na’quil have the home advantage, likely to be able to at least defend their environment. As neurological parasites, the Na’quil can interface themselves with the brains of other creatures, and so would very rapidly collect some human hosts, and use their own bodies and tools against them. While still mostly bound to subtropical climate zones, the Na’qwuil can now use the humans seafaring tools, reaching the western continent and coming into contact with the Silarin and Urakan.

The Paleolithic then finishes off with the ‘Upper Paleolithic’, where tools start to become far more diverse and specialised to assist with specific tasks, such as hunting tools like spears and darts, fishing tools like hooks, nets, and harpoons, and logistical tools like rope, and threading needles. We also begin to see the first instances of art in the form of paintings, as well as musical instruments like flutes, both of which lead to the further development of diverse cultures. At this stage however, lifestyles for sapient creatures are very similar to those in the Middle Paleolithic, with a heavy focus on a migratory hunting lifestyle.

The Paleolithic draws to a close when sapient creatures start moving away from this lifestyle, beginning to favour more settled communities, triggered by greater food availability and the pressure of competition from other cultures. This transition definitively marks the beginning of the Mesolithic era. As cultures in this period are more settled than migratory, Mesolithic cultures tend to become more specialised for their environment, and clear trends start to emerge that differentiate cultures in terms of folklore, traditions, tools, and aesthetics.

The Mesolithic however is but a steppingstone for the upcoming monumental changes that come with the Neolithic era. Once cultures establish permanent settlements in the Mesolithic, an inevitable outcome is the development of agriculture, which refers to the practice of deliberately cultivating and farming plants and animals for food and resources. The emergence of agriculture marks the beginning of the Neolithic era, which is the final period of the stone age.

On earth-like planets, it’s expected that agriculture is most likely to develop, or at least first likely to develop, across temperate climates, where not only are seasons more structured and reliable, but crops tend to be annual, meaning that their entire growing season takes place within a single year. Importantly however, agriculture in its early stages is not particularly efficient, and so while communities are mostly settled in the Neolithic, their hunter gatherer lifestyles from the Mesolithic era would for the most part remain present. To begin with, agriculturalists will farm whatever is viable in their area, though on Locus we’ve already established a wide variety of crops that would have particularly good agricultural yield, such as the Cutivex, the Multagranum, the Siccalbum and the Malaurum. Based on their traits that we determined when we designed them, let’s quickly display their natural yields across the map, as well as throw in some neutral icons representing all other potential crops. To make this a little easier to look at, let’s merge all connected icons together and represent their yields in number format, with the named crops worth a yield of 2 per icon, while the others are only worth a yield of 1. The left number here represents the total amount of food yield of an area, and the right represents the number of different kinds of food.

On Locus, the Na’qwuil are uniquely qualified to develop agriculture first, as they are incentivised to cultivate and manage the creatures they use as hosts and by extension, cultivate foods capable of sustaining their hosts, which certainly puts a unique spin on ‘domestication’. Let’s say that this Na’qwuilian settlement with the highest food yield is the first to become agricultural, and that the practice is likely to spread over time to other neighbouring Na’qwuilian settlements. Despite being the first through the agricultural gate however, the Na’quilian settlements are in locations with relatively poor agricultural yields. Even with agriculture in place, there simply isn’t any room for someone to not contribute to the task of gathering food. Not long afterwards however, some cultures across our other species would develop agriculture of their own, and if we take a look at these settlements, the combination of being within a temperate climate, and being alongside major rivers that flood regularly and predictably due to seasonal factors or snow melt, their potential agricultural yields are far higher. Eventually, the high food yields of these settlements cause them to reach a tipping point where a surplus of food is created.

It may not seem like it, but this is a monumental point for any culture, and is perhaps one of the most exciting as worldbuilders, because this is the turning point for the dawn of civilisation. Once a culture reaches the point where it brings in enough food from agriculture to create a stable surplus, allowing some individuals to devote their time to things other than gathering food, that culture is said to have become established as a civilisation. By this definition, the first civilisations on Locus for each species are therefore this Silarin settlement, shortly followed by this human settlement, this Urakan settlement, and eventually our first Na’qwuilian settlement. With the founding of civilisations and with individuals now having different jobs besides everyone gathering food, it becomes necessary to track who made what, and who gave what to who. The need for this tracking quickly leads to the development of writing, and therefore, the keeping of the first records. It is with these records that the prehistoric era ends, and we now enter the civilisation stage of worldbuilding.

Before we finish up though, not all cultures will survive to make it out of the prehistoric era. There are many factors that can lead to cultural extinction, like famine, conflict, and natural disasters, but here we can use a simple dice roll to determine each culture’s fate. I’ll roll a ten-sided dice for each settlement, once for each unique type of food the settlement has, taking the lowest result. If the roll for a settlement is higher than their food value, that settlement is considered unsuccessful. Which leaves us with these final settlements to worldbuild for as we progress out of prehistory and into the ancient era.

So, to recap, the prehistoric age begins with the emergence of sapient species. For earth-like planets with human-like species, this period is more commonly called the stone age, which is mostly dominated by the Paleolithic era where sapient species have migratory hunting lifestyles, followed by the Mesolithic transitionary era where species begin to settle, and finally the Neolithic which is when species have properly settled, agriculture develops, and the first records emerge, which concludes the prehistoric age.

Join me next time when we’ll look at writing, the critical development that has pulled our sapient species out of their prehistoric era. And until next time… stay awesome!