Archaeological cultures of the early Upper Paleolithic. Paleolithic

general characteristics 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 man, Homo sapiens, i.e. a reasonable person. 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 this time 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 the tribal 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 was also used to cover parts of tools 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, along with stone tools, of tools made of bone: spear tips, darts and harpoons 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 more often made from wood, but since it is poorly preserved, archaeologists more often find bone spear throwers or 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, in Buryatia, at the Buret site, a bone figurine of a woman was discovered, made from mammoth ivory, wearing clothes with a hood on her head. 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. One of the options was a warm suit made of fur, the length of which reached the ankles. 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. Indicative in this regard are the finds of burials at the Sungir site (Vladimir region), where the deceased was covered with a huge amount of bone jewelry, the arrangement of which made it possible to reconstruct the costume of an Upper Paleolithic person.

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.
Archaeological cultures In the Upper Paleolithic, not only did population density increase, but also the human ecumene expanded. 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, northern and northeastern Europe, mountainous regions... 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.

In Western Europe, there are a number of cultures that either replace one another or coexist in different territories from 40 to 10 thousand years ago. The main ones are the Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian cultures, or industries.

Seletskaya the culture developed at the beginning of the Wurm I-II interstadial or a little earlier. Many Mousterian features are preserved in material culture. Its early stage took place in a mild climate, while its advanced stage took place in a drier climate. The beginning of the seleto dates back to about 42 thousand years ago. Characteristic are the leaf-shaped tips of spears and darts, processed on both sides and made with flat retouching. Certain types of Mousterian tools are preserved, including leaf-shaped side scrapers.

Aurignacian industries are widespread from the Middle East (about 40 thousand years ago) to the western regions of Europe (from 37 to 30 thousand years ago), sometimes they live up to 20 thousand years ago. In Central Europe, Aurignacian industries had no local roots. According to the prevailing point of view, they advanced from the south, from the Balkan Peninsula. It is possible that they could have entered the Balkans from the Middle East. Aurignacian industries are characterized by types of tools such as end scrapers, various types of burins and drills, bone and horn tips of spears, darts and even arrows. According to a number of scientists, bows and arrows spread in Europe at this time. The bone tips of Aurignacian spears and darts are the first bone products to obtain a stable, permanently preserved form.

The creators of Aurignacian industries lived in small, rather isolated groups. These groups had hunting territories of less than 200 square meters. km each. Aurignacian sites are often found in river valleys, where they usually form groups. These include cave settlements in southern Belgium and southwestern France, and sites in the valleys of small rivers - tributaries of the Danube and Rhine.

For Gravettian industries are characterized by more diverse types of tools than Aurignacian ones. Gravettian tools are predominantly made from well-cut, usually quite small blades with extensive use of steep blunting retouch. Gravette dates mainly to the period 30-20 thousand years ago, but in some places it survives until the 13th thousand.

Hunting for the inhabitants of the tundra - mammoth and reindeer, cave bear, wolf, wild bull - was the main occupation of the Gravettian population in Central and Western Europe, and hunting for red deer predominated in Northern Italy. The hunt was of a specifically steppe nature. It is characterized by a fairly homogeneous prey composition and early specialization on certain animal species. Steppe hunting has reached a higher level than forest hunting. In the forests, people were forced to use a diverse set of weapons and were guided by a wide range of game. Steppe hunting led to a higher level of economic development - hence the emergence of more permanent settlements among the Gravettian population and the formation of the so-called semi-sedentary hunting society.

In Southwestern France, in the southern part of Central France, as well as in the Pyrenees, Catalonia and Asturias, they were widespread Solutrean industry. They date from 21 to 16 thousand years ago. Some scientists derive them from the Seletian ones, others believe that they moved here from North Africa. Typical products of Solutre are laurel and willow spearheads, side and end scrapers, and drills. In the Basque country, harsh, quite rugged, where there are no wide river valleys and coastal plains, the main hunting objects of the Solutrean population were chamois and mountain goats. In the vast open areas, hunting for red deer, horse, and bison predominated.

Madeleine industries characterize the latest period of the Upper Paleolithic and are distributed mainly in France, northern Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, the south of Germany, but the characteristic features of the Madeleine can be found throughout the periglacial region of Europe up to the Urals. Only Magdalenian impulses from the west penetrated into Central Europe, and the development itself took place on the basis of the Gravettian. In Eastern Europe, madeleine existed in a locally modified form.

Madeleine industries belong to the final phase of the last Wurm and the beginning of the post-glacial era and date back to 16-10 thousand years ago. The flint industry of Magdalenian cultures is dominated by flint burins, scrapers, and piercings; there are many antler and bone tools, including bone spearheads and harpoons.

One of the most striking monuments is the Sungir site in the Vladimir region. Children's 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.

Finds in the Kostenkovo-Borshevsky archaeological region on the Don (not far from Voronezh) made it possible to most fully restore the life of the people of the Upper Paleolithic. 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 a 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. Right there were decorations made from the fangs of predators. Other pits contained finished tools, for example, well-processed spear tips. 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 Vestonica (Czechoslovakia). The dwelling is also slightly recessed into the ground, oval in plan, its length is 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.

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 the simplest type of awls 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 bodies were sprinkled with red mineral paint. The position of the deceased is not always elongated; it can also be flexed. 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 area is the culture bambat. 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 the settlement of the Military Hospital, opened 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 knew both 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 that lived 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 population 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.

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 was made of light wooden poles, covered on the outside with animal skins; in the center of it was 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 counterparts, were familiar with 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 in the coastal zone, 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 also 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. Most likely, man entered America through a passage located at the narrowest point of the Bering Strait, following nomadic animals. 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 13.5 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 mountain caves Sandia archaeologist Frank Hibben found spearheads that were more crudely made, with a notch made on only 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 developed the entire territory of North America and created a number of new cultures: Clovis, Folsom, 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 the tips of the type Folsom 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. 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 13 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 islands of the Indian Ocean, as some ethnographers claim (it is possible that 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 Istapan, 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, it can be judged that the basis of the economy was hunting and fishing, only in some places gathering flourished .

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?

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 and 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 advanced 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.

Approximately 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 evidenced, 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 people 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 pattern 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).

Any archaeological culture is characterized by a set of different features. This is a funeral rite, features of material culture (house building, pottery, jewelry, etc.). But in the Upper Paleolithic era, when funeral rites are almost unknown, with rare exceptions, when there is no pottery, and evidence of house-building and jewelry making is sporadic, the most important feature that separates archaeological cultures is the method(s) of stone processing. They, these methods, were not the same, which was associated with different traditions inherited from different ancestors, different hunting conditions (for example, hunting a mammoth or a bird). For the Upper Paleolithic, as for almost the entire period of the Stone Age, the most important indicator of cultural differences was stone, the methods of its processing and the difference in the form of the resulting tools.

