The Crimean peninsula is interesting not only for fans of mountain tourism and beach holidays - it is also the realm of archaeologists. Work for them in Taurida is no end. Local archaeological sites cover a chronologically huge period - from the dawn of mankind to the end of the Middle Ages. The sites of ancient people in the Crimea are known as the oldest and richest in Russia. Today we will analyze the main ones.
Yeni-Sala caves: chance finds
Stone Age sites - not, they do not have external showiness. The harder it is to find them. The caves of Yeni-Sala on the slope were generally found by chance - in 1959, curious schoolchildren climbed there.
On the slope of the plateau there was a whole complex of caves with archaeological materials, but the most ancient finds were found in one of them that became famous under No. 2. It contained traces of a fire, many animal bones (both whole and burnt), flint tools and waste from their production. Research activities have shown that the age of the artifacts is at least 50 thousand years. Then the territory of the Crimea was inhabited by people like Neanderthals. It is believed that this species can only limitedly be attributed to the number of ancestors of modern man.
The work was carried out in 1961. Scientists came to the conclusion that people did not live here permanently, but stopped periodically - during hunting camps. This behavior is quite typical of the way of life of Neanderthals.
Wolf Grotto: Neighbors of the Wolves
This site was found much earlier - either in 1879, or in 1880 (there is no exact information). The honor of the first study belongs to K.S. Merezhkovsky. While his brother of the same name (Dmitry Sergeevich) promoted the Christian worldview in literary form, the 24-year-old history student turned out to be a real materialist. In the cave, he discovered numerous flint products, as well as the results of production operations with this stone (small flakes and cores - blanks from which plates were broken off for further production of tools).
According to Merezhkovsky's publications, G. Martellier (France), a venerable specialist in primitive history of that time, dated the site to 100,000 BC. Modern historians have somewhat reduced this period, but still: it is the dwelling of people of the Middle Stone Age, Neanderthals definitely lived there. Researchers believe that it was a temporary hunting camp and a flint processing workshop. In addition to things made of stone, the remains of fires and many bone remains of various animals were found in it.
Sites of ancient people in the Syurensky grottoes
K.S. Merezhkovsky also had a hand in surveying the settlements of contemporaries who hunted mammoths (there were not ideal conditions for these elephants). He studied the Syurensky canopy caves almost simultaneously with the previous cavity on the list. Later, in 1934, large-scale research was carried out here by the expedition of G.A. Bonch-Osmolovsky.
The age of the monument is much less than that of the Volchiy - it is dated to the Late Paleolithic, approximately 25-15 thousand years ago. In central Ukraine, people of this period (they are already close to the modern type) are usually called mammoth hunters. The inhabitants of the Syurenskiye were also catchers, but of a different game - scientists identified 40 species of birds, 37 different types of mammals (herbivores and predators) and 4 species of fish by bones. The thickness of the cultural layer made it possible to assume that the ancient St. John's wort lived in spacious, conveniently located caves more or less permanently.
The object is one of the well-explored, many archaeologists worked in it. As a result, it became known that in each of the cave cavities the cultural layer is multi-layered - representatives of several ancient cultures lived here. As of 1994, 15 sites from the period of the final part of the Paleolithic period (40-10 thousand years ago) have been discovered here. There were also materials of the Middle Stone Age - Mesolithic (including characteristic miniature flint flakes and arrowheads).
Chokurcha - an almost dead camp
Due to external "unpresentability" some of the sites of primitive man in the Crimea were almost lost to science. Such is the fate of the Chokurcha cave, located within the city limits. In 1927, the remains of an ancient building were discovered in it, N.L. Ernst began to conduct research manipulations, but was arrested, and the case was forgotten. In 1947, she was given the status of a protected monument, but in fact no one followed her.
At the same time, Chokurcha is unique in that the people who lived in it about 45 thousand years ago actually led a sedentary lifestyle, which is not typical for primitive hunters. Here they found a powerful fire layer, flint products, bone mass of animals. On the vault, under the soot, it was possible to clear the carved images of a mammoth, the sun, and a fish.
Now it has been cleared of garbage from a spontaneous dump and a “homeless person”, a security fence has been restored. But most of what was discovered from the excavations disappeared during the war, and the images on the vault were badly damaged. Enthusiasts offer to turn it into an excursion object. But the trouble with Paleolithic archeology is that the oldest sites look of little interest to the layman.
