Compare and contrast the Neolithic and Paleolithic eras.

As the suffix -lithic indicates, the biggest point of comparison, or continuity, between the Neolithic and Paleolithic eras is that both featured the use of stone tools. Stone technology developed considerably over hundreds of thousands of years, and the Neolithic era featured far more sophisticated stone axes, blades, and other tools than before, but in absence of metalworking technology, stone remained the primary material for tools. People remained predominately hunter-gatherers during each of these eras as well.
But during the Neolithic era, people began to develop agriculture, a profoundly significant development that defined the era. People also began to construct pottery, bricks, and other materials during the Neolithic era, particularly in areas like the Tigris-Euphrates River Valley, where people developed agriculture earliest. Of course, these developments happened over a very long period of time, and there is no firm cutoff point between the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras. But the development of settled agriculture, though it was at the time a supplement to hunting and gathering in many societies, was the biggest point of contrast between the two.