Kostenki-Streltsy culture(it is often called Streletskaya for short) is one of the oldest in the Kostenkovo-Borshevsky region (Paleolithic USSR, 1984, pp. 179-181). Its name comes from the settlements of the Middle Don - Kostenki and Strelitsa. Finds related to this culture lie both in the lower humus layer under the volcanic ash, and above it - at the very beginning of the upper humus layer. That is, this culture, according to stratigraphy, is one of the ancient ones, and it dates back to the interglacial period. It dates back more than 32 thousand years ago, and continued to exist during the heyday of the Paleolithic (approximately 24-17 thousand years ago).

What are the stone implements of this ancient Paleolithic culture? Let us remember that the sequence of stone processing by an ancient stonecutter is as follows: 1 - primary processing (splitting the workpiece, giving it its original, desired shape); 2 - secondary processing (giving the final shape to the product through additional chips and retouching). The end result is a specific set of tools needed for some purpose.

Researchers draw attention to the comparative primitiveness of the stone processing technique of the population of the Streltsy culture, which goes back to deep “Mousterian” antiquity (Mousterian), to the Neanderthal. This is evidenced, in particular, by the shape of the cores. It is “imperfect”: there are no cores of “modern form” (in the form of a truncated prism). Instead, there are cores from which the blanks were chipped not with vertical blows or squeezes, but with horizontal ones. The striking pads are uneven and sloping. This processing technique is typical of the Mousterian era, older and more primitive. Secondary stone processing is also more primitive - applying retouching.

The set of tools consists mainly of pointed points, side scrapers, massive bladed tools, scrapers, and leaf-shaped tools. There are also tools characteristic only of this culture - elegant triangular tips with a concave base.

In the later layers of the culture, new tools appeared (for example, piercing tools), rough and massive tools became a thing of the past, and tips with a concave base became more diverse. In other words, culture develops.

The dwelling of the Streltsy culture was also discovered. It was a light ground structure made of wood. Apparently, it was covered with animal skin. Stone and bones of large animals were not used for its construction. This type of housing was widespread in the first period of climate change throughout the Russian Plain.

Paleolithic researchers believe that the origin of the Streltsy culture is associated with the population of the southern regions - the Kuban and the interfluve of the river. Dniester. There are known monuments from the interglacial period, similar tools made of stone and techniques for processing them. This population moved to the northern regions - first to the Middle Don, then to the Oka. There, on the Oka, there is the famous Sungir site with a more developed culture than the Streltsy culture, but having much in common with it in the technique of stone processing and a set of stone tools. Because of this similarity, many people call it the “Streltsy culture,” and archaeologists associate the Sungir site with its origins with the population of the Streltsy culture. There is an assumption about the further advancement of this population to the north, to the banks of the river. Pechora (Kanivets, 1976; Bader, 1978).

How did the people of the Streltsy culture live? There is little data, but most of the bones at the sites belong to the wild horse, which was the main object of hunting. Weapon - a spear or dart with a flint tip. The Sungir people also used spears made from mammoth tusks, the striking force of which was enhanced by flint inserts.

But among the stone implements of the Streltsy culture, small tips were also found, the length of which was 2-2.5 cm. Others have a length from 3 to 6 cm. More than a hundred similar tips were discovered at one of the sites in Kostenki (Gmelinskaya). They completely replicate large spear and dart tips. Are these arrowheads? Paleolithicists A.N. Rogachev, N.D. Praslov, M.V. Anikovich believe that these are arrowheads (Praslov, 2006). The Gmelin site is more than 22 thousand years old. More than 400 arrowheads have been collected from the Solutrean layers of caves in Spain. In terms of their parameters and stalks, they are similar to the arrows of the Bronze Age. N.D. Praslov draws attention to the fact that in the rock paintings there are no large animals hit by arrows, but only medium-sized animals (a bow and arrow is most effective for medium-sized animals). Although the arrows are not depicted as clearly and clearly as we would like, there are no such arrow signs on rhinoceroses and mammoths. No remains of bows were found (these finds are absent or rare for other eras). It is difficult to isolate them in rock paintings due to the schematic nature of the images.

As a result, it is likely that the bow and arrow were invented long before the time “allotted” by scientists - 10 thousand years ago, at the end of the Ice Age. The bow and arrows could have been invented in connection with the need to effectively hunt fast horses, bison, and fur-bearing animals (Praslov, 2006, p. 41).

Kostenkovo-Spitsyno culture. Named after the locality and the surname of the famous Russian archaeologist - A.A. Spitsyn, who opened one of the sites near the village. Borshchevo. The finds of this culture lie in the same layer as the finds of the Streltsy culture. They are believed to have existed at the same time. How does this culture differ from the Streltsy culture?

During the initial processing (creation of cores), people of the Spitsyn culture received a more perfect core in the form of a truncated prism. Plates from such a core were chipped or split off by vertical chipping or spalling. The secondary processing technique is different (applying retouch). But the main thing is that the culture lacks Mousterian forms of tools and stone processing techniques. And in this respect, the culture seems to be more developed than Streltsy.

Why did people use different stone processing techniques at the same time? Some “dragged out” the legacy of the Neanderthals and outlived them for a long time, while others somehow immediately made the leap to more advanced tools and methods of processing them. The reasons for this phenomenon are unclear. According to A.N. Rogachev and M.V. Anikovich, this is due to different paths of transition from the Mousterian era to the late Paleolithic (Paleolithic of the USSR, p. 182). On this path there could be (or were absent), for example, traditions, habits, as well as the origin of people, their way of life. The example of the Spitsyn cult is not an isolated one. The same rapid leap from Moustier was made by the Aurignacian culture in France.

The set of animal bones is varied, and no species are singled out, like the horse in the Streltsy culture: mammoth, reindeer, bison, saiga, arctic fox, hare, horse, wolverine.

Above the volcanic ash in the upper humus (the period of the last warming) there are Paleolithic sites, which also belong to different cultures. The increasingly developing Streltsy culture continues to exist, increasingly freeing itself from the legacy of Mousterian, but new ones have also appeared. One of them is Gorodtsovskaya.

Gorodtsovskaya culture. In this new culture, the traditions of the Mousterian era are preserved. But what is noteworthy: the Mousterian stone processing technique is different among representatives of the Streltsy and Gorodtsov cultures. It is believed that the differences in the Streltsy and Gorodtsov cultures are associated with different traditions of different Mousterian groups (Paleolithic USSR, 1984, p. 183). But there is no need to talk more specifically about this due to the lack of sufficient archaeological information. Gorodtsovtsy were horse hunters and less likely to hunt mammoths. There are many bone tools, and in general the culture looks more developed than the Streltsy of the same time, which was outliving its Mousterian traditions.

But the flourishing of Paleolithic cultures occurred at a later time. Archaeologists call this time the “middle period of the Upper Paleolithic.” The absolute chronology of this period is determined by researchers in different ways. But, in general, it fits within the framework of 24,000-17,000 thousand years before the present day. In addition to the expansion of the range of stone tools and the widespread use of bone, figurines of animals made of bone - mammoths, images of the head of a bear, a cave lion - appeared. It was during this period that long-term dwellings using mammoth bones became widespread. And another phenomenon is the appearance of figurines - figurines depicting women. We will return to them after considering the “housing issue” of the people of the Middle Upper Paleolithic.

