Early and Middle Paleolithic. Lecture "Human Origins"
In 1865 John Lubbock proposed to designate the era when people made tools from stone by beating or splitting a piece of rock, the term “Paleolithic” (ancient ). At a later time - in the era (New Stone Age) - stone tools were made using grinding or polishing techniques.
Subsequently, such a simple definition of Paleolithic and Neolithic was the subject of debate and was clarified taking into account social, technological and economic aspects. Nowadays, many archaeologists prefer to designate the term “Paleolithic” the era of human development - from the appearance of the oldest stone tools (about 2.5 million years ago) to the end of the last glaciation (about 10,000 years ago), which approximately coincides (at least in some regions of the globe) with the time of domestication of animals and plants.
The Paleolithic era is usually divided into three stages - , And Paleolithic In the archeology of Africa, instead of these terms, the names “Old Stone Age”, “Middle Stone Age” and “Late Stone Age” are used. The main criterion for their division is still the nature of stone tools, although data on the economy and lifestyle of ancient people are also significant in this regard.
Upper Paleolithic
UPPER PALEOLITHIC, or Late Stone Age. Approximately 50,000 years ago, with the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic era, significant changes occurred in human lifestyle. Modern and Upper Paleolithic Homo sapiens have much in common. With regard to stone tools, the monuments of the Upper Paleolithic (in Africa - the Late Stone Age) show such significant diversity in time and space that it is difficult to indicate any types that are characteristic of this era as a whole.
Lower Paleolithic
LOWER PALEOLITHIC, or ancient Stone Age. The first stone tools come from Africa, where the oldest fossil remains of the direct ancestors of man were found. These ancient tools are very crude and consist of pieces of rock that have been split to create sharp edges. However, obtaining such a sharp edge by splitting the stone required some skill. The tool could be a piece of stone itself (called a core) or flakes separated from it.
Middle Paleolithic
MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC, or Middle Stone Age. Approximately 200,000 years ago, hand axes, cleavers and other massive tools made by double-sided beating and which were an integral attribute of the Lower Paleolithic, lost their inherent ubiquity. Instead, tools made from flakes began to predominate in the inventory—primarily scrapers, pointed points, and tools with a serrated blade.
Paleolithic [using the example of Kuban]
The Paleolithic period covers the time from the emergence of man on earth (more than 2.5 million years ago) to the beginning of geological modernity (10 thousand years). In the Paleolithic, in turn, several archaeological eras are distinguished, corresponding to the stages of human development and his material culture; these are the Olduvai and Abbeville eras, corresponding to the very initial stage of human history, the Acheulian (from 400 to 80 thousand years ago), the Mousterian (from 80 to 35 thousand years ago) and the Upper Paleolithic (from 35 to 10 thousand years ago).
Mousterian culture
Mousterian CULTURE - the latest culture of the ancient Paleolithic, follows and is replaced by Late Paleolithic cultures. Some researchers call it the Middle Paleolithic. First defined G. Mortillier in the late 60s of the 19th century and was named by him after the Le Moustier cave in Southwestern France (Dordogne). Distributed in Europe, south of approximately 54 degrees north latitude, in one or another variety in almost all of Africa, in the countries of the Middle East and Central Asia; The Nevasa culture in India also closely resembles the Mousterian culture. Most researchers classify the Mousterian culture according to geological periodization as the Upper Pleistocene...
Paleolithic (SIE, 1967)
PALEOLITHIC (from ancient Greek palaios - ancient and litos - stone) - the ancient Stone Age, the 1st of two main periods of the Stone Age. The division of the Stone Age into Paleolithic and Neolithic (New Stone Age) was first proposed by J. Lubbock in 1865. The Paleolithic is the era of the existence of fossil humans. The climate of the earth, its flora and fauna in this era were quite different from the modern one. People used only chipped stone tools, not knowing polished stone tools and pottery. They were hunters and gatherers.
The beginning of the Paleolithic and Stone Ages, respectively, is extremely difficult to accurately establish. The origin of the Paleolithic is determined by the beginning of the use of stone tools by human ancestors or the first hominids. According to various estimates, this happened approximately 2.5-2.6 million years ago. Some researchers increase this figure to 2.7 and even 3 million years.
