Final answer:
The "middle age of stone" refers to the Mesolithic Age, which lasted approximately from 10,000 BCE to 8,000 BCE, marking a transitional period with advancements in human societies like the domestication of animals and initiation of agriculture.
Step-by-step explanation:
The era that is also referred to as the "middle age of stone" is the Mesolithic Age, which is known as the Meso (Middle) Lith (Stone) ic period. This period served as a transitional phase between the Paleolithic Age, which was the Old Stone Age, and the Neolithic Age, which was the New Stone Age. The Mesolithic Age roughly lasted from 10,000 BCE to 8,000 BCE and corresponds to the time in Northern Europe when the climate began to warm, and the glaciers started to recede. During this era, human societies made significant advancements, such as beginning to plant food crops, domesticating animals like dogs, and further developing their stone tool technologies.
Before the Mesolithic was the Paleolithic, starting around 30,000 BCE, where humans primarily used stone and other organic tools. Following the Mesolithic, the Neolithic era began around 8,000 BCE, marked by the development of farming, raising animals for food, and construction of large-scale stone structures like Stonehenge. The Stone Age concludes with the advent of metalworking, leading into the Bronze Age and eventually the Iron Age.