Interpretation of the concept of archaeological culture. Dobzhansky V.N.

Archaeological cultures, on the basis of data about them, a historical atlas of peoples, tribes, cultures was created from 17 million years ago.

Up to 40 thousand years ago:
ABBEVILSKAYA - (Shellskaya) culture - 300 - 100 thousand years ago - Zap. and South Europe - Middle Paleolithic
ANYATSKAYA - arch.eologist. Lower Paleolithic culture - 500 - 300 thousand years ago - Burma.
ASHELIAN - 300 - 100 thousand years BC - Africa, Near East, Western and South Europe - Middle Paleolithic
MUSTIER - 100 - 33 thousand years ago - most of Europe, the Near East, Middle Asia and Kazakhstan - Middle Paleolithic
SANGO, Mesolithic culture / 45 - 40 thousand BC / in the Congo Valley to Lake Victoria / Neanderthals /
From 40 thousand years ago
ZARZI - 11 - ser 6 thousand BC - Zagros /Iran/
AFONTOVSKAYA, an archaeological culture of the Upper Paleolithic (20-12 thousand years ago) on the Yenisei; includes parking lots Afontova Gora 1-4, Kokorevo 1 and 3, Tashtyk 1-2; characterized by pebble and lamellar tools. The culture got its name from the archaeological site Afontova Gora - a group of four sites on the left bank of the Yenisei, near the city of Krasnoyarsk. The first parking lot was opened in 1884 by IT Savenkov. Excavations were carried out mainly in 1923-1925 by N. K. Auerbach, V. I. Gromov, G. P. Sosnovsky. Dug-out dwellings were discovered on Mount Afontova; stone axes, scrapers, points, grinding tiles; bone awls and needles, spearheads; decorations. In addition, remains of reindeer bones were found.
BARADOST, - archaeological culture from 33 thousand years ago - Zagros / Iran /
WILTON, - 11 - 3 thousand BC / late Cam.. century / - South Africa / to Zambia /.
HAMBURG -11 thousand b.c. /Upper Paleolithic/ - N.W.Germany, N.Netherlands
GRAVETSKAYA - widespread in the late Paleolithic in Europe and dating back to 22-18 thousand BC. La Gravette, a Paleolithic site under a rocky canopy in the southwest. France (near the village of Bayac in the Dordogne department). Investigated in 1930-54 by the French archaeologist F. Lacor. In the upper cultural layers, narrow flint points with a blunt edge were found (they were called gravete points), as well as blades with a blunt edge. By the name of L.-G. and characteristic tools with a blunt edge, English archaeologists distinguish a special Gravet culture, widespread in the Late Paleolithic in Europe and dating back to 22-18 thousand BC.
GRIMALDIYSKAYA - 29 - 19 thousand BC - Italy
KOSTENKOVSKAYA CULTURE - a group of settlements (more than 20) of the Late Paleolithic on the right bank of the Don, south of Voronezh, on the territory of two neighboring villages - Kostenki and Borshevo (Borshchevo). Discovered by I. S. Polyakov in 1879. The main excavations were carried out in the 20-30s. 20th century P. P. Efimenko, in the 40-60s. - A. N. Rogachev. Research K.-B. With. played an important role in the development of a modern methodology for excavating Paleolithic settlements, in developing the problems of Paleolithic dwellings, female images, periodization of the Late Paleolithic, in identifying Late Paleolithic cultures and establishing their relationships. Some sites contained several cultural layers belonging to different stages and cultures of the Late Paleolithic. The most important sites and finds: Kostenki I (Polyakov's site), which contained 5 cultural layers. In the upper part, the remains of a ground dwelling (area 35 x 15 m) with hearths located along the longitudinal axis, numerous dugouts and utility pits have been preserved. Finds: flint points, mammoth tusk hoes, bone spatulas, deer antler wand, about 40 female mammoth tusk and marl figurines, figures of a bear, a cave lion and anthropomorphic marl heads. In the lowest layer, triangular flint points with a concave base were found, carefully processed by squeezing retouching. At the Kostenki II site (Zamiatnin site), the remains of a dwelling built from large mammoth bones (7 x 8 m) with a hearth in the center were discovered; a burial chamber made of mammoth bones with a burial (in a sitting position) of a Cro-Magnon adjoined the dwelling. At the Kostenki IV (Aleksandrovka) site, in the upper of the two cultural layers, the remains of two round dwellings about 6 m in diameter with a hearth in the center of each have been preserved; Among the finds are polished, drilled slate discs. In the lower layer, the remains of two elongated dwellings (34 and 23 m long, 5.5 m wide) with hearths along the long axis were discovered. Kostenki VIII (Telmanskaya site) contained 4 cultural layers. In the upper one, the remains of a round dwelling, about 5.5 m across, with a hearth in the center, sunk into the ground, were discovered; among the finds are flint leaf-shaped points processed by squeezing retouching. In the 2nd layer, fragments of human bones, partially burned, flint inventory - miniature plates and needle-shaped points were found. Kostenki XI (Anosovka II) contained at least 5 cultural layers. In the upper one, remains of a rounded dwelling built of large mammoth bones about 9 m in diameter were found. Interesting finds of triangular flint points in the lower layers, similar to those found in the lower layer of Kostenok I. Kostenki XIV (Markina Gora) contained 4 cultural layers. In the 3rd - openly crouched painted burial of a man with some Negroid features. At Kostenki XV (Gorodtsovskaya site), a painted burial of a child (about 6 years old), reminiscent of the Cro-Magnons of Czechoslovakia, was found; he had flint and bone tools, over 150 drilled fox teeth. The Borshevo II site contained 3 cultural layers characterizing the very end of the Late Paleolithic and the transition to the Mesolithic. In the upper one (the remains of a temporary camp of horse hunters) there were no mammoth bones, although there were bones of a reindeer. Flint tools of the microlithic type.
MAGOSI, a Stone Age culture (about 15000-7500 BC), common in eastern and southern Africa from Sudan to South Africa. Named after the village of Magosi in Uganda, where the site of this culture was first explored. Relates to the time between the Middle and Late Stone Ages of Africa (roughly corresponding to the end of the Late Paleolithic and the Mesolithic of Europe). M. is characterized by Levallois (see Levallois Technique) and prismatic cores, leaf-shaped and triangular spear and arrowheads treated with squeezing retouch, and numerous microliths. M. belonged to hunting tribes, which widely practiced body painting with ocher.
MADLENSKAYA CULTURE, the latest Paleolithic culture (15000-8000 BC), replacing the Solutrean culture and preceding the Azilian culture of the early Mesolithic. It was first identified by the French archaeologist G. Mortillet in the late 60s of the 19th century and named after the La Madeleine cave on the right bank of the Weser River in the Dordogne department (France). Distributed in France, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, East Germany and has a number of local varieties. Simultaneous with the final stages of the last Wurm glaciation. The Solutrean flint points and the squeezing retouching technique used in the processing of flint disappear with the transition to flint. A variety of flint chisels, piercers, and scrapers predominate. Highly developed bone processing; harpoons, spearheads and darts, spear throwers, wands, needles, awls and other tools made of reindeer horn, mammoth tusk and bone are common. Carvings on horn and bone, sculptures made of horn, bone and mammoth tusk, engraved, monochrome and polychrome images on the walls and ceilings of the caves are characteristic. Small flint tools of geometrical outlines, which represent a gradual transition to geometric microliths, spread in the late mineral stone. The Madeleine hunters lived mainly in caves, as well as in dwellings made of bones and skins, often wandering, chasing herds of reindeer. M. to. refers to a relatively early stage of the primitive communal system, probably to the era of the maternal tribal community. The terms M. to." and the “Madeleine era” are also used in a broad sense to refer to the final stage in the development of the Late Paleolithic culture of the entire European glacial region from France to the Urals; however, the sites of the end of the Late Paleolithic distributed throughout this territory are in fact very different from each other and belong to different cultures.
ORANIAN - 12 - 7 thousand BC / Upper Paleolithic / - North Africa, including Libya.
AURIGNAC CULTURE, an archaeological culture of the early stage of the Late Paleolithic. It is named after excavations in the cave of Aurignac in the Haute-Garonne department (France). O. to. in the narrow sense of the word is common in France, where it is dated by the radiocarbon method 33000-19000 BC. e., replaces the Mousterian culture, with which it does not find genetic links (probably, O. to. did not originate in Western Europe, but was brought here from outside), coexists with the Perigord culture and is replaced by the Solutrean culture. O. to. in the broad sense of the word is represented in a number of countries of Western and Central Europe. O. k. are characterized by flint plates with retouching and notches along the edges, scrapers, core-shaped tools (see Nucleus), fairly developed bone processing (in particular, bone spearheads with a dissected base), the remains of long-term dwellings, and a relatively developed fine art. Before it, early Perigorsk, / Chatelperron /.
PERIGORSKAYA - (30 thousand days) France
EARLY PERIGOR - 29000 BC / France, Belgium /
RACE GRIMALDI, Markina Gora, Late Paleolithic site near the city of Voronezh. It is located on the second floodplain terrace on the right bank of the Don River, on a cape called M. G. In 1954, the Soviet archaeologist A. N. Rogachev discovered a burial here containing an almost complete skeleton of a man 20-25 years old. A man from M. had a small body length (160 cm) and a very small volume of the brain cavity (1165 cm3). The presence in him of certain features inherent in modern Negroids (prognathism, a wide nasal opening) allowed some scientists (G. F. Debets) to bring the man from M. to the so-called Grimaldi race. Other features (the shape of the orbits, a strongly protruding nose, etc.) contradict this conclusion. Age about 30 thousand years BC. e.
RESSETINSKAYA - Mesolithic culture 11 - 9 thousand BC - Central. East. Europe (Moscow region)
SEBILSKAYA - 13-8 thousand BC / Upper Paleolithic / - North East Africa / Bass. Nile, Egypt, Sudan /.
SELETIC CULTURE (in archeology), Late Paleolithic in Cent. Europe. Named after the Szeleta Cave in Hungary. Stone leaf-shaped points and tools of the Mousterian type. Economy: hunting, gathering. /beginning late pal. (approx. 38-28 thousand years ago). Distributed in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, southwestern Poland; its influence can also be traced in a number of places on the territory of Romania and Bulgaria, partly coexisted with the Aurignacian culture, was replaced by the Gravetian; its influence can also be traced in a number of places on the territory of Romania and Bulgaria. Named after the Szeleta Cave in the Bükk Mountains in northern Hungary. S. k. developed mainly from the local Mousterian culture. It is characterized by flint leaf-shaped spearheads with double-sided processing, Mousterian side-scrapers, remnants of the Levallois stone splitting technique.
SOLUTRAIAN CULTURE, an archaeological culture of the middle late Paleolithic, common in France and Northern Spain. It replaced the Aurignacian culture and the Perigord culture and, in turn, was replaced by the Madeleine culture. Dated (radiocarbon method) 18-15 thousand years BC. e. First identified by G. Mortillet in the late 60s. 19th century and named after the Solutre site (Solutre, department of Saone-et-Loire in France). Characterized by carefully crafted flint, processed by perfect pressure retouching, the so-called. solutrean, tips in the form of a bay or willow leaf, as well as with a notch. Some of them served as the tips of spears and darts, some - as knives and daggers. Together with them, flint scrapers, chisels, piercings, points, bone tips, needles with ears, wands, works of art, etc.
SUNGIRSKAYA, Sungirskaya site, late Paleolithic site near the city of Vladimir on the left bank of the Klyazma; the remains of the settlement lie under a three-meter layer of loam and belong to the end of the last interglacial period (about 25 thousand years ago). Excavations in 1956-75 uncovered the remains of fires and hearth pits, the sites of six destroyed dwellings, the bones of mammoths, reindeer, bison, wild horses, cave lions, arctic foxes, etc. 2 graves with 5 buried, densely sprinkled with red ocher, and rich inventory were explored: about 10 thousand beads and other jewelry made of mammoth tusk (the clothes of the Paleolithic era are restored from them for the first time), works of art, darts and spears made of straightened mammoth tusks. There are signs of a complex funeral ritual.
TUMBA, variants of the Neolithic culture of the type designated by the name of the places of finds - viburnum (25th millennium BC), joko (10th millennium BC), lupembe (7th millennium BC . e.), chitole (6th millennium BC).
CHITOLSKAYA - 11 - 2.5 thousand BC / Mesolithic / - basin of the Congo River. Replaces the Lulemba culture.

Since 10000 AD.
ARENSBURG - archeological culture 9-8 thousand BC - southern coast of the North and Baltic Seas
GISSAR CULTURE, an archaeological culture of the Late Neolithic (approximately 7-2nd millennium BC), common in the valleys of the river. Kafirnigan and Vakhsh in southwestern Tajikistan. The largest monuments are Tutkaul (southeast of Dushanbe) and Kui-Bulyen (near the city of Kulyab). It is characterized by coarse stone tools and lamellar flint industry. There are polished greenstone axes. Fragments of hand-made clay vessels with fabric prints on the inside were found on some monuments. G. k. is an archaic culture of the tribes of the foothills and mountain valleys, which apparently developed at a time when more developed sedentary agricultural cultures (Anau, Dzheytun) developed in other parts of Central Asia. The main occupations of the people of G. k. were hunting, cattle breeding, and partly agriculture.
IENEVSKAYA - arch.eological. culture - 10 - 6 thousand BC - Central. East. Europe (Volga-Oka)
CAPSIAN CULTURE, an archaeological culture of the late Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic era (9th-5th millennium BC), common in North Africa and the Mediterranean countries. Named after the parking near the city of Gafsa (Kapsa) in Tunisia. The population of K. k. was engaged in hunting and gathering. A distinctive feature of the settlements is huge accumulations of shells interspersed with animal bones. Of the flint tools, the most characteristic are microliths, including geometric shapes that served as inserts for composite tools and arrowheads (bows and arrows appeared here somewhat earlier than in Northern Europe). Fragments of vessels made of ostrich egg shells, often ornamented, were also found. It is possible that it was the Capsians who created the oldest rock carvings in North Africa and Eastern Spain. The common features of the culture of the Late Paleolithic and Mesolithic populations of the Mediterranean countries are apparently explained not only by the similarity of geographical conditions, but also by the connections between the populations of these areas.
LAGRANGE, Late Mesolithic site in Gujarat, India. Investigated by Indian archaeologist H. Sankalia in 1941-42. The main tools are geometric microliths. Findings of bones of fish and animals testify to the occupation of the population by fishing and hunting. Some scholars suggest that the dog was tamed at this time. The discovery in L. of human skeletons, the oldest human skeletal remains in India, made it possible to reveal some similarities between the ancient population of L. and the inhabitants of North Africa. 9 thousand days
NATUFIAN CULTURE, the archaeological culture of the Mesolithic, which existed in the 10-8th millennium BC. e. mainly in the territory of the historical region of Palestine, and also partially in the territory of modern Syria and southern Turkey. Selected by the English archaeologist D. Garrod on the basis of finds in the Shukbana cave on the shore of Wadi en-Natuf, 27 km to the northwest. from Jerusalem (1928-32). The Natufians lived in caves, sometimes in open-air settlements, in semi-dugouts with walls lined with a mixture of clay and sand or small stones. They were engaged in hunting, fishing, collecting wild cereals (with the help of special reaping knives). Highly developed gathering created the prerequisites for the emergence here at the next stages (pre-ceramic Neolithic) of the early agricultural culture. Many researchers admit the possibility of the emergence of the most ancient primitive agriculture in the world already at the stage of N. k. Characteristic of N. k. harpoons and fishing hooks.
Svider culture, an archaeological culture at the turn of the Paleolithic and Mesolithic, distributed mainly on the territory of Poland and the Lithuanian SSR. Distinguished in the 20s - early 30s. 20th century Named after the Swidry-Wielka site near Warsaw. It is represented by the remains of small seasonal hunting camps on sand dunes. Only flint products have survived: two-platform cores, the so-called. Svider leaf-shaped arrowheads with petioles, scrapers and incisors. Most Polish archaeologists attribute S. to the end of the Late Paleolithic. Geological dating is late glacial, radiocarbon dating is somewhat older (11-10 thousand years ago). Cultures related to S. k., and also influenced by it, are common in Belarus and further east - to the Oka basin and the Upper Volga.
HOABIN CULTURE (in archeology), the end of the Paleolithic - Mesolithic (from 10 thousand BC) in Indochina and Indonesia. Name according to finds in prov. Hoa Binh in northern Vietnam. In the parking lots there are tools made of bone, horn, roughly chipped pebbles, axes. Economy: hunting.

