Physiological characteristics of Cro-Magnons. Cro-Magnon man is smarter than modern man

Cro-Magnons - common name early representatives modern humans, who appeared much later than the Neanderthals and coexisted with them for some time (40-30 thousand years ago). By appearance And physical development practically no different from modern man.

The term "Cro-Magnon" can mean in the narrow sense only people discovered in the Cro-Magnon Grotto and living nearby 30 thousand years ago; V in a broad sense this is the entire population of Europe or the entire world of the era Upper Paleolithic.

Number of achievements, changes in social organization The life of the Cro-Magnon man was so great that it was several times greater than the number of achievements of Pithecanthropus and Neanderthal man combined. The Cro-Magnons inherited from their ancestors a large active brain and quite practical technology, thanks to which they took an unprecedented step forward in a relatively short period of time. This manifested itself in aesthetics, the development of communication and symbol systems, tool-making technology and active adaptation to external conditions, as well as in new forms of social organization and a more complex approach to one's own kind.

Etymology

The name comes from the rocky grotto of Cro-Magnon in France (the city of Les Eyzy de Taillac-Sireuil in the Dordogne department), where in 1868 the French paleontologist Louis Larte discovered and described several human skeletons along with tools Late Paleolithic. The age of this population is estimated at 30 thousand years.

Geography

The most important fossil finds: in France - Cro-Magnon, in Great Britain - the Red Lady of Pavyland, in the Czech Republic - Dolni Vestonice and Mladeč, Serbia - Lepenski Vir, in Romania - Peshtera ku Oase, in Russia - Markina Gora, Sungir , Denisova Cave and Oleneostrovsky burial ground, in Southern Crimea- Murzak-Koba.

Culture

The Cro-Magnons were the carriers of a number of cultures of the Upper Paleolithic (Gravettian culture) and Mesolithic (Tardenoise culture, Maglemose, Ertebølle) eras. Subsequently, their habitats experienced migration flows of other representatives of the Homo sapiens species (for example, the Linear Band Ceramics Culture). These people made tools not only from stone, but also from horn and bone. On the walls of their caves they left drawings depicting people, animals, and hunting scenes. The Cro-Magnons made various decorations. They got their first pet - a dog.

Numerous finds indicate the presence of a cult of hunting. The animal figures were pierced with arrows, thus killing the animal.

The Cro-Magnons had funeral rites. Household items, food, and jewelry were placed in the grave. The dead were sprinkled with blood-red ochre, had hair nets, bracelets on their arms, flat stones placed on their faces, and were buried in a bent position (fetal position).

According to another version, modern representatives of Negroid and Mongoloid races formed autonomously, and Cro-Magnons spread for the most part only in the area of ​​Neanderthals (North Africa, the Middle East, middle Asia, Europe). The first humans with Cromanoid features appeared 160,000 years ago in East Africa(Ethiopia). They left it 100,000 years ago. They entered Europe through the Caucasus to the Don River basin. Migration to the West began approximately 40,000 years ago, and after 6 thousand years it appeared rock painting in the caves of France.

Genetics

see also

• Guanches - extinct indigenous people Canary Islands, representatives of the afalu-mechtoid subrace, considered close to Cro-Magnons in their anthropological type.

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Literature

• P.I. Boriskovsky. pp. 15-24 // STRATUM plus. 2001-2002. No. 1. In the beginning there was a stone;
• Roginsky Ya. Ya., Levin M. G., Anthropology, M., 1963;
• Nesturkh M.F., Origin of Man, M., 1958, p. 321-38.

