What an age is the Paleolithic? General characteristics of the Paleolithic era

: early, middle and late.

The Early Paleolithic includes the following eras: Primary, Chelles and Acheulean.

The most ancient cultural monuments were discovered in the caves of Le Lazare, Lyalko, Fonde de Gaume, Nio (in the territory of modern France) and Altamira (in the territory of modern Spain).

Tools of the Chelles culture were discovered in Africa (Upper Nile Valley, Ternifin).

The oldest remains of human culture, belonging to the turn of the Chellesian and Acheulean eras, were found in the Caucasus and Ukraine.

Before the great glaciation, people already knew how to hunt, in particular, deer, elephants, rhinoceroses, and bison. Hunting was added to simple gathering.

The Acheulean era is characterized by a certain sedentism of hunting tribes.

Presumably the first fire was produced 300-200 thousand years ago.

The Early Paleolithic period includes the Mousterian era, which is characterized by Neanderthals settling in caves and making small dwellings from mammoth bones.

Hunters learned to use spears, flint points, and clubs.

Apparently, ideological ideas began to form, since it was during this period that the burial of the dead began. Some scientists believe that the birth of the first clan society can also be attributed to this.

The physical appearance of the Neanderthal began to gradually change, and already at the end of the Ice Age, man turned into a Cro-Magnon man.

The Late Paleolithic is driven by the harsh conditions of the ongoing Ice Age. The first attempts were made to engage in fishing, gathering and hunting became more advanced.

Stone products were divided into two main groups: actual weapons for hunting and tools for labor. Weapons included darts, harpoons, and spear throwers. Tools: knives, scrapers, silicon tools for processing wood and bone.

Archeology claims that the social structure of the Late Paleolithic was based on a tribal community of 100 people, 20 of whom were adults. In some places, small round-shaped dwellings were discovered, in which paired families may have lived.

The cult of the leader and elders is gradually being formed, as can be judged by the decorations made of mammoth bones.

During the Late (Upper) Paleolithic period, man developed the territories of Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Siberia, and America.

Rock paintings were discovered in the caves already mentioned above. Apparently, images of animals (mammoths, rhinoceroses, horses) were made for magical rituals in order to catch luck in the hunt.

The Mousterian era gives totemism to primitive society: the cult of the bear is born. Near Paleolithic sites, bone figurines of women are often found, who were the personification of fertility, vitality, and the continuation of the human race. These same findings allow us to judge matriarchy as the main system. Most children knew only their mothers, who could pass on prohibitions (in particular the ban on incest), primitive laws and orders from generation to generation.

10 thousand years BC The glacier began to melt, the remains of which can still be seen in the mountains of Scandinavia and the Alps. From the point of view of natural features, the Mesolithic is a transition period from the Ice Age to the era of modern climate.

The Mesolithic is also known as the Middle Stone Age, occupying a niche between the Paleolithic and Neolithic. The approximate lifespan of its existence is 3-4 thousand years.

Changes in climatic conditions have significantly affected human evolution. It was necessary to rebuild many forms of farming and hunting, since mammoths had already become extinct by this time.

Man learned to use wood, and the first bow and arrows were created. Now it was possible to hunt not only large game, but also birds.

Gathering was also changed, cutting and piercing tools with wooden holders were created.

The first domestication of domestic animals began. The dogs began to help in the hunt, and small piglets were left to feed.

§ 4. People of the Paleolithic era

Living conditions of primitive people.

The process of anthropogenesis took about 3 million years. During this time, dramatic changes occurred in nature more than once. There were four major glaciations. Within the glacial and warm eras there were periods of warming and cooling.

During ice ages in northern Eurasia and North America, a layer of ice up to 2 km thick covered vast territories. The border of the glacier at the time of its greatest distribution during the last glaciation (its beginning dates from 185 to 70 thousand years ago) passed south of Volgograd, Kyiv, Berlin, and London.

The endless tundra stretched south from the glacier. In summer it is lush here, but the grasses grew and the bushes turned green for a short time.

People populated the periglacial areas quite densely. Animals lived there, which for many millennia became the main object of hunting for humans, since they provided abundant food, as well as skins and bones. These are mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses and cave bears. Herds of wild horses, deer, bison, etc. grazed here.

Glaciation periods became a severe test for primitive people. The need to confront unfavorable conditions contributed to the progressive development of mankind. Hunting for large animals was possible only with the participation of a significant number of people. It is assumed that the hunt was driven: animals were driven either to cliffs or to specially dug holes. Thus, a person could survive only in a group of his own kind.

Tribal community.

It is very difficult to judge social relations during the Paleolithic period. Even the most backward tribes studied by ethnographers (Bushmen, Australian aborigines), according to archaeological periodization, were at the Mesolithic stage.

