The Stone Age is divided into. The main periods of primitive society. Middle Paleolithic: material culture of people. main parking areas

Today very little is known about our ancestors who lived in the Stone Age. For a long time it was believed that these people were cave dwellers who walked with a club. But modern scientists are confident that the Stone Age is a huge period of history that began approximately 3.3 million years ago and lasted until 3300 AD. – that was not entirely true.

1. Homo Erectus Tool Factory

Hundreds of ancient stone tools have been found during excavations in northeast Tel Aviv, Israel. The artifacts discovered in 2017 at a depth of 5 meters were made by human ancestors. Created about half a million years ago, the tools reveal several facts about their creators, the human ancestor known as Homo erectus. It is believed that the area was a kind of Stone Age paradise - there were rivers, plants and abundant food - everything necessary for subsistence.

The most interesting discovery of this primitive camp was the quarries. Masons chipped flint edges into pear-shaped ax blades, which were probably used for digging up food and butchering animals. The discovery was unexpected due to the huge number of perfectly preserved instruments. This makes it possible to learn more about the lifestyle of Homo erectus.

2. First wine

At the end of the Stone Age, the first wine began to be made on the territory of modern Georgia. In 2016 and 2017, archaeologists unearthed ceramic shards dating from 5400 to 5000 BC. Fragments of clay jugs discovered in two ancient Neolithic settlements (Gadahrili Gora and Shulaveri Gora) were analyzed, as a result of which tartaric acid was found in six vessels.

This chemical is always an indisputable sign that there was wine in the vessels. Scientists also discovered that grape juice fermented naturally in Georgia's warm climate. To find out whether red or white wine was preferred at the time, the researchers analyzed the color of the remains. They were yellowish, which suggests that the ancient Georgians produced white wine.

3. Dental procedures

In the mountains of northern Tuscany, dentists served patients 13,000 to 12,740 years ago. Evidence of six such primitive patients was found in an area called Riparo Fredian. Two of the teeth showed signs of a procedure that any modern dentist would recognize - filling a cavity in a tooth. It is difficult to say whether any painkillers were used, but marks on the enamel were left by some kind of sharp instrument.

Most likely, it was made of stone, which was used to expand the cavity by scraping off the decayed tooth tissue. In the next tooth they also found a familiar technology - the remains of a filling. It was made from bitumen mixed with plant fibers and hair. While the use of bitumen (a natural resin) is clear, why they added hair and fiber is a mystery.

4. Long-term home maintenance

Most children are taught in schools that Stone Age families only lived in caves. However, they also built mud houses. Recently, 150 Stone Age camps were studied in Norway. Stone rings showed that the earliest habitation was tents, probably made from animal skins held together by rings. In Norway, during the Mesolithic era, which began around 9500 BC, people began to build dugout houses.

This change occurred when the last ice of the Ice Age disappeared. Some “half-dugouts” were quite large (about 40 square meters), which suggests that several families lived in them. The most incredible thing is the consistent attempts to preserve the structures. Some were abandoned for 50 years before new owners stopped maintaining the houses.

5. Massacre at Nataruk

Stone Age cultures created fascinating examples of art and social relationships, but they also fought wars. In one case it was simply a senseless massacre. In 2012, in Nataruka in northern Kenya, a team of scientists discovered bones sticking out of the ground. It turned out that the skeleton had broken knees. After clearing the sand from the bones, scientists discovered that they belonged to a pregnant Stone Age woman. Despite her condition, she was killed. About 10,000 years ago, someone tied her up and threw her into the lagoon.

The remains of 27 other people were found nearby, most likely including 6 children and several more women. Most of the remains showed signs of violence, including injuries, fractures and even pieces of weapons embedded in the bones. It is impossible to say why the hunter-gatherer group was exterminated, but it may have been the result of a dispute over resources. During this time, Nataruk was a lush and fertile land with fresh water - an invaluable place for any tribe. Whatever happened that day, the massacre at Nataruk remains the oldest evidence of human warfare.

6. Inbreeding

It is possible that what saved humans as a species was an early awareness of inbreeding. In 2017, scientists discovered the first signs of this understanding in the bones of Stone Age people. In Sungir, east of Moscow, four skeletons of people who died 34,000 years ago were found. Genetic analysis showed that they behaved like modern hunter-gatherer societies when it came to choosing mates. They realized that having offspring with close relatives such as siblings had consequences. In Sungir there were clearly almost no marriages within the same family.

If people mated at random, the genetic consequences of inbreeding would be more obvious. Like later hunter-gatherers, they must have sought mates through social connections with other tribes. Sungir burials were accompanied by sufficiently complex rituals to suggest that important life milestones (such as death and marriage) were accompanied by ceremonies. If this is true, then Stone Age weddings would be the earliest human marriages. A lack of understanding of kinship connections may have doomed Neanderthals, whose DNA shows more inbreeding.

7. Women from other cultures

In 2017, researchers studied ancient dwellings in Lechtal, Germany. They date back about 4,000 years to a time when there were no major settlements in the area. When the remains of the inhabitants were examined, an amazing tradition was discovered. Most of the families were founded by women who left their villages to settle in Lekhtala. This happened from the late Stone Age to the early Bronze Age.

