The Stone Age lasted over two million years and is the largest part of our history. The name of the historical period is due to the use by ancient people of tools made of stone and flint. People lived in small groups of relatives. They collected plants and hunted for their own food.
Cro-Magnons are the first modern people who lived in Europe 40 thousand years ago.A man from the Stone Age did not have a permanent home, only temporary parking. The need for food forced the groups to look for new hunting grounds. A person will not soon learn how to cultivate the land and keep cattle so that he can settle in one place.
The Stone Age is the first period in human history. This is a symbol of the time frame when a person used stone, flint, wood, vegetable fibers for fixing, bone. Some of these materials did not fall into our hands because they simply rotted and decomposed, but archaeologists around the world continue to record stone finds today.
Researchers use two main methods of studying the pre-literate history of mankind: using archaeological finds and studying modern primitive tribes.
The woolly mammoth appeared on the continents of Europe and Asia 150 thousand years ago. An adult individual reached 4 m and weighed 8 tons. Given the duration of the Stone Age, historians divide it into several periods, divided depending on the materials of the tools used by primitive man.
- Ancient Stone Age () - more than 2 million years ago.
- Middle Stone Age () - 10 thousand years BC The appearance of the bow, arrows. Hunting for deer, wild boars.
- New Stone Age (Neolithic) - 8 thousand years BC The beginning of agriculture.
This is a conditional division into periods, since progress did not always appear simultaneously in each individual region. The end of the Stone Age is considered the period when people mastered metal.
First people
Man was not always the way we see him today. Over time, the structure of the human body has changed. The scientific name of man and his closest ancestors is hominid. The first hominins were divided into 2 main groups:
- Australopithecus;
- Homo.
First harvests
Growing food first appeared 8000 BC. in the territory of the Middle East. Part of the wild cereals remained in reserve for the next year. Man watched and saw that if the seeds fall into the ground, they germinate again. He began deliberately planting the seeds. By planting small plots, it was possible to feed more people.
To control and plant crops, it was necessary to stay in place, and this prompted a person to migrate less. Now it was possible not only to collect and receive what nature gives here and now, but also to reproduce it. This is how agriculture was born, read more about it.
The first cultivated plants were wheat and barley. Rice was cultivated in China and India 5 thousand years BC.
Gradually, they learned to grind the grain into flour in order to make porridge or cakes out of it. The grain was placed on a large flat stone and ground into powder with a grindstone. The coarse flour contained sand and other impurities, but gradually the process became finer and the flour purer.
Cattle breeding appeared at the same time as agriculture. Man used to drive cattle into small pens, but this was done for convenience during the hunt. Domestication began 8.5 thousand years BC. Goats and sheep were the first to succumb. They quickly got used to the proximity of a person. Noticing that large individuals give more offspring than wild ones, a person has learned to select only the best. So domestic cattle became larger and meatier than wild ones.
stone processing
The Stone Age is a period in the history of mankind when stone was used and processed to improve life. Knives, arrowheads, arrows, chisels, scrapers… – achieving the required sharpness and shape, the stone was turned into a tool and weapon.
The emergence of crafts
Cloth
The first clothing was needed to protect against the cold and animal skins served as it. The skins were stretched, scraped and fastened together. Holes in the hide could be made with a pointed flint awl.
Later, vegetable fibers served as the basis for weaving threads and, later, for dressing fabrics. Decoratively, the fabric was dyed using plants, leaves, and bark.
Decorations
The first decorations were shells, animal teeth, bones, and nut shells. Random searches for semi-precious stones made it possible to make beads held together with strips of thread or leather.
primitive art
Primitive man revealed his creativity, using the same stone and cave walls. At least, it was these drawings that have survived intact to this day (). All over the world, animal and human figures carved from stone and bone are still found.
End of the Stone Age
The Stone Age ended the moment the first cities appeared. Climate change, a settled way of life, the development of agriculture and cattle breeding led to the fact that tribal groups began to unite into tribes, and tribes eventually grew into large settlements.
The scale of settlements and the development of metal brought man into a new era.
We call history the science of the fate of the human race on earth. It is easy for this science to collect a lot of information about the times closest to ours. In an educated society, they take care that the memory of the past remains, they keep records of events and human orders. But the farther back in past centuries, the less we will meet with such care, the fewer records.
For 3000 years before our time, i.e. 1000 years before X. *, in Europe no one made any notes about the events or the way of life of their contemporaries. If we want to know anything about this time and about even more ancient centuries, we need to dig in the earth, lift its layers covered from above, on which people lived several thousand years ago. Then we see the remains of dwellings and graves, tools and weapons, utensils, dresses, ornaments, toys of ancient people, and finally the remains of themselves and those animals and plants that served them. From these traces of life, one can imagine what nature was like that surrounded a person, what kind of household he did, how he dressed, how he worked and entertained himself.
* The Nativity of Christ, or our era (new era), is a modern chronology system adopted in most countries of the world. The date of birth of Jesus Christ, calculated in 525 AD (AD) by the Roman monk Dionysius the Small, is taken as the initial moment of counting. At the same time, the first year after R. X is the first year of AD. e., and the first year BC is the first year BC. e.
The science that studies these remains we call archeology (i.e., the science of antiquity). It helps the story, but not quite. From the remains, it is almost impossible to judge at all about many of the customs of the people of antiquity: for example, how their family was organized, what kind of alliances they made among themselves, how disputes were sorted out, how and what they prayed for, how they celebrated festivities, etc.
In order to form an idea about all this, one must turn to the help of another science, ethnology (ethnology), which studies the life of contemporary peoples in different parts of the world. It is especially important to learn the structure and concepts of those who are behind in their development, are in a wild or barbaric state. It is easy to see that the remnants of antiquity in Europe are very similar to the household items of the current savages and semi-savages of Australia, America, Africa; one might think that the concepts, structure, and customs of both would turn out to be just as similar. It can be concluded that the ancient Europeans had the same customs and beliefs that are found among the redskins of America, among the Australians, etc.
Cave people
The most ancient settlements are separated from our time by many tens of thousands of years. At first, Europe had a warm and humid climate. We know almost nothing about the people of this time: in the deep layers of the earth they find piles of pointed pebbles, similar to tools, but have not yet discovered human remains. Later, huge ice covered more than half of Europe for a long time; the remnants of glaciers still lie on the high ridges of the Alps.
When the ice receded to the north, our countries were cold for several millennia. At that time, large animals were found in Europe, which have now disappeared or become very rare: a rhinoceros, a mammoth, that is, an elephant with thick long hair and strongly curved fangs, a bison, a huge ancient bull, a wild boar, a large (so-called now northern ) deer, cave lion and cave bear.
About the savages of this time, you can form an idea. Their skeletons, heaps of fragments that served them as tools, and garbage are dug up in deep buried caves, which show that they ate. The life of these people was surrounded by dangers; their means of subsistence were very scarce. Men went hunting, guarded the beast, drove and killed with a club, a stake, a sharp bone or a stone. They rushed to the freshly killed game, cut out the bones and greedily sucked out of them the warm brain. Women stayed near dwellings, gathered berries, wild-growing fruits and seeds, dug up roots from the ground. The caves themselves, where a person took refuge from the cold and bad weather, were not safe: sometimes he managed to recapture the dwelling from the beast, but often he himself had to give way to a more terrible rival. The caveman didn't know clothes. From the cold, he hid himself with a skin torn from an animal; his long hair fluttered in the wind. He rubbed his body with paint or pierced drawings on it. There was no constancy in his life: having exterminated the game in the neighboring forest, he was forced to leave his home and look for a new one. Often he went hungry for a long time; on the other hand, when rich prey was obtained, he ate it with wild greed, forgetting to make a reserve. His sleep was cloudy and heavy. He spoke little and abruptly; celestial phenomena did not interest him. He did not distinguish between good and evil deeds, did not think about a punishing deity, did not ask himself the question of where everything around him comes from, who rules the world he sees. He could only rejoice noisily when there was good luck, and moan hard when misfortune befell him.
He had one great advantage over animals. He knew fire and knew how to produce it by rubbing dry branches. Until now, no traces of such a wild life have been found in which people would not be familiar with fire. A fire built in the middle of the cave gathered the family after a difficult hunt; they warmed themselves around it and spent the night; food was cooked on fire.
old stone age
Very bad and weak were the tools that man had at his disposal: they were exactly a repetition or continuation of his arms and legs, fingers and fists. He looked for sharp and strong bones of animals and fish, took for himself the horns of a large deer and the teeth of a wild boar, collected pointed and thin fragments of flint.
Gradually, he began to dress tools: striking the edge of the stone with another stone, he cut off small irregular pieces from the first and thus sharpened the end or edge of the flint. Depending on the size of the stone, he received a semblance of an ax, a knife, a scraper. With the help of these tools, it was possible to inflict heavier blows on the hunt, cut meat, scrape the skin of an animal, pierce its skin, remove the bark from a tree. The same things were tools and weapons for man. The ancient ax was only a blade without a handle: a man grabbed it tightly between his fingers and palm and strengthened the blows of his hand like brass knuckles with it.
