Characteristics of natural conditions and life of the Paleolithic. Early Paleolithic

From the portal editor:The materials in this section were prepared jointly by our Scientific Editor Stanislav Vladimirovich Drobyshevsky and St. Petersburg archaeologist Elena Vladimirovna Belyaeva.

The probable reasons for the emergence of labor activity are seen in the light of the above data in greater efficiency in the use of resources when using tools. Chimpanzees can live well without tools, but with them their life becomes easier and more varied. The connection between the use of tools and the biological evolution of human ancestors is quite obvious - developed tool activity became possible only in fully upright primates with a free hand. We can distinguish three biological complexes associated with the ability to make and use tools: bipedal complex(making possible the active and free use of hands), hand structure complex(including opposable thumb and extended short distal phalanges) and complex of developed brain(in which the development of the frontal lobe, which is responsible for learning and thinking in a broad sense, and the parietal lobe, which is responsible for the sensitivity of the hand and the coordination of conscious movements of the hands, is fundamentally important for tool activity). An important factor in the emergence of tool activity was changes in the type of nutrition of human ancestors, the transition to omnivory.

Bones with traces of tool processing, 3.4 million years old, found in Ethiopia. The authors of the find believe that Australopithecus afarensis used stone tools.
Source: McPherron Shannon P., et al. "Evidence for stone-tool-assisted consumption of animal tissues before 3.39 million years ago at Dikika, Ethiopia." Nature. 466 (2010): 857-860.

Australopithecines were unlikely to be able to make tools, although they certainly used them (see, for example, the material on the possible use of tools by Australopithecines afarensis). Their hands were very similar to humans, but the fingers were more curved and narrower. The oldest tools are known from layers in Ethiopia dating to 2.7 million years ago, that is, 4 million years after the appearance of Australopithecus. In South Africa, Australopithecines or their immediate descendants used bone fragments to catch termites from termite mounds about 2-1.5 million years ago. Gracile australopithecines ate mainly plant foods, although not far from bones Australopithecusgarhi scientists found stone tools and the bones of antelopes crushed by them (however, at that moment there already existed “early Homo"who used pebble tools, so Australopithecusgarhi is a dead-end alternative line of evolution). Also, for the South African australopithecus, a hypothesis was put forward osteodontokeratic("bone-dental-horny") culture. It was assumed that Australopithecines used bones, horns and teeth of animals as tools. Later studies showed that most of the wear marks on these bones were the result of gnawing by hyenas and other predators.

The oldest traces of stone tools on bones were found in Ethiopia in the Hadar area and date back to more than 3 million years ago, although the tools themselves are unknown, and many archaeologists doubt that these incisions were made by tools. The oldest real stone tools are known from the Gona site in Ethiopia and date back to 2.5-2.7 million years ago, their manufacturers are unknown. About 2.5 million years ago new species of hominids arose that had a large brain and were already assigned to the genus Homo. However, there was another group of late australopithecines that deviated from the line leading to humans - the massive Australopithecus or Paranthropus, which also probably made and used stone tools. Paranthropus were large - weighing up to 70 kg - specialized herbivorous creatures that lived along the banks of rivers and lakes in dense thickets. Their lifestyle was somewhat reminiscent of the lifestyle of modern gorillas. However, they retained a bipedal gait and may have been able to make tools. In the layers with Paranthropus, stone tools and bone fragments were found, which hominids used to tear up termite mounds. Also, the hand of these primates was adapted for the manufacture and use of tools.

• Paleolithic (Greek παλαιός - ancient + Greek λίθος - stone; = ancient stone) - the first historical period of the Stone Age from the beginning of the use of stone tools by hominids (genus Homo) (about 2.5 million years ago) until the advent of agriculture in humans approximately 10 millennium BC e.. Isolated in 1865 by 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 the time of human existence and coincides with two large geological epochs of the Cenozoic era - the Pliocene and Pleistocene.

  In the Paleolithic era, the Earth's climate, 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 collected plant foods. Fishing was just beginning to emerge, and agriculture and cattle breeding were unknown.