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

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

Mesolithic

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

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

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

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

Archaeological cultures of the Mesolithic

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

· Komarnica culture

· Janislavice culture (more than 10 sites are known)

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

· Swider culture

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

· Neman culture (more than 10 sites studied)

· Kudlaevskaya culture

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

Possibly Tardenoise culture

Neolithic

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

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

Archaeological cultures of the Neolithic

Narva and Upper Dnieper cultures

Narva culture, Pit-comb pottery culture

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

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

Neman culture

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

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

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

7. Population of Belarus in the Bronze Age.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

9. Founded non-Slavic tribes on Belarusian lands.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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LOWER PALEOLITHIC

Olduwamyskaya cultmra

The Olduvamian culture (Oldowan culture, pebble culture) is the most primitive culture of stone processing, when, to obtain a sharp edge, the stone was usually simply split in half, without additional modification. It appeared about 2.7 million years ago and disappeared about 1 million years ago. The first pebble tools could have been made by Australopithecus, the last by Archanthropus.

The name of the culture is given by part of the East African Rift System - the Olduvai Gorge in the Serengeti, Tanzania, in the area of ​​the Ngorongoro Crater. Here, Louis Leakey and his wife Mary discovered the remains of multi-layered Paleolithic settlements. The lower layers (about 1.7 - 1.8 million years ago) gave the name to the Olduvai culture. The remains of Zinjanthropus and Prezinjanthropus were discovered here, and the upper layers were attributed to the Chelles and Acheulian cultures and contained the remains of Olduvai Pithecanthropus. And in 1961, Jonathan Leakey discovered a skilled man here. Based on their findings, the Leakey family put forward a hypothesis of the African origin of man, with primary localization including in the Olduvai Gorge area.

Oldvoy

There are three types of weapons:

1) polyhedrons - roughly beaten or hammered, rounded stones with many edges. It is assumed that they were impact tools and served for processing plant and animal food,

2) various tools on flakes, used for cutting up animal carcasses,

3) choppers - the most characteristic weapon of this era, which had cutting and chopping functions.

It is curious that at this initial stage of tool making we encounter not just one tool, but a whole set capable of providing people with a variety of plant and animal foods (Clark, 1977). The dimensions of the tools do not exceed 8 - 10 cm. Among the tools there are both massive ones made of pebbles and stone fragments, as well as primitive cores and tools on flakes.

The most common are choppers (Fig. 16). These are massive tools, made, as a rule, from pebbles, the top or edge of which has been hewn off with several successive blows. Sometimes the blade is chipped on both sides.

The rest of the surface of the pebbles is untreated and is convenient for holding the weapon in the hand. The chopper blade is massive and uneven. In addition to choppers, the Olduvai era is characterized by polyhedra, discoids, spheroids, side scrapers on flakes, flakes with jagged and notched edges, etc. The flakes themselves are massive and short, with a strongly protruding impact cusp and an obtuse angle of the platform to the shear plane.

If these tools have a random shape, then their blades are repeated from monument to monument. Experts have no doubt about their definition. In addition, Olduvai tools were found in the cultural layer along with broken animal bones - the remains of hunting kills, i.e. in the same environment as the tools of all later Paleolithic eras.

Abbeville culture

Abbewiml culture (Chellean culture, early Acheulean culture) is an archaeological culture of the Early (Lower) Paleolithic.

The Abbeville culture arose approximately 1.5 million years ago, replacing the Olduvai culture, and ended approximately 300 thousand years ago, when it was replaced by the Acheulean culture.

However, some archaeologists view the Abbeville culture not as the next, but as the initial phase of the Acheulean.

Due to the deterioration of the climate and the onset of glaciation, the carriers of the Abbeville culture were forced to leave Europe and concentrated in Africa.

It was originally called the Chelles culture (this name is still often used in Russian literature) after the French city of Chelles near Paris. In the 1920s-30s. It was found that the tools found near the city of Abbeville (in the Somme Valley, France) were more typical of the Early Paleolithic era than those found at the city of Chelles, and the Chelles culture was renamed the Abbeville culture. The tools were discovered in 1839–1848 by the Frenchman Jacques Boucher de Pert (1788–1868), director of the customs bureau of the city of Abbeville, who gave the name “stone axe” to the type of tools found. The tools he found are also called hand axes

The Abbeville hand ax has long been considered the main tool of the Lower Paleolithic.

A typical ax is shaped like a human hand with closed fingers or a flattened pear. The manufacturing technology of a hand chopper is more complex than a chopper. To make them, large pieces of stones were used, broken off from large blocks of stone (boulders). The hand ax was made by double-sided upholstery.

The stone was given the desired shape by striking it with another stone, which served as a hammer. To do this, the workpiece required about 30 blows (chips).

The working part was the tapered end of the chopper; through targeted blows, this end acquired a sharp edge. The opposite end (“heel”) had a thickened and rounded shape; when using a chopper, this end was clamped in the palm of a person. The maximum dimensions of a hand chopper are 20 cm, weight 2.5 kg.

The purpose of hand axes is not completely clear: apparently, it was a hunting and kitchen tool. Hand axes were used to finish off hunted animals and split their bones to extract bone marrow, cut tendons to separate meat from bones, pierce and scrape the skin of animals, dig up the roots of edible plants and tubers, and cut branches from a tree trunk.

The Abbeville culture used fire and could build temporary shelters from stones and branches. 300 thousand years ago the total human population was about 1 million people.

Guns Abbeville culture, found in Spain.

Klektonian culture

Klektonian culture, English. Clactonian culture is one of the oldest archaeological cultures of the Lower Paleolithic, which existed in Western Europe about 550-475 thousand years ago. Most of the artefacts were found in the Thames basin. The name comes from an eponymous site near the town of Clacton-on-Sea in Great Britain, Essex, where flint tools of this culture were found.

Characteristic of this culture was that its representatives looked for flint “semi-finished products”, close in shape to finished tools, after which they “modified” them by breaking off small pieces. In this way they made scrapers, burins and other tools.

Apparently, Klektonian tools coexisted with Acheulian ones, which were made using identical technology, but which also included hand stone axes made by double-cutting flint.

In the 1990s. A number of researchers have come out with the point of view that the difference between the Clectonian and Acheulean industries was imaginary. In their opinion, the Klektonian industry coincided with the Acheulean one, and the absence of stone axes in the “Klektonian” finds was explained by the lack of need for them, or by the quality of local raw materials for the manufacture of Paleolithic tools.

However, in 2004, excavations at the Southfleet Road site in Kent uncovered a Pleistocene elephant butchered by primitive people. Numerous Klektonian tools were discovered near the elephant, among which, however, stone axes were still missing.

