Paleolithic. Stone Age The meaning of the Stone Age in human history

Modern schoolchildren, once inside the walls of a historical museum, usually laugh as they go through the exhibition where Stone Age tools are displayed. They seem so primitive and simple that they do not even deserve special attention from visitors to the exhibition. However, in fact, these Stone Age humans are clear evidence of how he evolved from apes to Homo sapiens. It is extremely interesting to trace this process, but historians and archaeologists can only direct the minds of the curious in the right direction. Indeed, at the moment, almost everything that they know about the Stone Age is based on the study of these very simple tools. But the development of primitive people was actively influenced by society, religious ideas and climate. Unfortunately, archaeologists of past centuries did not take these factors into account at all when characterizing this or that period of the Stone Age. Scientists began to carefully study the tools of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic much later. And they were literally delighted with how skillfully primitive people handled stone, sticks and bone - the most accessible and widespread materials at that time. Today we will tell you about the main tools of the Stone Age and their purpose. We will also try to recreate the production technology of some items. And we will definitely provide photos with the names of Stone Age tools, which are most often found in historical museums of our country.

Brief characteristics of the Stone Age

At the moment, scientists believe that the Stone Age can be safely attributed to the most important cultural and historical layer, which is still quite poorly studied. Some experts argue that this period does not have clear time boundaries, because official science established them based on the study of finds made in Europe. But she did not take into account that many peoples of Africa were in the Stone Age until their acquaintance with more developed cultures. It is known that some tribes still process animal skins and carcasses with objects made of stone. Therefore, talk about the fact that the tools of the Stone Age people are the distant past of mankind is premature.

Based on official data, we can say that the Stone Age began approximately three million years ago from the moment when the first hominid living in Africa thought of using stone for its own purposes.

When studying Stone Age tools, archaeologists often cannot determine their purpose. This can be done by observing tribes that have a similar level of development to primitive people. Thanks to this, many objects become more understandable, as well as the technology of their manufacture.

Historians have divided the Stone Age into several fairly large time periods: Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic. In each, the tools gradually improved and became more and more skillful. At the same time, their purpose also changed over time. It is noteworthy that archaeologists distinguish Stone Age tools by the place where they were found. In the northern regions, people needed certain items, and in the southern latitudes - completely different ones. Therefore, to create a complete picture, scientists need both types of findings. Only from the totality of all the tools found can one get the most accurate idea of ​​the life of primitive people in ancient times.

Materials for making tools

Naturally, in the Stone Age the main material for the manufacture of certain objects was stone. Of its varieties, primitive people mainly chose flint and limestone shale. They made excellent cutting tools and weapons for hunting.

In a later period, people began to actively use basalt. It was used for tools intended for household needs. However, this happened already when people became interested in agriculture and cattle breeding.

At the same time, primitive man mastered the production of tools from bone, the horns of animals he killed, and wood. In various life situations they turned out to be very useful and successfully replaced the stone.

If we focus on the sequence of appearance of Stone Age tools, we can conclude that the first and main material of ancient people was stone. It was he who turned out to be the most durable and was of great value in the eyes of primitive man.

The appearance of the first tools

The first tools of the Stone Age, the sequence of which is so important for the world scientific community, were the result of accumulated knowledge and experience. This process lasted for centuries, because it was quite difficult for primitive man of the Early Paleolithic era to understand that objects collected by chance could be useful to him.

Historians believe that hominids, through the process of evolution, were able to understand the vast possibilities of stones and sticks, found by chance, to protect themselves and their communities. This made it easier to drive away wild animals and get roots. Therefore, primitive people began to pick up stones and throw them away after use.

However, after some time they realized that it was not so easy to find the desired object in nature. Sometimes it was necessary to go around fairly large areas in order to find a convenient stone suitable for collecting in one’s hands. Such items began to be stored, and gradually the collection was replenished with convenient bones and branched sticks of the required length. All of them became peculiar prerequisites for the first tools of labor of the ancient Stone Age.

