Animals of the Upper Paleolithic. Upper (Late) Paleolithic

Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic are three large cultural and historical periods of the Stone Age. It received its name due to the fact that weapons in those days were made only from stone, and only towards the end of the century bones began to be used and the century lasted for hundreds of thousands of years. But even now, thanks to numerous historical and archaeological finds, we can learn at least the main moments of the life of primitive people at the dawn of human civilization.

What is Paleolithic?

The earliest history of mankind is the Paleolithic era, the longest period of the Stone Age, which began more than 2.5 million years ago. Its main feature is the evolution of people: from an animal to a primitive communal system. The emergence and development of speech is very important and significant. The Paleolithic is divided into three stages: early, middle and late.

Early Paleolithic

This is the first and longest stage. The beginning of the Paleolithic is associated with the appearance of the first ape-like man - Archanthropus. They were not tall (1.5 - 1.8 m), had characteristic clearly defined brow ridges and a sloping chin. They used animal skins as clothing, lived in caves and, according to many scientists, actively practiced cannibalism. The main feature of the Early Paleolithic is the beginning of the use of homemade stone tools. They were made by cutting off all the excess from one stone to another in order to form a chip or cutting edge. Gradually, manufacturing techniques improved, and hand axes and so-called drills appeared - tools with which they dug up roots or chopped down trees. Another significant evolutionary step of the Early Paleolithic was the use of fire. Traces of ancient fire pits dating back 1.5 million years were discovered in Africa and Asia. But at this stage he could only maintain the fire; he had not yet produced it on his own.

Middle Paleolithic

At this time, Homo erectus is still the predominant species, and its evolution continues. In Africa, about 200-300 thousand years ago, a new species appeared, which in terms of brain volume was close to modern man - this is the Neanderthal. They were taller and had a very strong muscular build, which gave them considerable physical strength. The Middle Paleolithic is an era of survival, since Neanderthals lived in perhaps the most difficult climatic conditions - during the Ice Age.

What helped them survive was that people learned to make fire on their own, using the carving method. It was discovered, most likely, by accident during the manufacture of another sharp stone tool. At the same time, the first spears and knives, arrowheads and scrapers for processing animal skins appeared. The social structure develops, people live in large groups, caring for the elderly. Art arose in the form of rock paintings depicting hunting or, very often, women, which can be regarded as prerequisites for matriarchy.

Late Paleolithic

This is the period when a person resembling the modern one appeared - the Cro-Magnon man, he was named after the Cro-Magnon cave in which his remains were found. The Cro-Magnon phenotype is reminiscent of modern people: a high forehead, a pronounced chin, smaller muscles, developed hand motor skills, which made it possible to make improved tools for hunting and everyday life. The main material is still stone. During the Late Paleolithic-Mesolithic (early) period, the first semblance of boats appeared. This was preceded by the production of the first rafts from logs or dry twigs. Needles, the ancestors of modern ones, were made from bones; they were used to make clothes and rods. Figures made from mammoth tusks and bones and rock paintings actively developed. The Paleolithic era at a late stage marked the beginning of the domestication of wild animals; dogs, as we know, were the first. The Cro-Magnons determined time using the solar and lunar calendars. gradually replaced by matriarchal The production of the first clay figurines characterizes the Paleolithic. The Neolithic is marked by the appearance of the first pottery.

Mesolithic

This era begins after the end of the last ice age. This segment is controversial among historians. It is most strongly expressed in the north of modern Europe. During this period, weapons continued to improve, and the bow and arrow appeared. People domesticated wild animals: buffalos, horses, cows. Society develops, and the first norms of behavior and rules appear. The Mesolithic is characterized by the further development of speech.

Neolithic

If the Paleolithic is a period of active hunting, fishing and gathering, then one of the main events of the Neolithic is the transition to a productive economy: agriculture and cattle breeding. People became more attached to one place, the first houses, huts and even cities began to appear. Clay began to be used for making dishes and in art.

The Neolithic, like the Paleolithic, is divided into early, middle and late periods. And each of them proceeded unevenly, not at the same time; different cultures entered each stage at different times. Even then, for example, the territory of modern China could boast of high development.

Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic are milestones in the evolution of man as a biological species. For thousands of years it has won its place in the sun from nature. One species was replaced by another, tools were improved, the system changed from the herd characteristic of animals to the primitive communal one, and art was born.

The Upper Paleolithic period of its existence is much shorter and is determined by archaeologists to be between the 40th and 10th millennia BC. e. Until recently, the Upper Paleolithic was divided into more subdivided periods: Aurignac, Solutre and Madeleine, according to which further stages of the development of human society were classified. But although human culture at this time develops in similar ways, certain territorial differences are already emerging. Therefore, it is more correct to abandon the division of the Upper Paleolithic into cultures that has been in existence for a long time, which received their names from monuments found in France, and is now used in Western Europe. For all of humanity, it would be more correct to divide it into the early, middle and late periods of the Upper Paleolithic.

The time of the Upper Paleolithic was primarily marked by the appearance of the modern type of Homo sapiens, that is, Homo sapiens. Having replaced the Neanderthals, he completed the transition from animal to human, which lasted about two million years.

The differences between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens consisted not so much in the disappearance of many features of external structure inherited from animals, but in large changes in higher nervous activity. The man of modern times thought more, and therefore acted much more successfully than his predecessors. The reason that caused the emergence of a new type of person must first of all be sought in the formation of a matriarchal clan community. The Neanderthal, who lived in his own group, not only did not seek rapprochement with his own kind from other groups, but, most likely, avoided it, and in the event of a collision with his own kind, he behaved hostilely. Exogamy arose within the clan, that is, a custom prohibiting marriage relations between members of the clan, which forced a person to build interclan connections.

The Upper Paleolithic era coincided in time with the last stage of glaciation, which pushed humanity (especially in those areas where the cooling was felt especially strongly) to the further development of labor activity. First of all, this development affected the production of tools and the method of processing them. The technique for producing blank plates remains the same. They are obtained by cleaving from a prismatic core. But due to the improvement of retouching, the tools became more advanced, and their efficiency in work increased. For retouching, they began to use bone sticks fixed in a wooden handle. Pressing the compound wringer, the master did not chip off the elastic bone tip, but rather whittled flint flakes from the tool blank one after another. This “sharpening” of the working part of the weapon was carried out not on one side, as was the case in previous eras, but on both sides, which increased the quality of the weapon.

Retouching was used not only to process the working edge of a tool; it was often used to process the entire surface of the product. The retouching technique was complex and required maximum attention from the master. It was enough not to calculate the pressure when pressing, and the flint could be split. This apparently happened often, as evidenced by numerous finds of tools damaged by the master during the manufacturing process. Retouching covered parts of the tool that did not play a significant role in the labor process. Such a passion for retouching indicates the emergence of an aesthetic perception of things in a person. Man sought to make not only a convenient, but also a beautiful tool.

The time of the Upper Paleolithic was marked by the widespread use of, along with stone tools, tools made of bone: spear tips, darts (throwing spears) and harpoons, i.e. tips with jagged edges, were mainly made from this material. The expansion of hunting equipment speaks quite clearly about the intensity of hunting.

To throw a spear, a person invents a spear thrower. The materials for its manufacture were wood and bone. Modern peoples who use spear throwers currently make them primarily from wood. Perhaps in those days they were made more often from wood, but this is how it is poorly preserved, archaeologists more often find bone spear throwers or those made from reindeer antler. The latter include finds at Paleolithic sites in France: Bruniquel, Logerie Bass, Gourdan. The spear thrower allowed the hunter to increase the length of the spear's flight.

The role of hunting especially increased in areas close to the glacier, where there were fewer edible plants for human consumption. In these areas, herds of reindeer and musk ox grazed; a little to the south was the kingdom of the mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, and bison; Even further south, herds of wild horses, deer, antelope, etc. grazed. The possibility of rich prey attracted man, and he intensively moved north, exploring more and more new territories.

In areas where the influence of the next cold snap was not felt, the hunter of the Upper Paleolithic time hunted zebra, antelope, and elephant, but gathering, which in the northern regions came to almost nothing, plays a large role in human economic life.

In addition to bone tools intended for hunting and fishing, it is necessary to note the appearance of bone needles with a hole (eye) located in their thickest part, into which a tendon was pulled, acting as a thread. Bone needles were stored in special cases made from the tubular bones of birds. The appearance of needles indicates the existence of tailoring in the Upper Paleolithic era. True, a person could sew together individual parts of skins using simple punctures (bone and flint), but the presence of an eye simplified this process and undoubtedly contributed to more advanced production of various types of clothing. For a long time, scientists had no information about the presence of clothing among Paleolithic people. However, a bone figurine of a woman wearing clothes with a hood on her head was discovered in Buryatia. Today, science has sufficient material to completely reconstruct the various types of clothing, hats, and shoes that make up the complete set of clothing of a person from the Upper Paleolithic era.

Based on climatic conditions, and therefore differences in the economic life of man during the Upper Paleolithic period, it is more appropriate to consider the cultural development of five territorial regions.

The first area is periglacial. This includes the middle zone of Western and Eastern Europe. By the time of the Upper Paleolithic, the vast territory of this region, thanks to climate warming, was quickly covered with forests. At first, spruce and pine trees grew in place of the retreating glacier, then, when the glacier retreated further, they were replaced by oak, hornbeam, linden, beech, i.e., broad-leaved trees.

The most striking monument here is the Sungir site in Siberia. The most striking finds, in particular burials, were discovered here. The bones were stretched along a line from southwest to northeast. The children are aged seven and twelve years. The position of the corpse was unusual. Both children lay on their backs with their heads facing each other. Before this, this situation was known from a number of figurines. It is possible that this is a brother and sister who died of some disease at the same time. The young Sungir people were equipped with an amazing set of weapons in the amount of 16 items, among which were a club carved from mammoth bone (this kind of weapon was discovered for the first time), two spears - 2 m 42 cm and 1 m 66 cm, made from mammoth ivory. In addition to the listed items, there were also two sharp bone stiletto daggers measuring 42 and 28 cm. Bone darts also lay next to the buried people. Among the accompanying objects was the thigh of a cave lion (bones of this animal were also found in other sites at the site; they may have been used as decoration). A lot of jewelry was also made from bone. The graves in which the buried were placed were dug using hoes, also made of bone.

The Sungir people, who lived on the plain, had already created artificial dwellings. A thorough study of a large accumulation of mammoth bones and other animals in one of the areas of the Sungir site and a fire pit located inside the observed accumulation made it possible to restore the appearance of one of the buildings. The dimensions of this building were small; its diameter was no more than 3 m. Its frame was made up of wooden poles and bones of large animals. The frame was covered on top with animal skins. A fire burned in the center of the room, warming people on long autumn and winter evenings. In addition to this kind of dwellings, the Sungir people also had other buildings that looked like a hut made of poles and branches.

The sites were usually located in places where there were many animals. The duration of the existence of these sites suggests that at that time ownership of hunting grounds had already arisen for each group, clan, etc., which made it possible to establish stronger connections between neighboring groups. Such connections were also strengthened through marriage alliances between members of neighboring groups.

For a long time it was believed that Upper Paleolithic man led a wandering lifestyle. The work carried out in the village of Kostenki on the Don (near Voronezh) marked the beginning of research into the Upper Paleolithic settlement. The people who lived in this area were amazing mammoth hunters and serious builders. The area of ​​one of the dwellings excavated here reached almost 600 sq.m. Its length was 35 m, and its width was 15-16 m. Along its central axis there were 9 hearths, the diameter of which reached 1 m. The hearths were located at a distance of up to 2 m from each other. This huge dwelling was the main one for the members of society who lived on the site. Analysis of the ashes and burnt bone remains suggests that the fuel was mainly animal bones.

Not all lesions performed the same functions. So, in one, pieces of brown iron ore and spherosiderite were fired and mineral paint - ocher - was obtained. Apparently, it was widely used, since traces of it were found on the entire surface of the floor. Near other hearths, archaeologists discovered tubular bones of a mammoth stuck into the ground. The characteristic notches and serifs on them suggest that they served as a kind of workbenches for the craftsmen working on them. In addition to this simple dwelling, there were three more. Two of them were dugouts located on the left and right sides of the main room. Both had fires. The frame of their roofs was constructed from mammoth tusks. The third room - a dugout - was located at the far end of the parking lot. The absence of a fireplace and any household items in it makes one think that this is a storage facility for food supplies and the most valuable products. Sculptural images of women and animals were hidden in special storage pits. Here the wife had jewelry made from the fangs of predators. Other pits contained finished tools, such as well-processed spearheads. It is not without interest that the figurines of women were deliberately broken. Archaeologists, comparing the available materials, came to the following conclusion: the settlement of Kostenki was abandoned by the owners shortly before the arrival of the enemies. The invaders, having discovered the figurines, smashed them, thereby destroying, according to their belief, the possibility of procreation of their enemies.

Similar dwellings were later discovered in Dolni Vestovica (Czechoslovakia). The dwelling there, too, was slightly recessed into the ground, oval in plan, its length was 19 m, width 9 m. There were five hearths inside. Among the finds there are many flint tools, there are also tools made of bone, but the bone here was used mainly for jewelry. In Switzerland, similar structures were discovered in Schussenried. Everywhere, bones and skulls of large animals, mainly mammoths, served as building material for dwellings. In Gontsy (Ukraine), 27 skulls and 30 mammoth scapular bones were needed to build a dwelling. The frame of this house was formed by 30 tusks. But not all houses were built only from bones. There are traces of dwellings with a supporting structure of a series of wooden posts. They had a gable roof, and its frame was made using wooden slats.

In Czechoslovakia, at the sites of Tibava and Barka, archaeologists discovered traces of a number of pillars and supports, with the help of which, apparently, the sloping roof was supported. The walls of some dwellings of the noted era were sometimes made of rods and had the appearance of wattle fence. It is possible that their walls were covered with animal skins. The walls were supported by stone slabs, mammoth bones, and sometimes earth rollers.

To the south of the periglacial zone of Europe there was a second zone, which included the southern regions of Europe, North Africa, i.e. Mediterranean. During the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic era, the so-called Capsian culture, named after the discovered monument of this culture near the city of Gafsa (Kapsa) in Tunisia, was widespread in this area.

Along with hunting, gathering played an important role in the life of people in this zone. The main objects for this type of activity were edible shellfish and plants. The scale of consumption of mollusks, both river and sea, is eloquently indicated by accumulations of shells, often covering an area of ​​​​several hundred square meters. The thickness of the layer of shells reaches two to three meters, and in some places reaches five. The areas filled with animal bones (the result of hunting) and mollusk shells (the result of gathering) sometimes exceed 10 thousand square meters.

Unlike the population of the periglacial regions, who lived sedentary lives and knew how to build houses, the southerners led a nomadic lifestyle. Climatic conditions did not require them to build houses, and if necessary, they quickly built light shelter huts to shelter them from the sun, wind and rain. The presence of natural shelters such as caves and grottoes made it possible to temporarily use them. Tools were made mainly of stone; bone was almost never used. Only awls of the simplest type were made from it. In stone processing, the population of this second region lagged significantly behind the inhabitants of the periglacial regions. Thus, the carriers of the Capsian culture did not know the method of pressing retouching, did not know how to make points using double-sided processing, and they did not have laurel tips. But they knew how to produce small flint plates - microliths, which served as dart tips. Some scientists believe that microliths also served as arrowheads, which means that the bow as a weapon was known to the Capsians. Other composite tools were also created using microliths. The base of such tools was wooden or bone. Small flint plates that made up the blade were inserted into a specially made slot in the base.

