Ancient people of the Stone Age. Life of cave people in the Stone and Ancient Ages. Tools of Pithecanthropus

We call history the science of the destinies of the human race on earth. This science can easily collect a lot of information about the times closest to ours. In an educated society, they take care to preserve the memory of what they have lived, and keep records of events and human practices. But the further we go back in past centuries, the less we encounter such care, the fewer records.

3000 years BC, i.e. 1000 years BC*, no one in Europe wrote down any notes about the events or lifestyle of their contemporaries. If we want to find out something about this time and about centuries even more ancient, we need to dig into the earth, lift up the layers of it buried on top, on which people lived several thousand years ago. Then we see the remains of dwellings and graves, tools and weapons, utensils, clothes, jewelry, toys of ancient people, and finally the remains of them and those animals and plants that served them. From these traces of life, one can imagine what the nature that surrounded a person was like, what kind of housekeeping he did, how he dressed, how he worked and entertained himself.

* The Nativity of Christ, or our era (new era), is a modern chronology system adopted in most countries of the world. The date of birth of Jesus Christ, calculated in 525 AD by the Roman monk Dionysius the Lesser, is taken as the starting point. Moreover, the first year after R. X is the first year AD. e., and the first year BC is the first year BC. e.

We call the science that studies these remains archeology (i.e., the science of antiquity). It helps the story, but not entirely. From the remains it is almost impossible to judge many of the customs of the people of old: for example, how their family was structured, what kind of alliances they formed among themselves, how they resolved disputes, how and what they prayed for, how they celebrated festivals, etc.

To get an idea about all this, you need to turn to the help of another science, ethnic studies (ethnology), which studies the life of contemporary peoples from different parts of the world. It is especially important to learn the structure and concepts of those that are lagging behind in their development and are in a wild or barbaric state. It is easy to notice that the remains of antiquity in Europe are very similar to the household items of today's savages and semi-savages of Australia, America, and Africa; one might think that the concepts, structure, and customs of both would be just as similar. We can conclude that the ancient Europeans had the same customs and beliefs that are found among the Redskins of America, the Australians, etc.

Cave people

The oldest settlements are many tens of thousands of years away from our time. At first, Europe had a warm and humid climate. We know almost nothing about the people of this time: in the deep layers of the earth, piles of sharpened stones similar to tools are found, but human remains have not yet been discovered. Later, huge ice covered more than half of Europe for a long time; remnants of glaciers still lie on the high ridges of the Alps.

When the ice retreated to the north, our countries remained cold for several thousand years. At this time in Europe there were large animals that have now disappeared or become very rare: rhinoceros, mammoth, that is, an elephant with thick long hair and strongly curved tusks, bison, a huge ancient bull, wild boar, large (so-called now northern ) deer, cave lion and cave bear.

You can form an idea about the savages of this time. Their skeletons, piles of fragments that served as their tools, and garbage that show what they ate were unearthed in deep, filled-up caves. The lives of these people were surrounded by dangers; their means of subsistence were very scarce. Men went out hunting, watched out for the beast, drove it and killed it with a club, a stake, a sharp bone or a stone. They rushed at freshly killed game, cut out the bones and greedily sucked the warm marrow out of them. Women stayed near the dwellings, collected berries, wild fruits and seeds, and dug roots from the ground. The caves themselves, where a person took refuge from the cold and bad weather, were unsafe: sometimes he managed to recapture the beast’s home, but often he himself had to give way to a more terrible rival. The caveman did not know clothes. He covered himself from the cold with the skin torn from the animal; his long hair fluttered in the wind. He rubbed paint on his body or tattooed drawings on it. There was no consistency in his life: having exterminated the game in the neighboring forest, he was forced to abandon his home and look for a new one. He often went hungry for a long time; but when he got rich prey, he ate it with wild greed, forgetting to make a reserve. His sleep was cloudy and heavy. He spoke little and abruptly; celestial phenomena did not interest him. He did not distinguish between good and evil deeds, did not think about a punishing deity, did not ask himself the question of where everything around him came from, who rules the world visible to him. He only knew how to rejoice noisily when there was good luck, and groan heavily when misfortune befell him.

He had one great advantage over animals. He knew fire and knew how to produce it through the friction of dry branches. Until now, no traces have been found of such a wild life in which people were not familiar with fire. A fire built in the middle of the cave brought the family together after a difficult hunt; they warmed themselves around it and spent the night; food was cooked on fire.

Old Stone Age

The tools that man had at his disposal were very bad and weak: they were an exact repetition or continuation of his arms and legs, fingers and fists. He looked for sharp and strong bones of animals and fish, took the antlers of a large deer and the teeth of a wild boar, and collected pointed and thin fragments of flint.

Gradually, he began to shape the tools: striking the edge of a stone with another stone, he cut off small irregular pieces from the first and thus sharpened the end or edge of the flint. Depending on the size of the stone, it resembled an axe, knife, or scraper. With the help of these tools it was possible to inflict more severe blows during the hunt, cut meat, scrape the skin of an animal, pierce its skin, and remove bark from a tree. The same things were tools and weapons for man. The ancient ax was only a blade without a handle: a person grabbed it tightly between his fingers and palm and used it to strengthen the blows of his hand, like brass knuckles.

Many more centuries passed. Man has achieved great skill in stone cutting. Using a thin blade, a point or a drill made of stone, he could plan, sharpen and drill the bones and horns of animals. He now had a selection of various weapons. Another amazing ability was shown by a man of the ancient Stone Age. On the bones and horns that served him as tools, on the rocks and inner walls of caves, he drew drawings with some kind of point, mostly images of animals: mammoth, deer, bison, wild horse. These drawings are very good; they show observation and a faithful eye. Here are two deer threateningly pointing their antlers at each other; Here the mad bison bristled its fur and arched its huge humped back. Or again: a figure of a man, a neighing wild horse, and deer crouched to the ground are carved from bone, from a mammoth tusk, from stone. In these drawings and figures is the beginning of human art. It did not serve any benefit: the savage amused himself, entertained himself, colored his boring life with whatever he could; the perceptive and brave hunter depicted what stood before his eyes*.

* Nowadays, scientists believe that the emergence of the art of primitive man is associated with the idea that by depicting animals and scenes of hunting them, a person ensures good luck (hunting magic). Realistic colorful images of animals from the late ancient Stone Age (Paleolithic) have been found in caves in southern France and northern Spain (the most famous is the Altamira cave in the province of Santander).

Beginning of cattle breeding and land cultivation

Thousands of years passed like this. The climate in Europe has changed again. It became somewhat warmer and damper. Many breeds of large animals, the mammoth, the cave bear, and the ancient large bull, disappeared, and animals characteristic of our time multiplied. People began to live in open areas, in river valleys rich in vegetation, on the outskirts of forests, and on the seashore. They wandered no more, looking for places rich in game. They tried to sit down more firmly and make provisions for the hungry season. For this purpose, man began to drive the animals and birds that he needed, keep them behind fences, and began to tame others. The first to be tamed was the dog, which itself stuck to the man and became his hunting companion. Later, sheep, goats, and pigs were domesticated. The domesticated animals were at first small and bad; They were mostly kept only for slaughter. Thus, cattle breeding appeared next to hunting.

The ancient women's occupation of obtaining plant food also moved forward. Instead of walking and looking for randomly grown herbs and roots, women began to replant and grow near the house those species from which they ate most of all: fruit trees, and especially cereals, barley, millet, and wheat. In order for the grains to grow better, the ground was loosened with a hoe*, that is, a stick with a curved edge or a hook at the end; plows and plows were not yet known and animals were not used for work. This was not farming yet; It would be more accurate to call such a farm a vegetable garden. At first they didn’t know how to bake bread. The grain was either roasted or softened in a hand mill, which consisted of two stones, one above the other, and this poorly ground flour was boiled. As before, the work of obtaining food, kitchen and dinner were divided: men fried meat, women prepared boiled vegetables and porridge separately from them. While hunting blades were placed in the grave of men, her mill was buried with a woman.

* Hoe.

Pile buildings in ancient times

The human habitation has also changed completely. He no longer looked for a random hangout in the rocks and trees.

He began to build houses similar to those shelters that he found in nature. Either he built a cave himself from large stones, or dug a hole, a dugout, and placed a round roof over it made of tightly intertwined branches and brushwood. Or, finally, he built a wooden hut on stilts among the water of lakes and swamps. One view of the buildings shows how far these people have gone from the cave dwellers.