Stone Age tools: the sequence of their appearance

Among some groups of scientists, it is common to divide labor tools into the historical eras to which they belong. However, it is possible to imagine the sequence of the emergence of labor tools in a different way. Stone Age people gradually evolved, so historians gave them different names. Over many millennia, they went from Australopithecus to Cro-Magnon man. Naturally, the tools of labor also changed during these periods. If you carefully trace the development of the human individual, then in parallel you can understand how much the tools of labor have improved. Therefore, further we will talk about objects made by hand during the Paleolithic period:

• Australopithecus;
• Pithecanthropus;
• Neanderthals;
• Cro-Magnons.

If you still want to know what tools were used in the Stone Age, then the following sections of the article will reveal this secret for you.

Invention of tools

The appearance of the first objects designed to make life easier for primitive people dates back to the time of Australopithecus. These are considered the most ancient ancestors of modern humans. It was they who learned to collect the necessary stones and sticks, and then decided to try with their own hands to give the desired shape to the found object.

Australopithecus was primarily a gatherer. They constantly searched the forests for edible roots and picked berries, and therefore were often attacked by wild animals. Stones found at random, as it turned out, helped people do their usual activities more productively and even allowed them to protect themselves from animals. Therefore, ancient man attempted to transform an unsuitable stone into something useful with a few blows. After a series of titanic efforts, the first tool of labor was born - a chopper.

This item was an oblong stone. On one side it was thickened to fit more comfortably in the hand, and the other was sharpened by the ancient man by striking with another stone. It is worth noting that creating the handaxe was a very labor-intensive process. The stones were quite difficult to process, and the movements of the australopithecus were not very accurate. Scientists believe that to create one handaxe it took at least a hundred blows, and the weight of the tool often reached fifty kilograms.

With the help of a chopper it was much easier to dig up roots from under the ground and even kill wild animals with it. We can say that it was with the invention of the first tool that a new milestone began in the development of humanity as a species.

Despite the fact that the ax was the most popular tool, australopithecus learned to create scrapers and points. However, the scope of their application was the same - gathering.

Tools of Pithecanthropus

This species already belongs to the upright species and can claim to be called a human. The labor tools of Stone Age people of this period are, unfortunately, few in number. Finds dating back to the era of Pithecanthropus are very valuable for science, because each item found carries extensive information about a little-studied historical time interval.

Scientists believe that Pithecanthropus used basically the same tools as Australopithecus, but learned to process them more skillfully. Stone axes were still very common. Flakes were also used. They were made from bone by splitting into several parts, as a result, primitive man received a product with sharp and cutting edges. Some finds allow us to get the idea that Pithecanthropus tried to make tools from wood. People also actively used eoliths. This term was used to describe stones found near bodies of water that had naturally sharp edges.

Neanderthals: new inventions

Stone Age tools (photos with captions in this section), made by Neanderthals, are distinguished by their lightness and new forms. Gradually, people began to choose the most convenient shapes and sizes, which significantly facilitated hard daily work.

Most of the finds from that period were discovered in one of the caves in France, so scientists call all the tools of the Neanderthals Mousterian. This name was given in honor of the cave where large-scale excavations were carried out.

A distinctive feature of these items is their focus on the manufacture of clothing. The Ice Age in which the Neanderthals lived dictated their conditions to them. To survive, they had to learn how to process animal skins and sew various clothes from them. Among the tools of labor appeared piercings, needles and awls. With their help, skins could be joined together with animal tendons. Such instruments were made from bone and most often by splitting the original material into several plates.

In general, scientists divide the finds of that period into three large groups:

• Rubiltsa;
• scraper;
• pointed points.

Rubeltsa resembled the first tools of ancient man, but were much smaller in size. They were quite common and were used in various situations, for example, for striking.

Scrapers were excellent for cutting up the carcasses of killed animals. Neanderthals skillfully separated the skin from the meat, which was then divided into small pieces. Using the same scraper, the skins were further processed; this tool was also suitable for creating various wood products.

Pointed points were often used as weapons. Neanderthals had sharp darts, spears and knives for various purposes. For all this, pointed points were needed.

Age of Cro-Magnons

This type of person is characterized by tall stature, a strong figure and a wide range of skills. The Cro-Magnons successfully put into practice all the inventions of their ancestors and came up with completely new tools.