Kiik-Koba - the legend of Crimean archeology
Some of the oldest sites of primitive people in the Crimea have long been included in all textbooks of archeology. This is Kiik-Koba - a cave in the upper reaches of the Zuya River, discovered in 1942 by G.A. Bonch-Osmolovsky.
Its age is about 100,000 years. In addition to ash, bones of animals and flint tools, which are common for Neanderthal sites, a burial of a woman and a small (not older than a year) child was unearthed in it. But it was just a ceremonial funeral, for mother and baby were neatly laid on their sides in identical crouched poses. It is one of the oldest Neanderthal burial sites in the world.
The walls of this one are decorated with unique drawings - images of hunting scenes, as well as ancient animals. They are of a later time, but still are of great value and rarity. They can be seen even now.
The Sungir site is the oldest human settlement in the Vladimir region. This is not only a monument protected by UNESCO, but also a unique archaeological site that attracts the attention of researchers from all over the world.Total information
Sungir is one of the 3 Upper Paleolithic sites of the Vladimir region known to scientists. The settlement of Sungir is located on the eastern outskirts of Vladimir, not far from the mouth of the stream of the same name, which flows into the Klyazma River. This is one of the northernmost Paleolithic settlements of the Russian Plain. It is attributed to the Kostenkovsko-Seletsky cultural community.
The parking lot was discovered by chance, when developing a new quarry. This happened in 1955. At a depth of 3 meters, the excavator noticed the bones of a large animal. The discovery was immediately reported to archaeologists. Since then and to the present, Sungir has been the object of research by scientists.
During the excavations, more than 4.5 thousand m² of the cultural layer was unearthed, which is equal to half of the estimated area. The age of the site is approximately 24-25 thousand years, although a number of scientists push it back to 36 thousand years.
According to one hypothesis, this site existed for 2-3 millennia. Most likely, it was a seasonal hunting camp. According to experts, the number of people living in the settlement at the same time reached 50 people. This group of people were connected to a larger community. Sungir has much in common with the complex of Stone Age sites known as Kostenki.
archaeological finds
Items
The collection of finds discovered during archaeological excavations exceeds 65 thousand items. These include:
- tools for making tools (flint chippers, flakes and cores);
- tools (knives, chisels, scrapers, scrapers, piercers, etc.);
- weapons (flint tips of darts, spears, "wands");
- items made of horn, bone and mammoth tusks (decorations, hoes, animal figurines).
The figurine of the horse is decorated with dots, the number of which on both sides is a multiple of 5, which indicates that the residents of the camp were familiar with the 5-ary counting system. Traces of ocher are preserved on the surface of the amulet, which means that at one time it was painted bright red.
Items found on the territory of the Sungir site are exhibited in the Vladimir-Suzdal Museum-Reserve. Scientists continue to study them, especially since many of the artifacts found were a means of non-verbal language.
Burials
Unique burials brought worldwide fame to the Sungir site. Burials are distinguished by the richness of grave goods and the complexity of the ritual.
First, on a layer of ocher, archaeologists discovered a female skull, a quadrangular stone and a male skeleton. The latter had a pebble pendant on his chest, and jewelry made of mammoth tusk on his hands. Nearby lay a huge number of beads that adorned the man's clothes. The find made it possible to reconstruct the costume of the ancient Sungir. Interestingly, it is in many ways similar to the clothing of modern Arctic peoples.
Then the remains of a headless man were found, next to which were beads, a mammoth tusk ring, reindeer antlers and a mammoth tusk. Scientists determined that the man was about 50 years old. It is worth noting that the average life expectancy of people of the Upper Paleolithic fluctuated around 30 years. Under this burial, 2 children's bones were found. The children were laid in the burial ground in an extended position, with their heads pressed to each other.
What scientists were able to learn about the Sungir people?
The skeletons of the Sungir people have been studied by more than one generation of anthropologists. To date, it has been established that they can be attributed to people of the modern physical type. Some dates indicate that the found burials are several thousand years younger than the settlement.