Piles were driven into the bottom not far from the shore; their ends above the water were connected by transverse bars and a platform of beams was laid on them; This uneven floor was covered with clay, sand and cobblestones, and several huts were erected on it. The pile village was connected to the shore of the lava or the carpenter, but in such a way that they could be easily separated. A person could also leave his home on a single-tree, that is, a boat hollowed out from the stump of a large trunk. Dwellings among the water served as a good refuge from wild animals; Another benefit was that large catches of fish could be made right at hand. On the shores of the lakes opposite the pile villages lay forests and pastures in which the inhabitants hunted and grazed their livestock, and among the vast thickets stretched narrow strips of their vegetable gardens and fields.

Significant lakes are not found everywhere; if, however, people settled in areas where there was no large water, they repeated the usual method of construction. This is how pile villages appeared on earth: they were built close to the river, where it could flood the shore, or in forest clearings where trees had been cut down. The village, built on the ground, was fenced for protection with a ditch and rampart; the shaft was made from diagonally driven piles, onto which earth was piled; From the inside, more long bars were placed on the embankment, the gaps between them were filled with clay and bundles of brushwood, and a roll of sand and stone was made on top. There was a quadrangular fortress with its sides facing the four cardinal points. The huts on the platforms were small, one and a half or two fathoms* wide, made of straight beams intertwined with branches and brushwood and coated with raw clay. There were no stoves or pipes; a fire was still lit among the dwellings; the smoke from it came out into a hole made at the top or side. The dwelling was divided into two halves; in one they kept cattle, in the other people lived; here in the middle a stone flooring was made for the fire.

* Sazhen – Russian measure of length = 2.1336 m.

The pile village would now seem damp and dirty to us. There was water everywhere all around; all sorts of leftovers and rubbish were simply thrown down from the platform. Of all this garbage, huge piles were collected that rose to the very floor. Such a cramped village of twigs could easily have burned down; Then, on the old heap, mixed with ash, the piles were strengthened again and a new village was built.

New Stone Age

But in order to arrange housing in this way, a lot of skill was needed. Cutting down trees and cutting large blocks required stronger and larger tools. The people of the pile buildings cut and sharpened stones with great skill; they drilled stone axes to insert handles made of bone, horn, or wood into them, and hollowed out grooves around hammers in order to tie the handles to them with animal sinew or fibrous grass. Large blades were often smoothly polished. Now there were a wide variety of tools and weapons: saws, daggers, arrows, spears, spindles, etc.

The preparation of tools and construction turned into a difficult, proper occupation, into a craft that required special skill and strength; These jobs were performed by men. In some places traces of workshops are now being discovered where many stonemasons, turners and gunsmiths worked together. They needed large supplies of fresh material. The best flint lies below ground; therefore, deep wells or mines were dug to extract it. Along with men's crafts, others appeared - women's. Women weaved baskets and prepared clay dishes. First they came up with the idea of ​​coating a whip with viscous clay so that it could be put on fire. Then they began to stack pots, jugs, bowls, etc. from only clay lumps or layers; they were then dried in the sun. Much later, they began to spin the dishes on a potter's wheel and fire them over a fire. Their acquaintance with plants prompted women to another craft. They noticed the fibrous stems of flax and hemp, learned how to extract yarn, pull threads and twirl ropes, and finally prepare fabrics. A spinning wheel and a straight loom appeared in the hut, on which women weaved canvas.

People of the new Stone Age no longer walked without clothes. They dressed in a long shirt with sleeves and belted it; another cloak was thrown on top; both men, and especially women, decorated their necks, arms, legs, and head hair with necklaces, bracelets, needles and rings made of colored polished stones, teeth, shells, etc. Craftsmen of the New Stone Age in some places prepared so many tools and utensils that there was a surplus began to sell to the side. Caravans of traders stretched along rivers, along mountain paths and passes; the products were carried on shoulders, carried on wheelbarrows, loaded on camels and horses, and loaded into boats. Trade brought goods very far from the master. In turn, beautiful types of stones were brought from afar to serve as materials for dressing.

The beginning of agriculture. Bronze and Iron Ages

The man moved even further towards his work. Noticing that bread grows better if you dig the ground deeper, he enlarged the hoe, made the hook stronger and lengthened the handle: it turned out to be a plow. The plow must be pulled, without stopping, across the entire field; Instead of a short bed, you will get a long furrow. At first, people pulled the plow themselves. Then they began to harness a strong ox in front, and a man stood behind to guide the plow in a straight line and, pressing on it, deepen the furrow. This method of working with powerful tools and working animals is already our agriculture. The bull was not quickly tamed; but since the man defeated him, they began to transport weights on the bull and harness the animal to the cart. For the same purpose, the man also captured a fast horse. These jobs, which involved catching animals and shepherding, were for the most part beyond the strength of women, who in the old days were responsible for cultivating the land; but often the cattle breeder considered labor that bends one to the ground low and offensive to a free person and sent weak women, teenagers, and old people to the field.

Along with agriculture, cattle breeding also moved forward. Man discovered another new food item. The wild heifer barely had enough milk for a calf; in captivity, the improved food began to produce surplus milk, which people took for themselves. The memory of this innovation was preserved for a long time: milk remained a festive food, which was shared with the deity, pouring some of it on the ground. Small livestock, sheep and goats also found a new use: they began to shear wool from the best breeds and prepare durable and beautiful fabrics from animal hair. A great change had taken place in the whole way of life of man, and he was aware of how much new wealth the domestication of animals had brought. In many places, therefore, they began to honor the bull, or calf, as the power of God, imagining that the deity inhabits this powerful and beneficent animal.

Man managed to do the same thing as with animals with some wild plants: he improved their species, moving them from the forest or from the steppe to his own fence, weeding out weeds on the ridges, grafting branches of good bushes onto the worst ones. Of the grafted plants, grapes and olives became the most important.

Large farms began to need corrals for livestock, barns for bread, and storerooms for fruits and vegetables. The stone tools were too small and brittle for new work. It was necessary to find very durable material in order to prepare from it large strong blades for plows, heavy axes and hammers, and large spades. Metals turned out to be such materials. Metals are rarely found in the form of nuggets; They are usually mixed in ore with other types of stones and earth. It takes great skill to distinguish the ore, to smelt the metal from the mixture and to give it different shapes; For this you need to use fire.

Copper is the easiest to melt. It was the first metal that man began to use. But copper is too soft; the copper point or blade soon becomes bent and dull. Therefore, tin began to be added to copper for hardness; this mixture is bronze. To prepare bronze things, it was necessary either to make a mold of stone and clay and pour molten metal into it, or to beat hot soft strips with a hammer and give them the appearance of blades, nails, pointed sticks, etc.

Later, people learned to mine and process iron: the tools became even stronger. Large metal workshops arose: traces of large ancient forges are still visible in some places. They had to be located near the places where ore was mined. If the people moved to another settlement, the blacksmiths and foundries remained in their old place; they already had to work for strangers. As foreigners, blacksmiths were held in contempt by some peoples; others, on the contrary, highly revered them: they considered them prophetic people, since their difficult work seemed at the same time cunning and mysterious.

Along with metal products came a special type of luxury and wealth. People really liked shiny, smooth and ringing yellow, white and reddish things made of metals: everyone greedily reached for them. The best decorations were bracelets, necklaces, handcuffs, rings, earrings, and clasps made of bronze, gold and silver. Metal strips began to be used to cover the tops of houses and interior walls, thresholds and doorposts. Masks made of thin gold sheets were placed on the faces of the dead. Those who wanted to brag said that they had a lot of metal at home.

People from different countries of Europe did not rise to this level of wealth and skill at the same time. The inhabitants of the south, the Balkan Peninsula, Italy, and Sicily were the first to switch to bronze and iron; a thousand years later than the inhabitants of what is now France, and another several hundred years later than the inhabitants of Sweden. This difference occurred because objects of especially fine workmanship were brought by sea from the east, from Egypt, Asia Minor, Syria, where people had earlier achieved inventions and improvements. New objects, and with them new methods of more skillful work, were established first on the southern edge of Europe and only slowly penetrated into the middle of the continent.

