Paleolithic history. Paleolithic culture covers the period

There were none as such. In order for the population to be able to feed itself by gathering and hunting, its density had to be very low. Settlements with a small number of inhabitants had to be tens of kilometers apart from each other, which was limited by the areas of hunting grounds.

Paleolithic sites in Russia

Hunting and gathering

Tribes of Paleolithic people moved after hunting objects. This way of life persisted in some regions of the world until recently. Population numbers were subject to fluctuations depending on the state of biological resources, just like animals. As scientists studying tropical developing countries testify, the ecological adaptability of primitive tribes is characteristic of the entire belt with extreme living conditions, both in arid and arctic regions. In particular, the Kalahari Bushmen are distinguished by a very complex behavioral model: they are able to quickly move from gathering to hunting and back again depending on changing climatic conditions and thereby change their lifestyle. During periods of warming, which worsened the conditions for reindeer husbandry, modern Nenets switched to hunting and fishing.

Nutrition

The energy costs of a Stone Age hunter were about 16-18 kJ (4-5 kcal), which he compensated for by taking energy (food) from the biosphere in the same volume.

Studies of tribes that have preserved the way of life of Paleolithic times until recent decades show the inconsistency of ideas about the primitivism of people living at the Stone Age level. They perceived the world around them and its individual parts as a whole and sought to study them as they saw them. The thinking of primitive people was not only practical, but also, from a certain period, magical. It was based on the belief in a person’s ability to change reality through the power of his desire.

Due to self-sufficiency, there is no class division in the hunting society (or minimally expressed). Of course, one should not idealize the absolute equality of primitive people, but it could not be compared with the class differences of later agricultural peoples.

The “scientific and technological” level of Stone Age society could be carried by very small human communities. The Stone Age tribe was able to reproduce itself and its culture, having in its composition several hundred people. This was enough to store customs, hunting skills for various animals, knowledge about plants, methods of making weapons and clothing, and building simple dwellings.

The hunting society could not move to a higher technical level. Huge distances plus the lack of developed transport technology made the mass exchange of products and ideas between settlements impossible. The lack of surplus food did not make it possible to support professionals who specialized in something other than direct food production - i.e. there could be neither artisans nor managers. All this made the creation of cities, and therefore the emergence of civilization, impossible.

Human influence on nature

The Paleolithic is the period of greatest ecological correspondence between man and the natural environment. During the Paleolithic period, exclusively the muscular energy of animals and humans was used; there was practically no negative impact on nature, because in fact, man himself was an integral part of it. Fishing and gathering activities during the Paleolithic period did not lead to changes in landscapes.

During the Paleolithic period of development, the most that man was capable of was to influence the animal world, that is, the weakest component of nature. However, modern experience of observing the way of life of hunting peoples shows that it is not typical for them to undermine their own food supply. Material from the site

The influence of nature on humans

The influence of nature on man in the initial period of his development - the Paleolithic - was significant. The barrier that culture has placed between man and the natural environment has become cloth And home. It was they who solved for humanity the problem of adapting to the extratropical conditions of the geographical environment.

Almost everywhere the Stone Age can be traced back to the 5th millennium BC. , with the exception of some areas of the forest zone, where late Stone Age communities survive until the 2nd millennium BC. , and among the isolated tribes of the globe that were lagging behind in their development, the Stone Age survived even longer.

The Stone Age is divided into ancient (Paleolithic), middle (Mesolithic) and new (Neolithic). Each period is more progressive than the previous stage in the development of technology for making tools, their improvement, in the development of social relations and the development of territories.

Paleolithic

Let us give a fractional periodization of the Paleolithic:

1) Lower Paleolithic: Olduvai - ca. 2.4 mil. - 1.5 mil. years BC Early Acheulian: 1.5 mil. - 400 thousand BC Middle and late Acheulian: 400 - 130 thousand BC.

