The beginning of the Stone Age with the Old Stone Age (Palaeolithic) is estimated to be between 1,000,000 and 300,000 years ago in Hesse, depending on the scientific school. The presence of humans from the "homo erectus" group is documented by tools made from quartzite boulders, which are known as "pebble tools" and are divided into more than 20 forms in an extensive typology.

The Middle Palaeolithic is the time of the Neanderthal man (homo sapiens neanderthalensis) in the narrower sense from 100,000 before the present. The best known tool, because it is typical, is the hand axe made of siliceous rock (quartzite, flint) and worked on both sides. Such a tool and a so-called wedge knife, both made of siliceous shale, were found in Erbenheim.

The later Palaeolithic period is the time of modern man (homo sapiens sapiens) from 35,000 BC, also known as Cro Magnon man. 60 stone tools from the vicinity of the Adlerquelle, which were recovered from the drill cores during drilling, prove that people lived at the hot springs around 25,000 years ago.

The end of the last ice age around 10,000 years ago marks the beginning of the Mesolithic period, which is not specifically identified in other regions, but is associated with the Palaeolithic period as the Epipalaeolithic. In fact, the way of farming remained basically the same (hunting and gathering), only adapted to the new fauna due to the extinction of various large mammals (elephant species, woolly rhinoceros). The predominant use of composite tools, the stone components of which are the 25 to 35 mm blade tools known as "microliths", has led to the demarcation of a separate period. Only a few artefacts from this period are known in Wiesbaden, but more are still to be found, as Mesolithic people certainly "roamed" this area ("Schweifgebiet" is the terminus technicus). A rare Mesolithic stone tool was found during an excavation in the summer of 2009: an axe (transverse axe) made of amphibolite was found in the Roman training camp in Mainz-Kastel, Kurt-Hebach-Straße. Mesolithic artifacts have also been identified among the Paleolithic finds in a collection from Igstadt.

The Neolithic period is another Stone Age in terms of its name, but with it the first innovations appear that still have an impact today. The economy changed from an appropriating to a producing one. Agriculture, animal husbandry and the associated sedentarization began, followed by the construction of houses. The invention of the new technique of pottery changed the way food was prepared. In our immediate surroundings, almost only the Linear Pottery culture belongs to the Early Neolithic; finds of the Linear Pottery culture are sparse. The Hinkelstein group forms the transition to the Middle Neolithic, which is defined by the Großgartach and Rössen cultures, between which the Planig-Friedberg group mediates both chronologically and typologically. The Bischheim culture belongs to the transition to the Late Neolithic, which is formed by the Michelsberg culture and the Wartberg group, to which the most striking monuments, megalithic tombs and menhirs, are attributed. The Beaker Cultures (Corded Ware Culture, Giant Beaker Group, Bell Beaker Culture), which overlap in time with the Bronze Age, follow on from the Late Neolithic. Many other Neolithic cultures are widespread in Europe, in some cases only on a small scale. However, they do not occur in Hesse.

An extensive settlement of the Linear Pottery culture was cut through by road construction work in Erbenheim in 1978 and a small part of it could be examined. The settlement has been scientifically investigated and published. From the Michelsberg culture comes a so-called earthwork, a rampart-ditch complex of various uses with a diameter of around 1,250 m in Schierstein, which was semi-circular and leaned against the Rhine and thus exactly shielded the eastern, widest part of today's Schierstein harbor.

The most striking monuments in Wiesbaden are the burial mounds, which can be found in large burial mound fields in the city forest and in the forests of the city districts. They were erected from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. The most striking and scientifically informative grave is the mound in the "Hebenkies" on the B 417 opposite the northern cemetery in the grounds of the film studios. It was built over a settlement of the Wartberg culture and contained burials of the Corded Ware culture and late Hallstatt burials. All finds can be found in the Nassau Antiquities Collection.