Paleolithic culture covers the period. Upper Paleolithic Religious Beliefs

general characteristics

The Upper Paleolithic, with all the diversity in the manifestation of cultural characteristics, is a single archaeological era associated with the activities of modern humans - Homo sapiens. Throughout its entire length, people continue to rely on hunting and gathering for their livelihood. From a sociological point of view, in this era there was a further development of the primitive communal and, according to most researchers, the tribal system.

The material culture in the Upper Paleolithic was different than in the previous era, due to the improvement of stone processing techniques, the widespread use of bone as technical raw materials, the development of house construction, the complication of life support systems, and the emergence of various forms of art.

Upper Paleolithic people are most often called Cro-Magnons based on finds in the Cro-Magnon Grotto in France, where in 1868 E. Larte discovered five human skeletons along with stone tools and decorations made from drilled shells, covered by thick layers of sediment. Since then, quite a lot of anthropological remains have been found that make it possible to characterize Cro-Magnon man as a pronounced representative of the species Homo sapiens. Currently, more than 80 finds of bone remains of Upper Paleolithic man are known in Eurasia, mostly all these finds come from funerary monuments. The most important of them were discovered:

• in France - the grottoes of Grimaldi, Combe-Capelle, La Madeleine and Laugerie-Bas, Le Placard, Solutre, etc.;
• in England - Paviland and Galley Hill caves;
• in Germany - Oberkassel;
• in the Czech Republic - Brno, Przedmost, Mladeč, Dolni Vestonice, Pavlov;
• in Russia - Kostenkovsko-Borshevsky district, at the Sungir sites, Malta.

Natural conditions and human settlement

Human settlement

The Upper Paleolithic was an era of significant expansion of the ecumene. Sites of this time are known in the Old and New Worlds, Australia. The settlement of North America most likely occurred due to the existence of a powerful ice “bridge” across the modern Bering Strait, which connected Alaska, Kamchatka and Chukotka. Due to the harsh climatic conditions of Würm, this “bridge” existed for many millennia; vegetation even appeared on its surface, covered with sediment, from time to time. In scientific literature, this area is usually called Beringia. The settlement of North America through Beringia occurred about 30-26 thousand years ago from the territory of Eastern Siberia. The incoming population quite quickly mastered the entire American continent - Upper Paleolithic sites in Chile date back to 14-12 thousand years BC.

Man is actively exploring the northern regions of the Earth - sites of this time are known far beyond the Arctic Circle: in the middle Pechora, in the lower reaches of the Aldan and Lena rivers, in the basins of the Indigirka and Kolyma rivers, in Chukotka, Kamchatka, and Alaska. Evidence that people are exploring a wide variety of natural and climatic zones are sites discovered high in the mountains in the Caucasus and Pamirs, in Central Asia and the Middle East; locations are known in now arid and desert areas. Upper Paleolithic sites occur in a variety of geological and geomorphological conditions: in river valleys and watersheds, in lowland and mountainous areas.

Many monuments contain rich cultural layers with the remains of residential structures, numerous accumulations of stone products and industrial waste, mammal bones, etc. More than 1,200 sites and localities of the Upper Paleolithic are known in Russia and adjacent territories, many of them are multi-layered. For example, in the Kostenkovsko-Borshevsky region in the Middle Don, more than 20 monuments are known, which represent more than 60 cultural layers. Based on their study by the famous Russian archaeologist A.N. Rogachev convincingly refuted those generally accepted until the middle of the 20th century. ideas about the unified stage-by-stage development of human society and its material culture.

The Upper Paleolithic era is separated from modern times by a relatively short period of time; it ended 12 thousand years ago, but, nevertheless, it cannot be said that it has been well studied - many, not only specific, but also general problems need to be resolved.

Natural conditions

The beginning of the Upper Paleolithic corresponds to the second half of the Middle Wurm ( Valdai for Eastern Europe) - 50-24 thousand years ago. This is an interglacial ( Mologosheksninskoe), or megainterstadial, was characterized by a fairly warm climate, at times similar to the modern one, and the absence of ice cover throughout the entire Russian Plain. In the Middle Valdai megainterstadial, at least three periods with favorable conditions (three climatic optima) are distinguished, separated by colder phases. The last of these optima was apparently the warmest and longest lasting: it lasted from the 30th to the 22nd millennium BC.

Beginning of the Late Valdai ( Ostashkov time) - 24-20 thousand years ago - was characterized by gradual cooling, the advance of a glacier, which reached its maximum distribution about 20-18 thousand years ago. This is the coldest period during the whole of Wurm. The end of the Wurm, the Late Glacial period (15-13.5-12 thousand years ago), was a time of some improvement in climate, a retreat of the glacier, which did not occur smoothly, but as if in pulsations: short-term periods of warming alternated with periods of cooling.

Depending on climate fluctuations, the composition of animals in a given region sometimes changed very dramatically. During the era of the last glaciation (20-10 thousand years ago), cold-loving animals (reindeer, arctic fox) penetrated far to the south, right up to the southwest of France and the northern regions of Spain. This is associated with the largest cooling of the entire Pleistocene and the resulting wide distribution of periglacial landscapes.

The main reason for the disappearance and decline in the number of different animal species is a significant change in climate and landscapes. Recently, opinions have also been expressed that changes in the Earth’s magnetic field are “to blame” for these interrelated phenomena; the last pole reversal took place approximately 12-10 thousand years ago. Whatever the prerequisites predetermined certain changes in the organic world (including fauna), the main reasons for these changes were undoubtedly changes in the entire natural environment, and not human hunting activity.

About 12-10 thousand years ago, extensive glaciations, gradually retreating, disappeared and the modern geological era began - the Holocene.

Tools

Compared to previous eras, information about the Upper Paleolithic is much more diverse and complete. We draw knowledge about the life of Paleolithic man from the study of the cultural layers of settlements, which preserve the remains of residential structures, stone and bone tools and places of their production, bones of animals that served as hunting prey, small utensils and household items.

Stone tools and techniques for their production

For this era, the most important and characteristic features can be considered the widespread prismatic technology splitting, masterly processing of bone and tusk, a diverse set of tools - about 200 different types.

Significant changes have occurred in the technique of splitting stone raw materials: the experience of many millennia has led man to the creation prismatic core, from which blanks of a relatively regular shape, close to rectangular, with parallel edges, were chipped. Such a workpiece is called, depending on its size, plate or record, it allowed the most economical use of material and served as a convenient basis for the manufacture of various tools. Irregularly shaped flake blanks were still widespread, but when chipped from prismatic cores they became thinner and very different from flakes from earlier eras. Technique retouching in the Upper Paleolithic it was high and very diverse, which made it possible to create working edges and blades of varying degrees of sharpening, to design various contours and surfaces of products.

Upper Paleolithic tools change their appearance compared to earlier eras: they become smaller and more elegant due to changes in the shapes and sizes of blanks and more advanced retouching techniques. The diversity of stone tools is combined with significantly greater stability of the shapes of the products.

Among the variety of tools, there are groups known from previous eras, but new ones appear and become widespread. In the Upper Paleolithic there are such previously known categories as

• denticulate tools,
• scraper,
• pointed,
• scrapers,
• incisors.

The specific weight of some tools increases (incisors, scrapers), others, on the contrary, sharply decreases (scrapers, pointed points), and some disappear completely. Upper Paleolithic tools are more narrowly functional compared to previous eras.

One of the most important and most widespread tools of the Upper Paleolithic was cutter. It was designed for cutting hard materials such as bone, mammoth ivory, wood, and thick leather. Traces of work with a chisel in the form of conical grooves are clearly visible on numerous products and blanks made of horn, tusk and bone from sites in Western and Eastern Europe. However, in the inventory of some archaeological cultures of Siberia and Asia, incisors are absent; apparently, their functions were performed by other tools.

Scrapers in the Upper Paleolithic they were one of the most widespread categories of tools. They were usually made from plates and flakes and had a convex blade processed with a special scraper retouch. The sizes of the tools and the sharpening angle of their blades are very diverse, which is determined by their functional purpose. For many millennia from before the Iron Age, this tool was used for processing hides and leather.

One of the main operations was carried out with scrapers - fleshing, i.e. cleaning of hides and skins, without which they could not be used either for sewing clothes and shoes, or for roofing houses and making various containers (bags, sacks, cauldrons, etc.). The wide variety of furs and skins required a corresponding number of necessary tools, which is clearly evident from archaeological materials.

In the Paleolithic, the scraper was most often worked without a handle, with movements “towards oneself”, stretching the skin on the ground and securing it with pegs or spreading it on the knee.

Production and use of Upper Paleolithic flint tools: 1 - splitting a prismatic core; 2, 3 - work with a cutter; 4-6 - use of end scraper

The working edge of the scrapers quickly wore out, but the length of its workpiece provided the possibility of repeated adjustments. After fleshing and treatment with ash, which contained a lot of potash, the skins and skins were dried, and then kneaded using bone spatulas and polishes, and cut with knives and chisels. For sewing leather and fur products, small points And punctures And bone needles. Small points were used to make holes in the leather, and then the cut fragments were sewn together using plant fibers, sinews, thin straps, etc.

Points do not represent a single category; these various tools are united by one common feature - the presence of a sharp, retouched end. Large specimens could be used for hunting weapons as spearheads, darts and arrows, but they could also be used to work with coarse and thick skins of animals such as bison, rhinoceros, bear, wild horse, necessary for the construction of dwellings and for other economic purposes. . Piercings were tools with a distinct retouch, a relatively long and sharp sting or several stings. The stings of these tools were used to pierce the skin, and the holes were then widened using screws or bone awls.

Composite tools

In the second half of the Upper Paleolithic appear composite, or in-ear, guns that were undoubtedly a very important new technological advance. Based on the prismatic splitting technique, man learned to make regular miniature plates, very thin and with cutting edges. This technique is called microlithic. Products whose width did not exceed one centimeter and length - five centimeters are called microplates. A significant number of tools were made from them, mainly micropoints and quadrangular microblades with a blunted edge by retouching. They served inserts- components of the blade of the future product. By inserting retouched microplates into a base of wood, bone or antler, cutting blades of considerable length and varied shapes could be obtained. The base of a complex shape could be cut using cutters from organic materials, which was much more convenient and easier than making such an object entirely from stone. In addition, the stone is quite fragile and with a strong impact the weapon could break. If a composite product breaks down, it was possible to replace only the damaged part of the blade, rather than making it entirely anew; this route was much more economical. This technique was especially widely used in the manufacture of large spearheads with convex edges, daggers, as well as knives with concave blades, which were used by residents of the southern regions when collecting wild cereals.

A characteristic feature of Upper Paleolithic tool sets is a large number of combined tools - i.e. those where two or three working blades were located on one workpiece (flake or plate). It is possible that this was done for convenience and to speed up the work. The most common combinations are scraper and cutter, scraper, cutter and piercing.

In the Upper Paleolithic era, fundamentally new techniques for processing solid materials appeared - drilling, sawing and grinding, however, only drilling was used quite widely.

Drilling it was necessary to obtain a variety of holes in tools, jewelry and other household items. It was made using a bow drill, well known from ethnographic materials: a hollow bone was inserted into the bowstring, under which sand was constantly poured, and when the bone was rotated, a hole was drilled. When drilling smaller holes, such as the eye of a needle or holes in beads or shells, flint drills were used - small stone tools with a sting highlighted by retouching.

Sawing used mainly for processing soft stones such as marl or slate. The figurines made from these materials show traces of sawing. Stone saws are insert tools; they were made from plates with a retouched jagged edge inserted into a solid base.

Grinding And polishing most often used in bone processing, but occasionally tools are found, mostly massive and apparently related to wood processing, in which the blades are processed by grinding. This technique became more widely used in the Neolithic.

Bone tools and bone processing techniques

What is new in the Upper Paleolithic is the very widespread use of bone, horn and tusks for the manufacture of tools, utensils and decorations, and small plastic items. Occasionally, bone tools were made in earlier eras, but at that time people did not have sufficient knowledge of the technique of processing this material. In the Upper Paleolithic, when processing bone, complex techniques were already used - chopping, cutting with a knife or chisel, drilling, surface treatment with abrasives. The bone processing process involved a number of operations, each of which required special tools made of flint or soft stone. Heating, soaking, etc. were probably used to process the bone.

The tools made of bone are varied - these are points that may have served as spearheads, harpoons made from deer antler, various awls, piercings, needles, pins, polishes, adzes, hoes, the so-called spear straighteners or “rulers’ rods.” Bone needles are practically no different in size from modern ones, except perhaps a little thicker. They were cut from dense bone and polished, the eye was either slotted or drilled. The needles are found together with needle cases - small cylindrical boxes made from the tubular bones of birds. Often bone tools are very carefully processed and decorated with ornaments.

Living conditions and farming

Dwellings

If very few remains of residential structures have reached us from previous eras, then quite a lot of them have been preserved for the Upper Paleolithic. People still used natural shelters - grottos, shelters and caves, but also built artificial structures in open-air sites. Dwellings vary in size, shape, design features and materials. In some cases, a large number of mammoth bones or other large animals were used to build a dwelling; in others, other materials were used. Thus, at the Siberian sites of Malta and Buret, such building materials were stone and reindeer antlers, in some other cases large stones of various shapes were used. All these solid materials served to create the base of the residential structure and strengthen its frame, which probably consisted of wooden poles. The frame was covered with skins, which could be secured on top with large flat bones or other available materials. The closest analogues to the dwellings of the Upper Paleolithic can be the dwellings of northern peoples such as chums and yarangs or the light ground dwellings of hunter-gatherers of the southern regions.

The most common were round or oval-shaped dwellings with one or several hearths inside. Their remains are discovered during excavations at sites in the form of accumulations of large bones of a mammoth or other large animals. Such a cluster has clear boundaries and represents the remains of collapsed walls and roofs of a dwelling. Often it lies in a depression. The bottom of the recess is the floor of the dwelling, on which, during excavations, one can find various traces of habitation - hearths, storage pits, ash or ocher stains, fragments of flint and bone, stone and bone products, coals. The location of the finds allows us to judge how the area of ​​the dwelling was used, where working or sleeping places were located, entrances and exits, etc.

More than 30 Upper Paleolithic dwellings of various types are known on the territory of Russia. The most well studied -

• dwellings of the Kostenkovsko-Borshevsky district and at the Gagarino site on the Don;
• at the sites of the Desna basin - Eliseevichi, Yudinovo;
• in the Middle Dnieper region - at the sites Gontsy, Mezin, Dobranichevka, Mezhirichi.

Often, as the foundation of a dwelling, a plinth was built from the skulls and large bones of a mammoth, which provided reliable support for the walls. In Yudinov, such a base consisted of 20 mammoth skulls, and in Mezhirichi, the bones of 149 mammoth individuals were used in the building structure.

