Ice ages...and confusion on dating

When we talk about pre history up here in Northumberland we always end up confused.What is meant by stone age,bronze age and so on.And when was the last ice age?

Well the 1st thing to say is that the general sequence is stone to copper to bronze to iron.When each civilisation made the jump between these ages varies across the world.

Anyway...between 18000 and 10000 years ago the ice retreated for the last time.The sea rose and there was pressure on the small tribes to find new sources of food. As a reference it is worth noting that the cave paintings at Lascaux in France were drawn between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago.

The Neolithic age started around 7000 bc with the development of agriculture. But it was some time before these changes reached Northumberland.