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

  The end of the Paleolithic dates back to approximately 12-10 thousand years ago. This is the time of transition to the Mesolithic - an 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. The time boundaries between divisions in different regions may also differ, since archaeological cultures did not succeed each other at the same time.

  In the 19th century, Gabriel de Mortillier identified the Eolithic as the 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”.

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

Paleolithic sites in Russia

Hunting and gathering

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

Nutrition

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

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

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

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

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

Human influence on nature

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

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

The influence of nature on humans

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

Introduction

The purpose of this essay is to study the primitive economy and identify its features. To do this, it is necessary to solve a number of problems: 1) study the literature concerning the primitive communal system, their economy and production; 2) study of the Paleolithic; 3) study of the Mesolithic; 4) study of the Neolithic.

The study of primitive economy is important because when studying modern economics, it is necessary to know how farming and economics began. It is not for nothing that such a science as economic history studies economics from its origins. The focus of economic history is the evolution of the economy. This explains the relevance of this topic.

The difficulty of this topic was that very few sources and literature could be found on primitive economy. There are few sources for the reason that there is no reliable information about that time, because then even writing did not exist. All information was collected in excavations, and everything was based on assumptions. But it was not easy for me to study all this, but it was interesting.

Periodization of the eras of primitive society

To trace the origin and development of the primitive economy, you need to familiarize yourself with the periodization of the main stages (epochs) of primitive history.

The periodization of human history at the stage of the primitive communal system is quite complex. Several options are known. The archaeological diagram is most often used. In accordance with it, the history of mankind is divided into three large stages depending on the material from which tools were made:

· Stone Age: 3 million years ago - end of the 3rd millennium BC;

· Bronze Age: end of the 3rd millennium - 1st millennium BC;

· Iron Age: 1st millennium BC

The last two stages are associated with the emergence of the first state formations. Chronologically, primitive society coincides with the Stone Age. It can be divided into three periods:

1) Paleolithic (ancient Stone Age): 3 million - 12 thousand years BC;

2) Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age): 12-8 thousand years BC;

3) Neolithic (New Stone Age): 8-3 thousand years BC.

For different tribes and peoples, the emergence of certain forms of labor and social life occurred in different periods. At the same time, all primitive societies are characterized by the presence of a number of common features. Firstly, the main form of economic practice was the appropriating economy, which was distinguished by the fact that people only used natural resources without producing material goods. Secondly, the basis of the production relations of the primitive system was collective, communal ownership of the tools of labor and means of production, characterized by a low level and slow pace of development of the productive forces, and an equal distribution of material goods.

Paleolithic

The longest period is the Paleolithic (3 million - 12 thousand years BC). The first forms of human economic activity were hunting, fishing and gathering. The most ancient people were omnivores: they ate plant and meat foods. At the dawn of mankind, most likely, plant foods prevailed, which man received from nature in ready-made form. He collected edible roots, plant fruits, insect larvae, and caught small animals. Gathering persisted throughout the primitive era in varying degrees of development depending on living conditions. Naturally, there were no food reserves at that time; everything collected was immediately used.

The objects of hunting, depending on the fauna of a particular region, were various animals. The size of the hunt can to some extent be judged by counting the bones found at the sites. The cultural layer of many of them contains the remains of hundreds, and sometimes even thousands of animals.

It is difficult to imagine hunting large animals, especially those that live in herds, without the driven method. Probably, the animals were frightened by noise, fire, stones and, as the location of many sites shows, they were driven to a deep gorge or a large cliff. The animals fell and broke, and man could only finish them off.

The most important feature that distinguishes humans from animals is the ability to make tools. It is believed that the first stone tools appeared about 2.5 million years ago. These were stones with sharp edges and flakes from them. Such tools could be used to cut a branch, remove the skin of a killed animal, split a bone, or dig a root out of the ground. Their selection was small. The person who made these tools was called a “skillful man” (homo habilis).