For eight centuries, women, probably from Bohemia or Central Germany, preferred Lechtal's men. Such movements by women were key to the spread of cultural ideas and objects, which in turn helped shape new technologies. The discovery also showed that previous beliefs about mass migration need to be adjusted. Despite the fact that women moved to Lechtal many times, this happened purely on an individual basis.

8. Written language

Researchers may have discovered the world's oldest written language. It could actually be code representing certain concepts. Historians have long known about the Stone Age symbols, but for many years they ignored them, despite the fact that the caves with rock paintings are visited by countless visitors. Examples of some of the most incredible rock inscriptions in the world have been found in caves in Spain and France. Hidden between ancient images of bison, horses and lions were tiny symbols representing something abstract.

Twenty-six signs are repeated on the walls of about 200 caves. If they serve to convey some kind of information, this “pushes back” the invention of writing back 30,000 years. However, the roots of ancient writing may be even older. Many of the symbols drawn by Cro-Magnons in French caves have been found in ancient African art. Specifically, it is an open corner sign engraved in Blombos Cave in South Africa, which dates back 75,000 years.

9. Plague

By the time the bacterium Yersinia pestis reached Europe in the 14th century, 30-60 percent of the population was already dead. Ancient skeletons examined in 2017 showed that the plague appeared in Europe during the Stone Age. Six late Neolithic and Bronze Age skeletons tested positive for plague. The disease has affected a wide geographical area, from Lithuania, Estonia and Russia to Germany and Croatia. Given the different locations and two eras, the researchers were surprised when the genomes of Yersinia pestis (plague bacillus) were compared.

Further research showed that the bacterium likely arrived from the east as people settled out of the Caspian-Pontic steppe (Russia and Ukraine). Arriving about 4,800 years ago, they brought with them a unique genetic marker. This marker appeared in European remains at the same time as the earliest traces of plague, suggesting that steppe people brought the disease with them. It is unknown how deadly the plague was in those days, but it is possible that the steppe migrants left their homes due to the epidemic.

10. Musical evolution of the brain

It was previously thought that Early Stone Age tools evolved along with language. But a revolutionary change - from simple to complex tools - occurred about 1.75 million years ago. Scientists are not sure whether language existed then. An experiment was conducted in 2017. The volunteers were shown how to make the simplest tools (from bark and pebbles) as well as the more “advanced” hand axes of the Acheulean culture. One group watched the video with sound, and the second without.

While the experiment participants slept, their brain activity was analyzed in real time. The scientists found that the "leap" in knowledge was not related to language. The brain's language center was activated only in people who heard the video instructions, but both groups successfully made Acheulean tools. This could solve the mystery of when and how the human species moved from ape-like thinking to cognition. Many believe that music first emerged 1.75 million years ago, at the same time as human intelligence.

Of undoubted interest to everyone who studies history,
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The Stone Age lasted approximately 3.4 million years and ended between 8700 BC. and 2000 B.C. with the advent of metalworking.
The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, point, or percussion surface. The Stone Age lasted approximately 3.4 million years. One of the most important advances in human history has been the development and use of tools. Tools made of bone were also used during this period, but are rarely preserved in the archaeological record. The first tools were made of stone. Thus, historians refer to the time period before written history as the Stone Age. Historians divide the Stone Age into three different periods based on sophistication and tool design techniques. The first period is called the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age.

People in the Mesolithic period were shorter than they are today. The average height for a woman was 154 cm and for a man 166 cm. On average, people lived to be 35 years old and were more well built than today. Traces of powerful muscles are visible on their bones. Physical activity has been a part of their lives since childhood, and as a result they have developed powerful muscles. But otherwise they were no different from today's population. We probably wouldn't notice a Stone Age man if he were dressed in modern clothes and walking down the street! An expert may recognize that the skull was a little heavier or the jaw muscles were well developed due to a rough diet.
The Stone Age is further subdivided into the types of stone tools used. The Stone Age is the first period in the three-stage system of archaeology, which divides human technological prehistory into three periods:


Iron Age
The Stone Age is contemporaneous with the evolution of the genus Homo, with the only exception perhaps being the Early Stone Age, when species before Homo were able to make tools.
The initial period of development of civilization is called primitive society. The emergence and development of the primitive communal system is associated with:
1) with natural geographical conditions;
2) with the presence of natural reserves.
Most of the remains of ancient people were discovered in East Africa (in Kenya and Tanzania). Skulls and bones found here prove that the first people lived here more than two million years ago.
There were favorable conditions for people to settle here:
– natural supplies of drinking water;
– wealth of flora and fauna;
– presence of natural caves.

Stone Age in archeology

Definition 1

The Stone Age is a vast period of human development that precedes the Metal Age.

Because humanity has developed unevenly, the time frame of the era is controversial. Some cultures used stone tools extensively even during the Metal Age.

Various types of stone were used to make stone tools. Flint and limestone shales were used for cutting tools and weapons, and working tools were made from basalt and sandstone. Wood, deer antler, bones, and shells were also widely used.

Note 1

During this period, the human habitat expanded significantly. By the end of the era, some species of wild animals were domesticated. Since humanity did not yet have writing in the Stone Age, it is often called the prehistoric period.