From 8000 BC
AZIL, an archaeological culture of the Stone Age, belonging to the early Mesolithic (dates mainly from the 8th millennium BC) and developed directly from the Magdalenian culture of the late Paleolithic that preceded it. It was isolated by the French archaeologist E. Piet in 1887-89, named after the Mas d'Azil cave in the south of France (Ariège department). Distributed mainly in France, as well as Germany. Belonged to the tribes of hunters (for red deer, roe deer and wild boar ), fishermen and gatherers. It is characterized by small flint tools: inserts of geometric outlines (microliths), flat harpoons from the horn of a red deer, and the so-called Azil pebbles - small flat river pebbles, large blocks of quartzite, with conditional drawings applied with red ocher More than 200 such pebbles have been found at Mas d'Azil, and they are related to the churingas of the Australians and are believed to have had a cult, magical significance.
ALI-KOSH, Neolithic settlement (8th-6th millennium BC) near the city of Musian in Iran. It was excavated by an American expedition in 1961 and 1963. Pise houses and numerous flint tools were found in the lower layers. The population was engaged in hunting and gathering, partly in agriculture (grains of wheat and barley were found), a goat was tamed. Later, agriculture and cattle breeding took the main place in the economy, the sheep was tamed, obsidian tools began to spread; at the beginning of the 6th millennium BC ceramics appeared. Excavations. paint a picture of the formation of a producing economy in the flat zone of the Middle East.
ASKOLA - the Mesolithic culture of Askola on the coast of Finland, 8th millennium BC
JARMO, an early Neolithic settlement (7th millennium BC) east of the city of Kirkuk in Iraqi Kurdistan. Investigated in 1948-55 by the American archaeologist R. Braidwood. The cultural layer of D. up to 7 m thick is formed mainly by the ruins of 16 times rebuilt multi-room adobe houses (about 25). D. is the oldest settlement in Mesopotamia with traces of an emerging agricultural economy (grains of wheat and barley were found). The goat and dog were domesticated. The significant role of hunting also remained. Flint and obsidian tools (geometric microliths, scrapers, sickle inserts), stone items (mortars, grain graters, hoes, etc.), bones (awls, jewelry) and unbaked clay (animal figurines and “mother goddesses”) were discovered. The dishes in the lower layers are stone (hemispherical and conical bowls), in the upper layers - earthenware (bowls, goblets with handles). The D. settlement gave its name to an archaeological culture of the Neolithic era, which characterizes the beginning of the transition from an appropriating type of economy to a productive one (represented by a number of sites in Iraqi and Iranian Kurdistan and Eastern Mesopotamia).
DZHEITUN, the remains of the oldest settlement in Central Asia (5th-6th millennium BC) of farmers (temporary overflows of streams flowing from Kopet-Dag were used for irrigation) and pastoralists, 30 km north of Ashgabat. It has been explored by the South Turkmen archaeological expedition since 1952. The settlement consisted of small adobe one-room houses. Wheat and barley grains, bones of wild and domestic (in a smaller number) animals, flint tools (sickle inserts, geometric microliths) and bones, pottery painted with simple geometric patterns, stone and clay animal figurines were found. D. materials characterize the early stage in the development of agricultural culture and have much in common with sites of this type in Western Asia (Jarmo, Jericho, and others).
JEMON, a period of Japanese history corresponding to the Neolithic era (8 - the middle of the 1st millennium BC). D. is characterized by settlements with shell mounds and dugouts, simple pit burials, specific stone tools (polished from the very beginning; chipped shoulder and polished rectangular axes, knives with a “button”) and bones (fish hooks and harpoons), ceramics with relief or imprinted with a rope pattern (in Japanese - “jomon”) or with an elaborate linear ornament, mainly spiral-curvilinear forms, female figurines. Economy: hunting, fishing, gathering. There are no direct links with the neighboring cultures of the Asian mainland. According to the features of the anthropological type, the carriers of the D. culture approach the Ainu. There are over 100 local and chronological divisions of D., grouped into 5 main stages: initial (8th-5th millennium BC - according to radiocarbon analysis), early (4th millennium BC), middle ( 3rd millennium BC), late (2nd millennium BC), final (1st half of the 1st millennium BC; in northern Japan, the final D. ended by the beginning n. e.).
JERICHO, one of the oldest cities in Palestine, on the territory of modern Jordan (remains 22 km northeast of Jerusalem; now the ancient city of Tel es-Sultan). Excavations were carried out in 1867, 1907-08, 1930-1936, 1952-56. The oldest settlement on the site of I. belongs to the pre-ceramic Neolithic (7-6th millennium BC). It had adobe and mud-brick houses, sanctuaries and stone fortifications. The population was engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding; found cult painted sculptural heads made of unbaked clay, stuck on human skulls. In the Early Bronze Age (3rd millennium BC) there was an urban-type settlement here. I. reached a special flowering in the 18-16 centuries. BC e., when it was surrounded by powerful double walls; tombs with group burials and rich inventory belong to this time. At the end of the 2nd millennium BC. e. Israel, inhabited by the Canaanites, was destroyed by the Jewish tribes that invaded Palestine. According to biblical tradition, the walls of I. collapsed from the sounds of the trumpets of the conquerors (“Jericho trumpet”). In the middle of the 9th c. BC e. I. was partially restored. In Roman times (1st century AD), I. rebuilt to the southwest. from ancient I. according to a typical Hellenistic-Roman plan. The old settlement of I. served as a necropolis.
CAMPINIAN CULTURE, an archaeological culture of the Early Neolithic (6th-4th millennium BC) in France. The name comes from the Campigny site in the Seine-Maritime department. The concept of cohesion was introduced in 1886 by the French archaeologist F. Salmon. The population was engaged in hunting deer, wild horses and bulls, as well as fishing. The gathering of cereals was of great importance (grain graters and impressions of barley grains on ceramics were found), which paved the way for the development of agriculture. Of the domestic animals, only the dog was known. Dwellings - round semi-dugouts with a diameter of 3-6 m. Typical stone tools: a trench (an ax-cutter - a chopping triangular tool with a wide blade and a butt at the narrow end) and a peak (ax-hoe - an oval tool with working side edges). The purpose of the tools is woodworking (manufacturing of boats, rafts, fishing stakes). The ax-hoe was also used for earthworks. Polished axes appeared in later sites of K. k. For the first time in K. k., ceramics began to be made - flat-bottomed and pointed-bottomed vessels made of clay with an admixture of sand and crushed shells.
KARANOVO, a hill with the remains of ancient settlements in southern Bulgaria, whose stratigraphy is the basis for the periodization of the Neolithic and Eneolithic in Bulgaria. Excavated in 1936 and 1947-57 by V. Mikov and G. Georgiev. It has 7 main cultural layers (according to V. Mikov - 5) with a total thickness of 13.5 m. The lower layer was left by the Early Neolithic culture of the 6th-5th millennium BC. e., contains ceramics with white painting on a red background, horn sickles with flint inserts, grain graters and the remains of large rectangular dwellings with ovens (Karanovo I culture). 3rd layer - the late Neolithic culture of Veselinovo (mid-5th millennium BC), characterized by black and gray polished ceramics and vessels with 4 legs. The 5th layer (Maritsa culture, early 4th millennium BC) has gray ceramics with indented ornaments filled with white paste, the 6th layer belongs to the Bulgarian variant of the Gumelnitsa culture (mid 4th millennium BC). . e.); houses with ovens, stocks of grain and ceramics decorated with graphite painting were discovered. The 7th layer belongs to the Early Bronze Age (3rd millennium BC), it is characterized by houses with apses, black and brown ceramics with cord ornament.
KERESH, early Neolithic archaeological culture, widespread in the 2nd half of the 6th-1st half of the 5th millennium BC. e. On the territory of modern Hungary (in the Körös river basin, hence the name) and Romania. The population lived in huts made of wicker frames smeared with clay, engaged in cattle breeding (cattle, goats, sheep), agriculture, hunting and fishing. Ceramics - spherical and hemispherical vessels on ring trays or 4-petal bases, as well as bottles, flat on one side, convex on the other, with several ears; there are also painted vessels. Culture K. belongs to the cultural-historical region of Starchevo-Koryosh-Karanovo I, the most ancient ceramic Neolithic of Southeastern Europe.
KOMSA - archaeollgic culture 8 thousand BC - Norway
KUNDA (Shigir culture), a city in the Rakvere region of the Estonian SSR. Located on the high bank of the Gulf of Finland, at the mouth of the river. Kunda. Near K., on the Lammasmagi hill, which was an island in an ancient lake, is a settlement of the Mesolithic era (7-5th millennium BC). Many bone spearheads, ice picks, arrows and spears, horn items, primitive stone axes, adzes and chisels, scrapers made of quartz and flint, etc. were found. Neolithic artifacts were also found - pit-comb ceramics and polished kam. items related to the end of the 3rd millennium BC. e.
MAGLEMOSE, an archaeological culture of the Mesolithic era (7th - 5th millennium BC) in the Scandinavian countries, Great Britain, northern Germany. Named after the settlement near Mullerup (Denmark). Tools made of horn and bone, microliths. Economy: gathering, hunting, fishing. During archaeological excavations at the beginning of the 20th century, the Danish scientist G. Sarau discovered in a peat bog the bones of a wild bull, red deer, elk, birds, fish, a domestic dog, flint tools (microliths, axes), horns and bones (harpoons, arrowheads, etc. .). The Mesolithic culture M., which received its name from this settlement, is widespread in Great Britain, Denmark, in the north of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in southern and central Sweden and Norway; dated mainly to the 7th-5th millennium BC. e. The population lived in small primitive communities, engaged in hunting, fishing and gathering; the processing of bone, horn, and wood was developed (dugout boats and oars were made).
MAYEMIR - archaeological culture of the 7th - 4th century AD. - South and Middle Altai.
MUGEM, kitchen heaps of the Mesolithic (Tardenoise culture) in Portugal, in the valley of the river. Tagus (Taxo). Left by tribes of primitive hunters and gatherers. Discovered in 1863 by the Portuguese archaeologist F. Pereira da Costa. Excavations have unearthed numerous shells of sea mollusks, bones of wild animals of modern species and a domestic dog, primitive bone tools, microliths (mainly in the form of trapeziums and triangles). Over 200 human burials (mostly women and children) of the same era were found at the base of the mounds. Some of the finds from the lower layers are dated by radiocarbon dating to 5300 BC. e.
NEMAN - arch. culture 8 - 4 thousand BC - Lithuania, north-west of Belarus, late version
Svider culture.
Oban - 6 - 5 thousand BC / early Mesolithic / - the sea coast of Western Scotland, reminiscent of Azil
the culture of France / although much later than it /. Possibly created by the descendants of the tribes of the Azil culture.
SESKLO, Neolithic archaeological culture in Greece (late 6th - 1st half of the 5th millennium BC). Named after the village Sesklo ok. Volos. Remains of land dwellings, ceramics, figurines. Economy: agriculture, cattle breeding.
SUOMUSYARVI - archeological culture 6500-4000 BC - Finland, Karelia - the ancestors of the ancient Finns and Karelians.
TARDENOIS CULTURE, archaeological culture of the late Mesolithic, 7-4th millennium BC. e. Received the name from the parking lots in the vicinity of the city of Fer-en-Tardenois in northern France (Department of Aisne). Allocated by G. Mortillier in 1896. Distributed, except for France, in Belgium, England, Germany. Cultures similar to T. k. are also common in the Late Mesolithic in Central Europe and the European part of the USSR. In the development of T. to. France, there are 3 stages. The latest of these dates back to the early Neolithic and is characterized by the appearance of primitive pottery and domestic animals. The settlements of T. k. were located mainly on sandy hills and belonged to mobile groups of primitive hunters, fishermen, and gatherers armed with bows and arrows. The rich burial ground T. to. was excavated on the island of Tevyek. So-called microliths are characteristic of the inventory of T. to. - miniature (1-2 cm in diameter) flint tools of geometric outlines (in the form of a trapezoid, triangle, segment, circle, etc.). They served as arrowheads and inserts; in the latter case, microliths were inserted into the longitudinal grooves of various wooden and bone tools and fixed with resin.
TASIS CULTURE, the oldest Neolithic culture of Middle Egypt (6th - early 5th millennium BC). Opened in the 1930s. English archaeologist G. Brighton near the village of Tasa. Represented by settlements and cemeteries. The basis of the economy was agriculture (wheat, barley), cattle breeding (goats), hunting and fishing played a lesser role. The dead were buried in a crouched position, wrapped in skins or mats. Characteristic ceramics are deep pointed bowls, ladles with handles, rectangular troughs and bell-shaped black goblets with carved ornaments. Flint and limestone tools (adze axes, sickle blades, grain graters), ornaments made of alabaster, bones, shells. The creators of T. to. were the most ancient farmers of Egypt.
FOSNA - 8 thousand BC / Mesolithic / - the western coast of Norway to the north of the city of Bergen and on the island of Helholland. Similar
and simultaneous cultures - Komsa / in Finnmark and the Kola Peninsula / and Askola / in Finland /.
HAJILAR, remains of a Neolithic and Eneolithic settlement in Turkey, 25 km west of the city of Burdur. They were excavated by the English expedition (J. Mellart) in 1957-1960. In the lower layers (2nd half of the 8th - beginning of the 7th millennium BC), a culture of hunters and gatherers, close to the pre-pottery Neolithic of Jericho, was discovered, turning to agriculture; the remains of adobe houses, barley grains, stone vessels, etc. were found. e. Kh. is a settlement of sedentary farmers and pastoralists, consisting of small houses and surrounded by a defensive wall. Found pieces of copper ore, various (including painted) ceramics, female clay figurines. Kh. has much in common with the early agricultural monuments of the southern Balkans.
HASSUN CULTURE, an archaeological culture of the Neolithic and Eneolithic (7-6 thousand BC) in Northern Mesopotamia. Name after the body of Hassun near Mosul (Iraq). The most studied monument is the settlement of Yarim-Tepe I (excavations by the Soviet expedition in 1969-75). The villages of the Kh. k. tribes with an area of ​​1-2 hectares were distinguished by dense buildings. Raw houses are rectangular, multi-room (from 3 to 10 or more rooms), sometimes with an inner courtyard. Various outbuildings have been opened, including those for drying and storing grain, pottery furnaces, and kilns. The remains of grain (wheat and barley), stone hoes, mortars, grain graters, pestles, sickles, etc. are evidence of ancient agriculture. Judging by the finds of animal bones, carriers of H. k. bred cows, pigs, and goats. Copper beads and pendants, a lead bracelet, pieces of copper ore on the settlements indicate the appearance of metallurgy. The Kh. k. are characterized by a variety of vessels decorated with molded ornaments, carved fir-tree patterns, geometric painting, clay female figurines and stone seals. In the settlements of Kh. k., many burials (corpses), mainly for children, were discovered.
CHATAL-GUYUK, archaeological culture 7th - 1st half of the 6th millennium BC - M. Asia., Neolithic settlement in the South. Turkey (7th-6th millennium BC). Houses, sanctuaries with murals and reliefs, burials, etc.
CHEDAPSKAYA, a conditional archaeological culture of 7-6 thousand BC, existed on the territory of Yugoslavia,
The tribes of this culture were the first in Europe to build urban settlements (cities). To this culture
Probably open pyramids. The Chedapians are most likely the direct ancestors of the Pelasgians - the most ancient inhabitants of Ancient Greece.
SHULAVERI, an early agricultural settlement of the 2nd half of the 6th-5th millennium BC. e. 30 km south of Tbilisi. It was excavated in 1964-66, 1970. The area is about 1 ha, the thickness of the cultural layer is 6 m (9 building horizons). Round houses and outbuildings made of raw bricks, rough ceramics, tools made of bone (awls, polishes), horns, stone and obsidian (sickles, scrapers, scrapers) were discovered. The inhabitants were engaged in agriculture, cattle breeding, skin processing. Monuments such as Sh. and Shomutepe characterize the earliest agricultural culture of Transcaucasia.
Elam - 6 - 5 thousand dne / Iran /
EL OBEID CULTURE, Ubeid culture, Ubaid, archaeological culture of the Eneolithic (end of the 6th - 1st half of the 4th millennium BC) in Mesopotamia. Highlighted by C. L. Woolley. Named after El Obeid Tel near the ancient city of Ur (Iraq). At the initial stage (the end of the 6th - the middle of the 5th millennium BC) there was an early agricultural culture with painted (painted) ceramics, close to the Hassun culture. In the heyday (the last third of the 5th - the 1st half of the 4th millennium BC) a highly developed culture: large settlements of mud houses with monumental temples on platforms in the center (early layers of Eridu, Ura, Uruk), channels. Pottery with monochrome, mostly geometric, painting, clay figurines of women, seals, a few copper objects and utensils. The economy is agriculture, cattle breeding. By the middle of the 4th millennium BC. e. E.-o. k. spread to northern Mesopotamia (Tepe-Gaura), where features of the previous Khalaf culture were also preserved, and to Asia Minor (Mersin). Its influence can be traced in the material culture of the monuments of Lebanon, northwestern Iran, Transcaucasia, and Central Asia. Based on E.-o. the civilization of Sumer developed.
EREDU, Eredu, one of the oldest cities in Sumer (now the settlement of Abu-Shahrain in southern Iraq). It arose on the coast of the Persian Gulf as the center of the early agricultural culture of southern Mesopotamia (the so-called Eredu culture of the end of the 6th - 1st half of the 5th millennium BC); later the center of the El-Obeid culture, then the Uruk culture (4th millennium BC). It is mentioned in written sources of the middle of the 3rd - the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. At the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. e. lost its importance as a city, but remained the cult center of the god of waters and wisdom, Ea (Enki). Excavations (1918-20, 1946-48) uncovered adobe houses, public buildings, a ziggurat, temples on platforms erected on the site of early sanctuaries (including the temple of Ea with the remains of sacrifices - fish bones). The temples consisted of an elongated hall with an altar and side aisles (the standard plan of a Sumerian temple from the 5th millennium BC). In the necropolis of E. (el-Obeid time) there are about 1000 graves (kists) made of mud. Cult objects, ceramics, tools, etc. were also found.