Since a stone ax would have been a much more convenient tool for hunting elephants than a simple flake, the find is considered strong evidence that the Clectonian industry developed independently of the Acheulean one.

The area where the elephant was found was abundant in flint raw materials of suitable quality for making stone axes, so it must be assumed that the people who hunted this elephant did not know the technology for making double-sided stone axes.

Proponents of the hypothesis that the Clectonian industry existed independently of the Acheulian industry point out the lack of concrete evidence of a relationship between the two industries, and the origin of several tools that allegedly indicate such a relationship is controversial.

The traditional view that the Clectonian industry predates the Acheulean industry is now increasingly being challenged, as Acheulean tools have been discovered at Boxgrove in Sussex and High Lodge in Suffolk in strata associated with the English Stage - a glaciation that preceded the Hoxnian stage, and therefore , and Klektonian culture. But regardless of whether the Acheulean and Klektonian tools belonged to a common culture or to different ones, cultural contacts certainly existed between their creators.

Acheulean culture

Acheulean culture (1.6 million - 150 (-120) thousand years ago) - the culture of the Early Paleolithic. It arose on the basis of the Chelles or (if the Chelles are considered as the early period of the Acheulean) Olduvai culture. The first human culture to leave Africa. In Eurasia it is replaced by the Mousterian culture, and in Africa by the Sangoi culture.

It was distributed in Africa, Western Europe (Saint-Acheul in France and Torralba in Spain), the North Caucasus, Kazakhstan (Borykazgan and Tanirkazgan sites), the Middle East (Gesher Bnot Yaakov) and Korea (Chongonni site).

Acheulean hand ax from Dashtadem 3 (Armenia)

MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC

Mousterian culture

The culture of the angelic type is being replaced by a new culture, Mousterian (Mousterian is a cave on the banks of the Veser River, in France, where a site of ancient people, the so-called Neanderthals, was found, more highly developed and having more developed technology than the most ancient people of the beginning of the Lower Paleolithic (including Sinanthropus) (100-40 thousand years ago), which is sometimes distinguished from the Lower Paleolithic into a special “Middle Paleolithic”.

The Mousterian culture is widespread not only where the Acheulean people lived, but also in places where the people of the Chelles and Acheulean times did not go. Such a widespread settlement of Mousterian man, although he now lived in much less favorable conditions than his predecessors, was possible because he was able to overcome the difficulties that arose thanks to the development of culture.

Highly developed monkeys - the closest ancestors of man, who lived at the end of the Tertiary and at the beginning of the Quaternary period, as well as primitive people such as Sinanthropus and his immediate descendants everywhere existed in a relatively mild climate, in fairly favorable conditions for life.

Over time, significant changes occurred in the natural environment that surrounded primitive people. Due to insufficiently clarified reasons, the action of which in one way or another covers the entire globe and all continents, periods of glacial advance begin, separated from each other by breaks (interglacial periods). The pattern of alternation of ice ages in the Alps is clearer and better developed, where it has a classical character in its clarity and completeness. The history of glaciation of the Alps and the adjacent part of Europe is divided into the stages of Günz, Mindel, Ries and Würm. They are separated by interglacial periods, respectively called Günz-Mindel, Mindel-Ries, Riess-Würm. The Würm stage is divided by Western researchers into four more stages. A number of scientists outline three stages of glaciation for the territory of the USSR: Likhvin, Dnieper (maximum), Valdai. The first of them corresponds, in general, to the Mindel period of the Alpine scheme, the second to the Rissky period, and the third to the Würm period.

The existence of Mousterian man in Europe and its neighboring countries dates back to the time of maximum glaciation in these countries, to the Rissky, or Dnieper, stage of the Ice Age. To visualize the scale of these events and their significance for the history of Paleolithic man, it should be borne in mind that continuous ice masses then stretched from the British Isles in the west and almost to the Ob in the east. The ice cover reached the areas where the cities of Molotov and Kirov are now located on the territory of the European part of our country, then dropped steeply to 50° N. sh., which it crossed in two places, jutting out to the south with wide protrusions-tongues, reaching the areas of the current cities of Stalingrad and Dnepropetrovsk, and then retreated somewhat to the north-west.

The area of ​​the ice sheet exceeded 9.5 million square meters. km. Its thickness reached, according to geologists’ calculations, 2 km. Slowly moving layers of ice leveled the hills, plowed through the valleys and destroyed all life in their path. The heat-loving vegetation of the past in the area immediately adjacent to the glaciers has disappeared. The corresponding animals also became extinct or moved south, to places more favorable for them. They are being replaced by a new animal world. Instead of the “southern elephant fauna,” a new, “mammoth fauna” is widely distributed, represented in addition to the mammoth by woolly rhinoceros, reindeer, arctic fox and other animals. This process was lengthy and uneven in its pace in different areas. Heat-loving fauna continued to exist for a long time in southern Europe, in Italy and in those countries (for example, in Africa) where catastrophic changes in climate did not occur during the Quaternary period. In the south, then came the time of rains and downpours (pluvial period), when the present Sahara was covered with lakes, rivers and grassy plains, interspersed with dense groves of tropical trees.

Stone scraper

Neanderthal man

The man of the Mousterian time, in many of his characteristics, was already significantly higher than the most ancient people such as Pithecanthropus, Sinanthropus and Heidelberg man. The remains of people from the Mousterian period were first discovered in Europe in 1856 in the Neanderthal Valley (Germany). Then new finds followed - in Spain, Belgium, Yugoslavia, France, Italy. On the territory of the USSR, the bones of people of the Mousterian period were discovered in the Kiik-Koba cave in Crimea, in the Teshik-Tash grotto (Uzbekistan). In other countries outside Europe, such remains were found in Palestine, Iraq, South Africa, and Java. In their physical structure, the people of Mousterian times often show very significant differences from each other, which is why they are divided into separate groups. Excellent, for example, are the Palestinian finds, on the one hand, and the European ones (“Chapelles” (Named after a skeleton found in a cave near the village of La Chapelle-aux-Saints (France).)) on the other. European finds also differ from each other. But in general, they have so much in common that all these ancient people of the Mousterian time are usually referred to by one common name - Neanderthals (based on finds in Neanderthal).

Judging by European finds, the Neanderthal was of a stocky build with a massive skeleton and powerful muscles. His height was small, not exceeding 155-165 cm for men. Since the Neanderthal’s body was relatively short, and the curves of the spine were weakly expressed, it is possible that he walked with a stoop and ran slightly bent to the ground.

This gait is evidenced by the massive foot bones of a Neanderthal from the Kiik-Koba cave in Crimea. The Neanderthal hands found in the Kiik-Koba cave turned out to be paw-shaped. Features of the Neanderthal skull: low, sloping forehead, as if “running” back, strongly protruding brow ridges, merging into a continuous supraorbital ridge. The upper jaw protrudes strongly forward, the incisors are large, spade-shaped. There is no chin protrusion. The brain of Neanderthals - and this is much more important than the external features of the skull relief - was already significantly developed. In addition to its significant volume (1300-1600 cubic cm), its structure also shows signs of further evolution. On casts made from the internal cavity of Neanderthal skulls, the development of individual lobes of the brain associated with the location of centers of higher mental activity is clearly visible: the frontal lobes increase, the parietal lobe grows.

