paleolithic (adj.)

"of or pertaining to the earlier Stone Age," 1865, coined by John Lubbock, later Baron Avebury (1834-1913), from paleo- + Greek lithos "stone" + -ic. Opposed to the neolithic, and supposedly characterized by less progress in methods of making tools and weapons from rough stone. Paleolith for "stone implement of prehistoric age" is attested from 1879.