From 5000 BC
AMRATSKY, an archaeological culture of the Eneolithic era (2nd half of the 5th - beginning of the 4th millennium BC), spread from Middle Egypt to Nubia. The name comes from the finds near the town of El-Amra in Central Egypt. Archaeologists have explored the settlements and cemeteries of the Amrat culture. The basis of the economy of the Amrats was hoe farming, cattle breeding and hunting. Tools of labor were mainly made of stone and bone, copper tools are rare. Pottery of the Amrat culture is red polished, often painted with white paint. In Middle Egypt, the Amrat culture was replaced by the Badarian culture, and in Upper Egypt, by the Gerzean culture.
AMUR NEOLITHIC CULTURES, a number of Neolithic (from the 5th to the end of the 2nd - the beginning of the 1st millennium BC) cultures and monuments common in the basin of the river. Cupid. On the middle Amur in the region of Blagoveshchensk, there were 2 cultures: 1) Gromatukhinskaya (on the Gromatukha River, a tributary of the Zeya) - wandering or semi-sedentary hunters who lived in camps with dwellings like tents. Inventory: tools made of whole pebbles (adzes and side-scrapers), scraper cores, double-sided blade-knives and points, prismatic cores, etc. Ceramics with various ornaments; 2) Novopetrovskaya, which is dominated by the stone splitting technique (prismatic cores and plates); smooth-walled ceramics with molded-on rollers. At a later stage (Osinoozersk), double-sided chipped arrowheads and white jade decorations appeared. Characterized by permanent settlements with semi-underground dwellings. On the lower Amur (Malyshev, Voznesenovka at the mouth of the Khungari River, Kazakevichevo on the Ussuri River), the Neolithic is represented by flat-bottomed vessels, often polished and covered with red paint and stamped ornaments. Later, a meander appears. At the next stage of development, the Neolithic in this area is represented by sedentary settlements with semi-underground dwellings (Suchu-1, Kondon): the radiocarbon date of the last is 4520 ± 20. Spiral ornamentation appears in ceramics, “Amur braid”, sometimes black painting on a red polished background. There are vessels with anthropomorphic "masks". There are many large polished stone tools (adzes and axes), there are flint and slate arrowheads. The latest stage is represented by smooth-walled vessels with a high neck and pronounced shoulders, large tools made of chipped pebbles (adzes, axes), flakes (scrapers), polished slate knives, white jade ornaments (rings), etc. To the north from Komsomolsk- on the Amur, near Lake Evoron, at the settlement of Sargol, above the remains of a settlement with spiral pottery, a layer with round-bottomed thin-walled pottery with a stamped ornament of the Baikal type was found, which apparently indicates the penetration of the lower Amur in the Late Neolithic period by tribes of northern origin.
ANAU, the remains of ancient (from the Eneolithic to the Middle Ages) agricultural settlements and settlements, located near the modern village of the same name near Ashgabat in the Turkmen SSR. The northern and southern hills of Armenia, the remains of settlements from the Eneolithic and the Bronze Age, have become world famous. During their excavations by the American expedition of R. Pampelli (1904), 4 complexes were identified. In the lower layers of the northern hill (complex A.-I), the remains of mud-brick houses with traces of painting on the walls were unearthed; found copper ornaments and stucco vessels with geometric painting. In the upper layers (complex A.-II) pottery with two-color painting was found. A.-I and A.-II belong to the 5th-4th millennium BC. e. The A.-Ill complex (the lower layer of the southern hill) dates back to the 3rd-2nd millennium BC. e. Pottery is spreading in it, the number of copper products is increasing; found terracotta models of carts, figurines of women and animals. A.-IV (upper layers of the southern hill) refers to the 10-4 centuries. BC e. Iron objects have also been found here. The excavations of A. provided a great deal of material on the history of the early agricultural tribes of the South-West. Central Asia and established the existence of A.'s connections with the agricultural cultures of Western Asia. The ruins of a mosque (1456, destroyed by an earthquake in 1948) have been preserved on the territory of the medieval settlement. The structure was distinguished by a variety of vaulted structures and colorful cladding (mosaics and glazed tiles). On the northern portal there is an image of two dragons, rare for Central Asia.
ASTURIAN CULTURE, an archaeological culture of the Stone Age, widespread in northern Spain and Portugal, on the coast of the Bay of Biscay. Replaces the Azilian culture and belongs to the late Mesolithic. It is represented by large accumulations of shells of edible marine mollusks, among which are found the bones of mammals of modern species (including domestic animals), roughly chipped hand picks made of pebbles of quartzite, which served to collect mollusks on coastal rocks, rough side-scrapers and hatchets, as well as tools from deer antler. A. to. Parking lots are usually located near grottoes and caves and occasionally inside them. (5 thousand days)
BADARY (archaeological culture) of the Eneolithic era (5th millennium BC) in Egypt. Title according to Badari (Compare Egypt). Settlements and burial grounds. Economy: hunting, primitive agriculture, cattle breeding.
It was replaced by the Amrat culture. Close to the Tasian.
BAIKAL, archaeological culture of the tribes of forest hunters and fishermen of the Baikal region of the Neolithic era (5-2 thousand BC); It is represented mainly by cemeteries and partly by settlements. The periodization of the Baikal culture was proposed by A.P. Okladnikov. The Khin stage is transitional from the Mesolithic and refers to the 5th millennium BC. e. At this stage, the hunters have a bow and arrows. The Isakov stage (4th millennium BC) is characterized by double-sided retouched slate arrowheads, polished slate adzes, an abundance of bone artifacts, and ceramics (pointed-bottomed vessels with imprints of a wicker net on the surface). The Serov stage (the first half of the 3rd millennium BC) is considered the heyday of the Baikal culture. At this time, Neolithic hunters tamed the dog, they had a complex bow with a bone lining, blunt bone arrows for hunting small fur-bearing animals, stone and bone bait fish for fishing, sculptural images of fish, elk, anthropomorphic figures. Remarkable rock carvings date back to this time. Pottery of the Serov period is represented by round-bottomed vessels with a smoothed wickerwork and decorated with imprints of various stamps. The last, Kitoi stage covers the second half of the 3rd millennium - the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. At this time, fishing became the main occupation of the population. Jade began to be used for the manufacture of tools, hooks made of bone and stone, long bone daggers with flint inserts appeared. Vessels differ from Serov only in the shape of the rim. The burials of the Kitoi are distinguished by a large or small number of things with the deceased, who was usually covered with red ocher. Some archaeologists distinguish the stages of the Baikal culture into independent archaeological cultures.
BUGO-DNISTROVSKAYA - 5 thousand BC - the valley of the Bug and Dniester rivers.
VERKHNEVOLZHSKAYA, an archaeological culture of the early Neolithic of central Russia, common in 5-3 thousand BC. e. It was identified in 1972 by D. A. Krainov during excavations at the Ivanovskoye-3 site in the Yaroslavl Region. It was studied in the 1970-1990s by archaeologists N. N. Gurina, I. K. Tsvetkova, V. V. Sidorov at the sites of Torgovishche-2, Shadrino-4, Alekseevskoye-1, Yazykovo-1, Sakhtysh-1, 2, 7. The Upper Volga culture is earlier in relation to the Lyalovo culture. The monuments are located on an elevation along the banks of lakes and rivers, their area is small compared to the sites of other cultures, and the cultural layer of the sites is also small. Dwellings (huts and semi-dugouts) are relatively small in size (3 by 4 m, 3 by 3.5 m), deepened into the ground by 40-50 cm, with hearths. The Upper Volga culture is distinguished by a variety of pottery forms. Ceramic vessels are found both flat-bottomed and with a sharp or rounded bottom. The walls of the vessels are convex, the rim is bent inward or straight, the surface is usually polished. The ornament was applied with a jagged stamp, a stick and a comb stamp. Liner stone tools (having wooden handles made on plates). Arrowheads and darts are distinguished by a variety of shapes, which indicates the diversity of the beast hunted by ancient hunters. Most tips still have two forms: loose and petiolate. Small flint hatchets and oval-shaped adzes for woodworking are common. Bone was used to make needle-shaped and biconical tips with a thickening in the middle, harpoons (usually with one row of teeth), and hooks. The main occupation of the Upper Volga was hunting, fishing and gathering. Cult objects of the Upper Volga are represented by ornamented clay discs ranging in size from 6 to 0.75 cm, 8-12 mm thick. At the Sakhtysh-7 site, an ornamented disk was found with the image of a deer's head in the center.
VINCA, Neolithic culture (late 5th - 4th millennium BC) of the Balkan Peninsula. Distributed mainly in the valleys of the river. Vardar and Morava. It was named after the Vinca tell (10 m high) on the southern bank of the Danube near Belgrade (excavations were carried out from 1908 by M. Vasich). Only the main layers of the Vinca tell belong to the culture of V. The oldest dwellings of V. are semi-dugouts; Tools - stone axes of a block-shaped form, hoes and adzes from a deer horn; tools made of obsidian and small objects made of copper. Pottery is thin, gray and black, polished, with a deep ornament in the form of a ribbon, forming spiral and meander patterns. Anthropomorphic and zoomorphic vessels and figurines are interesting. The population was engaged in agriculture, cattle breeding and fishing. The culture of V. replaced the culture of Starchevo.
VOLGA-KAMA - end 5 - 4 thousand BC - the valley of the Volga and Kama rivers. East of Lyalovskaya.
GHASSUL CULTURE, an archaeological culture of the Eneolithic period (late 5th-4th millennium BC). Named after the village of Teleilat-Ghassul, 5.5 km east of the river. Jordan; distributed in the territory of modern Jordan and Israel. G. k. is characterized by buildings made of mud brick on a stone foundation, sometimes with painting on the inner surface of the walls, as well as flint tools. Dishes made of stone and earthenware (made on a primitive circle) have the shape of goblets and amphorisks. The burial was carried out mainly in stone cists (individual burials).
DNEPRODONETSK CULTURE, the culture of hunting and fishing tribes of the Neolithic era, common in the Middle Dnieper, the forest-steppe left bank of the Ukrainian SSR and in the Polissya of the BSSR in the 2nd half of the 5th - 3rd millennium BC. e. Represented by settlements and cemeteries. In the settlements, the remains of dwellings dug into the ground, utility pits, and traces of open fires were found. Tools of labor made of flint and stone were found: axes, arrowheads and spears, knives, scrapers, etc. Typical ceramics are pots, mostly with pointed bottoms, decorated with comb-pricked ornaments. Collective burial grounds (up to several dozen burials in one pit). In the burials, covered with red ocher, tools and decorations made of stone, bone, shells, and occasionally metal (copper, gold) were laid.
DANUBE CULTURES, a complex of archaeological cultures of the Neolithic and Eneolithic eras, common in the 5th-3rd millennium BC. e. north of the middle and upper reaches of the Danube. The term was introduced by the English archaeologist G. Child. In his opinion, the uniform agricultural system of the primitive tribes of this part of Central Europe (the cultivation of loess soils, the transition to new lands after the depletion of the fields and the return to the old places after a certain time) led to the emergence of a number of related cultures that have come a long way in development. By the 1st period D. to. Child refers to the culture of linear-band ceramics. In the 2nd period of D. k., the culture of pricked-band ceramics and the Rössen culture arose from the merger of D. k. of the 1st period and more primitive local cultures. The Jordansmühl, Lendyel cultures and the culture of Moravian painted ceramics belong to the same period. Fortified settlements appear. In the 3rd period, a number of alien cultures invaded the territory of D. k.: the Michelsberg culture, funnel-shaped goblets culture, etc. To D. k. of the 3rd period, Child attributes the Baden culture and the Bodrogkereshtur culture. In the 4th period, the development of copper and gold expanded, intertribal exchange intensified (evidence of this is the numerous treasures of bronze weapons and jewelry). In the latest archaeological literature, the term is preserved mainly only for D. to. 1st, less often - 2nd periods.
CRIMEAN NEOLITH - 5 thousand BC - Crimea
LINEAR-BAND CERAMICS CULTURE, an archaeological culture of the early Neolithic era (end of the 5th - beginning of the 4th millennium BC), widespread in Central Europe. It is part of the Danubian cultures. It is characterized by uniform ceramics of spherical and hemispherical shapes, decorated with an ornament of ribbons, consisting of 2-3 in-depth lines (S-shaped spirals, meanders). The lines are sometimes crossed by pits ("music pottery"). Of the tools, kolkoobrazny axes are characteristic. Large settlements of this culture are known: Cologne-Lindental, Bilani (Czech Republic), Floreshty (Moldavian SSR), consisting of large post houses and dugouts. The population was engaged in agriculture (wheat, barley) and animal husbandry (large and small cattle, pigs).
NAMAZGA-TEPE, Namazgatepe, the remains of the settlement of the Eneolithic and Bronze Ages in the territory of Turkmenia. SSR, 7 km west of the railway. Kaahka station. The total area is about 70 hectares, the thickness of cultural layers is up to 34 m. B. A. Kuftin’s (1952) excavations established the stratigraphy of N.-T., which became the guide in the study of other monuments of Central Asia. For N.-T. I (layer 2nd half of the 5th - early 4th millennium BC) is characterized by houses made of mud bricks, single crouched burials, hand-painted utensils, copper products, clay female figurines. Life was concentrated in the sowing. parts of the settlement. In N.-T. II (the middle of the 4th millennium BC), dishes with a two-color painting appear, in N.-T. III (end of the 4th - beginning of the 3rd millennium BC) - with images of animals that have analogies in Iran (Sialk, Gissar). In the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. e. (N.-T. IV) the settlement increases, occupying the entire territory, the potter's wheel comes into use, flat terracotta figurines of women spread. N.-T. V (late 3rd - early 2nd millennium BC) - the highest flowering of local culture. Here the urban civilization of the ancient East is formed. type, the main centers of which were N.-T. and Altyn-Tepe. Unpainted pottery, two-tiered pottery forges, copper and bronze cast items (knives, daggers, mirrors), clay models of carts are characteristic. The remains of multi-room houses separated by narrow streets have been discovered. N.-T. of this time, along with Mundigak and Shakhri-sokhte in Eastern Iran, it was one of the important centers of urban civilizations. located between Sumer and India. In the middle and 2nd half of the 2nd millennium BC. e. (N.-T. VI) there is a decline in culture (the area of ​​​​the settlement is reduced, clay products coarsen), which may be due to the movements of the tribes.
NARV CULTURE, an archaeological culture of the Neolithic era, widespread in the territory of Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and northern Belarus in 5-3 thousand BC. e. Identified by archaeologist N. N. Gurina during excavations on the left bank of the Narva River. The Narva tribes are characterized by an almost complete absence of flint implements, a very small number of tools made of other types of stone, and a large number of tools made of bone and horn. This is explained by the fact that there are almost no places convenient for the development of stone in the territory where the culture is spread. A characteristic feature of the Narva culture is the gradual merger with the tribes of the Pit-Comb Ware culture, often at the sites there are types of dwellings of both cultures at the same time. The sites of the Narva culture are located along the banks of rivers on small hills. A ground dwelling with one or two hearths and a gable roof. Pottery of the Narva culture is divided into two types: large pointed-bottomed vessels up to 30 liters in volume and small flat-bottomed bowls. The ornament is applied with a comb from the outside, and sometimes the inside. Usually the vessels are made using the tape technique - long ropes were rolled from clay, flattened into ribbons and fastened to each other in a spiral. From bone, the tribes of the Narva culture made a lot of tools, some of which were supposed to replace the missing stone ones, these are: knives, harpoons, chisels, piercers, spears with spikes, simple and compound hooks, needles for weaving nets, hoes and even axes. At the Sarnate site, located on a peat bog 2.5 km from the Baltic Sea, preserved wooden objects were found: a bow 56 cm long, ash spears 122 cm and 130 cm long and boomerangs. Amber jewelry and pieces of raw amber were found at the same site.
PROTO - STILLBATE - / Mesolithic / 5 thousand BC - S. Rhodesia - it is replaced by Stillbey
SIALK, the remains of a multi-layered settlement of the 5th - 1st millennium BC. e. 5 km to the south-west. from the city of Kashan in Iran. Studied in 1933-37 by a French archaeological expedition. 6 periods of the existence of the settlement have been traced. Layers C. I-IV reflect the process of gradual development of settled agricultural culture. In period C. I, adobe houses and painted ceramics were common, and copper items appeared. In C. II, there are images of animals on the dishes. C. Ill - the heyday of local culture (circular ceramics, cast copper products, seals), apparently interrupted at the end of the 4th - beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. e. the advance of the Elamites into this region (complex C. IV with proto-Elamite pictography and cylinder seals). Layers C.V. belong to the end of the 2nd millennium BC. e. Burials in pits, unpainted ceramics, bronze (in two cases iron) items are typical (necropolis A). In the period C. VI (1st third of the 1st millennium BC), the settlement had a citadel. Rich burials in stone cists (necropolis B) are associated by researchers with the Early Median tribes.
SPERRINGS, Neolithic archaeological culture, common in southern Finland, Ladoga and Karelia in the 2nd half. 5 - 3 thousand BC e. It was discovered in Finland, in the territory of the north-west of Russia it was isolated in 1940 by the archaeologist A. Ya. Bryusov. Sperrings was studied by researchers N. N. Gurina, Yu. V. Titov. Monuments of culture are located in groups, not far from each other at the ancient borders of the shores of Lake Onega. The area of ​​the sites is small, the cultural layer is relatively small. Sperrings pottery is represented by cone-shaped vessels with straight walls and a sharp (rarely rounded) bottom. The rim of the vessels is straight or slightly bent outward, the clay dough is rough, of poor quality. The entire surface of the vessels was decorated with a variety of ornaments, which were applied with animal vertebrae, a string, drawn with a sharp object, often separate rows of pits divided the pattern into horizontal stripes. Stone tools are mainly made of slate, as this is the most common type of stone in Karelia. Flint and quartz tools are less common. There are significantly fewer bone tools than those of the neighboring Narva culture. This is mainly fishing equipment: hooks, harpoons, needles for weaving nets. The main occupation of the tribes of the Sperrings culture was fishing, this is indicated by the predominance of fishing equipment over hunting.
STARCHEVO, Neolithic archaeological culture (5000-4000 BC) in Yugoslavia. Opened in 1928 near the village of S., near Belgrade. Represented by settlements on the banks of rivers with dwellings-dugouts and ground quadrangular houses. Pottery (spherical and hemispherical vessels on pallets, bowls on legs) of two types: with a rough surface and ornament in the form of pits and tucks: well-made polished and painted. Stone tools (including polished axes) and bones. Clay figurines of people and animals, weights from looms, etc. were also found. Burials were made on the territory of settlements. The main occupations of the inhabitants are agriculture and cattle breeding. The origin of the S. culture is associated with the early agricultural cultures of Western Asia and the Mediterranean.
SURSK-DNEPROVSKAYA - 5 thousand BC - valleys of the rivers Sura - Dnepr
FAYUMSKAYA - 5 thousand BC - lake. Fayoum in Egypt.
HALAF CULTURE, archaeological culture of the 5th millennium BC. e. in Northern Mesopotamia (Iraq, northern Syria, southeastern Turkey). It is named after the settlement of Tel Khalaf in northern Syria. The most explored monuments are the settlements of Tel-Arpachia (excavations by an English expedition in 1933) and Yarim-Tepe II. Small settlements of Kh. k. were located near rivers, were densely built up with one-room mud houses in the form of tholoses with adjacent rectangular outbuildings, sometimes with ovens, hearths (including those for firing ceramics). The basis of the economy was agriculture and cattle breeding. Stone grain graters, mortars, sickles, burnt grains of various types of wheat, barley, bones of domestic animals (cows, sheep, goats, dogs, etc.) were found. Numerous bone tools. Pottery of various shapes is decorated with geometric or plot (images of animals) painting, brown on a pinkish or yellowish background. Anthropomorphic and zoomorphic clay figurines, individual copper objects (including seals) were found. Burials - corpses in catacombs and pits, cremations.
HAMANJIA, Neolithic archaeological culture (5th - 1st half of the 4th millennium BC) in Dobruja (Romania) and near the city of Burgas (Bulgaria). Name according to the remains of the settlement near the village. Hamangia (Hamangia, modern Baya). Settlements of dugouts, semi-dugouts, light ground dwellings were located near the water. The population was engaged in hunting, fishing, weaving, primitive agriculture and cattle breeding. Dishes (glazed goblets, bowls), stone tools, ornaments made of bone and shells, clay figurines were placed in the graves, among which were found masterpieces of primitive art - "Thinker" and "Thinker". Kh.'s culture was part of the circle of Balkan-Mediterranean cultures; some of its features were inherited by the Gumelnitsa culture.
Harappan (dravidoids), Indus Valley civilization, archaeological culture of the middle of the 3rd millennium - 17-16th centuries. BC e. on S.-Z. Hindustan (on the territory of modern India and Pakistan). Name after the city of Harappa. Archaeological excavations (led by R. Sahni, R. Banerjee, J. Marshall, E. McKay, B. B. Lal and others) since the 20s. 20th century about 500 monuments were discovered: the ruins of capital cities (Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro, Kalibangan), seaports, border fortresses, and the remains of rural settlements. The main building material is raw brick; stone was used to build the foundations of the fortresses. Cities had regular buildings, rectangular blocks, water supply and sewerage systems. One- and two-story houses of 4-6 rooms with a toilet were grouped around a central courtyard and a well. The citadel of the city was fortified with a wall with towers. The basis of the economy H. c. there was cattle breeding (buffaloes, pigs, possibly elephants) and irrigation agriculture (wheat, millet, barley, peas, in the later stages of the existence of C. c. - rice). The remains of a 2.5 km long irrigation canal have been opened at Lothal (Gujarat, India). Findings of copper and bronze tools (knives, sickles, chisels, saws, etc.), weapons (arrowheads and spears, short swords, etc.), and various ceramics testify to the development of the craft. Findings of weights, things from the countries of Western Asia, and on the other hand, seals characteristic of the Kh. c., in the cities of Mesopotamia (Ur, Kish, Tel Asmar) indicate international trade relations carried out by caravan and, possibly, sea routes . In Lothal, the remains of a 7740 m2 dock were discovered and clay models of sailing boats were found; images of ships are known in Mohenjo-Daro. Works of applied art are represented by steatite seals with images of animals and pictographic signs (not deciphered), women's jewelry made of ivory, precious stones and metals (necklaces, earrings, rings, bracelets). The sculpture conveys the appearance of the creators of Kh. c. Funeral rite H. c. studied on the burial grounds of Harappa and Lothal. Characteristic are single and paired burials in a position extended on the back in soil pits with grave goods, mainly ceramics. Carriers H. c. worshiped the mother goddess, god - the prototype of Shiva, fire, trees, animals. The absence of written sources makes it difficult to study the socio-political structure of the Christian c. Judging by analogies in the material culture and economy of the civilizations of Western Asia, H. c. was an early class society with a slave-owning way of life. The main producing population, united in communities, was subjected to exploitation. The political system is probably despotism. The decline of H. c. presumably determined by several reasons: tectonic shift and flooding, depletion and waterlogging of soils, epidemics and wars. Genetically related to H. c. consider post-Harappan culture; the influence of H. c. can be traced in the culture of modern peoples of India and Pakistan.
SHIGIR CULTURE, an archaeological culture of the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic (5th-4th millennium BC) in the Middle Urals and the Trans-Urals. Named after finds from the Shigir peat bog. Typical tools: bone arrowheads, harpoons of various shapes, spears, daggers with flint liners on the blade, etc. Wooden anthropomorphic figurines - idols were found. The main occupations of the Sh. k. tribes are fishing and hunting. The similarity between the materials of Sh. k. and the most ancient monuments of Estonia (see Kunda) allowed A. Ya. Bryusov to put forward a hypothesis about the settlement of the Baltic states from the Urals.
SHOMU - TEPE, the remains of an early agricultural settlement of the 5th millennium BC. e. in the Kazakh region of the Azerbaijan SSR. Excavated in 1960-63 by I. G. Narimanov. The area is about 1 ha. The thickness of the cultural layer ranged from 1 to 2.5 m. Sh. It was densely built up with residential buildings (with stoves) and outbuildings made of mud brick, round in plan. Horn hoes, stone grain grinders, pestles, mortars, flint and obsidian sickle blades and a whole sickle with a wooden base, as well as the remains of various types of wheat and barley were found; bones of domestic (ox, pig, small cattle) and wild (boar, deer) animals. A variety of bone objects (awls, piercers, spoons, a female figurine, etc.), ceramics of rough molding and simple forms were found. Some pots are decorated with ornaments in the form of round moldings and carved patterns. Sh., together with similar monuments in Western Azerbaijan and neighboring regions of Georgia, characterizes the most ancient settled agricultural culture of Transcaucasia.
ELMENTEITA, Neolithic archaeological culture (5th millennium BC) in East Africa. It is named after the finds of burials (in the Gamble Cave) near the lake of the same name (Kenya). Burials in a crouched position, sprinkled with red ocher. Obsidian tools: elongated blades with a blunt edge, scrapers, chisels, microliths. Ceramics - goblets and jugs. Finds of stone vessels and various beads testify to connections with other Neolithic cultures.
ERTEBELLE, the culture of kitchen heaps (kyekkenmedings), an archaeological culture of the end of the Mesolithic - the beginning of the Neolithic (end of the 5th - beginning of the 3rd millennium BC) in the north of the GDR and the FRG, in Denmark, in the south of Sweden. It is named after Ertebelle kyekkenmeding in Northern Jutland, Denmark (its length is 140 m, width - up to 40 m, height - 1.5 m). Characterized by chipped unpolished stone tools (macrolithic axes, trapezoidal arrowheads), bone and horn points, chisels, axes, fish hooks, handles; ceramics appear - thick-walled pointed-bottomed vessels, bowls. The economy is fishing, hunting, shellfish fishing.