According to the development of the brain, the cranial vault increases, the slope of the forehead decreases, the back of the head rounds, i.e., features are discovered that further connect the Neanderthal with modern man. Such features, as we will see later, were most clearly expressed in Neanderthals, whose remains were found in Palestine.

Mousterian stone tools

Neanderthal man did not go extinct and did not retreat south before the cold breath of glaciers. On the contrary, he continued to continuously settle into new areas and further develop his culture, first of all, to improve tools and the technique of their manufacture.

Ancient hand axes, made by chipping a boulder, are still occasionally found in the Mousterian layers, but the decisive importance belongs to tools made by the “cleaving technique” from plates and flakes chipped from a disc-shaped core (core). The chipping technique is being improved. If earlier the cores had irregular outlines, now they acquire definite and stable shapes in the form of disks, which ensured the correct outlines of the blades and flakes.

In addition, during the Mousterian period, special attention was paid to the special preparation of the cores that were struck. The outstanding Russian archaeologist V. A. Gorodtsov clearly demonstrated the importance of such an operation in a series of systematic experiments he carried out on the manufacture of flint tools. “Noticing that the long fragments that I broke off from the core were thicker at the bottom, and often broke before reaching the lower base of the core, I began to trim the lower ends of the cores, and the job went well. A precisely directed blow to a certain point on the impact plane of the core is of decisive importance, but achieving such a blow in practice is often hampered by the imperfect forms of the chippers, the working ends of which are usually uneven and thick, often completely covering the intended impact points, due to which the fragments are knocked off either too thick or too thick. thin, small. In general, I still managed to overcome the difficulties encountered, and I was able to work all forms of tools found in Mousterian-type sites,” wrote V. A. Gorodov about his experiments.

Thus, the undercutting of cores, characteristic of the Mousterian time, was of great importance in improving the technique of flint splitting and provided the necessary form of blanks for the manufacture of Mousterian tools - blades and flakes. Neanderthal man also used the flint retouching technique more skillfully and confidently than his predecessors. He no longer follows the ready-made outlines of the flakes, but gives them a certain appropriate shape.

A direct indication of the development of retouching techniques are the “anvils” that first appeared in Mousterian times, usually pieces of animal bones covered with gouges as a result of pressure on them from the sharp edge of flint products during processing. Such “anvils” were apparently used when applying subtle and careful retouching to the blades of tools, which became more and more widespread in Mousterian times. The nature of the tools themselves changed significantly during the Mousterian period. The shapes of tools become not only more stable and defined, but also significantly more differentiated.

Large, bilaterally processed points of triangular or almond-shaped shapes could serve as universal cutting tools, as well as daggers. Double-pointed tips could be attached to the end of a long wooden spear. The small plate-like points were undoubtedly only cutting and piercing instruments. Among them, the most notable are the points, the convex edge of which is processed in such a way that fingers could rest against it when cutting. The scrapers of the Mousterian period also differ in their form and character; some of them served as scrapers, others as knives and scrapers themselves for processing hides. At the end of the Mousterian time, new forms of tools began to spread in the form of rough chisels, apparently intended for processing wood, and later bone. The improvement of stone processing techniques and the complication of a set of stone tools clearly reflect, thus, the continuous enrichment of the labor skills and production experience of the people of the Mousterian time, which underlay the progressive development of their entire culture.

Artificial fire production. Economic life

The fact that the people of Mousterian times, in new, much more severe conditions, spread even wider than before is obviously explained by their new most important achievement - the invention of methods for artificially producing fire. Sinanthropus already knew how to systematically use fire, as mentioned earlier, and this was a great achievement of ancient man; but fire obtained by man by accident was used. During his work, a person noticed that sparks appear from the impact of stone on stone, and heat is released when drilling wood; this is what he used. It is impossible to say when and where exactly man first developed methods of artificially producing fire, but Neanderthals, apparently, had already firmly mastered them in various areas of the globe. The progressive development of man of the Mousterian time is found primarily in the economic field. Hunting was once one of the most important sources of existence for ancient people. Now it rises to the level of the leading occupation, leaving behind gathering, which should have been much more important among the most ancient people, the predecessors of the Neanderthals due to the imperfection of their hunting tools.

Of particular interest for understanding the economic life of Mousterian man is the fact that in a number of cases a certain specialization of ancient hunters is observed: they hunt primarily for certain animals, which is, of course, due to nothing more than natural conditions and the associated abundance certain types of animals.

At the Ilskaya site (North Caucasus), bison bones accounted for at least 60% of the mass of animal bones. It is believed that bones belonging to at least 2 thousand bison can be found here. In the highlands of the Alps, they mainly hunted such a predator, distinguished by its strength, enormous size and fury, as the cave bear. Equally revealing are the findings in the Teshik-Tash grotto in Southwestern Uzbekistan. Judging by the tubular bones of animals, broken and split to extract the brain, often even finely crushed, discovered during excavations in huge quantities, the people from Teshik-Tash were skilled and dexterous hunters. The most important source of subsistence for the inhabitants of the grotto was hunting mountain goats - kieks, a difficult, complex and dangerous task even for modern man, who is immeasurably better armed. The main weapon of Neanderthal man was apparently a spear. Thus, in the La Quina cave, in France, animal bones with sharp fragments of flint embedded in them were discovered.

Such wounds were apparently inflicted by a spear with a flint tip. On one of the Neanderthal bones found in the Es-Skhul cave (Palestine), traces of a wound inflicted by a wooden spear without a stone tip were found. As you can see, the weapon pierced the victim’s thigh with such terrible force that it pierced through the head of the femur and came out with its end into the pelvic cavity. The weapons of the Mousterian hunters were still very primitive.

The decisive importance should have been not individual, but collective hunting techniques that united all members of each Mousterian group. Such round-up hunts were especially widespread in rugged areas, where animals were driven to cliffs, falling from which they were killed or injured. Such, for example, is the area in the vicinity of the Teshik-Tash grotto, whose inhabitants hunted mountain goats.

The improvement of technology and the development of hunting, naturally, should have contributed to the further improvement of general living conditions, including the more or less long-term settlement of groups of people in places convenient for hunting and rich in game. Consolidating the achievements of his predecessors, Mousterian man not only widely developed caves as natural dwellings with ready-made walls and vaults, but constantly created open-air settlements for more or less long periods. Where there were no caves, in the harsh conditions of that time, the simplest shelters from rain, wind and cold were undoubtedly built in the form of barriers or canopies.

