Pleistocene Pleistocene The Pleistocene (, often colloquially referred to as the Ice Age) is the geological epoch which lasted from about 2,588,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the world's most recent period of repeated glaciations. The end of the Pleistocene corresponds with the end of the last glacial period and also with the end of the Paleolithic age used in archaeology. The Pleistocene is the first epoch of the Quaternary Period or sixth epoch of the Cenozoic Era. In the ICS timescale, the Pleistocene is divided into four stages or ages, the Gelasian, Calabrian, Middle Pleistocene (unofficially the 'Chibanian') and Upper
Pleistocene "Homo erectus" for much of the Pleistocene. Acheulean lithics appear along with "Homo erectus", some 1.8 million years ago, replacing the more primitive Oldowan industry used by "A. garhi" and by the earliest species of "Homo". The Middle Paleolithic saw more varied speciation within "Homo", including the appearance of "Homo sapiens" about 200,000 years ago. According to mitochondrial timing techniques, modern humans migrated from Africa after the Riss glaciation in the Middle Palaeolithic during the Eemian Stage, spreading all over the ice-free world during the late Pleistocene. A 2005 study posits that humans in this migration interbred with archaic human