The Olduvai period in human history, which began at the end of the Pleistocene era, in which the first use of stone tools by the ancestors of modern man, Homo Habilis, began. He knew how to think and create primitively. The formation of man occurred in close connection with the development of social forms. The biological prerequisite was an increasing ability to learn, an increased degree of individualization of the level of communications. Fairly well-organized assistance and mutual assistance, availability of prey for all members, training of cubs through the transfer of skills and experience, generally peaceful relationships.

Homo Habilis had hunting camps, the so-called “base houses” - prototypes of the most ancient dwellings - accumulations of bones and stone tools, surrounded by stone blocks. Occupations: hunting and gathering. The division of labor was between males and females; hunting and tool making predominated among males, and gathering among females. Homo Habilis brought prey to the site to provide for females and young. The tools were roughly processed products.

In the early Acheulian period, Homo Habilis was replaced by the species Homo Erectus - “upright man”. The first Homo Erectus was discovered by the Dutch anthropologist Eugene Dubois (1858-1940) on the island of Java (Indonesia), he was named Pithecanthropus. The dwellings were above ground, made of tree branches, surrounded by stones. Caves. Occupations: hunting and gathering. Pithecanthropus hunted not only small animals, but also large animals, for example, elephants, rhinoceroses, saber-toothed tigers, bears, buffaloes, camels, horses, antelopes, hyenas. They knew how to maintain (but, apparently, not yet start) fire. They moved from place to place in search of food. They hunted small and large animals.

Such a hunt was impossible alone and required organization. The use of a special stone processing technique called retouching begins.

Retouching is the correction of the working edges or the entire surface of stone tools by separating small flakes from the surface of the stone by pressing or lightly striking the tool blank.

The Middle and Late Acheulean periods are characterized by glacial cooling. The social structure becomes more complex. There is a transition from a primitive herd to a local group. Apparently, already during this period, a clan appeared - an exogamous group of blood relatives descending from a common ancestor on the maternal or paternal line. A driven hunt appears. Methods of making fire and also preserving it are emerging. In the Lower Paleolithic, the main type of settlement was parking. Now intensive development of the caves is taking place.

Tool processing techniques are being improved. The Levallois technique arises - this is a technique in which the core is subjected to preliminary processing to give the flake a certain specified shape and size. The nucleus was pre-upholstered on all sides from the edges to the center. It is tortoise-shaped, one side is flat and the other is dome-shaped.

By the end of the period, approx. 150-130 thousand years ago the Neanderthal man (Homo neanderthalensis) appears. Neanderthals buried their dead. For example, burial in the La Chapelle-aux-Saints grotto in France. Corpse position: crumpled. Accompanying inventory: tools, flowers and, possibly, food (meat) were placed in the burial.

2) Middle Paleolithic (Mousterian): 130-45 thousand BC.

The Mousterian period is the time of life of the Neanderthals, following the Late Acheulean archaeological era. The Mousterian culture coincided with the end of the Riess-Würm interglacial and the beginning of the Würm glaciation. The settlement territory of the Neanderthals was more extensive, and their adaptation to the environment was more active than that of the people of the Early Paleolithic.

The significance of peculiar glacial natural and climatic conditions in the history of human development is extremely great. The fact is that during the Mousterian period, human development reached a level that allowed, unlike numerous representatives of the animal world, to actively adapt and withstand the harsh conditions of nature. In turn, new conditions intensified his conscious activity and allowed him to take the next significant step along the path of progress. The invention of clothing, a method of making fire and the development of dwellings contributed to the settlement of people in new, previously undeveloped territories. Mousterian monuments are numerous and varied: settlements in caves and grottoes, open-type settlements, sites such as temporary hunting camps.

The Mousterian period was a significant step in the development of the productive forces of primitive society. Stone tools appear, varied in quantity and in their productive functions.

Collective hunting techniques were of decisive importance in the life of the community. The exceptional importance of hunting is evidenced by the huge number of bones in the layers of settlements and seasonal hunting camps.