The Paleolithic is the longest period of the Stone Age and covers almost its entire history. The Paleolithic began at the end and continued throughout. Occupies 99% of human existence. Ended 10 thousand years BC. e. After the Paleolithic came the Mesolithic, then the Neolithic, the final period of the Stone Age is considered to be the Chalcolithic.
The Paleolithic is divided into several periods. The dates of the Paleolithic periods can be layered on top of each other, since in different regions of the planet humanity developed unevenly, somewhere succeeding, and somewhere lagging behind in the development of stone craft and culture as a whole.
Over two and a half million years, human culture has advanced significantly. The evolution of man can amaze the imagination, since from rather primitive hominids they turned into people who began to create tools for labor and hunting, homes, clothing, jewelry, objects of art, learned to make fire, speak, and think abstractly. The improvement of hunting tools allowed man to rise to the very top of the food chain and hunt even the most dangerous and largest animals. The Paleolithic ends with the almost final evolution of modern humans.
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According to various estimates, it began 40-35 thousand years ago and ended 12-10 thousand years ago. The Upper Paleolithic marks the last Ice Age, the coldest period of which occurred 25-17 thousand years ago, after which warming began.
The Late Paleolithic is characterized by the flourishing of the Cro-Magnon culture. Eventually the Cro-Magnons began to migrate from Africa to Europe. Since European lands were occupied by another species for a long time, a conflict occurred between them. The Cro-Magnons, who were distinguished by a higher culture and more modern tools, began to develop territories where they were met by Neanderthals, who were also highly developed. Why absolutely all Neanderthals disappeared by the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic is not known for certain, but archaeological evidence suggests that they were completely destroyed. There are also suggestions that some of the Neanderthals were not destroyed, but assimilated with the Cro-Magnons.
The growth of the culture of working stone, wood, and bone, as well as the extraordinary development of ancient man of this period, is called the “Late Paleolithic Revolution.” Since 50 thousand years ago, products made from stone, bone and horn have become significantly more complex. Tools for labor and hunting became more complex, giving rise to many different cultures. In addition, the development of abstract and creative thinking of the Cro-Magnons of the third Paleolithic period is noted. The first examples of carving on bone, horn, and mammoth and elephant tusks date back to this time. Also during this period, the Cro-Magnons began to make figures from stone, in particular, the famous “Paleolithic Venuses”. The abstract thinking of ancient people, which fundamentally distinguishes the Cro-Magnon man from other varieties of Homo erectus and other animals on Earth, is confirmed by the first cave paintings. With the help of ancient tools and dyes, people began to create works of art that are not vital for a person, but satisfy his emotional side, help open up creative thinking, promote ingenuity, and also tell us about the origin of the first cults and religious ideas.
Cro-Magnons were more advanced and more numerous than Neanderthals. They built more advanced, comfortable and safe settlements. They used pits to store food. Powerful and sophisticated tools made it possible to hunt more efficiently. Sharp knives, powerful axes, arrowheads, throwing darts, harpoons, fishhooks, needles with ivory eyes for sewing clothes - all this was already available to Upper Paleolithic people. Moreover, at this time a person invents the first mechanism in history - a mechanical device for throwing darts - a spear thrower. Also, according to historians, in the late Paleolithic the Cro-Magnon man domesticated the dog. All these advantages made it possible for humans to spread more efficiently throughout Europe and the world. In confrontation with such a strong enemy, the Neanderthals were simply doomed.
The Late Paleolithic is a time of hunter-gatherers. Agriculture and animal husbandry were not yet known.
During the Upper Paleolithic, North and South America were inhabited. The first people came to new lands through the Bering Isthmus, which was later flooded and became the Bering Strait. The ancient people who moved to America founded an independent culture here about 13.5 thousand years ago, which is known to us under the common name - Indians or American Indians.