The formation and early history of the Slavs cannot be studied and understood in isolation from the processes of formation and development of other ethnic groups in Europe. The initial history of the Proto-Slavs, which is not yet entirely clear, is closely intertwined with the history of the Celts and Germans, Scytho-Sarmatians, Finno-Ugric peoples and Balts. Therefore, the problem of the origin of the Eastern Slavs is usually considered on the basis of materials from several archaeological cultures of the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. - the first half of the 1st millennium AD, whose monuments were left by the population that lived on the territory of modern Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova.

One of the most striking archaeological communities in Central Europe, which was strongly influenced by the provincial Roman and La Tène cultures, was Przeworsk (2nd century BC - early 5th century AD). Formed on the basis of the development of local cultures of Central and Southern Poland under the strong influence of the Celts of the Danube region, this culture was a complex formation that included Celtic, Germanic, early Slavic and other components. The complex diverse composition of materials found at the same sites is explained by the mixing of different groups of the population and its frequent movement. The habitat of the Przeworsk tribes has undergone some changes during the long existence of the culture. At first it included lands from the right bank of the Oder in the west to the Bug in the east. In the 1st century BC. the first wave of migration of the Przeworsk population, pressed from the west and south-west by the Germans and Celts, to Western Volhynia and the territory of the Upper Dniester region is noted. Here later they encounter the Zarubintsy tribes and gradually begin to mix with them. As a result of this mixing, a new formation is gradually taking shape - the Zubritskaya culture. From the end of the 2nd century AD the second wave of settlement of Przeworsk tribes is noted, as a result of which groups of this population penetrated into Transcarpathia and the Middle Dniester region, and some, probably even further to the east - into certain areas of the south of the forest belt of Eastern Europe. This movement of the Przeworsk people was partly caused by pressure on them from the north from the tribes of the Wielbar culture (1st - early 5th century).

The Wielbar archaeological culture is of great importance for the history of Central and Eastern Europe, since it is connected with the so-called Gothic problem. Some information about the habitat of the Gothic tribes is contained in the work of the VI century. Gothic historian Jordanes "Getica" (or "On the origin and deeds of the Getae"). Judging by his words, the Goths appeared from the Baltic Sea, from the territory of Scandinavia and from the island of Gotland. After the appearance in the Lower Vistula region in the 1st century. AD the Goths quickly moved south and in the III century. joined the barbarian wars with Rome on the territory of the Black Sea and the Danube.

Characteristic materials of the Wielbark monuments (a biritual burial rite - first cremations, later inhumations), sacrificial pits with ash and stones, mostly molded dishes - egg-shaped pots, bowls often with x-shaped handles, jugs, etc., often decorated with a combination of polished and specially roughened surfaces, incised geometric figures, etc.) were originally distributed in the lower reaches of the Vistula and other adjacent parts of the territory of Poland. Traced on archaeological material and partially confirmed by data from written sources, the repeated movements of groups of the Velbar population chronologically generally correspond to the movement of the Goths and Gepids. There are two main waves of movement of the Goths as part of the carriers of the Wielbar culture. At the end of the II century. the western areas of culture are deserted, but the Wielbark monuments appear in the basin of the Western Bug and in Western Volhynia - this was accompanied by the displacement of part of the population of the Przeworsk and Zubrytsky cultures. From the middle of the III century. AD Wielbark monuments become known from the Lower Danube to the Dnieper. Various groups of the population could be involved in this movement, including some groups of the early Slavs as part of the Przeworsk culture, Western Balts, etc.

In the first half of the 1st millennium AD. on the territory of the steppe and forest-steppe zones of Eastern Europe, there are (according to archaeological data) repeated movements of various groups of the population that left monuments of many archaeological cultures, including practically synchronous Kyiv and Chernyakhov, later - Kolochinskaya, as well as a number of other cultures. These archaeological cultures are traditionally considered within the framework of the question of the origin of the Slavs. It is impossible to characterize all of them here, therefore only the brightest among them are considered in more detail.

Chernyakhov culture

Monuments of the Chernyakhov culture are located in the forest-steppe regions of Ukraine and Russia (part of the Kursk and Belgorod regions), the Black Sea steppes to the west of the Dnieper, in Moldova and Southeastern Romania: from the Seversky Donets to the Lower Danube and from the upper reaches of the But along the Lower Dnieper. In the steppe, monuments of the Chernyakhov culture are much less common. The period of existence of culture is the middle of the III - the beginning of the V century. AD At present, the ethnic heterogeneity of the population of the Chernyakhov culture is generally recognized.

The economy of the tribes of the Chernyakhov culture was agricultural and cattle breeding. It was based on arable farming using a light or heavy plow. There are known finds of iron nares of various types. In addition, there are finds of iron hoes, probably for gardening. Millet, barley, wheat, oats, peas were grown, flax and hemp were common. For harvesting, sickles and scythes of various shapes were used, which may be due to the specialized purpose of tools. Supplies were stored in pits-cellars and large clay storage vessels. In the settlement of Floreshty (Moldova), a utility pit was found that can hold up to 12 centners of grain, which is an annual supply for a family of 6 people. Rotary stone hand millstones were used for grinding grain. Mill structures were found that could be used by several families. For example, in the settlement of Ivankovtsy (Ukraine), the remains of such a mill with two sets of millstones located in the same building with a cellar pit were excavated.

Among the animal bones found in the cultural layers of settlements, more than 90% are the bones of domestic animals. The leading role belonged to cattle, but small cattle, pigs, horses and poultry were also bred. The bone was widely used for the manufacture of tools intended for cleaning hides and processing leather; combs, some jewelry, and household items were also made from it. It is believed that there were even specialized bone carving workshops.