The appearance of burials is undoubtedly associated with a meaningful representation of life and death. Obviously, these were the beginnings of those false ideas on the basis of which later ideas about the “soul” and the other world arose.

The formation of a primitive clan organization is associated with long-term settlements, collective labor activity, which was based on hunting, and the development of consciousness. Long-term cohabitation, overcoming animal egoism, caring not only for one’s own needs, but also the needs of the entire team, constant interconnection and support were undoubtedly already characteristic of the first Neanderthal communities.

3) Late Paleolithic (Solutre): ca. 45 - 12 thousand BC

About 35 thousand years ago, a new period began in the history of mankind, called the Upper, or Late, Paleolithic. This was the time of the formation of man of the modern physical type, new achievements in the technology of making tools.

Man still lived in the peculiar conditions of a glacial climate, although the ice masses became significantly smaller in size. The Upper Paleolithic was the time of the expansion of the mammoth fauna. Mammoth was the main object of hunting. The disappearance of mammoths coincided with the Paleolithic horses.

The Upper Paleolithic technique differs from its predecessor primarily in new, more progressive techniques for making tools from stone. A variety of bone products are also widely distributed: tips, harpoons, massive percussion tools such as picks, miniature bone needles with an eye. Armed with a variety of tools and having accumulated great experience and skill, Upper Paleolithic man settled throughout the vast territory of Eurasia that was not covered by a glacier.

Many achievements of people of the Paleolithic era were developed in subsequent times. Paleolithic people invented clothing similar in design to modern ones, firmly mastered dwellings, and developed tools, without which it is difficult to imagine the further development of mankind.

Upper Paleolithic hunters living in direct contact with nature had significant knowledge and concrete and abstract ideas about the world around them. On the basis of a primitive materialistic worldview, bright and unique Paleolithic art arose. It is represented by cave paintings, bone and stone sculptures, and engravings on tusk and horn plates. Carrying images of a realistic depiction of the surrounding world, the works are subordinated to a certain semantic content. The traditional depiction of animals, and not all, but only those that were valuable as an object of hunting, is apparently associated with the emergence of the primitive cult of the beast and hunting magic, witchcraft. The origin of this cult was due to the importance of hunting as the main source of human existence.

stone age anthropogenesis mesolithic

3 .The exact dates of this period are uncertain, controversial, and region specific. However, we can talk about the Stone Age as a whole as a period for all of humanity, although some cultures did not develop metallurgy until they encountered the influence of more technologically advanced civilizations. However, in general, this period began about 3 million years ago, starting with the first hominid living in Africa, which figured out how to use a stone tool to solve everyday problems. Most australopithecines probably did not use stone tools, although their culture is also studied within this period.

Since only stone finds have survived to our time, archaeological research of the entire period is being conducted on their basis. Archaeologists take various measurements of stone tools to determine their typology, purpose and technological use. Often, Stone Age tools come to us in a dilapidated state; a section of experimental archeology is engaged in restoring them or creating copies.

One of the problems with using the term “Stone Age” is that the level of development of prehistoric communities can be judged only on the basis of surviving stone tools, and not on the type and complexity of social organization, food sources, or adaptation to harsh climates. This stemmed from archaeological methods that were used in the nineteenth century, when the three-age historical system was developed. The main goal of those methods was to conduct the maximum number of archaeological excavations to find stone tools. Modern methods of archeology are based on a much broader collection of information, which has greatly expanded our knowledge of those prehistoric times and made it possible to understand that even in ancient times human society had a complex organizational system, which makes the term "Stone Age" in its modern sense obsolete for designations of the specified time period. We now know that the development of ancient societies was influenced by many different factors, such as agriculture, religion or organized settlements, and stone tools were one of the tools that currently cannot fully reflect the level of development of the ancient society, its beliefs and way of life .

