Earliest humans to live in Europe were able to survive the last Ice Age period that was a characterized by ferocious change in the climate that covered the continent in a thick layer of ice. Stone age blacksmiths during this period survived through the masterly and use of fire to make tools as a survival strategy while old cultures died and new ones emerged over thousands of years, where the hunter-gatherer populations ebbed and flowed. The hunting of animals and gathering of wild fruit and berries eventually led to adoption of pastoral, farming cultures that arrived in Europe from the Middle East around 8,000 years ago.