In the Late Paleolithic there were also elongated dwellings with several hearths. The remains of such a structure, 12 m long and 4 m wide, with three hearths, were examined at the Pushkari site. Similar dwellings are known at the Kostenki 4 site. The elongated dwellings may have had a gable roof, which could have been made of bark, grass or animal skins.

The most difficult to reconstruct is another type of Late Paleolithic residential objects - these are complexly organized oval living areas, with an area of ​​more than a hundred square meters, with a number of hearths located along their long axis. Along the perimeter, such sites were surrounded by storage pits and sleeping (?) dugout pits. The storage pits probably served for storing meat reserves, since large hunting catches could not be used for food immediately. Large bones and tusks of mammoths were widely used to cover storerooms and dugouts. Such residential sites are characteristic of the Kostenki-Avdeevka culture and were found at the sites of Kostenki 1 on the Middle Don, Avdeevo near Kursk, and Zaraiskaya near Zaraysk near Moscow.

In more southern regions, where natural conditions were much milder, light ground dwellings such as huts or canopies and wind barriers around fireplaces are known. A number of such light ground structures are known at monuments in France (Pinsevan, Etiol), in the Balkans and in the south of Russia (Muralovka, Kamennye Balki, Osokorevka, etc.). The only traces of such structures are pits from post frame structures, hearths and clusters of finds with clear boundaries.

Several dwellings could form a small settlement, as evidenced by the material from the Dobranichevka, Mezhirichi, Kostenki 4, Malta, and Buret sites. At some sites there are complexes consisting of dwellings and associated workshops, where flint and bone tools were made, there were also open-air fireplaces and various utility pits. The population of such villages probably formed a close-knit group - a clan or a community.

To determine the duration of human habitation at a particular site, in addition to archaeological sources, various data on paleoecology and, with extreme caution, ethnography are used. Despite the fact that much of this issue is not entirely clear, researchers usually talk about the predominance of relative - seasonal - sedentary behavior among Paleolithic hunter-gatherers.

Jewelry and clothing

In the Upper Paleolithic, decorations made from animal bones and drilled fangs, teeth, and shells were widespread. These are bead necklaces made from mammoth ivory, animal teeth and mollusk shells, often including larger pendants or plaques. Ornamented hoops (tiaras) made of mammoth ivory were worn on the head to fasten the hair, and on the arms were various bracelets cut from ivory or made of stringed beads. Beads and shells decorated headdresses or hairstyles and clothing, which is clearly visible from the burial materials and details of anthropomorphic figurines.

The cut and nature of the sewn clothing is evidenced by both images of people and the remains of decorations sewn onto them, found in burials. These data allow us to reconstruct several clothing options. Thus, based on the study of a female figurine from the Siberian site of Buret, we can talk about the existence of fur clothing such as overalls, sewn with the wool facing out, tightly fitting the body from head to toe. A more complex costume is being reconstructed based on materials from burials at the Sungir site. The costume consisted of a shirt, pants, shoes and a cloak, pinned with a large pin (fibula). The clothes of the buried were richly embroidered at the seams with beads cut from tusk, which formed decorative borders. In general, the presence of rather complex clothing is indicated by the finds of a large number of buckles, buttons and various plaques-stripes made of bone and often ornamented.

Jewelry: 1 - bracelet (Mezin); 2, 6 - image of a bird (Mezin), 3 - ornamented mammoth shoulder blade (Mezin); 4 - plate made of mammoth ivory, ornamented on both sides (Malta); 5 - mammoth skull, decorated with red ocher (Mezhirini); 7, 8 - fragments of tiaras with ornaments (Avdeevo).

Research over the last decade suggests that weaving, knitting and, in some areas, weaving were widespread in the Upper Paleolithic. Samples of the first textiles are 26 thousand years old and were discovered at a number of sites in Moravia (Central Europe). The plant raw materials for it were nettle and hemp fibers.

Hunting

Finds at sites of a large number of bones of various animals indicate that hunting was one of the main occupations of the population. Based on the bone remains of animals, we can determine the set of commercial species. Such animals were mammoth, wild horse, reindeer and red deer, bison, saiga, and among predators - wolf, brown and cave bear, fox, arctic fox, among rodents - hare, bobak. Bones of birds and fish are found much less frequently.

Sometimes entire skeletons of arctic foxes and other predators are found at sites - therefore, these animals were not eaten. This suggests that in some cases hunting was carried out solely for fur. Based on the nature of the bone materials, one can trace a certain selectivity in hunting for one or another type of animal depending on the season, gender and age. Thus, the above-mentioned skeletons of fur-bearing animals refer to sites where they lived in the autumn-winter seasons, i.e. at a time when the fur is most durable. Animal bones found at sites tend to belong to either young or old animals, and the volume of hunting kill at the sites is not very large. Thus, hunting did not disturb the ecological balance of the area. All this suggests that the idea of ​​Paleolithic man as a mindless predator is clearly outdated.

Leaf-shaped and other points, tips with a side notch, probably served as the tops of hunting weapons - spears and darts. In addition, bone tips for tools such as spears and harpoons were discovered at a number of sites. Inset tips were often made: sharp flint plates were fixed into the grooves of the bone tip. At some sites in France, spear throwers were found that increased the range of throwing weapons and the force of impact. The bow and arrow were apparently invented in the Upper Paleolithic. A number of researchers suggest that the domestication of the wolf began at this time (Avdeevo site).

For the Upper Paleolithic, various hunting methods have been reconstructed:

• with the help of trapping pits,
• corrals or raids,
• ambushes at watering holes,
• using various traps, etc.

Hunting required clear organization of all team actions. A hunting horn was found at one of the French sites, which, as is known, serves to transmit signals to groups of hunters at various stages of the hunt.

Hunting provided people with food, material for clothing and building houses, and provided a very important raw material for the manufacture of various products - bone (which, in addition, served as fuel). At the same time, hunting could not satisfy all human needs and was significantly supplemented by a variety of gathering, the role of which was great, especially in the southern regions.

Spiritual life

Religious ideas. Burials

The spiritual life of Paleolithic man developed in direct connection with the further exploration of the world and the development of material culture. Primitive beliefs are a reflection of certain conclusions, ideas and concepts that arose as a result of long-term observations of natural phenomena and accumulated life experience. Already in the Mousterian era, a person began to develop a complex of ideas that explained the most important foundations of the universe. Without separating their existence from the surrounding world and observing various natural phenomena, primitive people attributed to themselves the ability to cause or create the same phenomena and, on the other hand, attributed to the forces of nature, animals and inanimate objects various abilities and capabilities inherent only to humans. This set of ideas is called animism.

The belief in the existence of a human connection with any animal or plant led to the emergence of another direction of primitive beliefs - totemism. Totemism arises along with the emergence of clan society. Its basis is the idea that all members of one clan group come from a specific animal, plant, or even an inanimate object - a totem.

The main reason for the emergence of funeral practice, as mentioned above, was the further development of social organization and the complication of ideological ideas. To date, about 70 Upper Paleolithic burials are known, so far discovered only in Eurasia. In this era, despite the relatively few finds of burials, we can talk about some stable features of burial practice. Deceased people were placed in grave pits, often surrounded or covered with stones and bones; grave goods included jewelry, stone and bone items, and red ocher was often used.

Burials are located, as a rule, in parking lots or in inhabited caves. The poses of the buried are very varied. Burials can be single or collective. For example, at the Pržedmost site (Czech Republic), a collective burial was found that contained the remains of at least 20 people: 8 skeletons belonged to adults, the rest to children. The skeletons lay mostly crouched on their sides, sometimes covered with mammoth shoulder blades or covered with stones. Paired and triple burials were discovered in the Grimaldi grottoes in the south of France, in Moravia, at the Sungir site near Vladimir, and at the Malta site on the Angara.

The male and paired children's burials of Sungir are of particular interest due to their excellent preservation and rich inventory. The male burial contained more than three thousand beads from mammoth ivory and arctic fox teeth. Their location on the skeleton allows us to reconstruct a costume consisting of a shirt without a slit in the front and pants connected to shoes. On the head of the buried person was a headdress decorated with sewn carved beads, and on his hands were bracelets made of bone. At the bottom of the grave lay a flint knife and a scraper. The buried person lay in an extended position on his back and was densely covered with ocher.

Reconstruction of the burial of a boy (12-14 years old) and a girl (9-10 years old) from the burials of Sungir-2 and Sungir-3.

Almost next to this burial, another one was discovered, which stood out among the others due to the unusualness of the ritual and the richness of the grave goods. In a grave pit 3 meters long, two skeletons lay in an extended position, their heads facing each other. They belonged to teenagers - a boy and a girl, buried at the same time. The clothes of the buried were richly decorated with sewn carved beads and other bone decorations. Next to the children were placed unique hunting weapons - spears exceeding 2 meters in length, made from a single straightened mammoth tusk, long and short bone daggers. On the boy's chest lay an amulet - a figurine of a bone horse. It is interesting to note that the same figurine, decorated with a spiral ornament made by a series of pits, was found in the cultural layer of the site.

Rich material for the study of funeral rites is provided by the sites of the Kostenkovsko-Borshevsky region. Four burials were discovered there. The burial at the Kostenki 2 site was discovered next to the dwelling in a specially attached oval chamber made of mammoth bones. The position of the skeleton suggests that the deceased was placed in the burial chamber in a sitting position with his legs bound. The burial from the Markina Gora site (Kostenki XIV) contains a fully preserved skeleton of a man about 25 years old, lying in a simple soil pit, the floor of which was densely covered with ocher. The buried person was laid on his side in a strongly crouched position; three flint flakes, a mammoth phalanx and hare bones were found next to him.

The design and ritual of burial at the Kostenki XV site are unique. In an oval grave pit located under the floor of the dwelling, a 6-7 year old boy was buried in a sitting position on an artificially constructed seat. The inventory found in the burial was a rich set of 70 various bone and stone tools. On the head of the buried person was a headdress decorated with more than 150 drilled arctic fox teeth. The bottom of the grave was thickly painted with yellow and red ocher.

Paleolithic art

Late Paleolithic art revealed the richness of the spiritual world of ancient hunters and gatherers. Although the beginning of visual activity can be dated back to the late Acheulian and Mousterian eras, its heyday dates back to the Upper Paleolithic. Opened at the end of the 19th century. examples of Upper Paleolithic painting were so perfect that contemporaries at first refused to believe in their ancient age, and only as a result of a long and heated discussion were they recognized as authentic.

Currently, the phenomenon of Paleolithic art is generally recognized and is the subject of comprehensive study. In Paleolithic art there are three main groups of monuments (three main genres):

• monumental - cave paintings and reliefs;
• art of small forms - small plastic art (figurines, small bone plates with engravings);
• applied - jewelry, artistically designed household items, etc.

The origin and flowering of Upper Paleolithic art indicates the completion of the formation of consciousness, the emergence of a new, completely specific human activity aimed at creating the first model of the world.

The main visual motifs of cave painting and small sculpture were images of animals and humans. Some drawings and sculptures are made so realistically that paleontologists are able to determine from them the species of animals that are now extinct. Mammoth, bison, horse, and predators are especially common among images.

It is believed that zoomorphic images appear somewhat earlier than anthropomorphic ones. The earliest monument cave painting(28 thousand years ago) is now the Chauvet Cave in France, where beautiful compositions of images of horses, lions and other animals are presented. Monumental paintings are most fully represented in caves in the south and southwest of France, northern Spain, Italy, as well as Serbia and Croatia. About 120 such objects are known there. Such monuments as the caves of Altamira, Lascaux, Pech-Merle, Nio, and the Three Brothers provide striking examples of polychrome pictorial compositions. According to one of the largest archaeologists of the 20th century. A. Leroy-Gourhan and many other scientists, cave paintings were not just an unsystematic series of images, but could serve as “records-illustrations” of ancient myths. Thus, the bison in cave painting personified the feminine, the horse - the masculine, and various combinations of their images could reflect some mythological subjects.

Images of humans are quite rare in monumental art and, unlike images of animals, are more conventional. There are known images that combine human and animal features. As a rule, they are interpreted as participants in rituals associated with hunting magic.

Such are, for example, the figure of a “shaman” from the Three Brothers Cave or the scene of the ritual eating of a bison from the Raimonden Cave, etc. It should be noted that several such images are also presented in small plastic - the most famous is the figurine of a standing man with a lion's head from Hohlenstein-Stadel (Germany). Apparently, they are all associated with a similar range of ideas based on totemism.

In Russia, cave paintings were discovered in the Kapova and Ignatievskaya caves in the Urals. The age of the cultural layer in these caves is about 14 thousand years. On the walls of the caves there are images of mammoths, rhinoceroses, horses and geometric figures.

Primitive artists used mineral paints: chalk, charcoal and yellow, red or cherry ocher. In dark caves, a person painted by the light of a fire, torch or lamp. Fragments of such a clay lamp were discovered during excavations in Kapova Cave.

In addition to examples of wall paintings, usually polychrome, monumental cave art includes relief images made using the techniques of engraving and picketage. Picketage- a technique for creating an image by knocking out dotted depressions. The most famous are the high relief of a woman with a horn from the Lossel cave and the paired group of bison from the Tuc de Odubert cave, made as a high relief in 3/4 of the natural volume.

Items small art- figurines of people and animals and plates with their engraved images are very widespread. There are much more such finds in Central and Eastern Europe and Northern Asia than in Western Europe. Animal figurines are distinguished by high craftsmanship and great expressiveness. Figurines of a mammoth, rhinoceros, bison, horse, bear, cave lion and other animals may have been intended for use in magical rituals and could have been kept in special places. For example, at many sites figurines made of mammoth ivory were found in small storage pits under the floor of dwellings; sometimes they are found in burials (a horse from the Sungir site).

In addition to mammals, birds, fish and snakes were depicted. A whole series of sculptural images of waterfowl comes from the Siberian site of Malta: the birds are depicted in motion - they swim or fly with their wings outstretched. Wriggling snakes are also engraved in motion on a large plate of mammoth ivory found at the same site. Images of fish and snakes are known on engraved plates from sites in Western and Eastern Europe. Numerous images of birds, snakes and fish may be associated with the development of early mythological ideas about the elements of nature - air, earth, water.

Among anthropomorphic sculptures, images of women predominate - the so-called “Paleolithic Venuses”; now about 200 of them are known. Male images are few in number. Most of the figurines depicted women in full growth, although images of female heads and individual parts of the body are also known. Many figurines were found inside or near dwellings. They are often found near fires or in specially dug holes.