The beginning of the period is associated with the first hominids in Africa, who figured out how to use stone to solve everyday problems about 3 million years ago. Most australopithecines did not use stone tools, but their culture is also studied within this period.

Research is carried out on the basis of stone finds, since they have reached our time. There is a branch of experimental archeology that deals with the restoration of dilapidated tools or the creation of copies.

Periodization

Paleolithic

Definition 2

The Paleolithic is a period in the ancient history of mankind from the moment of the separation of man from the animal world and until the final retreat of the glaciers.

The Paleolithic began 2.5 million years ago and ended around 10 thousand years BC. e.. In the Paleolithic era, man began to use stone tools in his life, and then engage in agriculture.

People lived in small communities and engaged in gathering and hunting. In addition to stone tools, wood and bone tools, as well as leather and plant fibers, were used, but they could not survive to this day. During the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, the first works of art began to be created and religious and spiritual rituals arose. Glacial and interglacial periods succeeded each other.

Early Paleolithic

The ancestors of modern humans, Homo habilis, began the first use of stone tools. These were primitive tools called cleavers. They were used as axes and stone cores. The first stone tools were found in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, which gives the archaeological culture its name. Hunting was not yet widespread, and people ate mainly the meat of dead animals and by collecting wild plants. Homo erectus, a more advanced species of man, appears about 1.5 million years ago, and 500 thousand years later, man colonizes Europe and begins to use stone axes.

Early Paleolithic cultures:

• Olduvai culture;
• Acheulean culture;
• Abbeville culture;
• Altasheilen culture;
• Zhungasheilen culture;
• Spatasheilen culture.

Middle Paleolithic

The Middle Paleolithic began about 200 thousand years ago and is the most studied era. The most famous finds of Neanderthals living at that time belong to the Mousterian culture. Despite the general primitiveness of Neanderthal culture, there is reason to believe that they honored the elderly and practiced tribal burial rituals, which demonstrates the predominance of abstract thinking. The range of people during this period expanded into previously undeveloped territories such as Australia and Oceania.

Over a certain period of time (35-45 thousand years), the coexistence and enmity of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons continued. At their sites, gnawed bones of another species were found.

Middle Paleolithic cultures:

• Micoq culture;
• Mousterian culture;
• Blatspizen group of cultures;
• Aterian culture;
• Ibero-Moorish culture.

Upper Paleolithic

The last ice age ended about 35-10 thousand years ago and then modern people settled throughout the Earth. After the first modern humans arrived in Europe, their cultures grew rapidly.

Through the Bering Isthmus, which existed before the rise in sea levels, people colonized North and South America. The Paleo-Indians allegedly formed into an independent culture about 13.5 thousand years ago. The planet as a whole had widespread communities of hunter-gatherers who used different types of stone tools depending on the region.

Some of the Upper Paleolithic cultures:

• France and Spain;
• Chatelperonian culture;
• Gravettian culture;
• Solutrean culture;
• Madeleine culture;
• Hamburg culture;
• Federmesser group of crops;
• Bromm culture;
• Arensburg culture;
• Hamburg culture;
• Lingbin culture;
• Clovis culture.

Mesolithic

Definition 3

Mesolithic (X-VI millennium BC) – the period between the Paleolithic and Neolithic.

The beginning of the period is associated with the end of the last ice age, and the end is associated with rising sea levels, which changed the environment and forced people to look for new sources of food. This period was characterized by the appearance of microliths - miniature stone tools, which significantly expanded the possibilities of using stone in everyday life. Thanks to microlithic tools, hunting efficiency has significantly increased and more productive fishing has become possible.

Some of the Mesolithic cultures:

• Buren culture;
• Dufensee culture;
• Oldesroer Group;
• Maglemose culture;
• Guden culture;
• Klosterlind culture;
• Congemose culture;
• Vosna-Hensback culture;
• Culture of Komsa;
• Sovter culture;
• Azilian culture;
• Asturian culture;
• Natufian culture;
• Capsian culture.

Neolithic

During the Neolithic Revolution, agriculture and pastoralism appeared, pottery developed, and the first large settlements were founded, such as Çatalhöyük and Jericho. The first Neolithic cultures began around 7000 BC. e. in the “fertile crescent” zone: the Mediterranean, the Indus Valley, China and the countries of Southeast Asia.

The increase in human population led to an increase in the need for plant foods, which gave impetus to the rapid development of agriculture. For agricultural work, stone tools began to be used when cultivating the soil, as well as when harvesting crops. Large stone structures, such as the towers and walls of Jericho or Stonehenge, demonstrate the emergence of significant human resources and forms of cooperation between large groups of people. Although most Neolithic tribes were relatively simple and had no elite, in general there were noticeably more hierarchical societies in Neolithic cultures than in previous Paleolithic hunter-gatherer cultures. During the Neolithic era, regular trade appeared between various settlements. The site of Skara Brae in Orkney is one of the finest examples of a Neolithic village. It used stone beds, shelves and even separate rooms for toilets.

Some Neolithic cultures:

• Linear-band ceramics;
• Notched ceramics;
• Ertebel culture;
• Rössen culture;
• Culture Michel Berger;
• Funnel Beaker Culture;
• Globular Amphora Culture;
• Battle Ax Culture;
• Late Ertebel culture;
• Chassay culture;
• Lahugit group;
• Pfin culture;
• Horgen culture;
• St. Andrew's culture.