The beginnings of the tribal system

Joint labor activity, a common home, a common fire that warmed its inhabitants - all this, with natural necessity, rallied and united people. The strengthening of social ties caused by the need to unite people to fight nature is clearly evidenced by the entire situation of the Mousterian settlements, their entire culture, all traces of their activity, including even such seemingly ordinary and inexpressive finds from this side as “kitchen waste” "in the form of thousands or even tens of thousands of animal bones found in the cave dwellings of Neanderthals and at their open-air sites. They show how man gradually overcame the animal egoism inherited from the prehuman state.

Rock painting

Unlike animals, man no longer cared only about himself and not only about his own children, but also about the entire community. Instead of eating the prey at the hunting site, Mousterian hunters carried it to a cave, where women, children and the elderly remained busy with housework around a blazing fire. The custom of collective distribution of food and joint consumption, characteristic of the primitive communal system at all its stages, is clearly evidenced by all the ethnographic material known to science.

It is very likely that it was at this time that the transition to a new form of social life begins. The first rudiments of the most ancient form of clan society, the maternal clan community, that is, a collective connected by ties of kinship, emerge. Due to the form of marriage relations that existed at that time, only the mother of the child was indisputably known, which, along with the active role of the woman in economic life (gathering, participation in hunting) or her role as the keeper of the fire, determined. her high social position. By this time, the forms of marriage relations had already gone a long way in development, although it is difficult to say with certainty what level they had reached. Initially, as noted earlier, relations between the sexes, apparently, were of a nature unregulated by social rules. The further development of the family followed the line of narrowing the circle of persons participating in marital communication, first of all by limiting marital communication between the generation of parents and children, then between half-brothers and sisters, etc.

Development of Neanderthal thinking

There can be no doubt that the progressive development of labor and society caused corresponding progressive changes in the consciousness and thinking of primitive man.

There are idealistic theories that try to prove that the thinking of primitive man was supposedly completely irrational and mystical, that our distant ancestors supposedly had completely false, fundamentally incorrect, completely distorted and fantastic ideas about reality. However, it is enough to become familiar with the actual process of development of primitive man and his culture to be convinced of the opposite.

It is absolutely clear that if the content of the consciousness of our primitive ancestors were not real ideas that correspond to objective reality and are fundamentally true reflections of the laws and phenomena of the real world, but only some mystical ideas and groundless fantasy, then humanity would not. could continue to develop successfully. If the consciousness of primitive man to some extent did not reflect objective reality in its present and true form, he would not be able to resist the forces of nature and would ultimately become their victim.

Having so-called mystical thinking, man would not be able to make his tools and improve them. The path from ignorance to knowledge, from vague, unclear, and false ideas about reality to more accurate and true ideas was, of course, extremely slow and difficult. But precisely because this positive knowledge, which lay at the basis of man’s conscious activity and at the basis of his thinking, consistently grew and became enriched, man went forward and forward.

The development of the consciousness of primitive man was based on the consistent growth of his work activity, his daily work practice, as the only source of knowledge and a criterion for the reliability of ideas about the world around him. The development of the mind of Neanderthal man is particularly clearly reflected in the further improvement of his tools.

The more complex mental activity of Mousterian man compared to his primitive ancestors is evidenced by the presence of skillfully executed colorful spots and stripes at the end of Mousterian time. These are rather wide stripes of red paint, applied by the hand of a Neanderthal man across a small slab of stone discovered during excavations of a Mousterian settlement in the La Ferrassie cave (France). Neanderthal man could not yet draw or sculpt the figure of an animal. However, already at the end of the Mousterian period, the first attempts were noticeable to deliberately change the shape of the stone, not only in order to make tools out of it.

In the Mousterian deposits, slabs of stone with skillfully carved indentations, the so-called “cup stones,” were discovered. On the slab from La Ferrassie, the cup recesses were located not individually, but in a compact group and, moreover, in such a way that some kind of connection is revealed in their placement.

Of course, it would be wrong to overestimate and exaggerate the degree of development of abstract thinking in Neanderthals. It should be emphasized even more sharply that primitive man was not at all free from false, incorrect ideas about himself and about the world around him, since he took only the first steps from ignorance to knowledge, since every hour, every minute he felt his weakness in the fight against nature and dependence on its elements.

Early burials

Many idealistically-minded philosophers and historians strive to present religion as the highest manifestation of the human spirit, the ideological achievement of humanity, the “crown of its development.” From this point of view, religion could not have arisen in distant primitive times; it should have appeared only in a fully formed and highly developed person, “completing” his achievements in the field of spiritual culture. Other reactionary philosophers and idealist historians are trying, on the contrary, to prove the “eternity” of religion. They argue that already at the very initial stages of his ancient development, man not only had a religion, but also received, as if by “divine revelation,” faith in a single god - the creator of the universe and the source of all goods on earth. In fact, such religious ideas arise only during the long development of human society, in a class society, and the initial religious beliefs that arise among primitive man are extremely primitive. Both of these reactionary, idealistic points of view are completely refuted by the entire course of the primitive history of mankind. They are exposed by facts, archaeological data, revealing the actual time and specific conditions in which the beginnings of primitive religious beliefs arose. In fact, religion arose as a result of the oppression of primitive man by the forces of nature, as a fantastic reflection of this weakness and humiliation. Data on the most ancient burials appearing in Mousterian times provide factual material about the emergence of the beginnings of these primitive religious fantastic beliefs. Researchers have discovered more than 20 cases of burials of Neanderthal bodies. The most remarkable of them are noted in Spi (Belgium, near Namur); in the Boufia cave, near the village of La Chapelle aux Saintes, Yves, La Ferrassie (France), where the remains of 6 skeletons were found; on Mount Carmel, in the caves of Et-Tabun and Es-Skhul (Palestine), where the remains of 12 skeletons were discovered. In the USSR, Mousterian burials were found in the Crimea, in the Kiik-Koba cave, and in Central Asia, in the Teshik-Tash grotto. In all these cases, the bodies were deliberately buried in the ground. The burial place was caves, which were the dwellings of people, but burials outside caves are not excluded. In some caves, burials were carried out more than once. Sometimes the corpses of the dead were placed, perhaps in ready-made recesses, in “sleeping” pits. In other cases, special holes were dug for this purpose, and even with considerable effort. Both the corpses of adult men and women and the corpses of children were buried. In some cases, burials of two skeletons of adults located nearby, as well as the skeletons of a child and a woman are observed (Kiik-Koba cave, in Crimea). A certain position of the bones in the graves is also established: they usually lie with their legs bent, that is, in a slightly crouched position. In some cases, both arms or one of them are bent at the elbow, and the hands are near the face. This pose resembles the position of a sleeping person. Thus, in the middle and at the end of the Mousterian time, to which the listed burials belong, for the first time a certain and completely new attitude towards the dead appeared, expressed in intentional and already quite complex in nature actions - in the burials of corpses. The basis of this attitude was, undoubtedly, concern for a fellow member of one’s collective, arising from the entire life structure of the primitive community, from all the unwritten laws and norms of behavior of that time. This was an indisputable expression of that feeling of inextricable blood ties between relatives, which runs like a red thread through the entire primitive era of human history. But this concern for the deceased member of the primitive community was based here on false ideas about the person himself, about life and death. These, presumably, were the first beginnings of fantastic, fundamentally incorrect ideas, on the basis of which ideas about the “soul” and the “afterlife” that continues after death, which are one of the most important sources, and then an indispensable component of each, subsequently develop. religion. It should be emphasized that before the Mousterian time there are no traces of intentional human burial. In earlier times, which include the skeletal remains of Pithecanthropus, Sinanthropus and ancient people close to the latter, there was no concern for the dead. From this it is clear that there can be no talk of any “primordial religion”; The first traces of the intentional burial of human corpses appear only 500-600 thousand years after the beginning of the emergence of man. Religious beliefs are not “inherent in human nature,” not “inherent in human thinking,” as idealists of various persuasions claim. Religious beliefs arise under certain social conditions, change, and then disappear depending on changes in these conditions. Mousterian time was a natural transitional stage from the most ancient period of human history to a new period, to the time of primitive matriarchal communities. This was a period when there was a process of gradual accumulation of new elements in people’s lives, which then gave its results in a significant and even unexpected at first glance, but quite natural from the point of view of a materialistic understanding of history, rise of culture in the subsequent Upper Paleolithic time.