European figurines usually depict nude women with emphasized female forms, often decorated with ornamented belts and ribbons, bracelets and even rings, sometimes with complex hairstyles or headdresses. The slender type "Venus" is found mainly in Siberian sites. The famous female figurines from the Malta and Buret sites are more schematic and flattened, but their facial features are detailed. A special feature of some figurines is the continuous ornament covering them, depicting fur clothing with a hood.

In the plastics of the Upper Paleolithic, in addition to realistic female images, there are figurines characterized by a high degree of generalization in the creation of a female image - these are the famous “birds” from the Mezin site and a number of Western European figurines from various sites in France and Italy.

The realism of female images, on the one hand, and on the other, the emphasis on sexual characteristics and the display of signs of pregnancy allow us to talk about the importance of expressing the maternal principle. It is believed that the wide distribution of female figurines indicates the formation in the Upper Paleolithic era of the cult of a woman as a mother and guardian of the hearth.

Female images could serve as talismans, amulets and be used to perform various magical rituals.

For the manufacture of small plastic objects, mainly mammoth ivory, bone, amber, and soft stone - marl were used. However, at the sites of the Pavlovian culture (Czech Republic, Moravia), which date back to 26-24 thousand BC, figurines of women and animals made of baked clay, obtained as a result of very high-quality firing, were discovered. There, at the Dolni Vestonice site, the remains of a primitive furnace for firing ceramics and many of its fragments were found. These finds date back to approximately the same time. That is, this is the first evidence of the invention of ceramics by man. Another ceramic anthropomorphic figurine was found at the Siberian site of Maina (upper Yenisei). It is interesting that their creators, while making high-quality ceramic plastic, and therefore mastering high-temperature firing, did not try to make ceramic tableware.

A special type of Paleolithic art is ornament. It is found on female figurines, jewelry, tusk and bone plates, and even on tools. Ancient ornamental motifs are extremely diverse - from the simplest figures (dots, dashes, crosses and their combinations) to a complex, skillfully executed meander ornament from Mezin, a hexagonal grid from Eliseevich and a double spiral from Malta. Some of the ornaments - lines of triangles, an oblique cross and their combinations - are considered “feminine”, since they decorate female figurines and a number of bone tools, traditionally associated with women’s labor in making clothes.

Often, on ornamented objects or tusks with notches, groups of elements are distinguished, repeating in certain numerical intervals - the most common are groups of 2, 5, 7 and multiples of them. The presence of an ornament constructed in this way allowed scientists to put forward a hypothesis about the origin of counting (pentary and septenary systems) and the lunar calendar in the Paleolithic era.

Finds of objects of Paleolithic art on the territory of Russia and Ukraine are distributed unevenly; the largest number of them were found at sites in the Middle Don, Dnieper, Desna and Eastern Siberia.

There is no doubt that in addition to the visual arts, other forms of art existed in the Upper Paleolithic, such as music and dance. This is evidenced by the finds at Upper Paleolithic sites of flutes and pipes, which are practically no different from modern ones and can still be played. At the Mezin site, the remains of a dwelling were examined, in which, near one of the walls, there was a group of large mammoth bones, decorated with red ocher painting. According to the researchers, these objects could serve as percussion musical instruments.

Cultural areas and archaeological cultures

In the Upper Paleolithic, the pace of development of human society increased, new discoveries and improvements spread faster and faster, and, at the same time, local differences in the development of material culture became more noticeable.

Archaeological material does not provide grounds for identifying a single or only center in which the Upper Paleolithic industry arose. Most researchers suggest that many Upper Paleolithic archaeological cultures developed in a number of areas on the basis of local Mousterian traditions. This process occurred in different areas, probably about 40-36 thousand years ago.

Archaeological cultures in the Stone Age are distinguished on the basis of a typological analysis of flint and bone implements and the technology of their manufacture. Archaeological culture for this era is characterized by a certain set of specific types of tools made in the same technological tradition, as well as similar forms (types) of dwellings and features in the fine arts (if the latter is available).

It is assumed that the differences between archaeological cultures reflect certain differences in the socio-cultural traditions characteristic of various human groups.

For a long time, most researchers recognized the stages of development of the Upper Paleolithic for the entire ecumene, with three general stages (epochs) identified: Aurignac, Solutre and Madeleine. Subsequently, another very long stage was added to them - perigordien.

Currently, thanks to the materials of many years of research, it is generally accepted that these are not general stages of the development of material culture, but rather large cultural areas, which in some cases and in some territories of Western and Central Europe replace each other, and in other cases coexist. Within these areas, as well as throughout the Upper Paleolithic ecumene, distinctive cultures developed. It turned out that in a fairly limited area, different archaeological cultures can coexist and develop at the same time.

Western and Central Europe

It is generally accepted that in the initial stages of the Upper Paleolithic, two main cultural areas coexisted - Perigordienian and Aurignacian, the absolute age of which is determined to be 34-22 thousand years.

The origin of the material culture of the Perigordien is traditionally associated with the further development of the Mousterian variant with the Acheulean tradition, since the role of Mousterian elements in the stone industry at its initial stage was great, although over time it significantly decreased. The main area of ​​distribution is Southwestern France.

Aurignacian culture is known in Spain, France, Belgium, and England. The most characteristic feature of the Aurignacian stone industry can be considered a special “Aurignacian” retouch, with the help of which various types of tools were designed. Flat or spindle-shaped bone points are widespread - this is the first stable type of bone tools. The monuments of Central Europe are somewhat different from Western European ones; these differences are mainly manifested in art: Western European drawings of animals are usually done in profile, and female figurines are more realistic and plastic.

Within the framework of the Early Upper Paleolithic of Central Europe, the Seletian culture is distinguished, which is characterized by a combination of Upper Paleolithic and Mousterian types of products. On some Seletian monuments there are even points, plates and cores made in a very archaic Levallois technique. The most recognizable shape can be considered a large triangular tip.

Somewhat later than the Aurignacian culture, the Gravettian culture arose and continued to coexist simultaneously with it, possibly inheriting the Perigordienian tradition. Gravettian sites in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Austria and France date back to 26-20 millennia BC. Gravettian is characterized by a rich set of tools; various points can be considered specific types, among which asymmetrical points with a side notch and knives with a back stand out. Microliths and composite tools appear. There are a variety of bone products: points, awls, spatulas, decorations. Gravettian monuments are characterized by the presence of numerous examples of small plastic art - figurines of women and animals made of tusk and bone, stone or clay.

The Gravettian culture is represented by a large number of monuments, which are divided into two groups, eastern and western, the question of their relationship is debatable.

The Solutrean culture is widespread in Central and Southern France; in addition, an independent center for the spread of a similar culture existed in Eastern and Northern Spain and Portugal. In the north of Western Europe, Solutrean monuments, especially late ones, are extremely rare.

The Solutrean culture refers to the period between the existence of the Gravettian and Magdalenian cultures, but is not genetically related to them. Radiocarbon dates indicate a relatively short period of its existence (21-19/18 thousand years ago). A feature of this culture is the wide distribution of spear tips and knife blades. The predominant forms are laurel or willow arrowheads, arrowheads with a handle and with a side notch, made with great perfection by processing the flint on both sides with press retouch. This method of processing flint consisted of removing thin flakes from the surface of the product using a bone squeezer; This type of retouching is called streaky or “solutrean”.

The Magdalenian culture dates back to the period 18-12/11 thousand years ago. The Magdalenian culture itself is typical only for France, Belgium, Northern Spain, Switzerland and southern Germany, but its characteristic features - widespread bone processing and specific types of bone tools, peculiar features in small plastics - are represented to varying degrees in the Late Paleolithic cultures of the entire European periglacial regions from France to the Urals. In Central Europe, the development of industries occurs mainly on a Gravettian basis, but Magdalenian impulses (influences) also penetrate here from the west.

The relatively favorable climatic conditions that developed in Europe at the end of the Upper Paleolithic as a result of glacier retreat and warming (13-11/9 thousand years ago) made it possible for new groups of hunters of tundra and steppe animals to move north. In Northwestern Europe they are represented by the Hamburg and Ahrensburg cultures, and in Eastern Europe by the Swider culture.

The Hamburg culture is characterized by a variety of flint tools, including arrowheads with notches and peculiar piercings. Tools made of deer antler with flint inserts were common. Fish and birds were killed with single-ended harpoons made from reindeer antler. The dwellings were round and oval tents covered with deer skins.

Numerous flint products were found at the monuments of the Arensburg culture - arrowheads, scrapers, drills, etc. The most characteristic are fairly wide and short asymmetrical arrowheads and darts with a stalk for securing the product in the shaft, as well as special hoe-shaped tools made from reindeer antler.

The Swider culture is synchronous with the Arensburg culture. The settlements were temporary camps on the banks of rivers and lakes, often on dunes. Organic materials are not preserved in sand, so the Svider inventory is represented only by flint products: willow and petiole points, scrapers on blades and flakes, burins of various shapes, etc.

Monuments similar to those of Svider and Arensburg are known in the northwestern territories adjacent to Russia; later, throughout the Mesolithic, these traditions can be traced throughout the entire forest zone of Eastern Europe.

Eastern Europe, Siberia and Asian regions

For Eastern Europe, Siberia and many areas of Asia, and especially America, the development scheme of Western European cultural areas is not being implemented, however, due to the active movement of various population groups caused by climate change, we can observe the influence of one or another cultural tradition in very remote areas.

Eastern Europe demonstrates the diversity of Upper Paleolithic cultures, modifying various Aurignacoid, Seletoid, Gravettian, Magdalenian traditions and exhibiting great originality.

The most ancient are the Spitsyno, Streletskaya, Gorodtsovskaya cultures, studied in the Kostenkovsko-Borshevsky district in the Middle Don. The Spitsyno and Streltsy cultures belong to the same chronological group, but their inventories are strikingly different from each other. The Spitsyn culture (36-32 thousand years ago) is characterized by a prismatic splitting technique; most of the tools are made of plates of regular shape. There is no two-sided processing. The most numerous group of tools are various burins, but there are also many scrapers with parallel edges. Mousterian forms of tools are completely absent. Products made of bone were found - polishes and awls, jewelry made of belemnites and corals.

In the inventory of the Streltsy culture (35-25 thousand years ago), on the contrary, there are a lot of Mousterian types of products, which are represented by scrapers, scraper-knives and pointed points with double-sided processing. The main workpiece is a flake. There are numerous scrapers, tending to a triangular shape, almost as numerous are triangular points with a concave base, carefully processed on both sides - this is the most expressive form among the tools of the Streltsy culture. There are very few other types of weapons.

The Gorodtsovskaya culture belongs to the second chronological group of the Kostenki monuments (28-25 thousand years ago) and, although for some time it coexisted with the Streltsy culture, it is very different from the latter in the features of stone implements. Both plates and flakes serve as blanks for products. Early sites contain Mousterian forms, but over time their proportion noticeably decreases.

A brief overview of just three of these cultures shows the cultural uniqueness of each. It should be repeated once again that in the Kostenkovsko-Borshevsky archaeological region (the village of Kostenki, Voronezh region) no less than eight independent cultural formations are distinguished in a very small area.

The Molodovo culture is a good example of the long-term autochthonous development of the Upper Paleolithic industry associated with the Mousterian culture of the same name. Monuments of the Molodovo culture (30-20 thousand years ago) are located in the middle reaches of the Prut and Dniester rivers. During the long existence of this industry, the manufacture of products on elongated plate blanks and plates that became smaller and smaller was improved. The cultural inventory widely includes specific types of scrapers, various incisors and points. From the earliest stages of its existence, tools on microplates appeared, the number of which constantly increases over time.

One of the striking cultural formations of Eastern Europe is the Kostenki-Avdeevsk culture (25-20/18? thousand years ago), the monuments of which are located in the central part of the Russian Plain and are located at considerable distances from each other - Kostenki and Gagarino on the Middle Don, Avdeevo on the Seimas, Zaraiskaya site near Moscow. The stone implements are rich and varied; large points with a side notch, leaf-shaped points, and backed knives are very characteristic. There are numerous tools made of bone - points and polishes, needles and needle cases, small crafts. At the sites, many examples of small plastic and applied art made from tusk, bone and marl were found.

The monuments of this culture have the greatest similarity with materials from the Pavlovian culture in Moravia and a number of monuments in Poland, Germany, and Austria. This culture is part of the Kostenki-Willzdorf unity, Gravetgian in nature, showing a complex picture of the interconnection of cultures and monuments of Western, Central and Eastern Europe, confirmed by the similarity of implements, residential complexes and art.

The Middle Dnieper cultural community occupies a vast territory in the middle part of the Dnieper basin and its tributary - the river. Desna and is represented by a number of monuments (Mezin, Pushkari, Eliseevichi, Yudinovo, Khotylevo II, Timonovka, Dobranichevka, Mezhirichi, Gontsy), on which the remains of massive dwellings have been preserved. These are typical settlements of sedentary hunters; the number of game animals here undoubtedly included the mammoth. These monuments share common features in house construction, examples of small forms of art and ornament, stone and bone implements.

In the Northern Black Sea region, a number of cultures are distinguished for the late Upper Paleolithic - Kamennobalkovskaya, Akkarzhanskaya, Anetovskaya, whose bearers lived in different conditions than the inhabitants of the periglacial regions. The climate here was much warmer, the vegetation was richer, and the largest animals were the wild horse and bison. They were the main commercial species, although the overall composition of hunting prey was much wider. Other natural conditions also determined the ways in which the ancient population adapted to them - at the sites there are no traces of massive building structures or pits for storing food supplies in permafrost. The stone inventory contains a wide variety of tools made of microblades and inserts; in the Kamenno-Balkovo culture their number reaches 30%. The main set of tools is typical for the Upper Paleolithic, but is unique for each culture. For example, the inventory of the Kamennobalkovskaya culture has many similarities with the inventory of the Imeretian culture of the Caucasus, which indicates the possibility of population migration from there to the south of the Russian Plain. In Siberia, the Kokorevo, Afontovo, Malta-Buret and Dyuktai cultures have been studied; more details about them can be read in additional literature.

Currently, many Upper Paleolithic cultures have been identified in Eurasia and America. The differences between them are significant, which indicates the independent development of cultures and their different origins. In some areas, autochthonous development is observed from the beginning of the era almost to its end. In other areas, we can trace the arrival of genetically alien cultures into the territory of distribution of one culture, interrupting the development of local traditions, and, finally, sometimes we can observe the coexistence of several different cultures - as, for example, in the Kostenkovsko-Borshevsky district (where more than 60 monuments belonging to to at least eight crops).