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Epoch Upper Paleolithic is called the period from approximately 40 to 10 thousand years ago. In Africa, the “Late Stone Age” is usually distinguished, which has the oldest dates of 30-50 thousand years ago. and noticeably different technologically from the European and Asian Upper Paleolithic. Many Upper Paleolithic cultures were created by people belonging to the modern species Homo sapiens; the population of Europe at this time is often called Cro-Magnons (after the Cro-Magnon cave in France, where in 1868 important finds of human skeletons and tools of the Upper Paleolithic era were made).
Cro-Magnons in Europe and the Middle East coexisted with Neanderthals for at least 5 thousand years in a row; perhaps this stage can be extended even to 24 thousand years (the oldest dating for the Upper Paleolithic is 52 thousand years, the latest for Mousterian and Neanderthals is 28 thousand years, although both are sometimes disputed). Transitional cultures between Mousterian and Upper Paleolithic are Chatelperron, Uluzzo, Bachokir, Bohunich, Selet, which existed from 45 to about 30 thousand years ago. Some archaeologists believe that Upper Paleolithic cultures arose independently of each other from local Middle Paleolithic ones almost everywhere. This view of the problem of the place and time of the appearance of the Upper Paleolithic was especially widespread among Soviet archaeologists and now in regional archaeological schools. In this case, the mentioned cultures with characteristics of both the Mousterian and the Upper Paleolithic are considered stage-intermediate. Other archaeologists argue that Mousterian was displaced. Typically, the Mousterian layer at sites is sharply delimited from the Upper Paleolithic layer in cultural terms, and sometimes by a sterile layer. In addition, there are examples where the Upper Paleolithic layer is overlain by the Mousterian layer, which indicates their synchronicity. Upper Paleolithic features in later Neanderthal cultures have already been discussed.
On the other hand, individual Mousterian features are typical specifically for European Upper Paleolithic sites, but are absent in Africa; this fact can be interpreted as evidence of reverse influences - Mousterian on the Early Upper Paleolithic. It is necessary to mention that the oldest Upper Paleolithic of Europe was found in its eastern part, penetration Homo sapiens It probably came from the Middle East (where the Upper Paleolithic is even older) through the East European Plain and the Balkans to the west. For Upper Paleolithic people, a tendency towards long-distance migrations was typical (for example, some sites in the Baikal region are surprisingly similar to Eastern European ones in a whole range of characteristics).
In Africa, a smooth transition is found from the “Middle Stone Age” to the “Late” 50-30 thousand years ago. in the central regions, but there is no such smooth transition in Northern, Eastern and Southern Africa. Microlithization of tools occurs, and tips typical of the “Middle Stone Age” disappear. In many ways, the “Late Stone Age” of Africa resembles the Mesolithic of Europe, although much older.
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Humanity has gone through many stages of development, the longest of which is paleolithic era, better known in history as the Stone Age. This segment of hoary antiquity originates from the pre-glacial period and extends to different periods of glaciation, capturing the anthropogenic, glacial or Quaternary geological period. Taking into account a number of characteristic features, scientists conventionally distinguish between the Early (from 3 million to 800 thousand years ago), the Middle (120-40 thousand years ago) and the Upper Paleolithic (40-12 thousand years ago). But to clearly distinguish historical periods will require more fossil evidence and even more diligent efforts to study carefully.
In addition, the difficulties encountered by researchers are largely associated with changes in natural conditions and geography, which could not but leave its mark on the material culture of that time. As a guide to the delimitation of the Paleolithic periods, anthropological characteristics and approaches to the manufacture of tools are taken, as well as differences in their shape. It was the Paleolithic era that could be proud of the activity of the formation of man, or rather, his physical type. From the genus Homo during this historical period, the planet was explored by: habilis, ergaster, erectus, antesesst, Heidelbergensis, neardentalensis and even Homo sapiens.
Sources of information for scientists
Of course, organic materials that were in use during the Paleolithic times could not survive to this day. Almost no wood products have survived. Modern scientists can only draw their conclusions from stone tools and bone material. But since ancient man could only process the stone whose physical properties provided a sharp cutting edge, flint and related rocks were most often used for splitting. Based on the traces of activity preserved on the blades, scientists can judge the nature of the work performed.