Popular science literature

• Eduard Storch - "Mammoth Hunters". A book with links to real archaeological sources
• B. Bayer, U. Birstein and others. History of mankind, 2002, ISBN 5-17-012785-5

Notes

Links

• - Upper Paleolithic site of an ancient man near Vladimir, 192 km from Moscow

An excerpt characterizing Cro-Magnons

Quickly in the semi-darkness they dismantled the horses, tightened the girths and sorted out the teams. Denisov stood at the guardhouse, giving the last orders. The party's infantry, slapping a hundred feet, marched forward along the road and quickly disappeared between the trees in the predawn fog. Esaul ordered something to the Cossacks. Petya held his horse on the reins, impatiently awaiting the order to mount. Washed cold water, his face, especially his eyes, burned with fire, a chill ran down his back, and something in his whole body was trembling quickly and evenly.
- Well, is everything ready for you? - Denisov said. - Give us the horses.
The horses were brought in. Denisov became angry with the Cossack because the girths were weak, and, scolding him, sat down. Petya took hold of the stirrup. The horse, out of habit, wanted to bite his leg, but Petya, not feeling his weight, quickly jumped into the saddle and, looking back at the hussars who were moving behind in the darkness, rode up to Denisov.
- Vasily Fedorovich, will you entrust me with something? Please... for God's sake... - he said. Denisov seemed to have forgotten about Petya’s existence. He looked back at him.
“I ask you about one thing,” he said sternly, “to obey me and not to interfere anywhere.”
During the entire journey, Denisov did not speak a word to Petya and rode in silence. When we arrived at the edge of the forest, the field was noticeably getting lighter. Denisov spoke in a whisper with the esaul, and the Cossacks began to drive past Petya and Denisov. When they had all passed, Denisov started his horse and rode downhill. Sitting on their hindquarters and sliding, the horses descended with their riders into the ravine. Petya rode next to Denisov. The trembling throughout his body intensified. It became lighter and lighter, only the fog hid distant objects. Moving down and looking back, Denisov nodded his head to the Cossack standing next to him.
- Signal! - he said.
The Cossack raised his hand and a shot rang out. And at the same instant, the tramp of galloping horses was heard in front, screams from different sides and more shots.
At the same instant as the first sounds of stomping and screaming were heard, Petya, hitting his horse and releasing the reins, not listening to Denisov, who was shouting at him, galloped forward. It seemed to Petya that it suddenly dawned as brightly as the middle of the day at that moment when the shot was heard. He galloped towards the bridge. Cossacks galloped along the road ahead. On the bridge he encountered a lagging Cossack and rode on. Some people ahead - they must have been French - were running from the right side of the road to the left. One fell into the mud under the feet of Petya's horse.

The first human scientific discovery modern type was a headless skeleton found in Wells, England in 1823. It was a burial: the deceased was decorated with shells and sprinkled with red ocher, which subsequently settled on the bones. The skeleton was considered female and nicknamed “Red Lady” (a hundred years later it was recognized as male). But the most famous are later finds (1868) in the Cro-Magnon grotto (France), by which all ancient people are often not quite named Cro-Magnons.

These were tall people (170-180 cm), practically no different from us, with large, ruggedly handsome features and broad faces. A similar anthropological type is still found among living people in the Balkans and the Caucasus. Subsequently, the remains of people of this type were found in many places in Europe, in our country from the Crimean caves to Sungir near the city of Vladimir.

In ancient times, humanity was no less diverse than it is now. Along with the Cro-Magnons, sometimes next to them, representatives of other forms lived in Europe and Asia.

Neoanthropes lived in the era of the so-called upper paleotype. Like the Neanderthals, they used more than just caves for housing. They built huts from tree trunks, mammoth bones and skins, and in Siberia even from stone slabs. Their tools are becoming more sophisticated; in addition to stone, horn and bone are used in their production. Modern man painted magnificent frescoes on the walls of caves depicting game animals: horses, mammoths, bison (probably for some kind of magical rituals), decorated himself with necklaces, bracelets and rings made of shells and mammoth bones; domesticated the first animal - the dog.

Cro-Magnons lived in caves or huts at the very end of the last of the ice ages. At the same time, the climate was cold and winters were snowy; only short grasses and shrubs could grow in such conditions. Cro-Magnons hunted reindeer and woolly mammoths. Cro-Magnons learned to make many new types of weapons. They tied sharp points made of deer antler to their spears with the teeth pointing back so that the spear would stick deep into the side of the wounded animal. In order to throw a spear as far as possible, they used special throwing devices. These devices were made from deer antler, and some of them were decorated with different patterns.

They caught fish using harpoons carved from deer antlers, with tips and barbs curved back. Harpoons were tied to spears, and fishermen pierced fish with them right in the water.