Sangoi culture

Sangoi culture -- Paleolithic African culture, similar in technological level Mousterian culture Eurasia or transition to the upper Paleolithic. Appeared on the basis Acheulean culture in South Africa 100-500 thousand years ago (the exact age is not determined) and then spread north to Angola, pool Congo River and to the shores of Lake Victoria.

SANGO ( Sangoan), Central African Paleolithic industry...

Aterian culture

Aterian archaeological culture. 90,000 - 30,000 - 21,000 years ago. Northern Sahara and Atlas Mountains region (NW Africa) . ). The few artifacts found are believed to have been created by Homo sapiens but a very early type, in which some external morphological similarity with Neanderthals appears. The remains of only a few skeletons have been found so far. More than a dozen sites are known, whose age ranges from 20 to 90 thousand years. Stone tools were made using the Levallois technique. To strengthen them, a wooden handle was attached, including using a spear and arrows with stone tips. The Aterian culture was one of the first to introduce the bow and arrow. Decorations in the form of mollusk shells, painted with ocher and with holes for stringing, were also found.

30.000 l. n. in Eastern and Central Sahara there was a community of Paleolithic Atera tribes. In these same places, the onion was subsequently invented and brought to Eurasia.

Aterian scraper

Emirian culture-- culture Middle Paleolithic, turning into Upper Paleolithic. Was distributed to Middle East 36-47 thousand years ago. Grew from a local variant of culture Mousterian and evolved into the Ahmarians - a local culture of the Upper Paleolithic

UPPER PALEOLITHIC

Baradostan culture

The Baradostan culture is an early Upper Paleolithic archaeological culture in the Zagros Mountains region on the border of Iran and Iraq. Replaces the local version of the Mousterian culture. According to radiocarbon dating, its age is about 36 thousand years. The relationship of the Baradostan culture with neighboring cultures remains unclear. Considered an early variant of the Aurignacian culture. Was replaced by the Zarzian culture, possibly due to cooling during the last phase of the Ice Age.

Chatelperon culture

Chatelperon culture (fr. Chвtelperronien) - an archaeological culture of the Late Paleolithic in Western Europe, intermediate between Mousterian and Solutre. Early part of the Périgord culture. In its pure form, this culture is known only in France.

For Chatelperonian The culture is characterized by a special technique for processing plates, namely steep retouching along the edge, flint points (chatelperon type) with a rounded back. Human remains associated with this culture were discovered in the Saint-Cesaire deposit (western France).

Scientifically dated to 35,000-29,000 BC. BC e. Chatelperon dates from the Wurm I/II interstadial.

For Western Europe, the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic is associated with a culture named after its French location, Chatelperon (French. Chвtelperronien). In its pure form, this culture is known only in France, namely in southwestern and central France.

Chatelperon stone tools

Chatelperon, the earliest Upper Paleolithic industry in southwestern and central France, borrows some elements from the previous Mousterian tradition.

A characteristic tool of this culture is the “Chatelperon knife” made of flint with a straight cutting edge and a blunt, bent back.

It is characterized by a special technique for processing plates, namely, steep retouching along the edge, flint points (chatelperon type) with a rounded back.

In the stone industry, with its striking features of the Upper Paleolithic (such as the presence of incisors), the old types of scrapers and points characteristic of the late Mousterian are still preserved. The connection between the Mousterian culture and the Chatelperon is also in the fact that on monuments that date back to the late Mousteron (for example, the Abri-Audi area in France), forms already appear from which the tools typical of the Chatelperon developed (asymmetrical points with an arched edge, which retouched).

Jewelry was also common.

Seletian culture(no data)

Kostenki-Streltsy archaeological culture

The Kostenki-Streltsy archaeological culture is the oldest culture of the Kostenki complex of Paleolithic sites in the Khokholsky district of the Voronezh region (Kostenki XII - IA layer, Kostenki XI - 5th layer). One of the transitional cultures between the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, along with similar cultures of Eastern and Central Europe. Age: 30 - 32 thousand years. The Kostenki-Streltsy culture is characterized by above-ground dwellings up to 35 m long and up to 9 m wide, the production of sculptural images of women, hoes, etc.

Kostenki-Streltsy culture(it is often called Streletskaya for short) is one of the oldest in the Kostenkovo-Borshevsky region (Paleolithic USSR, 1984, pp. 179-181). Its name comes from the settlements of the Middle Don - Kostenki and Strelitsa. Finds related to this culture lie both in the lower humus layer under the volcanic ash, and above it - at the very beginning of the upper humus layer. That is, this culture, according to stratigraphy, is one of the ancient ones, and it dates back to the interglacial period. It dates back more than 32 thousand years ago, and continued to exist during the heyday of the Paleolithic (approximately 24-17 thousand years ago).

What are the stone implements of this ancient Paleolithic culture? Let us remember that the sequence of stone processing by an ancient stonecutter is as follows: 1 - primary processing (splitting the workpiece, giving it its original, desired shape); 2 - secondary processing (giving the final shape to the product through additional chips and retouching). The end result is a specific set of tools needed for some purpose.

Aurignacian culture

The Aurignacian culture is an archaeological culture of the early stage of the Late Paleolithic.

Named after excavations in the Aurignac cave in the Haute-Garonne department (France). First identified at the beginning of the 20th century.

The Aurignacian culture in the narrow sense of the word is widespread in France, where it is radiocarbon dated to 33-19 millennium BC. e., replaces the Mousterian culture, coexists with the Périgordian culture and is replaced by the Solutrean culture.

There are different versions of the origin of the Aurignacian culture:

1. from Pre-Aurignac (Middle Eastern version of Moustier)

2. from Mousterian La Quin

Aurignacian culture in the broad sense of the word is represented in a number of countries in Western and Central Europe. The Aurignacian culture is characterized by flint blades with retouching and notches along the edges, scrapers, core-shaped tools, fairly developed bone processing (in particular, bone spearheads with a dissected base), remains of long-term dwellings and relatively developed fine arts.