Unions of ancient (cave) people

Cavemen lived scatteredly in single families. Only for large hunts did they temporarily gather in small detachments of several dozen people. New Stone Age people lived in larger societies and towns. Cattlemen formed large camps; when food in the area was depleted, the entire camp moved together. The farmers formed a community and shared among themselves a large clearing surrounded by forest, or part of a river valley; they were built either as a close-knit village, surrounded by fields, meadows and pastures, or as farms, each farm having its own field and vegetable garden, but with common pastures. Cattle breeders, stern and perky, often started quarrels with their neighbors and raided them to take away their prey. The farmers were softer in disposition and were afraid of war, during which fields and vegetable gardens were trampled and the work of many years was lost. Some needed to form alliances to attack, others to defend. Those who entered into alliances chose as leader for the duration of the raid or defense a person known for strength and dexterity. They obeyed him only during battle; when they then went home again, the former leader became an ordinary man in the street.

These unions were very small compared to the states and even regions of our time. Trade and wandering of artisans brought together, however, people from different areas; they got used to communicating with each other, they began to have a common language. People of the same dialect and similar customs formed one tribe and were aware of their closeness to each other. But the tribe for the most part did not obey one order. In peacetime, each village led its own closed life. If a dispute arose between neighbors or one person offended another, those who quarreled could only rely on their own strength; everyone defended themselves against the offender or rival as best they could: they gathered their loved ones, took revenge, and tried to harm the enemy. But sometimes they turned to the advice or court of a peace mediator, some smart old man or a person who was considered prophetic.

Close brotherhoods often arose between people of the same age, especially young and strong, from approximately 18 to 30 years old. They sealed their union with some mysterious ritual: for example, they each released a few drops of their blood and mixed them in one hole: after that they were considered brothers. The older comrades subjected the growing young men to severe trials: they were sent alone on a dangerous hunt, tied to a tree and showered with arrows, etc. If, amid blows and a hail of ridicule, they showed courage, they were recognized as worthy to join the brotherhood. The named brothers for the most part left their families and separate homes and lived as a community together, in one large men's house. It was a large chamber that served as a common bedroom and refectory, surrounded by a canopy and often fortified; weapons were also stored in it. An individual member of the union had to submit in everything to the general desire of his comrades; often, for example, he did not dare to marry and start a family while he remained in the fraternity.

The brotherhood, or squad, usually had its own elected leader. Sometimes a capable, enterprising chieftain attracted many new people to the squad; After successful raids, he and his comrades accumulated large booty. Rumors about him spread throughout the country. They tried to appease him: they sent him bows and gifts from everywhere. He could carry away an entire tribe if, for example, food in the area became scarce. Then a great excitement arose: many families with wives and children moved from their place, collected their belongings on carts and set off on the road behind the mighty leader: the resettlement of the people took place.

Family structure in ancient times

The difference in the morals of hunters, cattle breeders and farmers is noticeable in the nature of family life. Among hunters, men and women lived almost separately, differing greatly in their occupations and in every way of life. The man went into the forest, wandered, robbed, disappeared for days and weeks; in such families, the woman can gain strength in the home; she controls the fate of the children until they grow up and leave on their own. The mother could be protected either by her younger brother, who stayed at home longer than others, or by her father, and then her children got used to their uncle or grandfather more than to their father. In such families, kinship was considered only through the mother; for example, the father's brother was not considered a relative of his children.

Relatives were called by the common name of some animal or bird: “deer”, “falcons”, “wolves”. Perhaps they imagined that they were descended from these animals or received strength from them. Relatives could not marry each other. For example, a man "falcon" could not marry a woman of the same name. If a “deer” man took a wife from a “falcon,” then their children were considered “falcons.”

The family structure was completely different where the husband took charge of the household. Among the cattle breeders, men sat more firmly near the house, and the father took greater power over the children; he considered them and his wife, their mother, his property, his workers; He continued to keep even his adult sons under his control.

A young man who wanted to start a house for himself kidnapped his wife, took her away from someone else’s village, and took her away from someone else’s tribe; or, in order to avoid a quarrel, the groom negotiated with the girl’s relatives about her price and bought a wife. In any case, a woman in such a family was a captive, a slave: she was forced to do the hardest, most menial work. It could happen that the husband sold her again or he acquired several wives for himself. Women were not highly valued in such families. When the owner got rich, that is, when his flock grew, he needed more strong shepherds and watchmen, which means more sons. On the contrary, born girls were often seen only as a burden, and it happened that they were killed.

In such families, kinship was considered only through the father. Father was the ruler here, sir. The large family serving under his orders could be equal in strength to an entire village; she could take power over many small families and force them to work for her. Strangers tried to gain her protection and be adopted by the ruler. This whole combination of blood relatives, adopted kin and subordinates constituted a clan. It featured a main family, in which power passed from father to eldest son. This family was considered noble, causing fear and respect.

Ancient beliefs and rituals of ancient people

The most ancient people buried their dead near their hearths, in caves, and probably soon forgot about them. New Stone Age graves occupy special places separate from the house and are laid out very carefully. The skeleton of the buried person is often in a sitting position with the knees bent to the chin; Various things are placed in order around. It is clear that those who buried them had certain ideas about life beyond the grave.

The phenomenon of death struck people the most. It led them to the following thoughts. The man who suffered death had recently moved, spoken, ate, and worked. Now his body lies motionless and cold. “He’s gone,” the loved one said to himself: only the dwelling in which “he” lived remained. But in the features of the dead the resemblance to the living was preserved. From this it was concluded that the one who had departed was a double of the being who now remained an immobile body. During life, the double was inside the body; warm breath came from him, he was a “spirit”. Therefore, they thought that the double, or spirit, was similar to steam and, like steam or wind, easily flies away.

When death occurs, the spirit or soul completely leaves the body. But the spirit can also leave the body temporarily. He wanders during sleep: a dream is what he sees in his wandering while the body lies motionless in place. The spirit also comes out when a person is furious, in madness (we still say in such cases: “he is beside himself”).

The spirit can leave the body, but cannot live without the body. Having lost his previous body, he is looking for another. From a man he can turn into a beast, a bird. It’s a disaster for him if there is no shelter, if he has to wander for a long time. But then it will be a disaster for those close to the deceased: he will torment them, “strangle” them at night, frighten them in their sleep during a storm, howl with the wind over the house, etc.

Therefore, we must either get rid of him, that is, block his entrance back into the house, driving him away with noisy cries or cunning deception, or we must take care of him, calm him down, that is, let him live again in his previous body. To do this, you should bury the body well in the ground or under arches of strong stones. But there the deceased must be given everything that a person needs in ordinary life, put there tools, dresses, jewelry; it is necessary from time to time to share food and drink with the soul of the deceased, that is, either take them to the grave, lay them out and pour them out there, or on special days separate some from home-cooked food, put them outside and remember the deceased at the table. The deceased is placed in a bent position, in which a newborn baby is: because they believe that he will be born again.

Spirits and deities in ancient times

If the deceased was a strong person, for example the ruler of a large family or a leader, then his spirit received special honor after death. They were now even more afraid of him than before: he could now fly invisibly; every misfortune was attributed to his anger. This belief is still preserved in the concept of a restless “brownie” who lives in a chimney or under the threshold of a house.

They also thought that the spirit could be attracted and seated in a high stone pillar placed at a grave or at a crossroads. An entire stone house was built for powerful spirits: they must live much longer than living people, therefore, they need a very durable eternal home.

From huge stones, pushed tightly together, standing next to each other, they built a large room, much larger than a living hut: one of the stone rooms, opened in our time in Spain, almost 12 fathoms long, 3 fathoms wide. A roof made of heavy stones was placed on top; There was a long passage leading to the door, made of smaller stones, along which one could only crawl. Such large stone graves are often covered with earth, which rises above them like a mound. The foot of the hill is surrounded by stones. There are also regular circles of huge sacred stones and entire fields lined with rows and alleys of stone pillars and blocks.

People believed that there were many spirits flying around them. These spirits came not only from people. Man imagined all living things to be similar to him. Spirits live in animals, especially those that seem mysterious to humans, such as snakes. But spirits also live in trees, streams, rivers and even stones. These spirits are either kind or evil towards a person, or help him find something, for example, hunted game, a path in the forest, a lost thing; then they interfere with him, for example, they knock him off the road, break an arrow thrown at an animal, drag a person into a pool when he is drowning, etc. The disease was explained by the fact that an evil or restless spirit had taken possession of a person.

