The most ancient history of mankind. Notes on history "prehistory". Mitochondrial Eve and Y-Chromosomal Adam in African Eden

2.1. The primitive world and the birth of civilization. Sources of information about primitiveness

The primitive history of mankind is reconstructed using a whole complex of sources, since no single source is able to provide us with a complete and reliable picture of a given era. The most important group of sources—archaeological sources—make it possible to use
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follow the material foundations of human life. Objects made by a person carry information about himself, his activities and the society in which he lived. From the material remains of a person one can obtain information about his spiritual world. The difficulty of working with this type of sources lies in the fact that not all objects related to man and his activities have reached us. Items made from organic materials (wood, bone, horn, clothing), as a rule, are not preserved. Therefore, historians build their concepts of the development of human society in the primitive era on the basis of materials that have survived to this day (flint tools, pottery, dwellings, etc.). Archaeological excavations contribute to the acquisition of knowledge about the very beginning of human existence, because the tools made by man were one of the main features that separated him from the animal world. Ethnographic sources make it possible, using the comparative historical method, to reconstruct the culture, life, and social relations of people of the past. Ethnography explores the life of relict (backward) tribes and nationalities, as well as remnants of the past in modern societies. For this purpose, scientific methods are used, such as direct observations of specialists, analysis of the records of ancient and medieval authors, which contribute to the acquisition of certain ideas about societies and people of the past. There is one serious difficulty here - one way or another, all tribes and peoples of the earth have been influenced by civilized societies and researchers must remember this. We also have no right to talk about the complete identity of the most backward societies - the Aboriginal tribes of Australia and the primitive bearers of similar cultures. Ethnographic sources also include folklore monuments, which are used to study oral folk art.
Anthropology studies the skeletal remains of primitive people, restoring their physical appearance. From bone remains we can judge the volume of the brain of a primitive man, his gait, body structure, diseases and injuries. Anthropologists can reconstruct the entire skeleton and appearance of a person
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from a small fragment of bone and thus restore the process of anthropogenesis - the origin of man.
Linguistics is the study of language And identifying within its framework the most ancient layers that were formed in the distant past. Using these layers, you can not only restore ancient forms of language, but also learn a lot about the life of the past - material culture, social structure, way of thinking. Reconstructions by linguists are difficult to date and are always somewhat hypothetical.
There are, in addition to the main ones listed above, many other auxiliary sources. These are paleobotany - the science of ancient plants, paleozoology - the science of ancient animals, paleoclimatology, geology and others. A researcher of primitiveness must use data from all sciences, studying them comprehensively And offering your interpretation.
Periodization and chronology of primitive history. Periodization is a conditional division of human history in accordance with certain criteria into time stages. Chronology is a science that allows us to identify the time of existence of an object or phenomenon. Two types of chronology are used: absolute and relative. Absolute chronology precisely determines the time of an event (at such and such a time: year, month, day). Relative chronology only establishes the sequence of events, noting that one occurred before the other. This chronology is widely used by archaeologists in the study of various archaeological cultures.
To establish an exact date, scientists use methods such as radiocarbon dating (based on the content of carbon isotopes in organic remains), dendrochronological (based on tree rings), archaeomagnetic (dating items made from baked clay) and others. All these methods are still far from the desired accuracy and allow us to date events only approximately.
There are several types of periodization of primitive history. Archaeological periodization uses the sequential change of tools as the main criterion. Main stages:
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1. Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) - divided into lower (earliest in time), middle and upper (late). The Paleolithic began more than 2 million years ago and ended around the 8th millennium BC. e.;
2. Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) - VIII-V millennium BC. e.;
3. Neolithic (New Stone Age) – V— III thousand BC e.;
4. Chalcolithic (Copper Stone Age) - a transitional stage between the Stone and Metal periods;
5. Bronze Age - III— II thousand BC e.;
6. Iron Age - begins in the 1st millennium BC. e.