In those cases where it is possible to trace the continuous development of an archaeological culture, it turns out that it can exist for a very long time. For example, the Aurignacian culture in France and the Imeretian culture of Georgia developed at least 10 thousand years. Kamennobalkovskaya in southern Russia existed for at least 5 thousand years. This indicates the successful adaptation of the Upper Paleolithic population to environmental conditions.

Studying the diversity of Upper Paleolithic cultures makes it possible to solve questions about the relationships and migrations of ancient populations and possible ways of settling certain territories.

The concept of “archaeological culture” is basic in archeology (Rogachev, Anikovich 1984). Archaeological culture in the Late Paleolithic is usually understood as a set of monuments belonging to the same cultural tradition with specific elements of the material complex, with close geological and absolute dating, with the concentration of the main number of monuments in one geographical area, with the same structure of settlements and type of economy. All these criteria are entirely based on archaeological sources.

The impetus for the identification of archaeological cultures of the Late Paleolithic was the work of A.N. Rogacheva. Concept by A.N. Rogacheva was based on taking into account the cultural identity of individual population groups of the Late Paleolithic of Eastern Europe. Before publications by A.N. Rogachev 60s. XX century In Soviet Paleolithic studies, a staged concept of the history of society was preserved, according to which the local culture of the Late Paleolithic successively passed through the Aurignacian, Solutrean and Magdalenian stages of development. These cultural and chronological standards were identified on materials from the Paleolithic of France at the end of the 19th century.

The vivid cultural uniqueness of archaeological complexes, expressed in special manufacturing technologies and types of stone tools, types of dwellings, monuments of mobile art, etc., made it possible to identify other cultural formations. The scheme of cultural division was repeatedly changed and expanded due to new units obtained through the expansion of research.

The Streletskaya culture (originally the Kostenki-Streltsy culture) was identified on the basis of the material complexes of a number of sites in Kostenki. Most of the monuments of this culture date back to the initial stages of the Upper Paleolithic. They are characterized by small triangular arrowheads and spears made of straightened strips cut from mammoth ivory. The main object of the hunt was the horse.

The standard monuments of the second half of the Upper Paleolithic of the south of Eastern Europe and the Lower Don as its integral part are a group of sites in Kamennaya Balka, located on the northern outskirts of the farm. Nedvigovka, Myasnikovsky district, Rostov region. This group includes several single-layer and two multi-layer sites, which belong to the type of basic settlement sites. The sites Kamennaya Balka I, II and III have been most fully explored. Systematic research of the sites has been carried out from 1957 to the present. All sites belong to different stages of the development of one culture that existed on the Lower Don from 21-13 thousand years ago.

Parking Stone Beam I is single-layer. Excavations of the site were carried out from the 50s to the 90s. last century. In total, an area of ​​more than 500 square meters was uncovered, and a collection of more than 1,000,000 flint products was collected, of which almost 1,000 were tools for various labor operations. It was possible to excavate two large oval-shaped residential structures with hearths and clusters of cultural remains in the center. Repair of chips showed their independence, i.e. the sites reflect two independent settlements, most likely existing at different times. Both complexes, according to radiocarbon dating, existed 15 thousand years ago. Judging by the finds of fish bones near one of the hearths of the 2nd residential building, the village was inhabited seasonally, in the warm season.

The largest is the parking lot Stone Beam II. During the entire period of field work, about 2000 square meters were studied in detail. area of ​​the ancient settlement. The total collection includes more than 2 million flint artifacts. This is the largest collection of Upper Paleolithic flint objects in Europe. The good preservation of cultural remains of the Paleolithic era in Kamennaya Balka and the unprecedentedly large uncovered area make it possible to study in detail the features of the planigraphy of the ancient settlement.

Planigraphic studies of Upper Paleolithic sites

In the 30s XX century In Soviet Paleolithic archeology, a technique for excavating Late Paleolithic settlements over wide areas was first proposed. This technique made it possible to identify residential structures and study the structure of settlements. The technique received logical development in the 60s. Almost simultaneously, studies of sites over large areas in France and the Soviet Union began. In France, the object of study was the sites of the Paris Basin of the Magdalenian period. The European madeleine (from the La-Magdalenien cave) dates back to 14-12 thousand years ago. The founder of these works was Henri Leroi-Gourhan. Similar work was carried out by N.B. Leonova on the Lower Don at sites in Kamennaya Balka. The sites were studied using excavation techniques that are now recognized throughout the world. Careful analysis of the cultural layer and recording of all finds makes it possible, under office conditions, to reconstruct almost all episodes of the economic and everyday activities of the ancient inhabitants of sites, to restore seasonality and duration of habitation.

As a rule, cultural remains are preserved in the habitat in the form of accumulations of various sizes and configurations and heterogeneous structural elements of the cultural layer of settlements. These may be accumulations of split flint at the site of production of cores and blades, discharges of household waste from dwellings, remains of residential structures of various types, open hearths, places for cutting segments of animal carcasses, production areas for processing animal skins (recorded by accumulations of worn-out tools and traces of their adjustment ), and others. Planigraphic analysis makes it possible to identify related structures accumulated during one settlement cycle and to restore the habitat surface (Leonova 1980). Of great importance is the method of connections based on repairs (put together chips from one core or fragments of tools) of flint products.

Reconstructions carried out on the basis of planigraphic studies are largely based on ethno-archaeological data. The theoretical foundations of this science are laid in the works of the American scientist Lewis R. Binford. Numerous observations of the lifestyle of the Alaskan Eskimos, Australian aborigines and other peoples who have preserved traditional farming methods allowed L. Binford to identify general behavioral algorithms characteristic of hunter-gatherers of the past and present (Binford, 1983). The adaptive nature of human culture led to the emergence of largely similar complexes of material culture.

The nature of the structural elements of the lower cultural layer reflects the existence of a base settlement here with several seasons of habitation. The size of this village was small and was approximately 400 square meters. Dating is within 21-18 thousand years ago. No reliable remains of residential or any building structures were found.

The largest number of structural elements of the cultural layer were preserved in the 2nd (middle) cultural layer of the Kamennaya Balka II site. The size of the village at this time was about 2100 square meters. Based on a series of radiocarbon dates, the age of settlement can be determined - 17-15 thousand years ago. Here, structures are noted in the form of accumulations of split flint and hearths in open areas, “treasures” of flint products in the form of small groups of specially selected blades and tool blanks, areas with finely split fragments of animal bones, systems of pits filled with bones, accumulations of tools of various types, traces their production and repair. The accumulated cultural remains reflect the high intensity of use of the residential site, which is possible given the conditions of settlement of the parking lot throughout the year. The remains accumulated in the 2nd cultural layer reflect at least three settlement cycles with short chronological intervals.

The basis of settlement structures of the Upper Paleolithic were dwellings. In Kamennaya Balka, dwellings (or living areas) were above ground and had the appearance of rampart structures with several hearths inside. In Kamennaya Balka I, there are two large oval clusters of finds with hearths inside - the remains of two light residential structures of different periods. In the main layer of Kamennaya Balka II, traces of several contemporaneous dwellings have been preserved. They were small - up to 22 square meters, oval, with a number of foci (3-4) along the long axis. The supporting structure consisted of pillars and posts dug into small holes. There is no basis for reconstructing the shape of the roof, but most likely the roof was conical. The holes were filled with animal bones and clay. Dwellings were covered with animal skins. The space inside the home was organized in a certain way. In a number of cases, a concentration of traces of the manufacture of hunting weapons was noted on one side of the line of hearths (male half?) and traces of clothing sewing on the other side (female half?). Around some hearths in small residential structures, only kitchen remains (small fragments of animal bones) are concentrated. Outside the residential structures, at a close distance from them, there were open hearths, places where cores were split, places where tools were made and repaired (production areas for processing hides, making wooden utensils and implements), and places where brought segments of animal carcasses were cut up. In ancient times, there was a shallow depression in the central part of the site. In this convenient depression, working points with fireplaces were set up, covered from the north by a light wind barrier.

Based on paleoeconomic reconstructions, it is possible to reconstruct the approximate number of people who lived at the Kamennaya Balka II site. This was a group of related families with a total number of 30 to 50 people. This is the minimum estimated number of people. About half of them were young and middle-aged people who were the most active in obtaining the means of subsistence. The number of people simultaneously living in the parking lot was not constant. In the warm months of the year, the majority of adult men and adolescents were constantly on hunting raids or on trips to obtain stone raw materials.

The economic zone of the base settlements in Kamennaya Balka included a space within a radius of 100-150 km. This zone covered the Don floodplain, the modern Miussky Peninsula, and reached the river valley. Krynki in Southern Donbass. The high resource potential of this zone ensured the stable existence of the inhabitants of the sites in Kamennaya Balka for several thousand years. The basis of livelihood was hunting for herd ungulates - bison and horse. These animals accounted for 60-70% of hunting prey. They also hunted elk, wild boar, brown bear, and hunted hare and marmot. Small calcined bones of marmots and other large rodents are found mainly in or near hearths. Hunting was well organized. The slaughter of large animals was carried out by hunters at various distances from the site. Only the most nutritionally valuable parts of animal carcasses were transported to the parking lot - the chest part with shoulder, hams, lumbosacral part. There are very few vertebrae, ribs and skull bones at the site, but there are numerous pelvic bones, shoulder blades, collarbones, and upper limb bones of animals. The brought carcass segments were completely disposed of in the parking lot. The poor preservation of animal bones does not allow us to reconstruct methods of processing meat products (smoking, drying, boiling fat, etc.), however, the brought meat was used as fully as possible - mainly small fragments of broken and broken bones accumulated in the cultural layer of the site.

The methods of hunting in the Upper Paleolithic of the Lower Don are not yet clear. By analogy with the Amvrosievsky Kostishche in the neighboring Donbass, we know that bison were hunted by driving them along a rising surface upward, along a tapering side beam, where they, losing speed, became accessible prey for hunters. Hunting for single animals using stealth was just as effective.

The main hunting weapon was a spear with a complex tip. Typically, in the Upper Paleolithic, the shaft of the tip was turned from a carved strip of reindeer antler or wood. Flint plates were fastened into cut longitudinal grooves, and one of the longitudinal edges was dulled by retouching. The stacked blades made of sharp plates made the tips a formidable weapon. A large number of blades with blunted edges in the cultural layer of the site and the absence of horn tips indicate that the tips were turned from hard wood. Some of the tips were made from large flint plates.

In addition to hunting, gathering was practiced. This was facilitated by significant resources of forests and forest-steppe areas in the vicinity of the site. Stone slabs and graters were used for grinding and grinding the products of gathering. In the spring they collected edible shellfish, and in the summer they caught fish. Plant materials were widely used for weaving baskets, mats, etc.

There are no sources of high-quality flint raw materials near the sites in Kamennaya Balka. For the production of tools, flint of Cretaceous origin was used, originating from the Cretaceous slopes of the river. Krynki. The sources of this flint are located at a distance of up to 80 km from the sites. River valley Krynka cuts through the southern spurs of the Donetsk Ridge, composed in this place of Cretaceous rocks (chalk and limestone) with a large number of flint concretions. Back in the 50s. XX century P.I. Boriskovsky discovered Upper Paleolithic workshops for the primary processing of flint raw materials in the Southern Donbass. Everyday needs for flint were met through a well-organized supply system in the form of small expeditions on foot. “Provisors” covered this distance in 3-4 days, returning with supplies of flint nodules, core blanks (pre-cores) and chipped blades. Apparently, the supply of stone raw materials was organized on the principle of supplying hunting products to the site. For mobile hunters, such trips for stones were not difficult.

The flint industry at the site was based on the flaking of blades from prismatic cores. Various inserts, points, end scrapers, piercings, cutters and other tools were made from the plates using retouching. The basis of the industry was medium-sized plates. Up to 30% of the tools were made from microplates. Special features of the flint complex of sites from Kamennaya Balka are given by plates with truncated ends, small plates with retouching, segment-shaped and trapezoidal microliths, massive burins on worked cores, and special chisel-shaped tools. These features are characteristic of the monuments of the developed and late stages of the Imeretian culture of the Caucasus, which was the genetic basis of the Upper Paleolithic culture of the Lower Don. Handles and frames made of bone and wood were often used to attach stone tools.

Stone raw materials were valued, so selected flint products often ended up in “treasures” hidden at the site itself. More than ten of them were found in the cultural layers of Kamennaya Balka II. Some of the “treasures” were painted with ocher, which speaks of special ritual actions and individual offerings. Small sets of flint blades and tools were the personal property of an individual.

In the second cultural layer of the Kamennaya Balka II site, traces of a complex ritual were found, apparently associated with the manifestation of animalism. In the southwestern part of the site, a large accumulation of skulls and limb bones of horses and bison, painted with bright red ocher, was discovered. In another deep hole near the living area, a fragment of a bison skull and a limb bone of a young horse, also painted with ocher, were found lying together. Mineral paint ocher was widely used for decorative and religious purposes. For the mentality of the people of the Upper Paleolithic, the bison was the personification of the feminine, and the horse – the masculine. This binary opposition is well reflected in Upper Paleolithic rock art.

Upper Paleolithic people were not limited to their own community. During hunting raids and trips for raw materials, they inevitably encountered hunters from remote villages. The marriage class system implied regular contact between neighbors. An archaeological indicator of long-distance and ultra-long-distance connections between the inhabitants of sites in Kamennaya Balka are the finds of rock crystal crystals, the sources of which are known in the central part of the Donetsk Ridge (at a distance of about 250 km), as well as shells for jewelry from the Mediterranean basin. Fragments of shale and jasper may come from the Azov Upland, located at a distance of up to 200-250 km.

Not far from the Kamennaya Balka II parking lot there is a parking lot Kamennaya Balka III (Third Cape). The main cultural layer of this site accumulated about 14-13 thousand years ago. The complex of material remains belongs to the final stage of development of the same cultural tradition. The monument has been explored over an area of ​​more than 300 square meters. There are three layers, of which the middle (second) is the most powerful and informative. Now in the second layer there are 8 small hearths with cultural remains around them. The lesions do not overlap each other, i.e. functioned simultaneously. Judging by the number of pits near the hearths, some of them were protected by wind barriers. In the lower cultural layer, a large hearth with abundant finds around it was cleared. Apparently, there was a short-term camp here during the cold season of the year.

In addition to the described archaeological sites, short-term sites were also found on the river. Mokry Chaltyr, not far from the Kamennaya gully, the nature of their cultural layer and inventory suggests that these were hunting camps located not far from the main base camps.

Thus, excavations of sites in Kamennaya Balka allow us to trace the development of the culture of hunter-gatherers of the Lower Don over several thousand years - from 21 to 13 thousand years ago. All these monuments are currently united into the Kamenno-Balkovo archaeological culture of the Late Paleolithic. Throughout its history, there were base settlements of a semi-sedentary population of hunter-gatherers here.