Many more centuries passed. In the dressing of stone, man has achieved great skill. With the help of a thin blade, point or drill made of stone, he could plan, sharpen and drill the bones and horns of animals. He now had a selection of various weapons. Another amazing ability was shown by a man of the ancient Stone Age. On the bones and horns that served him as tools, on the rocks and inner walls of the caves, he drew drawings with some kind of point, mostly images of animals: mammoth, deer, bison, wild horse. These drawings are very good; they show observation and a sure eye. Here are two deer menacingly pointing their antlers at each other; here the mad buffalo bristled his hair and arched his huge hunchbacked back. Or else: a figure of a man, a neighing wild horse, deer crouching to the ground is carved from a bone, from a mammoth tusk, from a stone. In these drawings and figures is the beginning of human art. It did not serve any good: the savage amused himself, entertained himself, painted his boring life with what he could; the perceptive and courageous hunter portrayed what stood before his eyes*.
* Now scientists believe that the emergence of art primitive man associated with the idea that by depicting animals and hunting scenes for them, a person ensures good luck (hunting magic). Realistic colorful depictions of animals from the Late Stone Age (Paleolithic) have been found in caves in southern France and northern Spain (the most famous cave is Altamira in the province of Santander).
The beginning of cattle breeding and land cultivation
Thus passed the millennium. The climate in Europe has changed again. It got a little warmer and damper. Many breeds of large animals, the mammoth, the cave bear, the ancient big bull, have disappeared, and animals characteristic of our time have multiplied. People began to live in open places, in river valleys rich in vegetation, on the outskirts of forests, on the seashore. They wandered no more, looking for places rich in game. They tried to sit tight and make provisions for the hungry season. To this end, man began to drive the animals and birds that he needed, keep them behind the fences, and began to tame others. The dog was the first to be tamed, which itself stuck to a man and became his hunting companion. Later, sheep, goats, and pigs were tamed. The domesticated animals were at first small and bad; most of them were kept only for slaughter. Thus, cattle breeding appeared next to hunting.
The old women's occupation, the obtaining of plant food, also moved forward. Instead of walking and looking for randomly grown herbs, roots, women began to transplant and breed near the house those species from which they ate most: fruit trees, and especially cereals, barley, millet, wheat. In order for the cereals to grow better, the earth was loosened with a hank *, that is, a stick with an edge bent back or with a hook at the end; plows and plows were not yet known and animals were not used for work. It was not yet agriculture; rather call such a farm garden. At first, they did not know how to bake bread. The grain was either roasted or softened in a hand mill, which consisted of two stones, one above the other, and boiled this poorly ground flour. As before, the labor of obtaining food, the kitchen and lunch were divided: men fried meat, women cooked boiled vegetables and porridge separately from them. While hunting blades were placed in the grave of men, her mill was buried with a woman.
* Hoe.
Pile buildings in antiquity
The human habitation has also changed completely. He was no longer looking for an occasional hangout in the rocks and trees.
He began to build houses like those shelters that he found in nature. Either he built a cave from large stones, or dug a hole, a dugout, and put a round roof over it from tightly intertwined branches and brushwood. Or, finally, he built a wooden hut on stilts among the waters of lakes and swamps. One type of building shows how far these people have gone from the cave dwellers.
Piles were driven into the bottom near the shore; their ends above the water were connected by transverse bars and a platform of beams was laid on them; this uneven floor was covered with clay, sand and cobblestones, and several huts were placed on it. The pile village was connected to the shore of lava or a carpenter, but in such a way that it was easy to separate them. A person could also leave his dwelling on a single tree, that is, a boat hollowed out from a stump of a large trunk. Dwellings among the water served as a good refuge from a wild beast; another advantage was that large catches of fish could be made right at hand. On the banks of the lakes opposite the piled villages lay forests and pastures in which the inhabitants hunted and grazed their cattle, and among the vast thickets stretched narrow strips of their gardens and fields.
Significant lakes are not found everywhere; if, however, people settled in such areas where there was not much water, they repeated the usual way of building. This is how pile villages appeared on the ground: they were built close to the river, where it could flood the shore, or in forest clearings where trees were cut down. The village, built on the ground, was fenced for protection with a moat and rampart; the shaft was made of obliquely crossed piles, on which earth was piled; from the inside, long bars were attached to the embankment, the gaps between them were filled with clay and bundles of brushwood, and sand and stone were rolled up from above. There was a quadrangular fortress, facing the four cardinal points. The huts on the platforms were small, one and a half or two fathoms* wide, made of straight beams intertwined with branches and brushwood and smeared with damp clay. There were no stoves or chimneys; as before, a fire was lit among the dwellings; the smoke from it went out into a hole made at the top or side. The dwelling was divided into two halves; cattle were kept in one, people lived in the other; here in the middle a stone flooring was made for a fire.
* Sazhen - Russian measure of length = 2.1336 m.
A pile village would now seem damp and dirty to us. There was water all around; all sorts of remnants, rubbish were simply thrown down from the platform. From all this garbage, huge piles were collected, which rose to the very floor. Such a cramped brushwood village could easily burn down; then on the old heap, mixed with ash, piles were again strengthened and a new village was built.
new stone age
But in order to arrange housing in this way, a lot of skill was needed. The felling of trees, the hewing of large bars required stronger and larger tools. The people of the pile buildings cut and turned stones with great skill; they drilled stone axes in order to drive handles made of bone, horn, wood into them, gouged grooves around the hammers in order to tie handles to them with animal vein or fibrous grass. Large blades were often smoothly polished. Now there were a wide variety of types of tools and weapons: saws, daggers, arrows, spears, spindles, etc.
The preparation of tools and building turned into a difficult, correct occupation, into a craft that required special skill and strength; men were employed in these works. In places, traces of workshops are now being discovered, where many masons, turners and gunsmiths worked together. They needed large supplies of fresh material. The best flint lies down underground; therefore, deep wells or mines were dug to extract it. Along with men's crafts, others appeared - women's. The women wove baskets and made pottery. At first, they came up with the idea of smearing a lash with viscous clay so that they could put it on fire. Then they began to pile up pots, jugs, bowls, etc., from only clay clods or layers; they were then dried in the sun. Much later, they began to turn the dishes on a potter's wheel and burn them on fire. Another craft prompted women to their acquaintance with plants. They noticed the fibrous stalks of flax and hemp, learned how to extract yarn, pull threads and twirl ropes, and finally prepare fabrics. A spinning wheel and a straight loom appeared in the hut, on which women wove canvas.
People of the new stone age no longer went without clothes. They dressed in a long shirt with sleeves and girded it; a cloak was thrown over the top; both men, and especially women, decorated their necks, arms, legs, head hair with necklaces, bracelets, needles and rings made of colored polished stones, teeth, shells, etc. Artisans of the New Stone Age in places prepared so many tools and utensils that the surplus began to sell to the side. Caravans of merchants stretched along the rivers, along mountain paths and passages; products were carried on the shoulders, carried on wheelbarrows, loaded on camels and horses, loaded into boats. Trade brought goods very far from the master. In turn, beautiful rocks were brought from afar, which served as material for dressing.
The beginning of agriculture. Bronze and Iron Ages
The man moved even further to his work. Noticing that the grain grows better if the earth is dug deeper, he enlarged the hank, made the hook stronger and lengthened the handle: a plow turned out. The plow must be dragged, without stopping, through the whole field; instead of a short bed, you get a long furrow. At first, people themselves dragged the plow. Then they began to harness a strong ox in front, and a man stood behind to direct the plow in a straight line and, pressing on it, deepen the furrow. This way of working with powerful tools and working animals is already our agriculture. The bull was not soon tamed; but since a man overcame him, they began to carry weights on the bull, harness the animal to the cart. For the same purpose, a man captured a fast horse. These jobs, adjoining the trapping of animals and shepherding, were for the most part beyond the strength of the women who in the old days owned the cultivation of the land; but often the cattle breeder considered labor, bending to the ground, low and offensive to a free man and sent weak women, teenagers, and old people to the field.
Along with agriculture, cattle breeding also advanced. Another new food item was discovered by man. The wild heifer barely had enough milk for a calf; in captivity, the improved food began to produce excess milk, which people took for themselves. The memory of this innovation was preserved for a long time: milk remained a festive food, which was shared with the deity, pouring some of it on the ground. A new application was also found for small livestock, sheep and goats: from the best breeds they began to shear wool and prepare strong and beautiful fabrics from animal hair. A great change had taken place in the whole way of life of man, and he was aware of how much new wealth the domestication of animals had brought. In many places, therefore, they began to honor the bull, or calf, as the power of God, imagining that the deity inhabits this powerful and beneficent animal.
Man managed to do the same as with animals with some wild plants: he improved their breed by transferring them from the forest or from the steppe to his own fence, weeding out weeds on the ridges, grafting branches of good bushes to the worst ones. Of the grafted plants, grapes and olives became the most important.