The Stone Age is the longest period in human history. It began more than 2 million years ago, when our ape-like ancestors began to use the first primitive tools from rough river pebbles, and ended about 5 thousand years ago with the discovery of the secret of metal alloys. It was during the Stone Age that people mastered fire, learned to build houses, sew clothes, make various tools from stone, bone and wood, sculpt pottery, and tamed the first domestic animals. At the same time, all types of fine arts and the first, still primitive forms of religion arose. Along with technological and spiritual transformations, there was a continuous process of improving man as a biological species.

The Stone Age is divided into several periods: paleolithic(Old Stone Age) and Neolithic(New Stone Age). The final phase of the Paleolithic is often called the Mesolithic - the Middle Stone Age, a kind of transitional stage between the Paleolithic and Neolithic.

In turn, the Paleolithic is divided into early or lower, late or upper and, as already mentioned, final. Let us briefly describe each of the above stages.

Early (Lower) Paleolithic (more than 2 million years ago - 40 thousand years ago). Two million years ago, at the beginning of the Pleistocene (Fig. 1), the first Homo habilis (Habilitative Man, 2-1.5 million years ago) originated from one of the species of Australopithecus (“southern monkeys”). By all accounts, Homo habilis was the first known species of the human genus (Homo). His height did not exceed 1.5 meters, and his face was characterized by powerful supraorbital ridges, a flat nose and protruding jaws. But his head is already more rounded compared to the Australopithecus skull, and the bulge inside the thin-walled skull indicates the appearance of Broca's center, which controls speech.

The remains of material culture found next to the bones of Homo habilis allow scientists to assume that these creatures were already engaged in the manufacture of stone tools, built simple shelters, collected plant foods and hunted small and medium-sized animals.

The most famous tools of Homo habilis were found in the Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania): rough axes - “choppers”, scrapers, cutters made from basalt and quartzite pebbles. The technology for making tools was quite primitive: the top of the pebbles was knocked off with strong and sharp blows, and the resulting sharp edges were used during work. Olduvai industry(chip-splinter or pebble culture) and its later variants spread widely across large parts of Africa and Eurasia, marking the beginning of the industrial history of mankind.

Homo erectus, which appeared 1.6 million years ago ("Erectified Man"; 1.6 million years ago - 200 thousand years ago), had a larger brain and body than its probable ancestor Homo habilis. His skull was long and low-set, with a bony bulge at the back, with a sloping forehead, thick supraorbital ridges, a flatter facial part than that of a modern person, with large jaws and an absent chin (Fig. 2). Having appeared on the African continent, “Homo erectus” spread throughout the Eastern Hemisphere (Pithecanthropus on the island of Java, Sinanthropus in China, Heidelberg man in Europe).

Rice. 2. 1 - Pithecanthropus. Reconstruction by M. Gerasimov. 2 - Pithecanthropus skull.

The next stage of the Early Paleolithic is Acheulian* era (750-700 -150-120 thousand years ago). Scientists distinguish early, middle and late Acheulian. It was in the Acheulian that various types of stone industries arose - “classical Acheulian” with the widespread use of rune axles, “southern Acheulean”, where pebble tools were used along with axles, Klektonian, Teyak and other stone industries that did not use axes, but used tools on flakes . A variety of tools could serve a variety of purposes: for slaughtering game, skinning and cutting up animal carcasses, making tools and clothing.

One of the most interesting locations of this time is the Terra Amata site in the southeast of modern France near the city of Nice (explored in 1966 by A. Lumley). Here, at the foot of the cliff, about 350 thousand years ago in late spring for 11 years Homo erectus established their seasonal hunting camps. In their cultural layers, archaeologists discovered numerous tools (choppers, choppers, axes, cleavers, flakes), pieces of red ocher for painting bodies and bones of numerous animals (southern elephant, Merki rhinoceros, red deer, wild boar, wild bull, hare, rodents, birds, turtles, fish and shellfish). At the site of the camps, the remains of ancient dwellings were found, in which people lived no longer than two to three days, repairing old ones and making new tools. The floors of the oval-shaped huts (length 8-15 m, width 4-6 m) were paved with pebbles, and large pieces of stone were placed along the walls, strengthening their base. The roof was supported by pillars and stakes, and a fire burned in the center of the building. To protect from the northeastern winds that prevailed in those places, each fireplace was protected by a small stone wall-screen (Fig. 3).

At the site, scientists did not find the skeletal remains of its inhabitants, but they were able to clear a 23.75 cm long imprint of the right foot of an ancient man, left in the mud by an adult man who slipped slightly on his heel. Judging by the size of the print, his height did not exceed 156 cm.

An interesting discovery was made by scientists while exploring the La Can de Largo cave near Gotavel in the Eastern Pyrenees. Here, among the bones of wild animals and stone tools scattered across the cave floor, archaeologists discovered many human teeth, bone fragments, two lower jaws and the skull of a twenty-year-old Heidelberg-type man. After laboratory restoration of the skull, a curious fact was discovered: the hole through which the spinal cord connects to the brain was artificially widened to make it more convenient to remove the brain from the skull. The facts of cannibalism are also evidenced by the skulls of Homo erectus from the caves of Zhoukoudan (China) and Steinheim (Germany).