But in working with tools, Homo had to mature for abstract thinking and the ability to follow the sequence of a complex chain of actions, where it is impossible to do without auxiliary tools (breakers, mediators, squeezers, retouchers, anvils).
The basis of the discoveries is also the cultural layer of monuments formed by the very life and activity of Homo, who settled in a particular place. It is precisely from this information that it is possible to reconstruct the way of life during the formation of the primitive communal system, known as the first social formation in history.
Geological features of the Paleolithic
The Paleolithic period coincides with the end of the Pliocene period, and also covers the entire period in history that falls on the Pleistocene, associated with cooling and the onset of ice covers on almost the entire land. If we evaluate the situation from the point of view of the stages of archaeological periodization, then, according to the international standard (Alpine scheme), we can distinguish 5 main glaciations and interglacial periods.
Rice. 1 - Chronology of the Paleolithic era
Early Paleolithic
Changes in the climate and biosphere of our planet are characterized by early paleolithic, during which one could observe a decrease in temperatures and a decrease in the evaporation process from the ocean surface. It was this reason that served as the intensity of the advance of savannahs into territories not so long ago occupied by lush tropical forests. As a result, Homo could only adapt to the arid conditions of the savannah and, by searching for new sources of food, achieve a reduction in plant foods in their diet.
During the Early Paleolithic period, dating back 2.5-2.6 million years ago, it was no longer possible to do without tools, even crude and primitive ones, but which made it easier to provide food for oneself and relatives. Their presence is evidenced by fossil evidence in the form of the earliest finds created by the hands of ancient creatures. The oldest tools were found in the bosom of Africa (created 3 million years ago), evidence about 1.9 million years old belongs to western Asia, finds from the Middle East date back to 1.6 million years, southern Europe - 1 million years, and its central part - do not reach even 1 million years.
Scientists believe that the first cases of making tools of the Early Paleolithic could be observed in one of the species of Australopithecus. This assumption is supported by the remains of the ancient creature Gari (age about 2.6 million years), next to which the oldest tools and animal bones in history were found, preserving traces of contact with them. It is possible that Homo habilis began his journey in history from the family of Australopithecus, or more precisely, Australopithecus gari. Forced to survive in the changing conditions of the Early Paleolithic, when favorite fruits became significantly scarcer, Homo turned his attention to tubers, roots and animal meat. Having no hunting skills, the ancient creatures became scavengers. What else could they do but feed on the remains of a successful hunt by dexterous and strong predators? This is why stone scrapers were needed to facilitate the operation of scraping meat from bones and splitting them for the purpose of using the bone marrow for food. Although the Rudolf man lived next to a skilled man, researchers do not have enough materials for a full analysis of this fact.
There is evidence of the existence of other types of people, such as the working man (Homoergaster) and the erect man (Homo erectus), the discovery of which dates back to 1.8 million years ago. These forms already show noticeable enlargement of the brain. Concerned with the search for better living conditions, erectus began to explore not only Africa, but also migrated to Asia and Europe. The role of a scavenger could no longer provide the human community with sufficient food. In further periods of the Paleolithic, man began to take steps towards the development of hunting and gathering.
In parallel with the development of the Olduvai culture, the more progressive Acheulean stone-working culture began to flourish on the African continent, reaching Europe and Asia only a few hundred thousand years later. The Klektonian culture is also known in Europe, confirmed by the creations of Homo erectus - stone tools found in 1911 in Great Britain.
During the Ionian period of the Pleistocene (781 thousand years ago), Heidelberg man settled in Europe, hunting and gathering, whose tools had a much more advanced appearance, then Neanderthals appeared 600-350 thousand years ago. Scientists believe that it was at this time that attempts were made to use fire. True, there is confirmation of the control of the fire element only 400 thousand years ago.
Middle Paleolithic
From 300 to 30 thousand years deep into the centuries, he takes the reins of dominance Middle Paleolithic, which stands out from other periods of history due to dramatic changes in the life of primitive society, which are associated with the emergence of new people.