Pieces of ostrich egg shells were used as material for jewelry. They were given a certain shape, a hole was drilled for stringing on a core, and the surface was covered with thin carved lines. There are known examples of such plates with geometric patterns or with realistic images of gazelles, ostriches and other animals. Stringed on sinew, these pieces made necklaces and bracelets. Drilled sea shells and animal vertebrae also served as decoration.

It is difficult to talk about the clothing of the inhabitants of Africa and the Middle East of those times, and it is unlikely that there was any, except for loincloths. We know much more about the clothing of the inhabitants of the southern regions of Europe. In grottoes located in the vicinity of Menton (Italy), archaeologists discovered burials of the Upper Paleolithic era. People were buried in clothes made of leather and decorated with sea shells sewn onto it; they wore bracelets made of the same shells on their hands, and necklaces on their chests. As in the Sungir burial ground, the corpses were sprinkled with red mineral paint. The position of the corpse is not always elongated; it can also be crouched. In the Grimaldi caves (Italy) two skeletons were discovered: one of a man and the other of an old woman. Both skeletons were placed on the site of the extinguished fire in a crouched position, and with them inventory in the form of tools, weapons, and jewelry.

The main features of the Capsian culture are found in the Late Paleolithic layers of settlements in Palestine, Iraq, Asia Minor, Transcaucasia, Crimea and parts of Central Asia. Some sites in Georgia, such as Mgvimevi and Devis Khvrel, are especially close to the Capsian culture. Everywhere in these areas, the basis of the economy was hunting and gathering. The Capsians did not build permanent artificial dwellings.

The third region includes the central and southern parts of the African continent. This area has been poorly studied to this day. One of the features of the development of cultures in this area is their almost complete absence of features similar to those of the neighboring Capsian culture. This is all the more interesting because there are no significant natural barriers between both areas. It should be noted that the cultures of the first region (the periglacial region of Central Europe) and South Africa had common features. These common features were that the people who lived in the south of the African continent had flint laurel-leaf tips processed using squeezing retouching, which are completely absent from the people of the Capsian culture

The most significant and studied culture of the third region is the Bambat culture. It got its name from the Bambat Cave in Southern Rhodesia. In addition to flint, the Bambat culture also used quartz crystals. When struck at a certain angle, this stone can produce flake plates that are not inferior in quality to flint ones. In economic life, hunting here played a greater role than gathering. Analysis of fire pits indicates a person’s prolonged stay in one place.

The fourth region includes the territories of Eastern Siberia, the central part of the Asian continent and China. Archaeological research in the basin of the Angara and Yenisei rivers showed that in the Upper Paleolithic era a person penetrated here who had significant cultural skills and was in many ways close to the culture of the population of the Russian Plain. This can be traced on the basis of archaeological materials obtained from a settlement discovered near the city of Irkutsk (this is the earliest period), as well as from the Buret site on the river. Hangar and the settlement of Malta on the river. Belaya (tributary of the Angara). The population living in these places hunted mammoth, reindeer, bull, and wild horse. Although gathering existed, it provided a small amount of food. Climatic conditions allowed for gathering only at certain times of the year, so it was seasonal. The inhabitants of Bureti, like the hunters of settlements in the periglacial regions of Europe, led a sedentary lifestyle and knew how to build dwellings. In plan, these dwellings looked like a rectangle with slightly rounded corners. The floor of the room is somewhat recessed into the ground. Along the edge of this depression, the femur and shoulder blade bones of the mammoth were buried in a vertical position. For better fastening, their lower part was wedged with smaller bones and limestone slabs. The supports supporting the roof were large mammoth bones and tree trunks. The roof covering was assembled from reindeer antlers. The entrance to the dwelling was a long narrow corridor, lined along the edges with symmetrically located mammoth femurs. The corridor had no ceiling. This entrance device protected the room from the cold. Inside the dwelling there were fireplaces from which accumulations of ash remained. Exactly the same dwellings were discovered at the Malta site.

The tools used by the people who lived in this area during the Upper Paleolithic era are reminiscent of Western European tools from the Mousterian era. here, a disc-shaped core and massive triangular-shaped plates, as well as pointed points of an archaic appearance, were widely used. The processing technique uses impact retouching. Along with this, the population of Central Asia also knew prismatic cores and a method for obtaining long knife-like plates with regular parallel edges from them. They also used miniature scrapers. The pointed tips of spears and darts had a shape similar to European laurel leaves.

In Europe during this period, composite tools had not yet been used, but archaeologists discovered them at the Siberian sites of Afontova Gora and Oshchurkovskaya. Unlike the tribes living in Europe, the tribes of the Asian continent, along with flint, gray and black stone, used quartzite, jasper slate, deposits of which are found on the banks of the Lena, Angara, and Yenisei rivers; in addition, bone was widely used to make tools. Harpoons, piercing awls, and needles for sewing clothes were made from it, and the shape and size of the needles remained almost unchanged. The bone was also used to make jewelry - necklaces, plates with ornaments made of solid holes, figurines of humans, animals, and birds. Examples of the jewelry art of the peoples of Siberia from the Upper Paleolithic era can be found in the objects discovered in the complex of a child’s burial discovered in Malta. This burial testifies to the complexity of the worldview of man of that time, which was expressed in the emergence of a funeral cult. The child's body was buried in a slot-shaped hole dug in the floor of the dwelling. The skeleton was sprinkled with red ocher. Around the neck of the deceased was worn a necklace of approximately 120 large flat beads and seven pendants. All pendants - six middle ones and one central one - are decorated with drills. Pendants in the form of birds, shaped like a flying swan or goose, and one square with rounded corners were also placed in the grave. All jewelry is made from mammoth ivory. In the grave pit there were weapons made of bone and stone. A small tombstone made of stone slabs was built over the grave.

The finds of human figurines made it possible to restore the type of clothing of that time. A.P. Okladnikov, based on archaeological data - figurines like the remarkable female image from the Buret site, made from mammoth ivory, believes that the clothing of that time was a warm suit made of fur, the length of which reached the ankles. On the head they wore a headdress in the form of a fur hood that folded back. The clothes were put on over the head, since there were no marks from longitudinal cuts on it, but for the harsh climate it was very comfortable. This clothing has survived almost unchanged among many peoples living in the Arctic regions to this day.

It should be noted that figurines of a man in clothing dating back to the Upper Paleolithic are very rare. More often there are images of a naked person. Some researchers believe that people of those times obviously stayed naked or semi-naked in their homes. Clothes were used outside the home.

At the end of the Upper Paleolithic era, another warming occurred, which in turn led to changes in flora and fauna. The mammoth and woolly rhinoceros disappear, the deer becomes the main object of hunting, and since it is a nomadic animal, the nature of human settlements also changes. From a sedentary resident, he again becomes a nomad. Permanent housing was replaced by a lightweight, quickly assembled and disassembled round tent. Its frame is made of light wooden poles, covered on the outside with animal skins; in the center there is a fireplace. This type of housing has existed to this day among peoples living in the north and engaged in reindeer herding.

The above examples indicate the uniqueness of the cultural development of people who lived in North and Central Asia during the Upper Paleolithic. To the mentioned settlements you can add settlements on the river. Chusovoy (Ural), in Altai, in Northern Kazakhstan, in the area of ​​the upper reaches of the river. Irtysh, in the basins of the Toly and Orkhon rivers (Mongolia), Zhoutunku sites, located in a large bend of the river. Yellow River (China), etc. In terms of their material, they are close to those listed above.

The fifth area of ​​cultural development in the Upper Paleolithic era is the region of Southeast Asia. The inhabitants of this part of the Asian continent, like their northern brethren, knew chopping tools. The technique for making them is exactly the same as that used by the population of Malta, Bureti, etc. Many stone tools of this era are made of broken pebbles and roughly sharpened. These tools are original prototypes of axes and adzes of later times. Bone artifacts are found, but in small quantities.

The source of life was hunting and gathering. The latter could be even more important, since the tropical forest could supply humans with plant food all year round. This is what forced a person to lead a wandering lifestyle. On the other hand, an impenetrable tropical forest with a mass of strong predators and poisonous snakes limited the area of ​​nomads, which were located mainly on the edges, banks of rivers, lakes and on the coastal strip, which also had an impact on human economic activity. Although there is evidence of human hunting for elephants, rhinoceros and other smaller animals, his main food was edible plants, shellfish, turtles, and fish.

For housing, in addition to huts - temporary shelters, people also used numerous caves, which they often left, but invariably returned to. It is possible that he used the caves during the tropical rainy season. Such cave settlements include the sites of Bak Son and Hoa Bin. The first is located in the north, and the second in the south of Vietnam.

The inhabitants of the Zhoukoudian grotto (a region of Beijing, China) are close in lifestyle to the people of Southeast Asia. Natural conditions allowed the people of this area to engage in gathering, for which all they needed was a stick sharpened by fire, a stone chopper, and rough stone chips. The lack of development of hunting is evidenced by the minimal number of bones of small animals such as gophers found in settlements. The favorable climatic conditions of this area did not contribute to the development of people's skills in the construction of artificial dwellings, and the availability of food products obtained through gathering delayed the development of hunting.

The Upper Paleolithic era was marked by the penetration of man into the American continent. The issues surrounding the initial settlement of a new continent have long been controversial. Of these, the most controversial questions were when and how this happened. Man entered America through a passage located at the narrowest point of the Bering Strait. The width of the latter in the narrowest test is now just over 80 km. It should be noted that almost in the middle between the Chukotka Peninsula and Alaska there is a chain of islands of the Big and Little Diomedes, St. Lawrence and Ratmanov. It is also important that the depth of the ocean does not exceed 58 m (this is the deepest place, and on average it is 45 m), so scientists believe that when, due to the onset of glaciations on the globe, the level of the World Ocean dropped, between Asia and America formed an isthmus of considerable size, the so-called Beringia.

The oldest finds in the United States date back to about 12 thousand years ago. These are arrowheads that have one common characteristic feature: along both sides of their blades there is a deep longitudinal groove running from the base almost to the tip of the point. One of the first tips of this type was found in 1926 near Folsom in New Mexico.

In 1937, in one of the caves in the Sandia Mountains, archaeologist Frank Hibben found spearheads that were more crudely made, with a notch made only on one side - this tool was more ancient than the Folsom tips.

In the cave, as well as at other sites belonging to this culture, fragments of flint, burnt bones and roughly sharpened pieces of animal bones are found near hearths lined with stone.

Based on geological and stratigraphic data and radiocarbon analysis, it can be assumed that the tribes that created this culture lived about 22-25 thousand years ago. The basis of the economy was hunting, and these tribes led a wandering lifestyle. Mostly, the bearers of the Sandia culture lived in the western part of the United States (individual finds of stone tools are also found in more northern areas). The descendants of hunters gradually mastered the entire territory of North America and created a number of new cultures: Clovis, Stolsom, Elanview, etc. Hunting continued to be the basis of the economy of the bearers of these cultures, although in more southern regions gathering was already a significant help in people's lives. In terms of changes in the shape of hunting tools, it should perhaps only be noted that in the Folsom type tips, the petiole base had two protrusions and a notch, shaped like a fish tail.

Following the herds of animals, man gradually begins to explore new territories: first in North America, and then in South America. The complete development of these vast territories required the effort of almost 600 generations of people, i.e. about 18 thousand years (we take 30 years for the average human life expectancy). If the most ancient human sites in North America date back to 23 thousand years BC. e., then in Patagonia, located almost 13 thousand km to the south, the most ancient monuments of human presence there date back to 5 thousand years BC. e.

Finds of spearheads and darts in the lower layers of the Paglia Atke and Fell caves in Patagonia, made according to the Clovis and Folsom type, indicate that these areas were developed by people from North America, and not by peoples who arrived there from other areas, for example from the islands Indian Ocean, as some ethnographers claim (it is possible that later some representatives of the Pacific Islands moved to America).

Moving along this path, a person crossed areas with different geographical and climatic conditions and, settling in place, adapted to them, in some places engaging in hunting and fishing, in others using the abundance of wild cereals, fruits, vegetables, root crops, moving on to gathering, and later - to agriculture.

Man found the most favorable conditions for existence in the regions of Central America, and especially in the central part of Mexico, where a mild climate, vast spaces occupied by grasses, comfortable pastures in mountain valleys, many lakes and rivers - all contributed to the development of hunting and fishing. The largest representatives of the fauna here were mammoths. The abundance of plants contributed first to the development of gathering, and subsequently to the emergence of agriculture. Man mastered the regions of Central America around the 15th-12th millennium BC. e. In the town of Santa Isabel Iztapan, a complete skeleton of a mammoth and a set of hunting weapons in the form of flint spearheads and darts, similar in type to the tools of the Clovis and Folsom cultures, were discovered.

Approximately until the 8th millennium BC. e. On the territory of the American continent, people were engaged in hunting and gathering. At the end of the VII millennium BC. e. Quite dramatic changes in climate are occurring around the globe. In Africa, in the Sahara region, at this time the rivers dry up and vegetation disappears; the same thing happens in the regions of Central America. The climate is becoming drier and warmer. Lush vegetation and lush meadows disappear, and savannas turn into arid steppes and semi-deserts. The lack of moisture-loving vegetation leads to the death of mammoth, mastodon, bison, and wild horse. Some animals go north. Hunting is losing its exceptional importance. Gatherers also experience no less difficulty, but the skills and knowledge acquired during gathering made it possible to begin primitive agriculture on the ocean coast and on the banks of preserved rivers and lakes, and, as an aid to agriculture, to maintain hunting for small animals (since there were no longer large ones) ) and poultry, fishing and collecting river and sea shellfish. It was in the regions of Central America, based on agriculture, that the greatest cultures of the peoples of the American continent later arose.

The tribes that inhabited North America, with the exception of the southern states, were engaged in hunting before the arrival of Europeans there. In the Arctic regions, it was carried out mainly on sea animals: seal, walrus, whale, as well as bear and arctic fox. The main type of hunting weapon was a dart thrown with a spear thrower and a harpoon with a movable tip. Fish were caught using bone hooks. For hunting sea animals and fishing, a boat has long been used, the wooden frame of which was covered with walrus or seal skin. Stone and bone served as materials for the production of tools and weapons. Animals, both sea and land, provided the people of this region with everything necessary for life: fat, meat, bones for the frame of dwellings and skins for covering it and for clothing. The meat was consumed raw, which was probably caused by purely practical considerations - to prevent vitamin deficiency - scurvy.

Tribes lived on the northwestern coast of North America, mainly engaged in fishing, as well as collecting wild berries and fruits. In the forest zone of Canada lived tribes of hunters armed with bows and arrows and spears (all types of weapons and tools - axes, knives, etc. - were made of stone and bone). They hunted mainly deer, elk, bear, and wild boar. In addition to hunting, the population collected wild seeds, fruits, nuts, etc. and led a nomadic lifestyle.

It should be noted that North and South America, from the point of view of archaeology, are still far from being studied, but based on the archaeological data available today, one can judge that the basis of the economy was hunting and fishing, only in some places did it flourish gathering.

Questions for self-control:

1. What human species appears in the Upper Paleolithic era?
2. What are the main zones of Upper Paleolithic cultures?
3. What type of economy and related activities predominated in the Upper Paleolithic?
4. What are the reasons for the differences in the economic and tool complex in various Upper Paleolithic cultures?
5. Why did clothing begin to be used everywhere in the Upper Paleolithic era?