These dates are very approximate And different researchers offer their own options. Moreover, in different regions these stages occurred at different times.
Geological periodization.
The history of the Earth is divided into four eras. The last era is the Cenozoic. It is divided into the Tertiary (began 69 million years ago), Quaternary (began 1 million years ago) and modern (began 14,000 years ago) periods. The Quaternary period is divided into the Pleistocene (pre-glacial and glacial eras) and the Holocene (post-glacial era).
Periodization of the history of primitive society. There is no unity among researchers on the issue of periodization of the history of ancient society. The most common is the following: 1) the primitive human herd; 2) tribal community (this stage is divided into the early tribal community of hunters and gatherers And fishermen and a developed community of farmers And pastoralists); 3) primitive neighboring (proto-peasant) community. The era of primitive society ends with the emergence of the first civilizations.
Origin of man (anthropogenesis). IN Modern science has several theories of the origin of man. The most well-reasoned is the labor theory of human origin, formulated by F. Engels. Labor theory emphasizes the role of labor in the formation of teams of the first people, their unity and the formation of new connections between them. According to this concept, work activity influenced the development of a person’s hand, and the need for new means of communication led to the development of language. The appearance of man is thus associated with the beginning of the production of tools.
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The process of anthropogenesis (the origin of man) went through three stages in its development: 1) the appearance of anthropoid ancestors of man; 2) the appearance of the most ancient and ancient people; 3) the emergence of a modern type of man. Anthropogenesis was preceded by intensive evolution of higher apes in different directions. As a result of evolution, several new species of monkeys arose, including Dryopithecus. Australopithecines, whose remains were found in Africa, descend from Dryopithecus.
Australopithecines were distinguished by a relatively large brain volume (550-600 cc), walking on their hind limbs, and using natural objects as tools. Their fangs and jaws were less developed than those of other monkeys. Australopithecines were omnivores and hunted small animals. Like other anthropomorphic apes, they formed herds. Australopithecus lived 4 - 2 million years ago.
The second stage of anthropogenesis is associated with Pithecanthropus (“the ape-man”) and the related Atlantropus and Sinanthropus. Pithecanthropus can already be called the most ancient people, since they, unlike Australopithecus, made stone tools. The brain volume of Pithecanthropus was about 900 cubic meters. cm, and in Sinanthropus - the late form of Pithecanthropus - 1050 cubic meters. see Pithecanthropus retained some of the features of monkeys - a low cranial vault, a sloping forehead, and the absence of a chin protrusion. The remains of Pithecanthropus are found in Africa, Asia and Europe. It is possible that the ancestral home of man was in Africa and Southeast Asia. The most ancient people lived 750-200 thousand years ago.
Neanderthal was the next stage of anthropogenesis. He is called ancient man. The Neanderthal brain volume is from 1200 to 1600 cubic meters. cm - approaches the volume of the modern human brain. But Neanderthals, unlike modern humans, had a primitive brain structure and the frontal lobes of the brain were not developed. The hand was rough and massive, which limited the Neanderthal’s ability to use tools. Neanderthals spread widely across the Earth, inhabiting different climatic zones. They lived 250-40 thousand years ago. Scientists believe that not all were the ancestors of modern man
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Neanderthals; Some Neanderthals represented a dead-end branch of development.
Man of the modern physical type - the Cro-Magnon man - appeared at the third stage of anthropogenesis. These are tall people with a straight gait and a sharply protruding chin. The brain volume of a Cro-Magnon man was 1400 - 1500 cubic meters. see Cro-Magnons appeared about 100 thousand years ago. Probably, their homeland was Western Asia and adjacent areas.
At the last stage of anthropogenesis, raceogenesis occurs - the formation of three human races. The Caucasoid, Mongoloid and Negroid races can serve as an example of people's adaptation to the natural environment. Races differ in skin color, hair, eyes, features of facial structure and physique, and other features. All three races emerged in the Late Paleolithic, but the process of race formation continued in the future.
The origin of language and thinking. Thinking and speech are interconnected, so they cannot be considered separately from each other. These two phenomena arose simultaneously. Their development was in demand by the labor process, during which human thinking constantly developed, and the need to transfer acquired experience contributed to the emergence of the speech system. The basis for the development of speech was the sound signals of monkeys. On the surface of casts of the internal cavity of the skulls of synanthropes, an increase in the parts of the brain responsible for speech was found, which allows us to speak with confidence about the presence of developed articulate speech and thinking in synanthropes. This is quite consistent with the fact that Sinanthropus practiced developed collective forms of labor (driven hunting) and successfully used fire.
In Neanderthals, brain sizes sometimes exceeded the corresponding parameters in modern humans, but poorly developed frontal lobes of the brain, responsible for associative, abstract thinking, appeared only in Cro-Magnons. Therefore, the system of language and thinking most likely took final shape in the Late Paleolithic era, simultaneously with the appearance of the Cro-Magnons and the beginning of their working activity.
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Appropriating farming. The appropriating economy, within which people exist through the appropriation of natural products, is the oldest type of economy. Hunting and gathering can be distinguished as the two main occupations of ancient people.” Their ratio was not the same at different stages of the development of human society and in different natural and climatic conditions. Gradually, people master new complex forms of hunting - driven hunting, traps and others. For hunting, cutting up carcasses, and gathering, they used stone tools (made of flint and obsidian) - choppers, scrapers, and pointed points. Wooden tools were also used - digging sticks, clubs and spears.
During the period of the early tribal community, the number of tools increases. New stone processing technologies emerged, marking the transition to the Upper Paleolithic. Now man has learned to break off thin and light plates, which are then brought to the desired shape using chipping and pressing retouching - a method of secondary processing of stone. New technologies required less flint, which facilitated expansion into previously uninhabited areas poor in flint.
In addition, new technologies led to the creation of a number of specialized tools - scrapers, knives, chisels, and small throwing spear tips. Bone and horn are widely used. Spears, darts, stone axes, and forts appear. Fishing plays an important role. Hunting productivity increased sharply as a result of the invention of the spear thrower - a plank with a stop that allows you to throw a spear at a speed comparable to the speed of an arrow from a bow. The spear thrower was the first mechanical means to complement human muscular strength. The first so-called gender-age division of labor occurs: men are primarily engaged in hunting and fishing, and women are engaged in gathering and housekeeping. Children helped the women.
At the end of the Late Paleolithic, the era of glaciation began. During glaciation, wild horses and reindeer become the main prey. To hunt these animals, driven methods were widely used, allowing
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kill a large number of animals in a short time. They provided ancient hunters with food, skins for clothing and housing, horn and bone for tools. Reindeer make seasonal migrations - in the summer they move to the tundra, closer to the glacier, in the winter - to the forest zone. While hunting deer, people simultaneously explored new lands.
With the retreat of the glacier, living conditions changed. The deer hunters followed them, following the retreating glacier, and those who remained were forced to adapt to hunting small animals. The Mesolithic era has arrived. During this period, a new microlithic technique appeared. Microliths are small flint products that were inserted into wooden or bone tools and formed the cutting edge. Such a tool was more multifunctional than solid flint products, and its sharpness was not inferior to metal products.
A huge achievement of man was the invention of the bow and arrow - a powerful, rapid-fire, long-range weapon. Takeke boomerang was invented - a curved throwing club. During the Mesolithic era, man domesticated the first animal - the dog, which became a faithful hunting assistant. Fishing methods are being improved, nets, a boat with oars, and a fish hook appear. In many places, fishing is becoming the main economic sector. Glacial retreat and climate warming are leading to an increased role for gathering.
Mesolithic man had to unite in small groups that did not stay in one place for a long time, wandering around in search of food. The dwellings were built temporary and small. In the Mesolithic people move far to the north and east; Having crossed the land isthmus, the place of which is currently occupied by the Bering Strait, they populate America.
Producing farm. The productive economy arose in the Neolithic era. The last stage of the Stone Age is characterized by the emergence of new techniques in the stone industry - grinding, sawing and drilling stone. Tools were made from new types of stone. During this period, such a weapon as an ax became widespread.
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One of the most important inventions of the Neolithic was ceramics. The production and subsequent firing of pottery allowed people to facilitate the preparation and storage of food. Man has learned to produce a material not found in nature - baked clay. The invention of spinning and weaving was also of great importance. Fiber for spinning was produced from wild plants, and later from sheep's wool.
During the Neolithic era, one of the most significant events in human history took place - the emergence of animal husbandry and agriculture. The transition from an appropriating to a producing economy was called the Neolithic revolution. The relationship between man and nature is becoming fundamentally different. Now a person could independently produce everything necessary for life and became less dependent on the environment.
Agriculture arose from highly organized gathering, during which man learned to care for wild plants in order to obtain a larger harvest. Collectors used sickles with flint inserts, grain grinders, and hoes. Gathering was a woman's occupation, so agriculture was probably invented by women. Regarding the place of origin of agriculture, scientists come to the conclusion that it arose in several centers at once: in Western Asia, Southeast Asia and South America.
Animal husbandry began to take shape in the Mesolithic era, but constant movements prevented hunting tribes from breeding any animals other than dogs. Agriculture contributed to the greater sedentarization of the human population, thereby facilitating the process of domestication of animals. First, young animals caught during the hunt were tamed. Among the first living jthbix to suffer this fate were goats, pigs, sheep and cows. Hunting was a male occupation, so cattle breeding also became a male prerogative. Cattle breeding arose somewhat later than agriculture, since a strong food supply was required to maintain animals; it also appeared in several foci, independent of each other.
At first, animal husbandry and agriculture could not compete with highly specialized hunting.
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whose And fishing, but the producing economy is gradually taking first place in a number of regions (primarily in Western Asia).
Social relations in primitive times. Developmentfamilies. Primitive herd.
Ancient people, who appeared at the dawn of the human era, were forced to unite in herds in order to survive. These herds could not be large - no more than 20-40 people - because otherwise they would not be able to feed themselves. The primitive herd was headed by a leader who rose to prominence thanks to his personal qualities. Individual herds were scattered over vast territories and had almost no contact with each other. Archaeologically, the primitive herd corresponds to the Lower and Middle Paleolithic.
Sexual relations in the primitive herd, according to a number of scientists, were disordered. Such relationships are called promiscuous. According to other scientists, within the primitive herd there was a harem family, and only the leader participated in the reproduction process. The herd, as a rule, consisted of several harem families.
Early clan community. The process of transformation of a primitive herd into a clan community is associated with the growth of productive forces that united ancient groups, as well as with the emergence of exogamy. Exogamy is the prohibition of marrying within one's group. An exogamous dual-clan group marriage gradually developed, in which members of one clan could only marry members of another clan. Moreover, from birth, men of one clan were considered the husbands of women of another clan, And vice versa. At the same time, men had the right to have sexual intercourse with all women of a different kind. In such relationships there is a danger of incest And conflicts between men of the same kind were eliminated.
In order to finally avoid the possibility of incest (for example, a father could have an affair with his daughter), people resorted to dividing the clan into classes. One class included men (women) of one generation, and they could only enter into communication with the same class of another generation. The set of marriage classes usually included four or eight classes. With such a system
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kinship was accounted for on the maternal side, and the children remained in the mother’s family. Gradually, an increasing number of restrictions were established in group marriage, as a result of which it became impossible. As a result, a paired marriage is formed, which was very often fragile and easily dissolved.
The dual-clan organization of the two clans formed the basis of the clan community. The clan community was united not only by marriage relations between clans, but also by production relations. Indeed, due to the custom of exogamy, a situation arose when some relatives went to another clan and were included in production relations here. In the early clan community, management was carried out by a meeting of all adult relatives, which decided all the main issues. The leaders of the clan were elected at a meeting of the entire clan. The most experienced people, who were the guardians of customs, enjoyed great authority, and they, as a rule, were elected leaders. Power was based on the strength of personal authority.
In the early clan community, all products obtained by members of the community were considered the property of the clan and were distributed among all its members. This was a necessary condition for survival for ancient societies. The land and most of the tools were in the collective ownership of the community. It is known that in tribes at this level of development, it was allowed to take and use other people’s tools and things without asking.
All people in the community were divided into three age and gender groups: adult men, women, children. The transition to the group of adults was considered a very important milestone in a person’s life and was called initiation (“dedication”). The meaning of the initiation rite is to introduce the teenager to the economic, social and ideological life of the community. Here is the initiation scheme, the same for all peoples: removal of initiates from the collective and their training; trials of initiates (hunger, humiliation, beatings, wounds) and their ritual death; return to the team in a new status. Upon completion of the initiation rite, the “initiate” received the right to enter into marriage.
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Late clan community. The transition to an appropriating economy led to the replacement of the early tribal community by the later community of farmers and pastoralists. Within the framework of the late tribal community, ancestral ownership of the land was preserved. However, an increase in labor productivity gradually led to the appearance of a regular surplus product, which the community member could keep for himself. This trend contributed to the formation of a prestigious economy. The prestigious economy arose in the conditions of the emergence of a surplus product that was used V gift exchange system. This practice increased the social prestige of the donor, and he, as a rule, did not incur losses, since there was a custom of obligatory return. The exchange of gifts strengthened relationships between members of both the same and different communities, strengthened the position of the leader and family ties.
Due to the high productivity of labor, communities, growing, were divided into groups of relatives on the maternal side - the so-called maternal families. But the clan unity had not yet disintegrated, since, if necessary, families were united back into the clan. Women, who play the main role in agriculture and in the home, have greatly displaced men in the maternal family.
The paired family gradually strengthened its position in society (although there are known cases of the existence of “additional” wives or husbands). The emergence of surplus product made it possible to provide financially for children. But the couple family did not have property separate from the ancestral family, which hampered its development.
Late clan communities united into phratries, and phratries into tribes. A phratry is an original gens divided into several daughter gens. The tribe consisted of two phratries, which were exogamous marriage halves of the tribe. Economic and social equality was maintained in the late tribal community. The clan was governed by a council, which included all members of the tribe and an elder elected by the clan. During military operations, a military leader was elected. If necessary, a tribal council was assembled, consisting of the elders of the tribal clans and military leaders. One of the elders, who did not have very much power, was elected as the head of the tribe. Women entered
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to the clan council, and in the early stages of development of the late clan community they could become heads of clans.
Decomposition of the tribal community. The appearance of a neighborcommunities. The Neolithic Revolution contributed to a radical change in human lifestyle, sharply accelerating the pace of development of human society. People moved to the targeted production of basic food products based on integrated farming. In this economy, cattle breeding and agriculture complemented each other. The development of complex farming and natural and climatic conditions inevitably led to the specialization of communities - some switched to cattle breeding, others to agriculture. This is how the first major social division of labor took place - the separation of agriculture and cattle breeding into separate economic complexes.
The development of agriculture led to settled life, and the increase in labor productivity in areas favorable for agriculture contributed to the gradual expansion of the community. In Western Asia and the Middle East, the first large settlements appeared, and then cities. In the cities there were residential buildings, religious buildings, and workshops. Later, cities appeared in other places. The population in the first cities reached several thousand people.
Truly revolutionary changes occurred due to the advent of metals. First, people mastered metals that can be found in the form of nuggets - copper and gold. Then they learned to smelt metals themselves. The first alloy of copper and tin known to people, bronze, which was superior to copper in hardness, appeared and began to be widely used.
Metals slowly replaced stone. The Stone Age gave way to the Chalcolithic - the Copper-Stone Age, and the Chalcolithic - to the Bronze Age. But tools made of copper and bronze could not completely replace stone ones. Firstly, the sources of raw materials for bronze were located in only a few places, and stone deposits were everywhere. Secondly, in some qualities stone tools were superior to copper and even bronze ones.
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Only when man learned to smelt iron did the era of stone tools finally become a thing of the past. Iron deposits are found everywhere, but iron is not found in its pure form and is quite difficult to process. Therefore, humanity learned to smelt iron after a relatively long period of time - in the 2nd millennium BC. e. The new metal surpassed all then known materials in terms of availability and performance, opening a new era in human history - the Iron Age.
Metallurgical production required knowledge, skills, and experience. To manufacture new, difficult-to-manufacture metal tools, skilled labor was required - the labor of artisans. Artisan blacksmiths appeared, passing on their knowledge and skills from generation to generation. The introduction of metal tools caused an acceleration in the development of agriculture, cattle breeding and an increase in labor productivity. Thus, after the invention of the plow with metal working parts, arable farming appeared, based on the use of livestock draft power.
In the Eneolithic, the potter's wheel was invented, which contributed to the development of pottery. With the invention of the loom, weaving production developed. Society, having acquired sustainable sources of livelihood, was able to implement the second major social division of labor - the separation of crafts from agriculture and cattle breeding.
The social division of labor was accompanied by the development of exchange. Unlike the previously sporadic exchange of wealth from the natural environment, this exchange was already of an economic nature. Farmers and cattle breeders exchanged the products of their labor, artisans exchanged their products. The need for continuous exchange even led to the development of a number of public institutions, primarily the institution of hospitality. Gradually, societies develop means of exchange and measures of their value.
During these changes, the matriarchal (maternal) clan is replaced by a patriarchal one. It was due to the displacement of women from the most important spheres of production. Hoe farming is being replaced by plow farming, and only a man could manage the meadow. Sco-
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Farming, like commercial hunting, is also a typically male occupation. During the development of a productive economy, a man acquires significant power, both in society and in the family. Now upon entry V After marriage, a woman passed into her husband's clan. Kinship was calculated through the male line, and family property was inherited by children. A large patriarchal family appears - a family of several generations of paternal relatives, headed by the oldest man. The introduction of iron tools meant that a small family could feed itself. The large patriarchal family is breaking up into small families.
The formation of surplus product and the development of exchange were an incentive for the individualization of production and the emergence of private property. Large and economically strong families sought to distinguish themselves from the clan. This trend led to the replacement of the clan community with a neighboring one, where clan ties gave way to territorial ones. The primitive neighboring community was characterized by a combination of relations of private ownership of the yard (house and outbuildings) and tools of labor and collective ownership of the main means of production - land. Families were forced to unite, since an individual family was unable to cope with many operations: land reclamation, irrigation and shifting agriculture.
The neighboring community was a universal stage for all peoples of the world at the pre-class and class stages of development, playing the role of the main economic unit of society until the era of the industrial revolution.
Political genesis (state formation). It should be noted that there are different concepts of the origin of the state. Marxists believe that it was created as an apparatus of violence and exploitation of one class by another. Another theory is the “theory of violence,” whose representatives believe that classes and the state arose as a result of wars and conquests, during which conquerors created the institution of the state in order to maintain their dominance. If we consider the problem in all its complexity, it becomes clear that the war required powerful organiza-
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nization structures, and was more a consequence of polylithogenesis than its cause. However, the Marxist scheme also needs correction, because the desire to squeeze all processes into one scheme inevitably encounters resistance from the material.
The increase in labor productivity led to the emergence of surplus products that could be alienated from producers. Some families accumulated these surpluses (food, handicrafts, livestock). The accumulation of wealth occurred primarily in the families of the leaders, since the leaders had great opportunities to participate in the distribution of products.
Initially, this property was destroyed after the death of the owner or used in ceremonies, such as the “potlatch”, when all this surplus at a festival was distributed to all those present. With these distributions, the organizer gained authority in society. In addition, he became a participant in reciprocal potlatches, at which part of what was given out was returned to him. The principle of giving and giving back, characteristic of a prestigious economy, put ordinary community members and their rich neighbors in unequal conditions. Ordinary community members became dependent on the person organizing the potlatch.
The leaders gradually seize power into their own hands, while the importance of popular assemblies declines. Society is gradually being structured - the top is emerging from among the community members. A strong, rich and generous, and therefore authoritative leader, subjugated weak rivals, spreading his influence over neighboring communities. The first supra-communal structures emerge, within which government bodies are separated from the tribal organization. Thus, the first pro-state formations appear.
The emergence of such formations was accompanied by a fierce struggle between them. War is gradually becoming one of the most important trades. Due to the widespread occurrence of wars, military technology and organization are developing. Military leaders assume a greater role. A squad is formed around them, which included warriors who have proven themselves in the best way
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in battles. During the campaigns, booty was captured and distributed among all the warriors.
The head of the proto-state simultaneously became the chief priest, since the power of the leader in the community remained elective. Acquiring the functions of a priest made the leader a bearer of divine grace and a mediator between people and supernatural forces. The sacralization of the ruler was an important step towards his depersonalization and transformation into a kind of symbol. The power of authority is replaced by the authority of power.
Gradually the power became lifelong. After the death of the leader, the members of his family had the greatest chance of success. As a result, the leader's power became hereditary within his family. This is how the pro-state is finally formed - a political structure of society with social and property inequality, developed division of labor and exchange, headed by a ruler-priest who had hereditary power.
Over time, the proto-state expands through conquest, complicates its structure and turns into a state. The state differs from the proto-state in its larger size and the presence of developed governance institutions. The main features of the state are territorial (and not tribal) division of the population, army, court, law, taxes. With the advent of the state, the primitive neighboring community becomes a neighboring community, which, unlike the primitive one, loses its independence.
The state is characterized by the phenomenon of urbanization, which includes an increase in the urban population, monumental construction, construction of temples, irrigation structures and roads. Urbanization is one of the main signs of the formation of civilization.
Another important sign of civilization is the invention of writing. The state needed to streamline economic activities, record laws, rituals, acts of rulers and much more. It is possible that writing was created with the participation of priests. In contrast to pictographic or rope symbols, characteristic of undeveloped societies, for the development of hieroglyphic
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writing required lengthy training. Writing was the privilege of priests and nobility and only with the advent of alphabetic writing it became generally available. The mastery of writing was the most important stage in the development of culture, since writing serves as the main means of accumulating and transmitting knowledge.
With the advent of the state and writing, the first civilizations emerged. Characteristic features of civilization: a high level of development of the productive economy, the presence of political structures, the introduction of metal, the use of writing and monumental structures.
Agricultural and pastoral civilizations. Agriculture developed most intensively in river valleys, especially in countries stretching from the Mediterranean in the west to China in the east. The development of agriculture ultimately led to the emergence of ancient Eastern centers of civilization.
Cattle breeding developed in the steppes and semi-deserts of Eurasia and Africa, as well as in mountainous areas, where cattle were kept on mountain pastures in the summer and in the valleys in the winter. The term “civilization” can be used in relation to a pastoral society with certain reservations, since pastoralism did not provide the same economic development as agriculture. An economy based on cattle breeding provided a less stable surplus product. Also, a very important role was played by the fact that cattle breeding requires large spaces, and population concentration in societies of this type, as a rule, does not occur. The cities of pastoralists are much smaller than those of agricultural civilizations, so we cannot talk about any large-scale urbanization.
With the domestication of the horse and the invention of the wheel, significant changes occurred in the economy of pastoralists - nomadic cattle breeding appeared. Nomads moved across the steppes and semi-deserts on their carts, accompanying herds of animals. The emergence of a nomadic economy in the steppes of Eurasia should be attributed to the end of the 5th millennium BC. Only with the advent of nomadic cattle breeding did a pastoral economy that did not use agriculture finally take shape (although many nomadic societies were engaged in cultivation).
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some land). Among nomads, in conditions of an economy isolated from agriculture, exclusively proto-state associations, tribal proto-states, arise. While in an agricultural society the neighboring community becomes the main unit, in a pastoral society clan relations are still very strong and the clan community retains its position.
For nomadic societies were characterized by belligerence, since their members did not have reliable sources of subsistence. Therefore, nomads constantly invaded the areas of farmers and plundered them or subjugated them. The entire male population of nomads usually took part in the war, and their cavalry army was very maneuverable And could travel long distances. Quickly appearing and disappearing just as quickly, the nomads achieved significant success in their unexpected raids. In the event of the subjugation of agricultural societies, nomads, as a rule, settled on the land themselves.
But we should not exaggerate the fact of confrontation between sedentary and nomadic societies and talk about the existence of a constant war between them. There have always been stable economic relations between farmers and cattle breeders, since both of them needed a constant exchange of the products of their labor.
Traditional society. Traditional society appears simultaneously with the emergence of the state. This model of social development is very sustainable And characteristic of all societies except European. In Europe, a different model has emerged, based on private property. The basic principles of traditional society were in effect until the era of the industrial revolution, and in many countries they still exist in our time.
The main structural unit of traditional society is the neighboring community. The neighboring community is dominated by agriculture with elements of cattle breeding. Communal peasants are usually conservative in their way of life due to the natural, climatic and economic cycles and monotony of life that repeat from year to year. In this situation, the peasants demanded from the state, first of all, stability, which could only be ensured by a strong state.
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quality The weakening of the state was always accompanied by unrest, arbitrariness of officials, invasions of enemies, and economic breakdown, which was especially disastrous in the conditions of irrigated agriculture. The result is crop failure, famine, epidemics, and a sharp drop in population. Therefore, society has always preferred a strong state, transferring most of its powers to it.
Within a traditional society, the state is the highest value. As a rule, it operates under conditions of a clear hierarchy. At the head of the state was a ruler who enjoyed virtually unlimited power and represented a deputy of God on earth. Below was a powerful administrative apparatus. The position and authority of a person in a traditional society is determined not by his wealth, but, first of all, by participation in public administration, which automatically ensures high prestige.
The culture of primitive society. In the course of his development and in the process of work, a person mastered new knowledge. In the primitive era, knowledge was exclusively applied in nature. Man knew the natural world around him very well, since he himself was part of it. The main areas of activity determined the areas of knowledge of ancient man. Thanks to hunting, he knew the habits of animals, the properties of plants and much more. The level of knowledge of an ancient person is reflected in his language. Thus, in the language of the Australian aborigines there are 10,000 words, among which there are almost no abstract and general concepts, but only specific terms denoting animals, plants, and natural phenomena.
The man knew how to treat illnesses, wounds, and apply splints for fractures. Ancient people used procedures such as bloodletting, massage, and compresses for medicinal purposes. Since the Mesolithic era, amputation of limbs, trephination of the skull, and a little later, filling of teeth have been known.
The counting of primitive people was primitive - they usually counted with the help of fingers and various objects. Distances were measured using body parts (palm, elbow, finger), days of travel, and arrow flight. Time was calculated in days, months, seasons.
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The question of the origin of art is still accompanied by controversy among researchers. Among scientists, the prevailing point of view is that art arose as a new effective means of cognition and understanding of the world around us. The beginnings of art appear in the Lower Paleolithic era. Incisions, ornaments, and drawings were found on the surface of stone and bone products.
In the Upper Paleolithic, man created painting, engraving, sculpture, used music and dance. Drawings of animals (mammoths, deer, horses) made in color using black, white, red and yellow paints were found in the caves. Caves with drawings are known in Spain, France, Russia, and Mongolia. Graphic drawings of animals, carved or carved on bone and stone, were also found.
In the Upper Paleolithic, figurines of women with pronounced sexual characteristics appeared. The appearance of figurines is possibly associated with the cult of the foremother and the establishment of a maternal clan community. Songs and dances played a large role in the life of primitive people. Dance and music are based on rhythm, and songs also originated as rhythmic speech.