About 300 thousand years ago, a new stage of human evolution begins. Homo erectus are developing into a new species of Homo - Homo sapiens ("Homo sapiens"), including here the subspecies Homo sapiens neanderthalensis ("Homo sapiens Neanderthal", 200 - 35 thousand years ago), which branched off about 200,000 years ago, so named after the remains found near Dusseldorf (Germany) in the valley of the river. Neander. Neanderthals were short, stocky and extremely muscular people, with large joints in their arms and legs. They resembled “Homo erectus” with powerful supraorbital ridges and a sloping forehead. The Neanderthal skull had a distinct, bump-like occipital protuberance with a large base to which the neck muscles were attached. The facial part was pushed forward, and the chin protuberance was missing. The volume of the Neanderthal brain (1200-1600 cm3) often exceeded the volume of the modern human brain (on average 1400 cm3), however, the underdeveloped frontal lobes allow scientists to talk about the limited ability of Neanderthal man for abstract thinking and his increased aggressiveness (Fig. 4).

The last stage of the Early Paleolithic is called Mousterian eras 150-120 - 50-40 thousand years ago). At this time, a whole complex of various stone industries began to spread, based on the production of various tools on standard chipped blanks. Typical Mousterian tools are points, side scrapers, and denticulate tools. The main industries are: typical mousterian(high proportion of side scrapers and points among the tools), Mousterian with Acheulian tradition or Acheuleud-Mousterian(in addition to pointed points and scrapers, there are numerous choppers, and in the final stage - backed knives), serrated mousterian(there are no pointed points, a high proportion of denticulate tools) and a number of other industries.

During the Mousterian era, the process of settlement of ancient people across the European continent continued. Where natural conditions allowed, a few Neanderthal groups inhabited shallow caves and grottoes in the territory of modern France and Spain, in Central Europe and the south-west of the CIS. Sometimes archaeologists find traces of additional protective structures in them. Thus, a hole from a pillar in the Combe-Grenal cave (France) allows scientists to assume at its entrance the presence of a curtain of skins, protecting its inhabitants from wind, rain and snow. A wall made of stones, which is still preserved in the Spanish cave Cueva Morin, also served for this purpose.

Where there were no natural shelters, ancient people erected man-made shelters. Their basis was made up of interconnected poles, covered on top with a cover made of skins, which was pressed down near the ground with the bones of large animals or boulders. At the Molodova-I site (Chernivtsi region, Ukraine), archaeologists discovered the remains of a dwelling built 44 thousand years ago. It probably looked like a large (8x5m) hut or yurt. The lower part of the structure was surrounded by a bone shaft consisting of 12 split skulls, 34 shoulder blades and pelvic bones, 51 leg bones, 14 tusks and 5 lower jaws of mammoths. A partition made of vertically placed bones divided the building into two parts, with each half having its own exit, and along the walls archaeologists discovered several mammoth teeth lying with their chewing surfaces up, which probably served the Neanderthals as seats. In order not to sin against the truth, it is necessary to note the fact that not all Paleolithic scientists adhere to this interpretation of the Molodov find (Anikovich M.V., oral communication).

Outside the dwellings, the Neanderthal was protected from wind, rain and snow by leather or fur clothing. Scientists don't yet know what she looked like. One can only assume that the women cut the skins with stone knives, pierced holes in them with awls, and then tightened the resulting patterns with the tendons of animals killed during the hunt. Thus, they could make capes, trousers, shirts, cloaks, hats, and simple but comfortable shoes.

Finds of deliberately buried human remains, traces of ritual actions and a few examples of art indicate the spread of primitive beliefs and rituals in Neanderthal communities (Fig. 5, 6). Among the Neanderthals there was mutual assistance and mutual assistance, which, however, extended only to members of their own group. In a cave located near the French city of La Chapelle-Haut-Seine, the skeleton of a fifty-year-old man was found. On his bones, scientists found traces of arthritis, due to which the poor fellow, literally bent in half, could not take part in hunts; he even had difficulty eating, since he had only two teeth in his mouth. Nevertheless, at the funeral of this “patriarch” (after all, only half of the Neanderthals lived to be 25 years old), relatives placed a bison leg on his chest, and filled the grave excavation with animal bones and flint tools. Among the burials in Shanidar (Iraq), archaeologists discovered the skeleton of a forty-year-old man, killed by a stone falling from the roof of a cave. The study of his skeleton allowed scientists to establish the fact that before his death the deceased controlled only his left hand. His right arm and shoulder were underdeveloped, possibly due to a birth defect. And, despite such significant inferiority, he reached a very respectable age for that time. His front teeth were more worn than usual, as if he had been chewing animal skins intended for clothing to soften them, or constantly holding objects with his teeth to compensate for the weakness of his right hand.

However, archaeologists also had to deal with facts indicating the aggressiveness of the people of that time. Thus, in 1899, in the Yugoslav Krapina cave, the mutilated remains of about 20 men, women, and children were found, whose skulls were broken in order to extract the brain from them, the bones of the arms and legs were split lengthwise, and traces of charring on some of them suggest that before eating their victims, the victors roasted their meat on the fire. And in the Ortrue Cave (France) a whole warehouse of charred and crushed human remains was discovered, randomly mixed with the bones of wild animals and garbage, as if its ancient inhabitants did not make much difference between a person and a reindeer or bison killed during a hunt.