Among the spirits there are stronger ones, deities. People tried to gain the favor of the deity through some kind of deprivation or torment, for example, by refusing more tasty food and even by completely abstaining from food for several days or by inflicting wounds on themselves. They gave him the best they had as a sacrifice, that is, to eat, a strong bull or a newly born calf. The blood of a slaughtered animal, poured onto the ground, was given to the spirit. They thought that if the spirit drinks warm blood, that is, what it previously lived in, it will come to life again, receive the strength to speak and open up to living people. When people were attacked by very great fear, they were ready to give human blood to the spirit, to kill a prisoner or even a close relative for it, for example, a father killed his child.

Fortune tellers and healers in primitive society

Not everyone knew how to drive away spirits and lure them out from inside a person in order to cure him. When trouble happened, for example, livestock began to die or a person fell ill, they called a sorcerer, a healer: he shook the sick person to shake out the spirit, gave him a special drink, uttered terrible or mysterious words that the spirit feared or which, on the contrary, he liked. When there was a drought, the fortuneteller was called to “make it rain”, to lure the spirit living in the cloud.

If it was not visible where the spirit was sitting, or it was not clear what it needed, the healer began to guess: he threw stones and sticks and watched how they fell; cut the animal and looked at its entrails - all these were signs for him that he alone knew how to interpret. Or the healer himself called the spirit into himself: he deafened himself with the ringing and crackling of a tambourine, jumped madly, spun until he became dizzy, fell exhausted and screamed in unconsciousness; his cries were considered the speech of the spirit itself. In this way, one could find out what kind of sacrifice should be made in order to appease the spirit, one could find out the name of one’s secret enemy or the thief who stole the horse, etc.

The sorcerer-doctor was often a sick person himself: sometimes he was crazy or suffering from epilepsy. But this illness was considered to be the presence of a wise spirit in him. A very smart or gifted person could also become a sorcerer: a songwriter, a connoisseur of herbs and flowers; Those around him took his special mind for the inspiration of the spirit. A prophetic person could show the way, inspire in battle; he sometimes acted as leader.

The head of the house, the father, often told fortunes: he called the spirit of the house or the spirit closest to the place. They believed that the patron spirit of that house lived around the fire that burned in every house. Therefore, the hearth was a holy place. In order not to lose the help of the spirit, the man tried to keep an unquenchable fire on the hearth.

Tales of primitive people

Celestial phenomena also attracted human attention. He was amazed by the change of day and night. He was afraid of the darkness, the silence of the night and rejoiced at the shine of the sun and the life awakening with it. He tried to find an explanation for this change of light and darkness and thought that there was a living reason for it: two strong spirits were fighting, a light one, kind to people, and a dark, evil one. The bright hero is waylaid by his enemies, killed or kidnapped, but he rises again or is resurrected and strikes them with sparkling arrows, that is, he dispels the night with his rays. In the thunderstorm, the same struggle seemed to be repeated: the black evil spirit of the cloud does not give up the life-giving moisture that the earth thirsts for until the bright god cuts the cloud with his lightning spear.

From these explanations “living stories were composed, full of action, with a happy or sad ending. They expressed the concepts of good and evil; they were the first attempts to find the meaning and connection of things in the world surrounding man.

STONE AGE (GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS)

The Stone Age is the oldest and longest period in human history, characterized by the use of stone as the main material for the manufacture of tools.

To make various tools and other necessary products, people used not only stone, but other hard materials: volcanic glass, bone, wood, animal skins and skins, and plant fibers. In the final period of the Stone Age, in the Neolithic, the first artificial material created by man, ceramics, became widespread. In the Stone Age, the formation of the modern type of man takes place. This period of history includes such important achievements of mankind as the emergence of the first social institutions and certain economic structures.

The chronological framework of the Stone Age is very wide - it begins about 2.6 million years ago and before the start of human use of metal. On the territory of the Ancient East, this happens in the 7th - 6th millennium BC, in Europe - in the 4th - 3rd millennium BC.

In archaeological science, the Stone Age is traditionally divided into three main stages:

1. Paleolithic or ancient Stone Age (2.6 million years BC - 10 thousand years BC);
2. Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age (X/IX thousand - VII thousand years BC);
3. Neolithic or New Stone Age (VI/V millennium - III millennium BC)

The archaeological periodization of the Stone Age is associated with changes in the stone industry: each period is characterized by unique stone processing techniques and, as a consequence, a certain set of different types of stone tools.

The Stone Age corresponds to the geological periods:

1. Pleistocene (which is also called: glacial, Quaternary or anthropogenic) - dates from 2.5-2 million years to 10 thousand years BC.
2. Holocene - which began in 10 thousand years BC. and continues to this day.

The natural conditions of these periods played a significant role in the formation and development of ancient human societies.

PALEOLITHIC (2.6 million years ago - 10 thousand years ago)

The Paleolithic is divided into three main periods:

1. Early Paleolithic (2.6 million - 150/100 thousand years ago), which is divided into the Olduvai (2.6 - 700 thousand years ago) and Acheulean (700 - 150/100 thousand years ago) eras;
2. Middle Paleolithic or Mousterian era (150/100 - 35/30 thousand years ago);
3. Late Paleolithic (35/30 - 10 thousand years ago).

In Crimea, only Middle and Late Paleolithic monuments have been recorded. At the same time, flint tools were repeatedly found on the peninsula, the manufacturing technique of which is similar to the Acheulean ones. However, all these finds are random and do not relate to any Paleolithic site. This circumstance does not make it possible to confidently attribute them to the Acheulean era.

Mousterian era (150/100 – 35/30 thousand years ago)

The beginning of the era fell at the end of the Riess-Würm interglacial, which was characterized by a relatively warm climate close to the modern one. The main part of the period coincided with the Valdai glaciation, which is characterized by a strong drop in temperatures.

It is believed that Crimea was an island during the interglacial period. While during the glaciation the level of the Black Sea dropped significantly, during the period of maximum glacier advance it was a lake.

About 150 - 100 thousand years ago, Neanderthals appeared in Crimea. Their camps were located in grottoes and under rock overhangs. They lived in groups of 20–30 individuals. The main occupation was driven hunting, perhaps they were engaged in gathering. They existed on the peninsula until the Late Paleolithic, and disappeared about 30 thousand years ago.

In terms of concentration of Mousterian monuments, not many places on Earth can compare with Crimea. Let's name some better studied sites: Zaskalnaya I - IX, Ak-Kaya I - V, Krasnaya Balka, Prolom, Kiik-Koba, Wolf Grotto, Chokurcha, Kabazi, Shaitan-Koba, Kholodnaya Balka, Staroselye, Adzhi-Koba, Bakhchisarayskaya, Sarah Kaya. Remains of fires, animal bones, flint tools and products of their production are found at sites. During the Mousterian era, Neanderthals began to build primitive dwellings. They were round in plan, like tents. They were made from bones, stones and animal skins. Such dwellings have not been recorded in Crimea. Before the entrance to the Wolf Grotto site, there may have been a wind barrier. It was a shaft of stones, reinforced with branches stuck vertically into it. At the Kiik-Koba site, the main part of the cultural layer was concentrated on a small rectangular area, 7X8 m in size. Apparently, some kind of structure was built inside the grotto.

The most common types of flint tools of the Mousterian era were points and side scrapers. These guns were represented
and relatively flat fragments of flint, during the processing of which they tried to give them a triangular shape. The scraper had one side processed, which was the working side. The pointed edges were processed on two edges, trying to sharpen the top as much as possible. Pointed points and scrapers were used for cutting animal carcasses and processing hides. In the Mousterian era, primitive flint spearheads appeared. Flint “knives” and “Chokurcha triangles” are typical for Crimea. In addition to flint, they used bone from which they made piercings (small animal bones sharpened at one end) and squeezers (they were used for retouching flint tools).

The basis for future tools were the so-called cores - pieces of flint that were given a rounded shape. Long and thin flakes were broken off from the cores, which were blanks for future tools. Next, the edges of the flakes were processed using the squeezing retouching technique. It looked like this: small flakes of flint were broken off from a flake using a bone squeezer, sharpening its edges and giving the tool the desired shape. In addition to squeezers, stone chippers were used for retouching.