2.2. Civilizations of the ancient world

Civilizations of the Ancient East. The Ancient East became the cradle of modern civilization. Here the first states, the first cities, writing, stone architecture, world religions and much more appeared, without which it is impossible to imagine the current human community. The first states arose in the valleys of large rivers. Agriculture in these areas was very productive, but this required irrigation work - drainage, irrigation, construction of dams and maintaining the entire irrigation system in order. The community alone could not cope with this. There was a growing need to unite all communities under the control of a single state.
For the first time, this happens in two places at once, independently of each other - in Mesopotamia (the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers) and Egypt at the end of the 4th-3rd millennium BC. e. Later the state
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appears in India, in the Indus River valley, and at the turn of the 3rd - 2nd millennium BC. e. - in China. These civilizations received the name in science river civilizations.
The most important center of ancient statehood was the region Mesopotamia. Unlike other civilizations, Mesopotamia was open to all migrations and trends. From here trade routes opened and innovations spread to other lands. The civilization of Mesopotamia continuously expanded and involved new peoples, while other civilizations were more closed. Thanks to this, West Asia is gradually becoming a flagship in socio-economic development. Here the potter's wheel and wheel, bronze and iron metallurgy, the war chariot and new forms of writing appear. Scientists trace the influence of Mesopotamia on Egypt and the civilization of ancient India.
Farmers settled Mesopotamia in the 8th millennium BC. e. Gradually they learned to drain wetlands. In the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates there is no stone, forests, or metals, but they are very rich in grain. Residents of Mesopotamia exchanged grain for items missing on the farm in the process of trading with neighbors. Stone and wood were replaced by clay. They built houses from clay, made various household items, and wrote on clay tables.
At the end of the 4th millennium BC. e. Several political centers arose in the Southern Mesopotamia, which united into the state of Sumer. Throughout its ancient history, the Mesopotamia region was the scene of a fierce struggle, during which power was seized by a city or conquerors who came from outside. From the 2nd millennium BC e. The city of Babylon begins to play a leading role in the region, becoming a powerful power under King Hammurabi. Then Assyria strengthens, which from the XIV to the VII centuries. BC e. was one of the leading states of Mesopotamia. After the fall of the Assyrian power, Babylon strengthened again - the Neo-Babylonian kingdom emerged. The Persians, immigrants from the territory of modern Iran, managed to conquer Babylonia in the 6th century. BC e. found the huge Persian kingdom.
Ancient civilization Egypt owes its appearance to the world's largest river, the Nile, and its annual floods.
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Egypt was divided into Upper (Nile Valley) and Lower (Nile Delta). Along the Nile, the first state associations arose - nomes, the center of which became temples. As a result of a long struggle, the nomes of Upper Egypt united and annexed Lower Egypt.
China how the state was formed in the Yellow River valley. Another great Chinese river, the Yangtze, flowing further south, was developed later. The Yellow River very often changed its course, flooding vast areas. To control the river, hard work was required to build dams and dams.
Egypt and China, despite their distance from each other, have a number of common features, which is explained by several reasons. These countries initially had an ethnically homogeneous population, the state apparatus was very stable; at the head of the state was a deified ruler. In Egypt this is the pharaoh - the son of the Sun, in China - the van, the son of Heaven. Within both civilizations, there was total control over the population, which was recruited to perform heavy duties. The basis of the Egyptian population were community members who were called “servants of the king” and were obliged to hand over the entire harvest to the state, receiving in return food or an allotment of land for cultivation. A similar system operated in China.
A huge role in a state of this type was played by priest-officials who controlled the apparatus and distributed food among the entire population. In Egypt, it was the priests who played the main role in the process of distributing material wealth. The temples had significant power, which allowed them to successfully resist the Center. Unlike Egypt, in China the religious component of the power of the state apparatus has faded into the background.
IN India, In the Indus River valley, a proto-Indian civilization arose. Large irrigation systems were created here and large cities were built. The ruins of two cities were found near the modern settlements of Kharalpa and Mohen-jo-Daro and. bear these names. Civilization has reached a high level of development here. This is evidenced by the presence of crafts, a sewer system, and writing. However, the writing of the proto-Indian civilization, in contrast to the hierog-
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Lifs of Egypt and cuneiform writing of Mesopotamia, has not yet been solved by scientists, and this civilization continues to remain a mystery to us. The reasons for the death of the civilization of Ancient India, which existed for several centuries, are also unknown.
In the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. e. The Aryan tribes invaded India. The Aryan language belongs to the Indo-European language family and is close to the Slavic languages. The Aryans settled in the Ganges River valley, subjugating the local population. The arriving Aryans lived primarily in a tribal system. At the head of the tribes were leaders - rajas, who relied on a layer of kshatriya warriors. Brahmin priests fought with kshatriyas for first place in society and the state.
The Aryans, not wanting to dissolve among the large local population, were forced to establish the varna system. According to this system, the population was distributed into four varnas - Brahmin priests, Kshatriya warriors, Vaishya producers, and Shudras - the conquered local population. Belonging to Varna was inherited, and it was impossible to change it. Marriages always took place between members of the same varna.
The varna system contributed to the conservation of Indian society. Since the Varnas took over some of the functions of the state, the state apparatus in India did not become as strong and influential as in other civilizations of the Ancient East.
IN Eastern Mediterranean A new form of civilizations emerges, different from the classical river states. The most ancient centers of agriculture and cattle breeding existed here, and the first urban centers arose here. The city of Jericho in Palestine is known as the oldest city in the world (8th millennium BC). The Eastern Mediterranean is a region located at the crossroads of major trade routes, connecting Asia, Europe and Africa.
C W thousand BC e. The cities of the Eastern Mediterranean are becoming important centers of transit trade. The rich cities and fertile lands of this region constantly served as the object of claims of major powers - Egypt, Assyria, and the Hittite kingdom (in Asia Minor). The Eastern Mediterranean is divided into three parts - in the north

re Syria, Palestine in the south, Phenicia in the center. The Phoenicians managed to become experienced sailors, engaged in transit trade, and founded their colonies throughout the Mediterranean. The Phoenicians invented alphabetic writing to help them formalize trade transactions. This alphabet formed the basis of all modern alphabets.
Phenicia turned out to be a transitional form of civilization, close to the ancient model.

Ancient civilization.

Greece. The oldest civilization in Europe arose on the islands of the Aegean Sea and on the Balkan Peninsula And known as the Crete-Mycenaean civilization (after the names of the centers - the islands of Crete and Mycenae, cities in southern Greece). The Cretan-Mycenaean civilization was a typical ancient Eastern civilization that existed in the 2nd millennium BC. e. Crete, like Phenicia, became famous as a maritime power with a powerful fleet. The death of the Cretan-Mycenaean civilization is associated with a number of natural disasters and the invasion of Greece and the islands of the Aegean Sea by northern tribes. This invasion led to the establishment of more backward tribal relations on the ruins of civilization. XII - IX centuries BC e. known in Greece as the Dark Ages.
In the VIII-VI centuries. BC e. Ancient civilization begins to take shape in Greece. The appearance of iron and corresponding tools played a major role in its development. In Greece there is not enough land for cultivation, so cattle breeding and then crafts have developed widely here. The Greeks, familiar with maritime affairs, were actively engaged in trade, which gradually led to their development of the surrounding territories located along the coast. Due to a catastrophic shortage of land resources, the Greeks were forced to found colonies in Italy, Asia Minor, and the Black Sea region.
With the division of labor and the emergence of a surplus product, the clan community is replaced by a neighboring community, but not a rural one, but an urban one. The Greeks called this community a polis. Gradually the policy was formalized into a city-state. There were hundreds of policies in Greece. Colonies were also created according to this model. Within the framework of the policy, there was a fierce struggle between the tribal nobility, who did not want to settle
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to blunt their power, and demos - humble members of the community.
The Greeks were aware of their unity - they called their homeland Hellas, and themselves Hellenes. They had a single pantheon of Olympian gods and pan-Hellenic sports competitions. However, all this did not stop them from regularly fighting among themselves.
One of the main features of Hellenic culture is the principle of competition and the desire for primacy, which is not typical for the civilizations of the East. In the polis, a situation arose when its power depended on citizens, who, in turn, were assigned certain responsibilities, but at the same time significant rights.
Greece was not united by one polis - their fragmentation and disunity prevented this. As a result, Greece was conquered first by Macedonia and then by Rome. But the Roman state, which conquered Greece, experienced the strongest influence of Greek culture. The achievements of Greek culture ultimately formed the basis of all European culture and civilization.
Ancient Rome. Rome was founded in 753 BC. e. in the region of Latium in central Italy. During its development, Rome borrowed the culture and achievements of its neighbors. The Etruscans, Rome's northern neighbors, had a particularly significant influence on Rome. According to legend, the Etruscans were immigrants from Asia Minor.
In the process of a long and stubborn struggle, Rome first conquered Latium, then neighboring regions. Rome managed to win victories thanks to an effective state and military organization. Using its location in the center of the Apennine Peninsula, Rome managed to divide the forces of its enemies and in turn conquer the Etruscans, the Celts of Italy, Magna Graecia (as the Greek colonies in Italy were called) and other tribes.
In the 3rd century. BC e. Rome, having subjugated all of Italy, collided with Carthage, a Phoenician colony in northern Africa. During three fierce wars, Rome defeated its rival and became the most powerful power in the Mediterranean. Lacking the culture of its rivals,

Rome resorted to borrowing it, introducing its own state order and structure to the conquered lands.
In the II - I centuries. n. e. Rome experienced a serious crisis. The Roman state was structured in the likeness of a polis. However, it is obvious that if a polis device can be effective for a city and its surroundings, then it is absolutely not suitable for a huge power. After a difficult and lengthy civil war, imperial power is established in Rome. During the era of the empire, Rome achieved its greatest power, uniting the lands of Western and Southern Europe, North Africa and Western Asia under its rule. During this period in the history of Ancient Rome, the slaveholding system began to play a major role.
BIII century n. e. The Roman Empire experienced a severe shock that affected all spheres of life in Roman society. The onslaught of barbarians on the borders of the empire, associated with the Great Migration of Peoples, and profound changes in the life of the empire led to a deep and irreversible crisis of ancient civilization. As a result, the Roman Empire split into two parts - Western and Eastern, and in the 5th century. n. e. The Western Roman Empire fell. 476, the year when the last Roman emperor was overthrown, is considered to be the milestone year between antiquity and the Middle Ages. The successor to Rome was the Eastern Roman Empire, centered in Constantinople.