Scientists talk about a real head cult, common among Neanderthals. In 1939, in the grotto of Monte Circeo (Italy), a human skull was discovered in a ring of large stones, which lay face down, as if it had fallen from a vertical stick. A large trapezoidal hole was broken out at its base. The skull retains traces of severe wounds near the eye socket on the right temple. This man survived the first, earlier one, but the second turned out to be fatal and was associated with deliberate murder. There is no doubt that the unfortunate man was killed with a blow to the right temple, after which his head was cut off, his brain was taken out and probably eaten, and the skull, put on a stick, was placed in a cave (Fig. 7).

Along with the cult of human skulls, in some areas there was a cult of the cave bear (Fig. 8). In the Drachenloch cave (Switzerland), scientists examined a meter-long stone “chest”, inside of which lay seven bear skulls facing the entrance, and in Regurdu (France) they found a rectangular pit with the remains of two dozen cave bears, which was covered by a slab that weighed more than a ton.

The visual arts of this time are practically unknown. Red and yellow ocher*, found at sites in the form of powder or thin sticks, could be used to apply patterns to the human body or animal skin. Among the finds made in the Pech-de-Laze cave (France) are a drilled bone and an ox rib covered with transverse scratches on one side. In Tata (Hungary), scratched pebbles and an ocher-painted oval piece of ivory, which was given an oval shape in ancient times, were discovered.

Unfortunately, all these supposed samples are so amorphous that today we cannot speak with confidence about the existence of any forms of fine art among people who lived in the Neanderthal era.

Perhaps the lack of monuments of fine art is also due to the limited range of movements of the hand of Neanderthal man: spreading the fingers to the sides, lateral turns of the hand to the right and left, poorly developed palmar-dorsal flexion of the hand, limited movement of the thumb.

G. A. Bonch-Osmolovsky, who examined the skeleton found in the Crimean grotto of Kiik-Koba, noted: “Thick at the base, it [the hand - A.Sh.] thinned in a wedge shape towards the relatively flat ends of the fingers. Powerful muscles gave her colossal grip and striking power. There had already been a capture, but it was carried out differently from ours. With limited opposability: the thumb, with the extraordinary massiveness of the rest, you cannot pick up and hold with your fingers. The Kiik-Kobin did not take, but “raked” the object with his whole hand and held it in his fist. This clamp contained the power of pincers” [Bonch-Osmolovsky G. A., 1941].

Late (Upper) Paleolithic. About 40 thousand years ago, with the end of the Mousterian era, the Neanderthal physical type was everywhere replaced by a new representative of the human race, Homo sapiens sapiens (“Homo sapiens sapiens”), or Cro-Magnon, who received his name from finds made in the French grotto of Cro-Magnon. Cro-Magnons were taller than Neanderthals (170-180 cm), their body build was less massive, their skulls were more rounded, and their faces were distinguished by high foreheads and protruding chins (Fig. 9).

Rice. 9. 1 - Cro-Magnon. Reconstruction by M. M. Gerasimov. 2- Cro-Magnon skull.

Like their predecessors, European Cro-Magnons used the limestone caves of riverine cliffs in France and Spain. Many of these shelters had exposure to the south, were heated by the sun and were protected from the cold northern winds. Usually the caves were located near water sources and pastures of herbivores. Where food was always available, several dozen people could constantly live in one large cave all year round. In other places, archaeologists find traces of only seasonal, temporary human presence.

In Central Russia, where there are no mountain ranges, ancient people sometimes built various long-term dwellings in river valleys. The largest structures of this kind include an oblong building near Kostenki (Voronezh region). It reached 27 meters in length and consisted of several tents covered with skins. A number of hearths in its center indicate that several families of the Late Paleolithic era wintered here 20 thousand years ago under one roof. From the finds and drawings in French caves it is clear that, like some modern primitive tribes, primitive hunters also used light hut-type buildings (Fig. 10).

As evidenced by the figurines and rock paintings of this time that have reached us, the Cro-Magnons wore tight-fitting, well-preserved fur pants, jackets with hoods, cloaks, mittens and shoes (Fig. 11). The costume was richly decorated with beads and various pendants, similar to triangles with a hole cut in the upper part found during excavations at the Avdeevskaya site (Kursk region). Probably, the clothing of the Upper Paleolithic people was not much different from the clothing of modern northern peoples. This is how Canadian researcher Farley Mowat describes the costume of the Canadian Ihalmut Eskimo deer hunters: “... a tent and an igloo are just auxiliary dwellings. The ihalmut, like a turtle, always wears its main shelter on itself... Such a “shelter” consists of two fur suits, carefully cut to fit and put on one on top of the other. The skins of the lower suit are turned with the fur inward and lie directly against the body, and the skins of the upper one are turned with the fur outward; each suit consists of a “pullover” parka with a hood, as well as fur pants and fur boots. A double layer of fur protects the tips of the fingers, the top of the head, and the soles of the feet, on which soft slippers made of hare fur are worn instead of socks.