Neanderthals were the first to bury their dead in the ground. In Crimea, such a burial was discovered at the Kiik-Koba site. For burial, a recess was used in the stone floor of the grotto. A woman was buried in it. Only the bones of the left leg and both feet were preserved. Based on their position, it was determined that the buried woman was lying on her right side with her legs bent at the knees. This position is typical for all Neanderthal burials. Poorly preserved bones of a 5-7 year old child were found near the grave. In addition to Kiik-Koba, remains of Neanderthals were found at the Zaskalnaya VI site. There, incomplete skeletons of children were discovered, located in cultural layers.

Late Paleolithic (35/30 - 10 thousand years ago)

The Late Paleolithic occurred in the second half of the Würm glaciation. This is a period of very cold, extreme weather conditions. By the beginning of the period, a modern type of man was formed - Homo sapiens (Cro-Magnon). The formation of three large races - Caucasoid, Negroid and Mongoloid - dates back to this time. People inhabit almost all of the inhabited earth, with the exception of the territories occupied by the glacier. Cro-Magnons begin to use artificial dwellings everywhere. Products made from bone are becoming widespread, from which not only tools, but also jewelry are now made.

The Cro-Magnons developed a new, truly human way of organizing society - the clan. The main occupation, like that of the Neanderthals, was driven hunting.

Cro-Magnons appeared in Crimea about 35 thousand years ago, and coexisted with Neanderthals for about 5 thousand years. There is an assumption that they penetrate the peninsula in two waves: from the west, from the Danube basin area; and from the east - from the territory of the Russian Plain.

Crimean Late Paleolithic sites: Suren I, Kachinsky canopy, Adzhi-Koba, Buran-Kaya III, lower layers of Mesolithic sites Shan-Koba, Fatma-Koba, Suren II.

In the Late Paleolithic, a completely new industry of flint tools was formed. I begin to make the cores in a prismatic shape. In addition to flakes, they began to make blades - long blanks with parallel edges.
Tools were made both on flakes and on blades. The most characteristic features of the Late Paleolithic are incisors and scrapers. The short edges of the plate were retouched on the incisors. There were two types of scrapers: end scrapers - where the narrow edge of the plate was retouched; lateral - where the long edges of the plate were retouched. Scrapers and burins were used to process hides, bones and wood. At the Suren I site, many small narrow pointed flint objects (“points”) and plates with sharpened retouched edges were found. They could serve as spear tips. Note that in the lower layers of Paleolithic sites, tools of the Mousterian era (pointed points, side scrapers, etc.) are found. In the upper layers of the sites Suren I and Buran-Kaya III, microliths are found - trapezoidal flint plates with 2-3 retouched edges (these products are characteristic of the Mesolithic).

Few bone tools have been found in Crimea. These are spearheads, awls, pins and pendants. At the Suren I site, mollusk shells with holes were found, which were used as decorations.

MESOLITHIC (10 - 8 thousand years ago / VIII - VI thousand BC)

At the end of the Paleolithic, global climate changes occurred. Warming is causing glaciers to melt. The level of the world's oceans is rising, rivers are becoming full, and many new lakes are appearing. The Crimean peninsula acquires outlines close to modern ones. Due to the increase in temperature and humidity, forests take the place of cold steppes. The fauna is changing. Large mammals characteristic of the Ice Age (for example, mammoths) move north and gradually die out. The number of herd animals decreases. In this regard, collective driven hunting is being replaced by individual hunting, in which each member of the tribe could feed themselves. This happens because when hunting a large animal, for example, a mammoth, the efforts of the entire team were required. And this justified itself, since as a result of success the tribe received a significant amount of food. The same method of hunting in new conditions was not productive. There was no point in driving the whole tribe into one deer; it would have been a waste of effort and would have led to the death of the team.

In the Mesolithic, a whole complex of new tools appeared. The individualization of hunting led to the invention of the bow and arrow. Bone hooks and harpoons for catching fish appear. They began to make primitive boats, they were cut out of a tree trunk. Microliths are widespread. They were used to make composite tools. The base of the tool was made of bone or wood, grooves were cut into it, into which microliths (small flint objects made from plates, less often from flakes, and serving as inserts for composite tools and arrowheads) were attached using resin. Their sharp edges served as the working surface of the tool.

They continue to use flint tools. These were scrapers and cutters. Microliths of segmented, trapezoidal and triangular shapes were also made from silicon. The shape of the cores changes, they become cone-shaped and prismatic. Tools were mainly made on blades, much less often on flakes.

Bone was used to make dart tips, awls, needles, hooks, harpoons and pendant jewelry. Knives or daggers were made from the shoulder blades of large animals. They had a smoothed surface and pointed edges.

In the Mesolithic, people domesticated the dog, which became the first domestic animal in history.

At least 30 Mesolithic sites have been discovered in Crimea. Of these, Shan-Koba, Fatma-Koba and Murzak-Koba are considered classic Mesolithic. These sites appeared in the Late Paleolithic. They are located in grottoes. They were protected from the wind by barriers made of branches reinforced with stones. The hearths were dug into the ground and lined with stones. At the sites, cultural strata were discovered, represented by flint tools, waste from their production, bones of animals, birds and fish, and shells of edible snails.

Mesolithic burials have been discovered at the Fatma-Koba and Murzak-Koba sites. A man was buried in Fatma Kobe. The burial was made in a small hole on the right side, the hands were placed under the head, the legs were strongly drawn up. A pair burial was discovered in Murzak-Kobe. A man and a woman were buried in an extended position on their back. The man's right hand went under the woman's left hand. The woman was missing the last two phalanges of both little fingers. This is associated with the initiation rite. It is noteworthy that the burial did not take place in a grave. The dead were simply covered with stones.

In terms of social structure, Mesolithic society was tribal. There was a very stable social organization in which each member of society was aware of his relationship to one or another genus. Marriages took place only between members of different clans. Economic specialization arose within the clan. Women were engaged in gathering, men in hunting and fishing. Apparently, there was an initiation rite - a rite of transfer of a member of society from one gender and age group to another (transfer of children to a group of adults). The initiate was subjected to severe trials: complete or partial isolation, starvation, scourging, wounding, etc.

NEOLITHIC (VI – V millennium BC)

During the Neolithic era there was a transition from appropriating types of economy (hunting and gathering) to reproducing ones - agriculture and cattle breeding. People learned to grow crops and raise some types of animals. In science, this unconditional breakthrough in human history is called the “Neolithic Revolution.”

Another achievement of the Neolithic is the appearance and widespread distribution of ceramics - vessels made of baked clay. The first ceramic vessels were made using the rope method. Several ropes were rolled out of clay and connected to each other, giving the shape of a vessel. The seams between the strips were smoothed with a bunch of grass. Next, the vessel was burned in a fire. The dishes turned out to be thick-walled, not completely symmetrical, with an uneven surface and poorly fired. The bottom was round or pointed. Sometimes the vessels were decorated. They did this with paint, a sharp stick, a wooden stamp, and a rope, which they wrapped around the pot and fired it in the oven. The ornamentation on the vessels reflected the symbolism of a particular tribe or group of tribes.

In the Neolithic, new stone processing techniques were invented: grinding, sharpening and drilling. Grinding and sharpening of tools was done on a flat stone with the addition of wet sand. Drilling took place using a tubular bone, which had to be rotated at a certain speed (for example, a bow string). As a result of the invention of drilling, stone axes appeared. They were wedge-shaped, with a hole in the middle into which a wooden handle was inserted.

Neolithic sites are open throughout the Crimea. People settled in grottoes and under rock overhangs (Tash-Air, Zamil-Koba II, Alimovsky overhang) and on yailas (At-Bash, Beshtekne, Balin-Kosh, Dzhyayliau-Bash). Open-type sites have been discovered in the steppe (Frontovoye, Lugovoe, Martynovka). Flint tools are found on them, especially many microliths in the form of segments and trapezoids. Ceramics are also found, although finds of Neolithic ceramics are rare in Crimea. An exception is the Tash-Air site, where more than 300 fragments were found. The pots had thick walls and a rounded or pointed bottom. The upper part of the vessels was sometimes decorated with notches, grooves, pits or stamp impressions. A hoe made of deer antler and the bone base of a sickle were found at the Tash-Air site. The horn hoe was also found at the Zamil-Koba II site. The remains of dwellings have not been found in Crimea.

On the territory of the peninsula, the only Neolithic burial ground has been discovered near the village. Dolinka. In a shallow, vast pit, 50 people were buried in four tiers. They all lay in an extended position on their backs. Sometimes the bones of previously buried people were moved to the side to make room for a new burial. The dead were sprinkled with red ocher, this is associated with the burial ritual. Flint tools, many drilled animal teeth and bone beads were found in the burial. Similar burial structures have been discovered in the Dnieper and Azov regions.