Economy of the Ancient World.

Economy of the Ancient East. In the first states of the Ancient East, the state sector of the economy predominated, which existed simultaneously with the communal form of farming. The community members had the hereditary right to cultivate the land and use the necessary resources (forests, pastures, water). The land and other resources were controlled by the apparatus of power - the state or temple, which existed due to the surplus product obtained from direct producers. The duties of community producers took on various forms—the most common was the practice of the community allocating part of the harvest to the state, working in the fields of the temple, and working in the form of labor service. So, based on the re-
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distributive (distribution) relations created the material basis for the functioning of the state and its institutions.
Subsequently, the process of privatization developed, accompanied by the emergence of private property and market relations. New phenomena arise in the economy - land rent, hired labor, market orientation of producers and usury. If earlier society was more homogeneous, now it is differentiated according to property. Rich community members began to use the labor of the poor, and debt slavery appeared. This new type of economic relations did not spread further. The state restrained its development, since these processes contributed to the disruption of the stability of society and the weakening of the influence of the state.
Basically, the excess product went to the cities, where crafts and trade were concentrated. In the Ancient East, transit trade prevailed, since in a society of this type the internal market and market relations could not be highly developed. The state and society, interested in the stability of existence, restrained the development of the city by artificial means. Therefore, the city, like the whole society, was focused not on development, but on the conservation of existing relations.
A different situation arose in the cities of the Eastern Mediterranean, where there was no such strong state institution. This is especially true of Phoenician cities focused on transit trade. The Phoenicians anticipated and largely contributed to the formation of ancient civilization, which took shape in Greek society.
Economy of Ancient Greece and Rome. In Ancient Greece, favorable conditions developed for the formation of an economy based on private property. In the 1st millennium BC. e. Iron is distributed, increasing labor productivity. In Greece there are few fields suitable for grain crops, so horticulture and the cultivation of olives and grapes mainly developed here. The Greeks were in dire need of grain exports. During colonization, they settled in countries favorable for agriculture - Italy,
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Black Sea region, Egypt. In Greece itself, crafts developed, the products of which were exchanged for bread during trade.
The development of trade was facilitated by the emergence of money - a generally accepted unit of exchange. The first money appeared in Asia Minor and was immediately borrowed by the Greeks. In ancient Greek policies, commodity-money relations were formed and a market was formed. The favorable geographical location of Greece at the intersection of trade routes gave the Greeks great advantages. Greece consisted of many policies that were not united into a single state. A competitive struggle developed between these policies, developing entrepreneurship and initiative among the Greeks. The Greeks acquire private property, which is so uncharacteristic of the East.
At the center of the economy was the city-state (polis). Cities, as a rule, were located near the sea. Traders and artisans lived here, peasants came here to exchange the fruits of their labor - livestock, olives, grapes - for grain and handicraft products. With all this, one should not exaggerate the role of commodity-money relations in antiquity - the economy was mainly of a subsistence nature, and the degree of development of policies varied greatly.
Among the Romans, commodity-money relations began to develop only as a result of the empire’s conquest of vast territories. Constant wars contributed to the enrichment of the Roman nobility and the ruin of ordinary citizens. The plunder of conquered territories allowed Rome to maintain a huge professional army, which contributed to social order in society. Many impoverished citizens went to serve in the army. At the same time, in Rome there lived citizens who did not want to work and serve. Funds flowing in from all over the empire made it possible to support them through distributions of bread and money.
The institution of slavery was of great importance for the economy of Greece and Rome. Slavery also existed in the states of the Ancient East, being patriarchal. Under patriarchal slavery, the slave performs the function of a servant or helps his master in the household (there were relatively few such slaves and they did not play a significant role in the economy). In antiquity, classical slavery developed, within
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in which the number of slaves increases significantly, their exploitation intensifies, and the products of slave labor are often oriented towards the market. Slaves were preferred to be used in artisans' workshops and in mines. In agriculture, supervision was difficult and slaves were not used as often.
A constant source of replenishment of the number of slaves were wars continuously waged between policies. Debt slavery was not practiced by the Greeks for long; the realization of unity by citizens of one polis led to the destruction of this institution.
In Rome, the number of slaves was even greater than in Greek cities, since the Roman Empire continuously waged successful wars of conquest for several centuries. The enslavement of foreigners allowed the Romans to use mass slave labor in crafts and agriculture. Latifundia appeared - large land farms in which, under the leadership of overseers, exclusively slave labor was used. In some places, slaves became the main producers, which led to the ruin of ordinary community members.
It should be noted that slavery brought the ancient economy to a standstill. The use of slavery did not allow the intensification of production. The extensive path of development, aimed at expanding production and increasing the number of slaves, ended in a deep crisis after the end of the wars of conquest. As a result, new, proto-feudal economic relations gradually began to mature in the depths of antiquity.

Social structure of societies of the Ancient world.

Social structure of the Ancient East. Eastern society was strictly hierarchical and organized like a pyramid. The top of the pyramid was occupied by a ruler with power sanctified by the gods. Below him were the nobility, priests, and senior officials. A large apparatus of officials monitored the management and functioning of the state. Warriors serving as part of the standing army ensured internal order in the state and its protection from external enemies.
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The bulk of society was made up of communal peasants. The rural community was the main production unit of society, and the main unit of the community was the large patriarchal family. During the privatization process, property inequality appears and, as a result, dependent categories of the population. Dependence could take the form of debt bondage or land lease relations.
Traders and artisans lived in the cities. Craftsmen often became dependent, finding themselves part of the state or temple economy. Among the traders, there is a privileged stratum of merchants engaged in transit trade with other countries.
At the very bottom of society were slaves. The source of obtaining slaves was, first of all, the capture of prisoners of war and only later debt slavery. As already mentioned, slavery was patriarchal, the slave was part of a large patriarchal family.
In the East, a system of corporations has emerged as a structure organizing society. Partly these corporations became already known social institutions (families, clans, communities), partly new ones (castes, sects, guilds). Corporations in the East were cohesive and organized groups of the population, having their own charter and their own standards of behavior that distinguished them from other corporations. The corporation provided its member with certain guarantees of protection from arbitrariness common in Eastern society. The man was closely involved in the life of the corporation. The downside of this involvement was a kind of dissolution of the person in the team. A person recognized himself, first of all, as part of a team, and not as a separate person, independent of others.
Through corporations it was easier for the state to control society. Government officials only had to turn to the head of the corporation to achieve what they wanted.
IN India a structure of society developed that was different from other ancient Eastern societies. Indian society consisted of varnas and castes. The four varnas were mentioned above.
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Over time, the fourth, lower varna of the Shudras began to increase their status, drawing closer in their position to the Vaishyas, who accordingly lost some of their positions.
The Kshatriya and Brahmin varnas were at the very top of Indian society. There was a constant struggle for power between them. The Brahmins relied on unquestioned religious authority. According to Brahmanism, the oldest Indian religion, Brahmins occupy a higher social position than Kshatriyas. As a result, this confrontation ended in favor of the Brahmins. The attempt of the Kshatriyas to replace Brahmanism with Buddhism and Jainism ended in failure. Until now, Hinduism, which developed from Brahmanism, has dominated in India.
According to the ideas of the inhabitants of Ancient India, a person during his earthly life could not leave the composition of his varna. But, according to the law of karma, good and bad deeds were summed up, and as a result, a person could change varna to a better one in a future life. If bad deeds prevailed, the person was reborn as a sudra or animal. The law of karma led to the passivity of Indians in social life, contributing to their concentration on moral improvement.
Over time, the varna system only became tougher and more extensive. Varnas were divided into subcategories - castes. The whole society became a strict caste system. The conquerors who invaded India found a certain place in this structure and joined it as a new caste. Below the caste system were the untouchables, outside society and the law, any contact with them was prohibited.
Social structure of Ancient Greece. The Greek polis functioned as a community state. The pillars of the policy were citizens - full members of the policy. Citizens had rights and responsibilities in accordance with the laws of the policy, and participated in its management and protection. All citizens, depending on their wealth, were divided into categories, according to which they were assigned corresponding property responsibilities. The policy guaranteed the citizen's rights, including, very importantly, the right to private property.
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Incomplete members of the polis included dependent peasants who had lost their land, and foreigners. Both those and others did not have the right to participate in the management of the policy, since they did not own the land. Foreigners, who were called metics, could be rich people, but did not have political rights.
If a citizen of the polis enjoyed greater freedom than a representative of ancient Eastern society, then slaves in Greece and Rome were in a worse position than in the East. Stable Eastern society, by and large, did not seek to increase the exploitation of slaves. Under patriarchal slavery, the slave was considered the youngest member of the family.
In Greece and then Rome, commodity-money relations and a market-oriented economy led to increased exploitation of slaves. Slaves began to be seen not as people with any rights, but as means of making profit. The owner treated the slave as his property and could do with him what he wanted. A common situation was when a slave was sent to the mines, where he quickly died, and was replaced by a new slave bought at the market. In the Roman Empire, a special category of slaves appeared who fought among themselves for the entertainment of citizens - gladiators.
In Greece there was no powerful priestly layer. The Greeks treated their gods differently than in the East. The Greek gods were similar to people, had advantages and disadvantages, and there was not such a huge distance between the gods and people as in the East.
Social structure of Ancient Rome. In Rome, unlike the Greek city-states, ancestral remnants existed longer and had a stronger influence on public life. The Roman family is a classic example of a large patriarchal family. The head of the family had complete control over his home and could execute, sell into slavery, or punish his relatives. He also performed priestly functions in his home.
Roman citizens were called Quirites. Initially, only patricians, the descendants of the first inhabitants of Rome, had citizenship rights. Plebeians - descendants of later settlers - did not participate in political, social
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noah and religious life of the community, despite the fact that they were more numerous. After a long struggle, the plebeians forced the patricians to cede some of their rights to them. As a result, Roman society was divided into three classes: nobility (nobility); horsemen (representatives of this class at one time served in the cavalry); plebeians. The nobility occupied government positions, the horsemen were traders and financiers, the plebeians were direct producers. Plebeians could not apply for election to public office.
The main occupation of citizens in Rome, unlike Greece, was agriculture, which was not market-oriented. Citizen-farmers formed the basis of the Roman army, conscripted into service V case of war. Later, when the Romans could no longer simultaneously wage war throughout the Mediterranean and run their own household, the Roman army became professional. Impoverished peasants became professional soldiers.
The number of Roman citizens was small compared to the number of inhabitants of the lands conquered by Rome. Gradually, the Romans were forced to divide the conquered lands into several categories (provinces), imposing various taxes on them. Residents of the provinces sought to become Roman citizens. Typically, Roman citizenship was acquired through service in the Roman army. Over time, the provincial nobility gained great influence and began to nominate Roman emperors as their representatives. Finally, in 212 AD. e. All inhabitants of the Roman Empire received Roman citizenship.

States of the Ancient World.

The state in the societies of the Ancient East. Several types of government systems have developed in the East.
Within the framework of despotism, there is a strong state power necessary to maintain irrigation systems. Characterized by the unlimited power of the ruler and an extensive state apparatus consisting of officials and soldiers. These are Egypt, China, the states of Mesopotamia.
In a military monarchy, the corresponding aggressive function of the state came first. Wars of conquest and plunder were constantly taking place here.
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Russian campaigns to neighboring lands. This type of government was the most widespread in the East (Hittite kingdom, Assyria).
The city-state arose, as a rule, by the sea, where there were no large states. The economy of such a state was closely connected with transit trade (states of the Eastern Mediterranean - Tire, Sidon, Ugarit).
The military-administrative state differed from the military monarchy in that a unified system of administrative management was established in all conquered countries (the military monarchy retained the old system of management in the conquered country, limiting itself to the collection of tribute). This type of state is characteristic of world powers - the Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian and Persian kingdoms.
State in Ancient Greece. At first, royal power was widespread in Greece, but later the Greek kings - basileus - were removed from government. The monarchy was replaced by aristocracy - “the power of the best,” that is, the nobility came to power. But the demos fought with the aristocrats, and as a result, tyrants seized power. The word "tyrant" initially did not have a negative connotation. This is the name given to a person who illegally seized power. At the same time, tyrants used their power for the benefit of the people, weakening the position of the aristocracy. The tyrant could enjoy great authority. His rule usually came to naught only in the second generation, when the sons of the tyrant, who did not have his experience and authority, came to power.
In Athens, a new type of state developed and reached its peak - democracy - “power of the people.” Within the framework of Athenian democracy, the highest power belonged to the people's assembly. Nine archons were elected annually in Athens to govern the polis. Applicants for many government positions were chosen by lot, which prevented the richest and most powerful from usurping power. Public positions were paid for, which favored the participation of poor citizens of the policy in government. Classical democracy developed in Athens as an example of a new government system. However, Athenian democracy provided democratic rights only to citizens.
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In the Spartan state there was an aristocratic form of government. The popular assembly of Sparta could only reject or approve proposals put forward by the council of elders. At the head of the governance system of Sparta were two kings, whose power was elective. There was a constant struggle between Sparta and Athens for dominance in Hellas. Despite the fact that Sparta won this war, not a single policy had sufficient power to unite all of Hellas. Other conquerors were able to do this - first Macedonia, then Rome.
The Macedonian king Philip managed to subjugate all of Greece to his power. His son Alexander the Great became famous as the greatest conqueror of antiquity. Having crushed the Persian kingdom at the head of his small army, he founded a power that stretched from the Mediterranean to India. After Alexander's death, the state broke up into several states, headed by Alexander's comrades-in-arms. These states are called Hellenistic. The Hellenistic period lasted from the end of the 4th century. BC e. to the 1st century BC e. Hellenism combined the features of Eastern and Greek civilizations.
State in Ancient Rome. Rome was also originally ruled by kings. But their power was gradually overthrown. As a result, a republican system was formed in Rome (the republic is a “common cause”). Within the framework of the republic, power was exercised exclusively by the nobility, since the Quirites holding certain positions did not receive any payment for this, but, on the contrary, were obliged to organize holidays at their own expense.
The main body of the republic was the Senate, which included only the nobility. Each year two consuls were elected to govern Rome. The interests of the plebeians were defended by the tribunes of the people, elected from among them.
Republican governing bodies could not provide effective governance when Rome began to turn into the largest Mediterranean power. As a result of civil wars that took place in the 2nd - 1st centuries. BC e., Octavian Augustus established his sole rule in power in Rome. Rome became an empire. Republican institutions were preserved, and Rome formally remained a republic.
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The crisis that erupted in III V. n. e., led to further transformation of the Roman state. Rome became an empire of the eastern type - a dominant. In an effort to strengthen the influence of the empire in the conquered territories, Emperor Constantine adopted the Eastern religion - Christianity - and moved the capital to the East - to Constantinople (modern Istanbul). But these measures only allowed for a temporary extension of the existence of the Roman Empire. Barbarian invasions and a deep internal crisis led to the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. n. e.