Beliefs
Based on the analysis of the burials, scientists came to the conclusion that the Sungir people had developed religious beliefs. Most likely, they believed in the existence of an afterlife, performed magical rituals, deified nature, revered ancestors, worshiped the sun, moon and animals.
A human bone filled with ocher was found among the inventory of a child's burial. Paleogenetic studies have shown that it belonged to the great-great-grandfather of the teenagers found nearby. According to scientists, the bone played an important role in a complex funeral ritual. In addition, there is an assumption that the burial of children could be a ritual sacrifice associated with a fertility cult. It is well established that both teenagers were buried at the same time.
Discs made of mammoth tusk with geometric ornaments were found next to the skeletons of children. Similar discs were later found among the Slavs. For example, a 4-sector disk symbolized the Slavic god Khors.
Life
Archaeologists have determined that the Upper Paleolithic people living on the territory of the Sungir settlement were engaged in hunting and gathering. The objects of hunting were: mammoths, lions, bison, reindeer, wild horses, wolves, brown bears, hares, birds and other animals. Women collected wild fruits, roots, shellfish and insects. An analysis of the skeleton of one child showed that he practically did not experience hunger, although he ate mainly invertebrates (caterpillars, beetles).
It is generally accepted that people of the Upper Paleolithic lived mainly in caves. However, during the excavations of Sungir, tent-like dwellings 10-15 m long were discovered. Their walls were wooden and the roofs were animal skins. Each dwelling was equipped with a hearth.
The Sungir people used engraving, carving, drilling, coloring and polishing to make jewelry. Many of the discovered decorations were created specifically for burial, others were worn constantly. The people of the settlement of Sungir wore hats, short fur coats, trousers and high boots resembling high fur boots. Scientists came to the conclusion that the listed items of clothing were made of wool and were embroidered with bone beads. They are a bit like the costumes of the Chukchi and Eskimos.
A fallacy debunked 40 years later
For almost half a century, scientists have been confident that the paired burial of children in Sungir includes the remains of adolescents of both sexes. And recently, thanks to genetics, it was possible to find out that a girl from Sungir is actually a boy. In addition to Russian paleontologists, scientists from the University of Copenhagen and Cambridge have participated in recent studies.
Paleogenetic studies have shown that adolescents were cousins to each other, respectively, had similar haplotypes. Both have a Y-chromosomal haplogroup C1a2. Currently, haplogroup C reaches a high concentration in the Buryats, Mongols and Kalmyks.
One of the boys died as a result of a blow to the stomach with a sharp object. The cause of the other child's death is unknown, while a man found nearby was shot dead with an arrow. Moreover, as forensic specialists note, it was a sniper shot.
Paleogenetic studies also proved that closely related marriages were excluded among the Sungir people. According to anthropologists, it was this factor that determined the dominance of the Cro-Magnons.
Sungir continues to be of interest to paleontologists from all over the world. And recent discoveries show that far from all the secrets associated with this ancient site of primitive man have been unraveled.
olduvai gorge
Scientists have been arguing for decades about where the first man appeared on Earth. Supporters of the monopolar theory called the birthplace of a skilled man, who later became a reasonable man, then Africa, then South Asia.
In the Olduvai Gorge in East Africa, archaeologists have found the skeleton of the most ancient person on Earth. He is 1.5 million years old. It was thanks to this find that the theory arose that the first man appeared in Africa, and then settled throughout the earth. However, in the 1980s, scientists made a sensational discovery in Siberia, which turned the idea of human development upside down.
The first man could have appeared not in Africa, as was previously believed, but in Siberia. This sensational version appeared in 1982. Soviet geologists were excavating off the banks of the Lena River in Yakutia. The area is called Deering-Yuryakh, translated from Yakut - Deep River. Quite by accident, geologists discovered a late Neolithic burial - the 2nd millennium BC. And then, digging even deeper, they came across layers more than 2.5 million years old and found there the remains of the tools of the most ancient man.
Deering-Yuryakh
These are hewn cobblestones with a pointed end - they are called "choppers". In addition to such ancient axes, anvils and chippers were also found. This led researchers to believe that, in fact, the first man appeared in Siberia. After all, the age of the local finds is more than 2.5 million years. So, they are older than African.