The Neolithic population of Crimea can be divided into two groups: 1) descendants of the local Mesolithic population who inhabited the mountains; 2) the population that came from the Dnieper and Azov regions and settled the steppe.

In general, the “Neolithic revolution” in Crimea never ended. There are much more bones of wild animals at sites than domestic ones. Agricultural tools are extremely rare. This indicates that the people living on the peninsula at that time still, as in previous eras, prioritized hunting and gathering. Agriculture and gathering were in their infancy.

Today very little is known about our ancestors who lived in the Stone Age. For a long time it was believed that these people were cave dwellers who walked with a club. But modern scientists are confident that the Stone Age is a huge period of history that began approximately 3.3 million years ago and lasted until 3300 AD. – that was not entirely true.

1. Homo Erectus Tool Factory

Hundreds of ancient stone tools have been found during excavations in northeast Tel Aviv, Israel. The artifacts discovered in 2017 at a depth of 5 meters were made by human ancestors. Created about half a million years ago, the tools reveal several facts about their creators, the human ancestor known as Homo erectus. It is believed that the area was a kind of Stone Age paradise - there were rivers, plants and abundant food - everything necessary for subsistence.

The most interesting discovery of this primitive camp was the quarries. Masons chipped flint edges into pear-shaped ax blades, which were probably used for digging up food and butchering animals. The discovery was unexpected due to the huge number of perfectly preserved instruments. This makes it possible to learn more about the lifestyle of Homo erectus.

2. First wine

At the end of the Stone Age, the first wine began to be made on the territory of modern Georgia. In 2016 and 2017, archaeologists unearthed ceramic shards dating from 5400 to 5000 BC. Fragments of clay jugs discovered in two ancient Neolithic settlements (Gadahrili Gora and Shulaveri Gora) were analyzed, as a result of which tartaric acid was found in six vessels.

This chemical is always an indisputable sign that there was wine in the vessels. Scientists also discovered that grape juice fermented naturally in Georgia's warm climate. To find out whether red or white wine was preferred at the time, the researchers analyzed the color of the remains. They were yellowish, which suggests that the ancient Georgians produced white wine.

3. Dental procedures

In the mountains of northern Tuscany, dentists served patients 13,000 to 12,740 years ago. Evidence of six such primitive patients was found in an area called Riparo Fredian. Two of the teeth showed signs of a procedure that any modern dentist would recognize - filling a cavity in a tooth. It is difficult to say whether any painkillers were used, but marks on the enamel were left by some kind of sharp instrument.

Most likely, it was made of stone, which was used to expand the cavity by scraping off the decayed tooth tissue. In the next tooth they also found a familiar technology - the remains of a filling. It was made from bitumen mixed with plant fibers and hair. While the use of bitumen (a natural resin) is clear, why they added hair and fiber is a mystery.

4. Long-term home maintenance

Most children are taught in schools that Stone Age families only lived in caves. However, they also built mud houses. Recently, 150 Stone Age camps were studied in Norway. Stone rings showed that the earliest habitation was tents, probably made from animal skins held together by rings. In Norway, during the Mesolithic era, which began around 9500 BC, people began to build dugout houses.

This change occurred when the last ice of the Ice Age disappeared. Some “half-dugouts” were quite large (about 40 square meters), which suggests that several families lived in them. The most incredible thing is the consistent attempts to preserve the structures. Some were abandoned for 50 years before new owners stopped maintaining the houses.

5. Massacre at Nataruk

Stone Age cultures created fascinating examples of art and social relationships, but they also fought wars. In one case it was simply a senseless massacre. In 2012, in Nataruka in northern Kenya, a team of scientists discovered bones sticking out of the ground. It turned out that the skeleton had broken knees. After clearing the sand from the bones, scientists discovered that they belonged to a pregnant Stone Age woman. Despite her condition, she was killed. About 10,000 years ago, someone tied her up and threw her into the lagoon.

The remains of 27 other people were found nearby, most likely including 6 children and several more women. Most of the remains showed signs of violence, including injuries, fractures and even pieces of weapons embedded in the bones. It is impossible to say why the hunter-gatherer group was exterminated, but it may have been the result of a dispute over resources. During this time, Nataruk was a lush and fertile land with fresh water - an invaluable place for any tribe. Whatever happened that day, the massacre at Nataruk remains the oldest evidence of human warfare.

6. Inbreeding

It is possible that what saved humans as a species was an early awareness of inbreeding. In 2017, scientists discovered the first signs of this understanding in the bones of Stone Age people. In Sungir, east of Moscow, four skeletons of people who died 34,000 years ago were found. Genetic analysis showed that they behaved like modern hunter-gatherer societies when it came to choosing mates. They realized that having offspring with close relatives such as siblings had consequences. In Sungir there were clearly almost no marriages within the same family.

If people mated at random, the genetic consequences of inbreeding would be more obvious. Like later hunter-gatherers, they must have sought mates through social connections with other tribes. Sungir burials were accompanied by sufficiently complex rituals to suggest that important life milestones (such as death and marriage) were accompanied by ceremonies. If this is true, then Stone Age weddings would be the earliest human marriages. A lack of understanding of kinship connections may have doomed Neanderthals, whose DNA shows more inbreeding.

7. Women from other cultures

In 2017, researchers studied ancient dwellings in Lechtal, Germany. They date back about 4,000 years to a time when there were no major settlements in the area. When the remains of the inhabitants were examined, an amazing tradition was discovered. Most of the families were founded by women who left their villages to settle in Lekhtala. This happened from the late Stone Age to the early Bronze Age.

For eight centuries, women, probably from Bohemia or Central Germany, preferred Lechtal's men. Such movements by women were key to the spread of cultural ideas and objects, which in turn helped shape new technologies. The discovery also showed that previous beliefs about mass migration need to be adjusted. Despite the fact that women moved to Lechtal many times, this happened purely on an individual basis.

8. Written language

Researchers may have discovered the world's oldest written language. It could actually be code representing certain concepts. Historians have long known about the Stone Age symbols, but for many years they ignored them, despite the fact that the caves with rock paintings are visited by countless visitors. Examples of some of the most incredible rock inscriptions in the world have been found in caves in Spain and France. Hidden between ancient images of bison, horses and lions were tiny symbols representing something abstract.

Twenty-six signs are repeated on the walls of about 200 caves. If they serve to convey some kind of information, this “pushes back” the invention of writing back 30,000 years. However, the roots of ancient writing may be even older. Many of the symbols drawn by Cro-Magnons in French caves have been found in ancient African art. Specifically, it is an open corner sign engraved in Blombos Cave in South Africa, which dates back 75,000 years.

9. Plague

By the time the bacterium Yersinia pestis reached Europe in the 14th century, 30-60 percent of the population was already dead. Ancient skeletons examined in 2017 showed that the plague appeared in Europe during the Stone Age. Six late Neolithic and Bronze Age skeletons tested positive for plague. The disease has affected a wide geographical area, from Lithuania, Estonia and Russia to Germany and Croatia. Given the different locations and two eras, the researchers were surprised when the genomes of Yersinia pestis (plague bacillus) were compared.

Further research showed that the bacterium likely arrived from the east as people settled out of the Caspian-Pontic steppe (Russia and Ukraine). Arriving about 4,800 years ago, they brought with them a unique genetic marker. This marker appeared in European remains at the same time as the earliest traces of plague, suggesting that the steppe people brought the disease with them. It is unknown how deadly the plague was in those days, but it is possible that the steppe migrants left their homes due to the epidemic.

10. Musical evolution of the brain

It was previously thought that Early Stone Age tools evolved along with language. But a revolutionary change - from simple to complex tools - occurred about 1.75 million years ago. Scientists are not sure whether language existed then. An experiment was conducted in 2017. The volunteers were shown how to make the simplest tools (from bark and pebbles) as well as the more “advanced” hand axes of the Acheulean culture. One group watched the video with sound, and the second without.

While the experiment participants slept, their brain activity was analyzed in real time. The scientists found that the "leap" in knowledge was not related to language. The brain's language center was activated only in people who heard the video instructions, but both groups successfully made Acheulean tools. This could solve the mystery of when and how the human species moved from ape-like thinking to cognition. Many believe that music first emerged 1.75 million years ago, at the same time as human intelligence.