Picture of the world of ancient people.

Each era in the history of mankind is distinguished by its own special, unique rhythm of life, its values, norms and ideas about the world. All this is in close relationship with human economic activity, the level of development of his knowledge, methods of meeting various needs, known as the method of farming. The above together forms the worldview of a person of a certain era, developing into a special picture of the world.
What is it "painting peace"? How can we define this concept? Scientists, as a rule, distinguish three of its components:

1. a person's sense of self;
2. their idea of ​​space, their vision of it;
3. sense of time.

These three general categories fully characterize the changing structure of the world and the place of man in it. Thus, the picture of the world is a person’s sense of self, based on ideas about space and time. It should be noted that “space” and “time” here are not only and not so much absolute physical quantities, but subjective forms of their perception in individual eras. Space in this case acts as a really existing world space with all the diversity of its constituent objects and phenomena, characterized by different properties, origin and purpose. The concept of time is also specific and includes both astronomical time and biological
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social (the time of successive generations), individual (stages of human development from birth to death), social (development of society, individual people, state).
The picture of the world is, of course, reflected in the monuments of material culture, but due to the complexity and ambiguity of their decoding, as well as their very incomplete (fragmentary) reflection of the period under study, they are not able to recreate the picture of the world of ancient man on a full scale.
The most vivid and complete picture of the world is presented in spiritual culture, especially within the framework of the religious beliefs of representatives of the primitive era.
For a person during the period of appropriating economy and tribal organization, primitive religious beliefs are characteristic - fetishism, magic and fortune telling, animism, totemism, the cult of the mother goddess, etc. With the transition to an appropriating economy and the creation of states and a slave society, mythology and mythological consciousness are formed. (Myth is a special way of reflecting the world in the human mind, characterized by sensory-figurative ideas about unprecedented creatures, phenomena, and processes.) The emergence of feudal relations and the associated system of moral norms were embodied in new, more complex religious teachings. Ancient civilizations on this path gave birth to Confucianism and Buddhism, which were still closely associated with the previous, mythological worldview. A new stage in the development of mankind is the emergence of monotheism, which preceded the emergence of world religions - Christianity and Islam. Christianity, in particular, drew a line under the previous spiritual experience of mankind, creating on its basis a fundamentally new worldview system built on different values.
Primitive cults of the pre-civilization period are a kind of illustration of the process of formation of human self-awareness. A person has not yet felt himself as an individual, imagining himself as an integral part of a tribe or clan. This is supported by rock carvings in which people are deprived of individual characteristics: features are not drawn
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The faces and figures are very sketchy. Only dark silhouettes predominate. In addition, people were mostly depicted in groups performing some action together (hunting, ritual, etc.).
The world seemed to be one and whole, and man was only a part of this huge organism. Man was not yet able to influence the processes taking place; his life depended entirely on the world around him. He felt a strong attachment, interconnection and close kinship with this world. This is how totemism appears - a system of beliefs according to which a separate clan or tribe traced its origins to a common ancestor - some animal or plant. A tribe or clan bore the name of its totem, which was considered a kind and caring patron.
Severe dependence on the surrounding world, the inability to understand the causes and essence of the phenomena occurring in it contributed to the emergence of magic and fortune telling. Magic was a more active form of expression, suggesting the ability to somehow influence the world through appealing to its individual forces. Not only animals and plants were spiritualized, but also the inanimate world and natural phenomena (rain, wind, storm, etc.). By addressing them, speaking their language, sharing with them something vitally important and acquired at the cost of great effort, a person tried to change the world around him in a direction favorable to himself.
Fortune telling was a consequence of a person’s guess 6 of the pattern and interconnection of phenomena occurring in the world. Having no idea about the systemic nature of the world, a person could only discover individual chains of this system. Starting from the idea of ​​the universal interdependence of natural and social phenomena, man began to guess by the cracks on bones and shards, by the flight of an eagle. Then the first rudiments of abstract and mathematical thinking began to penetrate into the process of fortune telling. A classic example is the Chinese Book of Changes.
Man - a representative of the primitive era - saw life in everything, all objects and phenomena of the world were spiritualized by him. This is how animism developed - the belief in the existence of spirits, the spiritualization of the forces of nature, animals, plants and inanimate objects, attributing to them intelligence, capacity and supernatural power.
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Over time, the abilities and possibilities of humanity grow, the economic structure changes: from an appropriator, a person moves to a producing economy. The first states appear. Civilization is born. The picture of the world is also changing. It acquires greater systematicity and orderliness, a sense of time, and a mythological consciousness is formed. During this period, the mythology of the Ancient East and the states of antiquity was formed.
Mythology of the Ancient East well known from the ideas of the societies of Ancient Egypt and Sumer. There was a whole pantheon of gods here, each of which was “responsible” for a certain area, category of natural phenomena or human activity. Among them, one with outstanding abilities and qualities gradually stands out. At certain points in history, he begins to claim absolute supremacy among other deities. The emergence of a pantheon of gods, the formation of certain relationships and hierarchies between them, often interpreted as relationships of dominance and subordination, reflected changes in the structure of society and ideas about the world. From now on, relations within the community are extrapolated to the natural world, and not vice versa, as was the case before. Man finally highlights his active transformative role, which is expressed in the anthropomorphization of religious ideas. Egyptian gods, for example, were depicted with the body of a man and the heads of various animals. The latter can be considered not only an echo of previous beliefs, but also simply a way of illustrating the character, individual traits of a particular deity.
Ideas about the otherworldly existence of the soul are becoming more complex, as a result of which the understanding of space and time has expanded in human consciousness. The ordering, hierarchization of the sometimes extremely inflated (as in Sumer) pantheon of gods, the gradual schematization of their images, abstract reflections on extra-experimental phenomena (the afterlife, the world of the gods) speak of the development of abstract thinking. Thus, the categories of space and time in human consciousness expand and become multifaceted.
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In Eastern mythology, the idea of ​​evil and its struggle with good appears, while ancient mythology postulated the principle of harmony and completeness of the world. The word, which is understood both as a designation of a phenomenon, and as knowledge, and as a process of cognition, and as a specific form of existence of a phenomenon, acquires important significance. At the same time, the idea of ​​space as a structured, ordered world is limited to the boundaries of the community’s habitat. Beyond these limits, the world turns into nothing, that is, into chaos. A textbook example is the idea of ​​the ancient Greeks that a ship, going out to sea beyond the limits of visibility, would disappear completely.
Space in mythological thinking becomes wider and more multifaceted, time acquires a more complex rhythm, returning to the source and becoming cyclical. The world is therefore thought to be infinite. From isolating parts of the world during the period of primitive cults, humanity moved on to synthesizing these parts and creating a whole, harmonious and complete picture of the world. In the previous era, man mastered space, now he began to master time.
Mythology is being replaced by more complex religious teachings. So, in the VI - V centuries. BC originates in India Buddhism. According to this teaching, human life invariably represents suffering. Suffering is a consequence of man's never-ending and ever-increasing desires that cannot be satisfied. Final and endless bliss comes only with the achievement of nirvana (enlightenment). Nirvana was understood as liberation from the endless chain of rebirths and dissolution into space. Rebirths occur as a result of a constant flow of elementary particles of matter and consciousness - dharmas - interlocking into different forms. A person’s current life is determined by the entire complex of his previous existence, or karma. Everything in this world is doomed to an endless and meaningless chain of rebirths (samsara). Buddha proclaimed the “middle way” of achieving nirvana - a renunciation of both the extremes of asceticism and self-deception by the delights of this world, which was considered illusory. Space in Buddhism has expanded even more, embracing the world of elementary invisible particles, but this reality
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became unsteady. Time has retained cyclicality and infinity.
Confucianism It is difficult to call it a religion in the full sense of the word. Having originated as a complex of moral and ethical ideas, it was subsequently sacralized and received the status of an official ideology. This teaching has a very real founder - this is Kun Tzu, or Confucius (551 - 479 BC). Confucius created the concept of ren, love of humanity. It was expressed through devotion to the sovereign - “zhong”, fidelity to duty - “i”, filial piety - “xiao”, generosity - “kuan” and a number of other positive characteristics. The ideal of Confucius was “junzi” - “noble man”. Confucianism represented Heaven as the highest power, which determines the destiny of man. Confucianism preached a strict hierarchical order, sanctified by tradition, according to which the younger in age and position should obey the elder, and the elder, in turn, should take care of the younger.
An unusual and very interesting phenomenon in the history of mankind is Judaism. The emergence of this religion is associated with a radical restructuring of man’s ideas about the world and his place in it. From now on, a direct and directly connecting vertical was built between man and the highest power, God. The destinies of the whole world became subject only to him, and man found himself in second place in the world, after God. The world is changing its structure. From limited he becomes infinite, in accordance with the all-encompassing power of God. From relatively amorphous and spherical to clearly aligned vertically. From being subject to the desires of a person through magic - subject only to God and favorable to a person in accordance with the measure of his faith in God and the God-pleasing of his actions.
The next stage in the development of the human worldview was Christianity. It symbolized the crisis of ancient ideas about the world, establishing a new understanding of the world order. What are the differences between Christianity and previous religions? Firstly, in Christianity there is only one God, as opposed to the political
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theism of the ancient world. Secondly, he appears as the absolute ruler and creator of the world, in contrast to the Olympian gods, who personified individual natural forces and were subject to the absolute harmony of the Cosmos. God in Christianity is separated from the world, which is only his creation, and is endowed with supernatural powers. And, finally, this same God created man himself as the pinnacle of his creation, created him in his own image, placing man above the rest of the world, endowing him with a unique ability to create.
The appearance of such ideas meant the final separation of man from nature, as well as the isolation of the individual from the collective. Personality enters the arena of world history.
But the world itself is changing. Time ceases to be cyclical. According to the norms of Christianity, everything has its beginning from the moment of creation by God and the end, seen in the future as the Last Judgment. Man has truly become a grain of sand in this world, but at the same time the most significant and “outstanding” grain of sand.
Cultural heritage of ancient civilizations.
One of the oldest on earth is Egyptiancivilization. Within the framework of this civilization, during the three thousand years of its existence, many outstanding cultural monuments were created, many of which have survived to our time.
“By the beginning of the Old Kingdom era in Egypt, a writing system emerged that was called hieroglyphic (from the Greek hieros - “sacred”). At the same time, cursive writing and cursive (demotic) writing existed in Egypt. All three types of writing were used for different purposes. They wrote on stone and papyrus. The writing system had both ideograms, which conveyed individual concepts, and phonograms, which conveyed sounds. Writing was valued as an art, and the position of a scribe was considered one of the most honorable.
Egypt is always associated primarily with the pyramids, which are one of the most grandiose creations of mankind in its entire history. Erected in
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era of Ancient Egypt, the pyramids served as tombs of kings, reflecting the boundless faith in the power of the gods and the kings (pharaohs) representing them on earth. First, step pyramids were built (the pyramid of Djoser, 28th century BC), then pyramids with broken edges appeared. However, for the most part these are structures with smooth smooth edges and a square base. In Giza, near Cairo, there are three great pyramids built by the pharaohs of the TV dynasty. All three have the same axis direction and the same orientation. The height of the largest is 147 m, it is known as the Pyramid of Cheops. The mass of each block in it is approximately 2.5 tons. The pyramids are the only one of the seven wonders of the world that have survived to this day. Giza was an entire architectural complex, which also included pyramid-tombs of nobles and mortuary temples attached to the pyramid on the eastern side. In addition to the pyramids, there were rock tombs characteristic of the New Kingdom. During the eras of the Middle and New Kingdoms, majestic temples in honor of gods and pharaohs, and palaces of rulers were also created. The temple architecture is distinguished by its monumentality and extraordinary richness of decoration.
The sculpture of Ancient Egypt was also closely associated with the mortuary cult. The figurines were considered to be the residence of one of the souls of the deceased, and they were placed in temples and tombs. The pharaoh was always depicted in the prime of his life with an impassive and majestic expression of face and posture. There were certain canonical requirements in the genre of sculpture. Standing statues are always strictly frontal, their figures are tensely straightened, their heads are set straight, their arms are lowered and pressed tightly to the body, their left leg is slightly pushed forward. The statues were made of wood, granite, basalt and other rocks, and they were usually painted: male figures in brick red, and female figures in yellow. On the bas-reliefs the head and legs were depicted in profile, the shoulders and chest were depicted in front. Egyptian sculpture reached its peak during the New Kingdom.
Characteristic feature Sumerian-Akkadian culture is the creation of a unique writing system - cuneiform, which was not sound writing, but contained ideas
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grams denoting whole words, vowels or syllables. There were about 600 characters in total. A special genre in literature consists of lamentations - works about the destruction of Sumerian cities due to raids by neighbors. The most common were etiological (explanatory) myths about the creation of the world and man, the Great Flood, the death and resurrection of the fertility gods.
The temple architecture of Sumer was unique, characterized by the use of high platforms. Temple towers - ziggurats - followed the Sumerians by the Akkadians and Babylonians. The ziggurats consisted of three stages, built in accordance with the divine triad, and were built from raw brick.
One of the most magnificent cities of ancient Mesopotamia was Babylon. Protected by a double wall, it had eight gates, the most famous being the 12-meter-high gate of the goddess Ish-tar. Lined with turquoise glazed bricks and decorated with ornaments of sculptures of lions, dragons and bulls, they made a stunning impression. Situated on both banks of the Euphrates, the city was connected by a stone bridge - one of the first in the world.