The Chernyakhov culture is characterized by well-developed metalworking, pottery and other crafts. Products made in specialized workshops, including tools, weapons, household items, pottery and some types of jewelry, were distributed throughout the cultural area, regardless of the ethnicity of the population that left the monument.

Findings of slag, lyachek, crucibles and their fragments, as well as blanks and semi-finished products are associated with the processing of non-ferrous metals. A study of the composition of non-ferrous metal jewelry showed two main groups of alloys: the first is close in composition to products of Baltic origin, the second is similar to the composition of bronzes common in the workshops of the Black Sea region. This may be due to different sources of raw materials for the local bronze craft, or may reflect some tradition of alloy formulation. Most of the ornaments of the Chernyakhiv culture are made of bronze or billon, a copper alloy on a silver base. Finds of things made of precious metals are very rare.

The development of iron-making and iron-working crafts was of great importance. It can be assumed that these crafts were already specialized. Marsh and other ores were used, in particular, iron ore deposits in the Krivoy Rog region (Ukraine) could be used. Wastes from the production of iron and its processing in the form of slags were found in many Chernyakhovsky settlements. Several dozens of metallurgical furnaces of various designs have been found. Chernyakhov craftsmen knew various methods of iron processing and steel production. Specialists note some Late Scythian and Central European and provincial Roman features in blacksmithing - the widespread use and stable combinations of technological methods in the manufacture of one item - packaging, carburizing and hardening.

Pottery was especially well developed. Remains of small pottery workshops were found in more than 50 settlements. So, in the settlement of Zhuravka (Ukraine), two kilns for firing ceramics were found, located next to a semi-dugout workshop. Inside it were stocks of clay prepared for use and some special tools: a polisher, a stone pestle for crushing impurities, and other things. Sherds from molded but unfired pots were also found here. There is evidence of the use of a foot potter's wheel.

The population of the Chernyakhov culture used stucco and circular dishes, which were distinguished by a variety of shapes, sizes and purposes.

The predominance of high quality pottery and its wide assortment is one of the characteristic features of the Chernyakhov culture. It is assumed that the idea of ​​the potter's wheel came to Chernyakhov from the Black Sea region, from the Roman provinces, or was adopted by them from the population of the Carpathian region, familiar with the potter's wheel due to Celtic or Dacian influence.

A glass-making workshop has been opened in the settlement of Komarov in the Middle Dniester region. It is believed that it was a trading post of Roman craftsmen. Some settlements can be considered as commercial, i.e. associated with the development of tufa deposits (a stone that was used to make millstones), salt extraction, etc.

One of the most common crafts is weaving, making woolen and linen fabrics. On some metal objects in the burials, prints of various fabrics were found. A wide range of found woodworking tools indicates a sufficient development of this craft.

Monuments. The vast majority of settlements are settlements of considerable size, located on the slopes of the banks of small rivers and streams. On fertile chernozem soils, settlements reach 20-30 hectares. In areas less suitable for agriculture, the area of ​​settlements is up to 5 hectares. Often settlements are grouped, forming "nests". The buildings in the settlements are located in clusters or in two or three rows along the river bank. Usually, household or industrial buildings were located next to the living quarters.

Dwellings are represented by semi-dugouts and ground houses. Most semi-dugouts are rectangular in shape, their area is up to 20 square meters. m. Ground buildings, one - or multi-chamber, also have a rectangular shape, their area ranges from 10 to 40 square meters. m. The frame-pillar wattle walls of houses were usually coated with clay, in the center of the house a hearth was arranged on the floor. In terms of size and layout, among the above-ground structures, pillar structures with an area of ​​​​60 to 160 square meters stand out. m - the so-called large or "long" houses, inside which the residential and economic parts stood out: a living room and a room for keeping pets, sometimes separated by a vestibule. The walls of such structures were probably made of turf. Large buildings were mainly discovered on the territory of Western and Northern Ukraine and Moldova, and their prototypes are well known in Scandinavia and Northern Germany.

In most settlements of culture, there were different types of simultaneous buildings. In the southern regions of the area of ​​the Chernyakhov culture, above-ground residential and outbuildings built of stone are common. The walls of such houses were built using the technique of armor-clad masonry, laid “dry” (i.e., without a binder solution), with backfilling of the inside with small stones.

Only three cape settlements are known, located in the southeastern, steppe part of the Chernyakhovsky area (Gorodok, Bashmachki and Aleksandrovka - the most significant in terms of area), which arose in the 4th century BC. AD - at the very end of the existence of culture. The defensive structures of these settlements are earthen ramparts, on which double stone or wooden walls with clay internal backfilling, and ditches were erected. It is believed that in addition to the ramparts and walls, there were also stone towers. The design of defensive structures is close to late Scythian or antique.

The soil burial grounds of the Chernyakhov culture are located at higher places than the settlements, but not far from them and occupy a small area compared to the settlement. Most of the known cemeteries date back to the 4th c. The funeral rite is characterized by bi-rituality, i.e. using both cremation and cadaverization.

Usually both rites are found at the same burial ground. Burials were located in soil pits. Cult pits and other traces of feasts were found on some burial grounds.

Burnings were committed on the side, outside the burial place. The remains of burning were placed at the bottom of shallow rounded pits, which were covered from above with a vessel, shards or a flat stone. There are both urn and non-urn burials. Clay vessels were used as urns - pots, bowls, in isolated cases - wooden caskets or other containers (made of leather, fabric, etc.). More than 60% are non-inventory burials. The rest are accompanied by mostly metal parts of the costume, sometimes burnt or deliberately broken and placed inside or near the urn. The finds of weapons are associated with single urn burnings: socketed spear and arrowheads, knife-daggers, shields (they retain iron umbones - central cone-shaped plaques), axes, spurs, swords are occasionally found. Swords are long, their hilts usually do not have pommel and crosshairs. Sometimes the weapon is stuck in the bottom of the grave pit or bent, i.e. deliberately corrupted. This detail of the rite is an element of the Przeworsk culture.

Corpses were made in ordinary oblong pits, pits with lining or internal side ledges, as well as in catacombs. The dead were located, as a rule, elongated, on their backs, with their heads to the north or west. Most of the burials are individual, but there are also pairs. A rite of ritual destruction of burials is known, which was apparently performed by the tribesmen of the deceased. Moreover, it is the burials with a northern orientation that are destroyed more often. They are characterized by a diverse and numerous inventory, including several vessels. Burials with a western orientation in the majority turn out to be without inventory or contain 1-2 items. The grave inventory is represented by ornaments: glass beads, brooches, various pendants, belt buckles, as well as personal or household items (combs, knives, whorls) and offerings, most often - these are vessels with farewell food. It is probable that such items occasionally found in burials as keys, heaps of small stones, and tortoise shells had a ritual significance.

Tools of labor are usually absent in the graves, weapons are rare, although the militancy of the Goths and their allies was repeatedly noted by ancient authors. Among the burials, the graves of the "nobility" stand out - deep large pits lined with wood, the remains of the dead in which are accompanied by numerous objects. Entire banquet sets stand out, often including imported items such as glass goblets. Such burials sometimes occupy a special place on the plan of the burial ground.

Items of material culture. The bulk of the finds are fragments of various clay vessels: pots, bowls, jugs, vases, goblets. The forms of relatively few molded vessels are indicative of different cultural traditions or imitate the forms of circular ones. Tableware is distinguished by careful workmanship; it was often decorated with molded-on rollers, grooves, incised horizontal lines, less often flutes, wavy or stamped ornaments were used. Some examples of polished vessels are obviously imitations of imported metal vessels. Among the crockery at the Chernyakhovsk sites, there are quite often Black Sea amphorae, in which oil or wine was brought. In addition, there are separate finds of red-clay and red-glazed pottery that came out of provincial Roman workshops. An interesting group of vessels is made up of thin semi-egg-shaped earthenware goblets with a stamped ornament - local imitations of Roman glass vessels. Only in the settlements are pots and pitho-shaped vessels made of coarse clay and intended for storing supplies. Several vessels were found, the surface of which is decorated with a complex system of images, possibly associated with calendar cycles and having a ritual purpose.

	Chernyakhov culture. Jewelry, household items, tools, weapons: 1, 2 - brooches; 3 - beads; 4 - buckles; 5 - combs; 6 - knife, 7 - ax; 9 - sickle; 10 - clay whorl; 11 - armchair, 12 - narals; 13 - braid; 14 - spear tip; 15 - daggers; 16 - sword

The settlements of the Chernyakhov culture are characterized by a significant number of finds of tools. Numerous iron knives, fishhooks, clay whorls, clay weights for a vertical loom, iron and bone needles, piercers, and awls were found. Armament items are rarely found in settlements, while finds of household items are quite diverse - these are both borrowed and local bone or iron combs, toilet tweezers, locks and keys, etc.

A characteristic feature of the Chernyakhov culture is numerous Roman coins; single finds are coins of the Bosporan coinage. On the sites explored to the west of the Dniester, there are numerous finds of Roman bronze coins of the 3rd-4th centuries, which served the active trade of the population of these regions with the Danubian provinces of the Roman Empire. To the east of the Dniester, silver Roman denarii, issued as early as the 2nd century BC, predominate. - coins of fine silver. About 140 hoards of silver Roman coins come from the territory of the Chernyakhov culture. Some researchers believe that silver coins rather embodied treasures or were used as a means of payment only in foreign trade transactions, while barter was going on in the interior without coins.

In addition to coins, the Chernyakhov culture is connected with the Roman world by numerous finds of glass and single metal vessels. Glassware became widespread in the Roman Empire in the first centuries AD. and penetrated into the territory of the barbarian tribes. Many types of goblets found at the Chernyakhovsk sites are not typical for the Roman provinces themselves; they were probably made specifically for the barbarians. Elongated-conical or cylindrical goblets were popular. Vessels were made of one-color, most often greenish or yellowish glass and decorated with incised ornaments or sometimes soldered glass colored threads. Beads made of glass, ornamental stones and amber were also imported.

Ethnic composition. Currently, researchers identify several cultural traditions within the ethnically heterogeneous Chernyakhiv population. The Chernyakhov culture cannot be regarded as the result of a simple evolution of any of the previous cultures, although Germanic, Scytho-Sarmatian, Slavic, Thracian and other elements are noted in it.

The first group of traditions belongs to the German circle. It is determined by the biritual funeral rite and some of its features, "large" houses, ceramics of the Wielbar types (see above), forms of jewelry and household items. These signs are known practically throughout the entire territory of the Chernyakhov culture.

The second group includes Sarmatian and late Scythian features: burials according to the rite of burial in pits with liners or catacombs, individual forms of molded ceramics (pots with expanding throats), stone buildings - multi-chamber houses and estates with a courtyard, metal mirrors. The legacy of the culture of the Sarmatian tribes is the placement in burials of parting meat food with a stuck knife, pieces of paint and chalk, as well as the custom of intravital deformation of the skull. Chernyakhovsk sites with these elements are concentrated mainly on the territory of the Northern Black Sea region.

The third group includes features correlated with the Slavs: monuments dominated by square semi-dugouts of an insignificant area, with a large number of utility pits; a high percentage in the ceramic set of stucco pots: the absence of large burial grounds. Such monuments are concentrated on the territory of the Upper and Middle Dniester region, where the traditions of the Przeworsk culture continue. Also, a number of elements of Kievan culture are correlated with the Slavs, the monuments of which are common in the Middle Dnieper and more eastern regions.

The end of the Chernyakhov culture is connected and chronologically coincides with the time of the emergence and domination of a new wave of nomads, the Huns, in the Eastern European steppes (see below). The invasion of the Huns at the end of the 4th century. caused the outflow of part of the population to the west - written sources report the movement of the Gothic and Sarmatian-Alanian tribes. At the same time, in the forest-steppe regions of the territory occupied by the population of the Chernyakhov culture, some groups of the population continue to remain, which also corresponds to the data of written sources about the subordination of part of the Ostrogoths, Gepids and other peoples to the Huns.

On the territory located to the northeast, in the period preceding the formation of the Chernyakhov culture, and then simultaneously with it, there was the Kyiv culture, which is also considered by many researchers as part of the question of the origin of the Eastern Slavs.

Kyiv culture

At the turn of II-III centuries. AD within the forest and forest-steppe in the northern part of the Middle and southern parts of the Upper Dnieper, on the territory of the Desenye and adjacent regions of the left bank of the Dnieper, the Kievan culture was formed, monuments of which exist until the middle of the 5th century. The process of its formation is connected with the complex interaction of the post- or late Zarubinets tribes, various local and penetrating here from the west - Przeworsk groups (see above).

The economy of the population of the Kievan culture is characterized by agriculture and residential cattle breeding. Small unfortified settlements and their corresponding ground burial grounds with burials according to the rite of cremation on the side are widespread. With the traditions of the post-Zarubinets culture, some researchers associate the custom of building residential semi-dugouts with a central support pillar and a hearth in the middle part of the building. The rite of burning, accompanied by the placement of re-fired ceramics in the grave, finds analogies in the Przeworsk culture. Modeled utensils are typical for Kyiv culture. Some forms of ceramics, such as sharp-ribbed bowls and pots with a polished surface, have prototypes among the ceramics of the Zarubintsy and Przeworsk cultures. In addition to local hand-made utensils, some of the monuments have imported circular ones made in Chernyakhiv workshops. Especially noticeable is the influence on the Kievan culture from the Chernyakhov culture in the 4th - early 5th centuries, by this time the finds of some types of bronze and iron brooches, horn combs, glass beads, tweezers belong. At the beginning of the IV century. the population of Kievan culture, under the onslaught of the Chernyakhov tribes, cedes to them part of its territory in the Middle Dnieper. This gave a new impetus to the advancement of certain groups of the population of the Kievan culture in the Upper Dnieper region, which had begun somewhat earlier.

On the basis of the Kyiv culture, the Kolochin culture is being formed, which has recently been considered by some researchers as a Slavic culture. This archaeological culture dates back to the period from the middle of the 5th to the second half of the 7th century, and the range of its monuments almost completely coincides with the territory of the previous culture. Almost the same are the methods of house-building (semi-dugouts of a log or frame-pillar structure with a hearth in the center) and the burial rite (earth burial grounds with the remains of cremation on the side). In addition, studies of the characteristics of the Kyiv culture allow a number of authors to suggest that, in addition to the Kolochin culture, this culture is a partial basis for the Penkov culture (see below), which is considered as "Antskaya", i.e. Slavic. Some researchers see similarities between elements of the Kolochinsk, Penkovo ​​and Prague cultures, the latter of which is recognized by almost all as a reliable archaeological culture of the early Slavs.

Origin of East Slavic tribes

The question of the origin of the East Slavic tribes that lived in the forest-steppe and forest zones of Eastern Europe, whose names and territory of settlement are well known according to the Tale of Bygone Years (beginning of the 12th century), is closely related to the problem of the formation of reliable early Slavic cultures. As we know, none of the agricultural archaeological cultures of the early Iron Age and the first half of the 1st millennium AD, whose monuments have been explored in vast forest-steppe spaces, was purely Slavic - the population of each of them was heterogeneous and consisted of various ethnic components, autochthonous and newcomers.

Some authors associate messages of the 1st-2nd centuries with the Slavs. AD about the Wends who lived east of the Vistula. Starting from the VI century. information about the Slavs is already reliable and is becoming more diverse. According to the data of the Gothic historian Jordanes and a number of Byzantine authors of the 6th century, the Slavs themselves (“Sklavins” in Greek and Latin vowels) are known from the Lower Danube to the Vistula, and the Antes, related to them and close in culture, from the Dniester to the Dnieper or Don. Many Byzantine sources of the VI-VIII centuries. report on the raids of the Slavs on Byzantium, their resettlement in the Balkans. German early medieval chronicles record the Slavs in the territories east of the Elbe. The Old Russian Tale of Bygone Years, referring to oral tradition, names the regions of the Lower and Middle Danube as the ancestral home of the Slavs. Thus, it turns out that those occupied in the second half of the 1st millennium AD. Slavic lands stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Balkans and from the Dnieper to the upper Danube and the Oder.

Archaeological cultures and tribes of Eastern Europe in the second half of the 1st millennium AD:
a - Prague-Korchak culture; b - Penkovskaya culture; c - Kolochin culture; d - Tushemla culture; e - Moschinskaya culture; e - area of ​​culture of early long mounds; g - the area of ​​culture of the hills; h - Baltic tribes; and - Finnish tribes

Prague culture

On the territory from the Elbe to the Dnieper and from Pomerania to the Danube in the 5th century. a relatively uniform archaeological culture is taking shape, called the Prague culture. Prague culture is practically the only culture whose belonging to the early Slavs is generally recognized.