Large farms needed pens for livestock, barns for bread, pantries for fruits and vegetables. Stone tools were too small and brittle for new work. It was necessary to find a very durable material in order to make large strong blades for plows, heavy axes and hammers, large spades from it. Metals are such material. Rarely do metals come in the form of nuggets; usually they are mixed in the ore with other types of stones and earth. Great skill is needed to distinguish the ore, to smelt the metal from the mixture and give it different forms; To do this, fire must be used.
Copper is the easiest to smelt. She was the first metal that people began to use. But copper is too soft; the copper point or blade soon bends and becomes dull. Therefore, tin began to be added to copper for hardness; this mixture is bronze. To prepare bronze things, it was necessary either to make a mold of stone and clay and pour molten metal into it, or to beat hot soft strips with a hammer and give them the appearance of blades, nails, pointed sticks, etc.
Later, people learned how to mine and process iron: the tools became even stronger. Large metal workshops arose: traces of ancient large forges are still visible in some places. They had to be located near the places where the ore was mined. If the people moved to another settlement, blacksmiths and casters remained in the old place; they had to work for other people. As foreigners, blacksmiths were scorned by some peoples; others, on the contrary, highly revered them: they considered prophetic people, since their hard work seemed at the same time cunning and mysterious.
Together with metal products, a special kind of luxury and wealth appeared. Shiny smooth and sonorous yellow, white and reddish things made of metals were very popular with people: everyone eagerly followed them. Bracelets, necklaces, handcuffs, rings, earrings, clasps made of bronze, gold and silver were considered the best decoration. They began to upholster the tops of houses and internal walls, thresholds and door jambs with metal strips. The dead were put on the faces of masks made of thin gold sheets. Who wanted to brag, said that he had a lot of all kinds of metal at home.
People from different countries of Europe did not at the same time rise to such a degree of wealth and skill. First of all, the inhabitants of the south, the Balkan Peninsula, Italy, and Sicily switched to bronze and iron; a thousand years later than the inhabitants of present-day France, a few hundred years later than the inhabitants of Sweden. This difference was due to the fact that objects of especially fine workmanship were brought by sea from the east, from Egypt, Asia Minor, Syria, where people had previously achieved inventions and improvements. New objects, and with them new techniques of more skillful work, settled first on the southern edge of Europe and only slowly penetrated into the middle of the mainland.
Unions of ancient (cave) people
Cavemen lived in scattered single families. Only for a large hunt for a while they gathered in small detachments, several dozen people each. The people of the New Stone Age lived in larger societies and settlements. The pastoralists formed large camps; when food was depleted in the district, the whole camp moved together. The farmers formed a community and divided among themselves a large clearing surrounded by forest, or part of a river valley; they were built either as a close-knit village surrounded by fields, meadows and pastures, or as farmsteads, with each farmhouse having its own field and garden, but with common pastures. Cattle breeders, harsh and provocative, often raised quarrels with neighbors, raided them to take away prey. The farmers were of a softer disposition and were afraid of war, during which fields and gardens were trampled and the work of many years perished. Some for attack, others for defense needed to unite in alliances. Those who entered into alliances chose as leader for the duration of the raid or defense of a person known for strength and dexterity. He was obeyed only during the battle; when they later went home again, the former leader became an ordinary inhabitant.
These unions were very small in comparison with the states and even regions of our time. Trade and wandering of artisans brought together, however, people from different localities; they got used to explaining themselves to each other, they had a common language. People of the same dialect and similar customs constituted one tribe, they were aware of their closeness to each other. But the tribe for the most part did not obey one order. In peacetime, each village led its own closed life. If a dispute arose between neighbors or one person offended another, those who quarreled could rely only on their own strength; each defended himself against the offender or opponent as best he could: he gathered his loved ones, took revenge, tried to harm the enemy. But sometimes they turned to the advice, or the court of a peaceful mediator, some smart old man or a person who was considered prophetic.
Often close brotherhoods arose between people of the same age, especially young and strong, from 18 to 30 years old approximately. They sealed their union with some mysterious rite: for example, they each let out a few drops of blood from themselves and mixed them in one hole: after that they were considered brothers. Growing up young men were subjected to severe trials: they were sent alone on a dangerous hunt, tied to a tree and showered with arrows, etc. If they showed courage amid blows and a hail of ridicule, they were recognized as worthy to join the brotherhood. The named brothers for the most part left their families and separate dwellings and lived as a whole partnership together, in one large men's house. It was a large chamber, which served as a common bedroom and refectory, surrounded by a canopy and often fortified; it also contained weapons. An individual member of the union had to obey the general desire of his comrades in everything; often, for example, he did not dare to marry and start a family while he remained in the brotherhood.
The brotherhood, or squad, usually had its own elected leader. Sometimes a capable, enterprising ataman attracted many new people to the squad; after successful raids, he and his comrades accumulated a lot of booty. Rumors about him passed all over the country. They tried to appease him: bows and gifts were sent to him from everywhere. He could drag a whole tribe along with him if, for example, food was scarce in the area. Then a strong excitement arose: many families with their wives and children left their places, collected their belongings on carts and set off on the road for a mighty leader: a resettlement of the people was taking place.
The structure of the family in antiquity
The difference in the morals of hunters, cattle breeders and farmers is noticeable in the nature of family life. Among the hunters, men and women lived almost separately, differing greatly in their occupations and in all everyday life. The man went into the forest, wandered, robbed, disappeared for days and weeks; in such families, a woman can receive power in the house; she controls the fate of the children until they grow up and leave on their own. Either her younger brother, who stayed at home longer than others, or her father could protect the mother, and then her children got used to their uncle or grandfather more than to their father. In such families, kinship was considered only through the mother; for example, a father's brother was not considered related to his children.
Relatives were called by the common name of some animal or bird: "deer", "falcons", "wolves". Perhaps they imagined that they were descended from these animals or received strength from them. Relatives could not marry each other. For example, a man "falcon" could not marry a woman of the same name. If the man "deer" took a wife from the "falcons", then their children were considered "falcons".
The family was completely different where the husband took over the housekeeping. Among cattle breeders, men sat more firmly near the house, and the father took more power over his children; themselves and their wife, their mother, he considered his property, his workers; even adult sons, he continued to keep under him in submission.
A young man who wanted to make a house for himself kidnapped his wife, took her away from a foreign village, took her away from a foreign tribe; or, to avoid a quarrel, the groom negotiated with the girl's relatives about her price and bought a wife. In any case, a woman in such a family was a prisoner, a slave: she was forced to do the hardest, most menial work. It could happen that the husband sold her again or he acquired several wives for himself. Women were not highly valued in such families. When the owner grew rich, that is, when his flock grew, he needed more strong shepherds and watchmen, which means more sons. On the contrary, the girls who were born were seen as often only a burden, and it happened that they were killed.
In such families, kinship was considered only through the father. The father was here lord, lord. The large family that served under his orders could be equal in strength to the whole village; she could take power over many small families, make them work for herself. Strangers tried to get her patronage and be adopted by the lord. All this combination of relatives by blood, accepted into kinship and subordinates, constituted the genus. The main family stood out in it, in which power passed from father to eldest son. This family was considered noble, causing fear and reverence.
Ancient beliefs and rituals of ancient people
The most ancient people buried the dead near their hearths, in caves, and probably soon forgot about them. The graves of the new stone age occupy special places apart from the house and are laid out very carefully. The skeleton of the buried is often in a sitting position with knees bent to the chin; various things are put in order around. It can be seen that those who buried had certain ideas about life after the grave.
The phenomenon of death struck people the most. It led them to the following thoughts. The man who suffered death, until recently moved, spoke, ate, worked. Now his body lies motionless and cooled. "He's gone," a loved one said to himself: only the dwelling in which "he" lived remained. But in the features of the dead, a resemblance to the living remained. From this it was deduced that the deceased was the double of the being who now remained an immobile body. During life, the double was inside the body; warm breath came from him, he was a "spirit". Therefore, it was thought that the double, or spirit, is like steam and, like steam or wind, easily flies away.
When death occurs, the spirit or soul completely leaves the body. But the spirit can also leave the body temporarily. He wanders during sleep: a dream is what he sees in his wandering while the body lies motionless in place. The spirit also comes out when a person is in a rage, in madness (even now we still say in such cases: "he is beside himself").
The spirit can leave the body, but it cannot live without the body. Having lost his former body, he is looking for another. From a man he can go into a beast, a bird. It is a misfortune to him if there is no shelter, if he must wander for a long time. But then the trouble is also for the close people of the deceased: he will torment them, "strangle" them at night, scare them in a dream during a storm, howl with the wind over the house, etc.
Therefore, it is necessary either to get rid of him, that is, to lock his entrance back into the house, driving him away with noisy cries or cunning deceit, or you need to take care of him, calm him down, that is, let him live again in his former body. To do this, the body should be well buried in the ground or under arches of strong stones. But there, the deceased must be given everything that a person needs in ordinary life, put there tools, dresses, jewelry; it is necessary from time to time to share food and drink with the soul of the deceased, that is, either to carry them to the grave, lay them out and pour them out there, or on special days to separate part of the homemade food, put it outside and remember the deceased at the table. The deceased is laid in a bent position, in which a newborn baby is: because they believe that he will be born again.