Cro-Magnons built huts from long shin bones and mammoth tusks, covering the frame animal skins. The ends of the bones were inserted into the skulls, since the builders could not stick them into the frozen ground. Many burials have been discovered in the earthen floors of Cro-Magnon huts and caves. This skeleton was covered with beads made from stones and shells that had previously been attached to its rotted clothing. The dead were usually placed in the grave in a bent position, with their knees pressed to their chins. Sometimes various tools and weapons are also found in graves.

These Cro-Magnons cut deer antlers using a chisel-shaped stone tool - a chisel.

They were probably the first people to learn how to make needles and sew. At one end of the needle they made a hole that served as an eye. Then they cleaned the edges and tip of the needle by rubbing it against a special stone. Perhaps they pierced the skin with a stone drill so that they could thread a needle through the resulting holes. Instead of thread, they used thin strips of animal skin or intestines. Cro-Magnons often sewed small beads made of colorful stones onto their clothes to make them look more elegant. Sometimes for these purposes they also used shells with holes in the middle.

Apparently, the Cro-Magnons and other people who lived at that time were practically no different from us in the development of higher nervous activity. At this level, human biological evolution is completed. The previous mechanisms of anthropogenesis have ceased to operate.

What were these mechanisms? Let us recall that the genus Homo originates from australopithecines - actually monkeys, but with a bipedal gait. Not a single monkey that moved from the trees to the ground did this, but not a single one, except our ancestors, made the main weapon of defense and attack, first selected in nature, and then artificially made. That is why natural selection for better tool activity is considered the main factor of anthropogenesis. This is exactly what F. Engels meant when he noted that labor created man.

As a result of the cruel selection of the most skilled craftsmen and skillful hunters, such achievements of anthropogenesis as a large and complex brain, a hand suitable for the most delicate labor operations, a perfect bipedal gait and articulate speech were developed. It is also important to emphasize the fact that from the very beginning man was a social animal - australopithecines, apparently, lived in packs and only because of this were they able, for example, to finish off a weakened and wounded animal and fight off the attack of large predators.

All this led to the fact that at the stage of neoanthropes such powerful factors of evolution as natural selection and intraspecific struggle lost their significance and were replaced by social ones. As a result, human biological evolution almost ceased.

Cro-Magnons are inhabitants of the Late Stone Age, who were similar in many of their features to our contemporaries. The remains of these people were first discovered in the Cro-Magnon grotto, located in France, which gave them their name. Many parameters - the structure of the skull and features of the hand, body proportions and even the size of the brain of Cro-Magnons are close to modern humans. Therefore, the opinion has taken root in science that they are our direct ancestors.

Appearance Features

Researchers believe that Cro-Magnon man lived about 30 thousand years ago, and it is interesting that for some time he coexisted with Neanderthal man, who later finally gave way to more modern representative primates. For about 6 thousand years, scientists believe, these two types of ancient people simultaneously inhabited Europe, in sharp conflict over food and other resources.

Despite the fact that Cro-Magnon appearance not much inferior to our contemporaries, muscle mass was more developed in him. This was due to the conditions in which this person lived - the physically weak were doomed to death.

What are the differences?

• The Cro-Magnon has a characteristic chin protuberance and a high forehead. The Neanderthal had a very small chin, and the brow ridges were characteristically pronounced.
• Cro-Magnon man had the volume of the brain cavity necessary for brain development, which was not the case in more ancient people.
• The elongated pharynx, flexibility of the tongue and the location of the oral and nasal cavities allowed Cro-Magnon man to receive the gift of speech. Neanderthal man, as researchers believe, could make several consonant sounds; his speech apparatus allowed him to do this, but he did not have speech in the traditional sense.

Unlike the Neanderthal man, the Cro-Magnon man had a less massive build, a high skull without a sloping chin, wide face and narrower than modern people eye sockets.

The table shows some features of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons, their differences from modern humans.

As can be seen from the table, the Cro-Magnon man, in terms of structural features, is much closer to our contemporaries than to Neanderthal man. Anthropological finds indicate that they could interbreed.