Another problem with the concept of the Stone Age is that the term was created to describe the archaeological culture of ancient Europe, and that it cannot be applied to other regions of the world, such as North and South America, Oceania, where tribes of farmers or hunters gatherers used stone until their European colonization. Also, the use of metals in the life of ancient people was much less important than is commonly thought, and the terms Copper, Bronze and Iron Ages are not entirely acceptable to refer to these periods of human history. So, for example, at a time when iron products were actively used throughout the world, in America iron was unknown until 1492 (copper, silver and gold were in use), and in Oceania until the 17th century.

Following the Stone Age, the Bronze Age was a time period during which people learned to make bronze tools from copper and tin and use them in everyday life. The transition from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age for most of humanity who lived in Europe, Asia and North Africa occurred in the period from 6 to 2.5 thousand years BC. e. However, in some regions of the globe, such as Central and Southern Africa, the Stone Age transitioned directly into the Iron Age. It is generally believed that in the Middle East and Southeast Asia the Stone Age ended around 6 thousand years BC. e., and in Europe and the rest of Asia about 4 thousand years BC. e. However, the Inca culture in South America lived at the Stone Age level until 2 thousand years BC. e., when gold, copper and silver came into use and began to be used everywhere. Australia remained in the Stone Age until the 17th century AD. e.

We also know that the transition from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age was not one-time, but took quite a long time. The transition was carried out by the beginning of the use of gold and copper, which was confirmed in the finds of Neolithic settlements. This transitional period is known as the Copper Age or Chalcolithic. It was short and occurred only in certain regions, because the bronze alloy appeared and began to spread quite quickly as soon as copper smelting began. For example, the found ice mummy of Ötzi dates back to approximately 33 centuries BC. e. Both a copper ax and a knife, and flint were discovered, which indicates the proximity of Stone and Copper Age technologies at the same time. The combined use of stone and metal tools continued until the early Middle Ages. In Europe and North America, stone millstones were used until the end of the 20th century, and in many regions they are still used today.

Timeline Paleolithic

The period of the ancient history of mankind, covering the time period from the moment of the separation of man from the animal state and the emergence of the primitive communal system until the final retreat of the glaciers. The term was coined by archaeologist John Libbock in 1865. In the Paleolithic, man began to use stone tools in his daily life. The Stone Age covers most of human history (about 99% of the time) on earth and begins 2.5 or 2.6 million years ago. The Stone Age is characterized by the appearance of stone tools, agriculture and the end of the Pleistocene around 10 thousand years BC. e. The Paleolithic era ends with the onset of the Mesolithic, which in turn ended with the Neolithic revolution.

During the Paleolithic period, people lived together in small communities such as tribes and collected plants and hunted wild animals. The Paleolithic is characterized by the use of predominantly stone tools, although wood and bone tools were also used. Natural materials were adapted by humans for use as tools, leather and plant fibers were used, but given their fragility, they could not survive to this day. Humanity gradually evolved during the Paleolithic from early members of the genus Homo, such as Homo habilis, who used simple stone tools, to anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens). At the end of the Paleolithic, during the so-called. Middle and Upper Paleolithic people began to create the first works of art and began to engage in religious and spiritual practices, such as burying the dead and religious rituals. The climate during the Paleolithic period included glacial and interglacial periods, in which the climate periodically changed from warm to cold temperatures.

Early Paleolithic

The period beginning with the end of the Pliocene Epoch, which saw the first use of stone tools by the ancestors of modern humans, Homo habilis. These were relatively simple tools known as cleavers. Homo habilis mastered stone tools during the Olduvai culture, which were used as axes and stone cores. This culture got its name from the place where the first stone tools were found - Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. People living in this era subsisted primarily on the meat of dead animals and collecting wild plants, since hunting was not yet widespread at that time. About 1.5 million years ago, a more advanced human species, Homo erectus, appeared. Representatives of this species learned to use fire and created more complex cutting tools from stone, and also expanded their range through the development of Asia, which is confirmed by finds on the Joikudan Plateau in China. About 1 million years ago, man colonized Europe and began using stone axes.