During this period, stone tools were still extremely common, but gradually people began to appreciate other materials. They learned to make various devices from animal tusks and their horns. The main activities were gathering and hunting. Therefore, all tools contributed to facilitating these types of labor. It is noteworthy that the Cro-Magnons learned to fish, so archaeologists were able to find, in addition to the already known knives, blades, arrowheads and spears, harpoons and fishhooks made from animal tusks and bones.

Interestingly, the Cro-Magnons came up with the idea of ​​making dishes from clay and firing them in fire. It is believed that the end of the Ice Age and the Paleolithic era, which marked the heyday of the Cro-Magnon culture, was marked by significant changes in the life of primitive people.

Mesolithic

Scientists date this period from the tenth to the sixth millennium BC. During the Mesolithic, the world's oceans gradually rose, so people had to constantly adapt to unfamiliar conditions. They explored new territories and sources of food. Naturally, all this affected the tools of labor, which became more advanced and convenient.

During the Mesolithic era, archaeologists found microliths everywhere. This term must be understood as small-sized stone tools. They significantly facilitated the work of ancient people and allowed them to create skillful products.

It is believed that it was during this period that people first began to domesticate wild animals. For example, dogs became faithful companions of hunters and guards in large settlements.

Neolithic

This is the final stage of the Stone Age, in which people mastered agriculture, cattle breeding and continued to develop pottery skills. Such a sharp leap in human development noticeably modified stone tools. They acquired a clear focus and began to be manufactured only for a particular industry. For example, stone plows were used to cultivate the land before planting, and the crops were harvested with special harvesting tools with cutting edges. Other tools made it possible to finely chop plants and prepare food from them.

It is noteworthy that during the Neolithic era entire settlements were built from stone. Sometimes houses and all objects inside them were entirely carved from stone. Such villages were very common in the territory of modern Scotland.

In general, by the end of the Paleolithic era, man had successfully mastered the technique of making tools from stone and other materials. This period became a solid foundation for the further development of human civilization. However, to this day, ancient stones keep many secrets that attract modern adventurers from all over the world.

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 items 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.

How much do you know about the Stone Age? The term "Stone Age" is used by archaeologists to refer to a broad period of human development. The exact dates of this period are uncertain, disputed, and region specific. However, we can talk about the Stone Age as a whole as a period for all of humanity, although some cultures did not develop metallurgy until they encountered the influence of more technologically advanced civilizations.

However, in general this period began about 3 million years ago. Since only stone finds have survived to our time, archaeological research of the entire period is being conducted on their basis. Next, you will find new, recently discovered facts about this period.

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 revealed 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.

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.

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.

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.

Nataruk massacre

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.

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.

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, a surprising tradition was discovered. Most of the families were founded by women who left their villages to settle in Lechtala. 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.

Written language

Researchers may have discovered the world's oldest written language. It could actually be code that represents 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.

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 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.

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.

The Stone Age lasted approximately 3.4 million years and ended between 8700 BC. and 2000 B.C. with the advent of metalworking.
The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, point, or percussion surface. The Stone Age lasted approximately 3.4 million years. One of the most important advances in human history has been the development and use of tools. Tools made of bone were also used during this period, but are rarely preserved in the archaeological record. The first tools were made of stone. Thus, historians refer to the time period before written history as the Stone Age. Historians divide the Stone Age into three different periods based on sophistication and tool design techniques. The first period is called the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age.

People in the Mesolithic period were shorter than they are today. The average height for a woman was 154 cm and for a man 166 cm. On average, people lived to be 35 years old and were more well built than today. Traces of powerful muscles are visible on their bones. Physical activity has been a part of their lives since childhood, and as a result they have developed powerful muscles. But otherwise they were no different from today's population. We probably wouldn't notice a Stone Age man if he were dressed in modern clothes and walking down the street! An expert may recognize that the skull was a little heavier or the jaw muscles were well developed due to a rough diet.
The Stone Age is further subdivided into the types of stone tools used. The Stone Age is the first period in the three-stage system of archaeology, which divides human technological prehistory into three periods:


Iron Age
The Stone Age is contemporaneous with the evolution of the genus Homo, with the only exception perhaps being the Early Stone Age, when species before Homo were able to make tools.
The initial period of development of civilization is called primitive society. The emergence and development of the primitive communal system is associated with:
1) with natural geographical conditions;
2) with the presence of natural reserves.
Most of the remains of ancient people were discovered in East Africa (in Kenya and Tanzania). Skulls and bones found here prove that the first people lived here more than two million years ago.
There were favorable conditions for people to settle here:
– natural supplies of drinking water;
– wealth of flora and fauna;
– presence of natural caves.