In a number of features, the Kamenno-Balkovskaya culture is close to the Imeretian culture of the Caucasus. Imereti culture is included in the circle of cultures of the Western Asian historical and cultural zone. The tool kits of these cultures are characterized by a variety of stone products made from blades, which were often given geometric shapes. Most of these items were intended for mounting inserted or composite tools with a base of antler, bone or wood. The most striking Upper Paleolithic cultures of Western Asia with well-formed geometric microliths are concentrated in the mountains of the Levant and the Iranian Plateau. The proximity between the material complexes of the Kamenno-Balkovo and Imeretian cultures suggests the migration of part of the population of the Caucasus to the northwest about 22-21 thousand years ago.

In addition to such striking archaeological cultures of the Upper Paleolithic as Streletskaya (Biruchya Balka) and Kamenno-Balkovskaya (Kamennaya Balka), monuments belonging to another specific cultural tradition have been studied in the Lower Don region. The most significant of them are located near the village. Muralovka on the right bank of the Miussky estuary and the village. Zolotovka in the river basin Don. The radiocarbon age of both sites allows us to attribute them to the second half of the Late Paleolithic (about 17-16 thousand years ago).

Muralovskaya site located on the right bank of the Miussky Estuary. The parking lot was discovered by reconnaissance V.E. Shchelinsky in 1963, excavated by N.D. Praslov in 1964 and 1967. The well-preserved cultural layer lies in loess-like loam (Praslov 1984). In an excavation area of ​​about 140 square meters. The remains of an elongated above-ground dwelling with an open hearth in the center were examined. Around the dwelling there is a pavement made of flat pieces of limestone, increasing the comfort of living on the shore of the estuary. The main object of hunting was bison, but bones of red deer and saiga were also found. This means that in the vicinity of the village, steppe vegetation was combined with areas of forest. Among the faunal remains, bones of young animals were found, which indicate the spring-summer season of habitation of the site. Local small flint pebbles were used to make tools. In total, more than 6,000 flint items were found. Mostly short blades and flakes, which were chipped from small cores, were used as blanks for tools. Specific massive core scrapers (carene, according to French typology) were also used. Short flint flakes and plates curved in profile were chipped from them and used as inserts for composite tips. Miniature inserts were also made from small plates chipped from prismatic cores. This specific micro-inventory N.D. Praslov suggested calling them “Muralov type” inserts. All inserts have the smallest retouching along the edges. Using a bitumen-adhesive base, they were attached in rows to tips, which dramatically increased their damaging effect. The flint inventory from the site also includes special piercings, burins and scrapers. Based on these features, the Muralovskaya site is comparable to sites in Ukraine and Poland, the inventory of which contains special inserts and cores for cleaving curved plates and scales.

The only finds so far of mobile art objects of the Late Paleolithic in the south of the Russian Plain are associated with the Muralovskaya site (Praslov, Filippov 1967). In the cultural layer of the N.D. site. Praslov found a fragment of a pendant made from a fox tusk and fragments of polished horn plates. On one of them, a deep engraving outlines the outline of a human figure. The closest finds of monuments of primitive art come from a group of sites in the vicinity of the village. Rogalik and Peredelsk in the river basin. Evsug on the left bank of the Seversky Donets (Gorelik 2001). The most striking find among them is a small stylized female figurine with a deeply hatched pattern, made from flat pebbles of dark red hematite.

Parking Zolotovka I was found by V.Ya. Kiyashko in 1969. Located on the right bank of the Don, 10 km above the mouth of the Seversky Donets (Praslov, Shchelinsky 200?). The site was excavated in a small area in 1969 (V.Ya. Kiyashko, A.E. Matyukhin), 1976 and 1978. (N.D. Praslov), and also in 1996 (V.E. Shchelinsky, N.D. Praslov). The loess-like loam contains a well-preserved thin cultural layer, including flint items, fragments of animal bones, stone slabs, and the remains of hearths. There are two accumulations of split flint and quartzite, two small open hearths with burnt animal bones, accumulations of animal bones, and a pit specially filled with animal bones in several layers. The outbreaks were located on the surface of the habitat. The excavations will probably involve a parking lot with the remains of an above-ground residential structure. According to the authors of the excavations, the site belongs to the type of short-term (seasonal) hunting camps. The settlement subsisted on buffalo hunting. All animal bones from the living surface are split into small fragments. This indicates intensive processing of hunting products. The collection of stone products includes more than 3 thousand products made of flint and quartzite. Mostly local flint of alluvial origin was used. Ancient river alluvium (bottom sediments of sand, gravel and pebbles) is exposed close to the site and contains a large number of small rounded pebbles of good chert. Almost all guns were made locally. Flint implements are very specific. In addition to the prismatic cores, burins, scrapers and retouched blades common for Late Paleolithic sites, special microliths were found. They are made of flint flakes and small curved plates and have the finest edge retouching. Of course, microliths were inserts for throwing weapons. The flint products are very similar to those from the Muralovskaya site. On this basis N.D. Praslov identifies a special Muralov Upper Paleolithic archaeological culture. In addition to the Lower Don, monuments of this type are found far in the steppe on the Southern Bug, and were also left by bison hunters. Perhaps the bearers of this cultural tradition moved east from Central Europe. All these monuments are usually included in the so-called. "Aurignacian" cultural circle. The origin of the cultures of this circle on the European continent is associated with Western Europe. The ancestral form of European Aurignacian most likely originated in the Middle East.

Materials from the Upper Paleolithic of the Don region reflect the wide adaptive capabilities of human groups and the variability of their behavior. Local groups of hunter-gatherers were part of the vast Paleolithic world. In archeology, attempts have been made repeatedly to divide this world into separate large historical and cultural zones.

The problem of the steppe historical and cultural zone in the Upper Paleolithic took shape in archaeological historiography in the 60s. XX century in connection with the analysis of hunting activities and material complexes of ancient people. The prerequisite for this concept is the discrepancy between the habitats of the main species of mammoth fauna, which became objects of hunting. The central part of the Russian Plain, at the latitude of the Middle Don and Middle Dnieper, Desna, during the Upper Paleolithic was the habitat of animals adapted to grass and shrub vegetation - mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, reindeer, musk ox. At the latitude of the modern steppe and southern forest-steppe, numerous herds of bison, horses, and reindeer grazed. Floodplain, ravine (along river valleys and in ravines) and island (on elevated areas) forests in the south of Eastern Europe were the habitat of elk, wolves, roe deer and wild boar.

In the area inhabited by the mammoth and the animals of its faunal complex, a culturally special zone with a significant number of long-term settlements was formed in the Late Paleolithic. The basis of these settlements were stationary above-ground and underground dwellings, in the construction of which the bones of mammoths (tusks, shoulder blades, lower jaws) and other animals (Kostenki on the Middle Don, Khotylevo and Avdeevo on the Desna, etc.) were used. The bearers of this cultural tradition migrated to the center of the Russian Plain from the upper reaches of the Danube about 23-24 thousand years ago and spread widely in central Eastern Europe (Soffer, 1985; Amirkhanov et al., 2009).

In the southern zone, various ungulates became the main object of hunting. The most striking monuments are associated with driven hunting for bison, mainly in the warm seasons of the year (Amvrosievka in the Donbass, Anetovka in the Nikolaev region, Bolshaya Akkarzha in Odessa). This gave the opportunity to the classic of Soviet Paleolithic archeology P.I. Boriskovsky in the 50-60s of the twentieth century. express the idea of ​​a special steppe historical and cultural zone in the Upper Paleolithic. A pronounced seasonality, short stays, mobility and hunting specialization were postulated for this type of adaptation.

Modern studies show a more variable set of hunting strategies of the inhabitants of the modern steppe zone, which in the late Pleistocene consisted of a mosaic of steppe, forest-steppe and forest areas. The degree of mobility, duration of residence at base sites, raw materials strategies and other elements of the economy of the inhabitants of the steppe and forest-steppe were fundamentally similar. In any case, we have no reason to talk about high population mobility. Differences in settlement intensity are more likely explained by social factors - the degree of differentiation of society into groups, the level of hierarchy, etc.

The Upper Paleolithic is deservedly considered the “golden age” of hunters. In this regard, the Upper Paleolithic cultures of the region are no exception to the rule. In the arsenal of hunter-gatherers of the Lower Don there were various variants of hunting strategies, well adapted to the resource potential of the environment. The objects of hunting were bison, reindeer and red deer, elk, wild boar, horses, and brown bear. Land use and settlement systems were flexible; The relatively mobile lifestyle of the local population was combined with the construction of long-term settlements with permanent housing and residential areas of various types. Based on traces of hunting camps of the Kamenno-Balkovsky type in the river basin. Kalmius in the Azov region (Fedorovka site), it can be concluded that within the framework of the annual economic cycle, hunters could move a considerable distance from traditional lands near the Don delta, although the main economic activity did not extend beyond the 100-kilometer zone. The high level of culture of Upper Paleolithic man and wide adaptive capabilities allowed him to create a stable economic system with signs of sedentism. The base settlements in Kamennaya Balka were used throughout all seasons. Judging by the available definitions of the hunting season for game animals, people lived permanently in settlements in Kamennaya Balka for up to 8-10 months a year. Hunters and raw materials “pharmacists” rarely traveled more than 2-3 days of travel. The Zolotovka I and Muralovka sites were inhabited for a shorter period, in the warmer months of the year. Perhaps the inhabitants of these sites led a more active lifestyle.

Vivid materials from Upper Paleolithic sites and workshops detail the historical and cultural processes at the end of the Ice Age in this sector of Europe. Archaeological complexes indicate the preservation of Western cultural impulses (Muralovskaya culture) with the increasing importance of southern impulses (Kamenno-Balkovskaya culture). During this period in the history of the Lower Don, a gravitation primarily towards the southern centers of cultural genesis (the Caucasus and Western Asia) becomes noticeable. Breaks in contacts caused by geographical reasons (15-14 thousand years ago the Caspian Sea connected with the Azov-Black Sea basin through the wide Kura-Manych Strait) did not change the general trend of development of the region. In subsequent periods of the Stone Age, the connection between the Lower Don and the Caucasus manifests itself even more clearly.

Questions to consolidate the material:

1. Describe the most ancient archeological monuments of the Lower Don.

2. How was the settlement of people in ancient times related to natural and climatic conditions?

3. Name the main milestones in the study of the Early and Middle Paleolithic of the Lower Don region.

4. Analyze the features of the Middle Paleolithic hunter-gatherer economy of the south of the Russian Plain.

5. List the archaeological cultures of the Late Paleolithic of the Lower Don.

Basic terms:

biface – a stone product processed on both sides;

wind barrier - a simple linear or slightly curved vertical structure made of wooden poles, animal skins or reeds, intended for fencing stationary household and industrial areas in settlement areas;

liner tip - a large tip of a spear, dart or arrow in the form of a pointed rod with or without cut longitudinal grooves, with a blade made of flint plates or flakes;

geometric microliths - small items made from fragments of flint plates in the form of geometric shapes (segments, trapezoids, triangles and rectangles);

living area - a limited living space around the hearth (hearths) without obvious signs of a supporting structure or walls;

dwelling - in the Paleolithic, an artificial structure for creating and maintaining a microclimate in an isolated volume sufficient for the comfortable living of a small group of people;

“hoards” of flint products – isolated accumulations of specially selected and hidden flint products in settlements or outside them;

microtools - a set of small retouched flint inserts made of plates and flakes, often in the form of geometric microliths, points on plates;

Lower Don - the lower section of the Don Valley, a special physical-geographical zone at the junction of the Russian Plain and the North Caucasus;

cores – cleavage objects intended for chopping off blanks in the form of flakes and plates;

monuments of mobile art - small-form art objects made of bone (antler, tusk) and stone depicting people, animals and stylized signs;

habitat surface - the daytime surface of settlements of various types at the time of their settlement by ancient people;

marine regression - a phase of lowering sea level due to the transfer of atmospheric moisture to glaciers during a cooling period;

refugium - an isolated area of ​​terrain with long-term preservation of favorable natural and climatic conditions;

repair - a method of restoring the original shape of stone nodules and products from chips and fragments;

river alluvium - bottom river sediments of clay, gravel, sand and pebbles;

structural elements of the cultural layer - different in genesis, composition, density, shape and structure of the accumulation of products of human activity on the surface of the habitat;

subaqueous sediments – underwater sediments;

subaerial deposits – deposits of atmospheric origin;

marine transgression - a phase of sea level rise due to the melting of glaciers during warm climatic periods;

faunal complex - a set of animal species that lived in a certain geological era in certain landscapes; labeled with specific species;

carene - a massive core-scraper for chopping off scales and plates curved in profile;

in situ (in layer, lat.) – an index marking a well-preserved cultural layer.

Basic reading for Chapter 2:

Archeology -

Leonova N.B., Nesmeyanov S.A., Vinogradova E.A., Voeikova O.A., Gvozdover M.D., Minkov E.V., Spiridonova E.A., Sycheva S.A. Paleoecology of the lowland Paleolithic (on the example of the complex of Upper Paleolithic sites Kamennaya Balka in the Northern Azov region). – Moscow: Scientific World, 2006. – 360 p.

Matyukhin A.E. Biryuchya Balka 2. Multi-layered Paleolithic monument in the Lower Don basin. - St. Petersburg, 2012. – 242 p.

Praslov N.D. Early Paleolithic of the North-Eastern Azov region and Lower Don region // MIA, No. 157. - Leningrad, 1968. - 154 p.

Additional reading for Chapter 2:

Amirkhanov Kh.A., Akhmetgaleeva N.B., Buzhilova A.P., Burova N.D., Lev S.Yu., Mashchenko E.N. Paleolithic studies in Zaraysk. 1999-2005. – Moscow: Paleograph, 2005. – 466 p.

Boriskovsky P.I. Paleolithic of Ukraine // MIA No. 40. - M.-L., 1953. - 463 p.

Vishnyatsky L.B. Introduction to prehistory. - Chisinau, 2005. – 394 p.

Vishnyatsky L.B. Cultural dynamics in the mid-Late Pleistocene and the causes of the Upper Paleolithic revolution. – St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg University Publishing House, 2008. – 251 p.

Gorelik A.F. Monuments of the Rogalik-Peredelsky district. Problems of the Final Paleolithic of South-Eastern Ukraine. – Lugansk: RIO LIVD, 2001. - 360 p.

Gladilin V.N. Problems of the Early Paleolithic of Eastern Europe. - K.: Naukova Dumka, 1976.

Derevianko A.P. Three scenarios for the transition from the Middle to Upper Paleolithic. Scenario one: transition to the Upper Paleolithic in Northern Asia // Archaeology, Ethnography and Anthropology of Eurasia, 3 (43) 2010a. – P.2-32.