Axes of the ancients, "choppers"
"There was a whole archipelago, where now the ice is solid, the Arctic Ocean. And due to some catastrophes, this civilization was destroyed, and the remnants of this people were forced to move to the mainland, to develop the lands that now belong to the Arkhangelsk region, Murmansk , the Polar Urals, and further - to Siberia. There is such an assumption, "- says the historian, ethnographer Vadim Burlak.
Burial in Deering-Yuryakh
More recently, it turned out that on the territory of Russia there are traces of not only primitive people, that is, creatures that only outwardly resembled a person, but did not have a developed intellect, but also a reasonable person, that is, similar to you and me.
Ancient weapons found in Deering-Yuryakh
For a long time it was believed that the first people who were no different from us today - first appeared in Europe 39 thousand years ago. However, in 2007 it turned out that the earliest site of an ancient person is located on the territory of modern Russia. Thus, it turns out that the first Homo sapiens was born twenty thousand years earlier, and not somewhere in the vicinity of Paris, but in the Voronezh region, where a simple village called Kostenki is now located. This opinion was expressed by the famous American scientist John Hoffecker.
"In 2007, a remarkable researcher from the United States of America, John Hoffecker, published in the journalScience article, which sounded like this: "The first European comes from Kostenki." She, this article, was based on his five years of work here in Kostenki, and on the dates that he and Vance Holiday, his friend and his colleague, made from the results of research, and these results were stunning. That is, the age of the existence of Homo sapiens here, on the territory of Kostenki, is very sharply getting older, "- explains Irina Kotlyarova, chief researcher at the Kostenki Museum-Reserve.
The remains found in Kostenki, which are about 60 thousand years old
The American Hoffecker found out: the first Europeans settled this area 50-60 thousand years ago. And the most amazing thing is that they really were reasonable tribes. Of course, practically nothing remains of such ancient sites. Only depressions, stone tools and pits filled with ash from burnt bones. And newer sites, those in which our ancestors lived about 20 thousand years ago, are well preserved in Kostenki.
Wall made of mammoth bones
Even the houses, the walls of which are lined with mammoth bones, have been preserved. The researchers found that the inhabitants of these houses knew how to make tools, hunted, gathered, built dwellings, had a well-established life and lived in a community. Mammoths were the main source of human life. There were a lot of them living in this area. People hunted them. From the skins they sewed clothes, they ate the extracted meat. The bones of these animals were also used.
Irina Kotlyarova in one of the houses of Kostenkovskaya culture
Kostenkovskaya archaeological culture is amazing in scale. About six dozen large human settlements were found here. According to some experts, at least a thousand people lived here. Others estimate the population of the ancient Voronezh region more modestly - about 600 people. In any case, this number seems to be very impressive. After all, even the population of medieval European cities rarely exceeded several hundred people. Of course, the oldest sites in Kostenki cannot be called a city. But for such a long time, just a huge population lived here.
The location plan of the sites of ancient people in Kostenki
The real amazement of archaeologists was caused by a collection of miniatures. These are carved from dense rock - marl - figures of mammoths. Most likely, already 22 thousand years ago the inhabitants of Kostenki knew how to keep score. This seems to most anthropologists quite incredible.
Spearheads found during excavations in Kostenki
From this conclusion it follows that the Voronezh civilization is twenty thousand years older than the Sumerian kingdom, with their clay tablets, and the ancient Egyptians. Scientists claim that long before the Sumerian Anunaki, Kostenki already knew how to count mammoths and write them down, not relying on memory. So the mammoths from Lizyukov Street - inscribed by the hand of prehistoric Picasso - are a completely scientific argument in favor of the fact that Voronezh is the cradle of human civilization.
It is generally accepted that Russians are a rather young nation. In fact, the Egyptian pyramids were already built four thousand years ago. By the time of the birth of Christ, the ancient Romans had already managed to sink to the bottom of luxury and even depravity, while our ancestors had not really begun anything yet - neither the state, nor culture, nor writing.
Historians decided to check if this is really so? And it turned out that 6 millennia ago, when the Sumerian civilization, as is commonly believed, the first on Earth, was just emerging, in our country, on the territory of the modern Urals, our ancestors were so developed that they even knew metallurgy.