Lecture 8 Mesolithic

Climate warming, which caused rapid melting of the glacier, marked the end of the Paleolithic, which lasted hundreds of thousands of years. A new era has begun - the Mesolithic, which was inferior to the previous period in terms of duration of existence, but in terms of the pace of development in economic and other areas of human life, it marked a new, more significant step forward.
The beginning of the Mesolithic is characterized by the almost universal distribution of microliths, bows and arrows. F. Engels in his work “The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State” notes this event as follows: “a bow, a bowstring and an arrow constitute a very complex weapon, the invention of which requires long-term accumulated experience and more developed mental abilities, therefore, simultaneous acquaintance with many other inventions."

A bow as a hunter's weapon is more effective than a spear with a throwing board; it could be used to hunt any animal. The presence of a bow allowed man to hunt alone. Drive hunting, which required a large group of people, although it continued to be used, gradually lost its role, which was so significant in the Paleolithic era. The invention of the onion and its widespread use was caused by a number of circumstances. Thus, warming and a fairly rapid retreat of the glacier (in the area of ​​the Karelian Isthmus, this speed was approximately 160 m per year) led to another change in the fauna and flora. During the Mesolithic era, there were no longer mammoths or woolly rhinoceros, and the numbers of many game animals had decreased so much that they could be considered extinct. This happened, for example, with the musk ox. The fauna has become impoverished as a result of the disappearance of the largest representatives of the animal world. Much of Europe was covered with dense forests. The remaining animals and those that came from more southern regions were smaller in size, fleet-footed, and cautious. Many species of animals were not gregarious (for example, moose), other animals (deer, roe deer) live in small groups, and when danger approaches, they scatter in all directions. Hunting for them is possible only with the help of a bow, which allows you to achieve the greatest accuracy and speed in shooting. The use of the bow, the beginnings of which can be traced back to the Capsian culture (Upper Paleolithic), not only contributed to the further development and facilitation of hunting, but also made it possible for a person to provide himself and the members of his clan group with the necessary daily amount of meat food, and from the surplus to prepare food supplies for himself in in the form of meat smoked in the smoke of a fire and dried in the sun.

With the help of the bow, man was able to move on to a new type of preservation of meat food, that is, keeping lightly wounded animals in pens, which were killed if the hunt was unsuccessful. Such keeping of animals was convenient and did not require much time and labor; in addition, it was the impetus for a new type of farming - cattle breeding. It will still be a long time before man learns to raise livestock, but the beginnings of cattle breeding were laid in the Mesolithic. At this time, the first pet appears - a dog. In the Upper Paleolithic era, its traces are found only in some areas of China, and in the Mesolithic, bone remains of a dog are found at the sites of many Mesolithic sites. The domestication of the dog apparently occurred both for the purpose of using it for food, as some scientists believe, and for the purpose of obtaining an assistant in hunting (for example, waterfowl).

Simultaneously with the appearance of the first signs of cattle breeding, the Mesolithic time was also marked by signs of the emergence of another no less important form of farming - agriculture, the starting point for which was gathering. It was possible to collect not only edible shellfish, tree fruits, mushrooms, berries, edible root vegetables, but also grains of wild cereals. Grain collection in the Mesolithic era probably reached a large scale, otherwise it is difficult to explain the appearance of special harvesting knives at this time. Such a knife: found at a Mesolithic site in Kabardino-Balkaria (Caucasus). Composite tools were also used to collect cereals, which later served as the prototype of the sickle. The processing of grain is also evidenced by numerous grain grinders discovered in the Nebit-Daga cave (Central Asia). Fishing played no less importance in the life of people of Mesolithic times. Thus, the Mesolithic is characterized by the initial stages of completely new forms of farming.

For a long time, the Mesolithic was not identified by scientists as an independent era. It was believed that the Paleolithic gave way directly to the Neolithic. Only at the end of the 19th century, when the first Mesolithic sites were discovered, was the previously existing gap in the study of human history filled. Currently, this era is most fully studied from the monuments of Europe.

A common feature remains the abundance of small stone microlithic tools found at all Mesolithic sites. Some microliths were used as arrowheads, which had the shape of a triangle and a bay leaf; some arrowheads were made like a handle, i.e. they were close to the classical shape of an arrow. Microliths were also used as inserts, i.e. they were the cutting part of composite tools. The abundance of microliths at all Mesolithic sites indicates their dominance over all other tools used by man of that time. The method of obtaining microlithic tools was to split off plates 1-2 cm in size from the core using a bone squeezer. Their shape is strictly geometric - these are triangles, rhombuses, segments, the latter were used mainly as inserts. Composite tools with inserts are a big step forward in the history of technology development. The experience accumulated over many tens of thousands of years in the processing of stone tools allowed the master to make a fairly large and sharp tool such as a knife, but this tool required very skillful handling, because the slightest careless movement of the maker or the person working with it led to breakage, which was impossible to fix. A different matter is a weapon with microlith inserts. The base of such tools was made of wood and bone. This base could be given any shape. Individual microlithic plates, constituting the working blade of the tool, were inserted into a specially made slotted recess with their pointed part facing outward. Microlithic inserts made of flint or other types of stone during the Mesolithic era have been identified throughout Europe, Central Asia, India, Australia and Africa, where they were found during the Capsian culture.

In addition to microliths, Mesolithic people also used large stone tools - macroliths. These include adzes (tools for working wood) and numerous axes made of both stone and bone. These chopping tools were often secured in special couplings made of bone or horn. An ax of the lyngby type was made from the antlers of deer and elk. Its handle served as the trunk of the horn, and one, rarely two processes served as clinics. The appearance of two new types of military hunting weapons also dates back to the Mesolithic era. Thus, in North Africa, especially in the region of Egypt, as well as in the southern part of India, Mexico and Australia, the boomerang, one of the types of so-called throwing clubs, was used relatively widely, and in Europe and Central Asia to a much lesser extent. The flight range of non-returning boomerangs, depending on the force of the throw and the weight of the gun, reaches 130-180 m. Returning boomerangs are known as a hunting weapon only to Australians.

A boomerang is a curved wooden plate about 1 cm thick. One surface is flat, and the other (the lower one when thrown) is convex. In tropical areas, people also used the so-called blowgun, with the help of which they hunted mainly birds; it was rarely used as a military weapon. The blowgun is a long (1.5 to 3 m) tube made from a reed-type plant. Miniature arrows, most often wooden, but always poisoned with plant poison, are blown from a tube. As ethnographers testify, an experienced hunter can send an arrow 30-40 m in this way. According to some information, some peoples of Western Siberia and the Urals knew this gun. Blowguns were widely used by the Iroquois (North America). Currently, it is used on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo; this weapon is also known on the Malacca Peninsula and in the tropical regions of South America.

The retreating glacier gradually left more and more parts of the land, where various kinds of animals rushed, and after them came man. Thus, the Mesolithic also marked the re-population of new territories by humans. It was possible to reconstruct not only the time of glacier retreat from one or another area, but also the time of human appearance there. Thus, the territory of the Karelian Isthmus was freed from the glacier 12,400 years ago, and after 400 years, traces of human habitation appeared there.

200 years after the glacier left the area of ​​the present city of Hamburg (Germany), when its remains still lay in the ravines, man had already established his camp there near the modern village of Meyendorf. The people who inhabited the lands freed from the glacier were hunting. The main game animals were deer, wild horse, wild bull aurochs and smaller animals - hare, fox, badger. On many rivers, lakes, and swamps left by the glacier, people hunted birds using a bow and arrow and a harpoon, the tips of which were found by archaeologists among the bones of a deer. Hunting for it was so important for the Meyendorf inhabitants that in the visual arts this animal was the only character. Another Mesolithic site, Shtelmoor, was discovered 600 m from the Meyendorf site. Its inhabitants lived a little later - between the 10th and 8th millennia BC. e. By this time, the Hamburg region had transformed from forest-tundra into an area of ​​mixed birch-pine forest, and now the main game animal here, in addition to the remaining reindeer, was the elk, and the fur-bearing animal was the beaver. There were apparently still a lot of reindeer at that time, because up to 1,300 antlers were found at one site. The oldest fragments of a bow and arrow in Europe were found at the Shtelmoor site.

On the territory of modern Poland, the Mesolithic is better traced at the site, which is located on the river. Swidere (20 km southeast of Warsaw). The inhabitants of this settlement were hunting. Thousands of arrows, cutters, and piercings were made from flint, reminiscent in appearance of Paleolithic products, but the technology for their processing was much higher than in the previous era. The arrowheads are symmetrical and resemble a willow leaf in appearance. The Swider culture (the Mesolithic culture of Poland) brought to us in addition to a series of sites, of which the most famous are the sites near the villages of Velishevo, Stavinoch, Wistka Shlyakhetska, and burials of the Mesolithic era. In 1937, K. Yazhdzhevsky near the village. Jani Slavica of the Skierniewice region discovered the burial. Flint tools and other objects, more than 40 in total, made of bone and horn were found near the skeleton. Of greatest interest are stiletto points made from the shoulder blades of a wild aurochs, knife-scrapers made from boar tusks, pendant-decorations made from deer teeth, and a small hoe made from elk antler.

Mesolithic sites in southern and middle Scandinavia and northern England are characterized by the Maglemose culture. The most famous are the sites on the island. Zealand: Kholmogora, Sverdborg, some sites in Denmark and Southern Sweden. Some sites in Estonia are close to this culture, for example, the Kunda site.

The life of the carriers of the Maglemoz culture was based on hunting and fishing. All known human settlements of this culture are located along the banks of rivers and lakes. When hunting with a bow, they caught bison, elk, red deer, brown bear, wild boar, roe deer and other smaller forest animals. Of no less importance was hunting for waterfowl, for which darts and nets were used. The dead bird was most likely retrieved from the water by a dog, whose abilities had already been assessed by man. Fishing was also important. They hit the fish with a harpoon, a three-pronged spear, and, undoubtedly, they also used a bow and arrows. Fishermen of the Mesolithic era knew pins, tops and nets. The tops were woven from willow and willow twigs. The shape and structure of the top have not changed and have survived to this day. Some fragments of it for catching medium and small fish are found at Mesolithic sites in Scandinavia. The nets were woven from willow bark fibers; dried nettle fibers could also be used for the same purpose. The floats were made of bark, and the sinkers were made of stone. A fragment of such a network was discovered in one of the peat bogs near the city of Vyborg.

Waterfowl hunting and fishing created an urgent need for the invention of a means of transportation on water. In Perth (Scotland), in the sediment of one of the lakes, archaeologists found a boat burned out of Scottish spruce. Its stern and bow parts were slightly pointed. On such boats, people had not yet ventured far from the shore and were unlikely to use the boat at sea. In one of the peat bogs on the island. Zealand, oars were discovered in the Mesolithic layer. On the territory of the Baltic States, sites culturally close to Maglemosis sufficiently indicate that fishing and waterfowl hunting significantly prevailed over animal hunting. Thus, at the Kunda site (Estonia), the number of bones of waterfowl sharply exceeds those of land animals. The people of Kunda established a settlement on the island. Boats were used for crossing. The most common find during the study of the settlement was a bone harpoon, which indicates a developed fishing industry.

The art of Maglemose culture is unique. At this time, an ornament appears on some types of tools, which consists of dimples and scratched wavy lines. Images of animals are less common; sculptural images also appear, most often of fish, snakes, frogs, and very rarely of deer and people. Images of humans are also rare and highly stylized. Amber was used for jewelry in the form of oval plates and beads.

The Mesolithic of the southern regions of Europe differs from the northern ones. A significant role in this was played by the fact that the southern regions did not experience such sharp temperature fluctuations as the northern ones. Therefore, the nature of the southern regions has not undergone drastic changes.

The most significant culture of the early Mesolithic era of southern Europe was the Azilian. It got its name from finds in the Mas d'Azil cave in the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains in France. The Azilians, like their predecessors in the Paleolithic, continued to live in caves. The basis of their life was hunting red deer, wild boar, beaver, and ram. a less important role was played by gathering, especially of edible mollusks, among which the forest snail occupied the first place. In the production of stone tools, the Azilians followed the path common to the Mesolithic era, that is, along the path of increasing the assortment of small tools. They were used, but to a lesser extent, macrolithic tools. In the manufacture of bone tools among the Azilians, there is a noticeable shift towards increasing their size, massiveness and roughness in processing technology. This is explained by the following: the strength of red deer antler is significantly inferior to the antler of reindeer, which does not have a loose spongy core, and can be processed to any depth, while red deer antler can be processed shallowly, only within the thickness of the outer crust (no more than 4-5 mm). This forced the craftsman to subject the deer antler to only minor processing.

One of the interesting features of the Azilian culture is the obligatory presence of piles of painted pebbles at cave sites. Painting, most often in the form of an ornament, was applied to the surface of the stones with red paint mixed with fat. Pebbles of a grayish or whitish color were chosen for coloring. In addition to the ornamental design, there are figurines of people and animals, made in schematic form. The French scientist E. Piette sees signs of ancient writing in Azilian painted pebbles. Domestic scientist S.A. Tokarev, speaking about these pebbles, makes the following assumption: “The analogy of the Azil pebbles is much more likely not with written signs, but with the so-called churingas of modern Australians, stone and wooden sacred tablets, totemic emblems, which are covered with symbolic drawings , in part they are very reminiscent of the drawings on Azilian pebbles. This comparison suggests the presence of totemic beliefs in the Azilian era." The hypothesis put forward by S.A. Tokarev can also be confirmed by the fact that part of the pebbles was deliberately split. The aborigines of Australia, seeking revenge on the enemy, destroy his churinga; something similar was noted when describing the female figurines in Kostenki-1. Archaeologists encountered painted pebbles at Azilian sites in France, in the Rista Cave in Spain, at the Mesolithic sites of Crimean Yalta (plateau of the Crimean Mountains), in Bierseck (Switzerland). In Birzeke, out of 225 pebbles discovered, 120 have preserved signs. Painted pebbles lay in piles (nests), many of the pebbles were broken.

The different forms of burials also indicate that the Azilians have beliefs. Thus, in the Gross Offnet cave in Bavaria, in two pits, archaeologists found 33 skulls, of which 20 were children’s, 9 women’s and 4 men’s. All the skulls were arranged in order: those placed in the center were more ancient than the skulls located on the edge. This indicates burial at different times. Women's and children's skulls were decorated with deer tusks and drilled shells. A similar burial was found in the Zamil-Koba grotto (Crimea), the skull found there was decorated with the teeth of predatory fish. Another burial was found in the Cold Grotto in Abkhazia, where the skulls were thickly sprinkled with red ocher. Group burials in the Mesolithic are found in North Africa and Portugal. Traces of Azilian culture are found in Central Asia and the British Isles.

The Azilian culture was replaced by the Tardenoise culture, named after the site of Fère-en-Tardenois (France), where its traces were first found. These cultures have many common features, so some scientists consider them to be one - Azilian-Tardenoise. But, despite the similarities between them, there are still differences. The first is that the flint products of this culture became smaller in size, in addition, the Tardenoise hunters and fishermen led a more sedentary life than their Azilian predecessors.