It is assumed that the first people, like modern monkeys, lived in small groups (the term “human herd” is now not used by most researchers). In groups of modern apes, the leader and several males close to him dominate all other males and females. Some peoples studied by ethnographers who were at the primitive stage also observed a system of dominance of leaders and their associates over the rest of the team. Perhaps it was also the case with the first people.

However, there is another opinion, which is also confirmed by ethnographic research. In the collectives of the majority of backward peoples, relations were recorded that in the scientific literature were called “primitive communism.” They are characterized by equality of team members, mutual assistance and mutual assistance. Most likely, it was precisely such social relations that allowed people to survive in the extreme conditions of the Ice Ages.

The study of Late Paleolithic settlements, data from ethnography, and folkloristics allowed scientists to come to the conclusion that the basis of the social organization of the Cro-Magnons was a clan community (clan) - a group of blood relatives descending from a common ancestor.

Judging by the excavations, the ancient tribal community consisted of 100-150 people. All relatives jointly engaged in hunting, gathering, making tools and processing prey. Dwellings, food supplies, animal skins, and tools were considered common property. At the head of the clan were the most respected and experienced people, usually the eldest in age (elders). All the most important issues in the life of the community were decided at a meeting of all its adult members (people's assembly).

The problem of sexual relations is closely related to the problem of the social structure of primitive peoples. Apes have harem families: only the leader and his associates participate in reproduction, using all the females. Scientists suggest that under the conditions of the elimination of the leader's dominance system, sexual relations took the form of promiscuity - every man in the group was considered the husband of every woman. Later appeared exogamy - prohibition on marriage within the clan community. A dual-clan group marriage developed, in which members of one clan could only marry members of another clan. This custom, recorded among many peoples by ethnographers, contributed to the biological progress of mankind.

A separate genus could not exist in isolation. Clan communities united into tribes. Initially there were two clans in the tribe, and then there were more and more of them. Over time, restrictions also appeared in group marriage. Members of the clan were divided into classes according to age (marriages were allowed only between classes corresponding to each other). Then a couple marriage developed, which was initially very fragile.

For a long time, the prevailing idea in science was that the clan organization went through two stages in its development - matriarchy And patriarchy. Under matriarchy, kinship was counted along the maternal line, and husbands went to live in their wife’s clan. Under patriarchy, the main unit of society becomes the large patriarchal family. Currently, opinions are being expressed that these stages were not universal for all primitive peoples, and elements of matriarchy could arise at later stages of the development of primitive tribes.

Achievements of people during the Late Paleolithic period.

The Late Paleolithic is archaeologically characterized, first of all, by the presence of a wide variety of stone tools. The material used was flint, as well as obsidian, jasper and other types of hard but easily split stone. Along with the universal hand ax, specialized tools appeared for different purposes. The skins were processed with a stone scraper, holes were pierced in them with a pierce, a pointed point, cut with a knife, chisel, etc. They made composite tools: a sharp stone was tied to a wooden handle, and the result was a spear or an ax.

The technique of stone processing has changed. By pressing, thin and light plates were broken off from a specially prepared stone - a core (kernel). The cutting edges of the weapon were sharpened using pressure and light blows (retouching).

A spear thrower was invented - a plank with a stop that allows you to throw a spear at high speed. This was the first mechanical device in human history.

The cold climate led to the development of clothing and improved housing. The skin of the animal was cut into pieces, holes were pierced along the edges with stone needles and sewn together with the sinews of the animals. Caves were widely used as dwellings in Western Europe and a number of other places. It was once believed that primitive people usually lived in caves. These people were called troglodytes (cave people). However, in Eastern Europe, even where there were caves (for example, in the Urals), people did not settle in them. Here they usually dug a round or oval hole, dug upright bones of mammoths or other large animals bent inward along its edges, covered them with skins, branches and covered them with earth. This “house” could accommodate up to 50 people. In the center, several hearths were made of stones. In settlements there were usually 2 - 3 similar dwellings.

The first thing happens gender and age division of labor: men went hunting, women gathered, prepared food, and sewed clothes. The children helped the women.

The transition from teenagers to adults took place during a ritual initiation. In preparation for initiation, adults taught teenagers to use weapons, hunt, and get food. During the ritual itself, they were subjected to hunger, beatings, left alone in the forest, etc. Sometimes there was a symbolic “death” of the teenager and his “rebirth” as an adult. Both boys and girls underwent initiation. After initiation, they became full members of the tribe and could marry.

During the Late Paleolithic period, people settled all the lands of Eurasia available to them. During times of warming, they moved north, and when the glacier advanced, they retreated to the south. The settlement of America began 40 thousand years ago (and maybe even earlier). It is assumed that people got there through the isthmus that connected Chukotka and Alaska, or through ice during the Ice Age. People also appeared in Australia.