About 1 million years ago, a new species of pre-human appeared - Pithecanthropus (ape-man). This creature also resembled animals. It was covered with fur, had a low forehead and very prominent brow ridges. But the size of his brain was already quite large, approaching the size of the brain of a modern person. Pithecanthropus learned to make various tools from stone - regular-shaped axes, scrapers, incisors. They could chop, cut, plan, dig, kill animals, remove skins, butcher carcasses. Over time, the number of guns increased. Already in the Early Paleolithic (3 million years - 200 thousand years BC), some archaeologists identify a set of tools with 30-40 functions. In the Middle Paleolithic era (200-40 thousand years BC), triangular, lamellar and pointed points, axes, and spears appeared.

The development of labor skills, the ability to think, and plan their activities allowed people to adapt to life in different climatic conditions. They lived in the cold regions of Northern China and Europe, in the tropics of the island of Java, and the deserts of Africa. During the existence of Pithecanthropus, the Ice Age began.

About 100 thousand years ago, a significant part of Eurasia was occupied by a huge glacier up to two kilometers thick. At this time, the snowy peaks of the Alps and Scandinavian mountains formed. Due to the formation of glaciers, the level of the World Ocean dropped, and land “bridges” arose between land areas previously separated by water, along which people were able to penetrate into new territories. The harsh climate taught man to use natural fire, and then to extract it. Fire warmed primitive people, protected them from animals, and helped them hunt. They began to cook food over the fire, which had previously been eaten raw. The use of fried and boiled foods contributed to physiological changes in humans.

About 250 thousand years ago, Pithecanthropus gave way to the ancient variety of “homo sapiens” - Neanderthal. He no longer differed much from a modern person, although he was roughly built, had a low forehead and a sloping chin.

When the melting of the glacier ended 35-10 thousand years ago, a climate close to the modern one was established. The use of fire for cooking, the further development of tools, as well as the first attempts to regulate relations between the sexes significantly changed the physical type of man. It was by that time that the process of anthropogenesis—the transformation of pre-humans into “homo sapiens”—was completed. The people who supplanted the Neanderthals 40-30 thousand years ago no longer had the features that gave their predecessors a somewhat bestial appearance. At the same time, obviously as a result of adaptation to the natural environment, the Caucasoid, Negroid and Mongoloid races that still exist today were formed. People settled on all continents, penetrating Australia and America.

Hunting remained the main occupation of people. Its effectiveness during this period increased due to the advent of the spear thrower. Traps, traps, pits, trapping fences, and nets were widely used. They caught fish using harpoons, nets, and primitive fishing hooks.

The technology of making stone tools has reached a high level. Many of them were made from plates of regular shape, which were separated and “squeezed out” from prismatic-shaped cores. Plates of different sizes were subjected to additional processing, blunting the edges or removing thin scales from the surface using a bone or wooden tool. The most suitable stone for making tools was flint, which is often found in nature. Its knife-like plates had such sharp edges that they could be used to shave. Other easily split but hard minerals were also used. The tools were represented by various kinds of scrapers, points, double-sided axes, and cutting tools. Stone grain grinders, pestles for grinding grain, nuts and roots, insert tools, and flint tips appeared.

Bone processing was further developed. Scientists sometimes call the end of the Paleolithic the “Bone Age.” Among the archaeological finds are daggers, spearheads, harpoons, eyed needles, awls, etc. Bone products were decorated with carvings - ornaments or images of animals, which was believed to give them special power. In total, about 150 types of stone and 20 types of bone tools of the Paleolithic era are known today.

Traces of the first long-term settlements have been discovered. People lived in them from several months to hundreds of years. The dwellings were dugouts, huts, and portable plague tents. Remnants of jewelry have been found that make it possible to reproduce clothing of that time.

In the Late Paleolithic era, the primitive system was replaced by a clan community, uniting people of the same clan. She had collective property and ran the economy on the basis of age and gender division of labor and simple labor cooperation. Men were engaged in hunting, fishing, making tools, and women were engaged in gathering, cooking, maintaining a fire, and raising children.