To survive in the harsher conditions of the Ice Age, small groups of Neanderthals, united by family ties, moved deep into Asia and Europe, where there were still territories not captured by ice. The chances of survival increase significantly with current lifestyle changes. The Mousterian culture played a role in this issue, which was reflected in stone processing techniques.
The efficiency of hunting increases with the arming of our ancestors with spears with stone tips, with which it was possible to defeat large-sized land mammals (mammoths, bison, etc.), which is very important for providing food for a large species. Fishing was also an important source of food production during the Middle Paleolithic period, and with the advent of the harpoon, it brought tangible results.
Another way to survive in the cold of the Ice Age is to use caves as dwellings. Moreover, fire served not only to warm living beings, but also to prepare food, both for quick consumption and in reserve. In the second case, the meat was dried and smoked. A special role in the development of civilization was played by the exchange of valuable raw materials between different groups, which contributed to solving the problems of many Homo groups that settled in other territories.
Middle Paleolithic people were characterized by an egalitarian division of food, which provided a chance for survival and helped to avoid starvation of the entire community, and not of individuals who were distinguished by health and strength, or who were lucky at the moment. Regarding the care of members of such a group for each other at the time of old age, illness and injury, the remains that have come down to us speak, preserving traces of cured injuries and individuals who lived to the age of 50, which at that time was considered extreme old age.
Burials of the dead during the Paleolithic period not only served as sanitary and hygienic precautions, but also testified to the emergence of signs of religiosity and concepts regarding life after death. Proof of the above is the orientation of the graves and the position of the bodies of the dead, buried along with household items and tools. The appearance of the first examples of art, which have come down to us in the form of rock paintings and decorative items made of bones and stone, can also be attributed to the Paleolithic period.
The fact that Homo sapiens, anatomically identical to our contemporaries, began his journey from Africa is evidenced by the similarity of stone tools found on the Arabian Peninsula, in India, and in the territory of Oman. And not only did people come to the Nile Valley and reach Israel, but taking advantage of glaciation, which led to a decrease in sea level, they reached Asia, Australia and New Guinea. And through the Bering Isthmus people came to North America.
Large-scale colonization of Europe by Cro-Magnons, competing with Neanderthals, dates back to 60-43 thousand years ago. Despite the endurance of the Neanderthals, the Cro-Magnons won in technological development, which was the reason for achieving complete dominance (13-15 thousand years ago) and the development of the Mousterian and Atherian culture with its decorations from mollusks and the emergence of aesthetic feelings.
Late Paleolithic
The third stage of this era occurs in Upper Paleolithic, which came into its own 40-50 thousand years ago, when modern man began to play the main role. The changes in lifestyle during that period can easily be called revolutionary. With the change in climate, changes also befell the area of human life, which was manifested in a decrease in the population density of the northern territories, and the density of settlement sites in the south. In this matter, one should also not ignore the connection with the decrease in the level of the World Ocean. It is this circumstance that explains the concealment of evidence of the Upper Paleolithic by sea waters.
With the onset of the late period, the number of artifacts that have reached modern times also increases. But all the tools found are already distinguished by specialized features, and in manufacturing technologies there is a tendency towards complexity. For example: about 30 thousand years ago, spear throwers and boomerangs appeared in history, and a little later - bows and arrows and fishing nets. In addition, during the Upper Paleolithic period, man successfully domesticated the dog (15-35 thousand years ago), whose sense of smell and hearing facilitated efforts in protecting homes and hunting.
A lot has been done to improve both tools and weapons, as well as methods of hunting, construction, and tailoring. All of the above is put on the altar of increasing the total number of people and developing new territories. Moreover, Late Paleolithic settlements are characterized by organization and year-round use, which indicates the absence of the need to migrate in search of food. The place of a single dominant culture is occupied by a variety of regional cultures.
Since the last Paleolithic period, the development of fine arts and decorative crafts began, forcing even us, the inhabitants of the 21st century, to freeze in admiration at the rock paintings, products made of ceramics, horn and bone material. And female figurines from Paleolithic times are considered a prototype of Venus. And in the intricacies of petroglyphs from the Upper Paleolithic, scientists are trying to read the encrypted secrets of ritual and memorial significance.