Geography of distribution

The remains of Cro-Magnon-type humans are found in various parts of the world. Skeletons and bones have been discovered in many areas European countries: Czech Republic, Romania, Great Britain, Serbia, Russia, and also in Africa.

Lifestyle

Researchers were able to recreate a model of the Cro-Magnon lifestyle. Thus, it has been proven that it was they who created the first settlements in human history, in which they lived in fairly large communities, including from 20 to 100 members. It was these people who learned to communicate with each other and possessed primitive speech skills. The Cro-Magnon lifestyle meant doing business together. Thanks largely to this, they were able to achieve impressive success in the hunting-gathering economy. Yes, hunting in large groups, together, allowed these people to obtain large animals as prey: mammoths, aurochs. Such achievements were, of course, beyond the capabilities of one hunter, even the most experienced.

In short, the Cro-Magnon lifestyle largely continued the traditions of Neanderthal people. They also hunted, used the skins of killed animals to make primitive clothing, and lived in caves. But independent buildings made of stones or tents made of skins could also be used as a dwelling. Sometimes they dug original dugouts to provide shelter from bad weather. In the matter of housing, Cro-Magnon man managed to make a small innovation - nomadic hunters began to build light, dismountable huts that could be easily erected during a stop and assembled.

Community life

The structural features and lifestyle of the Cro-Magnon man make him in many ways similar to a modern person. So, in the communities of these ancient people there was a division of labor. The men hunted and killed wild animals together. Women also took part in food preparation: they collected berries, seeds and nutritious roots. The fact that jewelry is found in the graves of children indicates that parents had warm feelings for their descendants, grieved over the early loss, and tried to at least take care of the child posthumously. Due to the increased life expectancy, Cro-Magnon man was able to pass on his knowledge and experience to the next generation, and be more attentive to raising children. Therefore, child mortality has also decreased.

Some burials differ from others in their rich decorations and abundance of utensils. Researchers believe that noble members of the community, respected for some merit, are buried here.

Tools of labor and hunting

The invention of the harpoon is the merit of the Cro-Magnon man. The lifestyle of this ancient man changed after the appearance of such weapons. Affordable, effective fishing provided adequate food in the form of sea and river inhabitants. This one ancient man began to make snares for birds, something his predecessors had not yet been able to do.

When hunting, ancient man learned to use not only strength, but also ingenuity, constructing traps for animals many times larger than himself. Therefore, obtaining food for an entire community required much less effort than in the days of their predecessors. The corralling of herds of wild animals and mass round-ups of them were popular. Ancient people mastered the science of collective hunting: they frightened large mammals, forcing them to flee to those areas where it was easiest to kill prey.

Cro-Magnon man managed to walk up the stairs evolutionary development much taller than his predecessor, the Neanderthal. He began to use more advanced tools, which allowed him to gain advantages in hunting. So, with the help of spear throwers, this ancient man was able to increase the distance traveled by the spear. Therefore, hunting has become safer, and prey has become more abundant. Long spears were also used as weapons. Tools became more complex, needles, drills, scrapers appeared, for which ancient man learned to use everything that came to hand: stones and bones, horns and tusks.

A distinctive feature of Cro-Magnon tools and weapons is narrower specialization, careful workmanship, and the use of a variety of materials in production. Some products are decorated with carved ornaments, indicating that ancient people were not alien to their unique understanding of beauty.

Food

The basis of the Cro-Magnon diet was the meat of animals killed in hunts, primarily mammals. At the time when these ancient people lived, horses, goats, deer and aurochs, bison and antelope were common, and they served as the main source of food. Having learned to fish with harpoons, people began to eat salmon, which in abundance rose through the shallow water to spawn. Of the birds, according to anthropologists, ancient inhabitants could catch partridges - these birds fly low and could well have become the victim of a well-thrown spear. However, there is a hypothesis that they were also able to catch waterfowl. According to scientists, the Cro-Magnons stored meat reserves in glaciers, the low temperature of which did not allow the product to spoil.

Plant foods were also used by the Cro-Magnons: they ate berries, roots and bulbs, and seeds. In warm latitudes, women mined shellfish.