The most striking expression of the signs of the Tardenoise culture are found in the Mugem region (a suburb of Lisbon). This area is located on the banks of the river. Temu (Tahoe) 25 km from its confluence with the Atlantic Ocean. The staple food of the inhabitants of this area was edible shellfish, the accumulation of shells of which is unparalleled. The hill formed from shells, known as Cabezo d'Arruda, has a length of 100 m, a width of -60 m, and in places reaches a height of 7 m. It is interesting to note that the shells do not belong to river mollusks, but to sea mollusks. Consequently, people used food resources of the ocean. In addition to collecting sea shellfish, the population of this area was intensively engaged in hunting, as evidenced by the finds of bones of red deer, bull, wild boar, birds, as well as fishing. A significant layer of ash and ash in the hearths of the dwellings suggests a predominantly sedentary lifestyle. built in the form of semi-dugouts. In non-coastal areas, the dwellings of the Tardenoisians had the form of semi-dugouts, having an oval shape in plan. The depth of the semi-dugouts was from 50 to 75 cm. The edges were lined with sandstone slabs.

This type of dwelling was built in the Tardenoise settlement near the village. Ansbach (district: Nuremberg). The tools found in this area are mainly made of stone; very few items made of bone are found.

A comparison of monuments of Tardenoise culture found in England, Portugal, Crimea and other places made it possible to derive the following pattern: if these monuments were located on the ocean or sea coast, then the inhabitants of these places led a seasonal lifestyle. In summer they went to the coastal mountains, and in winter they went down to the sea. The reason for this change of residence, apparently, was that in the summer, when the mountain pastures and forests were covered with lush vegetation, the animals went there, and people followed them. In winter, to escape the cold and possible lack of food, animals descended from the mountains to the coastal strip, heated by warm sea currents.

The Tardenoise burials resemble those of the Upper Paleolithic in appearance. Dead relatives were often buried at the clan's habitat - in a cave, grotto. The corpse was placed in a special recess and covered with red ocher (bloodstone). Such are the burials in the Crimean caves of Fatma-Koba, Murzak-Koba, etc. There are group burials, but not in a common pit, like among the Azilians, but in separate graves, which indicates the appearance of burial grounds, i.e., one place where burial takes place a member of a clan, and possibly a tribe. Necropolises of that time numbered from several dozen to several hundred graves. The bones in the grave pits lie in a crouched or extended position. In some burial grounds there are mainly female and children's burials, in others the overwhelming majority are male. These include the burial ground of Fr. Tevyeka (France). The bones of the buried are crumpled and thickly sprinkled with red ochre. Each bone was placed in a separate burial pit. One of the burials is of particular interest. Archaeologists discovered two deer antlers above the head of the buried man. This is probably the burial of a sorcerer (in the cave of the Three Brothers (Spain) there is an image of a dancing man with a headdress made of deer antlers).

Another type of Mesolithic burial ground was discovered by archaeologists near the village. Vasilyevka, Dnepropetrovsk region. D. A. Avdusin gives the following description of it: “The burials were made without grave pits on the site of a specially dug recess common to the entire burial ground. A small mound was erected over each deceased. The dead were buried with their heads at sunrise. The bones are so twisted that one might think that the dead were tied up. A heavy stone was placed on one of these burials. All this, apparently, was caused by fear of the dead. The flint implements are very poor - a few typically Mesolithic arrows and scrapers, in addition, river shells - perhaps the remains of food given to the dead. There are few female burials in these burial grounds (near the village of Vasilyevka, three burial grounds have been explored; two of them date back to the Neolithic era). Scientists think that the environment of the tribe that left these burial grounds was hostile, and armed clashes were frequent. Arrowheads were found on one of the buried people, which were probably used to kill him.”

The increase in the growth of members of clans and tribes led to the separation from them of groups of people who went to new, less populated areas or areas completely undeveloped by humans. This kind of relocation in Europe and Asia took place in the northern and northeastern regions, and in Africa, on the contrary, - from North to South. For the American continent, the Mesolithic period is the time of human exploration of the territory of North America; the islands of Oceania and Australia were also developed.

Questions for self-control:

1. What is the progressive role of the bow and arrow?
2. What did the retreat of the glacier mean for the development of the economy?
3. Why did it become possible to develop the entire territory of the earth?
4. Main characteristics of the era.

The cultural history of man is usually divided into two large eras: the culture of primitive society and the culture of the era of civilization. The era of primitive society covers most of human history. The most ancient civilizations arose only 5 thousand years ago. The primitive era mainly occurs in stone Age- the period when the main tools were made of stone . Therefore, the cultural history of primitive society is most easily divided into periods based on an analysis of changes in the technology of making stone tools. The Stone Age is divided into:

●Paleolithic (ancient stone) – from 2 million years to 10 thousand years BC. e.

●Mesolithic (Middle Stone) – from 10 thousand to 6 thousand years BC. e.

●Neolithic (new stone) – from 6 thousand to 2 thousand years BC. e.

In the second millennium BC, metals replaced stone and put an end to the Stone Age.

General characteristics of the Stone Age

The first period of the Stone Age is the Paleolithic, within which there are early, middle and late periods.

Early Paleolithic ( until the turn of 100 thousand years BC. BC) is the era of the archanthropes. Material culture developed very slowly. It took more than a million years to move from roughly hewn pebbles to axes with smooth edges on both sides. Approximately 700 thousand years ago, the process of mastering fire began: people support fire obtained naturally (as a result of lightning strikes, fires). The main types of activity are hunting and gathering, the main type of weapon is a club and a spear. Archanthropes master natural shelters (caves), build huts from twigs that cover stone boulders (southern France, 400 thousand years).

Middle Paleolithic– covers the period from 100 thousand to 40 thousand years BC. e. This is the era of the paleoanthropus-Neanderthal. Harsh time. Icing of large parts of Europe, North America and Asia. Many heat-loving animals became extinct. Difficulties stimulated cultural progress. Hunting means and techniques are being improved (round-up hunting, drives). A wide variety of axes are created, and thin plates chipped from the core and processed - scrapers - are also used. With the help of scrapers, people began to make warm clothes from animal skins. Learned how to make fire by drilling. Intentional burials date back to this era. Often the deceased was buried in the form of a sleeping person: arms bent at the elbow, near the face, legs bent. Household items appear in graves. This means that some ideas about life after death have appeared.

Late (Upper) Paleolithic– covers the period from 40 thousand to 10 thousand years BC. e. This is the era of the Cro-Magnon man. Cro-Magnons lived in large groups. Stone processing technology has grown: stone plates are sawed and drilled. Bone tips are widely used. A spear thrower appeared - a board with a hook on which a dart was placed. Many bone needles have been found for sewing clothes. The houses are half-dugouts with a frame made of branches and even animal bones. The norm became the burial of the dead, who were given a supply of food, clothing and tools, which spoke of clear ideas about the afterlife. During the Late Paleolithic period, art and religion- two important forms of social life, closely related to each other.

Mesolithic, Middle Stone Age (10th – 6th millennium BC). In the Mesolithic, bows and arrows, microlithic tools appeared, and the dog was domesticated. The periodization of the Mesolithic is conditional, because in different areas of the world development processes occur at different speeds. Thus, in the Middle East, already from 8 thousand, the transition to agriculture and cattle breeding began, which constitutes the essence of the new stage - the Neolithic.

Neolithic, New Stone Age (6–2 thousand BC). There is a transition from an appropriating economy (gathering, hunting) to a producing economy (farming, cattle breeding). In the Neolithic era, stone tools were polished, drilled, pottery, spinning, and weaving appeared. In the 4th–3rd millennia, the first civilizations emerged in a number of areas of the world.

Primitive art: functions and forms

Art in the original meaning of the word means a high degree of skill in any activity. In the 19th century the term "art" came to be used to refer only to creative activity aimed at creating artistic images, i.e. images that can make a strong aesthetic impression on people. The term “aesthetics” comes from the Greek aisthetikos - “sensual” and is associated with the feeling of beauty, beauty.

Ancient philosophers associated beauty with usefulness and expediency, with good. This is how the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates called beautiful a shield well adapted for protection, a spear adapted for an accurate throw, etc. However, beauty cannot be explained only by adaptability and usefulness. This was understood by Aristotle, who explained beauty and how harmony in device and forms. Aristotle was sure that “nature strives for beauty,” for purposeful harmony.

Every person’s sense of beauty is born from observing nature and its creations: a beautiful landscape, sunrise or sunset, a beautiful flower, etc. These impressions formed the concept of beauty as such a harmonious combination of sounds, colors, shapes, proportions that evoked strong positive emotions in a person. Thus, first man saw beauty in nature, and then sought to create it himself.

About art of primitive society we can judge from the visual arts (sculpture and painting), since almost no traces remain of music and dance, although they existed and played an important role.

For primitive man, the creation of beauty was not the main task. He created vivid images to explore the world around him. And in the future, the tasks of art were never reduced only to creating beauty. Its functions are much wider: art is a way of understanding the world through artistic images.

Among the works of primitive fine art, two images dominate. The first and main one is the image of an animal, mainly a large one, associated with the theme of getting food. The second is the image of a woman-mother, associated with the theme of procreation.

The primacy of the image of a large animal is clear. Hunting large animals and defending against large predators were the most emotionally powerful acts of human activity. And man sought to master these emotions and adapt to them. Therefore, art developed primarily as an element of hunting of magic. Hunters created images for rituals aimed at subjugating the objects of the hunt. The image (model) of the animal was made of clay or stones, and its outline was also drawn on the wall. At first the outline was very general. For example, animals in profile were most often depicted with only two legs. Then the drawing became more and more accurate. Clay models and paintings in the open air could not exist for a long time. Only what was in the caves has reached us.

The most perfect drawings were found in caves in the foothills of the Pyrenees, separating France and Spain. In 40 caves, paintings made with paint or scratched with stone 20–10 thousand years ago were found. The most famous cave in Lascaux (France) is called the prehistoric Sistine Chapel. It contains a hall of giant bulls painted in red, black and yellow ochre. In the axial passage there is a picturesque group of cows and horses painted in red paint. A mysterious composition: a bison wounded by a man with a bird's beak, and a rhinoceros leaving the scene of the tragedy.

A number of caves with drawings from the Upper Paleolithic era were found in Italy, Georgia, Mongolia, and the Urals (Kapovaya Cave). The presence of fundamentally similar forms of art in Europe and Asia shows that the process of development of artistic creativity of mankind was basically the same.

In addition to large rock paintings, people during this period created small sculptures (figures of animals carved from bone, wood, stone), and small drawings scratched on stone and bone. The widespread practice of making animal figurines indicated that people wanted to have their images regardless of practical activities. A small figurine of a deer is not an object for hunting magic. She is a memory and a symbol of the big real world. The man wanted to have this image at hand. This means that it gave him emotional satisfaction and, therefore, had aesthetic significance.

Animal images also predominate in small forms. But in small sculpture there is a lot anthropomorphic images These are predominantly female figurines, emphasizing the forms associated with childbirth and feeding. They also played an obvious applied function: they were associated with demographic magic aimed at preserving and procreating the race. The most famous is a figurine made of soft limestone 6 cm high, found in Austria in the town of Willendorf. She was named the Venus of Willendorf. Characteristically, there is no attempt to convey the woman’s face, since the artist created a generalized image, not an individual one.

decorative arts. Cro-Magnons widely used pendants, beads, and bracelets. Some of them had magical significance. For example, a hunter has a necklace made from the teeth of killed animals. But a woman’s string of white shells was also a decoration, because it emphasized the oval shape of her face, the darkness of her skin, etc. The first jewelry can also be considered the first purely aesthetic works of art.

From the Late Paleolithic there is evidence that man mastered and song and dance art. They are also associated with production magic, with rituals of preparation and completion of the hunt. For example, after a hunt, the main function of song and dance was to throw out excess emotions that arose during the dangerous hunt. It is easy to imagine the following picture: a large animal is killed, the danger has passed, people rejoice, jump around the animal, and scream. Gradually, the screams and jumps begin to coordinate and follow a certain rhythm. The rhythm is fixed by shock and noise effects. Screams acquire a common tonality: low tones for men and high tones for women. People understand that these actions provide emotional release and cultivate them. The development of intonation - the alternation of sounds of different tones - was facilitated by the imitation of the sounds of nature, especially birds and animals. Mastery of rhythm and intonation leads to the emergence of music, singing, and dancing. At Paleolithic sites, hollow bones were found - the first pipes and pipes. Gradually people realized that certain melodies and movements gave the greatest emotional satisfaction. This is how the natural selection of the best samples took place and the idea of ​​the canon of beauty was formed.

To summarize the above, let us draw some conclusions about the essence and functions of primitive art. Art was an element of industrial and demographic magic, and in this regard played an important role as a way of regulating and expressing people's emotions. It also had a decorative function, manifested in a person’s decoration of himself, household items and tools. Gradually, in the process of selecting the best examples, the aesthetic function of art as a way of creating beauty is strengthened.

Paleolithic

Early Paleolithic

About 2.588 million years ago, the Pleistocene began - the longest section of the Quaternary period of the geological history of the Earth, or rather its earliest part - the Gelazian stage. At this time, significant changes occurred both in the Earth's climate and in its biosphere. Another decrease in temperature led to a decrease in the evaporation of water from the ocean surface, as a result of which the forests of East Africa began to be replaced by savannas. Faced with a lack of traditional plant foods (fruits), the ancestors of modern humans began to look for more accessible food sources in the dry savannah.

It is believed that around the same time (2.5-2.6 million)

years ago) are the earliest, crudest and most primitive stone tools currently found, made by the ancestors of modern man. Although more recently, in May 2015, the journal Nature published the results of research and excavations in Lomekwi, where tools made by an as yet unidentified hominid were found, whose age is estimated at 3.3 million.

years. This is how the lower or early paleolithic– the most ancient part of the Paleolithic ( ancient stone age). In other regions of the planet, the production of stone tools (and, accordingly, the onset of the Paleolithic) began later. In western Asia it happened around 1.9 million.

years ago, in the Middle East - about 1.6 million years ago, in Southern Europe - about 1.2 million years ago, in Central Europe - less than a million years ago.

One of the species of australopithecus, Australopithecus garhi, was probably one of the first to make stone tools. His remains are approximately 2.6 million years old.

years were discovered only relatively recently, in 1996. Along with them, the most ancient stone tools were found, as well as animal bones with traces of processing with these tools.

About 2.33 million years ago, Homo habilis (lat. Homo habilis) appeared, possibly descended from Australopithecus gari.

MHC test (grade 10)

Adapting to the savannah climate, he included roots, tubers and animal meat in his diet in addition to traditional fruits. At the same time, the first people were content with the role of scavengers, scraping off the remains of meat from the skeletons of animals killed by predators with stone scrapers, and extracting bone marrow from bones split by stones. It was Habilis who created, developed and spread the Olduvai culture in Africa, which flourished between 2.4 and 1.7 million years ago.

years ago. At the same time as Homo habilis, there was another species - Rudolf man (lat. Homo rudolfensis), however, due to the extremely small number of finds, very little is known about him.

About 1.806 million

years ago, the next - Calabrian - stage of the Pleistocene began, and around the same time two new species of people appeared: the working man (Latin: Homo ergaster) and the upright man (Latin: Homo erectus). The most important change in the morphology of these species was a significant increase in brain size.

Homo erectus soon migrated from Africa and spread widely throughout Europe and Asia, moving from a scavenger role to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle that dominated the rest of the Paleolithic.

Along with erectus, the Olduvai culture also spread (in Europe, before Leakey’s discoveries, it was known as Chelles and Abbeville).

A man working in Africa soon created a more advanced Acheulian culture of stone processing, but it spread to Europe and the Middle East only after hundreds of thousands of years, and did not reach Southeast Asia at all. At the same time, in Europe, in parallel with the Acheulean, another culture arose - the Klektonian.