The specificity of the literature of ancient Babylon was in the initial presentation of the plot and its subsequent development. Babylonian literature was largely borrowed from Sumerian sources, most of the works were written in poetic form. One of the main topics was the problem of undeserved human suffering and the inevitability of death.

Developed much more dynamically Greek culture. An outstanding monument of Cretan-Mycenaean (3rd - 2nd millennium BC) architecture was the Knossos Palace of King Minos. The main attraction of this palace was the fresco painting. The ancient Greeks created their greatest epic works - the Iliad and the Odyssey. A significant discovery of the Greeks was the creation of their own writing system. Having borrowed the alphabet from the Phoenicians, they significantly improved it by adding vowels. Ancient Greek architecture is characterized by the presence of two directions, or styles - Doric and Ionic. Doric style is strict, solemn and massive. Before-
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The ric column had no base, growing directly from the base of the temple. The Ionic order was distinguished by lighter proportions, grace and widespread use of decorative elements. The Ionic column always had a base and was lighter and thinner than the Doric.
The Greek temple was considered the dwelling of a god; as a rule, it contained a statue of the god in whose honor it was erected. The ensemble of the Athens Acropolis occupies a special place in the history of architecture. The largest building here is the Temple of Athena the Virgin, the Parthenon.
The sculpture, amazing in its skill, was devoid of individual and psychological traits, depicting people according to ancient ideas about beauty.
The outstanding achievement of the Greeks was the art of making ceramics and vase painting. It featured black-figure and red-figure styles. Greek theater and Attic tragedy are of great importance. Some works created by ancient Greek playwrights still occupy an important place in the repertoire of modern theaters. Ancient culture revealed an amazing wealth of forms, images and methods of expression, laying the foundations of aesthetics, ideas about harmony and thus expressing its attitude to the world.

Questions for section 2

1. What types of periodization of the history of primitive society
used in science? What are their main criteria?
2. Name the main stages of anthropogenesis.
3. How does a proto-state differ from a state?
4. What is the “Neolithic Revolution”? What are its consequences?
5. List the main forms of primitive religion.
6. How does a pastoral civilization differ from an agricultural civilization?
7. What are the consequences of introducing metal into production?
8. What is a prestige economy?
9. Why did the head of the proto-state need to concentrate priestly power in his hands?

10. Trace the evolution of human society from the primitive herd to the rural neighboring community.
11. What forms of states of the Ancient World do you know?
12. What is the reason for the enormous role that the state played in the life of Eastern society?
13. How do ancient civilizations differ from ancient Eastern ones?
14. What are the characteristic features of the policy?

15. What forms of slavery do you know and how do they differ from each other?
16. Tell us about the structure of Eastern society. What are the specifics of Indian society?

17. Why is Eastern society so stable?
18. What role did the sea play in the economy of ancient states?
19. How was time represented in mythological consciousness and why?
20. How did the crisis of the ancient worldview manifest itself?
21. Describe the dynamics of ideas about space
and time through three eras: the time of primitive cults,
the time of mythological consciousness, the time of monotheism.
22. What is the significance of the canon in Egyptian culture?
23. Describe the similarities and differences in the culture of Egypt and Mesopotamia.
24. What achievements can be considered the most significant contribution of the Greeks to the treasury of world culture?

According to various evidence and studies, approximately three million years ago (although the alternative history of mankind also gives other figures), man emerged from the animal world. About 35 thousand years ago, the formation of modern people began. Thirty thousand years later, civilizations began to emerge in different parts of the world.

If the history of mankind were equated to a day, then from the formation of classes and states to our time, according to scientists, only 4 minutes would have passed.

The primitive communal system was the longest stage. It lasted about a million years. It should be noted that it is very difficult to name the exact time when human history began. The upper limit (the final stage) of the primitive communal system varies within different limits depending on the continent. For example, classes in Africa and Asia began to form at the turn of the 4th-3rd centuries. BC e., in America - 1st century. BC e.

How human history began, why, where and when it happened remains a mystery. Unfortunately, there are no monuments from those eras.

Humanity is carried out differently by different scientists.

Even ancient Roman and ancient Chinese philosophers knew about the existence of three (copper), stone and iron. In the 19th - early 20th centuries, this archaeological periodization received scientific development. As a result, scientists typologized the stages and eras of these periods.

Lasted several times longer than the entire subsequent history of mankind. The division into stages within this era is based on the complication and change in the forms of stone tools.

The Stone Age began with the Paleolithic (Old Stone), in which, in turn, scientists distinguish the stage of the Lower (Early), Middle and Upper (Late) Paleolithic.

The Stone Age ends with the Neolithic (New Stone Age). At the end of this period the first copper tools appeared. This indicates the formation of a special stage - the Eneolithic (Chalcolithic).

The structure of the internal periodization of subsequent centuries (New Stone, Iron and Bronze) is presented differently by different researchers. The defined cultures within the stages themselves also differ quite strongly.

Archaeological periodization is based entirely on technological aspects and does not provide an idea of ​​the formation of production as a whole. Currently, the system of division into stages is not so much global as regional.

A certain limitation of goals is present in the paleoanthropological periodization of the primitive system. It is based on the principle of biological evolution of people. According to this system of division into stages of development, researchers talk about the existence of ancient (archanthropus), ancient (paleoanthropus), and also fossil modern (neoanthropus) humans. Despite some controversial points, the paleoanthropological system of dividing human development into stages closely echoes the archaeological system.

At the same time, these special periodizations of human history cannot be compared in importance with the general system of dividing the past of people. The development of a direction for a historical and material understanding of human development was first seriously begun by Morgan (an American ethnographer). In accordance with the division of the entire process into eras of civilization, barbarism and savagery established in the 18th century, taking into account the indicators of the level of development of the production of “means of life”, the American ethnographer identified a higher, middle and lower stage in each indicated era. Subsequently, Engels, highly appreciating this periodization, generalized it.

The story will be abstract; I will not dwell on the details. If anything - ... For now - let it be just a story.

As I already said, it has been genetically established that there are seven main genotypes of homo sapiens sapiens, and six of the “first people” were men. The woman was alone, her genotype is the most ancient and belongs to the oldest race discovered by archaeologists in East and Southern Africa (Ethiopia, Chad, South Africa). The appearance of this ancient race in the Afar Valley is dated (conventionally) 140-150 thousand years ago. As sad as it may be, this is exactly what the first people looked like - look at the pygmies of South Africa, the Bushmen, the Hottentots, and so on. These are the speakers of the Khoisan languages, the oldest on Earth - and the closest to the first human language (they contain specific clicking sounds that are not inherent in any other language macrofamily, and indicate insufficient development of the mental part of the lower jaw and the presence of a deep palatal vault). The spread of the Khoisans across the African continent was gradual and continued over thousands of years. As a result, about 100 thousand years ago, the Khoisans spread all the way to North Africa and went beyond the continent. They were not prepared for the temperature changes that encountered them, and spread exclusively to the East - along the coast of the Indian Ocean, populating South Asia. Europe was covered with ice; Asia was dominated by the harsh mammoth steppe. This settlement took approximately 30 thousand years...

Then, about 71 thousand years ago, a natural cataclysm of unprecedented force occurred, a wave of volcanic eruptions swept across Southeast Asia (archaeologists found a compressed layer of ash - coke, 3 meters thick, dating back to this time - on the Hindustan Peninsula). The first wave of people in Asia was almost completely destroyed, leaving only their African fellow tribesmen and a pitiful handful of those who were lucky to survive...

Nature does not tolerate emptiness, and the only way out of the situation was to speed up the evolutionary process (this happened long before that, when Nature relied on lizards - who ruled the Earth, were quite smart, their upright species appeared, etc. - and if if not for the fatal circumstances that led to the dominance of large mammals - allosaurs and velociraptors would probably have been our ancestors...).

This solution was genetic drift, which caused intraspecific mutations...

The proto-linguistic communities that developed on the ancient Khoisan basis as a result of genetic drift (mentioned “6 men”) - in chronological order: Indo-Pacific, Congo-Saharan (belong to the black large human race), Amerindian, Austrian(yellow large human race), Sino-Caucasian and Nostratic (white large human race). ... Here I moved away from the generally accepted names of races - because... I consider them inaccurate - for example, the Mongols, who gave the name to the Mongoloid race, were originally white; As for Caucasians, it wasn’t just white people who lived in Europe, etc. ...

Representatives of each first community in their race are characterized by a brachymorphic body type, and each second - younger - dolichomorphic.

This mutation dragged on for about 25 thousand years (during this time 6 subsequent waves arose), counting from the Cataclysm... The first wave of people - the Indo-Pacific - appeared again in Africa, and began to intensively populate the continent, methodically spreading to the North . The first wave had not yet had time to significantly change its appearance compared to its predecessors - these were the ancestors of the population of Australia, Oceania, Tasmanian and Andamanian pygmies, Papuans of Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, etc. Their eviction outside Africa was facilitated by the formation of the second wave of the same black race - the Congo-Saharan - as it turned out, in the course of evolution, the most adapted to the newly established climate of tropical Africa. They multiplied like black rabbits, and therefore began to crowd out the Indo-Pacific, which had already lost their relevance. The latter settled along the coast of the Indian Ocean and island chains - all the way to Southeast Asia. On the ocean coast they formed primitive, but (as it turned out much later) quite strong settlements. It was their genotype that influenced the appearance of the Dravidians who came later to Hindustan, and through them - the Caucasians (the Dravidians, in turn, darkened the Aryans who came here - this can be seen from the appearance of the Indians mentioned already in antiquity).

The Congo-Saharans settled the black continent, famously adapting to the climate and having no serious competitors. They were divided into the main language families - Niger-Kordofanian and Nilo-Saharan. Until the arrival of the Nostratians they will live in peace...

The appearance of the yellow race was more rapid... Its emergence is already taking place in the Middle East. Two waves appeared in the interval of some 10-15 thousand years. Amerindians(i.e., the ancestors of the main indigenous population of the Americas) moved along the island chains of the Indian Ocean and the coast of Asia, crowding out and assimilating their dark-skinned predecessors. But in fact, they did not manage to leave significant traces in South Asia, because... they've already been poked in the back Austrians. The only long-term place of residence of the Amerindians in Asia, where they were able to leave their genetic trace, which subsequently influenced the peoples who came here, is Eastern Siberia and the Far East. The Austrians, driven from their places by white people, were here and drove them into a corner... This was about 20-23 thousand years ago. Further - Amerindians There were two routes ahead - the southern one, through the islands of Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia (in short, Oceania), already inhabited by the Indo-Pacific, to Cape Horn and to South America. Few followed this path, because... No one had any idea about the existence of South America. However, those who passed here subsequently multiplied across the continent, having no competitors in the person of Homo sapiens, and became speakers of the Amerind languages ​​of South America. The bulk Amerindians surged to the North (17 thousand years ago), through the land, covered with glaciers, the Bering Bridge (this path was already familiar to man - hunters had already moved across the icy firmament to the New World, considering it a direct continuation of Asia). Spreading along the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, northern Amerindians also quickly populated and developed the new continent. Two waves - moving towards each other - will meet approximately in the territory of Mesoamerica, where Mesoamerican languages ​​will later arise. Austrians- settled much further north than the Amerindians, as far as the retreating Siberian glaciers allowed them. Assimilation with the Indo-Pacific will subsequently cause such hybrid phenotypic. signs that can be observed now in Southeast Asia; the great diversity of the Papuan languages ​​of Oceania is also caused by the mixing of these two large groups.

When Sino-Caucasians will undertake a massive migration to the East - the Austrians will split into two branches, which later became two related language families - Austronesian and Austroasiatic. The Austronesians, moving through the islands of Oceania, will partly mix with the Indo-Pacific, partly push them from their homes to the same South America, where the dominant genes of black peoples, spreading from south to north, will reach the same Mesoamerica, now finally dividing (and in appearance too) the tribes of the southern and northern continents of the New World - which is quite noticeable in the appearance of the Olmecs (later the Toltecs), Maya-Kiche, Caribs, etc. Austrians will remain for a long time on the mainland of East and Southeast Asia, because the retreat of the Siberian glacier allowed the Sino-Caucasians to block their northern escape routes. The Austrians will influence the formation of such peoples as the Thais, Khmers, Viets, etc., and will also leave an indelible imprint on the phenotype of those who came here from the West Sino-Caucasians and Nostratians (future Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, Mongols, Turks).

Yes, it is important to remember that relics of the ancient Indo-Pacific and Austrian peoples, despite numerous subsequent invasions, survived in the coastal regions of South Asia and in smaller numbers in the Middle East...