Of undoubted interest to everyone who studies history,
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Stone Age of Humanity

Man differs from all living beings on Earth in that from the very beginning of his history he actively created an artificial habitat around himself and used various technical means, which are called tools. With their help, he obtained food for himself - hunting, fishing and gathering, built homes for himself, made clothes and household utensils, created religious buildings and works of art.

The Stone Age is the oldest and longest period in human history, characterized by the use of stone as the main solid material for the manufacture of tools intended to solve human life support problems.

To make various tools and other necessary products, people used not only stone, but other hard materials:

• volcanic glass,
• bone,
• tree,
• as well as plastic materials of animal and plant origin (animal hides and skins, plant fibers, and later fabrics).

In the final period of the Stone Age, in the Neolithic, the first artificial material created by man, ceramics, became widespread. The exceptional strength of the stone allows products made from it to be preserved for hundreds of thousands of years. Bone, wood and other organic materials, as a rule, are not preserved for so long, and therefore, for the study of especially distant eras, stone products become, due to their mass production and good preservation, the most important source.

Chronological framework of the Stone Age

The chronological framework of the Stone Age is very wide - it begins about 3 million years ago (the time of the separation of man from the animal world) and lasts until the appearance of metal (about 8-9 thousand years ago in the Ancient East and about 6-5 thousand years ago back in Europe). The duration of this period of human existence, which is called prehistory and protohistory, correlates with the duration of “written history” in the same way as a day with a few minutes or the size of Everest and a tennis ball. Such important achievements of mankind as the emergence of the first social institutions and certain economic structures, and, in fact, the formation of man himself as a completely special biosocial being dates back to the Stone Age.

In archaeological science stone Age It is customary to divide it into several main stages:

• ancient Stone Age - Paleolithic (3 million years BC - 10 thousand years BC);
• middle - (10-9 thousand - 7 thousand years BC);
• new - Neolithic (6-5 thousand - 3 thousand years BC).

The archaeological periodization of the Stone Age is associated with changes in the stone industry: each period is characterized by unique methods of primary splitting and subsequent secondary processing of stone, which results in the widespread distribution of very specific sets of products and their distinct specific types.

The Stone Age correlates with the geological periods of the Pleistocene (which also goes by the names: Quaternary, Anthropocene, Glacial and dates from 2.5-2 million years to 10 thousand years BC) and Holocene (from 10 thousand years to AD up to and including our time). The natural conditions of these periods played a significant role in the formation and development of ancient human societies.

Study of the Stone Age

Interest in collecting and studying prehistoric antiquities, especially stone artifacts, has existed for a long time. However, even in the Middle Ages, and even in the Renaissance, their origin was most often attributed to natural phenomena (the so-called thunder arrows, hammers, and axes were known everywhere). Only by the middle of the 19th century, thanks to the accumulation of new information obtained through ever-expanding construction work, and the associated development of geology, and the further development of natural sciences, the idea of ​​material evidence of the existence of “antediluvian man” acquired the status of a scientific doctrine. An important contribution to the formation of scientific ideas about the Stone Age as the “childhood of mankind” was made by a variety of ethnographic data, and the results of the study of the cultures of North American Indians, which began in the 18th century, were especially often used. together with the widespread colonization of North America and developed in the 19th century.

The “system of three centuries” by K.Yu. also had a huge influence on the formation of Stone Age archeology. Thomsen - I.Ya. Vorso. However, only the creation of evolutionary periodizations in history and anthropology (cultural-historical periodization of L.G. Morgan, sociological of I. Bachofen, religious of G. Spencer and E. Taylor, anthropological of Charles Darwin), numerous joint geological and archaeological studies of various Paleolithic monuments of Western Europe (J. Boucher de Pert, E. Larte, J. Lebbock, I. Keller) led to the creation of the first periodizations of the Stone Age - the division of the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras. In the last quarter of the 19th century, thanks to the discovery of Paleolithic cave art, numerous anthropological finds of the Pleistocene age, especially thanks to the discovery of E. Dubois on the island of Java of the remains of an ape-man, evolutionary theories prevailed in understanding the patterns of human development in the Stone Age. However, developing archeology required the use of archaeological terms and criteria when creating a periodization of the Stone Age. The first such classification, evolutionary in its core and operating in special archaeological terms, was proposed by the French archaeologist G. de Mortillier, who distinguished the early (lower) and late (upper) Paleolithic, divided into four stages. This periodization became very widespread, and after its expansion and addition by the Mesolithic and Neolithic eras, also divided into successive stages, it acquired a dominant position in Stone Age archeology for quite a long time.

Mortilier's periodization was based on the idea of ​​the sequence of stages and periods of development of material culture and the uniformity of this process for all mankind. The revision of this periodization dates back to the middle of the 20th century.

The further development of Stone Age archeology is also associated with such important scientific movements as geographical determinism (which explains many aspects of the development of society by the influence of natural geographical conditions) and diffusionism (which placed, along with the concept of evolution, the concept of cultural diffusion, i.e. the spatial movement of cultural phenomena). Within the framework of these directions, a galaxy of major scientists of their time worked (L.G. Morgan, G. Ratzel, E. Reclus, R. Virchow, F. Kossina, A. Graebner, etc.), who made a significant contribution to the formulation of the basic postulates of the science of Stone Age. In the 20th century new schools are appearing, reflecting, in addition to those listed above, ethnological, sociological, structuralist trends in the study of this ancient era.

Currently, the study of the natural environment, which has a great influence on the life of human groups, has become an integral part of archaeological research. This is quite natural, especially if we remember that from the very moment of its appearance, primitive (prehistoric) archeology, having originated among representatives of the natural sciences - geologists, paleontologists, anthropologists - was closely connected with the natural sciences.

The main achievement of Stone Age archeology in the 20th century. was the creation of clear ideas that various archaeological complexes (tools, weapons, jewelry, etc.) characterize different groups of people who, being at different stages of development, can coexist simultaneously. This denies the crude scheme of evolutionism, which assumes that all humanity rises through the same steps at the same time. The work of Russian archaeologists played a major role in formulating new postulates about the existence of cultural diversity in the development of mankind.

In the last quarter of the 20th century. In Stone Age archeology, a number of new directions have been formed on an international scientific basis, combining traditional archaeological and complex paleoecological and computer research methods, which involve the creation of complex spatial models of environmental management systems and the social structure of ancient societies.

Paleolithic

Division into eras

The Paleolithic is the longest stage of the Stone Age; it covers the time from the Upper Pliocene to the Holocene, i.e. the entire Pleistocene (Anthropogen, Glacial or Quaternary) geological period. Traditionally, the Paleolithic is divided into –

1. early, or lower, including the following eras:
   • (about 3 million - 800 thousand years ago),
   • ancient, middle and late (800 thousand - 120-100 thousand years ago)
   • (120-100 thousand - 40 thousand years ago),
2. upper, or (40 thousand - 12 thousand years ago).

It should, however, be emphasized that the chronological framework given above is rather arbitrary, since many issues have not been studied fully enough. This is especially true of the boundaries between the Mousterian and the Upper Paleolithic, the Upper Paleolithic and the Mesolithic. In the first case, the difficulties in identifying a chronological boundary are associated with the duration of the process of settlement of modern people, who brought new techniques for processing stone raw materials, and their long coexistence with Neanderthals. Accurately identifying the boundary between the Paleolithic and Mesolithic is even more difficult, since sudden changes in natural conditions, which led to significant changes in material culture, occurred extremely unevenly and had a different character in different geographical zones. However, modern science has adopted a conventional boundary - 10 thousand years BC. e. or 12 thousand years ago, which is accepted by most scientists.

All Paleolithic eras differ significantly from each other both in anthropological characteristics and in the methods of making basic tools and their forms. Throughout the Paleolithic, the physical type of man was formed. In the Early Paleolithic there were various groups of representatives of the genus Homo ( N. habilis, N. ergaster, N. erectus, N. antesesst, H. Heidelbergensis, N. neardentalensis- according to the traditional scheme: archanthropes, paleoanthropes and Neanderthals), the Upper Paleolithic corresponded to the neoanthropus - Homo sapiens, all modern humanity belongs to this species.

Tools

Mousterian tools - burins and scrapers. Found near Amiens, France.