According to various estimates, it existed in a period of time from 300 to 600 thousand years ago and was named after the city of Clacton-on-Sea in Essex (Great Britain), near which corresponding stone tools were found in 1911. Similar instruments were later found in Kent and Suffolk.

The creator of these instruments was Homo erectus.

Approximately 781 thousand years ago, the Ionian stage of the Pleistocene began. At the beginning of this period, another new species appeared in Europe - Heidelberg man (lat. Homo heidelbergensis). He continued to lead a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and used stone tools belonging to the Acheulean culture, but somewhat more advanced.

Some time later - according to various estimates, from 600 to 350 thousand.

years ago - the first people appeared, with the features of a Neanderthal or proto-anderthal.

The first attempts by man to use fire date back to the Early Paleolithic. However, fairly reliable evidence of fire control dates back to the very end of this period - a time about 400 thousand years ago.

Middle Paleolithic

The Middle Paleolithic replaced the Early Paleolithic about 300 thousand years ago and lasted until about 30 thousand.

years ago (in different regions the time boundaries of the period may differ significantly). During this time, significant changes occurred in all spheres of life of primitive humanity, coinciding with the emergence of new species of people.

From the protoanderthals that arose at the end of the Early Paleolithic to the second half of the Middle Paleolithic (approximately 100-130 thousand)

years ago) the classic Neanderthal (lat. Homo neanderthalensis) was formed.

Neanderthals, who lived in small related groups, were able to perfectly adapt to the cold climate during the last ice age and populated large areas of Europe and Asia that were not covered with ice. Survival in harsh climates was made possible by a number of changes in the lives of these ancient people. They created and developed the Mousterian culture, which used Levallois techniques for stone processing and was the most progressive throughout most of the Middle Paleolithic.

The improvement of hunting weapons (spears with stone tips) and a high level of interaction with their fellow tribesmen allowed Neanderthals to successfully hunt the largest land mammals (mammoths, bison, etc.), whose meat formed the basis of their diet.

The invention of the harpoon made it possible to successfully catch fish, which became an important source of food in coastal areas. To protect themselves from the cold and predators, Neanderthals used shelter in caves and fire, and they also cooked food on fire.

To preserve meat for future use, they began to smoke and dry it. An exchange with other groups of valuable raw materials (ochre, rare high-quality stone for making tools, etc.) that were unavailable in the area in which one or another group lived was developed.

Archaeological evidence and comparative ethnography studies indicate that Middle Paleolithic people lived in egalitarian (egalitarian) societies.

Equal distribution of food resources avoided starvation and increased the community's chances of survival. Members of the group took care of injured, sick and old fellow tribesmen, as evidenced by remains with traces of healed injuries and at a considerable age (of course, by Paleolithic standards - about 50 years).

Neanderthals often buried their dead, leading some scientists to conclude that they developed religious beliefs and concepts, such as belief in life after death. This can be indicated, among other things, by the orientation of the graves, the characteristic poses of those who died in them, and the burial of utensils with them. However, other scientists believe that the burials were carried out for rational reasons. The development of thinking was manifested in the appearance of the first examples of art: rock paintings, decorative items made of stone, bone, etc.

About 195 thousand

years ago, anatomically modern Homo sapiens appeared in Africa. According to the currently dominant hypothesis of the African origin of man, after several tens of millennia, anatomically modern people began to gradually spread beyond Africa.

There is some evidence that about 125 thousand years ago, having crossed the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, they appeared on the Arabian Peninsula (the territory of modern UAE), a little later - about 106 thousand.

years ago - on the territory of modern Oman, and about 75 thousand years ago - possibly on the territory of modern India. Although no human remains have been found in those places dating back to this time, the obvious similarities between stone tools found there and in Africa suggest that they were created by modern man.

Another group of people, passing through the Nile Valley, reached the territory of modern Israel about 100-120 thousand years ago. The settlers moving south and east gradually populated southeast Asia, and then, taking advantage of the reduced sea level due to glaciation, reached Australia and New Guinea about 50 thousand years ago, and a little later, about 30 thousand years ago.

years ago - and numerous islands east of Australia.

The first anatomically modern humans (Cro-Magnons) entered Europe through the Arabian Peninsula about 60 thousand years ago. About 43 thousand years ago, large-scale colonization of Europe began, during which Cro-Magnons actively competed with Neanderthals. In terms of physical strength and adaptability to the climate of Europe during the glaciation period, the Cro-Magnons were inferior to the Neanderthals, but were ahead of them in technological development.

And after 13-15 thousand years, by the end of the Middle Paleolithic, the Neanderthals were completely forced out of their habitat and became extinct.

Along with the Mousterian culture itself, in the Middle Paleolithic era its local variants also existed in some regions. Very interesting in this regard is the Aterian culture in Africa, which was discovered at the beginning of the 20th century near the city of Bir el-Ather in eastern Algeria, after which it was named.

Initially, it was believed that it first appeared about 40 thousand years ago, then this boundary was pushed back to 90-110 thousand years. In 2010, the Ministry of Culture of Morocco published a press release in which it was reported that objects of Aterian culture dating back up to 175 thousand years had been discovered in the prehistoric caves of Ifri n’Amman.

years. In addition to stone tools, drilled mollusk shells were also found at Aterian sites, presumably serving as decorations, which indicates the development of aesthetic feelings in humans.

In Europe, there were such early and transitional varieties of Mousterian as the Teylac and Micoq industries. In the Middle East, the Emirian culture developed from Mousterian.

During the same period, there were also independent cultures in Africa, formed from the earlier Acheulean, such as Sangoi and Stilbeian. Very interesting is the Howiesons-Port culture, which arose (possibly from the Stilbeian) in South Africa around 64.8 thousand years ago.

years ago. In terms of the level of production of stone tools, it corresponds rather to the cultures of the beginning of the Late Paleolithic, which appeared 25 thousand years later. We can say that in terms of its level it was significantly ahead of its time.

However, having existed for just over 5 thousand years, it disappeared approximately 59.5 thousand years ago, and tools from more primitive cultures reappeared in the region of its distribution.

Late Paleolithic

The Late Paleolithic - the third and final stage of the Paleolithic - began around 40-50 thousand years ago.

years ago and ended about 10-12 thousand years ago. It was during this period that modern man became first the dominant and then the only representative of his own species. The changes in the life of mankind during this period are so significant that they are called the Late Paleolithic revolution.

During the Late Paleolithic, significant climate changes occurred in areas inhabited by humans.

Since the vast majority of the period occurred during the last ice age, the overall climate of Eurasia varied from cold to temperate. Along with climate changes, the area of ​​the ice sheet changed, and, accordingly, the area of ​​human distribution. Moreover, if in the northern regions the territory suitable for habitation decreased, then in the more southern regions it increased due to a significant decrease in the level of the World Ocean, the waters of which were concentrated in glaciers.

So, during the maximum of the Ice Age, which occurred 19-26.5 thousand years ago, sea level fell by about 100-125 m. Therefore, many archaeological evidence of human life who lived on the coast in those days is now hidden by the waters of the seas and is located at a considerable distance from the modern coastline.

On the other hand, glaciation and low sea levels allowed man to move across the Bering Isthmus that existed at that time to North America.

Since the beginning of the Late Paleolithic, the variety of artifacts left by people has increased significantly. Manufactured instruments are becoming more specialized, and their manufacturing technologies are becoming more complex.

Important achievements are the invention of various types of tools and weapons. In particular, about 30 thousand years ago a spear thrower and a boomerang were invented, 25-30 thousand years ago - a bow and arrow, 22-29 thousand years ago - a fishing net. Also at this time, a sewing needle with an eye, a fishing hook, a rope, an oil lamp, etc. were invented. One of the most important achievements of the Late Paleolithic can be called the taming and domestication of the dog, which, according to various estimates, occurred 15-35 thousand years ago.

years ago (and possibly earlier). A dog has much better developed hearing and sense of smell than a human, which makes it an indispensable assistant in protecting against predators and hunting.

More advanced tools and weapons, methods of hunting, building housing and making clothing allowed people to significantly increase their numbers and populate previously undeveloped territories. The earliest evidence of organized human settlements dates back to the Late Paleolithic.

Some were used year-round, although more often people moved from one settlement to another depending on the season, following food sources.

Instead of a single dominant culture, various regional cultures with numerous local varieties arise in different places, existing partly simultaneously and partly replacing each other. In Europe, these are the Chatelperonian, Seletian, Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean, Badegulian and Magdalenian cultures.

In Asia and the Middle East - Baradostian, Zarzian and Kebarian.

In addition, during this period the flourishing of fine and decorative arts began: Late Paleolithic man left many rock paintings and petroglyphs, as well as artistic products made of ceramics, bone and horn.

One of the ubiquitous varieties is female figurines, the so-called Paleolithic Venus.

MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC: material culture of people. Main parking areas.

The Middle Paleolithic, or Middle Old Stone Age, is an era that lasted from 150,000 to 30,000 years ago.

Upper Paleolithic cultures

More precise dating is difficult using existing methods. The Middle Paleolithic of Europe is called the Mousterian era after a famous archaeological site in France. The Middle Paleolithic has been well studied.

It is characterized by widespread human settlement, as a result of which paleoanthropus (Middle Paleolithic man) settled throughout almost the entire glacier-free territory of Europe. The number of archaeological sites has increased significantly. The territory in Europe is populated up to the Volga.

Mousterian sites appear in the Desna basin, the upper reaches of the Oka, and the Middle Volga region. In Central and Eastern Europe there are 70 times more Middle Paleolithic sites than Early Paleolithic ones. At the same time, local groups and cultures emerge, which becomes the basis for the birth of new races and peoples.

Tools The production of stone tools has improved. The stone industry of that time is called "Levallois". It is characterized by the chipping of flakes and blades from a specially prepared disc-shaped “core”. They are distinguished by their durability.

Double-sided tools in some regions were also used in the Middle Paleolithic, but they changed significantly. Hand axes are reduced in size and are often made from flakes.

Leaf-like points and points of various types appear, which were used in complex tools and weapons, such as throwing spears. A typical Mousterian tool - a scraper - has multi-bladed forms. Mousterian tools are multifunctional: they were used for processing wood and hides, for planing, cutting and even drilling. It is believed that European Mousterian developed in two main zones - in Western Europe and the Caucasus - and from there spread throughout Europe.

A direct connection between the Middle and Early Paleolithic has been established in rare cases. Archaeological cultures are divided into early Mousterian (existed in the Riess-Würm period) and late Mousterian (Würm I and Würm II; absolute period - 75/70-40/35 thousand BC).

years ago). Archaeological sites Mousterian sites are quite clearly divided into base camps (the remains of which are often found in large and well-closed caves, where thick cultural layers with a fairly diverse fauna were formed), and temporary hunting camps (poor industry).

There are also workshops for the extraction and primary processing of stone. Base camps and temporary hunting camps were located both in caves and in the open air. Mousterian flint mining sites were found in the canton of Bern (Switzerland) in the form of vertical pits 60 cm deep, dug with horn tools. The primary processing of flint took place here. In Balatenlovas (Hungary) there were mines for the extraction of dyes. In southwestern France, Mousterian sites were found under rock overhangs and in small caves, which rarely exceed 20-25 m in width and depth.

Caves in Combes Grenada and Le Peyrard (Southern France) were deepened. Dwellings made of mammoth bones with the remains of open-air fire pits in the middle were found at the site of Molodova I on the Dniester. Until the end of Würm I, large dwellings with several fire pits were built, found in France (Le Peyrard, Vaux-de-l'Obezier, Eskicho-Grano).

Remains of ten small dwellings found in the lower reaches of the Durand River (France) Archaeological cultures F. Borda's research revealed different cultures that were not tied to territory. At the same time, different cultures could coexist in the same area. The paths of development are determined by the limitations of the raw materials used, the level of technological development, and a certain set of tools.

There are Levallois, jagged, typical Mousterian, Charente, Pontic and other development paths. Bord's conclusions about the existence of “Mousterian cultural communities” were criticized by L. Binford. Settlement increased, which was supposed to contribute to the consolidation of human groups that lived sedentary.

High level of tribal social relations. For example, a person who lost an arm lived for a long time after losing his ability to work; the team could give him such an opportunity.

Archaeological periodization of history. The oldest period of human history (prehistory) - from the appearance of the first people to the emergence of the first states - was called the primitive communal system, or primitive society.

At this time, there was a change not only in the physical type of a person, but also in tools, housing, forms of organization of groups, family, worldview, etc.

Taking these components into account, scientists have put forward a number of systems for the periodization of primitive history. The most developed is archaeological periodization, which is based on a comparison of human-made tools, their materials, forms of dwellings, burials, etc.

According to this principle, the history of human civilization is divided into centuries - stone, bronze and iron. In the Stone Age, which is usually identified with the primitive communal system, three eras are distinguished: Paleolithic (Greek - ancient stone) - up to 12 thousand.

years ago, Mesolithic (middle stone) - up to 9 thousand years ago, Neolithic (new stone) - up to 6 thousand years ago. Epochs are divided into periods - early (lower), middle and late (upper), as well as into cultures characterized by a uniform complex of artifacts. The culture is named according to the place of its modern location (“Chelles” - near the city of Chelles in Northern France, “Kostenki” - from the name of a village in Ukraine) or according to other characteristics, for example: “culture of battle axes”, “culture of log burials”, etc. The creator of Lower Paleolithic cultures was a man of the Pithecanthropus or Sinanthropus type, the Middle Paleolithic was a Neanderthal, and the Upper Paleolithic was a Cro-Magnon.

This definition is based on archaeological research in Western Europe and cannot be fully extended to other regions. On the territory of the former USSR, about 70 sites of the Lower and Middle Paleolithic and about 300 sites of the Upper Paleolithic have been studied - from the Prut River in the west to Chukotka in the east. During the Paleolithic period, people initially made rough hand axes from flint, which were standardized tools.

Then the production of specialized tools begins - these are knives, piercings, scrapers, composite tools, such as a stone axe.

The Mesolithic is dominated by microliths - tools made of thin stone plates, which were inserted into a bone or wooden frame. It was then that the bow and arrows were invented. The Neolithic is characterized by the production of polished tools from soft stones - jade, slate, slate. The technique of sawing and drilling holes in stone is mastered. The Stone Age is replaced by a short period of the Eneolithic, i.e. the existence of cultures with copper-stone implements. The Bronze Age (Latin – Chalcolithic; Greek – Chalcolithic) began in Europe in the 3rd millennium.

BC. At this time, in many regions of the planet, the first states emerged, civilizations developed - Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Mediterranean (Early Minoan, Early Helladic), Mexican and Peruvian in America. On the Lower Don, settlements of this time were studied in Kobyakovo, Gnilovskaya, Safyanovo, on the shores of the Manych lakes. The first iron products appeared on the territory of Russia in the 10th–7th centuries.

BC – among the tribes that lived in the North Caucasus (Scythians, Cimmerians), in the Volga region (Dyakovo culture), Siberia and other regions. Note that frequent and massive migrations of various peoples from the east, passing through the territory of Central Russia and the Don steppes, destroyed the settlements of the sedentary population, destroyed entire cultures that could, under favorable conditions, develop into civilizations and states. Another periodization system based on a complex characteristic material and spiritual cultures, proposed in the 70s of the XIX century.