White race. The next Upper Paleolithic population explosion occurred in the Middle East approximately 22 thousand years ago. This had far-reaching consequences - both for Asia and Africa, and, first of all, for Europe. This affected the New World to a lesser extent, only indirectly. And all because of the appearance and migrations of the last two waves of peoples (they appeared earlier, 50-40 thousand years ago; 22-24 thousand years BC they settled on a large scale around the world) - the Sino-Caucasian and Nostratic . The first appeared in the North-East of Western Asia, closer to the Caucasian ridge and the Pontic steppes - somewhat ahead of the Nostratians (in the literature these are called Nostratians, but this term hurts my ears).

The Nostratians “developed” in the area of ​​the Armenian Highlands, slightly south of the Sino-Caucasians. Subsequently, the Sino-Caucasians were pushed back to the North and West by newcomers who came into the movement...

Yes, Sino-Caucasians were red-haired and blue-eyed, the Nostratians were fair-haired and gray-blue-eyed.

The formation of two corresponding linguistic macrofamilies has occurred. But we won’t dwell in great detail on the Sino-Caucasians either.

Although Sino-Caucasian the wave formed somewhat earlier, the dismemberment of this proto-language occurred later than the proto-language of the Nostratians. Moreover, the collapse of the latter in two influenced the settlement of the North Caucasus over a vast territory - from the Mediterranean to the Yangtze-Jiang Valley. So the history of these waves runs parallel.

The Nostratic proto-language (Kebara culture - 20-16 thousand years ago) split into two branches - approx. 16 thousand years ago - the western (Proto-Afrasians, Proto-Kartvelians, Proto-Indo-Europeans), first located in the Levant, and the eastern (Proto-Dravidians and Proto-Ural-Altaians), settled in the Armenian Highlands, Northern Mesopotamia and closer to the west of the Iranian Highlands.

The Proto-Afrasians of the Levant were represented by the Natufian culture, the complete isolation of which from the rest of the Western Nostratic area occurred between 11 and 9 thousand years BC. In turn, during the collapse of this culture, the first to separate from it were the ancestors of the Omot and Cushitic peoples, who migrated to East Africa and lost their phenotype during the advancement and numerous purges of the local Negroid population. Meanwhile, the Omotos and Cushites (Nubians), despite the color of their skin and eyes, curly hair and some changes in facial features, are strikingly different from the Congo-Saharans, at least in their height and physique. Nature adapted the aliens to new living conditions, leaving behind them their former Nostratic characteristics despite the dominant Negroid genetic influences (well, this kind of selection is the essence of the evolution of new species...). Later, the Kharif culture became isolated - these were the ancestors of the ancient Egyptians, who came in the range of 9-8 thousand years BC. to North Africa and then founded an ancient agricultural settlement in the Nile Valley - Merimde (6040-5230 BC). Later, the Berber-Chadian tribes moved to the Libyan Desert (c. 5500 BC). The migrations of the remaining Semitic-speaking tribes to Africa were not successful; the latter remained on the territory of the Levant and were the only Afrasians to be influenced locally Sino-Caucasian ethnic element.

Soon, the Proto-Indo-Europeans and Proto-Kartvelians who migrated to the North (whose separation from each other will occur at approximately the same time as the separation of the Proto-Dravidians from the Proto-Ural-Altaians - 9-8 thousand years BC) influenced the dismemberment of the Sino-Caucasian unity, initially in two, and then into smaller parts, which subsequently completely lost connection with each other.

The Proto-Kartvelians settled in the Western Caucasus, their proto-language finally disintegrated around 5 - 4.5 thousand years BC. Along the same route, moving north through the Caucasian passes, the Proto-Indo-Europeans came to the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region...

Yes, he said about the Omots and Kushites, but completely forgot about the Chadian peoples - the topic happened to them even worse, because... They climbed further south than anyone else from the entire Nostratic Brotherhood.

Proto-Indo-European and pre-Kartvelian migration to the North, as already mentioned, initially split the Sino-Caucasian unity in two - one part went to the Eastern Caucasus and adjacent regions of Northern Mesopotamia (north of the area of ​​settlement of the eastern Nostratians), forming a family of North Caucasian (eastern group of Iberian-Caucasian) languages - subsequently split into the Abkhaz-Adyghe and Nakh-Dagestan branches; this includes the future Hutts, Hurrians, Urartians, Kutians, etc. Further propagation of this branch Sino-Caucasian waves to the East led to mass migrations of previous races and the development of marginal territories of the ecumene. Representatives of the invading North-K peoples subsequently formed several more eastern language families - Sino-Tibetan (ancestors of the Huaxia Chinese, Tibetans, Burmese), Paleo-Siberian (as a result of mixing with the population that had previously settled here Amerindian And Austrian waves - these, however, they assimilated quite successfully, but they adopted their phenotype, and subsequently they themselves mixed heavily with the Nostratic tribes that moved here; here, first of all, it is worth noting the Chukchi-Koryak languages ​​- syncretic languages ​​that developed as a result of many ethnic mixtures - however, I will not give a detailed classification of them, because this is not particularly interesting to anyone... basically the oldest layers of these languages ​​belong to the Sino-Caucasian and Nostratic. TO Sino-Caucasian Also include Yenisei languages ​​- for example, Ket or ancient Dinlin, which, however, changed greatly from Chinese and Ural-Altai influence, and then became completely extinct.

The Na-Dene family also goes back to the S-K languages ​​- representatives of the S-K-speaking peoples who separated from the S-K - Paleo-Siberian community and migrated across the Bering Bridge to Alaska (this includes Alaska Indians, as well as the Apache and Navajo tribes).

This was all the eastern branch of the Sino-Caucasian wave. The western one went to the West in two ways - through the Pontic steppes to the Balkan-Carpathian-Danube region and further to the Center. Europe (being the ancestors of the Rhets, Pelasgians of the Balkan Peninsula, Cyprus, Crete and the islands of the Aegean and Ionian seas, and northern tribes related to the Picts and Scots); the second path is through Libya, inhabited by Semitic-Hamitic tribes - noticeably adopting North African features (such as dark skin and darker hair color) - further through Gibraltar and to the Iberian Peninsula as the Bell-Beaker culture. These went from the South-West to the North-East, settling the Mediterranean along the way (Iberians, Ligurians, Sardis, Corsos, Sicani) and entering Northern Europe on the other side. In the North, the two initially separated branches united again - that’s where it came from in the North. these same brachycephalic islands...

Walking through the North. Africa was brought to Europe by Semitic-Hamitic traits from the West, and subsequent contacts Sino-Caucasians The Mediterranean with the Afrasians only worsened the picture; the number of red-haired and blue-eyed people has decreased by more than 50%. By the way, one S-K population still remained in the southern and southeastern parts of Asia Minor, having escaped the onslaught of the Nostratians, but their linguistic traces were erased from this region by subsequent migrations of the Semites; the survivors moved to the islands of Lemnos, Lesvos, Cyprus, Crete, etc., being assimilated by their outnumbered S-K predecessors.

Well, to finish with the Sino-Caucasians, it remains to be said that it was the western wave of migration of the S-K peoples that brought the culture of megalithic monuments to Europe...

This was all the eastern branch of the Sino-Caucasian wave. The western one went to the West in two ways - through the Pontic steppes to the Balkan-Carpathian-Danube region and further to the Center. Europe (being the ancestors of the Rhets, Pelasgians of the Balkan Peninsula, Cyprus, Crete and the islands of the Aegean and Ionian seas, and northern tribes related to the Picts and Scots); the second path is through Libya, inhabited by Semitic-Hamitic tribes - noticeably adopting North African features (such as dark skin and darker hair color) - further through Gibraltar and to the Iberian Peninsula as the Bell-Beaker culture. These went from the South-West to the North-East, settling the Mediterranean along the way (Iberians, Ligurians, Sardis, Corsos, Sicani) and entering Northern Europe on the other side. In the North, the two initially separated branches united again - that’s where it came from in the North. these same brachycephalic islands...

Walking through the North. Africa was brought to Europe by Semitic-Hamitic traits from the West, and subsequent contacts of the Sino-Caucasians of the Mediterranean with the Afrasians only worsened the picture; the number of red-haired and blue-eyed people has decreased by more than 50%. By the way, one S-K population still remained in the southern and southeastern parts of Asia Minor, having escaped the onslaught of the Nostratians, but their linguistic traces were erased from this region by subsequent migrations of the Semites; the survivors moved to the islands of Lemnos, Lesvos, Cyprus, Crete, etc., being assimilated by their outnumbered S-K predecessors.

Well, to finish with the Sino-Caucasians, it remains to be said that it was the western wave of migration of the S-K peoples that brought the culture of megalithic monuments to Europe...

So! I forgot to mention three important things, which, however, should be specified with an abbreviation IMHO, because the opinions of scientists differ here: Firstly, the few Austrian relics who lived in the Middle East, who survived before the arrival of white people here, later influenced education (not without the influence of the early Semites) on the emergence in Mesopotamia of such mysterious peoples as the proto-Tigrid and proto-Euphrates tribes (culture Khalaf, immediately preceding the foreign Sumerian - 5000 - 4200 BC), who spoke the so-called. "banana languages" - mainly with an open syllable. These same tribes probably came to the islands of the Mediterranean Sea earlier than the Sino-Caucasians (since researchers of ancient non-Indo-European languages ​​of the Mediterranean identify, in particular, the most ancient Austric substrate in the language of the population of Crete), moved there later - during the Semitic demographic explosion, bringing This zone hitherto occurred in the vicinity of Jericho after the Semitized pre-ceramic culture that preceded the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (c. 6600 BC). Secondly, the ethnic community of Azzi/Haias also had Sino-Caucasian roots, which subsequently influenced the formation of tribal unions of the Urartians, and later on the formation of the Armenians (Armenians). These (A/H) lived on the Southern and Eastern coasts of the Black Sea.

Thirdly, these are the Sumerians who moved to the Southern Mesopotamia ca. 3600 - 3400 BC sea ​​and replaced the "bananas" of Khalaf. Although their language is considered isolated, some scientists, studying its agglutinative-ergative structure, attribute it to the primordial Sino-Caucasian language, but separated from the original foundation at a fairly early stage and absorbed many foreign languages ​​(primarily Altai - due to long coexistence ) elements. Logically, this point of view seems to me the most plausible, at least in comparison with the stubborn debate about the genetic isolation of the Sumerian language.

Well, in order to escape from the Semites, it is necessary to add about their wave-like migrations to Mesopotamia from the Levant, as evidenced by the North Iraqi culture of Hassun (c. 5570 - 4950 BC), in which echoes of the Levantine pre-ceramic culture of the Neolithic B and ancient ceramic Neolithic culture of the Amuk A-V era. The culture of Samarra, synchronous with Hassoun (c. 5570 - 4850 BC), apparently had the same linguistic affiliation. Subsequently, the languages ​​of these cultures were replaced in this region by the North Semitic Akkadian language (beginning - first half of the 3rd millennium BC). However, the history of the Middle East, which began at this time, is described in some detail in textbooks on the history of the Ancient World, so we’ll probably end the detailed descriptions here. If necessary, we will limit ourselves to terse references...

Having moved from the Levant to Western Iran, the eastern Nostratians soon split into Elamo-Dravidian and Ural-Altai branches. This was caused by the displacement of the Ural-Altaians to the region of the Eastern Caspian Sea and Southern Turkmenistan, where they belonged to the Belt culture and the late Mesolithic Dam Dam Cheshme (chronologically - cf. Western Nostr.).

Following this, the Ural-Altai community split into the Ural-Yukaghir and Altai; speakers of the Ural-Yukaghir proto-language began to move to the forest-steppe zones along the Ural mountain range (the collapse of this language in the Southern Urals - c. 3500 BC), as a result of which much later the Yukaghir-Chuvan, Finnish, Ugric and Samoyed languages, speakers were formed which spread across the taiga to the North and North-West from the South. Ural. The Altaians migrated accordingly, to Altai, from where the Turkic, Mongolian and Tungus-Manchu languages ​​came, moving mainly to the East and North-East, adopting the dominant genes of the yellow race from the Sino-Caucasians and the few Austrians already “labeled” living here. The previously mentioned Paleo-Siberian tribal associations were formed from such mixtures.

It should be added that the marginal branch of the eastern Nostratic wave, which reached the Far East, was divided here into two groups: northern and southern. The South was unable to break the proto-Chinese, the future founders of the Xia dynasty, who settled here, but, having bypassed the latter, invaded the Japanese Islands and the Korean Peninsula, where even the Sino-Caucasians failed to gain a foothold in their time (however, these developed the fertile river valleys of the Yangtze -jiang and Huang-He, and scored on the province). In these regions, the most ancient layers of languages ​​belong to the more advanced Nostratians, but genetics was on the side of the Austrian tribes, and again took its toll...

The northern group followed in the footsteps of the S-K family on the Dene, and after crossing the Bering Bridge, mingling with the “aboriginals” of the far North of America, they formed the Eskimo-Aleut linguistic community, which later split. Much later, the ethnic picture of the North. America was replenished with speakers of Altaic languages ​​moving here...

The Elamo-Dravidian peoples became the founders of the agricultural cultures of Southwestern Iran (Bus-Mordeh, Mergar, Kechi-Beg, Kot-Diji). Here they were subjected to insidious genetic influence from the Indo-Pacific tribal unions of Hindustan and completely darkened. Later, the Elamo-Dravidians settled Hindustan, the Indus River valley (the culture of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro), in contact with Caucasian migrants, contributed to the formation of tribal unions of the Kassites (Kaspe/Kashshu), Lullubeys, etc. In the valley of the Kerhe and Karuna rivers, the state of Elam was formed ... In short, these are again historical times, and enough has been written about them.