Spirits and deities in antiquity
If the deceased was a strong person, for example, the lord of a large family or leader, then his spirit after death received special honor. He was feared now even more than before: he could now fly invisibly; every misfortune was attributed to his anger. This belief is still preserved in the concept of a restless "brownie" who lives in a chimney or under the threshold of a house.
They also thought that the spirit could be attracted and seated in a high stone pillar placed on a grave or at a crossroads. A whole stone house was built for powerful spirits: they must live much longer than living people, therefore, they also need a very strong eternal home.
From huge stones, pushed tightly, standing up to each other, they built a large room, much larger than a residential hut: one of the stone rooms, discovered in our time in Spain, is almost 12 sazhens long and 3 sazhens wide. A roof of heavy stones was laid on top; a long passage led to the door, built of smaller stones, along which one could only crawl through. Such large stone graves are often covered with earth, which rises above them in a mound. The foot of the hill is surrounded by stones around. There are also regular circles of huge sacred stones and entire fields lined with rows and alleys of stone pillars and boulders.
People believed that many spirits were flying around them. These spirits came not only from people. All living things man imagined similar to him. Spirits live in animals, especially in those that seem mysterious to man, such as snakes. But spirits also live in trees, in streams, rivers, and even in stones. These spirits are either good or evil to a person, or help him find something, for example, a hunted game, a path in the forest, a lost thing; then they interfere with him, for example, they knock him out of the way, break an arrow thrown at an animal, drag a person into a pool when he drowns, etc. The disease was explained by the fact that an evil or restless spirit had taken root in a person.
Between the spirits there are stronger deities. People tried to acquire the grace of a deity by some kind of deprivation or torment, for example, refusing to eat more delicious food and even completely renouncing food for several days or inflicting wounds on themselves. They gave him as a sacrifice, that is, to be eaten, the best that they had, a strong bull or a newly born calf. The blood of a slaughtered animal, poured onto the ground, was given to the spirit. They thought that if the spirit drinks the warm blood, that is, the one in which he previously lived, he will come to life again, receive the strength to speak and open himself to living people. When a very great fear attacked people, they were ready to give human blood to the spirit, to kill a captive or even a close relative for him, for example, a father killed his child.
Soothsayers and healers in primitive society
Not everyone knew how to drive away spirits and lure them out from within a person in order to cure him. When misfortune happened, for example, cattle began to fall or a person fell ill, they called a sorcerer, a healer: he shook the patient to shake out the spirit, gave him a special drink, uttered terrible or mysterious words that the spirit is afraid of or which, on the contrary, he likes. When there was a drought, the fortuneteller was called to "make rain", to lure the spirit that lives in the cloud.
If it was not clear where the spirit was sitting, or it was not clear what he needed, the healer began to guess: he threw pebbles and sticks and watched how they lay down; cut the animal and looked at its insides - all these were signs for him, which he alone knew how to interpret. Or the sorcerer himself called the spirit into himself: he deafened himself with the ringing and crackling of a tambourine, galloped wildly, spun until dizzy, fell exhausted and screamed in unconsciousness; his cries were considered to be the speech of the spirit itself. In this way, one could find out what sacrifice should be made in order to please the spirit, one could find out the name of one's secret enemy or the thief who stole the horse, etc.
The healer-sorcerer often himself was a sick person: sometimes he was crazy or suffering from epilepsy. But this illness was considered for the presence of a wise spirit in him. A very smart or gifted person could also become a vedun: a composer of songs, a connoisseur of herbs and flowers; his special mind was taken by those around him for the suggestion of the spirit. A prophetic person could show the way, inspire in battle; he sometimes led the way.
Often the head of the house himself, the father, guessed: he called the household spirit or spirit, neighbor in the place. They believed that the patron spirit of this house lives near the fire that burns in every house. Therefore, the hearth was a holy place. In order not to lose the help of the spirit, a person tried to keep an unquenchable fire on the hearth.
Tales of primitive people
Celestial phenomena also attracted the attention of man. He was amazed by the change of day and night. He was afraid of darkness, the silence of the night, and rejoiced at the brilliance of the sun and the life that woke up with it. He tried to find an explanation for this change of light and darkness and thought that there was a living reason for it: two strong spirits were fighting, a light one, kind to people, and a dark, evil one. Enemies lie in wait for the bright hero, they kill or kidnap him, but he rises again or resurrects and strikes them with sparkling arrows, that is, with his rays he disperses the night. In a thunderstorm, the same struggle seemed to be repeated: the black evil spirit of the cloud does not give up the life-giving moisture that the earth craves, until bright god will not cut the cloud with his spear-lightning.
From these explanations, “living stories were composed, full of action, with happy or sad endings. They expressed the concepts of good and evil; they were the first attempts to find the meaning and connection of things in the world surrounding man.
Charity wall newspaper for schoolchildren, parents and teachers "Briefly and clearly about the most interesting." Issue 90, February 2016.
Wall newspapers of the charitable educational project "Briefly and clearly about the most interesting" (site site) are intended for schoolchildren, parents and teachers of St. Petersburg. They are delivered free of charge to most educational institutions, as well as to a number of hospitals, orphanages and other institutions in the city. The publications of the project do not contain any advertising (only logos of the founders), politically and religiously neutral, written in easy language, well illustrated. They are conceived as an information "slowdown" of students, the awakening of cognitive activity and the desire to read. Authors and publishers, without claiming to be academically complete in the presentation of the material, publish Interesting Facts, illustrations, interviews with famous figures of science and culture and hope to thereby increase the interest of schoolchildren in the educational process. Please send comments and suggestions to: [email protected]
We thank the Department of Education of the Administration of the Kirovsky District of St. Petersburg and everyone who selflessly helps in distributing our wall newspapers. The material of this issue was prepared specifically for our project by the staff of the Kostenki Museum-Reserve (authors: chief researcher Irina Kotlyarova and senior researcher Marina Pushkareva-Lavrentieva). To them is our sincere gratitude.
Dear friends! Our newspaper has more than once accompanied its readers on a "journey to the Stone Age". In this issue, we traced the path that our ancestors took before becoming like you and me. In the issue, they “disassembled the bones” of the misconceptions that have developed around the most interesting topic of the origin of man. In the issue, they discussed the "real estate" of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons. In the issue, we studied mammoths and got acquainted with the unique exhibits of the Zoological Museum. This issue of our wall newspaper was prepared by a team of authors of the Kostenki Museum-Reserve - the "Pearl of the Paleolithic", as archaeologists call it. Thanks to the finds made here, in the Don valley south of Voronezh, our modern idea of the "Stone Age" was largely created.
What is "paleolithic"?
"Kostenki in the past and present". Drawing by Inna Elnikova.
Panorama of the Don valley in Kostenki.
Map of Stone Age sites in Kostenki.
Excavations at the Kostenki 11 site in 1960.
Excavations at the Kostenki 11 site in 2015.
Portrait reconstruction of a man from the Kostenki 2 site. Author M.M. Gerasimov. (donsmaps.com).
A dwelling made of mammoth bones in the museum's exposition.
Currently, many monuments of that era have been discovered all over the world, but one of the most striking and significant are Kostenki, located in the Voronezh region. Archaeologists have long called this monument the "Pearl of the Paleolithic". Now the Kostenki Museum-Reserve has been created here, which is located on the right bank of the Don River and covers an area of about 9 hectares. Scientists have been conducting research on this monument since 1879. Since that time, about 60 ancient sites have been discovered here, belonging to a huge chronological period - from 45 to 18 thousand years ago.
The people who lived then in Kostenki belonged to the same biological species as the modern ones - Homo sapiens sapiens. During this time, humanity has managed to go a grandiose path from small groups of the first Europeans, who had just begun to explore a new continent, to highly developed societies of “mammoth hunters”.
The finds of that era showed that people not only managed to survive in the extreme conditions of the periglacial zone, but also created an expressive culture: they were able to build fairly complex residential structures, make various stone tools and create amazing artistic images. Thanks to the finds in Kostenki, our modern idea of the Stone Age was largely created.
A real fragment of that era - the remains of a dwelling made of mammoth bones, inside which stone and bone tools were found - was conserved under the roof of the museum in Kostenki. This piece, preserved through the efforts of archaeologists and museum workers, ancient life will help us uncover some of the secrets of the Stone Age.
The nature of the ice age
Location map of sites of the era of the maximum Valdai glaciation.
Sedge low - "mammoth grass".
"Landscape of the Ice Age in Kostenki". Figure N.V. Garutt.
Mammoths in the Don Valley. Figure I.A. Nakonechnaya.
Skeleton drawing of Adams' mammoth (Zoological Museum). Found in 1799 in the delta of the Lena River. The age of the find is 36 thousand years.
Taxidermy sculpture of a mammoth in the museum.
"Mammoth Kostik". Drawing by Anya Pevgova.
"Mammoth Styopa". Drawing by Veronica Terekhova.
"Mammoth Hunt". Drawing by Polina Zemtsova.
Mammoth John. Drawing by Kirill Blagodir.