The tops of the boots are tied under the knees, and then the cold does not penetrate under the clothes... Both parkas, both inner and outer, are worn without a belt even in winter, and they hang freely at least to the knees. Cold air does not rise upward, and therefore its flows cannot reach the body under the parks. But the moistened heavy air that envelops the body, sinking, easily comes out between the parka and the pants. Even during times of great physical stress, when a person sweats a lot, the ihalmut’s clothes do not become wet, and he is not in danger of becoming numb in the cold. In the space between the hairs of soft, elastic wool adjacent to the body, a layer of warm air constantly moves, which absorbs sweat and carries it away.

Ihalmut's clothing covers all parts of his body well on a winter day, and only the hood has a narrow oval opening in front for the face, but it is protected by a silky fringe of wolverine fur, which does not get wet when a person breathes and therefore does not freeze. True, if it rains, clothes may get wet, but the layer of air between the deer skin and human skin does not allow moisture to pass through, it flows down, and the body remains dry.

In summer, the outer suit is removed, and the lower one perfectly protects the person from the heat, since good ventilation completely ensures coolness” [Mowat F., 1988]. The studied Upper Paleolithic burials indicate that the Cro-Magnons had stable burial traditions. Dead relatives were often sprinkled with red ocher; not only tools, but also various things that did not carry an obvious functional load were placed next to the bodies. Thus, in Przedmosti (Moravia), clay animal figurines were placed next to the dead along with tools. And at the site of Malta (Russia), in the burial of a four-year-old girl, archaeologists discovered a bracelet, a “tiara” and 120 beads carved from mammoth bone.

One of the most famous burials of this time was discovered in 1964 near the Sungir stream on the outskirts of modern Vladimir (Russia). Scientists have been able to reconstruct the details of a funeral ritual performed more than 25 thousand years ago. The relatives of the deceased first sprinkled the bottom of the grave, dug to a depth of 60 - 70 cm, with coals, and then with a thick, several centimeters, layer of bright red ocher. After the end of the ritual ceremonies, the deceased, dressed in luxuriously decorated clothes, was lowered into the pit, and after the grave was covered with earth, the place was probably marked with an ocher stain.

When, thousands of years later, scientists excavated the grave, a well-preserved skeleton belonging to a man 55-65 years old was discovered at the bottom. The body of the deceased was oriented with his head to the northeast, and his arms crossed on his stomach were bent at the elbows. Nearby lay a flint knife, a scraper, a flake and a fragment of bone with a spiral design. The entire skeleton from the skull to the feet was covered with bone beads (about 3,500), which once adorned ancient clothing. Their arrangement allowed scientists to reconstruct the costume of this man, which consisted of a leather (suede) or fur malitsa shirt worn over the head, leather pants and leather shoes such as moccasins sewn with them, also embroidered with beads. The headdress of the deceased was decorated with a triple row of beads, and arctic fox fangs were placed on the top of the head. On the skeleton's chest lay a pendant made of drilled pebbles, and on his hands were more than 20 plate and bead bracelets made of mammoth bone. The same beaded bracelets covered the pants under the knees and above the ankles. A stripe of several rows of beads was sewn across the chest of the suit. The short cloak that covered the body of the deceased was also decorated with large bone beads (Fig. 12).

Rice. 12. Cro-Magnon burials. 1. Sungir parking lot. Russia. 2. Menton Grotto. France.

But the people of Cro-Magnon times achieved the most impressive successes, compared to previous eras, in art. The range of their works was very wide: engravings and figurines of animals and people; reliefs made of stone and clay; drawings with ocher, manganese, charcoal: wall images lined with moss or made using paint blown through a straw.

Most of these works are found deep underground, in caves where the artists apparently worked by the light of burning logs and lamps. Bleeding animals, hunting and everyday scenes, drawings of half-humans, half-animals were associated with some kind of ritual actions and probably carried a magical load. The symbolism of fertility may have been embodied in figurines with exaggerated female sexual characteristics, and geometric figures could have been symbolic symbols, one of which probably depicts the phases of the Moon. However, all these assumptions are still debatable.

The paths of development of material culture in the Upper Paleolithic in different territories are already very different from each other, and therefore we will consider in more detail the features of these processes in relation to the Russian Plain. Professor M.V. Alikovich identifies three main technocomplexes, each of which unites a whole group of related stone industries [Anikovich M.V.., 1994].

Seletoid technocomplex(Fig. 13). The plate is not the leading form of workpiece; the technique of incisal chipping and vertical blunting edge retouching is not developed; the technique of flat bilateral retouching is widely used. The assortment of tools, along with the presence of leaf-shaped double-sided points, necessarily contains both Upper Paleolithic and Mousterian forms of tools. Micro-inventory is not expressed.

Orignaconoid technocomplex(Fig. 13). The leading workpiece is a large massive plate. Characterized by intensive marginal retouching and the incisal chipping technique. The most common tools are scrapers and points on massive high plates, and median multi-faceted burins.

Gravettoid technocomplex(Fig. 13). The main shape of the workpiece is a thin plate with a parallel cut on the back and narrow microplates. Vertical retouching that truncates the edge of the workpiece is widely used, and the technique of incisal chipping has been developed. Points, plates and other tools with blunt edges are typical; among the incisors there are many lateral ones.