L. Morgan. In this case, the scientist was based on a comparison of ancient cultures with modern cultures of the American Indians. According to this system, primitive society is divided into three periods: savagery, barbarism and civilization. The period of savagery is the time of the early tribal system (Paleolithic and Mesolithic), it ends with the invention of the bow and arrow. During the period of barbarism, ceramic products appeared, agriculture and animal husbandry appeared.

Civilization is characterized by the emergence of bronze metallurgy, writing and states. In the 40s of the 20th century. Soviet scientists P.P. Efimenko, M.O. Kosven, A.I. Pershits et al. proposed systems for the periodization of primitive society, the criteria of which were the evolution of forms of ownership, the degree of division of labor, family relationships, etc.

In a generalized form, such periodization can be represented as follows: the era of the primitive herd; the era of the tribal system; the era of the decomposition of the communal-tribal system (the emergence of cattle breeding, plow farming and metal processing, the emergence of elements of exploitation and private property). All of these periodization systems are imperfect in their own way.

There are many examples when stone tools of Paleolithic or Mesolithic form were used by the peoples of the Far East in the 16th-17th centuries, while they had a tribal society and developed forms of religion and family.

Therefore, the optimal periodization system should take into account the largest number of indicators of social development.

LATE PALEOLITHIC: art and religious ideas. In the Late Paleolithic, major shifts occurred in the development of productive forces and human society as a whole. The most striking expression of the maturity of human societies in the Late Paleolithic is the emergence of art and the composition of all the basic elements of primitive religion.

Cave paintings, sculptural images of people and animals, engravings on bones, and various decorations appeared; deliberate burials of people with tools, weapons and jewelry. Most of the Upper Paleolithic monuments are definitely of a religious nature. Describing and systematizing them requires time, which we do not have, but we must not forget that, according to the correct remark of the modern American philosopher Huston Smith, “Religion is not primarily a collection of facts, but a collection of meanings.

One can endlessly enumerate gods, customs and beliefs, but if this activity does not give us the opportunity to see how with their help people overcame loneliness, grief and death, then no matter how impeccably accurate this enumeration is made, it has not the slightest relation to religion "

Let's try to see behind the facts of the Upper Paleolithic finds their significance in the spiritual quest of the Cro-Magnon man. The first ordered forms of social organization arise - the clan and the clan community. The main features of primitive society are formed: consistent collectivism in production and consumption, common property and equal distribution in groups. 35 - 12 thousand.

years ago - the most severe phase of the last Würm glaciation, when modern people settled throughout the Earth. After the appearance of the first modern people in Europe (the Cro-Magnons), there was a relatively rapid growth of their cultures, the most famous of which are the Chatelperonian, Aurignacian, Solutrean, Gravettian and Magdalenian archaeological cultures. North and South America were colonized by humans through the ancient Bering Isthmus, which was later flooded by rising sea levels and became the Bering Strait.

The ancient people of America, the Paleo-Indians most likely formed into an independent culture about 13.5 thousand years ago. Overall, the planet became dominated by hunter-gatherer societies that used different types of stone tools depending on the region. Numerous changes in human lifestyle are associated with climate changes of this era, which is characterized by the beginning of a new ice age.

The first examples of Paleolithic art were found in caves in France in the 40s of the 19th century, when many, under the influence of biblical views on the past of man, did not believe in the very existence of Stone Age people - contemporaries of the mammoth.

In 1864, in the La Madeleine cave (France), an image of a mammoth on a bone plate was discovered, which showed that people of that distant time not only lived with the mammoth, but also reproduced this animal in their drawings.

11 years later, in 1875, the cave paintings of Altamira (Spain) that amazed researchers were unexpectedly discovered, followed by many others. In the Upper Paleolithic, as we see, hunting techniques became more complex. House-building is emerging, a new way of life is taking shape. As the clan system matures, the primitive community becomes stronger and more complex in its structure. Thinking and speech develop. A person’s mental horizons expand immeasurably and his spiritual world is enriched.

Along with these general achievements in the development of culture, the specifically important circumstance that Upper Paleolithic man now began to widely use the bright colors of natural mineral paints was of great importance for the emergence and further growth of art. He also mastered new methods of processing soft stone and bone, which opened up previously unknown possibilities for him to convey phenomena of the surrounding reality in plastic form - in sculpture and carving.

Without these preconditions, without these technical achievements, born of direct labor practice in the manufacture of tools, neither painting nor the artistic processing of bones, which mainly represent the Paleolithic art known to us, could have arisen. The most remarkable and most important thing in the history of primitive art lies in that from its first steps it followed mainly the path of truthful transmission of reality. The art of the Upper Paleolithic, taken in its best examples, is distinguished by amazing fidelity to nature and accuracy in conveying vital, most significant features.

Already in the early days of the Upper Paleolithic, in the Aurignacian monuments of Europe, examples of truthful drawing and sculpture, as well as cave paintings identical in spirit, are found. Their appearance, of course, was preceded by a certain preparatory period. Paleolithic art had a huge positive significance in the history of ancient mankind. By consolidating his working life experience in living images of art, primitive man deepened and expanded his ideas about reality and gained a deeper, more comprehensive understanding of it, and at the same time enriched his spiritual world.

The emergence of art, which meant a huge step forward in human cognitive activity, at the same time greatly contributed to the strengthening of social ties.

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STONE AGE ART

its first small forms were found by E. Larte during the excavation of a cave in the 60s of the 19th century, shortly after the recognition of the discoveries of Boucher de Perth (see prehistoric art). At the turn of the Mesolithic, animalism (depictions of animals) dried up, being replaced mostly by schematic and ornamental works.

Only in small regions - the Spanish Levant, Kobystan in Azerbaijan, Zarautsay in Central Asia and Neolithic rock paintings (petroglyphs of Karelia, rock paintings of the Urals) did the monumental-story tradition of the Paleolithic continue.

For a long time, caves with Paleolithic paintings were found only in Spain, France and Italy.

In 1959, zoologist A.V.

Paleolithic culture

Ryumin discovered Paleolithic drawings in the Kapova Cave in the Urals. The drawings were located mainly in the depths of the cave on the second, hard-to-reach tier.

Initially, 11 drawings were discovered: 7 mammoths, 2 horses, 2 rhinoceroses.

All of them were made with ocher - a mineral paint that was ingrained into the rock so that when a piece of the stone in the drawing broke off, it turned out that it was completely saturated with paint.

In some places the drawings were poorly differentiated, so it was difficult to make out who they depicted. Some squares, cubes, and triangles were visible here. Some images resembled a hut, others - a vessel, etc.

Archaeologists had to work hard to “read” these drawings.

There has been much debate about what time they belong to. A convincing argument in favor of their antiquity is their very content. After all, the animals depicted on the walls of the cave became extinct long ago. Carbon dating has shown that the earliest examples of cave painting known today number over 30 thousand.

years, the latest - approx. 12 thousand years.

In the Late Paleolithic, sculptural depictions of naked (less often clothed) women became widespread.

The sizes of the figurines are small: only 5 - 10 cm and, as a rule, no more than 12 - 15 cm in height. They are carved from soft stone, limestone or marl, less often from soapstone or ivory. Such figurines - they are called Paleolithic Venus - were found in France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, but especially many of them were found in Russia.

It is generally accepted that figurines of naked women depict the ancestral goddess, since they emphatically express the idea of ​​motherhood and fertility. Numerous figurines represent mature, full-breasted women with large bellies (probably pregnant).

Among the female figurines there are also clothed figures: only the face is naked, everything else is covered in a kind of fur “overall.” Sewn with the wool facing out, it fits tightly to the body from head to toe. The costume of an Old Stone Age man is especially clearly visible on the figurine found in 1963.

in Bureti.

The fur of the clothing is marked by semicircular pits and notches arranged in a certain rhythmic order. These pits are not present only on the face.

The fur is sharply separated from the convex face by deep narrow grooves that form a roll - a thick fluffy border of the hood. The wide and flat hood points towards the top.

Very similar clothes are still worn by Arctic sea game hunters and tundra reindeer herders. This is not surprising: 25 thousand years ago there was also tundra on the shores of Lake Baikal.

Cold, piercing winter winds forced Paleolithic people, like modern inhabitants of the Arctic, to wrap themselves in fur clothing.

Very warm, such clothes at the same time do not restrict movement and allow you to move very quickly.

Interesting works of Paleolithic art found at the Mezin Paleolithic site in Ukraine. Bracelets, all kinds of figurines and figures carved from mammoth tusk are covered with geometric patterns. Along with stone and bone tools, eyed needles, jewelry, remains of dwellings and other finds, bone items with a metrical pattern were found in Mezin.

This design consists mainly of many zigzag lines. In recent years, such a strange zigzag pattern has been found at other Paleolithic sites in V.

Central Europe. What does this “abstract” pattern mean and how did it come about? The geometric style really doesn’t fit in with the brilliantly realistic drawings of cave art. Where did “abstract art” come from? And how abstract is this ornament?

Having studied the structures of sections of mammoth tusks using magnifying instruments, the researchers noticed that they also consist of zigzag patterns, very similar to the zigzag ornamental motifs of Mezin products. Thus, the basis of the Mezin geometric ornament was a pattern drawn by nature itself.

But ancient artists did not only copy nature. They introduced new combinations and elements into the original ornament, overcoming the dead monotony of the design.

During the Mesolithic and Neolithic eras, art continued to develop. Interesting are the monuments of ancient art of Central Asia and the Black Sea region, the origins of which lie in the Near and Middle East. The favorable combination of natural conditions of the Near and Middle East allowed man to move from hunting and gathering to agriculture in the Mesolithic.

Both architecture and art developed rapidly here (see prehistoric art).

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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§ 3. Origin of man

Whatsuch a person.
The first event that historical science studies is the appearance of man himself. The question immediately arises: what is a person? The answer to this question is given by various sciences, for example biology. Science proceeds from the fact that man emerged as a result of evolution from the animal kingdom.
Biologists since the time of the famous Swedish scientist of the 18th century. Carl Linnaeus classifies humans, including their now extinct early species, as a member of the order of higher mammals - primates. Along with humans, the order of primates includes modern and extinct monkeys. Humans have certain anatomical characteristics that distinguish them from other primates, in particular great apes. However, it is not at all easy to distinguish the remains of early human species by anatomical characteristics from the remains of apes that lived at the same time. Therefore, there is debate among scientists about the origins of man, and approaches to solving this issue are constantly being refined as new archaeological finds appear.
Sources of knowledgeabout ancient man.
Archeology is of paramount importance for the study of the primitive period, as it allows scientists to obtain at their disposal objects made by the ancient inhabitants of our planet. It is the ability to make such objects that should be considered the main feature that distinguishes humans from other primates.
At the same time, however, a serious problem also arises: products made from organic materials, such as wood, could not be preserved from ancient times. Observations of great apes in recent years have revealed their ability to make and use simple devices from branches and sticks. However, not a single monkey is capable of making a tool out of stone. Therefore, it should be clarified that the difference between humans and animals is the ability to make tools from stone and other hard materials. It was the presence of stone products that was at the initial stage the main condition for the existence of mankind (later metals began to play this role).
It is no coincidence that archaeologists divide history into stone, bronze And Iron Age. The Stone Age, based on the characteristics of the tools of ancient man, is divided into ancient (Paleolithic), middle (Mesolithic) and new (Neolithic). In turn, the Paleolithic is divided into early (lower) and late (upper). The Early Paleolithic consists of the Olduvai, Acheulian, and Mousterian periods.
In addition to tools, excavations of dwellings and places of human settlement, as well as their burials, are of utmost importance. The remains of ancient people discovered by archaeologists form the basis for studying questions of the origin and evolution of man and his immediate ancestors. From these remains, anthropologists reconstruct the appearance of these creatures - from the bones of the skeleton, the volume of the brain, they try to determine whether they were human.
The most important problem is dating (determining the age) of archaeological finds. Absolute dating is possible using natural science methods (radiocarbon, thermo-luminescent, archaeomagnetic, sporopylene, etc.). At the end of the 40s. XX century The radiocarbon method was discovered, which became the most common in dating finds. True, this method is applicable only to wood and other organic remains. Findings of the most ancient human remains, traces of his life and activity are dated mainly by the age of the geological layers from which they were extracted. These dates, of course, are very approximate.
Archeology provides material for the study of social relations among primitive people. However, it is very difficult to judge them without the use of ethnographic data. The study of the life of tribes that, due to isolation, preserved the way of life and customs characteristic of primitive people, provides interesting material. But it must be remembered that not a single modern people was in complete isolation, and it is impossible to talk about the identity of even the most backward nationalities and primitive tribes.
When doing ethnographic research, one has to turn first of all to descriptions made by travelers and scientists of the 17th – 19th centuries, since in the 20th century, not to mention our time, all backward tribes were already experiencing a significant impact of civilization.
Problems of human origin.
On questions of human origins - anthropogenesis - There are several theories. Enjoyed great popularity in our country labor theory, formulated in the 19th century. F. Engels. According to this theory, the labor activity that human ancestors had to resort to led to a change in their external appearance, which was fixed in the course of natural selection, and the need for communication in the labor process contributed to the emergence of language and thinking. Labor theory is based on Charles Darwin's doctrine of natural selection.
Modern genetics has a slightly different opinion about the reasons for the evolution of living beings. Genetics denies the possibility of consolidating qualities acquired during life in the body if their appearance is not associated with mutations. Currently, different versions of the causes of anthropogenesis have emerged. Scientists have noticed that the region where anthropogenesis took place (East Africa) is a zone of increased radioactivity. In addition, according to archaeologists, new species of humans appeared during periods of geomagnetic inversion (change of the Earth's poles). The reversal, which occurs once every hundreds of thousands of years, is accompanied by the disappearance of our planet’s magnetic field and, consequently, an increase in radiation levels due to the effects of cosmic rays. An increased level of radiation is the strongest mutagenic factor. Perhaps it was the effects of radiation that caused anatomical changes, which ultimately led to the appearance of man.
At present, we can talk about the following scheme of anthropogenesis. The remains of the common ancestors of monkeys and humans, found in East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, are 30 - 40 million years old. The remains of the most likely human ancestor have been discovered in Eastern and Southern Africa - Australopithecus(age 4 - 5.5 million years). Australopithecines most likely could not make tools from stone, but in their appearance they resembled the first creature to create such tools. Australopithecines also lived in savannas, walked on their hind limbs and had little hair. The Australopithecus skull was larger than that of any modern ape.
The oldest human-made stone tools (about 2.6 million years old) were found by archaeologists in the Kada Gona area in Ethiopia. Almost equally ancient items were discovered in a number of other areas of East Africa (in particular, in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania). Fragments of the remains of their creators were also excavated in these same places. Scientists have named this oldest human species a skilled person ( Homo habilis ). Homo habilis was not very different in appearance from Australopithecus (although his brain volume was somewhat larger), but he can no longer be considered an animal. Homo habilis lived only in East Africa.
According to archaeological periodization, the existence of Homo habilis corresponds to the Olduvai period. The most characteristic tools of Homo habilis are pebbles chipped on one or both sides (hoppers and choppers).
The main occupation of man since his appearance was hunting, including quite large animals (fossil elephants). Even “dwellings” of Homo habilis have been discovered in the form of a fence made of large stone blocks stacked in a circle. They were probably covered with branches and skins on top.
There is no consensus among scientists regarding the relationship between Australopithecus and Homo habilis. Some consider them to be two successive steps, others believe that Australopithecus was a dead-end branch. The two species are known to have coexisted for some period.
Kindsperson. Settlement the most ancient people.
There is no consensus among scientists on the issue of continuity between Homo Habilis and Noto egectus (homo erectus). The oldest discovery of the remains of Homo egectus near Lake Turkana in Kenya dates back to 17 million years ago. For some time, Homo erectus coexisted with Homo habilis. In appearance, Homo egestus was even more different from a monkey: its height was close to that of a modern person, and the volume of the brain was quite large.
According to archaeological periodization, the time of existence of upright walking man corresponds to the Acheulean period. The most common weapon of Homo egestus was the hand ax - bnfas. It was an oblong instrument, pointed at one end and rounded at the other. The biface was convenient for cutting, digging, chiseling, and scraping the skin of a killed animal. Another greatest achievement of man then was the mastery of fire. The oldest traces of fires date back to about 1.5 million years ago and were also found in East Africa.
Homo egectus was destined to become the first human species to leave Africa. The oldest finds of the remains of this species in Europe and Asia are dated back to approximately 1 million years ago. Back at the end of the 19th century. E. Dubois found the skull of a creature on the island of Java, which he called Pithecanthropus (ape-man). At the beginning of the 20th century. In the Zhoukoudian cave near Beijing, similar skulls of Sinanthropus (Chinese people) were excavated. Several fragments of the remains of Homo egestus (the oldest find is a jaw from Heidelberg in Germany, 600 thousand years old) and many of its products, including traces of dwellings, have been discovered in a number of regions of Europe.
Homo egestus became extinct approximately 300 thousand years ago. He was replaced by But thatsaieps. According to modern ideas, there were originally two subspecies of Homo sapiens. The development of one of them led to the appearance approximately 130 thousand years ago Neanderthal (Noto 5ariepsneanderthaliensis). Neanderthals settled all of Europe and large parts of Asia. At the same time, there was another subspecies, which is still poorly understood. It may have originated in Africa. It is the second subspecies that some researchers consider the ancestor modern type of person— But thatsapieps. Homo sarins finally formed 40 - 35 thousand years ago. This scheme of the origin of modern man is not shared by all scientists. A number of researchers do not classify Neanderthals as Homo sapiens. There are also adherents of the previously dominant point of view that Homo sapiens descended from Neanderthals as a result of his evolution.
Externally, the Neanderthal was in many ways similar to modern man. However, his height was on average shorter, and he himself was much more massive than modern man. The Neanderthal had a low forehead and a large bony ridge hanging over the eyes.
According to archaeological periodization, the time of existence of the Neanderthal corresponds to the Muste period (Middle Paleolithic). Muste stone products are characterized by a wide variety of types and careful processing. The predominant weapon remained the biface. The most significant difference between Neanderthals and previous human species is the presence of burials in accordance with certain rituals. Thus, nine Neanderthal graves were excavated in the Shanidar Cave in Iraq. Various stone items and even the remains of a flower were found next to the dead. All this testifies not only to the existence of religious beliefs among Neanderthals, a developed system of thinking and speech, but also a complex social organization.
About 40 - 35 thousand years ago, Neanderthals disappear. They gave way to modern man. After the town of Cro-Magnon in France, the first Homo sapiens are called Cro-Magnons. With their appearance, the process of anthropogenesis ends. Some modern researchers believe that Cro-Magnons appeared much earlier, about 100 thousand years ago in Africa or the Middle East, and 40 - 35 thousand years ago they began to populate Europe and other continents, exterminating and displacing the Neanderthals. According to archaeological periodization, the Late (Upper) Paleolithic period began 40–35 thousand years ago, which ended 12–11 thousand years ago.