Throughout the distribution area, it is characterized by the following elements:
- small villages (up to 10 buildings), located in groups along the banks of small rivers;
- residential buildings (square semi-dugouts or above ground with a small depression - northwestern area) with a stove-heater (less often clay) in one of the corners of the building (eastern and southern areas) or a hearth (north-western areas);
- the dominance of the rite of burning on the side (ground burials and a few barrows);
- stucco unornamented ceramics with strictly maintained proportions (high pots, expanded in the upper third);
- economic structure - based on agriculture, in the presence of cattle breeding and home crafts.

Prague culture was, according to experts, a new cultural formation, which was formed during the period of the great migration of peoples. There are three main theories of its origin. The first sees its prototypes in the Slavic component of the Przeworsk culture, the second sees it in the continuation of the traditions of the Zubrytska culture, and the third zone of its formation is connected with the territory of the Belarusian Polissya.

In the V-VI centuries. there is a gradual resettlement of the carriers of the Prague culture towards the Middle Dnieper, the Danube and the Elbe, where they assimilate the remnants of the local population, who did not leave during the events of the Hun era. At the end of VI - beginning of VII century. groups of the Slavic population begin to settle in the Balkans.

Period V-VII centuries. AD - an important period in the history of the formation of the Slavic peoples, with which are associated:
- the last stage of the existence of the common Slavic language;
- wide resettlement and development of new lands;
- the earliest reliable Slavic archaeological sites.

Within the Prague culture, as a result of the interaction of the settling groups of the Slavic population and their contact with local tribes, its local-chronological variants are formed. On the territory of Europe, there are several main cultures, one way or another connected with Prague. On the territory of Ukraine, two are distinguished: Prague-Korchak and Luka-Raikovets.

Prague-Korchak culture

Monuments of this culture are common in the Carpathian region, the interfluve of the Dnieper and the Bug. The period of existence of culture - V-VII centuries.

Economy. Settlements are always located on lands suitable for cultivation. The basis of the economy was agriculture. Rala with small iron tips and wooden rales without iron tips were used, which were most suitable for plowing black earth lands. Sometimes small iron and bone hoes were used to cultivate the arable land. Wheat, millet, barley, oats were grown, for the harvesting of which iron slightly curved sickles were used. Animal husbandry was in second place in importance. Bred cattle and pigs, small cattle; horse bones are rare. Pink salmon scythes were used for fodder harvesting. Judging by the small number of finds of fish hooks, as well as the bones of fish and wild animals, fishing and hunting played an insignificant role in the life of the population.

Handicraft production was poorly developed; rather, we can talk about home crafts (spinning, weaving) or home production (woodworking, bone processing). Traces of the production and processing of iron are clearly found on a few sites. To obtain iron, apparently, local poor marsh ores were used. Ferrous metal finds are few. Metallographic analysis of these objects showed that simple schemes were used: the manufacture of products entirely from iron, raw steel, or packaged raw materials.

Traces of jewelry production are represented by finds (in the settlement of Zimno, Khachki and some other settlements) of crucibles for melting non-ferrous metal, clay lyacs and fragments of casting molds for making simple jewelry. A workshop was excavated at a settlement in Bernashovka (Ukraine), in which a set of molds connected to each other was found.

Pottery was made only by hand. Basically it is kitchen utensils - pots, pans. As a rule, the dishes have no ornamentation, only occasionally they are decorated with an oblique notch, finger impressions along the edge of the rim of the vessel (at a late stage of the existence of the culture) or a molded roller.

Monuments. The Korchak culture is characterized by small settlements with an area of ​​​​no more than 1 ha, on the territory of which there were most often up to 10 buildings. Settlements are usually located on low floodplain capes. Every 5-7 km, several such settlements (up to 10) form a kind of "nests".

Fortified settlements are rare. Among them, the most famous settlement is Zimno (V - mid-7th century), arranged on the remnant of a high bank of one of the tributaries of the river. Western Bug (Ukraine). One of the sides of the settlement was fortified with a wooden wall, a rampart and a palisade, the others were quite steep and steep. The logs of the palisade are obliquely driven into the slope of the cape at a distance of 3-5 m from the wall. Along the wooden defensive wall on the inner side of the site there was a long wooden building of a pillar structure, divided into several residential cages. The cages were heated by open hearths.
The dwellings studied in many settlements are square semi-dugouts (deepened into the ground from 0.1 to 1 m) with wooden walls of a pillar structure and a stove-heater in one of the northern corners. In some areas, the oven was made of clay. In the northwest of the cultural area, rectangular dwellings were built, which were heated by an open hearth. Between residential buildings, there are usually groups of utility buildings, the nature and composition of which are different in different regions.

Small ground burial grounds were usually located near the settlements. There is a case when the burials were located between the buildings of the village (Teterevka, Ukraine), were fenced and inscribed in its structure. The Korczak culture is characterized by the ritual of cremation on the side. The burnt bones, cleared of the remains of the funeral pyre, were poured onto the bottom of a shallow rounded pit or collected in an ordinary clay pot, which was also then placed on the bottom of the pit; Burials, as a rule, do not have grave goods. Only in rare cases are melted glass beads, iron knives, and belt buckles found in them.

In addition to ground burials, barrow burials are known in some areas with the same rite of small inventory burning on the side. Ritual bonfires were located at the base of the mounds. Urnless burials predominated. The bones collected from the place of burning were poured onto the layer of the fire, placed in a hole at the base of the mound or in the mound itself. From the 7th century the practice of building such mounds is gradually spreading over a wider area. Burial monuments of culture have not been discovered and explored throughout the entire territory of its existence.

Items of material culture. Monuments of the Korczak culture are poor in finds. Fragments of stucco vessels, clay whorls, small iron knives are most often found in the settlements. Costume items are among the rare finds - these are brooches, buckles and bracelets with expanding ends, plaques, bell-shaped and trapezoidal pendants. Many of these objects were found at the settlement of Zymno, as well as in the Carpathian region. Some of them belong to the types of things that are widespread in Southern and Central Europe, they could get here as a result of trade or as war trophies. Only towards the end of the existence of a culture are local forms of jewelry formed. Finds of weapons are also rare.

In a significant part of the area of ​​the Early Slavic Prague culture (and its variant, the Korczak culture), development proceeded calmly, without visible upheavals. The temporary neglect of some settlements can be explained by the outflow during the resettlement. At the turn of the VII-VIII centuries. on its basis, on the territory of the Right-Bank Ukraine and Moldova, a culture of the Luka-Raikovetskaya type begins to take shape, the materials of which show the genetic continuity between the early Slavic culture of this region and the later Old Russian. In general, the materials of the new culture are very close to those of the Korczak culture, but nevertheless, due to the natural development of economic and social life, the tastes and needs of the population, there are some changes in the nature of the settlements, the design of dwellings, the technology of making ceramics, and in the details of the funeral rite.

Luka-Raikovets culture

Monuments of culture are common from the Belarusian Polesie in the north to the basin of the river. Prut in the south and from the upper reaches of the Western Bug in the west to the Middle Dnieper in the east. The period of existence of culture VIII-X centuries.
The economy of the Luka-Raikovets culture was agricultural. The spread of arable farming is confirmed by the finds of iron parts for arable implements - burrs and burrs. In addition, iron hoes were used to till the soil. Found grains of cultivated crops - wheat, millet, barley. Home crafts continued to exist and developed - spinning and weaving, wood and bone processing, beekeeping. Probably, hunting and fishing played some auxiliary role in the economy.

Pottery was made mainly by hand, but in the 9th century. there are vessels made on a manual potter's wheel, decorated with a linear or wavy ornament. Circular utensils coexist for some time with stucco, only gradually displacing it. The early pottery vessels, still quite crude, repeat the local most common form of molded pots - with an extension in the upper third. It is assumed that the technology of making on a manual potter's wheel came here from the south-west, from the regions of the Danube region, and was quickly mastered by the local population - in the 9th century. circular vessels account for up to 20% of those found at the sites of the Luka-Raikovets culture, and their number is gradually increasing.

Monuments. The Luka-Raikovets culture is characterized by open settlements - settlements, which are located along the banks of rivers, in places convenient for farming, cattle breeding and various agricultural crafts. Their area is insignificant, and the building is unsystematic. From the 9th century an increase in size is noted - the area of ​​​​settlements reaches 3 hectares, and the buildings are arranged in rows. Small estates appear, consisting of several buildings for residential and household purposes. Sometimes houses and estates form separate groups. The increase in the number of settlements dates back to the same time.

A characteristic example of a cultural settlement is the Khotomel settlement on the river. Goryn. It consists of a small settlement (only an area of ​​0.12 hectares), located on a hill protruding into the floodplain of the river, protected from three sides by a lowland. The mound was built by the bearers of the Prague culture, but was burned down. The oval site of the settlement is surrounded by an earth rampart, additional arched ramparts and ditches protect the site from the eastern and western sides. A settlement adjoins the settlement. At the settlement, ground buildings, apparently of a log construction, which were heated by adobe stoves, and rectangular semi-dugout dwellings with a stove - a heater or an adobe stove, located in one of the corners, were investigated. Unlike most other settlements, the Khotomel settlement, in addition to ceramics, turned out to be rich in various finds. Not only household items (knives, whorls) were found here, but also tools (axes, sickles, hoes), as well as weapons and equipment for the rider and riding horse (arrowheads of various types - iron socketed double-thorned, stalked rhomboid and leaf-shaped; arrowheads socketed spears; two-piece bit, spur). In addition, jewelry was found: horseshoe-shaped brooches, bronze belt buckles, rings, bracelets. An interesting find is a temporal ring - a silver seven-pointed one, decorated with false granulation - this is one of the earliest finds of a Slavic temporal ring of this form.

Burial monuments of culture are represented by ground burials and mounds. Burials were performed according to the rite of burning on the side. Burials are rarely accompanied by things - single finds of iron knives, melted glass beads and other small items are known. Continuing the tradition of the Prague population, the population of the Luka-Raikovets culture buried the cremated remains in clay urns or without them in small pits. During the VIII-IX centuries. almost throughout the territory of culture, the custom of building mounds is widespread, which by the 10th century. becomes predominant. The burial mounds contain individual burials, among which urnless burials predominate. The remains of cremations are increasingly located at the base of the mounds at the ritual fire site, at the site of the burning, and sometimes placed at the top of the mound.

The carriers of the Prague and cultures close to it, who settled on the Right Bank of the Dnieper in the 7th-8th centuries. and partially mixed with a small local population, became the ancestors of the southwestern group of East Slavic tribes, named in these territories by the chronicler at the beginning of the 12th century - Volhynians, Drevlyans, Polyans, Dregovichi (partially).

Penkovskaya culture

After the Hunnic conquest of the 70s. 4th century in the forest-steppe zone of the Middle Dnieper region, a part of the heterogeneous Chernyakhov population was preserved, which, along with the carriers of the Kyiv culture who advanced from the north, took part in the formation of the Penkov culture during the 6th century. The main area of ​​culture formation is the Middle Dnieper and the river basin. Southern Bug. Monuments of this culture are common in the forest-steppe in the territory from the Seversky Donets in the east to the lower Danube in the west. The period of existence of culture V-VIII centuries.

Economy. The population was engaged in agriculture and residential cattle breeding. The herds included large and small cattle, horses, and bred pigs. The craft was mostly domestic in nature. The exception is iron mining and, apparently, iron processing. Some researchers associate the Gayvoronsky metallurgical center on the Southern Bug with the Penkovo ​​culture. Here, the remains of 21 metallurgical furnaces, 4 furnaces for roasting (enrichment) of ore and several pits for its storage were discovered and investigated. The study of blacksmith products showed that the Penkov blacksmiths (like their predecessors - carriers of the Kyiv and Prague cultures) used, first of all, simple technologies: the manufacture of products entirely from iron or raw steel. They also know such methods for improving the working qualities of tools as carburizing and heat treatment. It can be argued that almost all tools and household items made of ferrous metal are of local origin.

The monuments of the Penkovo ​​culture are characterized by stucco ceramics: biconical and round-sided pots, frying pans. At the final stage of development of the Penkovskaya culture in its area, in the Dnieper region, centers for the manufacture of pottery, the forms and ornamentation of which have North Caucasian prototypes (the settlement of Kantsirka, etc.) appear. The appearance of pottery workshops can be associated with the resettlement of North Caucasian (Alan) masters. Burials of noble nomads of that time (one of them - the so-called Pereshchepinsky treasure) are also known in the southern part of the Middle Dnieper. In the second half or end of the 7th c. On the territory of the Penkovo ​​culture, the Pastyrskoe settlement appears - this is a multi-ethnic settlement that has become a large trade and craft center. The craft traditions of the center were formed on a local basis under the strong influence of traditions brought from the Danube region. The pastoral settlement was destroyed in the first half of the 8th century, apparently by the Khazars.

Monuments. The most common open settlements are settlements located on low areas of coastal terraces and dunes with easy-to-cultivate soils and floodplain meadows. The area of ​​settlements does not exceed 2-3 hectares. Several settlements are known with materials of the Penkovo ​​culture, but the ramparts and ditches of these settlements turned out to be built in the Scythian era. The settlements are dominated by an unsystematic arrangement of dwellings, next to which there were utility pits and household buildings. The main type of dwellings were quadrangular semi-dugouts of frame-pillar or log construction with an area of ​​12-20 square meters. m. At an early stage of culture, dwellings heated by open hearths were built, then in the zones of contact with the carriers of the Prague culture, stoves located in one of the corners became widespread. In several settlements of the Middle Dnieper region, traces of yurt-like dwellings, characteristic of nomadic Turks, were found.

Burial monuments of culture are soil burial grounds containing burials according to the rite of burning on the side. Burial grounds, occupying a small area, are located in the immediate vicinity of the settlements. The cremated remains were placed in earthenware urns, which were placed at the bottom of shallow rounded pits or simply scattered at their bottom. There are cases when burnt bones were covered with an urn turned upside down. One burial pit can contain from 1 to 3 urns. Burials are accompanied by decorations, sometimes there are ritual vessels.

Monuments of the Penkovo ​​culture are characterized by a rather large number of various finds made of ferrous and non-ferrous metals. At several settlements, iron spears, hoes and sickles were found. Common finds are iron knives, biconical and rounded clay whorls. There are individual arrowheads and spearheads, bronze and silver jewelry: brooches of various shapes, pendants, belt buckles and plaques. The mass material is ceramics - fragments of molded vessels: biconical or round-sided pots, frying pans. Penkovskaya ceramics, as a rule, are not ornamented. Sometimes there are vessels decorated with notches along the rim or moldings under the rim.

The finds of treasures of the 7th century, which are sometimes called "antsky", are associated with the territory of a part of the Penkovskaya and Kolochinskaya cultures. First of all, they are characterized by various details of the belt set (buckles, lining, belt tips), richly ornamented, finger-shaped brooches and other women's jewelry. The prototypes of these things date back to some cultures of Southeastern Europe, but their sets and composition, which determine the dress, are largely original. The appearance of a group of treasures hidden for a relatively short period marks the end of the Penkovo ​​and Kolochin cultures. This event, apparently, can be associated with the advancement of a population close to the late Prague culture.

Monuments of the Penkovo ​​culture occupy an area that coincides with that which, according to Jordan, was occupied by the Ants - he wrote that they live on the lands from the Dniester to the Dnieper on the bend of the Black Sea. According to Procopius of Caesarea, the Antes and Sklavens (Slavs) had a common language, the same way of life, customs and beliefs, and once "even the name of the Slavs and Antes was the same." The Byzantines quite definitely distinguished the Antes from the Slavs among the mercenaries, using for their own purposes the strife between these groups.

According to a number of linguists, the ethnonym Antes is of Iranian origin. So, apparently, the Iranian-speaking population of the Northern Black Sea region called the Slavs who settled in the southeastern outskirts of the Slavic world.

Romensko-Borshevsky culture

Cultural monuments occupy the territory of the left bank of the Dnieper from the basin of the river. Desna to the Upper and Middle Don. The main time of existence - VIII-X centuries. (in some territories until the beginning of the 11th century).