Art

The Cro-Magnon man also became famous for the fact that he began to create objects of art. These people painted colorful images of animals on the walls of caves and carved anthropomorphic figures from ivory and deer antlers. It is believed that by painting silhouettes of animals on the walls, ancient hunters wanted to attract prey. Researchers believe that it was during this period that the first music and the earliest musical instrument- stone pipe.

Funeral rituals

The fact that the Cro-Magnon lifestyle has become more complex compared to his ancestors is also evidenced by changes in funeral traditions. Thus, burials often contain an abundance of jewelry (bracelets, beads and necklaces), which indicate that the deceased was rich and noble. Attention to funeral rituals, covering the bodies of the dead with red paint allowed researchers to conclude that the inhabitants of the ancient Stone Age had some rudiments of beliefs about the soul and the afterlife. Household items and food were also placed in the graves.

Achievements

Cro-Magnon lifestyle in harsh conditions ice age caused these people to take tailoring more seriously. Based on the finds - rock paintings and remains of bone needles - the researchers concluded that the inhabitants of the Late Stone Age knew how to sew primitive items of clothing. They wore jackets with hoods, pants, even mittens and shoes. Clothes were often decorated with beads, which researchers believe was a sign of honor and respect among other members of the community. It was these people who learned to make the first dishes using baked clay. Scientists believe that during the time of the Cro-Magnons, the first animal was domesticated - the dog.

The era of the Cro-Magnons is separated from us by a thousand years, so we can only guess how exactly they lived, what they used for food and what kind of order reigned in the settlements. Therefore, many controversial and ambiguous hypotheses arise, which have not yet found serious scientific evidence.

• Discovery of a Neanderthal baby's jaw, mutilated stone tool, made researchers think that Cro-Magnons could have eaten Neanderthals.
• It was Cro-Magnon man who caused the extinction of the Neanderthals: a more developed species displaced the latter into territories with an arid climate, where there was practically no prey, dooming them to death.

The structural features of the Cro-Magnon man in many ways bring him closer to the modern type of man. Thanks to developed brain, these ancient people were new round evolution, their achievements both in practical and in spiritual sense truly great.

One of the groups of fossil neoanthropes. Name comes from the Cro Magnon grotto in the dep. Dordogne (France), where several were discovered in 1868. skeletons of people of this type. Bone remains of K. have been known (since 1823) from the late Pleistocene of Europe.… … Biological encyclopedic dictionary

Modern encyclopedia

- (from the name of the Cro Magnon grotto Cro Magnon, in France), a generalized name for fossil people of the modern species (neoanthropes) of the late Paleolithic era. Known from bone remains discovered in all parts of the world. Appeared approx. 40 thousand years ago... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Cro-Magnons- (Cro Magnons), prehistoric. people of modern times species (Homo sapiens), inhabiting Europe ca. 35 10 thousand years ago. K. had a more massive physique than modern ones. human, but otherwise the same anatomically. x ki. Appeared in Europe approx. 35 thousand years ago, and... ... The World History

Cro-Magnons- (from the name of the Cro Magnon grotto, Cro Magnon, in France), the most common fossil of modern humans (neoanthropes) of the late Paleolithic era. Known from skeletal remains mainly from Europe. Appeared about 40 thousand years ago... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

Cev; pl. (singular Cro-Magnon, Ntsa; m.). A general name for people of the Late Paleolithic era ● The name comes from the Cro-Magnon grotto in France, where skeletal bones of Cro-Magnons were found in 1868. ◁ Cro-Magnon, oh, oh. Second era, cave. * *… … encyclopedic Dictionary

A general name for people of the late Paleolithic era. The name comes from the Cro Magnon grotto in the Dordogne department (France), where in 1868 the French archaeologist and paleontologist L. Larte made discoveries of K. S... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Cro-Magnons- the term is ambiguous: 1) in the narrow sense, Cro-Magnons are people discovered in the Cro-Magnon grotto (France) and who lived about 30 thousand years ago; 2) in a broader sense, this is the entire population of Europe during the Upper Paleolithic from 40 to 10 thousand years ago; 3)… … Physical Anthropology. Illustrated explanatory dictionary.