The time to which the main exhibit of the museum belongs - a dwelling made of mammoth bones, can be called the most severe in the last 50 thousand years. Almost the entire north of Europe was covered by a powerful ice sheet, due to which the geographical map of the continent looked somewhat different than it does now. The total length of the glacier was about 12 thousand kilometers, and 9.5 thousand kilometers fell on the territory of the northern part of the modern Russian Federation. The southern border of the glacier passed along the Valdai Upland, because of which this glaciation got its name - Valdai.
The conditions of the periglacial steppes were very different from the modern conditions of the same latitudes. If now the climate of our Earth is characterized by a change of seasons - spring, summer, autumn and winter, each of which is distinguished by special weather conditions, then 20 thousand years ago, most likely, there were two seasons. The warm time was rather short and cool, and the winter was long and very cold - the temperature could drop to 40-45º below zero. In winter, anticyclones lingered over the Don valley for a long time, which provided clear, cloudless weather. The soil did not thaw much even in summer, and the soil remained frozen throughout the year. There was little snow, so the animals could get their own food without much difficulty.
At that time, on the territory of Kostenki there was a completely different zone of vegetation distribution than now. Then it was meadow steppes, combined with rare birch and pine forests. In the river valleys, well protected from the wind and moistened, currants, cornflowers, and touchy grew. It was in the river valleys that small forests were hidden, protected by the slopes of the riverine hills.
One of the plants of the Ice Age has successfully survived to this day - this is a low sedge, which is colloquially called "mammoth grass", since it was a contemporary of this animal. Currently, this unpretentious plant can also be found on the slopes of the Kostenkovo hills.
The animal world of that time was also very different from the modern one. On the Kostenkovka hills and in the river valley one could see herds of primitive bison, reindeer, musk oxen, and Pleistocene horses. The permanent inhabitants of these places were also wolves, hares, arctic foxes, polar owls and partridges. One of the remarkable differences between the animals of the Ice Age and modern ones was their large size. Harsh natural conditions forced animals to acquire powerful fur, fat and a large skeleton to survive.
The "king" of the animal world of that time was the majestic giant - the mammoth, the largest land mammal of the ice age. It was in his honor that the entire fauna of that time began to be called "mammoth".
Mammoths were well adapted to dry, cold climates. These animals were dressed in a warm skin, even the trunk was overgrown with wool, and its ears were ten times smaller in area than those of an African elephant. Mammoths grew up to 3.5-4.5 meters in height, and their weight could be 5-7 tons.
The dental apparatus consisted of six teeth: two tusks and four molars. Tusks were the most characteristic external sign of these animals, especially males. The weight of the tusk of a large hardened male averaged 100-150 kilograms and had a length of 3.5-4 meters. The tusks were used by animals to peel twigs and tree bark, as well as to break ice to get to the water. The molars, located two on the upper and lower jaws, had a grooved surface that helped grind coarse plant foods.
Mammoths could eat from 100 to 200 kilograms of plant food per day. In summer, the animals fed mainly on grass (meadow grasses, sedges), end shoots of shrubs (willows, birches, alders). From constant chewing, the surface of the mammoth's teeth was very much erased, which is why they changed throughout his life. In total, he had six changes of teeth in his life. After the last four teeth fell out, the animal died of old age. Mammoths lived for about 80 years.
These giants disappeared forever from the face of the Earth due to climate change that occurred after the melting of the glacier. Animals began to bog down in numerous swamps and overheat under thick shaggy hair. However, most of the species of the mammoth fauna did not die, but gradually adapted to the changed natural conditions, and some of the animals of that time have safely survived to this day.
Life and occupations of the people of the Stone Age
Scheme of a dwelling with five storage pits. Parking Kostenki 11.
Ancient hunters. Reconstruction by I.A. Nakonechnaya.
The flint tip of a spear or dart. Age - about 28 thousand years.
"The warmth of the hearth." Reconstruction of the dwelling at Kostenki 11 by Nikita Smorodinov.
Work as a wood cutter. Reconstruction.
Scraping a fox skin with a scraper. Reconstruction.
Decorating leather clothes with bone beads. Reconstruction.
Making clothes. Reconstruction by I.A. Nakonechnaya.
Marl animal figurines. Age - 22 thousand years.
Female figurine with decorations.
Schematic representation of a mammoth. Age - 22 thousand years.
Panorama of the museum in the Anosov log of the village of Kostenki.
Some archaeologists believe that mammoths could have disappeared due to the constant hunting of them by primitive people. In fact, at the Kostenki sites of that time, a huge number of mammoth bones are found: about 600 bones of this animal were used to create one ancient house alone! Therefore, people who lived in Kostenki at that time are called "mammoth hunters." And, indeed, the mammoth was a very attractive prey for the people of that time. After all, a successful hunt for him gave almost everything necessary for life: a mountain of meat, which for a long time allowed you to forget about hunting; bones that were used to build houses; skins for insulation of dwellings; fat for indoor lighting; tusks, which were used to make various handicrafts.
Paleolithic man was attached to herds of mammoths: people followed the animals and were always in close proximity to them. They also learned how to defeat this giant beast with the help of battue hunting. It is believed that mammoths were very shy animals and, having heard the sudden cries of hunters who deliberately drove them to the edge of the cliff, they turned into a stampede and fell into a natural trap. A mammoth rolling down a steep hillside broke its limbs, and sometimes its spine, so it was not difficult for hunters to finish off the animal. To hunt mammoths, Stone Age people used spears and darts, the tips of which were made of flint, a stone with sharp cutting edges.
Thanks to the successful hunting of mammoths, people could linger in one place for a long time and live relatively settled. Under severe weather conditions, it was difficult for a person to survive without a warm, comfortable home, so they had to learn how to build them from improvised material - mammoth bones, earth, wooden sticks and poles, animal skins.
In Kostenki, archaeologists distinguish five types of residential buildings, which differ from each other in shape and size. One of them is preserved in the museum building. It is a round house with a diameter of 9 meters with a foundation-basement 60 centimeters high, made of mammoth bones and soil that holds them together. On the equal distance 16 mammoth skulls were dug in from each other along the entire perimeter of the wall-socle, in order to then fix poles in them, forming both the wall of the house and at the same time its roof. The skin of a mammoth was not suitable for sheltering a dwelling, as it was too heavy, so our ancestors chose lighter skins - for example, reindeer.
Inside the house there was a hearth, around which, once in the Stone Age, the whole family gathered to have a meal and ordinary family conversations. They slept right there not far from the hearth on warm animal skins spread on the floor. Apparently, the house also housed a workshop for the manufacture of stone tools - over 900 fragments of small flakes and flint flakes were found on one square meter of the dwelling. The list of tools of that time is very small: these are cutters, scrapers, points, piercings, knives, tips, needles. But with their help, people performed all the necessary operations: they sewed clothes, butchered meat, cut bone and tusk, hunted animals.
Around the ancient house, archaeologists discovered 5 storage pits, which were filled with mammoth bones. Considering the harsh climate and the annual freezing of the ground, the scientists concluded that these pits were used as refrigerators for storing food supplies. At present, exactly the same storage pits are being built by some peoples of the Far North.
During the Ice Age, people worked tirelessly. Men hunted, brought prey to the house, protected their family. Women in the Stone Age played an important role - they were in charge of the household: they guarded the hearth in the house, cooked food, sewed clothes from animal skins. In order to simply survive in the extreme conditions of the periglacial zone, people had to constantly work.
However, the finds of that era showed that people not only knew how to build quite complex dwellings and make various stone tools, but also create amazing artistic images. A real work of art and one of the most striking finds are animal figurines made by an ancient master from dense limestone - marl. All of them depict a herd of mammoths. Moreover, in this herd one can distinguish large and medium-sized individuals, as well as a small mammoth. What were these figurines for? There are several answers to this question. One of the options suggests that it could be some kind of forgotten game like modern checkers. Another is that these were primitive abacuses for counting the number of mammoths. And finally, it could just be children's toys.
Symbol female beauty, motherhood and the continuation of life were the so-called "Upper Paleolithic Venus". In Kostenki, archaeologists have found a whole series of small female figurines. All these figures are very similar: a head bowed down, a huge belly and a chest filled with milk, instead of a face, as a rule, a smooth surface. These are ancient symbols of procreation. One of them was wearing a lot of jewelry: a necklace on her chest and a belt-necklace over her chest, small bracelets on her elbows and wrists. All these are ancient amulets that are designed to "protect" their owner from many problems.
Another enigmatic piece of Ice Age art is a drawing made by an ancient artist on slate. This image was also found by archaeologists in Kostenki. Having carefully examined the drawing, one can easily guess the characteristic silhouette of a mammoth: high withers, strongly lowered back, small ears ... But standing next to with an animal, the ladder makes you wonder: were mammoths domesticated? Or does this drawing reproduce the moment of butchering the carcass of a defeated animal?
Despite the long-term and painstaking work of archaeologists trying to open the veil over the secrets of the Ice Age, a lot remains unclear. Maybe you, dear friend, will become the one who can make an incredible discovery, participate in archaeological excavations and make a unique find. In the meantime, we invite you to the Kostenki Museum-Reserve so that you can see with your own eyes the ancient house made of mammoth bones and learn more about the Stone Age.