"We are talking about a very large developed civilization on a very large territory, which had a strong influence on the entire Eurasian region - this is already unambiguous and beyond doubt. Therefore, here, I think that the future belongs to science," - says Alexey Palkin, researcher at the Laboratory of Natural and Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
This is Vera Island. It is located in the Chelyabinsk region on Lake Tugoyak. In the 80s of the last century, archaeologists discovered a find here that became a real sensation: amazing ancient structures that turned out to be much older than the famous English Stonehenge. It was this discovery that made scientists seriously talk about the fact that the first civilized society in the history of not only Russia, but the whole of Europe, and maybe the whole world, was born right here - in the Chelyabinsk region, next to the Ural Mountains.
"II understand that this may cause a shock, what I will say now, but I say this with complete responsibility, these megaliths on the island of Vera, they are much brighter and more interesting than Stonehenge. Why? Because Stonehenge is a healthy thing, but it's the only one there. Here. Here in this particular place, and here on a plot of 6 hectares there are several objects of various types, "-
Megalith No. 1
The ancient structure discovered on the island of Vera is called Megalith No. 1. That's what the archaeologists called it. Once this ancient building was 3.5 meters high and served as an observatory. The ancient builders specially arranged the window so that on the days of the summer and winter solstices the sunbeam penetrated, falling exactly on the altar.
Megalith window
The main mystery of the ancient observatory is not even in how people at that stage of their development thought of following the movement of heavenly bodies, but in the fact that the building was made of huge boulders. Each - several tens of tons. It turns out that the ancient inhabitants of these territories near modern Chelyabinsk were able not only to move heavy blocks, but they could put it all together correctly. So reliable that after thousands of years, the megalith did not collapse.
Central hall
There is a central hall, which is connected to the side chambers by corridors. The hall is composed of a number of megaliths, which are located on the sides and in the ceiling. There are about twenty-five to thirty of them in total. The largest of them weighs 17 tons. The size of megaliths is from one and a half to two and a half meters in length and half a meter in width. The building dates back to the 4th - 3rd millennium BC.
Huge plates were made by nature itself - this is the remnant of the mountain. But in order for the blocks to lie flat, the progenitors had to process them.
Nearby, archaeologists discovered a real melting furnace. Its design suggests that metal smelting technologies in ancient times were practically no different from those that were invented just a couple of centuries ago. It turns out that the semi-wild tribes that lived on this island were engaged in non-ferrous metallurgy.
"It was here that the oldest copper smelting furnace was located. Scientists discovered a chimney, which stands out very clearly from the general background. Traces of smoke, which were reflected on the stones, clearly remained and are visible on the stones," says Alexey Palkin, researcher at the Laboratory of Natural and Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Zyuratkul geoglyph
The fact that an incredibly developed population lived on the territory of the Chelyabinsk region thousands of years ago is also evidenced by another amazing find - the Zyuratkul geoglyph. It was discovered by accident. In 2011, one of the employees of the Zyuratkul National Park noticed that the grass at the foot of the ridge was growing unevenly. This is despite the fact that no mechanical impact was clearly exerted on it. The scientist decided to find out the reasons for such a strange phenomenon. He managed to establish that the grass does not grow in places because it is interfered with by stone blocks laid out by a path resembling a drawing or even a diagram. To see it in its entirety, national park officials took off in a helicopter and discovered a giant drawing laid out on the ground. Most of all, it resembles the image of an elk.
The dimensions of this elk are impressive: the length of the drawing is 275 meters. The age of the geoglyph is 5-6 millennia. How its creators controlled the accuracy of laying, how they managed to observe the direction and correctness of the lines, if the entire pattern is visible only from a great height, is not clear. But most importantly - why did they need this image of an elk?
The geoglyph resembles an image of an elk
"INIn the Neolithic, in the Urals, we mainly had a farm - hunters, fishermen, and so on. That is, the population that built this here, it had to exploit a significant territory. That is, we are talking about some connections between these groups, about some slightly different social structures than we imagine today. This is not just a group, a separate group of hunters-fishers, it is a more complex social organization," considers Stanislav Grigoriev, archaeologist, senior researcher at the Institute of History and Archeology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
If archaeologists were not mistaken in determining the age of this miracle, then it turns out that our ideas about the abilities and capabilities of the most ancient population of Russia do not correspond to reality, which means that official science was mistaken, claiming for many years that intelligent life came to these parts only shortly before baptism Rus'.