Derevianko A.P. Three scenarios for the transition from the Middle to Upper Paleolithic. Scenario two: transition to the Upper Paleolithic in Central Asia and the Middle East // Archaeology, Ethnography and Anthropology of Eurasia, 4 (44) 2010b. – P.2-38.

Derevianko A.P. Three scenarios for the transition from the Middle to Upper Paleolithic. Scenario three: transition to the Upper Paleolithic in mainland East Asia // Archeology, ethnography and anthropology of Eurasia, 1 (45) 2011. – P.2-27.

Leonova N.B. The nature of flint accumulations in flint processing workshops // Bulletin of Moscow University, ser.8, History. - Moscow, 1980. - P. 67-79.

Matyukhin A.E. Paleolithic workshop of Kalitvenka 1c // Don Antiquities. – issue 5. – Azov, 1995. – P.24-44.

Praslov N.D. Mousterian settlement of Nosovo I in the Azov region // MIA, No. 185. - L., 1972. - P.75-82.

Praslov N.D. Early Paleolithic of the Russian Plain and Crimea // Paleolithic of the USSR. Rep. ed. P.I. Boriskovsky. – Moscow: Science, 1984. – P.94-134.

Praslov N.D., Filippov A.K. The first find of Paleolithic art in the southern Russian steppes // KSIA, No. 111, 1967.

Praslov N.D., Shchelinsky V.E. Zolotovka I - specify

Nature and ancient man (Main stages in the development of the nature of Paleolithic man and his culture on the territory of the USSR in the Pleistocene) / Compiled by G.I. Lazukov. - Moscow: Mysl, 1981. - 222 p.

Rogachev A.N., Anikovich M.V. Late Paleolithic of the Russian Plain and Crimea // Paleolithic of the USSR. Rep. ed. P.I. Boriskovsky. – Moscow: Science, 1984. – P.163-271.

Binford L.R. In Pursuit of the Past. Decoding the Archaeological Records. – New York: Academic Press, 1983. – 256 p.

Soffer O. The Upper Paleolithic of the Central Russian Plain. – San Diego: Academic Press, 1985. – 539 p.

During the Final Paleolithic era, settlements of the Grensk culture (Belarusian) Russian appeared in the Middle Dnieper region. From the west, settlement by tribes of the Svider culture began. Settlements of other archaeological cultures are also known, including Arenburg and Tardenoise.

Settlement occurred primarily along river banks; The river watersheds remained largely uninhabited.

Mesolithic

Archaeological sites of the Mesolithic era. Monuments belonging to several cultures are marked in black. Janislavice culture Komornika culture Hrenskaya culture Kunda culture Kudlajevo culture Butovo culture

Around the 10th millennium BC. e. The Ice Age ended and the Mesolithic era began. At this time, the territory of modern Belarus was finally populated. More than 120 Mesolithic settlements are known, among which there are both seasonal sites and small permanent settlements.

The Mesolithic was characterized by an increase in the number of species of flora and fauna. In this regard, in addition to hunting, fishing and gathering also spread. In the Mesolithic, the bow appeared (with bone and stone arrowheads), which significantly increased the efficiency of hunting. The most common type of Mesolithic dwellings in Belarus were light buildings with a diameter of about five meters based on structures made of poles, round or rectangular in plan. Settlements were located on hills near rivers and lakes.

Many Mesolithic monuments are very reminiscent of the monuments of the Svider culture, but they also have a number of features that bring them closer to the autochthonous population that came after the retreat of the glacier a little earlier. There is a lot of evidence that people from other regions migrated to the territory of Belarus: from the south, from the east and from Central Europe.

Archaeological cultures of the Mesolithic

· Grensk culture (beginning in the Final Paleolithic; more than 10 sites are known)

· Komarnica culture

· Janislavice culture (more than 10 sites are known)

· Dnieper-Desninskaya culture (more than 30 sites are known)

· Swider culture

· Kund culture (three sites are known, Verhnedvinsk and Polotsk regions)

· Neman culture (more than 10 sites studied)

· Kudlaevskaya culture

· Untyped settlements with mixed material culture (the area of ​​Lake Naroch and other settlements)

Possibly Tardenoise culture

Neolithic

During the Neolithic period, there was a process of transition from an appropriating to a producing economy, however, on the territory of Belarus, fishing and hunting continued to play the main role, and in the Dvina basin, the widespread occurrence of a producing economy dates back to the late Neolithic.

The beginning of the Neolithic on the territory of Belarus dates back to the appearance of ceramics (the end of the 5th millennium BC in Polesie and the first half of the 4th millennium BC in the central and northern regions). During the Neolithic era, people learned to produce high-quality tools and weapons from flint. At Neolithic sites, bones of wild boar, elk, bison, bear, roe deer, beaver and badger are found. Fishing equipment and remains of primitive boats were also found; it is assumed that the main fishing object was pike. At least 700 Neolithic settlements are known on the territory of modern Belarus, 80% of which belong to the Late Neolithic. Basically, Neolithic settlements (of an open, unfortified type) are located along the banks of rivers and lakes, which is associated with the great importance of fishing in economic life.

Archaeological cultures of the Neolithic

Narva and Upper Dnieper cultures

Narva culture, Pit-comb pottery culture

The Upper Dnieper culture (upper Dnieper region) left up to 500 known sites, of which only about 40 have been explored. At an early stage, the carriers of the culture made thick-walled pots, ornamentation was made with pit impressions and comb imprints. At a later stage, thicker-necked pots with more complex compositions in ornament began to appear.

There were round and oval dwellings, which at a later stage were sunk into the ground. Influence on culture from the outside is observed only at the end of the Neolithic. It is assumed that the Upper Dnieper culture was associated with the Finno-Ugric peoples.

Neman culture

The Neman culture is widespread in the Neman basin (as well as in northeastern Poland and southwestern Lithuania). The culture area extended south to the upper reaches of the Pripyat. The Dubchay, Lysogorsk and Dobrobor periods are distinguished (the basis for the classification is the difference in the methods of making ceramics). It is believed that the culture began to form in the late Mesolithic.

The culture was characterized by above-ground dwellings. The pottery of the Neman culture is sharp-bottomed and insufficiently fired at an early stage. There are traces of vegetation in the clay. The surface of the walls was leveled by combing with a comb.

At the end of the 3rd millennium BC. e. representatives of the Neman culture moved north under the influence of the spherical amphorae culture.

7. Population of Belarus in the Bronze Age.

Bronze Age (2nd millennium BC – beginning of the 1st millennium BC)

The Bronze Age on the territory of Belarus began at the border of the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. e. and lasted approximately until the beginning of 1 thousand BC. e. At this time, copper and bronze products from the south enter the territory of Belarus. There were no deposits of copper and tin, the alloy of which forms bronze. People began to domesticate more and more animals, and then moved on to breeding them. The pig was probably the first domestic animal. There is a transition from hunting to animal husbandry and from gathering to agriculture. It meant a transition from an appropriating to a producing economy. With the production type of economy, ancient people with their own labor obtained the products necessary for life, which did not exist in ready-made form in nature. At first, farming was by hoeing, when the main tool of labor was a hoe, and then by slash-and-burn. Ancient people carved out the forest with axes, uprooted and burned stumps, used the ashes as fertilizer, and cultivated the land with a harrow. Sickles were used to harvest the crops, and flour was obtained from grain grinders. Flat-bottomed pottery vessels were made to preserve grain and milk from bred animals.

Animal husbandry and slash-and-burn agriculture became the main occupations of men in the Bronze Age. The role of male labor gradually increased. As a result, patrilineal patriarchy replaced the maternal clan.

During the Bronze Age, Indo-Europeans gradually began to penetrate into the territory of Belarus - numerous tribes of nomadic livestock breeders who originally lived in Asia Minor next to the peoples of the Ancient East. During the settlement in Europe, as a result of the mixing of Indo-Europeans with the local population, tribal associations of Germans, Slavs and Balts arose. The Baltic tribes, who are the ancestors of modern Lithuanians and Latvians, began to gradually develop the territory of Belarus, increasing the population.

8. Founded by Indians, their Baltic galina on Belarusian lands.

Indo-European period is the period that began in the Bronze Age during the settlement of Indo-European tribes. At this time in the world there was demographic explosion (overpopulation), and from the territory of Western Asia the Indo-Europeans began to settle in the vastness of Europe and Asia. A separate group of Indo-Europeans turned north to Central Asia, passed between the Caspian and Aral seas, continued their journey through the Volga steppes, and then to the Dnieper. This migration flow became the source of settlement of Indo-Europeans in Europe, including Belarus. The Indo-Europeans were at a higher stage of socio-economic development, so the local population was assimilated(changed, adapted) by them. As a result of migration and mixing with the local population, the Indo-Europeans lost their unity and identity. Today, Indo-Europeans include peoples who speak Slavic, Germanic, Baltic and other languages.

IN III – II millennium BC on the territory that united the river basins. The Vistula, Neman, Western Dvina, Upper Dnieper, as a result of the assimilation of the local population by Indo-Europeans, formed Balts. This is evidenced by the Baltic hydronymy(Luchesa, Polota, Losvido). The Balts brought the Bronze Age to Belarus. Baltic-speaking tribal groups appeared substrate(the basis) of Belarusian ethnogenesis.

With the settlement of the Indo-Europeans, not only the ethnic composition of the population of Belarus changed, but the era also changed. The Stone Age gave way to the Bronze Age (3 - 2 thousand BC - 1 thousand BC). The ancient economy, based on fishing, hunting and gathering, was gradually replaced by agriculture and pastoralism. The Indo-Europeans practiced plow farming. A plow of a well-known design, which has come down to us in drawings of that time, was found in a peat bog near the village of Kaplanavichy in the Kletsk region.

The Indo-Europeans worshiped fire and the sun. Fire was given the significance of cleansing power, and the color red was associated with it. A manifestation of the cult of fire was the custom of sprinkling the body of the deceased with mineral red ocher, which was then transferred to the bones, and during excavations it seems as if the bones were specially painted.

The activity of the Indo-Europeans is associated with the ornament used to decorate the dishes - imprints of a cord wound on a stick. Such an ornament was called corded, and the archaeological culture was called the culture of corded ceramics. Its distribution areas covered vast territories of Europe, including the lands of Belarus. From the middle of the Bronze Age, the territory of Belarus entered the area of ​​the Middle Dnieper, Vistula-Neman, Corded Ware Polesie cultures, as well as the North Belarusian ones.

The use of more efficient bronze tools and advances in agriculture and animal husbandry created conditions for the accumulation of knowledge by individual families, which was tempting for others. Robberies and robbery became one of the forms of enrichment. Therefore, the main type of Baltic settlements were fortified settlements, of which there were about 1 thousand on the territory of Belarus. According to archaeologists, an average of 50 to 75 people lived on one settlement. The total population in the Bronze Age could range from 50 to 75 thousand people. With the development of agriculture, the settlements changed into open settlements-villages, where several large and then small families lived.

It should be noted that the Neolithic population of Belarus was not completely assimilated. The old economic and cultural traditions still existed. Some regions of Belarus were sparsely populated by Balts. But on most of its territory the Baltic ethnic group was formed. This is evidenced by the fact that the vast majority of river names (Verkhita, Volcha, Gaina, Grivda, Drut, Klevo, Luchesa, Mytva, Nacha, Palata, Ulla, Usyazha, Esa, etc.) retained the roots and characteristic endings that are in Lithuanian and Latvian, i.e. Baltic languages. We can recall other names related to Baltic hydranonymy: Osveya, Drisvyaty, Losvido, Muysa, Naroch, Usvyacha, etc. The most common hydronyms associated with the Balts are in the basins of the Berezina (Mena, Olsa, Seruch, Usa) and Sozha rivers (Rekhta, rest, Snov, Turosna).

The origin of the term “Balts” is associated with the Latin name of the island in northern Europe (vasha, Vaisia), which was described by Pliny the Elder (1st century AD). Words with the root “Balts” are found in the German chronicler Adam of Bremen (IIst.), in Prussian chronicles, Old Russian and Belarusian-Lithuanian chronicles of the 14th – 16th centuries. The term “Balts” was introduced into scientific use by the German linguist G. Neselman in 1845.

On the territory of Belarus in the Iron Age (1 thousand BC - IV-V centuries AD) several archaeological cultures were formed: Dnieper-Dvina (in the north), the culture of hatched ceramics (middle and northwestern parts of Belarus), Milograd and Zarubinets (in the south of Belarus). Iron Age cultures were quite developed. Local tribes mastered iron processing; iron products were quite diverse: axes, knives, sickles, weapons, jewelry, etc.

Thus, the Baltic stage of the ethnic history of Belarus is the time of the spread of Indo-Europeans on the Belarusian lands with their main occupations - agriculture and cattle breeding, a time of intensive assimilation of the local Neolithic population, including the Finno-Ugric ones in the north of Belarus. The local Neolithic population gradually transformed into the Indo-European Balts, while simultaneously exerting a certain influence on their language and culture.

9. Founded non-Slavic tribes on Belarusian lands.

It was previously noted that by the VI – VII centuries. in most of the territory of Belarus the Baltic population predominated. The Slavs at that time lived compactly, in a continuous massif only in the Pripyat basin, mainly to the south of it. The main type of Slavic settlements were settlements (unfortified settlements), and the type of housing was semi-dugouts.

In the 6th – 7th centuries. The penetration of the Slavs into the Baltic area began. The Balts have half-dugouts with heater stoves, stone millstones, iron knives and other Slavic things and tools.

In the VIII – IX centuries. There is a massive settlement of Slavs in the Baltic area on the territory of Belarus - first in the upper reaches of the Sluch and Ares rivers, on the right bank of the Dnieper, then on the Berezina. Burials according to the Slavic ritual by burning the body, as well as Slavic ceramics, were found in the mounds. The settlement came from the southern part of the Pripyat basin. The Slavs penetrated into the Dnieper and Podvinia regions in the 9th century, and by the 10th century. they settled in Upper Ponemonie. Moreover, part of the Baltic population was assimilated, the second was destroyed or driven out to the North-West, to the Baltic states, where it took part in the formation of ethnic Lithuanians and Latvians. A third of the Baltic population continued to live in their former places. The assimilation of this part of the Balts by the Slavs on the territory of Belarus continued until the 12th – 13th centuries. and even later.

As a result of the Slavic-Baltic synthesis in the 8th – 10th centuries. New ethnic Slavic societies emerged, which are often mentioned in medieval written sources. These are Dregovichi, Radimichi, Krivichi.