The Stone Age lasted more than two million years and is the longest part of our history. The name of the historical period is due to the use of tools made of stone and flint by ancient people. People lived in small groups of relatives. They collected plants and hunted for their food.

Stone Age man did not have a permanent home, only temporary camps. The need for food forced groups to look for new hunting grounds. It will be a long time before a person learns to cultivate the land and keep livestock so that he can settle in one place.

The Stone Age is the first period in human history. This is a symbol of the time frame when a person used stone, flint, wood, plant fibers for fastening, bone. Some of these materials did not fall into our hands because they simply rotted and decomposed, but archaeologists around the world continue to record stone finds today.

Researchers use two main methods to study preliterate human history: through archaeological finds and by studying modern primitive tribes.

Considering the duration of the Stone Age, historians divide it into several periods, divided depending on the materials of the tools used by primitive man.

• Ancient Stone Age () – more than 2 million years ago.
• Middle Stone Age () – 10 thousand years BC The appearance of a bow and arrow. Hunting for deer, wild boar.
• New Stone Age (Neolithic) – 8 thousand years BC. The beginning of agriculture.

This is a conditional division into periods, since in each individual region progress did not always appear simultaneously. The end of the Stone Age is considered the period when people mastered metal.

First people

Man was not always the way we see him today. Over time, the structure of the human body has changed. The scientific name for man and his closest ancestors is hominid. The first hominids were divided into 2 main groups:

• Australopithecus;
• Homo.

First harvests

Growing food first appeared 8 thousand years BC. in the Middle East. Some wild grains remained in reserve for the next year. The man observed and saw that if the seeds fall into the ground, they sprout again. He began to intentionally plant seeds. By planting small plots, more people could be fed.

To control and plant crops, it was necessary to stay in place, this prompted people to migrate less. Now we have managed not only to collect and receive what nature provides here and now, but also to reproduce it. This is how agriculture was born, about which read more.

The first cultivated plants were wheat and barley. Rice was cultivated in China and India 5 thousand years BC.

Gradually they learned to grind grain into flour in order to make porridge or cakes from it. The grain was placed on a large flat stone and ground into powder using a grindstone. Coarse flour contained sand and other impurities, but gradually the process became more refined and the flour purer.

Cattle breeding appeared at the same time as agriculture. Man had herded livestock into small pens before, but this was done for convenience during the hunt. Domestication began 8.5 thousand years BC. The goats and sheep were the first to succumb. They quickly got used to human proximity. Noticing that large individuals give more offspring than wild ones, man learned to select only the best. So livestock became larger and meatier than wild ones.

Stone processing

The Stone Age is a period in human history when stone was used and processed to improve life. Knives, tips, arrows, chisels, scrapers... - achieving the desired sharpness and shape, the stone was turned into a tool and weapon.

The emergence of crafts

Cloth

The first clothes were needed to protect against the cold and they were animal skins. The skins were pulled out, scraped out and fastened together. Holes in the skin could be made using a pointed awl made of flint.

Later, plant fibers served as the basis for weaving threads and subsequently for making fabric. Decoratively, the fabric was painted using plants, leaves, and bark.

Decorations

The first decorations were shells, animal teeth, bones, and nut shells. Random searches for semi-precious stones made it possible to make beads held together with strips of thread or leather.

Primitive art

Primitive man revealed his creativity using the same stone and cave walls. At least these drawings have survived intact to this day (). Animal and human figures carved from stone and bone are still found all over the world.

End of the Stone Age

The Stone Age ended the moment the first cities appeared. Climate change, a sedentary lifestyle, the development of agriculture and cattle breeding led to the fact that clan groups began to unite into tribes, and the tribes eventually grew into large settlements.

The scale of settlements and the development of metal brought man into a new era.