§ 4. People of the Paleolithic era

Living conditions of primitive people.
The process of anthropogenesis took about 3 million years. During this time, dramatic changes occurred in nature more than once. There were four major glaciations. Within the glacial and warm eras there were periods of warming and cooling.
During ice ages in northern Eurasia and North America, a layer of ice up to 2 km thick covered vast territories. The border of the glacier at the time of its greatest distribution during the last glaciation (its beginning dates from 185 to 70 thousand years ago) passed south of Volgograd, Kyiv, Berlin, and London.
The endless tundra stretched south from the glacier. In summer it is lush here, but the grasses grew and the bushes turned green for a short time.
People populated the periglacial areas quite densely. Animals lived there, which for many millennia became the main object of hunting for humans, since they provided abundant food, as well as skins and bones. These are mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses and cave bears. Herds of wild horses, deer, bison, etc. grazed here.
Glaciation periods became a severe test for primitive people. The need to confront unfavorable conditions contributed to the progressive development of mankind. Hunting for large animals was possible only with the participation of a significant number of people. It is assumed that the hunt was driven: animals were driven either to cliffs or to specially dug holes. Thus, a person could survive only in a group of his own kind.
Tribal community.
It is very difficult to judge social relations during the Paleolithic period. Even the most backward tribes studied by ethnographers (Bushmen, Australian aborigines), according to archaeological periodization, were at the Mesolithic stage.
It is assumed that the first people, like modern monkeys, lived in small groups (the term “human herd” is now not used by most researchers). In groups of modern apes, the leader and several males close to him dominate all other males and females. Some peoples studied by ethnographers who were at the primitive stage also observed a system of dominance of leaders and their associates over the rest of the team. Perhaps it was also the case with the first people.
However, there is another opinion, which is also confirmed by ethnographic research. In the collectives of the majority of backward peoples, relations were recorded that in the scientific literature were called “primitive communism.” They are characterized by equality of team members, mutual assistance and mutual assistance. Most likely, it was precisely such social relations that allowed people to survive in the extreme conditions of the Ice Ages.

The study of Late Paleolithic settlements, data from ethnography, and folkloristics allowed scientists to come to the conclusion that the basis of the social organization of the Cro-Magnons was a clan community (clan) - a group of blood relatives descending from a common ancestor.
Judging by the excavations, the ancient clan community consisted of 100-150 people. All relatives jointly engaged in hunting, gathering, making tools and processing prey. Dwellings, food supplies, animal skins, and tools were considered common property. At the head of the clan were the most respected and experienced people, usually the eldest in age (elders). All the most important issues in the life of the community were decided at a meeting of all its adult members (people's assembly).
The problem of sexual relations is closely related to the problem of the social structure of primitive peoples. Apes have harem families: only the leader and his associates participate in reproduction, using all the females. Scientists suggest that in the conditions of the elimination of the leader's dominance system, sexual relations took the form of promiscuity - every man in the group was considered the husband of every woman. Later appeared exogamy - prohibition on marriage within the clan community. A dual-clan group marriage developed, in which members of one clan could only marry members of another clan. This custom, recorded among many peoples by ethnographers, contributed to the biological progress of mankind.
A separate genus could not exist in isolation. Clan communities united into tribes. Initially there were two clans in the tribe, and then there were more and more of them. Over time, restrictions also appeared in group marriage. Members of the clan were divided into classes according to age (marriages were allowed only between classes corresponding to each other). Then a couple marriage developed, which was initially very fragile.
For a long time, the prevailing idea in science was that the clan organization went through two stages in its development - matriarchy And patriarchy. Under matriarchy, kinship was counted along the maternal line, and husbands went to live in their wife’s clan. Under patriarchy, the main unit of society becomes the large patriarchal family. Currently, opinions are being expressed that these stages were not universal for all primitive peoples, and elements of matriarchy could arise at later stages of the development of primitive tribes.
Achievements of people during the Late Paleolithic period.
The Late Paleolithic is archaeologically characterized, first of all, by the presence of a wide variety of stone tools. The material used was flint, as well as obsidian, jasper and other types of hard but easily split stone. Along with the universal hand ax, specialized tools appeared for different purposes. The skins were processed with a stone scraper, holes were pierced in them with a pierce, a pointed point, cut with a knife, chisel, etc. They made composite tools: a sharp stone was tied to a wooden handle, and the result was a spear or an ax.
The technique of stone processing has changed. By pressing, thin and light plates were broken off from a specially prepared stone - a core (kernel). The cutting edges of the weapon were sharpened using pressure and light blows (retouching).
A spear thrower was invented - a plank with a stop that allows you to throw a spear at high speed. This was the first mechanical device in human history.
The cold climate led to the development of clothing and improved housing. The skin of the animal was cut into pieces, holes were pierced along the edges with stone needles and sewn together with the sinews of the animals. Caves were widely used as dwellings in Western Europe and a number of other places. It was once believed that primitive people usually lived in caves. These people were called troglodytes (cave people). However, in Eastern Europe, even where there were caves (for example, in the Urals), people did not settle in them. Here they usually dug a round or oval hole, dug upright bones of mammoths or other large animals bent inward along its edges, covered them with skins, branches and covered them with earth. This “house” could accommodate up to 50 people. In the center, several hearths were made of stones. In settlements there were usually 2 - 3 similar dwellings.
The first thing happens gender and age division of labor: men went hunting, women gathered, prepared food, and sewed clothes. The children helped the women.
The transition from teenagers to adults took place during a ritual initiation. In preparation for initiation, adults taught teenagers to use weapons, hunt, and get food. During the ritual itself, they were subjected to hunger, beatings, left alone in the forest, etc. Sometimes there was a symbolic “death” of the teenager and his “rebirth” as an adult. Both boys and girls underwent initiation. After initiation, they became full members of the tribe and could marry.
During the Late Paleolithic period, people settled all the lands of Eurasia available to them. During times of warming, they moved north, and when the glacier advanced, they retreated to the south. The settlement of America began 40 thousand years ago (and maybe even earlier). It is assumed that people got there through the isthmus that connected Chukotka and Alaska, or through ice during the Ice Age. People also appeared in Australia.
For the Early Paleolithic, all traces of human presence in all regions of the Earth fit into the framework of the general successive archaeological cultures (Olduvai, Acheulian, Mousterian), although there are local differences. For the Late Paleolithic, the coexistence of various archaeological cultures is recorded. This indicates the emergence of ethnic differences. At the beginning of the Paleolithic, three main races of humanity began to emerge.
Primitive religion and art.
Primitive people knew a lot about the world. They understood the habits of animals, the properties of various plants and stones, were able to predict the weather, and treat wounds and poisonous snake bites. Stone tools were even used to perform surgical operations, cutting off a damaged arm or leg.
In many practical knowledge, ancient people were superior to modern man. However, they had no idea about many things. Observations of natural phenomena and reflections on people’s lives led to the emergence of the idea of ​​the existence of invisible forces - perfume And gods, that influence nature and human life. This is how religion was born. Primitive religion differed significantly from the religion of subsequent times. For primitive people, gods and spirits were not otherworldly forces that govern the world; they were not perceived as something different from humans. The gods were embodied in very specific objects: stones, trees, animals. The ancestors of the clan were also gods. These ancestors often were also considered some kind of animal. People felt their constant." connection with the gods. Therefore, they believed that they could influence the gods and spirits: appease them, feed them (sacrifice ritual), and sometimes punish them.
Many religious rites were associated with hunting. With the help of magical actions they tried to make animals easier prey. Much attention was paid to the burial ritual, since members of the clan who were leaving for the afterlife had to be provided with everything necessary for life there.
Primitive art is associated with religion, the problem of its origin is still the subject of scientific discussion. It is assumed that art, like religion, has become one of the ways of understanding the world around us.
Art originated with the Neanderthals (incisions, ornaments). Under the Cro-Magnons, the time of its true heyday came. The most impressive monument of the Paleolithic times is cave painting. Hundreds of magnificent color realistic images of mammoths, bison, deer, horses, and bears were discovered in a number of caves. Cave drawings date from 30 to 12 thousand years ago. These images were created for witchcraft hunting rituals; on some of them traces of impacts with stone tips were found. Perhaps the caves with drawings were also used since the time of initiation as a kind of school of hunting skills.
No less interesting is the Paleolithic sculpture. These are animal figures made of stone, bone, wood. Some of them have traces of blows that were inflicted during magical rituals.
Unlike animals, images of people were usually done abstractly. On the walls of the caves, all the people have masks on their faces. Paleolithic Venuses—small (5-15 cm) figurines of women, usually naked, occasionally clothed—also have virtually no faces. Quite a few such figurines were found in Western Europe, but most of all in Russia, in the Voronezh region, as well as “near Lake Baikal.” Historians suggest that these are the ancestors of the Rol. Such sculptures also expressed the ideas of motherhood and fertility.
In addition to fine art, songs and secrets undoubtedly played a big role in people's lives.
Paleolithic sites in Russia.
Some archaeologists date the first signs of human presence on the territory of modern Russia to about 1 million years ago. Thus, at the sites of Ulalinka (within the city of Gorno-Altaisk), Dering-Yuryakh near Yakutsk, and Mysovaya in the Southern Urals, primitive tools made from pebbles were discovered, similar to the most ancient products from East Africa. During the Late Paleolithic period, most of modern Russia was already inhabited.
One of the most famous places that speak of the presence of primitive people in our country is the Kapova Cave in Bashkiria in the Southern Urals. More than 40 drawings made in red ocher were found there: mammoths, bison, wild horses, and a rhinoceros. The age of the drawings is 15-13 thousand years.
For archaeologists, one of the most interesting was the Kostenko-Borshchevsky district near Voronezh. Here, in a small area, 24 sites and 4 burials were excavated, a huge number of stone and bone tools, figurines, including a huge number of Paleolithic Wieners, were found. In total, traces of five archaeological cultures have been discovered in this area.
One of these cultures, which spread over a large territory, includes the famous Sungir site near Vladimir. In the 60s gg. XX century Two burials were excavated there, the age of which is 25 - 30 thousand years. In one of the burials lay a man 55-65 years old. It is believed that this was the leader of the tribe. All his clothes and hat were embroidered with hundreds of small beads from mammoth tusks. His hands were decorated with more than 20 bracelets, also made from tusks. The second grave is even more interesting. A 12-13 year old boy and a 7-8 year old girl were lying in it with their heads facing each other. Their clothes were also richly decorated with bone items; a total of 7.5 thousand beads were collected. On the boy's chest lay a flat figurine of a horse, and at his shoulder - a mammoth. It remains a mystery why these people were given such a magnificent burial.