The Upper Paleolithic era is characterized by a significant increase in productive forces, expressed in a significant improvement in technology, that is, in the improvement of stone processing techniques and the variety and specialization of manufactured tools.

Upper Paleolithic man learned to protect himself well from the weather. The abundance of awls and needles in the stone inventory, including needles with eyes, speaks of the invention of sewing.

Paleolithic culture

The very first examples of Paleolithic art were discovered in caves in France in the 40s of the 19th century.

Thus, in 1864, in the La Madeleine cave, an image of a mammoth on a bone plate was found, which showed that people at that time not only lived with the mammoth, but also already reproduced this ancient animal in their drawings.

In 1875, cave paintings were unexpectedly discovered in Altamira (Spain), which amazed researchers with their magnificence.

Hundreds of figures outlined in dark lines - yellow, red, brown, painted with ocher, marl and soot - decorate the walls of the Lascaux cave. Here you can see the heads of deer, goats, horses, bulls, bison, rhinoceroses, and all of this is almost life-size.

This cave near Montignac in southwestern France was discovered in September 1940.

Four schoolchildren went on an archaeological expedition that they themselves had planned. In place of the uprooted tree, they saw a gaping hole in the ground. This hole interested them, especially since there were rumors that this was the entrance to a dungeon that led to a nearby medieval castle. Inside there was another hole - smaller. One of the schoolchildren threw a stone at it and determined from the noise of the fall that the depth here was great. And yet he widened the hole, climbed inside, lit a flashlight and, stunned, called his friends. Some huge animals were looking at the schoolchildren from the walls of the cave. Having come to their senses, the schoolchildren realized that this was not a dungeon leading to a medieval castle, but a cave of a prehistoric man. The young archaeologists reported their discovery to their teacher, who at first was distrustful of their story.

Image of a mammoth. Cave of La Madeleine (France).

But he still agreed to look at the find, and when he found himself in the cave, he gasped in amazement.

This is how the Lascaux cave was discovered, which was later nicknamed the “Sistine Chapel of primitive painting.” This comparison with the famous frescoes of Michelangelo is not accidental and not exaggerated. The painting of the cave fully expresses the spiritual aspirations and creative will of people who created their own fine art, which delights us even today.

By the way, French schoolchildren not only discovered the cave, but also immediately set up their camp near it and became the first guardians of artistic treasures.

This was useful, because the rumor about the cave paintings quickly spread throughout the area and attracted whole crowds of curious people.

As often happens in such cases, many initially doubted the authenticity of the ancient cave, suggesting that all this was the work of modern painters who decided to laugh at the gullible crowd.

However, the authenticity of the drawings was soon proven by scientific examination.

In the Lascaux cave we encounter a rare attempt by primitive man to depict a crowd scene with some complex plot. Before us is a bison wounded by a spear, whose entrails are falling out of its belly. Next to him is a defeated man. And not far from them is a picture of a rhinoceros, which may have killed the man.

It is difficult to determine exactly the content of this rock painting. It should be noted that the person on it is depicted schematically and ineptly. This is how children usually draw. But no child, perhaps, could accurately convey the death of a bison, the calm and ponderous tread of a victoriously retreating rhinoceros.

Images of goats and horses. Cave of Combarelles (France).

Interesting cave paintings were discovered in the Font-de-Gaume cave and in the Nio cave in France.

Already in the Aurignac era, we find on the walls of caves where people lived, the outline of a hand with widely spaced fingers, outlined in paint and enclosed in a circle. It is quite possible that in this way primitive man tried to leave his own imprint on the stone in order to imprint and establish his presence.

In the Upper Paleolithic, hunting techniques became more complex. At this time, house-building was born and a new way of life was taking shape. Thinking and speech develop. A person’s mental horizons expand and his spiritual world is enriched.

The deep archaism of the earliest cave images is reflected in the fact that the emergence of the most ancient of them, the early Aurignacian ones, was caused at first glance by seemingly random associations in the minds of primitive man, who noticed the similarity in the outlines of stones or rocks with the appearance of certain animals.