The listed technocomplexes do not succeed each other in time, although the selitoid one can be called the earliest and archaic, and the gravettoid one progressive and late. For a significant part of the Upper Paleolithic era, they coexisted in the form of different lines of development of Paleolithic cultures. Chronologically, the Upper Paleolithic of the Russian Plain is divided into the following periods (Table 1).

Table 1

Stone Age chronology

Begins about 40 thousand years ago early Upper Paleolithic, lasting approximately 16 thousand years. At this time, two main types of archaeological cultures* can be traced: archaic (selitoid technocomplex) and developed (aurignaconoid technocomplex). The former were probably associated with the survival of Mousterian, the latter could have been introduced by the Cro-Magnon aliens. Both the bearers of archaic and bearers of progressive traditions were similar to each other in their way of life - they were mainly hunters of wild horses, living in light ground dwellings reminiscent of the Chukchi tents or the tipis of the Indians of the North American prairies. At the end of the early period of the Upper Paleolithic, a gravettoid technocomplex appeared.

About 24-23 thousand years ago the “Gravettian episode” begins - developed time of the Upper Paleolithic. Its duration was relatively short - 7-5 thousand years. At this time, tribes with developed and isolated from other cultural traditions of stone and bone processing migrated from the central regions of the European continent to Eastern Europe. Based on the points most distant from each other in the area of ​​settlement of these people (the town of Willendorf in Austria and the village of Kostenki near Voronezh), scientists called their culture Willendorf-Kostenki. Archaic Neanderthal cultures are disappearing, native Cro-Magnon cultures are experiencing a strong influence of aliens on their traditions and technologies. At this time, three historical and cultural regions emerged on the Russian Plain: reindeer hunters lived in the southeast; The Azov region, the Black Sea region and the south were occupied by bison hunters, and the central part, the basins of the middle and upper Dnieper, Upper Don, and Oka were inhabited by mammoth hunters.

In the first two zones, according to M. V. Alikovich, a slow gradual evolution occurs, while the third region of mammoth hunters is experiencing another stage of development.

About 18-16 thousand years ago it begins here late Upper Paleolithic, or "eastern epigravettian". At this time, the archaeological cultures of the previous stage almost completely disappear, and they are replaced by new ones, with fairly homogeneous traditions that differ only in details. “Eligravett” are characterized by highly insulated rounded ground dwellings, built using a huge amount of mammoth bones. Realistic Willendorf-Kostenki art is being replaced by art with a high degree of stylization. In flint processing, the gravettoid technocomplex is further developed, and there is a tendency toward miniaturization of tools.

Final Paleolithic(sometimes called Mesolithic) corresponds to the time period between 12-11 and 7 thousand years ago. Against the backdrop of a global change in natural and climatic conditions, the original and expressive cultures of mammoth hunters are disappearing. They are replaced by forest hunters of the Arensburg, Sviderskaya, Resetinskaya, and then by the Pesochnorovskaya, Ienevskaya, Butovo and other cultures, often called “Mesolithic”. It should be noted, however, that in terms of technology it is impossible to draw a sufficiently rigid and unambiguous boundary between this period and the previous stage of the Paseolite. That is why the identification of a certain special “Mesolithic” era seems unacceptable. The final Paleolithic gives way to a completely new era - Neolithic* (table 2).

Table 2.

Chronology of the final Paleolithic and Neolithic of the Kursk region

Neolithic(New Stone Age) corresponds to the transition of the population to a new stage of cultural and historical development. During this period, there is a gradual change from the appropriating type of economy (hunting, fishing, gathering) to the producing type (farming and cattle breeding). It was in the Neolithic that many types of domestic animals were domesticated. Archaeologist G. Childe calls this period the “Neolithic Revolution.” Such a gradual change in priorities in economic activity is accidental; first of all, it is associated with the depletion of natural resources and insufficient productivity of hunting and gathering in a new, ice-free natural and climatic environment. One of the most important achievements of the Neolithic era is the emergence and widespread use of pottery. Although the secret of firing clay was already familiar to a number of Paleolithic tribes about 28,000 years ago, this was the first time that ceramics found widespread use along with the previously used stone and bone.

The Early Neolithic covers the period from 7 to 5.5 thousand years ago. Towards the end of this period, the early agricultural cultures of the southern regions of Russia and Ukraine discovered the secret of making copper. For the Neolithic era, many dozens of archaeological cultures have already been identified, in real life, perhaps corresponding to tribal formations and tribal unions. The territory of the Kursk region at the early stage of the Neolithic is characterized by monuments of the Dnieper-Donetsk culture. Its bearers were closest to the Upper Paleolithic Cro-Magnons in their anthropological appearance. Late Neolithic lasted from 5.5 to 4 thousand years ago. At this time, widespread. Cultures of the so-called pit-comb ceramics, as well as the Middle Don Neolithic culture with pinned ceramics, are found in the territory of the modern Kursk region. The Late Cro-Magnon “Dnieper-Donets” population is displaced by new newcomers from the Dnieper region to the territory of modern Belarus. The beginning of widespread use of tools and jewelry made from copper and bronze about 4 thousand years ago marks the end of the Stone Age. The Chalcolithic (Copper Stone Age) that replaced it opened a new era in the history of mankind - the era of the use of metal alloys.