Kostenki is one of the oldest known settlements modern man in Europe.
Chief Researcher Irina Kotlyarova and Senior Researcher Marina Pushkareva-Lavrentieva. Museum-reserve "Kostenki".
We are waiting for your feedback, our dear readers! And thank you for being with us.
Stone Age a cultural and historical period in the development of mankind, when the main tools and weapons were made mainly of stone and there was still no metal processing, wood and bone were also used; at a late stage To. the processing of clay, from which dishes were made, also spread. Through the transitional era - the Eneolithic K. c. is replaced by the Bronze Age (See Bronze Age). K. v. coincides with most of the era of the primitive communal system and covers the time from the separation of man from the animal state (about 1 million 800 thousand years ago) and ending with the era of the spread of the first metals (about 8 thousand years ago in the Ancient East and about 6-7 thousand years ago in Europe). K. v. It is divided into the ancient K. v., or Paleolithic, and the new K. v., or Neolithic. The Paleolithic is the era of the existence of fossil man and belongs to that distant time when the climate of the earth and its flora and fauna were quite different from modern ones. Paleolithic people used only chipped stone tools, not knowing polished stone tools and earthenware (ceramics). Paleolithic people were engaged in hunting and gathering food (plants, mollusks, etc.). Fishing was just beginning to emerge, while agriculture and cattle breeding were not known. Neolithic people already lived in modern climatic conditions and surrounded by modern flora and fauna. In the Neolithic, along with chipped, polished and drilled stone tools, as well as pottery, spread. Neolithic people, along with hunting, gathering, fishing, began to engage in primitive hoe farming and breed domestic animals. Between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic, a transitional era is distinguished - the Mesolithic. The Paleolithic is divided into ancient (lower, early) (1 million 800 thousand - 35 thousand years ago) and late (upper) (35-10 thousand years ago). The ancient Paleolithic is divided into archaeological epochs (cultures): pre-Chellenic (see. Galek culture), Shellic culture (see. Shellic culture), Acheulean culture (see. Acheulean culture), and Mousterian culture (see. Mousterian culture). Many archaeologists single out the Mousterian era (100-35 thousand years ago) as a special period - the Middle Paleolithic. The oldest, pre-Shellian stone tools were pebbles chipped at one end, and flakes chipped from such pebbles. The tools of the Shellic and Acheulean eras were hand axes, pieces of stone chipped on both surfaces, thickened at one end and pointed at the other, coarse chopping tools (choppers and choppings), which had a less regular shape than axes, as well as rectangular ax-shaped tools (jibs) and massive flakes that broke off from Nucleus ov (cores). The people who made pre-Chelian-Acheulean tools belonged to the type of archanthropes (See Archanthropes) (Pithecanthropus, Sinanthropus, Heidelberg man), and, possibly, to an even more primitive type (Homo habilis, Prezinjanthropus). People lived in a warm climate, mostly south of 50° north latitude (most of Africa, southern Europe, and southern Asia). In the Mousterian era, stone flakes became thinner, because. they broke off from specially prepared disk-shaped or tortoiseshell nuclei - nuclei (the so-called Levallois technique); flakes were turned into a variety of side-scrapers, pointed points, knives, drills, hems, etc. The use of bone (anvils, retouchers, points), as well as the use of fire, spread; in view of the beginning of a cold snap, people more often began to settle in caves and mastered wider territories. Burials testify to the origin of primitive religious beliefs. The people of the Mousterian era belonged to the paleoanthropes (See Paleoanthropes) (Neanderthals). In Europe, they lived mainly in the harsh climatic conditions of the beginning of the Würm glaciation (see Würm era), were contemporaries of mammoths, woolly rhinos, cave bears. For the ancient Paleolithic, local differences have been established in different cultures, determined by the nature of the tools produced. In the era of the late Paleolithic, a person of the modern physical type developed (neoanthrope (See Neoanthropes), Homo sapiens - Cro-Magnons, a man from Grimaldi, etc.). Late Paleolithic people settled much more widely than the Neanderthals, settled in Siberia, America, Australia. The Late Paleolithic technique is characterized by prismatic cores, from which elongated plates were broken off, turning into scrapers, points, tips, incisors, piercings, scrapers, etc. Awls, needles with an eye, spatulas, picks, and other items made of bone, horn, and mammoth tusk appeared. People began to move to a settled way of life; along with cave camps, long-term dwellings spread - dugouts and ground dwellings, both large communal ones with several hearths, and small ones (Gagarino, Kostenki (See Kostenki), Pushkari, Buret, Malta, Dolni-Vestonice, Pensevan, etc.). In the construction of dwellings, skulls, large bones and mammoth tusks, reindeer horns, wood and skins were used. Dwellings often formed entire villages. The hunting industry has reached a higher level of development. Appeared art, characterized in many cases by striking realism: sculptural images of animals and naked women from mammoth tusk, stone, sometimes clay (Kostenki I, Avdeevskaya site, Gagarino, Dolni-Vestonice, Willendorf, Brassanpuy, etc.), images engraved on bone and stone animals and fish, engraved and painted conditional geometric ornament - zigzag, rhombuses, meander, wavy lines (Mezinskaya site, Prshedmosti, etc.), engraved and painted (monochrome and polychrome) images of animals, sometimes people and conventional signs on the walls and ceilings of caves (Altamira, Lasko, etc.). Paleolithic art, apparently, is partly connected with the female cults of the maternal era, with hunting Magic and Totemism. There were various burials: crouched, sitting, painted, with grave goods. There were several large cultural areas in the Late Paleolithic, as well as a significant number of smaller cultures. For Western Europe, these are the Perigord, Aurignacian, Solutrean, Madeleine and other cultures; for Central Europe - Selet culture, etc. The transition from the Late Paleolithic to the Mesolithic coincided with the final extinction of the glaciation and with the establishment of the modern climate in general. Radiocarbon dating of the European Mesolithic 10-7 thousand years ago (in the northern regions of Europe, the Mesolithic lasted until 6-5 thousand years ago); Mesolithic of the Near East - 12-9 thousand years ago. Mesolithic cultures - Azil culture, Tardenois culture, Maglemose culture, Ertbölle culture, Hoabin culture, etc. The Mesolithic technique of many territories is characterized by the use of microliths - miniature stone tools of geometric outlines (in the form of a trapezoid, segment, triangle), used as inserts in wooden and bone frames, as well as chipped chopping tools: axes, adzes, picks. Bows and arrows spread. The dog, which was tamed, perhaps already in the late Paleolithic, was widely used by people in the Mesolithic. The most important feature of the Neolithic is the transition from the appropriation of finished products of nature (hunting, fishing, gathering) to the production of vital products, although appropriation continued to occupy a large place in the economic activity of people. People began to cultivate plants, cattle breeding arose. The decisive changes in the economy that occurred with the transition to pastoralism and agriculture are called by some researchers the "Neolithic Revolution". The defining elements of the Neolithic culture were earthenware (ceramics), molded by hand, without a potter's wheel, stone axes, hammers, adzes, chisels, hoes (their production used sawing, grinding and drilling of stone), flint daggers, knives, arrowheads and spears, sickles (made by pressing retouching), microliths and chopping tools that arose back in the Mesolithic, all kinds of products made of bone and horn (fish hooks, harpoons, hoe tips, chisels), and wood (hollowed canoes, oars, skis, sledges , handles of various kinds). Flint workshops spread, and at the end of the Neolithic - even mines for the extraction of flint and, in connection with this, intertribal exchange of raw materials. Primitive spinning and weaving arose. Characteristic manifestations of Neolithic art are a variety of indented and painted ornaments on ceramics, clay, bone, stone figurines of people and animals, monumental painted, incised and hollowed out rock carvings (paintings, petroglyphs). The funeral rite becomes more complex; cemeteries are being built. The uneven development of culture and its local originality in different territories intensified even more in the Neolithic. There is a large number of different Neolithic cultures. Tribes different countries at different times passed through the Neolithic stage. Most of the Neolithic monuments of Europe and Asia date back to the 6th-3rd millennium BC. e. Neolithic culture developed most rapidly in the countries of the Middle East, where agriculture and livestock rearing first arose. People who widely practiced the collection of wild cereals and, possibly, made attempts to grow them artificially, belong to the Natufian culture of Palestine, dating back to the Mesolithic (9-8th millennium BC). Along with microliths, sickles with flint inserts and stone mortars are found here. In the 9th-8th millennium BC. e. primitive agriculture and cattle breeding also originated in the North. Iraq. By the 7th-6th millennium BC. e. include the settled agricultural settlements of Jericho in Jordan, Jarmo in northern Iraq, and Chatal Huyuk in southern Turkey. They are characterized by the appearance of sanctuaries, fortifications and often of considerable size. In the 6th-5th millennium