Scientists treat this hypothesis with great caution. However, new archaeological finds raise more and more questions, the answers to which are not yet available.
Another proof that ancient people on the territory of modern Russia were very developed is in the Ignatievskaya cave. It is located on the southern tip of the Ural Mountains in the Chelyabinsk region. In 1980, speleologists accidentally discovered a drawing on its vaults, which made a real revolution in archeology. Studies have shown that the drawings were made on the walls more than 14 thousand years ago. In no place on the planet has it ever been possible to find a drawing of such antiquity that would contain a clear plot. This cave depicts the very process of creating life. Exactly as our ancient ancestors saw it.
But why does the whole world know about the oldest rock paintings in Australia, and why do all textbooks on archeology list people and gobies from Algeria as the first drawings? After all, they appeared on the walls of caves in the 11th century BC. That is later than the Urals by 13 thousand years. Why are scientific journals silent about the discovery of the Ural archaeologists?
Many experts are sure that such data will force us to revise not only scientific theories, but also rewrite school textbooks.
Category: Uncategorized Tags:So, the oldest find of this kind was made by the British anthropologist Mary Leakey in 1962. At one of the sites of the Olduvai Gorge (which gave the world Homo habilis - a skilled man), about 1.8 million years old, many stone tools and animal remains were found - ancient giraffes, elephants, zebras, rhinos, turtles, crocodiles ... So, on one from the sites of this site, Leakey's team found a row of stones arranged (laid out?) in the form of a circle. As Mary Leakey wrote, this ring layout is “the oldest structure made by man. It consists of individual lava blocks and is from three and a half to four meters in diameter. A striking resemblance to the rough stone circles built for temporary shelter by modern nomadic peoples. So, Mary Leakey thought she had found the oldest home on earth. The stones, in her opinion, served to strengthen poles or branches stuck into the ground and forming something like a wind barrier or a simple hut.
In another Olduvai locality, famous for the discovery of the skull of the paranthropus Boyes, an oval accumulation of crushed bones and small stone fragments was revealed. It is surrounded by a relatively free space from finds, outside of which there are also fragments of bones and tools. Mary Leakey suggested that this place once was a wind screen that surrounded the central part of the parking lot.
Later, similar finds were made outside of Olduvai.
Is this evidence enough to assert that already one and a half million years ago our ancestors could build the simplest dwellings for themselves? Alas, not all experts agreed with this interpretation. And the older the site, the fewer sets of facts archaeologists have to work with.
No longer early people
Category: Uncategorized Tags:
The next "problematic" and often mentioned monument belongs to a much later time. On the slope of Mount Boron (Nice, France) is the site of Terra-Amata, which was excavated in the 60s of the last century by the French archaeologist and geologist Henri de Lumle. 350-450 thousand years ago, the Heidelberg people lived here - the probable ancestors of the Neanderthals. Thousands of stone artifacts, bones of large and small animals have been extracted from the earth. Archaeologists have cleared ancient work sites containing depressions, small hearths, stone blocks and oval clusters of finds, which Lumle interpreted as the remains of ancient huts: the depressions were left from the supports, and the stones propped up the walls. According to Lumle, the site was inhabited by ancient hunters periodically over a number of spring seasons.
Of course, Lumle's conclusions have also been challenged. However, criticism, of course, does not negate the presence of depressions, hearths and limestone blocks located in a certain way - possibly used as wind barriers.
Another monument of similar antiquity and, alas, just as controversial. Bilzingsleben in eastern Germany - the remains of three oval "huts" about 350 thousand years old. The same set: "wind barriers" - stone blocks and animal bones; a circular structure of stones pressed into the sediments, 9 meters in diameter; there are hearths associated with each structure. And, nevertheless, there are doubts about the man-made "circular structure". Hominids lived here - a fact. But did they build it?
So what do we know? About two million years ago, our distant ancestors left Africa for the first time. For a very long time, hominids lived in camps, which can be conditionally called temporary "camps". It was possible to return to such a camp after a hunt; here they made tools and (in later times) cooked food on fire; the simplest wind screens could also be used in parking lots. In a broad sense, it was a home, that is, a place where cooking, work and leisure were combined ...