At the end of the 7th century there is, according to some researchers, the movement of part of the Slavic population that lived in the space from the Danube to the Dnieper, to the northeast and east of this territory to the regions of the left bank of the Dnieper. Gradually mixing with the local population, the settlers, bearers of the traditions of the late Prague - early Luka-Raikovets culture, master the forest-steppe territories up to the Upper and Middle Don. In this space, the Romny and Borshevsky cultures are formed, which are unconditionally recognized by everyone as Slavic. They existed at the same time (VIII-X centuries) and were extremely close in many details to each other, therefore sometimes the culture is called Roman-Borshevka. Common to both cultures are: arable farming as the basis of the economy, the predominant type of settlements - settlements, semi-dugout rectangular dwellings with stoves in one of the corners, developed bone carving, molded vessels decorated with rope stamp imprints or finger impressions along the edge of the rim, the burial rite - under burial mounds on the side. However, there are a number of differences regarding house building, a set of jewelry and costume items, and details of the funeral rite.

Economy. As already mentioned, the basis of the economy was arable farming, in which arable tools were used with wide iron tips, the most convenient for the development of untouched lands, and small tips for cultivating old arable soils. Wheat, millet were grown, and rye appeared at a later stage. Hoes and hoes were used to cultivate small areas (gardens?). The harvest was harvested with iron sickles of stable pronounced forms. Analysis of the osteological material shows a decisive predominance of the bones of domestic animals - cattle, then pigs and small cattle. The wide distribution of various iron products speaks of the local nature of metalworking and local iron mining. Traces of non-ferrous metal processing, lyacs, crucibles and casting molds for the manufacture of individual adornments were found in many settlements. Researchers point to a noticeable amount of Saltovskaya ornaments, which are most often found in the area of ​​​​Romny monuments of the 8th-9th centuries. For monuments of the early period up to the 9th century. finds of ornaments associated with their origin with the Danube territories (hollow gold earrings, moon pendants, grained temporal rings) turn out to be characteristic. At the same time, temporal five- and seven-beam rings appear, decorated with false granulation. The form and style of these jewelry go back to examples of Byzantine jewelry art. As raw materials, non-ferrous scrap metal and silver Arab coins were used, which began to spread in Eastern Europe in the 8th century. For the culture of the IX-X centuries. in general, a set of jewelry is characteristic, consisting of radial temporal rings, metal bracelets and neck torcs with flattened ends. Later, from the 11th century, ray temporal rings become a defining feature for one of the East Slavic tribes - the Radimichi, whose territory is located a little to the north and practically does not coincide with the area of ​​the Romny monuments. Many pendants and buckles found during excavations of settlements have analogies among Hungarian, early nomadic, Baltic and Eastern Finnish antiquities.

The Romensko-Borshevsky culture is characterized by stucco ceramics, represented by a wide range of vessels of various sizes and shapes - these are pots, bowls, and frying pans. Coarse pots predominate, decorated with imprints of a rope stamp in the form of oblique stripes or zigzags, as well as finger tucks along the edge of the rim. Dishes were burned in ovens. At the very end of the IX century. vessels appear, corrected on a manual potter's wheel, however, during the 10th century. the predominance of stucco forms is preserved.

In some settlements, circular dishes of Saltov origin are found - jugs and pots, carefully made, covered with burnished stripes.

Culture settlements are unevenly distributed within its range. Most of them are concentrated in areas covered with forests in ancient times. Among the settlements, unfortified ones predominate, the area of ​​some of them is very significant and reaches 10 or more hectares. The earliest settlements are characterized by their location on low parts of river banks in floodplains. In the IX-X centuries. settlements begin to occupy the plateau of the high banks of the rivers, but the floodplains continue to be populated too. Separate small settlements appear (for 1-2 yards), freely located on the lands of wide floodplain plots. The different system of location of settlements suggests that the population consciously chose the areas most suitable either for arable farming or for the predominant grazing of livestock. Small clusters of villages corresponded to individual fortified settlements - settlements. Sometimes settlements are closely adjacent to the settlement. The area of ​​settlements most often does not exceed 0.5 hectares, although there are separate fortified settlements, the area of ​​which reaches 2-3 hectares. Most often, high capes of the native coast were used to build fortified settlements. Using the steep natural slopes of such capes, the inhabitants increased their steepness by escarpment, i.e. artificial pruning to a height of about 10 m. So, for example, the slopes of the cape, on which the Bitatsky settlement (Ukraine) is located, turned out to be pruned along the entire perimeter. The construction of ramparts and ditches was widely used. The construction of the rampart included wooden walls built from close-by log cabins or double rows of palisades, the interior of which was filled with earth.

Typical dwellings were rectangular semi-dugouts, which had pillared walls and were heated by stoves. But in the tenth century log buildings began to spread. The stoves were either carved from a clay ledge left near one of the walls of a pit dug out for the construction, or entirely molded from clay brought from the side. The area of ​​dwellings ranged from 16 to 20 square meters. m. In some cases, it was possible to determine that residential log buildings were two-story: the first floor was occupied by a foundation pit, the floor of the second was laid on poles located along its perimeter (Gorbovo). In addition to residential buildings, there were outbuildings in the settlements. The most common type of household structures were grain pits, located both inside the dwellings and next to them. Researchers note a gradual increase in the volume of these storage pits from a few dozen to almost 1000 liters, which reflects the gradual increase in agricultural production.

Funeral monuments of the Roman culture are small round mounds with burials according to the rite of cremation on the side. Early burials are poorly known. Usually in burial mounds of the 8th century. cremated remains collected in 1-2 urns were placed at the base of the mound. Gradually, the location of the urns changed. Burnt bones, in or without an urn, were most often located in the upper part of the mound. Burials with practically no inventory are characteristic, only occasionally melted glass or bronze ornaments are found among the remains of burning. In the northern regions of the distribution of the Romny culture, ritual fires are found in barrows, which later, in the 11th century, become a characteristic feature of Radimic barrows. Burial mounds, as a rule, have several dozen mounds and are located in relative proximity to settlements.

All researchers correlate the Romny culture with the East Slavic tribe of the northerners, whose habitat in the 12th century, according to the chronicle, largely coincides with its area. However, according to the observations of some authors, at the end of the X - the first half of the XI century. On the territory of the Dnieper Left Bank, there is a sharp change in material culture, the vast majority of the Romny settlements are devastated and perish in fires. At the same time, in the first half of the XI century. the appearance of some groups of the Slavic population to the north and northeast of the Romny territory is noted. Fragments of stucco Romny ceramics were found in settlements located in the basin of the river. Moscow.

Some part of the Romny population, undoubtedly, remained in the former territory of their habitat and took part in the formation of the already ancient Russian population of this region.

Some researchers associate the Borshev culture (the territory of the Upper and Middle Don basin) with the history of the Vyatichi, but not everyone agrees with this. It is only clear that the monuments of the Borshevsky culture belonged to some group of Slavs. Part of the settlements of the Borshevo culture is located on the territory of the Scythian settlements - the Slavic population used the fortifications built in the early times.

The difference between this culture and the Roman culture is insignificant. First of all, this is connected with house-building: the semi-dugouts of the Borshevites were heated by stoves-heaters or stoves made of stones and clay.

The funeral rite of the Borshevsky culture - cremation on the side with burial under the mound. Unlike the Roman barrows, some of the Borshev barrows have a more complex structure. For example, mounds near the Bolshoy Borshevsky settlement (Voronezh region) turned out to be such. Inside the barrow, on the ancient surface, there were low wooden burial chambers-domovinas with the remains of several cremations in urns. In addition to clay vessels-urns, accompanying vessels were found in the same chambers, apparently with parting food. Ring fences made of wooden posts were installed around the dominions. However, most of the barrows in Borshevsky have a conventional structure, and the remains of cremations are located in urns or simply piled on the surface of the buried soil.

Settlements and burial mounds with Borshevsky material are also noted on the upper Oka. The similarity is primarily determined by the forms of molded ceramics and the funeral rite of burning on the side. The Upper Oka kurgans are characterized by the presence of remains of charred wooden chambers-domovinas. In the same part of the area, settlements of the 8th-10th centuries are also known, apparently also left by the Slavs. It is believed that in the territories occupied by the Baltic tribes (shank), in the VIII century. groups of the Slavic population penetrate from somewhere in the southwest. Old Russian Vyatichesky burial mounds of the XI - the beginning of the XII century. (except for the Upper Oka region, where early burial mounds with cremations were noted) were investigated in the Oka basin before the confluence of the river. Moscow and beyond in its basin. Probably in the 11th century. Vyatichi from the Verkhneoksky region began to actively settle in the northeast and north. Gradually, the Slavs move into the lands occupied by the Eastern Finnish tribes, some of which are descendants of the tribes of the late Dyakovo culture - this is how the territory outlined by the chronicler as the land of the Vyatichi develops.

Source

T.A. Pushkin Archeology: Textbook / Edited by Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences V.L. Yanina. - M.: Publishing House of Moscow. un-ta, 2006. - 608 p.

Dobzhansky V.N. The local variant is archaeological culture, a cultural-historical community. What's next? // Archeology of Southern Siberia / KemGU. - Kemerovo, 1985. - S. 116 - 122.

The term "archaeological culture" is, as it were, a "measuring unit" of archaeological science; without a specific study of cultures, there is no archeology as a scientific discipline. But in purely empirical studies of specific cultures, in particular, on the problems of their origin and development, archaeologists often find themselves in a difficult situation, which is largely due to the lack of a theoretical, philosophical understanding of archaeological culture as a phenomenon of universal culture.

The very appeal of archaeologists to the concept of "culture" was not accidental. The word "cultura" comes from the Latin "colere" - "cultivate", "process". By the middle of the 18th century, when it entered all European languages, the word "cultura" was already used in a generalized sense as a certain stage in the development of man and society. In the minds of Europeans, for a long time it acted as an axiological unit, with the help of which certain peoples, phenomena, customs were declared cultural or uncultured. Spiritual manifestations of culture were recognized as the highest form. By the middle of the XIX century. the axiological function of culture, which dominated the scientific world, began to lose ground. The wide scope of ethnographic research, the great civilizations of the Old and New Worlds, rising from oblivion with the help of emerging scientific archeology, dealt a blow to the axiology of "culture". The cognitive function "naturally led to subsuming under the concept of "culture" any historically developed mode of human existence" . The already fairly solid archaeological material accumulated by European archaeologists required some kind of orderliness, evaluation. The cognitive function of culture postulated the study of all its manifestations without exception, including in terms of material, objective. Thus, the concept of "culture" in its cognitive function met with archaeological material - things, objects, buildings, that is, the remains of the material culture of ancient tribes and peoples. In subsequent times, the material culture of the ancient tribes was at the center of the scientific interests of archaeologists.

Later, with the approval in archeology not of the general sociological category of "culture", which among archaeologists was a synonym for the material culture of ancient tribes and peoples, but of the concept of "archaeological culture", as well as with the appearance on the archaeological map of a large number of cultures and the constant allocation of new ones, archaeologists come close to questions of definition and content of the new concept arose.

Since then, many points of view have been expressed on the issue of archaeological culture - both its constituent elements and definitions. According to E. I. Krupnov, almost all Soviet archaeologists adhere to the definition formulated by A. P. Smirnov: "Archaeological culture is the unity of material culture in a certain territory, characteristic of a certain time." According to A. L. Mongait, among our archaeologists, the definition of A. Ya. Bryusov is more common. It is somewhat broader in content and is as follows: “Archaeological culture is the unity of archaeological sites in a continuous and limited area, belonging to a certain period of time, usually several hundred years, less often a millennium or more. This unity is expressed in the close similarity of the types of tools, utensils, weapons and decorations found in these monuments (settlement, burial ground, sacrificial place, treasure, etc.), in the similarity of the types of buildings and funeral rites, in the uniform change in their forms from over time ... This unity is most clearly manifested in the details of the forms of things - ornament, the specific form of vessels, in the typical features of individual objects and techniques of technology. One more definition can be added to the above definitions, which, apparently, also claims to be universally recognized, since it is given in two very large and authoritative publications - the Soviet Historical and Great Soviet Encyclopedias. The author of both is A. L. Mongait: “Archaeological culture, a term used to denote the community of archaeological sites dating back to the same time, differing in local characteristics and concentrated in a certain territory.”

It cannot be said that there are no points of contact between these definitions and a number of others not mentioned here. A. L. Mongait and E. I. Krupnov intuitively felt these “points”, and therefore referred to the opinion of the majority. In essence, the definition of A.P. Smirnov in a concentrated form expresses the same idea that is being developed
A. Ya. Bryusov, A. L. Mongait and other researchers. The concept of "archaeological culture" "has always been based on the closely recurring close similarity of the forms of archaeological materials, which makes it possible to isolate an independent complex" . V. F. Gening emphasizes that “the typological similarity of the archaeological complex, its territorial and chronological limitations are actually present in all the numerous definitions of the concept of AK (AK - archaeological culture - V. D.), in terms of directly related to archaeological material, how would they neither differed in their specific formulations.

When analyzing the above definitions, one more characteristic detail, common to all formulations, becomes clear. It was well noted, in our opinion, by M.P. Gryaznov, who believes that all definitions “come from a false premise that archeology studies and classifies archaeological monuments, and not the history of the development of the culture of ancient societies” . Archaeological culture is in this case a term of archaeological classification, which is "a period in the history of a particular society with its own peculiar character of culture ... different from the culture of other periods adjacent to it and from the culture of other contemporary societies" .

Giving a definition of archaeological culture, they highlight the features that, according to researchers, give, in fact, the right to speak of a particular monument as belonging to a particular culture. But here the differences are the strongest. The dispute boils down to the following: should all components of a culture be taken into account or only those that are characteristic of a given culture and do not have repetitions in other cultures. It is believed that in order to characterize a culture, it is necessary to use the entire complex of finds. But in practice, if the archaeological culture is not singled out, the entire complex is actually never used by anyone, because in culture “there are quite a lot of similar universal elements, the similarity of which is due to the level of social development, the natural environment, economic activity, etc.” . V. F. Gening believes that in order to “identify any complex as a separate archaeological culture, the following categories of elements must be similar:
1) ceramics, including here both the form and technique of making dishes, and especially the system of its ornamentation;
2) women's jewelry and costume accessories, among which types are usually distinguished that are characteristic of only one archaeological culture;
3) a funeral rite, fixing burials with all the various details.

VF Gening only forgot to mention such features of archaeological culture as space and time, without which even the most complete set of elements is by no means an archaeological culture.

The concept of "culture" has not been unchanged throughout the entire period of development of science in the XX century. And although the category "culture" has not yet found a clear and unambiguous definition, many Soviet culturologists agree with E. S. Markaryan that the concept of culture "should be based on an analysis of human activity itself" . The cognitive function of "culture" in this case consists in "generalizing the features of human activity from the point of view of how, in what way it is carried out" . And as a consequence of this, "culture" is defined as a way of human activity, including in it the results, products of this activity. Culture no longer seems to be some kind of mechanical sum of objects and things that we create ourselves and that we inherited from our ancestors. It turned out that it is characterized by “organization, systemic connection between its various components. ... culture is always some kind of integrity, all parts of which - subsystems, sides, levels, elements - are in a state of interaction, mutual mediation, mutual reflection. At the same time, the integrity of “any cultural formation - say, the culture of the Neolithic or the Russian noble culture of the early 19th century. is felt intuitively, and theoretical analysis only confirms the evidence of intuition and can explain the origin of this property of culture by reflecting in it the integrity of the acting subject (humanity, a particular society, social group or individual, if we are talking about individual culture).

Many archaeologists believe that cultures "are an objective reality, they exist in reality." But reality itself is understood by them in different ways. If for some it is a series of monuments of material culture, in a certain way limited in time and space, then for others, archaeological culture acts as a collection of “various traces and remains of past, no longer existing societies and cultures”, Many are limited to stating this phenomenon, then how Yu. N. Zakharuk tries to understand the essence of this reality. Unlike “culture” as a phenomenon of historical reality, which makes sense only in an organic connection with society and nature, on the one hand, and its constituent components, on the other hand, archaeological culture appears as a phenomenon of “fossil reality”, not a dynamic system, but an accumulation dead objects, behind which we see nothing but a momentary given, capable of reflecting only a certain state of “phenomena of the historical past”. Therefore, the view of archaeological objects, as well as of archaeological culture as a whole, as “developing, changing, spreading objects that influence each other” is erroneous and incorrect. But the archaeologist is not satisfied with the role of traces and remains of the past only as a fossil reality. Revealing, extracting from the earth and fixing, thereby turning them into an archaeological source - this is the meaning and purpose of archeology. Thus, the revealed and fixed traces and remains of the past acquire not so much an ontological as a cognitive character. According to Yu. N. Zakharuk, the essence of archaeological culture is a cognitive, epistemological function.