§ 5. Neolithic revolution and its consequences

What is the Neolithic Revolution?
For several million
For years, people subsisted on hunting, fishing and gathering. People “appropriated” the products of nature for themselves, which is why this type of farming is called appropriating. Man was completely dependent on nature, external conditions, climate changes, the abundance or scarcity of prey, and random luck.
About 11 - 10 thousand years ago, the relationship between man and nature became radically different. Agriculture and livestock breeding began. People began to independently and purposefully produce the products necessary for their lives. From now on they were much less dependent on the environment. This type of farming is called producing. The productive economy is still the basis of human life.
The transition to a productive economy among a number of tribes and peoples began during the Mesolithic period and ended in the Neolithic. The emergence of a productive economy in a relatively short time radically changed the life of mankind, relationships within human communities, and the order of management in them. Historians called these changes the Neolithic Revolution.
Causes of the Neolithic Revolution.
About 12 thousand years ago the glacier quickly began to melt. In a relatively short period, the tundra and the glacier territory were covered with dense forests. It seemed that such changes would benefit people. However, mammoths and many other large animals that provided humans with basic food for thousands of years became extinct. I had to master hunting small game and birds, and pay more attention to fishing.
Mesolithic hunters invented the bow and arrow. Now they could hit prey from afar. Based on the principle of action of the bow, various traps and traps were created. Another invention was the boomerang, which had the property of returning back if thrown unsuccessfully. They began to build boats and rafts. They sailed not only along rivers and lakes, but also went out to sea.
The melting of the glacier had the most severe consequences for the population of Western Asia (the territory of Turkey, Syria, Israel, Palestine, Iraq, Iran, etc.). During the Paleolithic period, wild sheep, wild boars, goats, and bulls were hunted here, and seeds of wild cereals—wheat, barley, and millet—were collected. These plants grow wild only in the mountainous regions of Western Asia. To cut the ears of cereal crops, a special tool was invented - a sickle.
Inside the curved wooden handle, a groove was carved into which sharply sharpened stones 1-2 cm in size were inserted close to each other. They were secured with resin or concrete. If one of the pebbles broke or fell out, it was replaced with another, since they were all of a standard shape. Scientists call such products microliths. During the Mesolithic period, microliths of various shapes spread over vast territories of Eurasia and Africa. They were inserted not only into sickles, but also into knives, swords, axes, spears, and arrows.
During the melting of the glacier, a terrible drought began in Western Asia, which led to the death of many animals and plants. The environmental crisis has forced people to look for new sources of livelihood. A solution was found in artificial breeding of plants and raising animals.
The emergence of a productive economy.
Collectors of edible plants noticed: if grains are buried in loose soil and watered with water, then an ear with many grains will grow from one grain. This is how it was born agriculture. Only the best grains were selected for sowing each year. Over time, the appearance and many beneficial properties of these plants have changed.
In drought conditions, animals became less afraid of people and even entered their settlements in search of water. Hunters caught them alive, kept them in pens and ate them as needed. Some animals were already born in captivity. Over time, animals born in captivity became the main source of meat. These animals were looked after, grazed, and the best were selected for breeding. Domestic animals began to differ from their wild ancestors in habits, character, and even anatomical structure. Happened domestication (domestication) animals. Appeared animal husbandry (cattle breeding).
Cereal crops and domestic animals obtained by the ancient inhabitants of Western Asia still remain the main sources of food for humanity.
The oldest site with traces of agriculture, Zawi Chemi Shanidar, was excavated in northern Iraq and dates back to the 10th-9th millennia BC. e.
They were the first to be domesticated in the 10th-9th millennia BC. e. sheep and goats, in the 7th millennium BC. tamed a pig and a cow. In ancient times, the domestication of cats occurred, which saved grain reserves from rodents.
The first plants to be domesticated were several types of wheat, barley, millet, and lentils. Later they learned to grow plums, pears, peaches, apricots, apples, grapes, etc.
Agriculture and cattle breeding began to emerge in the oases of Asia about 11 thousand years ago. Later the climate became wetter and agriculture spread throughout almost all of | Western Asia and some neighboring territories (Egypt, the Balkan Peninsula, Central Asia, etc.). Tribal migrations played a major role in the spread of the Neolithic revolution. New species of cultivated plants and animals were bred on new lands. For example, in Central Asia the camel was domesticated.
Some scientists believe that in a number of places agriculture arose independently, without connection with Western Asia. America undoubtedly belongs to such places. Rice was “domesticated” in India and China. It is possible that cattle were domesticated independently in Europe. However, most domestic animals (sheep, goats, cows) and plants (wheat, barley, millet) had as their “ancestors” wild animals and plants that were found only in Western Asia. In addition, for several thousand years agriculture existed only in this region. These facts support the theory of monocentrism of the origin of agriculture.

Consequences of the Neolithic Revolution.
Following the advent of agriculture, many more discoveries followed. People learned to produce wool and linen fabrics. The most important invention was ceramics (the very first examples date back to the 8th millennium BC). A number of tribes used a potter's wheel. Bricks were also made from clay.
To irrigate fields, primitive canals and pools were built; gradually, irrigation structures became more and more complex. Plows and plows were invented to cultivate fields. For a long time, several people pulled them. Later they began to harness oxen.
At the settlement of farmers and pastoralists at the turn of the 8th-7th millennium BC. e. The most ancient products made of native copper were found in Chayonyu in Asia Minor. From the V-IV millennia BC. e. In the Middle East, the Chalcolithic period begins - the Copper-Stone Age (transitional from the Stone to the Bronze Age). In Europe, the beginning of the Chalcolithic dates back to the 3rd millennium BC. The Bronze Age began in the Middle East at the end of the 4th-3rd millennia BC. and Europe in the 2nd millennium BC. Iron began to be made from the end of the 2nd millennium BC. in Western Asia and in the 1st millennium BC. e. in Europe and a number of other places. After the development of mass production of iron ore products, stone tools finally disappeared.

Neolithic revolution on the territory of modern Russia.
In the steppes of the Southern Urals and Volga region, archaeologists found bones of domestic animals (cows, goats, sheep), which began to be bred there 8 - 7 thousand years ago. These are the oldest traces of a productive economy on the territory of Russia. Domestic animals were brought here by settlers from the southern lands.
People who once lived in the Southern Urals also contributed to the Neolithic revolution. It was here, at the Mulino and Davlekanovo sites, that the world's oldest domestic bones were found horses, which were tamed by the ancient inhabitants of Russia.
The domestication of the horse dramatically accelerated the course of history. So, after the appearance of domestic horses in the Middle East, the first large states were there. Horses facilitated connections between different peoples, which contributed to their mutual development. It is no coincidence that in regions where it was not possible to domesticate a horse, development proceeded at a slower pace (for example, America, Australia).

§ 6. At the origins of civilization

Social division of labor. The birth of crafts and trade.
The economy in the first communities of farmers and cattle breeders was complex. Growing cereal crops and raising livestock complemented each other. However, differences in natural conditions very soon led to the emergence of specialization. It intensified as the production economy spread to new territories.
On fertile lands, the main occupation becomes agriculture and associated livestock raising. Farmers led a sedentary lifestyle. The tribes that found themselves in the steppe regions completely switched to cattle breeding, which, after the domestication of the horse and the development of the wheel, acquired a nomadic character. The so-called first major social division of labor took place - separation of agriculture and cattle breeding, and separate economic complexes.
In the settlements of farmers, people appeared who specialized in the production of various products from stone, metals, clay, the manufacture of textiles, etc. They are called artisans. Over time, many began to live exclusively from crafts. The second major social division of labor took place - separation of crafts from agriculture and cattle breeding.
The social division of labor contributed to the development of exchange. Craftsmen supplied farmers and pastoralists with their products, receiving food from them. Farmers and herders also exchanged their products. So
trade was born.

Proto-cities.
Some farming villages grew into larger settlements. They began to build walls made of stone or clay around them to protect them from enemies. Houses also often began to be made from clay bricks. Such settlements resembled cities. In the center of the settlement there was usually one or more temples - the home of the gods. The gods were now considered patrons of crops and domestic animals. Particularly revered were the god of the sun, the god of the wind, and the god of rain, who controlled natural phenomena that influenced the lives of farmers and cattle breeders.
One of the oldest settlements discovered in the city Jericho| in Palestine. People began to settle here in the 8th millennium BC. (around ancient Jericho, in which up to 3 thousand people lived), the remains of walls up to 3 m thick made of stone were found. In the vicinity of the proto-city, wheat, lentils, barley, figs were grown, and there was asphalt and sulfur, which were sold to neighbors.
An even larger urban settlement, Çatal-Hüyük (Chatal-Hüyük), existed in the 7th-6th millennia BC. in Mint Asia. Dwellings in Çatalhöyük were built from sun-dried bricks. Standard houses stood close to each other, there were no streets in the city, and all life outside the house took place on the roofs, where the doors to the houses were located. Residents were engaged in growing bread in the surrounding fields. For their irrigation, simple canals were built.

The beginning of the formation of nations.
With the development of the production economy, differences in the pace of development of different regions of the world increase. Where there were favorable conditions for agriculture and crafts, development proceeded faster. Natural and climatic conditions also affected the formation of different peoples.
Linguists will place dead and modern languages ​​into language families and groups. It is assumed that once upon a time the ancestors of speakers of related languages ​​formed a single community and lived in one place. Then separate groups of these communities dispersed into different territories, mixed with other tribes, and differences appeared in their languages.
Scientists argue which peoples lived on the territory of Western Asia during the period of the formation of a productive economy there. Many language families were formed in this region. In particular, there, as well as in North Africa, lived the tribes that gave rise to Semshto-Hamitic languages. These languages ​​were spoken by many ancient peoples: Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians.
There is a point of view that in some areas of Western Asia during the Neolithic period there lived tribes that gave rise to Indo-European languages. Nowadays, a significant part of the world's population speaks Indo-European languages. Slavic languages ​​also belong to the Indo-European languages.
The question of time and place of appearance Indo-Europeans has been the subject of debate among scientists for more than two hundred years, since the kinship of languages ​​distributed over vast lands from India to Western Europe was established (hence their name). Currently, most scientists believe that the Indo-European community began to take shape in the 4th-3rd millennia BC. e. But there are opinions about an earlier period (VI - V Millennium BC).
It was previously believed that the ancestral homeland of the Indo-European peoples was Southern Scandinavia and Northern Germany. Currently, this point of view has almost no supporters. The theory of the Balkan-Danubian ancestral home was widespread. Nowadays, the version about the southern Russian ancestral home (Eastern Ukraine, Northern Caucasus, Volga region, Southern Cis-Urals) is becoming increasingly popular. Finally, a version is expressed about the eastern Anatolian ancestral home (north of Western Asia).
The main occupation of the Indo-European tribes for a long time was cattle breeding. It was the ancient Indo-Europeans who domesticated the horse. Mastering the secret of making bronze weapons made the Indo-Europeans very warlike. Their separate groups moved in different directions, trying to capture the best lands. Mixing with other tribes and passing on their languages ​​to them, they settled in Europe, Central Asia, Iran, India, etc.

Evolution of social relations. Neighborhood community.
The Mesolithic and Neolithic periods became a time of change in the main unit of the then society - the community.
As farmers improved their tools and used draft animals, the individual family became an increasingly independent production unit. The need for joint work disappeared. This process was enhanced by the introduction of bronze, and especially iron, tools. The tribal community gave way to the neighboring one. In it, tribal ties were replaced by territorial ones.
Housing, tools, and draft animals in the neighboring community become the property of individual families. However, arable and other land continued to remain in communal ownership. As a rule, members of one family worked on the arable land, but clearing the fields and irrigating them were carried out jointly by all members of the neighboring community.
Among pastoralists, clan relationships lasted longer than among farmers. The herds remained the common property of the clan for a long time.
Over time, equality within the community became a thing of the past. In the families themselves, the power of the head over other household members increased.
“Which families became wealthier than others, accumulated wealth. The leaders and elders found themselves in the most advantageous position.

At the origins of statehood.
The highest governing body in communities and tribes was the meeting, in which all adult community members and members of the tribe took part. Elected by the assembly for the period of hostilities leader was entirely dependent on the support of his fellow tribesmen. Elders formed the tribal community council. All relations within society were regulated by customs and traditions. Thus, the organization of power in primitive communities and tribes can be called self-government.
As material inequality developed, inequality in governance also increased. Wealthier members of the community and tribe began to exert increasing influence on management. In the people's assembly, their word becomes decisive. The power of the leader extended to periods of peace, and gradually began to be inherited. In conditions of growing inequality, many customs and traditions ceased to effectively regulate life. The leaders had to resolve disputes between their fellow tribesmen and punish them for offenses that could not have happened before. For example, after the emergence of property in individual families, theft appeared, which did not exist before, since everything was common.
The development of inequality was facilitated by increased clashes between tribes. During the Paleolithic period, wars were rare and often stopped at the first wounds. Wars were fought constantly in the context of the formation of a productive economy. Individual communities and tribes accumulated large reserves of food. Other tribes, poorer ones, were jealous of this. And the rich tribes were not averse to making money on the side.
For successful defense and attacks, the tribes united into alliances led by a military leader. The best warriors (combatants) rallied around the leaders.
In many ancient societies, leaders also acquired priestly functions: only they could communicate with the gods and ask them for help for their fellow tribesmen. The leader-priest led the rituals at the temples.
Over time, the tribesmen began to supply the leader and his entourage with everything they needed. Initially these were voluntary gifts, signs of respect. Then voluntary donations became mandatory taxes - taxes. The material basis for this phenomenon was success in economic development. It is estimated, for example, that the primitive farmer of Western Asia provided himself with food for a whole year in two months of work. The rest of the time he gave what he produced to the leaders and priests.
After a successful raid on their neighbors, the leader and his warriors received a larger and better part of the booty. The elders and priests also got a lot of spoils. There were also prisoners among the booty. Previously, they were released, either sacrificed to the gods, or eaten. Now the prisoners were forced to work. The growth of wealth of leaders and nobles as a result of wars further increased their power over their fellow tribesmen.
Tribes united in alliances were usually not friendly with each other. Often one tribe dominated an alliance, sometimes forcing others to join the alliance. It was not uncommon for one tribe to conquer another. In this case, the conquerors had to develop new control mechanisms. The leaders of the conquering tribes became rulers, and their fellow tribesmen became assistants in managing the conquered. The structure created was in many ways reminiscent state, one of the main features of which is the presence bodies for managing society, separated from society itself.
At the same time, the traditions of self-government persisted for a very long time. Thus, even the most powerful leader convened a people's assembly, where important decisions were discussed and approved. The assembly elected a successor to the deceased chief, even if he was his son. The role of self-government increased in extreme conditions: during an attack by a stronger enemy, a natural disaster, etc.
The first states arose where leaders and their assistants also became leaders of economic life. This was the case in those places where farming required the construction and maintenance of complex irrigation structures.

The beginning of civilization.
The period of primitiveness in certain areas of the earth ended at the turn of the 4th-111th millennium BC. It was replaced by a period called civilization. The word “civilization” itself is associated with the word “city”. City building is one of the first signs of the birth of civilization. Civilization finally took shape after the emergence of states. Gradually, a culture characteristic of civilization was formed. began to play a huge role in this culture and in all life. writing, the emergence of which is also considered the most important sign of the transition to civilization.
By the end of the Ancient World period (5th century AD), the area of ​​civilization was a strip of land from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Outside this strip lived tribes that did not have their own states. The area of ​​civilization expanded, although there was also a reverse movement due to wars and natural disasters.
Civilization among different peoples had its differences. It was influenced by natural and climatic conditions, the circumstances of the historical path of peoples, etc. Historians talk about different ancient civilizations. Sometimes this term refers to the history of an individual people or state (ancient Egyptian civilization, Sumerian civilization, Chinese civilization, Greek civilization, Roman civilization, etc.). However, the civilizations of the Ancient World had a lot in common, which allows us to combine them into two models - ancient eastern civilization And ancient civilization.
Ancient Eastern - the first civilization. Its most ancient form was the state in the valleys of the great rivers - the Nile, Euphrates and Tigris, Indus, Yellow River. Then states emerged outside the river valleys. All ancient Eastern countries were characterized by a large role of state power, the enormous power of monarch rulers. The predominant population was the peasantry, united, as a rule, into communities. Slavery played a minor role.
Ancient civilization developed later. It mainly covered the Mediterranean region. True, the first states here are also attributed to the ancient Eastern civilization. However, then, for reasons that are not entirely explained, development took a different path. The features of self-government began to predominate in the state structure of ancient states. Ancient states were called policies. Rulers in the polis were elected at popular assemblies, the role of state bodies was played by the former community structures, for example, the council of elders (Areopagus, Senate). However, over time, the polis system was replaced by monarchical power. In ancient states, a significant part of the population lived in cities. Along with agriculture, crafts and trade became of great importance. Slave labor played a significant role.