Sculptural figure of a woman carved from mammoth ivory (front and profile). Kostenki I. From excavations in 1952

But already in Aurignacian times, along with examples of archaic art that combine natural resemblance and human creativity, images were also widespread that owe their appearance entirely to the creative imagination of primitive people.

Very early, back in Aurignacian times, round sculpture began to appear along with drawings and bas-reliefs. As a rule, it was an image of a woman.

The figurines were discovered in various Upper Paleolithic settlements of the periglacial zone, which extended from the Mediterranean Sea to Lake Baikal.

Along with plastic images of women, the art of the Upper Paleolithic is characterized by sculptural images of animals made from mammoth tusk, bone, and even clay mixed with bone ash, equally true to nature. Often such figures depicted mammoths, bison, horses and other animals, including predators.

Many interesting finds were discovered in Kostenki, already known to the reader. The two figurines discovered here are remarkable for their life-like depiction of the forms of the naked female body and expressiveness. A whole series of miniature heads and figures of animals carved from marl, a soft local stone, was found in Kostenki. There are predators here, such as a lion and a bear, and there is also a beautifully designed camel head.

In Ukraine, in Mezin, figurines of birds of prey, completely unusual in their unique stylization, covered with a rich geometric pattern, were discovered.

In Malta and Bureti (on the Angara River) sculptural figurines of waterfowl depicted in flight, with a long neck stretched forward and a massive head, were found. Most likely these are loons or swans.

Mammoth figurines carved from the foot bones of the mammoth itself were discovered at the Avdeevskaya site.

Exactly the same figurines were found in Predmost, in Slovakia.

The accuracy and sharpness of observations reflected in the images of animals were determined by the daily work experience of ancient hunters, whose entire life and well-being depended on knowledge of the lifestyle and character of animals, on the ability to track and catch them. Such knowledge of the animal world was a matter of life and death for primitive hunters, and penetration into the life of animals was a characteristic and important part of human psychology. Moreover, to such an extent that it colored their entire spiritual culture, starting, judging by ethnographic data, from animal epics and fairy tales, where animals are the only or main characters, ending with rituals and myths in which people and animals represent one whole.

Paleolithic art gave people of that time satisfaction with the correspondence of images to nature, the clarity and symmetrical arrangement of lines, and the strength of the color scheme of these images.

Often the simplest everyday things were covered with ornaments and given sculptural forms. Such are, say, daggers, the handle of which is turned into a figurine of a deer or a goat, such as a spear thrower with the image of a partridge.

Songs and dances were an important type of primitive art. Primitive dances, most of them imitative, represent a reproduction of the rhythm of labor activity. Often during such dances scenes of gathering, hunting, fishing, etc. were imitated.

There were also war dances, which were usually performed before setting out on a campaign.

The origin of the dance dates back to the Magdalenian era. Dance is directly related to song and instrumental music, which arose from the rhythms of labor processes. The close connection between these two types of primitive art is proven by the fact that many tribes refer to songs and dances in one word. Primitive song consisted of rhythmic speech. The basis was the recitative, and the melody arose later.

It should be noted that primitive people created all types of musical instruments - percussion (from bone, wood or a stretched piece of leather), string or plucked instruments (their prototype was the bow string), wind instruments from hollow wood and tubular bone.

Rattles and drums became especially widespread.

Music, as a rule, accompanied dances that narrated numerous exploits of important hunters, warriors, etc.

Tubular bones with lateral holes were discovered in Late Paleolithic settlements. In Ukraine, in the Chernigov region, in a hut made of mammoth bones, two bone knockers, a noisy bracelet made of five bone plates and a hammer made of reindeer antler were found.

Some scientists believe that these objects are musical instruments of an ancient orchestra.

Of course, music in primitive society as a whole was poorly developed, which is explained by the low level of technology in general, and, consequently, the technology of making musical instruments.

Folklore began to develop very early among primitive people. The first to appear were legends about the past, myths, and later - fairy tales, songs, epics, riddles, and proverbs.