Yu. N. Zakharuk correctly noticed the complexity of archaeological culture as an objective reality. In his practice, the archaeologist does not deal with the whole culture as a whole, but only, using the terminology of Yu. N. Zakharuk, with “traces and remains of the past”, with the results of the activities of long-disappeared people and groups. Only in a cameral laboratory, processing the obtained material, classifying it, distinguishing types, looking for analogies, the researcher builds a certain complex of these traces and remains, very close typologically and functionally common, which is located on a certain, as a rule, clearly fixed territory, belonging to a certain time and not having repetitions anywhere else.

Undoubtedly, all objects of the complex were made by individuals, but by individuals who were members of some collectives, the cultural traditions of which were accumulated by these masters. Whether these collectives were mono- or poly-ethnic, or whether the common cultural traditions were based on the same type or very close forms of economy that contributed to the cultural leveling of the heterogeneous population of a particular territory, it is very difficult to judge from archaeological material.

Are we entitled to speak of the reality of archaeological culture in this sense? Apparently not. At the content level, we talk about the reality of archaeological culture with a certain amount of imagination, intuitively, realizing that a single complex allocated to culture on a larger or smaller territory is a reality, that it reflects not a simple sum of people who once existed, but a whole organism. Wholeness is the internal unity of an object or phenomenon. Any human collective, as a subject of history, has a culture, that is, a certain way of activity and certain results of this activity. Being essentially a "fossil reality", after a series of successive field and office operations, archaeological culture presents itself to us as an objective reality, almost like a cast from that long-gone reality. But this reality is more subjective than objective, because it first passes through our consciousness, which constructs this reality. We will never be able to take into account the entire objective world of bygone reality, if only because a significant, if not most, part of it has perished for us irrevocably. It is also well known that the material complex that is singled out in one culture or another far from reflects the real complex that once existed.

For all these reasons, the question naturally arises of how adequate the archaeological culture is to that past reality, the objective reality that manifested itself as a kind of cultural phenomenon of a particular social organism. The unambiguity of the answer is not in doubt - the archaeological culture is not identical to the past reality, it only more or less fully reflects this reality, the researchers' ideas about it will be relative and incomplete. A living dynamic culture of a population, whose coexistence is proved by the monuments left by this population, would only remotely resemble a dead archaeological culture. The connection between one and the other cultures is purely external, but this external, material side of culture, or rather a number of its elements and features, could also be borrowed. The integrity of culture was determined, firstly, by the joint work of the team, and, secondly, by internal, spiritual culture.

In the research practice of ethnography, cultural studies and a number of other sciences, the word "culture" is often used with different cognitive accents. “So, for example, when we talk about the “culture of the Australian aborigines” and about “primitive culture”, then we mean concepts that are qualitatively different in their logical structure and cognitive functions. In the first case, a certain local cultural-historical system is expressed in the concept, and in the second - a certain general type of culture. The term "local culture" denotes a cultural-historical system limited in time and space and formed as a result of territorial, economic and other commonality of development. Any specific archaeological culture, for example, Karasuk, Fatyanovo or ancient Turkic, has the status of a local-historical system in which historical processes and phenomena "are expressed in a certain limited space-time continuum, in their specific givenness and individually peculiar context of manifestation" .

Unlike the concept of "local culture", which focuses on the uniqueness of a particular local historical system, the concept of "archaeological culture" is aimed at identifying the content commonality of these local historical systems. From this point of view, the concept of "archaeological culture" in its logical structure and cognitive functions appears to us as a certain general type of culture, in which common features of specific local cultures are manifested, for example, cultures of the Bronze Age or Early Iron Age.

Culture as a social phenomenon has the right to exist only within the framework of a certain social organism. Therefore, in relation to this or that social system, culture ... is a model of this system, carrying essential information about it. The model of culture or any of its objects "is a logically ordered set of connections, properties and relationships in culture or in its object (fragment), considered by the researcher from a certain angle, described in terms that are characteristic of the research methodology used" .

Because of this, if a specific local culture, for example, Andronovo, will be a kind of model of the social organism that gave birth to it, then the concept of "archaeological culture" as a certain general type of culture will act as a model of social organisms at a certain stage of their social development. For example, the model of the archaeological culture of the Paleolithic era will be different from the model of the archaeological culture of the Bronze Age and, accordingly, both of these models will reflect different stages and levels of development of primitive society.

The problem of the definition and content of the concept of "archaeological culture" seems to us to be a private problem among other problems of this concept. The most important task that meets the needs of the modern development of archaeological science, in our opinion, is the creation of a theory of archaeological culture.

The meaning of the whole problem of archaeological culture is not to give one, rather short and capacious, definition of the concept of "archaeological culture", but something else. The very mechanism of action of archaeological culture - the origin, development, decline, its development into another culture, its connection with an ethnic group, the mutual influence of cultures and other problems - can and should be resolved only through the creation of a theory of archaeological culture.

The value of factual knowledge has its limits; its further increase does not always bring new knowledge

Archaeological searches have been carried out in recent decades on the basis of the theory of the autochthonous nature of the Slavs (autochthonous - a native inhabitant).

Archeology proceeds from the position that ethnic formations differ not only in language, but also in culture; the linguistic community is combined with the ethnographic community, which finds its expression in the material remains of the past, the so-called archaeological cultures.

archaeological culture - a stable set of features characteristic of the remnants of the past certain period of the development of society. This includes:

• a certain burial rite;
• repetitive forms of jewelry;
• clothing accessories;
• characteristic types of tools, weapons, household equipment;
• specific features in the arrangement of dwellings and settlements;
• ceramic shapes.

At different times, scientists have discovered several archaeological cultures that, to one degree or another, correlate with the Slavs (see Table 1). These cultures characterize the life of certain ethnic groups at different stages of development. The earliest stage - Proto-Slavic - covers I V -I millennium BC. e. In Central and Eastern Europe, there were then several related cultures (according to some researchers, some of them were polyethnic), which occupied a rather vast territory. In the bowels of these cultures, some elements began to form, which later became characteristic of the Slavs and some other peoples of Europe.

Table 1

culture	Time	Place of distribution
Neolithic and Eneolithic
Trypilska	3 thousand BC	Western Ukraine, Moldova, Romania
Fatyanovskaya	2 thousand BC	Upper and middle reaches of the Volga
Bronze Age
Unetitskaya	XVIII - XV centuries. BC.	Czech Republic, Slovakia, southern Germany, eastern Austria, western Poland
Trzyniecka	XVI - XII centuries. BC.	Between the river Varta and the river Seim (west of Ukraine, west of Belarus, east of Poland)
Luzhitskaya	XIII - IV centuries. BC.	Czech Republic, Germany, western Poland (not reaching the Baltic Sea)
iron age
Pomeranian	VI - II centuries. BC.	Poland, western Ukraine and Belarus
Chernolesskaya	VIII - VI centuries. BC.	Dnieper
Przeworsk	2nd century BC. - II century. AD	West of Poland
Zarubinekaya	2nd century BC - II century. AD	Middle course of the Dnieper
Chernyakhovskaya	II - IV centuries. AD	Western Ukraine, Moldova, Eastern Romania
Prague	VI - VII centuries. AD	East Central Europe, southern Belarus, western Ukraine, Moldova, Romania

At the beginning of the twentieth century. Ukrainian archaeologist V. Khvoyka, south of Kyiv, near the village of Trypillya, unearthed the remains of burnt structures, which were based on huge clay platforms. Here he found many pottery vessels painted with intricate designs; figurines of women; stone, bone and metal tools, weapons.

This archaeological culture dates back to the Eneolithic era. It is distributed between the Eastern Carpathians and the Middle Dnieper. Trypillia culture is the most ancient of all, which in one way or another are considered Proto-Slavic, and covers the period from the 4th millennium BC. e. to the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. e.

Trypillian settlements are located on a plateau fortified with ramparts and ditches, they consist of 10-15 adobe dwellings, among which there are also two-story ones. The main occupations of the Tripoli tribes include cattle breeding, agriculture, hunting, and fishing. The tribes carried on an active exchange with neighboring tribes, in particular, with the inhabitants of the Balkan Peninsula, from where they received copper. Numerous archaeological finds testify to the dominance of matriarchy in this culture, the veneration of the Great Mother.

Probably, agrarian cults, the cult of fire, were also very strongly developed. For a long time, the absence of Trypillia burials remained a mystery, until a ritual vessel for burning bodies was discovered in one of the excavations. Moreover, the Trypillians did not bury the ashes, but scattered them in the wind. V. Khvoyka himself, and after him many other researchers, considered the Trypillian culture to be the proto-culture of the Eastern Slavs, however, there is also a reasonable opinion about its multi-ethnicity.

A huge amount of controversy and Fatyanovo archaeological a culture that dates back to the late Eneolithic and early Bronze Age (first half of the 2nd millennium BC). This culture got its name from the burial ground discovered near the village of Fatyanovo, Yaroslavl region. in 1873 Fatyanovo settlements were not found. Presumably, they occupied the already existing settlements of local tribes or settled in hard-to-reach places (in swamps or forests). The Fatyanovo culture is known from burials. The dead were buried in a crouched position: men on their right side with their heads to the west, women on their left sides with their heads to the east. In pits and intra-grave structures made of wood or birch bark, bronze weapons, stone, less often copper tools, clay vessels, jewelry made of amber, shells, and animal teeth are found. Fatyanovtsy are the ancestors of the Slavs, Balts and Germans.

Some elements of Slavic culture can be traced in a number of pre-Slavic cultures of the Bronze Age: Unetice, Trzynec, Lusatian. Unetice culture common in the first half of the II millennium BC. in the territory of Silesia, Saxony and Thuringia, the Czech Republic and Lower Austria. The settlements of these tribes consisted of quadrangular houses with wicker walls coated with clay. Archaeological evidence indicates that these tribes were engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding, bronze casting. Gradually, the culture changes, there is a transition to cremation. In the second half of the II millennium BC. Lusatian culture develops in this area.

From the 15th century BC e. Two cultures existed in parallel on the territory of Poland: Lusatian and east of it Trzyniecka .

Trzynec archaeological culture distributed in the middle zone of Central and Eastern Europe, approximately from the river. Warta in the west to the river. Sejm in the east, existed from about the 16th century. until the middle of the 12th century. BC, and then became an integral element in the Lusatian culture. It is named after the remains of a settlement near Trzciniec in the Lublin Voivodeship (Poland). Archaeologists discover a fairly large number of unfortified settlements, consisting of dugouts and small land dwellings. The Trzynec culture is characterized by burial, barrowless and kurgan cemeteries. The Trzynec culture is characterized by stone and flint tools, bronze handicrafts. The tribes were engaged in animal husbandry and agriculture. B.A. Rybakov, on the basis of an analysis of the distribution of the Tshinetsko-Komarovskaya, Przeworsk, Zarubinets and Prague-Korchak archaeological cultures, as well as data on the Veneds of Pliny, Tacitus and Ptolemy - contemporaries of these cultures, considers "the area of ​​the Tshinetsko-Komarovskaya culture to be the primary place of unification and formation of the first offspring Proto-Slavs, who remained in this space for the first time as a quiet grandiose settlement of the Indians". This area can be designated by the somewhat vague word "ancestral home" (Rybakov, 1981, p. 19).

« Lusatian culture was, obviously, a multi-ethical complex that encompassed half of the Proto-Slavs, part of the Proto-Germans and some part of the Italo-Illyrian tribes in the south, where bronze foundry was very high” (Rybakov, 1981, p. 264). In the 13-4 centuries. BC e. it occupied the territory from the coast of the Baltic Sea to the Danube and the Slovak Mountains and from the river Spree to Volhynia. It got its name from the historical regions of Upper and Lower Lusatia (in the southeast of Germany), where burial grounds and settlements of the Lusatian culture were first found.

Lusatian tribes were engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding. Among the finds there are many ceramics, remains of a wooden plow, horn hoes with a wooden handle, iron sickles and simple stone grain grinders; charred grains of rye, wheat, barley and peas were also found. Like previous cultures, the Lusatian tribes did not know the potter's wheel, but they made high-quality various pottery: amphora-shaped vessels and jugs, various bowls, bowls, egg-shaped vessels. The tribes of the Lusatian culture burned the dead, and the ashes were buried in urns, which were covered with a shard and placed in pits. A small number of things and various vessels, apparently with food, were placed next to the urns. Such cemeteries are called "burial fields" or "burial urn fields". In the VII - VI centuries. BC e. iron metallurgy spread, which very quickly became dominant in production.

In the middle of the first millennium BC. e. large Lusatian settlements appear, occupying an area of ​​​​several hectares. The settlement was enclosed by a defensive wall built of three rows of wooden log cabins, which were filled with clay, earth and stones inside. The houses were built of logs inserted into the grooves of vertical supports. The house had several separate large rooms.

Most researchers consider Slavic Pomeranian archaeological culture, widespread in the 6th-2nd centuries. BC e. on the territory of Poland and adjacent regions of Belarus and Ukraine. The settlements of this culture are not fortified; ground pillared buildings and semi-dugouts are used as dwellings. Burials without kurgans contain the remains of cremations, mainly in earthenware urns. Often there are images of a human face on the urns, and they themselves stand in stone boxes. In the southern regions, the urns are covered on top with a large clay vessel - a "flare". Pomeranians were engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding.

An important milestone in the ethnogenesis of the Proto-Slavs was the 4th century BC. e. At this time, in different places of distribution of the Lusatian culture (Central Poland, partly Belarus and Ukraine), flared burial culture . This culture is characterized by barrowless burials in the so-called flares: the remains of cremations were enclosed in an urn and placed under a large inverted bell-shaped vessel - a flare, from which the name of the culture comes. Of the things in the burials, mostly jewelry is found. This culture is characterized by unfortified settlements.

archaeological culture- a set of material monuments that belong to the same territory and era and have common features.

Usually, an archaeological culture is named after some characteristic feature that distinguishes it from others: according to the shape or ornament of ceramics and decorations (for example, funnel-shaped goblets culture), burial rite (for example, catacomb culture), etc., or according to the area where the most typical monuments of this culture were first found (for example, the Dnieper-Donets culture).

In archeology, the concept of culture is given a meaning that is somewhat different from the generally accepted and accepted in other scientific disciplines. Similar material monuments that characterize archaeological culture do not necessarily belong to a single society, and a different set of material monuments - to different communities of people. In this regard, some archaeologists refuse the very term "archaeological culture", preferring the term "technological complex" or "technocomplex" to it, so as not to confuse archaeological culture with a similar term of sociology.

When archaeologists use the term "culture", they assume that their finds testify to a certain way of life of people who left certain monuments of the past. When it comes to the same type of tools or other artifacts, the term "industry" is also used. The term "archaeological culture" is the main one in describing the prehistoric era, about which there are no written sources. The mechanisms for the spread of archaeological culture can be different. The theory of diffusionism considers, for example, such options as the resettlement of culture carriers or the transfer of technology through trade. Sometimes, during excavations in the same place, signs are found that are characteristic of different cultures, which may mean a clash or coexistence of their carriers, or maybe the evolution of one culture into another.

Cultural-historical community - cultural associations of a certain era, the common name for groups of close archaeological cultures.

The type of monuments is the listed classification of archaeological material. It often happens that monuments combine the functions of different categories. For example, mounds can carry not only the function of burial (funeral), but also perform certain cult functions.

6. Early Paleolithic.

The Lower (Early) Paleolithic is a period in the history of mankind that began at the end of the Pliocene era, in which the first use of stone tools by the ancestors of modern man Homo habilis began. These were relatively simple tools known as cleavers, spheroids (roughly cut stones) and flakes. Homo habilis developed stone tools during the Olduvai era, which were used as axes and stone cores. This culture got its name from the place where the first stone tools were found - Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. The people living in this era subsisted mainly on the meat of dead animals and the gathering of wild plants, since hunting was not yet widespread at that time. About 1.5 million years ago, the more advanced human genus Homo erectus appeared. Representatives of this species (Synanthropes) learned to use fire and created more complex chopping tools from stone, and also expanded their habitat through the development of Asia, which is confirmed by finds on the Zhoukoudian Plateau in China. About 1 million years ago, man mastered Europe and began to use stone axes.

The social organization of people was at the stage of a primitive herd (unstable, formed for the purpose of hunting, for protection from enemies, animals, elements). Tools of work - in general, the most primitive stone, wooden, bone tools. The economy consisted of gathering and hunting, people led a nomadic lifestyle.

Cultures of the Lower Paleolithic

Africa: 2.5-1 million years ago

Olduvai culture 2.5-1 million years ago

Acheulian culture 2.5 million - 200 thousand years ago

Europe: 1.2 million - 600 thousand years ago

Abbeville culture 1.5 million - 600 thousand years ago