For the Early Paleolithic, all traces of human presence in all regions of the Earth fit into the framework of the general successive archaeological cultures (Olduvai, Acheulian, Mousterian), although there are local differences. For the Late Paleolithic, the coexistence of various archaeological cultures is recorded. This indicates the emergence of ethnic differences. At the beginning of the Paleolithic, three main races of humanity began to emerge.

Primitive religion and art.

Primitive people knew a lot about the world. They understood the habits of animals, the properties of various plants and stones, were able to predict the weather, and treat wounds and poisonous snake bites. Stone tools were even used to perform surgical operations, cutting off a damaged arm or leg.

In many practical knowledge, ancient people were superior to modern man. However, they had no idea about many things. Observations of natural phenomena and reflections on people’s lives led to the emergence of the idea of ​​the existence of invisible forces - perfume And gods, that influence nature and human life. This is how religion was born. Primitive religion differed significantly from the religion of subsequent times. For primitive people, gods and spirits were not otherworldly forces that govern the world; they were not perceived as something different from humans. The gods were embodied in very specific objects: stones, trees, animals. The ancestors of the clan were also gods. These ancestors often were also considered some kind of animals. People felt their constant “connection with the gods. Therefore, they believed that they could influence the gods and spirits: appease them, feed them (sacrifice ritual), and sometimes punish them.

Many religious rites were associated with hunting. With the help of magical actions they tried to make animals easier prey. Much attention was paid to the burial ritual, since members of the clan who were leaving for the afterlife had to be provided with everything necessary for life there.

Primitive art is associated with religion, the problem of its origin is still the subject of scientific discussion. It is assumed that art, like religion, has become one of the ways of understanding the world around us.

Art originated with the Neanderthals (incisions, ornaments). Under the Cro-Magnons, the time of its true heyday came. The most impressive monument of the Paleolithic times is cave painting. Hundreds of magnificent color realistic images of mammoths, bison, deer, horses, and bears were discovered in a number of caves. Cave drawings date from 30 to 12 thousand years ago. These images were created for witchcraft hunting rituals; on some of them traces of impacts with stone tips were found. Perhaps the caves with drawings were also used since the time of initiation as a kind of school of hunting skills.

No less interesting is the Paleolithic sculpture. These are animal figures made of stone, bone, wood. Some of them have traces of blows that were inflicted during magical rituals.

Unlike animals, images of people were usually done abstractly. On the walls of the caves, all the people have masks on their faces. Paleolithic Venuses - small (5-15 cm) figurines of women, usually naked, occasionally clothed, also have practically no faces. Quite a few such figurines were found in Western Europe, but most of all in Russia, in the Voronezh region, as well as “near Lake Baikal.” Historians suggest that these are the ancestors of Rola. Such sculptures also expressed the ideas of motherhood and fertility.

In addition to fine art, songs and secrets undoubtedly played a big role in people's lives.

Paleolithic sites in Russia.

Some archaeologists date the first signs of human presence on the territory of modern Russia to about 1 million years ago. Thus, at the sites of Ulalinka (within the city of Gorno-Altaisk), Dering-Yuryakh near Yakutsk, and Mysovaya in the Southern Urals, primitive tools made from pebbles were discovered, similar to the most ancient products from East Africa. During the Late Paleolithic period, most of modern Russia was already inhabited.

One of the most famous places that speak of the presence of primitive people in our country is the Kapova Cave in Bashkiria in the Southern Urals. More than 40 drawings made in red ocher were found there: mammoths, bison, wild horses, and a rhinoceros. The age of the drawings is 15-13 thousand years.

For archaeologists, one of the most interesting was the Kostenko-Borshchevsky district near Voronezh. Here, in a small area, 24 sites and 4 burials were excavated, a huge number of stone and bone tools, figurines, including a huge number of Paleolithic Wieners, were found. In total, traces of five archaeological cultures have been discovered in this area.

One of these cultures, which spread over a large territory, includes the famous Sungir site near Vladimir. In the 60s gg. XX century Two burials were excavated there, the age of which is 25 - 30 thousand years. In one of the burials lay a man 55-65 years old. It is believed that this was the leader of the tribe. All his clothes and hat were embroidered with hundreds of small beads from mammoth tusks. His hands were decorated with more than 20 bracelets, also made from tusks. The second grave is even more interesting. A 12-13 year old boy and a 7-8 year old girl were lying in it with their heads facing each other. Their clothes were also richly decorated with bone items; a total of 7.5 thousand beads were collected. On the boy's chest lay a flat figurine of a horse, and at his shoulder - a mammoth. It remains a mystery why these people were given such a magnificent burial.

Paleolithic culture

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rattles and drums became especially widespread.

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

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

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

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

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