Dregovichi occupied most of Southern and a significant part of Central Belarus. The Tale of Bygone Years notes that they lived between Pripyat and the Western Dvina. Their culture was dominated by Slavic elements. The language was Slavic. However, in their culture of that time, Baltic elements were also recorded - spiral rings, snake-headed bracelets, horseshoe-shaped buckles. The custom of burying the dead in wooden coffins-towers dates back to Baltic origins.

The mixed origin of the Dregovichi as a result of the Slavic-Baltic synthesis is also reflected in the name of this community. Its root is apparently Baltic. In the Lithuanian language there are many words with this root (dregnas - damp, wet), which reflect one of the features of the area where the Dregovichi settled, namely the humidity, swampiness of the land in the Pripyat River.

Later, the Slavic “-ichi” was added to the base. Thus, term "Dregovichi" is a Slavicized name of the former, pre-Slovenian form, which meant a group of the Baltic population in accordance with the characteristics of the territory of residence. The origin of the word “quagmire” in the Belarusian language, which translated into Russian means “quagmire,” is also connected with the geographical feature of the Dregovichi territory.

Radimichi, according to information from the Tale of Bygone Years, occupied the lands between the Dnieper and the Desna. The main area of ​​their settlement is the river basin. Sozh. Like the Dregovichi, the Radimichi were formed as a result of the mixing of the Slavic and Baltic populations, the assimilation of the latter. The culture was dominated by Slavic elements. The language was Slavic. At the same time, Baltic elements are also noted in archaeological sites: neck torcs, bracelets with stylized snake heads, beam buckles.

Chronicle legend about the origin of the Radimichi from a mythical personality Radzima reflects, in our opinion, more likely the biblical view of the author of this legend than the existence of a true person. Here we encounter an example of myth-making. According to a number of authors (N. Pilipenko, G. Khaburgaev), the term "radimichi" reveals affinity with the Baltic term “stay”.

Krivichi occupied the north of Belarus and neighboring areas of the Podvina and Dnieper regions (Pskov and Smolensk regions). They lived in the upper reaches of the rivers - Western Dvina, Dnieper and Lovat and were the largest East Slavic population. The Krivichi culture was divided into two large groups: Polotsk-Smolensk and Pskov.

The ethnic appearance was dominated by Slavic features. The language was Slavic. Baltic elements in the Krivichi culture include bracelets with snake heads, spiral rings, Baltic-type hryvnias, etc.

As for the name “Krivichi”, then there are several hypotheses. Some scientists (historian V. Lastovsky) derive the name “Krivichi” from the word “blood”; then it can be understood as “blood relatives”, “blood relatives”. The famous historian S. M. Solovyov argued that the name “Krivichi” is associated with the nature of the area that this community occupied (rugged, uneven - curvature). A large group of scientists (archaeologist P. N. Tretyakov, historian B. A. Rybakov, Belarusian philologist and historian M. I. Ermolovich) argue that the name of the pagan high priest was preserved in the name “Krivichi” Kryva-Kryveity.

In the first centuries AD, under the pressure of the Goths, who came from Scandinavia and landed at the mouth of the Vistula, the Slavs began their migration. As a result of the “great migration of peoples,” the Slavs were divided into three large groups: southern, western, eastern. The Slavic tribes that settled on the Balkan Peninsula became the ancestors of modern Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Macedonians, and Montenegrins. They mixed with the local Thracian and Illyrian populations, which had previously been oppressed by Byzantine slave owners. The West Slavic tribes, together with the population living on the banks of the Vistula, became the ancestors of the Polish, Czech, and Slovak peoples. Almost simultaneously with the Western and Southern Slavs, a third group emerged - the Eastern Slavs, the ancestors of modern Belarusians, Russians and Ukrainians.

Almost no written sources have survived about how and when the Slavs settled on the territory of Belarus. Therefore, scientific debates have not subsided to this day; there are different points of view and hypotheses on all these issues. Scientists draw their main data, with the exception of brief information about the settlement of the Slavs in the Tale of Bygone Years, from archaeological sources.

Archaeologists distinguish different cultures and identify them with certain ethnic groups. They note that in the south of Belarus monuments of Prague culture have been preserved (the culture of the early Slavic tribes, which in the 5th - 7th centuries AD inhabited the territory from the Dnieper and Lake Ilmen to the east and to the Elbe and Danube rivers to the west and south). Or, more precisely, its local variant - the Korczak-type culture (understood as the archaeological culture of the tribes that lived in the territory of northwestern Ukraine and southern Belarus in the 6th - 7th centuries AD). It is considered indisputable that these monuments belong to the Slavs.

On the main territory of Belarus and neighboring regions in the V - VIII centuries. Other tribes settled and left behind monuments of the so-called Bantser culture. It got its name from the settlement of Bantserovshchina on the left bank of the Svisloch. As for the identity of the Bantser culture, there is no consensus among scientists. Some consider it Baltic, others - Slavic. This happens because during excavations in the material culture signs of both Slavic and Baltic culture are discovered.

The supporter of the first hypothesis is the Russian archaeologist V. Sedov. He created the theory of the substrate origin of Belarusians. The Baltic substrate (from the Latin term - base, lining) refers to the ethnocultural population of the Baltic ethnic group, which influenced the formation of the Belarusian people. Proponents of this theory argue that as a result of the Slavicization of the Baltic population, the mixing of the Slavic with it, a part of the East Slavic people separated, which led to the formation of the Belarusian language and nationality.

Other researchers argue that, having settled in the territories previously occupied by the Baltic tribes, the Slavs partially pushed them back and partially destroyed them. And only small islands of the Balts, who probably submitted to the Slavs, were preserved in the Podvinya region, the Upper Dnieper region. But the Balts retained the right bank of the middle Poneman region and some parts of the territory between the Neman and Pripyat.

There is no clear generally accepted opinion among researchers on the formation of tribal unions, which formed the basis of the Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian ethnic groups. Some suggest that as a result of the intensive development by the Slavs of the territory of Belarus, where the Balts previously lived, in the 8th - 9th centuries. Ethnically close tribal unions have developed: Krivichi, Dregovichi, Radimichi, partly Volynians. On their basis, the Old Belarusian ethnos was formed. The Yatvingians and some other Baltic tribes took part in its formation.

The ancestors of the Eastern Slavs, who settled in Pripyat Polesie, assimilated the Baltic tribes. As a result, on the territory occupied by the Dnieper Balts, the East Slavic tribes Dregovichi, Krivichi, Radimichi - the ancestors of modern Belarusians - arose. On the territory where Iranian tribes used to live, the Polyans, Drevlyans, Northerners, and Volynians settled - the ancestors of modern Ukrainians. The assimilation of the Finno-Ugric tribes led to the emergence of the Novgorod Slavs, Vyatichi, and partly the Upper Volga Krivichi - the ancestors of modern Russians.

Proponents of a different point of view imagine this picture somewhat differently. Firstly, they believe that supporters of the above hypothesis exaggerate the role of the Balts in the ethnogenesis of the Belarusians. Another thing, they note, is the Middle Poneman region, where the Balts made up a significant part of the population at the beginning of the 2nd millennium. In the Slavicization of these lands, a significant role belongs to the Volynians, Dregovichs, and, to a lesser extent, the Drevlyans and Krivichi. They recognize that the basis of the Old Belarusian ethnos were the Krivichi, Dregovichi, Radimichi, and to a lesser extent the Volynians, most of whom participated in the ethnogenesis of the Ukrainians. They prove that both part of the Volynians took part in the formation of the Belarusians, and part of the Dregovichi - in the ethnogenesis of the Ukrainians. Radimichi equally participated in the formation of Belarusians and one of the groups of the Russian ethnic group. The Krivichi played a big role not only in the formation of Belarusians, but also in the formation of the northwestern part of the Russian ethnic group.

The main occupation of the population of the Belarusian lands was agriculture. The Eastern Slavs brought a more progressive form of agriculture - arable farming, but continued to use shifting agriculture. They sowed rye, wheat, millet, barley, and flax. Livestock farming played an important role. Families, united by a common economic life, formed a rural (neighboring) or territorial community. Cultivated land, forests and reservoirs were the property of the entire community. The family used a separate plot of communal land - an allotment.

In the IX - XII centuries. The Eastern Slavs developed a feudal system. In the beginning, the bulk of the population were free community members who were called “people.” Their social position gradually changed: some fell into a dependent position, while others remained relatively free. Dependent people were called “servants.” The servants included categories of the population deprived of personal freedom - serfs.

The formation of a class society is evidenced not only by the dependent position of a separate category of the population, but also by the presence of a squad. The warriors (or boyars) received from the prince the right to collect tribute from a certain territory. The collection of tribute from the free population of the territory that the prince “owned” was called polyudye. Gradually the tribute becomes feudal rent.

At this time, cities were formed. Some grew out of a fortified rural settlement like Polotsk, others like princely castles - Mensk, Grodno, Zaslavl. Still others arose along trade routes. The city consisted of parts: detinets, fortified with ramparts, ditches, walls; posada - a place where artisans and traders settled; and trading - places of sale and purchase of goods.

The Slavs professed a pagan religion. They believed in the god of the sun, fire, Perun, etc. The dead were buried in pits, with mounds built over them. They believed in an afterlife. Jewelry was worn from bone, copper, and ceramics.

In the Upper Paleolithic, the pace of development of human society increased, new discoveries and improvements spread faster and faster, and, at the same time, local differences in the development of material culture became more noticeable.

Archaeological material does not provide grounds for identifying a single or only center in which the Upper Paleolithic industry arose. Most researchers suggest that many Upper Paleolithic archaeological cultures developed in a number of areas on the basis of local Mousterian traditions. This process occurred in different areas, probably about 40-36 thousand years ago.

Archaeological cultures (see Introduction) in the Stone Age are distinguished on the basis of a typological analysis of flint and bone implements and the technology of their manufacture. Archaeological culture for this era is characterized by a certain set of specific types of tools made in the same technological tradition, as well as similar forms (types) of dwellings and features in the fine arts (if the latter is available) /

It is assumed that the differences between archaeological cultures reflect certain differences in the socio-cultural traditions characteristic of various human groups.

For a long time, most researchers recognized the stages of development of the Upper Paleolithic for the entire ecumene, with three general stages (epochs) identified: Aurignac, Solutre and Madeleine. Subsequently, another very long stage was added to them - perigordien. Currently, thanks to the materials of many years of research, it is generally accepted that these are not general stages of the development of material culture, but rather large cultural areas, which in some cases and in some territories of Western and Central Europe replace each other, and in other cases coexist. Within these areas, as well as throughout the Upper Paleolithic ecumene, distinctive cultures developed. It turned out that in a fairly limited area, different archaeological cultures can coexist and develop at the same time.

The relationship between the main cultural areas of the Upper Paleolithic in Western and Central Europe

Western and Central Europe. It is generally accepted that in the initial stages of the Upper Paleolithic, two main cultural areas coexisted - Perigordienian and Aurignacian, the absolute age of which is determined to be 34-22 thousand years.

The origin of the material culture of the Perigordien is traditionally associated with the further development of the Mousterian variant with the Acheulean tradition, since the role of Mousterian elements in the stone industry at its initial stage was great, although over time it significantly decreased. The main area of ​​distribution is Southwestern France.

Aurignacian culture is known in Spain, France, Belgium, and England. The most characteristic feature of the Aurignacian stone industry can be considered a special “Aurignacian” retouch, with the help of which various types of tools were designed. Flat or spindle-shaped bone points are widespread - this is the first stable type of bone tools. The monuments of Central Europe are somewhat different from Western European ones; these differences are mainly manifested in art: Western European drawings of animals are usually done in profile, and female figurines are more realistic and plastic.

Within the framework of the Early Upper Paleolithic of Central Europe, the Seletian culture is distinguished, which is characterized by a combination of Upper Paleolithic and Mousterian types of products. On some Seletian monuments there are even points, plates and cores made in a very archaic Levallois technique. The most recognizable shape can be considered a large triangular tip.

Somewhat later than the Aurignacian culture, the Gravettian culture arose and continued to coexist simultaneously with it, possibly inheriting the Perigordienian tradition. Gravettian sites in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Austria and France date back to 26-20 millennia BC. Gravettian is characterized by a rich set of tools; various points can be considered specific types, among which asymmetrical points with a side notch and knives with a back stand out. Microliths and composite tools appear. There are a variety of bone products: points, awls, spatulas, decorations. Gravettian monuments are characterized by the presence of numerous examples of small plastic art - figurines of women and animals made of tusk and bone, stone or clay.

The Gravettian culture is represented by a large number of monuments, which are divided into two groups, eastern and western, the question of their relationship is debatable. The Solutrean culture is widespread in Central and Southern France; in addition, an independent center for the spread of a similar culture existed in Eastern and Northern Spain and Portugal. In the north of Western Europe, Solutrean monuments, especially late ones, are extremely rare.

The Solutrean culture refers to the period between the existence of the Gravettian and Magdalenian cultures, but is not genetically related to them. Radiocarbon dates indicate a relatively short period of its existence (21-19/18 thousand years ago). A feature of this culture is the wide distribution of spear tips and knife blades. The predominant forms are laurel or willow arrowheads, arrowheads with a handle and with a side notch, made with great perfection by processing the flint on both sides with press retouch. This method of processing flint consisted of removing thin flakes from the surface of the product using a bone squeezer; This type of retouching is called streaky or “solutrean”.

The Magdalenian culture dates back to the period 18-12/11 thousand years ago. The Magdalenian culture itself is typical only for France, Belgium, Northern Spain, Switzerland and southern Germany, but its characteristic features - widespread bone processing and specific types of bone tools, peculiar features in small plastics - are represented to varying degrees in the Late Paleolithic cultures of the entire European periglacial regions from France to the Urals. In Central Europe, the development of industries occurs mainly on a Gravetian basis, but Magdalenian impulses (influences) also penetrate here from the west.

The relatively favorable climatic conditions that developed in Europe at the end of the Upper Paleolithic as a result of glacier retreat and warming (13-11/9 thousand years ago) made it possible for new groups of hunters of tundra and steppe animals to move north. In Northwestern Europe they are represented by the Hamburg and Ahrensburg cultures, and in Eastern Europe by the Swider culture.

The Hamburg culture is characterized by a variety of flint tools, including arrowheads with notches and peculiar piercings. Tools made of deer antler with flint inserts were common. Fish and birds were killed with single-ended harpoons made from reindeer antler. The dwellings were round and oval tents covered with deer skins.

Major Upper Paleolithic cultures of Eastern Europe

Numerous flint products were found at the monuments of the Arensburg culture - arrowheads, scrapers, drills, etc. The most characteristic are fairly wide and short asymmetrical arrowheads and darts with a stalk for securing the product in the shaft, as well as special hoe-shaped tools made from reindeer antler.