BC. e. in Iraq and Iran, more developed Neolithic agricultural cultures with adobe houses, painted pottery, and female figurines are common. In the 5th-4th millennium BC. e. agricultural tribes of the advanced Neolithic inhabited Egypt. The progress of Neolithic culture in Europe proceeded on a local basis, but under the strong influence of the cultures of the Mediterranean and the Near East, from which, probably, the most important cultivated plants and some species of domestic animals penetrated into Europe. On the territory of England and France in the Neolithic and early Bronze Age, agricultural pastoral tribes lived, constructing megalithic structures (see Megalithic cultures, Megaliths) from huge blocks of stone. The Neolithic and Early Bronze Age of Switzerland and the adjacent territories are characterized by a wide distribution of piled buildings (see Pile Buildings), whose inhabitants were mainly engaged in cattle breeding and agriculture, as well as hunting and fishing. In Central Europe, the Danube agricultural cultures took shape in the Neolithic, with characteristic ceramics decorated with ribbon ornaments. In northern Scandinavia at the same time and later, up to the 2nd millennium BC. e., lived tribes of Neolithic hunters and fishermen. K. v. on the territory of the USSR. The oldest reliable monuments of the K. century. belong to the Acheulean time and date back to the era preceding the Rissky (Dnieper) glaciation (see Rissky Age). They are found in the Caucasus, in the Azov region, Transnistria, Central Asia and Kazakhstan; flakes, hand axes, choppers (rough chopping tools) were found in them. In the caves of Kudaro, Tsonskaya and Azikhskaya in the Caucasus, the remains of hunting camps of the Acheulian era were discovered. The sites of the Mousterian era are spread further to the north. In the grotto of Kiik-Koba in the Crimea and in the grotto of Teshik-Tash in Uzbekistan, burials of Neanderthals were discovered, and in the grotto of Staroselye in the Crimea - a burial of a neoanthrope. In the site of Molodova I on the Dniester, the remains of a long-term Mousterian dwelling were discovered. The Late Paleolithic population on the territory of the USSR was even more widespread. The successive stages of the development of the Late Paleolithic in different parts USSR, as well as Late Paleolithic cultures: Kostenkovsko-Sungirskaya, Kostenkovsko-Avdeevskaya, Mezinskaya, etc. on the Russian Plain, Maltese, Afontovskaya, etc. in Siberia, etc. A large number of multi-layer Late Paleolithic settlements have been excavated on the Dniester (Babin, Voronovitsa, Molodova V, etc.). Another area where many Late Paleolithic settlements are known with the remains of dwellings of various types and examples of art is the Desna and Sudost basin (Mezin, Pushkari, Eliseevichi, Yudinovo, etc.). The third such area is the villages of Kostenki and Borshevo on the Don, where more than 20 Late Paleolithic sites have been found, including a number of multi-layer sites, with the remains of dwellings, many works of art and 4 burials. The Sungir site on the Klyazma is located separately, where several burials were found. The northernmost Paleolithic sites in the world include the Bear Cave and the Byzovaya site. R. Pechora (Komi ASSR). Kapova Cave in the Southern Urals contains painted images of mammoths on the walls. The caves of Georgia and Azerbaijan allow us to trace the development of the Late Paleolithic culture, different from that on the Russian Plain, through a series of stages - from the sites of the beginning of the Late Paleolithic, where Mousterian points are still present in a significant number, to the sites of the late Late Paleolithic, where many microliths are found. The most important Late Paleolithic settlement in Central Asia is the Samarkand site. In Siberia, a large number of Late Paleolithic sites are known on the Yenisei (Afontova Gora, Kokorevo), in the Angara and Belaya basins (Malta, Buret), in Transbaikalia, in Altai. The Late Paleolithic was discovered in the Lena, Aldan and Kamchatka basins. The Neolithic is represented by numerous cultures. Some of them belong to ancient agricultural tribes, and some belong to primitive fishermen-hunters. The agricultural Neolithic includes monuments of the Bug and other cultures of the Right-Bank Ukraine and Moldavia (5th-3rd millennium BC), settlements of Transcaucasia (Shulaveri, Odishi, Kistrik, etc.), as well as settlements of the Jeytun type in South Turkmenistan, reminiscent of the settlements of the Neolithic farmers of Iran. Cultures of Neolithic hunters and fishermen of the 5th-3rd millennium BC. e. also existed in the south, in the Sea of Azov, in the North Caucasus, and in Central Asia (the Kelteminar culture); but they were especially widespread in the 4th-2nd millennium BC. e. in the north, in the forest belt from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean. Numerous Neolithic hunting and fishing cultures, most of which are characterized by certain types of pottery decorated with pit-comb and comb-pricked patterns, are represented along the shores of Lake Ladoga and Onega and the White Sea (here, in some places, rock art related to these cultures is also found). images, petroglyphs), on the upper Volga and in the Volga-Oka interfluve. In the Kama region, in the forest-steppe Ukraine, in Western and Eastern Siberia among the Neolithic tribes, ceramics with comb-pricked and comb patterns were common. Other types of Neolithic pottery were common in Primorye and Sakhalin. History of studying K. in. The conjecture that the era of the use of metals was preceded by a time when stones served as weapons was expressed by Lucretius Car in the 1st century. BC e. In 1836 dates. archaeologist K. Yu. Thomsen singled out 3 cultural-historical epochs on the basis of archaeological material (K. century, Bronze Age, Iron Age). The existence of a Paleolithic fossil man proved in the 40-50s. 19th century in the struggle against reactionary clerical science, the French archaeologist Boucher de Perth. In the 60s. the English scientist J. Lubbock dismembered the C. v. on the Paleolithic and Neolithic, and the French archaeologist G. de Mortillet created generalizing works on the K. century. and developed a more fractional periodization (the eras of the Shellic, Mousterian, etc.). By the 2nd half of the 19th century. include studies of Mesolithic kitchen piles in Denmark, Neolithic pile settlements in Switzerland, and numerous Paleolithic and Neolithic caves and sites in Europe and Asia. At the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. Paleolithic painted images were discovered in the caves of southern France and northern Spain. In the 2nd half of the 19th century. studying To. was closely associated with Darwinian ideas (see Darwinism), with progressive, albeit historically limited, evolutionism. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. and in the first half of the 20th century. in the bourgeois science of k. (primitive archeology, prehistory, and paleoethnology), the methodology of archaeological work has been substantially improved; vast new factual material has been accumulated that does not fit into the framework of the old simplified schemes; At the same time, ahistorical constructions connected with the theory of cultural circles, with the theory of migrations, and sometimes directly with reactionary racism, became widespread. Progressive bourgeois scientists who sought to trace the development primitive humanity and its economy as a natural process, opposed these reactionary concepts. A serious achievement of foreign researchers of the 1st half and the middle of the 20th century. is the creation of a number of generalizing guides, reference books and encyclopedias on K. century. Europe, Asia, Africa and America (French scientist J. Dechelet, German - M. Ebert, English - J. Clark, G. Child, R. Vofrey, H. M. Warmington, etc.), the elimination of extensive white spots on archaeological maps, the discovery and study of numerous monuments of K. v. in European countries (Czech. scientists K. Absolon, B. Klima, F. Proshek, I. Neusstupni, Hungarian - L. Vertes, Romanian - K. Nikolaescu-Plopshor, Yugoslav - S. Brodar, A. Benac, Polish - L Savitsky, S. Krukovsky, German - A. Rust, Spanish - L. Perikot-Garcia, etc.), in Africa (English scientist L. Leakey, French - K. Arambur, etc.), in the Middle East (English scientists D. Garrod, J. Mellart, C. Kenyon, American scientists - R. Braidwood, R. Soletsky, etc.), in India (H. D. Sankalia, B. B. Lal, etc.), in China (Jia Lan-po, Pei Wen-chung, and others), in Southeast Asia (the French scientist A. Manxui, the Dutch - H. van Heckeren, and others), in America (the American scientists A. Kroeber, F. Rainey, and others .). The technique of excavations has improved significantly, the publication of archaeological sites has increased, and a comprehensive study of ancient settlements by archaeologists, geologists, paleozoologists, and paleobotanists has spread. The radiocarbon dating method and the statistical method of studying stone tools began to be widely used; (French scientists A, Breuil, A. Leroy-Gourhan, Italian - P. Graziosi and others). In Russia, a number of Paleolithic and Neolithic sites were studied in the 70-90s. 19th century A. S. Uvarov, I. S. Polyakov, K. S. Merezhkovsky, V. B. Antonovich, V. V. Khvoyka, and others. The first two decades of the 20th century. The excavations of Paleolithic and Neolithic settlements by V. A. Gorodtsov, A. A. Spitsyn, F. K. Volkov, and P. P. Efimenko and others. After the October Socialist Revolution, research by K. v. gained wide scope in the USSR. By 1917, 12 Paleolithic sites were known in the country, in the early 1970s. their number exceeded 1000. Paleolithic sites were first discovered in Belarus (K. M. Polikarpovich), in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia (G. K. Nioradze, S. N. Zamyatnin, M. Z. Panichkina, M. M. Huseynov, L. N. Solovyov and others), in Central Asia (A. P. Okladnikov, D. N. Lev, V. A. Ranov, Kh. A. Alpysbaev and others), in the Urals (M. V. Talitsky and etc.). Numerous new Paleolithic sites have been discovered and explored in the Crimea, on the Russian Plain, and in Siberia (P. P. Efimenko, M. V. Voevodsky, G. A. Bonch-Osmolovsky, M. Ya. Rudinsky, G. P. Sosnovsky, A. P. Okladnikov, M. M. Gerasimov, S. N. Bibikov, A. P. Chernysh, A. N. Rogachev, O. N. Bader, A. A. Formozov, I. G. Shovkoplyas, P. I Boriskovsky and others), in Georgia (N. Z. Berdzenishvili, A. N. Kalandadze, D. M. Tushabramishvili, V. P. Lyubin and others). The most sowing are open. Paleolithic sites in the world: on the Pechora, Lena, in the Aldan basin and on Kamchatka (V. I. Kanivets, N. N. Dikov, and others). A methodology has been developed for excavating Paleolithic settlements, which made it possible to establish the existence of settled and permanent dwellings in the Paleolithic. A method for restoring the functions of primitive tools based on the traces of their use, traceology (S. A. Semenov) was developed. The historical changes that took place in the Paleolithic were covered - the development of the primitive herd and the maternal tribal system. Late Paleolithic and Mesolithic cultures and their relationships are revealed. Numerous monuments of Paleolithic art have been discovered and generalizing works dedicated to them have been created (S. N. Zamyatnin, Z. A. Abramova, and others). Generalizing works have been created on the chronology, periodization and historical coverage of Neolithic monuments in a number of territories, the identification of Neolithic cultures and their relationships, the development of Neolithic technology (V. A. Gorodtsov, B. S. Zhukov, M. V. Voevodsky, A. Ya. Bryusov , M. E. Foss, A. P. Okladnikov, V. N. Chernetsov, N. N. Gurina, O. N. Bader, D. A. Krainev, V. N. Danilenko, D. Ya. Telegin, V M. Masson and others). The monuments of Neolithic monumental art - rock carvings of S.-Z. USSR, Sea of Azov and Siberia (V. I. Ravdonikas, M. Ya. Rudinsky and others). Soviet researchers K. century. Much work has been done to expose the ahistorical concepts of reactionary bourgeois scientists, to illuminate and decipher the monuments of the Paleolithic and Neolithic. Armed with the methodology of dialectical and historical materialism, they criticized the attempts of many bourgeois scholars (especially in France) to attribute the study of calisthenics to to the field of natural sciences, to consider the development of the culture of K. in. like a biological process, or construct for the study of K. century. a special science of "paleoethnology", which occupies an intermediate position between the biological and social sciences. At the same time, owls researchers oppose the empiricism of those bourgeois archaeologists who reduce the tasks of studying Paleolithic and Neolithic monuments only to a thorough description and definition of things and their groups, and also ignore the conditionality of the historical process, the natural connection between material culture and social relations, their consistent natural development. For owls. researchers monuments to. - not an end in itself, but a source of study of the early stages of the history of the primitive communal system. They are particularly uncompromising in their struggle against the bourgeois idealistic and racist theories that are widespread among specialists in classical art. in the USA, Great Britain, and a number of other capitalist countries. These theories erroneously interpret and sometimes even falsify the data of the archeology of the K. v. for statements about the division of peoples into elected and unelected, about the inevitable eternal backwardness of certain countries and peoples, about the beneficence in human history of conquests and wars. Soviet researchers K. v. showed that the early stages of world history and the history of primitive culture were a process in which all peoples, large and small, participated and contributed. Lit.: Engels F., Origin of the family, private property and the state, M., 1965; his, The role of labor in the process of turning a monkey into a man, M., 1969; Abramova Z. A., Paleolithic art on the territory of the USSR, M. - L., 1962; Aliman A., Prehistoric Africa, trans. from French, Moscow, 1960; Coastal N. A., Paleolithic locations of the USSR, M. - L., 1960; Bonch-Osmolovsky G. A., Paleolithic of the Crimea, c. 1-3, M. - L., 1940-54; Boriskovsky P. I., Paleolithic of Ukraine, M. - L., 1953; his, Ancient Stone Age of South and Southeast Asia, L., 1971; Bryusov A. Ya., Essays on the history of the tribes of the European part of the USSR in the Neolithic era, M., 1952; Gurina N. N., Ancient history of the north-west of the European part of the USSR, M. - L., 1961; Danilenko V.N., Neolit of Ukraine, K., 1969; Efimenko P.P., Primitive society, 3rd ed., K., 1953; Zamyatnin S. N., Essays on the Paleolithic, M. - L., 1961; Clark, J.G.D., Prehistoric Europe, [trans. from English], M., 1953; Masson V. M., Central Asia and the Ancient East, M. - L., 1964; Okladnikov A.P., Neolithic and Bronze Age of the Baikal region, part 1-2, M. - L., 1950; his, Distant Past of Primorye, Vladivostok, 1959; his own, Morning of Art, L., 1967; Panichkina M. Z., Paleolith of Armenia, L., 1950; Ranov V.A., Stone Age of Tajikistan, c. 1, Dush., 1965; Semenov S. A., Development of technology in the Stone Age, L., 1968; Titov V.S., Neolit of Greece, M., 1969; Formozov A. A., Ethnocultural regions in the territory of the European part of the USSR in the Stone Age, M., 1,959; his own, Essays on primitive art, M., 1969 (MIA, No. 165); Foss M. E., ancient history north of the European part of the USSR, Moscow, 1952; Child G., At the Beginnings European civilization, per. from English, M., 1952; Bordes, F., Le paleolithique dans ie monde, P., 1968; Breuil N., Quatre cents siècles d "art pariétal, Montignac, 1952; Clark JD, The prehistory of Africa, L., 1970: Clark G., World L., prehistory, 2 ed., Camb., 1969; L" Europe à la fin de l "âge de la pierre, Praha, 1961; Graziosi P., Palaeolithic art, L., 1960; Leroi-Gourhan A., Préhistoire de l" art occidental, P., 1965; La prehistory. P., 1966; La prehistoire. Problems et tendances, P., 1968; Man the hunter, Chi., 1968; Müller-Karpe H., Handbuch der Vorgeschichte, Bd 1-2, Münch., 1966-68; Oakley, K. P., Frameworks for dating fossil man. 3 ed., L., 1969. P. I. Boriskovsky. Mousterian era: 1 - Levallois core; 2 - leaf-shaped point; 3 - teyak point; 4 - discoid nucleus; 5, 6 - points; 7 - two-pointed tip; 8 - toothed tool; 9 - scraper; 10 - chopped; 11 - a knife with a butt; 12 - a tool with a notch; 13 - puncture; 14 - scraper type kina; 15 - double scraper; 16, 17 - longitudinal scrapers. Paleolithic sites and finds of bone remains of fossil man in Europe.
The history of human life on the planet began when man picked up a tool and applied his mind to survive. During its existence, humanity has gone through several major stages in the development of its social system. Each era is characterized by its own way of life, artifacts and tools.
History of the Stone Age- the longest and oldest of the pages of mankind known to us, which is characterized by fundamental changes in the worldview and lifestyle of people.
Stone Age Features:
- humanity has spread all over the planet;
- all tools of labor were created by people from what the surrounding world provided: wood, stones, various parts of dead animals (bones, skins);
- the formation of the first social and economic structures of society;
- the beginning of the domestication of animals.
Historical chronology of the Stone Age
It is hard for a person in a world where the iPhone becomes obsolete in a month to understand how people have used the same primitive tools for centuries and millennia. The Stone Age is the longest era known to us. Its beginning is attributed to the emergence of the first people about 3 million years ago and it lasts until people invented ways to use metals.
Rice. 1 - Chronology of the Stone Age
Archaeologists divide the history of the Stone Age into several main stages, which are worth considering in more detail. It is important to note that the dates of each period are very approximate and controversial, therefore they may vary in different sources.
Paleolithic
During this period, people lived together in small tribes and used stone tools. The source of food for them was the gathering of plants and the hunting of wild animals. At the end of the Paleolithic, the first religious beliefs in the forces of nature (paganism) appeared. Also, the end of this period is characterized by the appearance of the first works of art (dances, songs and drawing). Most likely, primitive art stemmed from religious rites.
The climate, which was characterized by changes in temperature, from the ice age to warming and vice versa, had a great influence on humanity at that time. The unstable climate managed to change several times.
Mesolithic
The beginning of that period is associated with the final retreat of the ice age, which led to adaptation to new living conditions. The weapons used have greatly improved: from massive tools to miniature microliths, which have made everyday life easier. This also includes the domestication of dogs by humans.
Neolithic
The new stone age was a big step in the development of mankind. During this time, people have learned not only to extract, but also to grow food, while using improved tools for cultivating the land, harvesting and cutting meat.
For the first time, people began to unite in large groups to create significant stone buildings, such as Stonehenge. This indicates a sufficient amount of resources and the ability to negotiate. The emergence of trade between different settlements also testifies in favor of the latter.
The Stone Age is a long and primitive period of human existence. But it was this period that became the cradle in which man learned to think and create.
In details stone age history considered in lecture courses below.