- (after the name of the Cro Magnon cave in France, where the first finds of fossil remains were made) modern people who existed in Europe in the Upper Pleistocene and were sharply different from Neanderthals. New dictionary foreign words … Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

A general name for people of the Late Paleolithic era. Name comes from the Cro Magnon grotto in the dep. Dordogne (France), where the first discoveries by K. S. anthropologist were made in 1868. K.'s points of view relate to modern. human species (Homo... ... Soviet historical encyclopedia

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Cro-Magnons are the common name for the ancestors of people who existed 40-10 thousand years ago (). Cro-Magnons are a sharp leap in the development of human evolution, which became decisive not only in the survival of the human race, but also in the formation of Homo sapiens.

Cro-Magnons appeared much later, about 40-50 thousand years ago. According to some estimates, the earliest Cro-Magnons could have existed more than 100 thousand years ago. Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons are species of the genus Homo.

Neanderthals supposedly evolved from humans, who in turn were a species of Homo erectus (), and were not the ancestors of humans. Cro-Magnons descended from Homo erectus and are the direct ancestors of modern humans. The name "Cro-Magnon" refers to the discovery of several human skeletons with Late Paleolithic tools in the rock grotto of Cro-Magnon, France. Later, the remains of Cro-Magnons and their cultures were found in many parts of the world - in Great Britain, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Romania, and Russia.

Scientists offer different versions of the appearance and spread of Cro-Magnons, the ancestors of humans. Judging by one version, the first representatives of the ancestors of people with the Cro-Magnon type of development (a species of Homo erectus) appeared in East Africa 130-180 thousand years ago. About 50-60 thousand years ago, Cro-Magnons began to migrate from Africa to Eurasia. Initially, one group settled on the coast of the Indian Ocean, and the second settled in the steppes Central Asia. A little later, migration began to Europe, which was settled by Cro-Magnons about 20 thousand years ago. There are also other versions about the spread of Cro-Magnons.

Cro-Magnons had a huge advantage over the Neanderthals that existed at the same time in Europe. Although the Neanderthals were more adapted to northern conditions, they were more powerful and stronger, they could not resist the Cro-Magnons. The direct ancestors of people were carriers of such high culture for that time, the Neanderthals were clearly inferior to them in development, although, according to some studies, the Neanderthal brain was larger, he knew how to create tools for labor and hunting, used fire, created clothes and homes, knew how to make jewelry, had speech, and so on. By that time, the Cro-Magnon man had already made quite complex jewelry from stone, horn and bone, as well as cave drawings. The Cro-Magnons were the first to come up with human settlements and lived in communities (tribal communities) that included up to 100 people. As dwellings in different parts The Cro-Magnons used caves, tents made of animal skins, dugouts, and houses made of stone slabs. The Cro-Magnons created clothing from skins and made more modern tools for labor and hunting than their ancestors and Neanderthals. Cro-Magnons also domesticated the dog for the first time.

As researchers suggest, migrating Cro-Magnons who arrived in Europe met here with Neanderthals, who long before them had already mastered the best territories, populated the most convenient caves, and settled in advantageous areas near rivers or in places where there was a lot of prey. Probably, in 1960, the Cro-Magnons, who had a higher development, simply exterminated the Neanderthals. Archaeologists find bones of Neanderthals at Cro-Magnon sites that have obvious traces of eating them, that is, Neanderthals were not only exterminated, but also eaten. There is also a version that only part of the Neanderthals were destroyed, the rest were able to assimilate with the Cro-Magnons.

Finds of Cro-Magnons clearly indicate the existence of religious ideas. The beginnings of religion are also observed among Neanderthals, but many scientists express great doubts about this. Among the Cro-Magnons cult rituals are very clearly visible. Tens of thousands of years ago, the ancestors of people performed complex funeral rites, buried their relatives in a bent position in the fetal position (belief in the transmigration of the soul, rebirth), and decorated the dead various products, placed household items, food in the grave (belief in afterlife soul, in which she will need the same things as during earthly life - plates, food, weapons, etc.).