Due to the vast distance in time, many materials that were used by people, especially organic ones, are not preserved. Therefore, as mentioned above, for studying the lifestyle of ancient people, one of the most important sources is stone tools. From all the variety of rocks, man chose those that give a sharp cutting edge when split. Due to its wide distribution in nature and its inherent physical qualities, flint and other siliceous rocks became such materials.

No matter how primitive the ancient stone tools were, it is quite obvious that their production required abstract thinking and the ability to perform a complex chain of sequential actions. Various types of activities are recorded in the shapes of the working blades of tools, in the form of traces on them, and make it possible to judge the labor operations that ancient people performed.

To make the necessary things from stone, auxiliary tools were required:

• bumpers,
• intermediaries,
• push-ups,
• retouchers,
• anvils, which were also made of bone, stone, and wood.

Another equally important source that allows us to obtain a variety of information and reconstruct the life of ancient human groups is the cultural layer of monuments, which is formed as a result of the life activities of people in a certain place. It includes the remains of hearths and residential structures, traces of labor activity in the form of accumulations of split stone and bone. Remains of animal bones provide evidence of human hunting activity.

The Paleolithic is the time of the formation of man and society; during this period, the first social formation took shape - the primitive communal system. The entire era was characterized by an appropriating economy: people obtained their means of subsistence by hunting and gathering.

Geological epochs and glaciations

The Paleolithic corresponds to the end of the geological period of the Pliocene and the entire geological period of the Pleistocene, which began about two million years ago and ended around the turn of the 10th millennium BC. e. Its early stage is called the Eiopleistocene, it ends about 800 thousand years ago. Already the Eiopleistocene, and especially the middle and late Pleistocene, is characterized by a series of sharp cold snaps and the development of cover glaciations, occupying a significant part of the land. For this reason, the Pleistocene is called the Ice Age; its other names, often used in specialized literature, are Quaternary or Anthropocene.

Table. Correlations between the Paleolithic and Pleistocene periods.

The table shows the relationship between the main stages of archaeological periodization and the stages of the Ice Age, in which 5 main glaciations are distinguished (according to the Alpine scheme, adopted as an international standard) and the intervals between them, usually called interglacials. The terms are often used in the literature glacial(glaciation) and interglacial(interglacial). Within each glaciation (glacial) there are colder periods called stadials and warmer ones called interstadials. The name of the interglacial (interglacial) consists of the names of two glaciations, and its duration is determined by their time boundaries, for example, the Riess-Würm interglacial lasts from 120 to 80 thousand years ago.

Glaciation eras were characterized by significant cooling and the development of ice cover over large areas of land, which led to a sharp drying of the climate and changes in the flora and fauna. On the contrary, during the interglacial era there was a significant warming and humidification of the climate, which also caused corresponding changes in the environment. Ancient man depended to a huge extent on the natural conditions surrounding him, so their significant changes required fairly rapid adaptation, i.e. flexible change of methods and means of life support.

At the beginning of the Pleistocene, despite the onset of global cooling, a fairly warm climate remained - not only in Africa and the equatorial belt, but even in the southern and central regions of Europe, Siberia and the Far East, broad-leaved forests grew. These forests were home to such heat-loving animals as the hippopotamus, southern elephant, rhinoceros and saber-toothed tiger (mahairod).

Günz was separated from the Mindel, the first very serious glaciation for Europe, by a large interglacial, which was relatively warm. The ice of the Mindel glaciation reached the mountain ranges in southern Germany, and in Russia - to the upper reaches of the Oka and the middle reaches of the Volga. On the territory of Russia this glaciation is called Oka. There were some changes in the composition of the animal world: heat-loving species began to die out, and in areas located closer to the glacier, cold-loving animals appeared - the musk ox and the reindeer.

This was followed by a warm interglacial era - the Mindelris interglacial - which preceded the Ris (Dnieper for Russia) glaciation, which was the maximum. On the territory of European Russia, the ice of the Dnieper glaciation, having divided into two tongues, reached the area of ​​the Dnieper rapids and approximately to the area of ​​the modern Volga-Don Canal. The climate has cooled significantly, cold-loving animals have spread:

• mammoths,
• woolly rhinoceroses,
• wild horses,
• bison,
• tours.

Cave predators:

• cave bear,
• cave lion,
• cave hyena.

Lived in periglacial areas

• reindeer,
• musk ox,
• arctic fox

The Riess-Würm interglacial - a time of very favorable climatic conditions - was replaced by the last great glaciation of Europe - the Würm or Valdai glaciation.

The last - Würm (Valdai) glaciation (80-12 thousand years ago) was shorter than the previous ones, but much more severe. Although the ice covered a much smaller area, covering the Valdai Hills in Eastern Europe, the climate was much drier and colder. A feature of the animal world of the Würm period was the mixing in the same territories of animals characteristic of different landscape zones in our time. The mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, and musk ox existed alongside the bison, red deer, horse, and saiga. Common predators were cave and brown bears, lions, wolves, arctic foxes, and wolverines. This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that the boundaries of landscape zones, compared to modern ones, were greatly shifted to the south.

By the end of the Ice Age, the development of the culture of ancient people had reached a level that allowed them to adapt to new, much more harsh living conditions. Recent geological and archaeological studies have shown that the first stages of human development of the lowland territories of the Arctic fox, lemming, and cave bear in the European part of Russia belong specifically to the cold eras of the late Pleistocene. The nature of the settlement of primitive man on the territory of Northern Eurasia was determined not so much by climatic conditions as by the nature of the landscape. Most often, Paleolithic hunters settled in the open spaces of the tundra-steppes in the permafrost zone, and in the southern steppes-forest-steppes - outside it. Even during the maximum cold period (28-20 thousand years ago), people did not leave their traditional habitats. The fight against the harsh nature of the glacial period had a great influence on the cultural development of Paleolithic man.

The final cessation of glacial phenomena dates back to the 10th-9th millennia BC. With the retreat of the glacier, the Pleistocene era ends, followed by the Holocene - the modern geological period. Along with the retreat of the glacier to the extreme northern borders of Eurasia, natural conditions characteristic of the modern era began to form.

The history of human life on the planet began when man picked up a tool and used his mind to survive. During its existence, humanity has gone through several major stages in the development of its social system. Each era is characterized by its own way of life, artifacts and tools.

Stone Age History- the longest and most ancient page of humanity known to us, which is characterized by fundamental changes in the worldview and way of life of people.

Features of the Stone Age:

• humanity has spread throughout the planet;
• all tools were created by people from what the surrounding world provided: wood, stones, various parts of killed animals (bones, skin);
• the formation of the first social and economic structures of society;
• the beginning of animal domestication.

Historical chronology of the Stone Age

It is difficult for a person in a world where an iPhone becomes obsolete in a month to understand how people used the same primitive tools for centuries and millennia. The Stone Age is the longest era known to us. Its beginning is attributed to the emergence of the first people about 3 million years ago and it lasts until people invented ways to use metals.

Rice. 1 - Chronology of the Stone Age

Archaeologists divide the history of the Stone Age into several main stages, which are worth considering in more detail. It is important to note that the dates of each period are very approximate and controversial, and therefore may differ in different sources.

Paleolithic

During this period, people lived together in small tribes and used stone tools. Their food source was gathering plants and hunting wild animals. Towards the end of the Paleolithic, the first religious beliefs in the forces of nature (paganism) appeared. Also, the end of this period is characterized by the appearance of the first works of art (dancing, singing and painting). Most likely, primitive art stemmed from religious rituals.

The climate, which was characterized by temperature changes, had a great influence on humanity at that time: from the Ice Age to warming and vice versa. The unstable climate has changed several times.

Mesolithic

The beginning of that period is associated with the final retreat of the Ice Age, which led to adaptation to new living conditions. The weapons used were greatly improved: from massive tools to miniature microliths that made everyday life easier. This also includes the domestication of dogs by humans.

Neolithic

The New Stone Age was a big step in the development of mankind. During this time, people learned not only to obtain, but also to grow food, using improved tools for cultivating the land, harvesting and cutting meat.

For the first time, people began to unite in large groups to create significant stone structures, such as Stonehenge. This indicates sufficient resources and the ability to negotiate. The latter is also supported by the emergence of trade between different settlements.

The Stone Age is a long and primitive period of human existence. But it was precisely this period that became the cradle in which man learned to think and create.

In details stone age history reviewed in lecture courses given below.