The resettlement of tribes speaking an Indo-European proto-language to the North is associated with archaeols that appeared in the Northern Black Sea region. cultures of Sursk-Dnieper and Dnieper-Donets (5980 - 4830 BC), where the horse was domesticated for the first time in history. The proto-I-E cultures that followed each other developed their nomadic movements from the confluence of the Prut with the Dniester - and to the Volga-Don interfluve. The nature of the migrations was infiltrative and gradually covered the adjacent steppe territories - this was possible with the help of a new four-legged achievement. Although the economy of these tribes was still far behind the regions of the “fertile crescent” of the Middle East.

Here the Sredny Stog culture (4300 - 3500 BC) that replaced them (or rather, emerged from them) developed, which, according to glottochronological data, belongs to the period of the collapse of the I-E proto-language. Thus, the Srednestagovtsy can be considered late Proto-Indo-Europeans. Echoes of this culture occupied the steppe expanses from the lower reaches of the Danube to the Southern Urals, giving rise to several variations of the Sredny Stog and subsequent successive cultures (Cucuteni-Trypillia in the Danube-Carpathian region - the western branch, which separated quite early and subsequently developed in parallel in the person of r Chernavoda I-III, Gumelnitsa, etc.). Moreover, the next wave of migrations to the West had its “double” in the East. Sredny Stog is the last stronghold of I-E unity, followed by a tendency to split the language into the “centum-” and “satem-group”. The use of the chariot accelerated this split.

Sredny Stog, whose cattle breeding was 75% based on the domesticated horse, also gave rise to two waves of migrations - the vast Yamnaya community in the West ("Centum" - proto-Germans, Celts, Greeks, Italians, Anatolians, Thracians, etc.) and the Afanasyevskaya - in the East ("satem" - proto-Balts, Slavs, Indian and Iranian Aryans, Tocharians), (at the turn of the 4th-3rd millennium BC). The Yamnaya circle of cultures are related archaeological cultures that roamed from the southern Urals to the Dniester, later giving way to the cultures of the Catacomb burials (c. 22nd century BC). The catacomb kraa advanced to the lower reaches of the Volga and Don from the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea.

The 3rd millennium BC includes the complete collapse of the I-E proto-language and, consequently, the loss of connections between its representatives and the beginning of the formation of the ethnic groups of Europe.

The ancestors of the Germans and Anatolians were the first to separate, the substrate of the Germanic ethnic group went to Europe as part of the culture of Battle Axes and Corded Ware (late 3rd millennium BC), and the Anatolians - as part of the Maykop culture.

Maykop k-ra - (its representatives were divided in the North-Western Caucasus into two branches - the Luwians (who later migrated to the Balkans with the early Minyans) and the Palayans with the Nesites (Hittites) - who went to Asia Minor from the East, through the Armenian Highlands. Later the Nesites and the Palayans will mix with the mountain Hattians and the Kaska tribes, who spoke the Abkhaz-Adyghe languages, and form the Hittite ethnic group. The Luwians will join them later, from the West, bypassing the Hellespont. From this point on, references to the “Country of Hatti” appear in Middle Eastern sources. Dr. Egypt.

The circle of Battle axes and corded ceramics included several wave-like migrations, layered on the European culture of the Funnel Beakers - from the Volga to the Rhine, following the Germanic substrate, which included subsequent migrations of the substrate (however, played little role in the formation) of the Balto-Slavs (Saxo- Thuringian k-ra, k-ra of Single graves of Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein, Swedish and Baltic boat-shaped axes, Rhine cups and Oder corded ceramics, k-ra of Zlota, Vistula-Niemen, Middle Dnieper, Fatyanovskaya, etc.).

Cucuteni-Trypillia in the Danube-Carpathian region in the period described was alternately replaced first by the Unetice cut, then by the Lusatian cut. With the assistance of the carriers of the Kurgan burials who came between this shift from the East, the ancient Balkan languages ​​and ethnic groups (Thracian, Illyrian groups) were formed.

Through this region, starting from the 3rd millennium BC, waves of I-E peoples will pass, subsequently populating the Balkans (the Minyans, who later split into the Aeolians, Ionians and Achaeans, who ousted the Pelasgians and related tribes from there, who became part of the outcast “peoples of the sea.” It is worth noting a separate tribal Thracian group, which, under a different name - the Phrygians - will pass through the Northern Balkans to Asia Minor (the "Mushki" people, partially mix with the tribes of Azzi-Haias and, having moved to the territory inhabited by the Hurrian and Urartian tribes, will form the Armenian ethnic group.

In the 17th-15th centuries. BC - in the steppes of the south East. Europe and the Urals, the Catacomb region (which replaced Yamnaya) is replaced by Srubnaya, and in the South Ural steppes the first, “Petrine stage” of the Andronovo culture was replaced by the “Alakul stage”. The four stages of the Andronovo culture took place in the period from the 18th to the 11th centuries, covering the period of the decline of Arkaim and Sintashta, the Aryans who separated back in the Afanasyev era, their split into Iranian and Indian and the migration of the former to Central Asia and Iran, the latter through the same Central Asia to the territory of Dravidian Hindustan. Part of the Vedic Aryans, having separated from the main mass, through the Mesopotamian steppes, invaded the borders of the state of Mitanni with all the ensuing consequences (you will read about this in textbooks; I will not dwell on the Aryan ruling elite of the Hurrian kingdom). Next came the division of the Iranian Aryans into Iranians (Iranshahr) and Turans (Turan) - 9-8 centuries BC, the formation of the Avesta and Zoroastrianism.

During the same period, the formation of the Tocharian ethnos took place, which influenced the ethnogenesis of the Yuezhi-Sogdians, Scythians, Sakas, Kushans, etc. A superstrate was also formed, which later, together with the cut of Battle axes and corded ceramics (more precisely, with the previously indicated substrate) influenced the formation Balto-Slavic unity. The contact of the Kurgan burials with the new Lusatian circle gave impetus to a new migration of peoples - already the iron wave, at the turn of the 2nd-1st millennium BC. Here, first of all, the Illyrian tribes - the Dorians - move from the Northern Balkans, sweeping away the Achaean strongholds and the civilization of the Aegean. This had far-reaching consequences: the migration of the Achaeans provoked a chain reaction, the chaotic movement of the island Minyan-Greek and pre-Indo-European tribes, the latter’s attack on Egypt and the Hittite kingdom (after the defeat of the latter, the formation of many small kingdoms on its fragments - Lydia, Lycia, Phrygia), etc. .P.

This movement (of the peoples of the sea) was joined by the Sardis, Corsi, Sicans, Siculi and tribes of the Apennine Peninsula, who spoke Latin-Faliscan languages, who moved here during the Bronze Age - at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC and are now pressed by the Umbro-Osco-Sabellian tribes Italy of the iron wave.

Relocation to the Center. Europe from the East - the fields of funeral urns at the turn of the 2nd-1st millennium BC - finally drew a line in the formation of the European peoples of antiquity.

Based on the rich heritage of Battle axes and corded ceramics, echoes of the cultures of the Danube-Carpathian region and the Fields of burial urns, a specific Jastorf region, characteristic of the Germans, was formed in Scandinavia. From the contacts of Battle axes and corded ceramics, the Unetice and Lusatian cultures, burial mounds and the Fields of burial urns, the Hallstatt region (Celto-Germanic) and the syncretic La Tène (actually related to the Celts, which later influenced the neighboring Germanic, Thracian, Balto-Slavic and Italic tribes).

On the shoulders of the Andronovskaya and Srubnaya cultures, which emerged from the Yamnaya and Catacombnaya, the Belogrudovskaya, Belozerskaya and Chernolesskaya cultures of the Cimmerians, the Scythian-Siberian cultures, the cultures of the Sarmatian circle, etc. were formed.

The Slavs separated themselves later than everyone else, having been in close contact with the Balts for a long time. Their formation was influenced by the circles of Funnel-shaped cups, Globular amphorae, Corded ceramics, Unetitskaya and Luzhitskaya, the circles of Kurgan burials (more precisely, its Tshinetskaya-Komarovskaya-Sosnitskaya branches), the Scythian-Sarsat circle, Laten, Zarubinetskaya and Late Zarubinetskaya, Chernyakhovskaya , Kolochinskaya and Prague-Penkovskaya.

Renowned anthropologist and population geneticist Alan Templeton has made a strong case against the theory, which has been generally accepted for the past 20 years. New genetic data show that ancient Eurasian humanity was not displaced by sapiens who emerged from Africa 80-100 thousand years ago, but mixed with them. The blood of Eurasian archanthropes, and possibly Neanderthals, flows in our veins.

Facts that everyone agrees on

Africa was the ancestral home of humanity, no one doubts this now. Approximately 1.9 million years ago, our distant ancestors - the early archanthropes, carriers of the pebble (Oldovai) culture, first went beyond the borders of their native continent, as evidenced, in particular, by recent finds in Georgia. Archanthropes spread widely throughout South Asia. 800-600 thousand years ago the second Eurasian expansion of people from Africa took place, this time carried out by more advanced representatives of the human race ( Homo antecessor and others like him, carriers of the Acheulean culture that had previously developed in Africa).

European and West Asian populations of these people, after several hundred thousand years, became Neanderthals, and in Africa, meanwhile, their distant relatives evolved into “anatomically modern humans” - Homo sapiens. About 100 thousand years ago, a small group of sapiens left Africa and gradually settled in Asia, Australia and Europe. All these are completely reliable facts. Experts argue about something else: did the representatives of the “last wave” mix with ancient Eurasian humanity or completely supplant it?

Mitochondrial Eve and Y-Chromosomal Adam in African Eden

Over the past twenty years, the decisive advantage has been on the side of the second point of view. The main argument was the results of the analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of modern people, and to a lesser extent the Y chromosome. Based on the polymorphism of mtDNA nucleotide sequences, the evolutionary tree of this part of the human genome was reconstructed, the branches of which, if moving along them from top to bottom (backward in time), converged at one point in time and space: Africa, about 150 thousand years ago. This is how “mitochondrial Eve” appeared in the scientific press and in the media (mitochondria are transmitted through the maternal line), and after her, “Y-chromosomal Adam” arose in a similar way (the Y chromosome is found only in men and is passed on from father to son), who lived at about the same time and in the same place.

These results were received very strongly by the public, and, as usual, few people understood their true meaning. In fact, as Alan Templeton rightly points out, there is nothing surprising about either Adam or Eve. Any homologous sections of DNA somewhere in the past inevitably converge into one point, that is, into one ancestral DNA molecule. And this point does not necessarily coincide with the moment of the appearance of the species. Moreover, if you take different homologous sections of DNA, each of them will give its own “point of convergence”, different from the others. The approximate coincidence of the results for mtDNA and the Y chromosome is nothing more than an accident, partly explained by the fact that both of these regions of the a genome have a common property: they are present in each cell in only one copy (unlike most other regions of the a genome, which are present in duplicate). There is also an X chromosome, which occupies an intermediate position: in women it is present in two copies, in men in one.

Templeton showed that the expected time of convergence of an evolutionary tree constructed for a separate DNA section to one point depends on how many copies of this section are present in cells. It is mtDNA and the Y chromosome that should converge the fastest (as is observed, they converge approximately 150 thousand years ago). This does not mean that it was then that he appeared H. sapiens, this only means that these sections of the genome are not suitable for reconstructing more ancient events. Regions localized on the X chromosome converge in the more distant past (up to 2 million years); all other sites are of even greater antiquity, some even before the evolutionary lines of humans and chimpanzees separated.

The history of mtDNA is not yet the history of humanity

How can we conclude from mtDNA or another part of the genome that our ancestors left Africa at some specific time? This is possible if, soon after this event, one of the settlers developed a mutation in the DNA region under study, which then multiplied during expansion. And then a modern geneticist will see that the frequency of occurrence of this mutation in non-African populations is, for example, 10%, but it is not found in Africa. The time of occurrence of a mutation is determined on the basis of other, later mutations, using the “molecular clock” method. Well, what if, soon after leaving Africa, no mutation arose in this region of the genome? Then, of course, nothing will come of it: this section of the genome simply will not retain traces of the expansion that interests us.

In a word, Templeton convincingly showed (and most biologists agree with this, by the way) that one cannot draw definitive conclusions about the evolution and history of human settlement from one single section of the genome (for example, from mtDNA). Such conclusions require a comprehensive analysis of many different regions of the a genome.

Humanity has always been one

That's exactly what Templeton does. In 2002, he already published his results based on the study of 12 DNA sections (in addition to mtDNA and the Y chromosome, 10 more sections were included in the analysis). Critics then pointed to insufficient sample sizes, low accuracy and other possible methodological flaws.

This time, Templeton increased the number of analyzed sections of the human genome to 25. The results did not change; on the contrary, they became much clearer and more convincing. They consist of the following. Different sections of DNA retain traces different

Moreover, Templeton's data shows that the exchange of genes between the Eurasian and African populations of our ancestors almost never stopped, although it was greatly hindered by long distances. It turns out that ancient humanity was not at all a collection of isolated populations (races, subspecies, species...) - it was relatively unified over the past two million years!

Neanderthal question

The mtDNA of Neanderthals is very different from ours, and other parts of the genome have not yet been isolated from fossil bones. However, according to Templeton, this does not at all prove that our ancestors did not interbreed with Neanderthals and that modern people do not have even a shred of Neanderthal blood. For example, unidirectional hybridization could occur (sapien women could give birth to children from Neanderthal men) - in this case, mtDNA cannot tell us anything. Similar examples, when the genes of one people were transmitted to another only through men, are known from the later history of mankind.

Based on his data, Templeton calculated the probability that the theory of the complete displacement of all ancient inhabitants of Eurasia by sapiens was still correct. The probability turned out to be 10 –17.

There is no less. The researcher believes that he has not only refuted this theory - it has been destroyed.