– 250,000 BC)
- the 1st settlements were found in Mnešice (Nové mesto nad Váhom)
- remains of fireplaces were discovered in Spišské Podhradie and Vyšné Ružbachy
- no anthropological finds

The Middle Paleolithic Age (250,000- 40,000 BC)
- Neanderthal people lived in small groups, inhabited caves and already made the first tools
- anthropological finds in Gánovce near Poprad (the cast of the skull of a Neanderthal man - Homo sapiens neanderthalensis)
and in Šaľa nad Váhom (the fossil forehead bone of a Neanderthal women)

The New Paleolithic Age (40,000 – 8000 BC)
-the appearance of camps of wandering hunters and workshops for the production of stone tools of the Szeletien Culture- finds
in Cejkov and Moravany nad Váhom
- the find of the Venus from Moravany nad Váhom, which has been radio-carbon dated to 22,800 years

The Middle Stone Age (Mesolithic) (8000 – 6000/5000 BC)
- significant climatic changes - after the retreat of the final glaciation, favourable conditions arose for the permanent settlement
of the territory of Slovakia
- the settlements were concentrated on sand dunes close to rivers, especially in south-western and eastern Slovakia

The New Stone Age (Neolithic) (6000/5000 - 3300 BC)
- significant changes in the lives of prehistoric people, also known as the Neolithic revolution - people gradually moved from a hunter-gatherer means of subsistence to a productive economy oriented towards the cultivation of the first crops and domestication of animals
- herdsmen and cultivators of the new Neolithic culture began to penetrate into the Danube Basin
- they made perfectly worked or polished stone tools, hand made pottery, as well as anthropomorphic and zoomorphic vessels with a cult function (artistic expressions)
- large settlements of the Lengyel Culture with dozens of houses were built in south-western Slovakia (Bíňa, Hurbanovo, Nitra)
- archaeological research shows the beginning of social differentiation in society - as a result, extensive fortifications (roundels), as centres of local administration, religion and refuges from attack, appeared around 3500 BC

The Late Stone Age (Aeneolithic) (3300-1900 BC)
- the first usable objects made from copper (chisels, axes, axe-hammers) appeared, which improved the productivity of agriculture
- further deepening of social stratification- the origin of a special class - the performers of religious ceremonies - priests
- in the course of the 1st half of the 3rd millenium BC, the earlier cultures (Lengyel in the west and Polgár in the east), which grew from local traditions, were covered by the Baden Cultures, which brought influences from south-east Europe (Turiec, Liptov, Spiš)

The Bronze Age (1900-700 BC)
- development of long distance trade
- the discovery and exploitation of deposits of copper ore in the central Slovak region, where a wide range of bronze tools, jewellery and weapons later began to be cast (odlievať)
- some settlements of the Maďarovce Culture in western Slovakia and the Otoman Culture in eastern Slovakia became local centres of specialized production, commercial exchange, as well as administration and religious activities
- stone houses were built with excellent building techniques and there was a planned street network, settlements were fortified
- the fortified settlement at Spišský Štvrtok below the Tatras also called the “Slovak Mycenae“ and the fortified centre at Nitriansky Hrádok also known as the “Slovak Troy“
- after 1500 BC these centres of the Maďarovce and Otoman cultures, strongly influenced by the Mediterranean Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations, suddenly disappeared
- in about 1250 BC, the Urnfield Culture (kultúra popolnicových polí) characterized by cremation cemeteries and the Lusatian Culture (lužická kultúra), existed at the same time in the territory of Slovakia
» the people of the Lusatian Culture survived in the mountainous areas into the Late Iron Age (La Téne).

TB.