Middle Paleolithic

The period began about 200 thousand years ago and is the most studied era during which the Neanderthals lived (120-35 thousand years ago). The most famous finds of Neanderthals belong to the Mosterian culture. Neanderthals eventually died out and were replaced by modern humans, who first appeared in Ethiopia about 100 thousand years ago. Despite the fact that the Neanderthal culture is considered primitive, there is evidence that they honored their elders and practiced burial rituals that were organized by the entire tribe. At this time, there was an expansion of the range of people and their settlement of undeveloped territories, such as Australia and Oceania. The peoples of the Middle Paleolithic demonstrate irrefutable evidence that abstract thinking began to prevail among them, expressed, for example, in the organized burial of the dead. Recently, in 1997, based on an analysis of the DNA of the first Neanderthal, scientists at the University of Munich concluded that the differences in genes are too great to consider Neanderthals as the ancestors of Cro-Magnons (that is, modern humans). These conclusions were confirmed by leading experts from Zurich, and later throughout Europe and America. For a long time (15-35 thousand years), Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons coexisted and were at enmity. In particular, gnawed bones of another species were found at sites of both Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons. In particular, this opinion is shared by Professor of the University of Bordeaux Jean-Jacques Hublen.

Epoch Upper Paleolithic is called the period from approximately 40 to 10 thousand years ago. In Africa, the “Late Stone Age” is usually distinguished, which has the oldest dates of 30-50 thousand years ago. and noticeably different technologically from the European and Asian Upper Paleolithic. Many Upper Paleolithic cultures were created by people belonging to the modern species Homo sapiens; the population of Europe at this time is often called Cro-Magnons (after the Cro-Magnon cave in France, where in 1868 important finds of human skeletons and tools of the Upper Paleolithic era were made).

Cro-Magnons in Europe and the Middle East coexisted with Neanderthals for at least 5 thousand years in a row; perhaps this stage can be extended even to 24 thousand years (the oldest dating for the Upper Paleolithic is 52 thousand years, the latest for Mousterian and Neanderthals is 28 thousand years, although both are sometimes disputed). Transitional cultures between Mousterian and Upper Paleolithic are Chatelperron, Uluzzo, Bachokir, Bohunich, Selet, which existed from 45 to about 30 thousand years ago. Some archaeologists believe that Upper Paleolithic cultures arose independently of each other from local Middle Paleolithic ones almost everywhere. This view of the problem of the place and time of the appearance of the Upper Paleolithic was especially widespread among Soviet archaeologists and now in regional archaeological schools. In this case, the mentioned cultures with characteristics of both the Mousterian and the Upper Paleolithic are considered stage-intermediate. Other archaeologists argue that Mousterian was displaced. Typically, the Mousterian layer at sites is sharply delimited from the Upper Paleolithic layer in cultural terms, and sometimes by a sterile layer. In addition, there are examples where the Upper Paleolithic layer is overlain by the Mousterian layer, which indicates their synchronicity. Upper Paleolithic features in later Neanderthal cultures have already been discussed.

On the other hand, individual Mousterian features are typical specifically for European Upper Paleolithic sites, but are absent in Africa; this fact can be interpreted as evidence of reverse influences - Mousterian on the Early Upper Paleolithic. It is necessary to mention that the oldest Upper Paleolithic of Europe was found in its eastern part, penetration Homo sapiens It probably came from the Middle East (where the Upper Paleolithic is even older) through the East European Plain and the Balkans to the west. For Upper Paleolithic people, a tendency towards long-distance migrations was typical (for example, some sites in the Baikal region are surprisingly similar to Eastern European ones in a whole range of characteristics).

In Africa, a smooth transition is found from the “Middle Stone Age” to the “Late” 50-30 thousand years ago. in the central regions, but there is no such smooth transition in Northern, Eastern and Southern Africa. Microlithization of tools occurs, and tips typical of the “Middle Stone Age” disappear. In many ways, the “Late Stone Age” of Africa resembles the Mesolithic of Europe, although much older.