At this time, the first works of primitive art began to appear, which were schematic outline drawings of animal heads, usually performed on limestone slabs, found in the caves of La Ferrassie in France.

Also interesting are the reliefs carved on limestone slabs found in the Lossel Caves in France. One of these plates depicts a hunter throwing a spear, others depict women, while the rest are occupied by images of animals being hunted.

Aurignacian scrapers

Dufour scraper

The people of the Aurignacian culture lived in a cold climate. They hunted mammoth, wild horse, reindeer, and woolly rhinoceros. During this era, permanent winter communal dwellings appeared for the first time. Their existence was proven by excavations carried out by Soviet archaeologists P. P. Efimenko and S. N. Zamyatin in the late 20s and 30s. XX century

Gravettian culture

Gravettian culture ( Gravett, La Gravette, Lagravettskaya, Gravetyanskaya) - archaeological culture of the Late Paleolithic. Scientifically dates back to 28,000 - 21,000. BC e. Named after the cave La Gravette (fr. la Gravette) in the Dordogne department (France).

Gravettian parking The Czech Republic and Slovakia, Austria and France are dated 26-20 millennia BC. Gravettian is characterized by a rich set of tools; various points can be considered specific types, among which asymmetrical points with a side notch and knives with a back stand out. Microliths and composite tools appear. Various bone products: points, awls, spatulas, decorations. Gravettian monuments are characterized by the presence of numerous examples of small plastic art - figurines of women and animals made of tusk and bone, stone or clay.

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

Gravettian culture (from the Pyrenees to Lake Baikal)

Gravett: a - Gravettian plate with a blunt edge; b - tip...

Epigravettian culture

The Epigravettian culture, or more precisely, the Epigravettian horizon of the Upper Paleolithic, inherits the Gravettian culture in Italy and Eastern Europe and is defined by a specific stone tool industry.

Radiocarbon dating allows us to attribute the final phase of the Epigravettian culture to the Allerød warming. This means that the Epigravettian culture (or group of cultures) existed simultaneously with the final stage of the Solutrean and Magdalenian of western and central Europe, which existed in the period 19-10 thousand years ago.

Some monuments in Moldova belong to the early Epigravettian (20,000-17,000 years ago), others to the late (13,500 - 11,000 years ago). The dwelling at Dalmeri, located at the north-eastern end of the Seven Communes plateau (Trente, Italy), contains traces of the terminal phase of the late Epigravettian. Also, traces of epigravettian were found in the southeast of Sicily, as well as in northern Africa.

Since the discovery of the first Epigravettian monuments at the end of the 19th century by archaeologist E. Riviere - the burials of children in Balzi Rossi (Liguria, Italy), the Epigravettian people have been considered as one of the last hunter-gatherer cultures of the late (Upper) Paleolithic.

In the period 1991-2005, numerous stones painted with ocher, with naturalistic and schematic images, were discovered in various places, which made it possible to expand the understanding of the spiritual practice of the people of the Epigravettian culture.

Solutremyskaya cultmra

Solutremyskaya kultumra is an archaeological culture of the mid-Late Paleolithic. It was distributed throughout France and Northern Spain. It got its name from the Solutre site in France (Saône-et-Loire department). It replaced the Aurignacian and Périgordian cultures and was replaced by the Magdalenian culture. The radiocarbon method dates back to 18-15 thousand years BC. e. Was allocated in the late 60s. XIX in G. Mortilla. The Solutrean culture is characterized by skillfully made flint (so-called Solutrean) tips in the shape of a laurel or willow leaf with a notch, processed on both sides with perfect pressing retouch.

This method of processing flint consisted of the following: using a bone squeezer, thin flakes were chipped from the surface of the tool. This method originated earlier, but reached its peak precisely in the Solutrean era.

It made it possible to make arrow and spear tips as thin as later iron tips of the same size. Some of the tips were intended for spears and darts, some for knives and daggers.

Also found at Solutrean sites were flint scrapers, burins, piercings, points, bone tips, needles with eyes, hooks, wands, works of art, etc. The area of ​​distribution of a typical Solutrean culture is Central and Southern France. But at the same time, an independent center for the spread of a similar culture existed in Eastern and Northern Spain and Portugal.

In Northern France, Belgium and England there are monuments typologically close to the early phase of the Solutrean culture, but more developed industry is rarely found here or is completely absent. In a number of Late Paleolithic sites in Central Europe and the European part of Russia, certain similarities with the Solutrean culture were also discovered. One of the modern theories suggests the penetration of the Solutrean culture into North America, where they created the Clovis culture (the so-called Solutrean hypothesis, proposed in 1998 and suggesting that it was people from Europe who were the first settlers in America). A local variant of the Solutrean culture is the Grimaldi culture.

Badegul culture

Badegul culture, fr. Badegoulien-- material culture, or stone industry of the Upper Paleolithic era. Previously designated as "ancient Magdalenian culture". It differs from the Magdalenian culture proper, in the strict sense of the term, from a technological point of view (processing of axes) and typologically (prehistoric scrapers are found in abundance, burins are rare).

The Badegul culture dates back to 19,000 - 17,000 years ago. Artifacts characteristic of it were discovered in the territory from the Franco-Cantabrian region to Switzerland and Germany.

As a result of recent research, regional variants of Badegul culture have been identified:

· Mediterranean version: scrapers, stone knives with retouching and various prehistoric objects;

Cantabrian version: scrapers, awls, stone knives;

· Aquitanian version: consists of two stages:

o ancient stage: gear tools, drills, scrapers, awls;

o late stage: numerous scrapers.

archaeological culture Neanderthal paleolithic

Madeleine culture

Madeleine culture (Madeleine culture, fr. Magdalеnien) -- culture Late Paleolithic; was distributed throughout the area France, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany. Age -- 15 --8 thousand years The culture bearers hunted reindeer, wild horses and other types of large animals that lived in Europe at the end of ice age.

A variety of flint burins, piercers, and scrapers predominate. Bone processing is highly developed.

Characteristic carvings on horn and bone, sculpture of horn, bone and tusk mammoth, engraved and other images on the walls and ceilings of caves. As development progressed, there was a transition to microliths, that is, small tools made of stone. Madeleine hunters lived mainly in caves, as well as in dwellings made of bones and skins.

The Magdalenian culture in a broad sense covers the final stage of the development of the Late Paleolithic culture of the entire European periglacial region from France to Cisurals. The Magdalenian population left behind magnificent cave art and bone objects, including perforated staffs decorated with artistic carvings, three-dimensional figures of people and animals, finely finished points, personal jewelry in the form of perforated sea shells and animal teeth (probably beads). The walls of the caves in which the Magdalenian culture lived, for example, Lascaux caves And Altamira, decorated picturesque paintings .

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