The Swider culture is synchronous with the Arensburg culture. The settlements were temporary camps on the banks of rivers and lakes, often on dunes. Organic materials are not preserved in sand, so the Svider inventory is represented only by flint products: willow and petiole points, scrapers on blades and flakes, burins of various shapes, etc.

Monuments similar to those of Svider and Arensburg are known in the northwestern territories adjacent to Russia; later, throughout the Mesolithic, these traditions can be traced throughout the entire forest zone of Eastern Europe.

For Eastern Europe, Siberia and many areas of Asia, and especially America, the development scheme of Western European cultural areas is not being implemented, however, due to the active movement of various population groups caused by climate change, we can observe the influence of one or another cultural tradition in very remote areas.

Eastern Europe demonstrates the diversity of Upper Paleolithic cultures, modifying various Aurignacoid, Seletoid, Gravettian, Magdalenian traditions and exhibiting great originality. The most ancient are the Spitsyno, Streletskaya, Gorodtsovskaya cultures, studied in the Kostenkovsko-Borshevsky district in the Middle Don. The Spitsyno and Streltsy cultures belong to the same chronological group, but their inventories are strikingly different from each other. The Spitsyn culture (36-32 thousand years ago) is characterized by a prismatic splitting technique; most of the tools are made of plates of regular shape. There is no two-sided processing. The most numerous group of tools are various burins, but there are also many scrapers with parallel edges. Mousterian forms of tools are completely absent. Products made of bone were found - polishes and awls, jewelry made of belemnites and corals.

In the inventory of the Streltsy culture (35-25 thousand years ago), on the contrary, there are a lot of Mousterian types of products, which are represented by scrapers, scraper-knives and pointed points with double-sided processing. The main workpiece is a flake. There are numerous scrapers, tending to a triangular shape, almost as numerous are triangular points with a concave base, carefully processed on both sides - this is the most expressive form among the tools of the Streltsy culture. There are very few other types of weapons.

The Gorodtsovskaya culture belongs to the second chronological group of the Kostenki monuments (28-25 thousand years ago) and, although for some time it coexisted with the Streltsy culture, it is very different from the latter in the features of stone implements. Both plates and flakes serve as blanks for products. Early sites contain Mousterian forms, but over time their proportion noticeably decreases.

A brief overview of just three of these cultures shows the cultural uniqueness of each. It should be repeated once again that in the Kostenkovsko-Borshevsky archaeological region (the village of Kostenki, Voronezh region) no less than eight independent cultural formations are distinguished in a very small area.

The Molodovo culture is a good example of the long-term autochthonous development of the Upper Paleolithic industry associated with the Mousterian culture of the same name. Monuments of the Molodovo culture (30-20 thousand years ago) are located in the middle reaches of the Prut and Dniester rivers. During the long existence of this industry, the manufacture of products on elongated plate blanks and plates that became smaller and smaller was improved. The cultural inventory widely includes specific types of scrapers, various incisors and points. From the earliest stages of its existence, tools on microplates appeared, the number of which constantly increases over time.

One of the striking cultural formations of Eastern Europe is the Kostenki-Avdeevsk culture (25-20/18? thousand years ago), the monuments of which are located in the central part of the Russian Plain and are located at considerable distances from each other - Kostenki and Gagarino on the Middle Don, Avdeevo on the Seimas, Zaraiskaya site near Moscow. The stone implements are rich and varied; large points with a side notch, leaf-shaped points, and backed knives are very characteristic. There are numerous tools made of bone - points and polishes, needles and needle cases, small crafts. At the sites, many examples of small plastic and applied art made from tusk, bone and marl were found. Residential sites with complex layouts are described in the “Dwellings” section.

The monuments of this culture have the greatest similarity with materials from the Pavlovian culture in Moravia and a number of monuments in Poland, Germany, and Austria. This culture is part of the Kostenki-Willzdorf unity, Gravetgian in nature, showing a complex picture of the interconnection of cultures and monuments of Western, Central and Eastern Europe, confirmed by the similarity of implements, residential complexes and art.

The Middle Dnieper cultural community occupies a vast territory in the middle part of the Dnieper basin and its tributary - the river. Desna and is represented by a number of monuments (Mezin, Pushkari, Eliseevichi, Yudinovo, Khotylevo II, Timonovka, Dobranichevka, Mezhirichi, Gontsy), on which the remains of massive dwellings have been preserved (see section “Dwellings”). These are typical settlements of sedentary hunters; the number of game animals here undoubtedly included the mammoth. These monuments share common features in house construction, examples of small forms of art and ornament, stone and bone implements.

In the Northern Black Sea region, a number of cultures are distinguished for the late Upper Paleolithic - Kamennobalkovskaya, Akkarzhanskaya, Anetovskaya, whose bearers lived in different conditions than the inhabitants of the periglacial regions. The climate here was much warmer, the vegetation was richer, and the largest animals were the wild horse and bison. They were the main commercial species, although the overall composition of hunting prey was much wider. Other natural conditions also determined the ways in which the ancient population adapted to them - at the sites there are no traces of massive building structures or pits for storing food supplies in permafrost. The stone inventory contains a wide variety of tools made of microblades and inserts; in the Kamenno-Balkovo culture their number reaches 30%. The main set of tools is typical for the Upper Paleolithic, but is unique for each culture. For example, the inventory of the Kamennobalkovskaya culture has many similarities with the inventory of the Imeretian culture of the Caucasus, which indicates the possibility of population migration from there to the south of the Russian Plain. In Siberia, the Kokorevo, Afontovo, Malta-Buret and Dyuktai cultures have been studied; more details about them can be read in additional literature.

Currently, many Upper Paleolithic cultures have been identified in Eurasia and America. The differences between them are significant, which indicates the independent development of cultures and their different origins. In some areas, autochthonous development is observed from the beginning of the era almost to its end. In other areas, we can trace the arrival of genetically alien cultures into the territory of distribution of one culture, interrupting the development of local traditions, and, finally, sometimes we can observe the coexistence of several different cultures - as, for example, in the Kostenkovsko-Borshevsky district (where more than 60 monuments belonging to to at least eight crops).

In those cases where it is possible to trace the continuous development of an archaeological culture, it turns out that it can exist for a very long time. For example, the Aurignacian culture in France and the Imeretian culture of Georgia developed at least 10 thousand years. Kamennobalkovskaya in southern Russia existed for at least 5 thousand years. This indicates the successful adaptation of the Upper Paleolithic population to environmental conditions.

Studying the diversity of Upper Paleolithic cultures makes it possible to solve questions about the relationships and migrations of ancient populations and possible ways of settling certain territories.

Paleolithic (Greekπαλαιός - ancient and Greekλίθος - stone) (Old Stone Age) - first historical period stone age from the beginning of the use of stone tools hominids(genus homo) (about 2.5 million years ago) before a person appears agriculture approximately in 10th millennium BC e. . Highlighted in 1865 G. John Lubbock. The Paleolithic is the era of the existence of fossil humans, as well as fossil, now extinct animal species. It occupies most (about 99%) of humanity's existence and coincides with two major geological epochs Cenozoic era -Pliocene And Pleistocene.

During the Paleolithic era the climate Earth, its flora and fauna were significantly different from modern ones. People of the Paleolithic era lived in small primitive communities and used only chipped stone tools, not yet knowing how to polish them and make pottery - ceramics. However, in addition to stone tools, tools were also made from bone, leather, wood and other materials of plant origin. They hunted and gathered plant foods . Fishing was just beginning to emerge, and agriculture and cattle breeding were not known.

The beginning of the Paleolithic (2.5 million years ago) coincides with the appearance on Earth of the most ancient ape-like people, archanthropes Olduvai type Homo habilis. Late Paleolithic evolution hominid ends with the emergence of the modern species of people ( Homo sapiens ). At the very end of the Paleolithic, people began to create ancient works art, and signs of existence appeared religious cults, such as rituals and burials . Climate Paleolithic changed several times from ice ages to interglacial periods, becoming warmer and colder.

The end of the Paleolithic dates back to approximately 12-10 thousand years ago. It's time to move on Mesolithic- intermediate era between the Paleolithic and Neolithic .

The Paleolithic is conventionally divided into Lower and Upper, although many researchers also distinguish the Middle Paleolithic from the Lower Paleolithic. More detailed divisions of the Upper or Late Paleolithic are only local in nature, since the various archaeological cultures of this period are not represented everywhere. Time boundaries between departments in different regions may also vary, since archaeological cultures did not replace each other at the same time.

IN 19th century Gabriel de Mortillier highlighted eolith as an era preceding the Paleolithic. Currently, the term is not used; the Mortilier criteria are recognized as erroneous. In addition, in Russian-language archaeological literature, the Upper and Middle Paleolithic are sometimes designated by the term “archaeolithic” .

Lower Paleolithic

Main article:Lower Paleolithic

Paleogeography and climate

Ocean Tethys(blue color) 30 million years ago

Europe And Near East 50 thousand years ago

At first Pliocene To this day, continental drift has amounted in some places to several hundred kilometers. During this era South America connected with Northern, forming Central America And Isthmus of Panama , which later made possible human migration from North America to South America. Separation Quiet And Atlantic oceans led to a change in the direction of ocean currents and subsequent global climate change. Besides, Africa ran into Eurasia, finally closing the ancient ocean Tethys, of which only Mediterranean Sea, and in the place of the strait that once existed between it and Indian Ocean formed Persian Gulf and modern Near East, which allowed man to leave Africa and populate Eurasia.

In the next era, Pleistocene, the continents were already almost in the same place as they are now, and their further advance during this period did not exceed 100 km .

Climate, during Pliocene generally much warmer and more humid than now, it gradually became drier and colder, and the temperature difference between summer and winter increased, reaching approximately the same parameters as now. Antarctica, at that time still free of ice, was just beginning to be covered with glaciers. Global cooling also changed the appearance of other continents, where forests were gradually replaced savannas And steppes .

Further cooling in Pleistocene led to several cycles of glaciation in parts of Eurasia and North America. The glacier in some places reached the fortieth parallel. Four most powerful ones identified Ice Age, during which the accumulation of water in continental ice, the thickness of which reached 1500-3000 m, led to a significant (up to 100 m) decrease in the level world oceans. In the intervals between the ice ages, the climate was similar to the modern one, and the coastlines of the continents were flooded by the advancing seas.

Northern Europe during glaciation it was closed by the Fenno-Scandia glacier, which reached British Isles in the west and middle Volga region in the east. Glaciers covered the Arctic shelf Siberia, washing its seas, all Alps and many mountains Asia. During the peak of the last glaciation, about 20 thousand years ago, the isthmus that existed at that time connecting Asia and America, which is called Beringia, was also covered by a glacier , which made it difficult for humans to penetrate North America. The latter, in addition, was blocked by glaciers not only in the north Canada, but also for the most part Cordillera. In South America, ice advancing from Antarctica and descending from Andes, reached the plains Patagonia. They were covered with ice Tasmania And New Zealand. Even in Africa, glaciers covered mountains Kenya, Ethiopia, Kilimanjaro, Atlas and other mountain systems.

Anthropogenesis

Main article:Anthropogenesis

The Lower Paleolithic accounts for almost all of biological evolution person. Its study is the subject of extensive scientific research, the purpose of which is to understand the causes of the origin and characteristics of the development of certain human species. Representatives of many scientific disciplines participate in the study: anthropology, paleoanthropology, paleontology,linguistics, genetics. Term Human in the context of evolution means belonging to a genus Homo, however, studies of anthropogenesis also include the study of other hominids, such as Australopithecus.

The earliest member of the genus Homo is responsible for the beginning of the Paleolithic - Homo habilis (skillful man), which appeared no later than 2.6 million years ago. It was he who first began to process stone and created the most primitive tools Olduvai period. Most scientists believe that intelligence and the social organization of Homo habilis were already more complex than that of his predecessor Australopithecus or modern chimpanzee.

Scull Homo heidelbergensis (Lower Paleolithic), predecessor of the Neanderthal ( Homo neanderthalensis ) and, perhaps, Homo sapiens . Approximate age 400-500 thousand years.

In the early Pleistocene, 1.5-1 million years ago, some human populations evolved towards increasing volume brain. At the same time, there is an improvement in stone processing techniques. These changes gave anthropologists reason to conclude that a new species had emerged Homo erectus (homo erectus). Although other fossils existed at the same time as Homo habilis hominids, For example, Paranthropus boisei , and some of them lived on the planet for millions of years before dying out, only Homo habilis became the forerunner of all new human species that appeared later than him. Perhaps its evolutionary advantage was precisely the production of stone tools suitable for opening and eating animals, while monkey they feed only on plants.

Homo habilis himself lived only in Africa. The first species of man to walk upright and spread beyond the African continent about 2 million years ago was Homo ergaster , considered a predecessor or one of the earlier subspecies Homo erectus. Homo ergaster/Homo erectus - the first human species to master fire .

The last stages of human evolution are less well studied. It is unknown who the ancestor was Homo rhodesiensis , the most likely predecessor of modern humans. Many paleoanthropologists believe that this species is the same as Homo heidelbergensis , from which Neanderthals descended. It is also believed that both of the latter varieties of man are only later subspecies Homo erectus.

Major cultures of the Lower Paleolithic

1) Olduvai culture(2.6 million - 900 thousand years ago). The main monuments are located on the territory East Africa. Sites that were deliberately cleared were discovered, apparently for the construction of housing. The oldest of the sites of the Olduvai era, where the remains of Homo habilis were found - West Gona in Ethiopia (2.8 - 2.4 million years ago), as well as a site Koobi-Fora in Kenya (2 million years ago). The imperfection of the tools of that period is explained by the imperfection of processing technology and the imperfection of the physical structure of people.

Olduvai is characterized by 3 types of weapons:

a) Polyhedra (spheroids)- roughly hewn round stones with many edges, which served mainly as a striking tool for processing plant and animal food.

b) Made using retouching techniques. Stone flakes were first made, the working edge of which was corrected with small blows. They did not have stable forms and among them there were many small ones. Served for cutting carcasses.

V)Choppers - tools for cutting and chopping functions, then these were the most common tools that were made from pebbles, the top or edge of which has been cut off by several successive blows. Chopping- the same tools, but processed on both sides. Used to make tools cores.

2) Abbeville(1.5 million - 300 thousand years ago). The emergence of universal tools, such as hand chopped(double-sided tool). The hand ax was used for both chopping and cutting. Pebble tools are actively used.

3) Ashel(1.6 million - 150 thousand years ago). There is a change in stone processing technology. Techniques appear klekton», « Levallois" Additional splitting tools appear, made from bone and horn. The appearance of stone knives and scrapers. Beginning to use fire.