Stone Age. Its main stages

The Stone Age is the largest and first period in the history of mankind, numbering about two million years.

The name comes from the material used at the time. Weapons and household utensils were most often made of stone.

Periodization The duration of the Stone Age made it necessary to divide it into smaller periods:

• Paleolithic - more than 2 million years ago.
• Mesolithic - 10 thousand years BC. e. Neolithic - 8 thousand years BC. e.

Each of the periods is characterized by certain changes in people's lives. So, for example, in the Paleolithic, a person hunted small animals that could be killed with the simplest, most primitive weapons - clubs, sticks, lances. In the same period, however, without exact dates, the first fire was mined, which made it easier for a person to relate to climate change, they are not afraid of the cold and wild animals.

In the Mesolithic, a bow and arrows appeared, which made it possible to hunt faster animals - deer, wild boars. And in the Neolithic, a person begins to master agriculture, which eventually leads to the emergence of a settled way of life. The end of the Stone Age falls at the moment when man mastered metal.

People

In the Stone Age, there were already Homo erectus who appeared 2 million years ago and mastered fire. They also built simple huts and knew how to hunt. About 400 thousand years ago, Homo sapiens appeared, from which Neanderthals developed a little later, mastering silicon tools.

In addition, these people have already buried their ancestors, which indicates fairly close ties, the development of affection and the emergence of moral principles and traditions. And only 10 thousand years ago Homo sapiens sapiens appeared, spreading throughout the Earth.

During the Stone Age there were no cities or large communities, people settled in small groups, most often related. The whole planet during this period was inhabited by people. This happened under the influence of ice ages or droughts that affected the daily life of people.

Clothing was made from animal skins, and later vegetable fibers were also used. In addition, in the Stone Age, the first jewelry was already known, which was made from the fangs of dead animals, shells, colored stones. Primitive man was also not indifferent to art. This is evidenced by the many found figurines carved from stone, as well as numerical drawings on the caves.

Food

Food was obtained by gathering or hunting. They hunted different game depending on the possibilities of the local habitat and the number of people. After all, one person is unlikely to go against big prey, but several can easily afford to take risks in order to provide the family with meat in the near future.

Most often, deer, bison, wild boars, mammoths, horses, and birds predominated as prey. Fishing also flourished in places where there were rivers, seas, oceans and lakes. Initially, hunting was primitive, but later, closer to the Mesolithic and Neolithic, it was improved. Ordinary pikes were made with stone, serrated tips, nets were used to catch fish, and the first traps and snares were invented.

In addition to hunting, food was also collected. All kinds of plants, cereals, fruits, fruits, vegetables, eggs that could be found made it possible not to die of hunger even in the driest period, when it was difficult to find anything meat. The diet also included wild bee meth and fragrant herbs. In Neolithic times, man learned to grow crops. This allowed him to start a sedentary lifestyle.

The first such settled tribes were recorded in the Middle East. At the same time, domesticated animals appeared, as well as cattle breeding. In order not to migrate after the animals, they began to grow them.

Housing

Features of the search for food determine the nomadic lifestyle of people of the Stone Age. When food ran out in some lands and it was not possible to find either game or edible plants, it was necessary to look for other housing where one could survive. Therefore, not a single family lingered in one place for a long time.

Housing was simple but secure to protect against wind, rain or snow, sun and predators. Often they used ready-made caves, sometimes they made a semblance of a house from mammoth bones. They were placed like walls, and the cracks were filled with moss or mud. Mammoth skin or leaves were laid on top.

The study of the Stone Age is one of the most difficult sciences, because the only thing that can be used is archaeological finds and some modern tribes separated from civilization. This era did not leave any written sources. Primitive weapons, camps, instead of permanent dwellings, were made of stone and organic plants and wood, which had decomposed over such a long period of time. Only stones, skeletons and fossils of those times go to help scientists, on the basis of which assumptions and discoveries are made.

STONE AGE

cultural history period, during which there was still no metal processing, and the main tools and weapons were made by Ch. arr. from stone; wood and bone were also used. Through the transitional era - the Eneolithic, K. century. replaced by the Bronze Age. K. v. coincides with most of the era of the primitive communal system. In terms of absolute chronology, the duration of K. in. is calculated in hundreds of millennia - starting from the time of the separation of man from the animal state (about 800 thousand years ago) and ending with the era of the spread of the first metals (about 6 thousand years ago in the Other East and about 4-5 thousand years ago in Europe). Some tribes of the globe, lagging behind in their development, were living in conditions close to the cosmic century a few decades ago.

In turn, K. c. It is divided into the ancient K. v., or Paleolithic, and the new K. v., or Neolithic. The Paleolithic is the era of the existence of fossil man and belongs to that distant time when the climate of the earth and it grows. and the animal world were quite different from modern ones. People of the Paleolithic era used only upholstered stones. tools, not knowing polished stones. tools and earthenware - ceramics. Paleolithic people were engaged in hunting and gathering food (plants, mollusks, etc.). Fishing was just beginning to emerge, while agriculture and cattle breeding were not known. Neolithic people lived already in modern times. climatic conditions and in the environment of modern. animal world. In the Neolithic, along with upholstered stones, polished and drilled stones appeared. tools, as well as earthenware (ceramics). Neolithic people, along with hunting, gathering, fishing, began to engage in primitive hoe farming and breed domestic animals. The transition from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic was, at the same time, a transition from the period of predominant appropriation of the finished products of nature to the period when man through production. activities learned to increase the production of natural products. Between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic, a transitional era is distinguished - the Mesolithic.

The Paleolithic is divided into ancient (lower, early) (800-40 thousand years ago) and late (upper) (40-8 thousand years ago). The ancient Paleolithic is divided into Archeol. eras (or cultures): pre-Chelian, Shellic, Acheulean and Mousterian. Some archaeologists single out the Mousterian era (100-40 thousand years ago) as a special period - the Middle Paleolithic. The division of the late Paleolithic into the Aurignacian, Solutrean and Magdalenian epochs, in contrast to the division into the epochs of the ancient Paleolithic, has no universal significance; the Aurignacian, Solutrean and Magdalenian epochs are traced only in periglacial Europe.

The oldest stones the tools were pebbles chipped with several rough chips at one end, and flakes chipped from such pebbles (chilled pebble culture, pre-Shellian era). Main tools of the Shell and Acheulean eras were massive flint flakes, slightly chipped along the edge, hand axes - almond-shaped pieces of flint roughly chipped on both surfaces, thickened at one end and pointed at the other, adapted for gripping by hand, as well as coarse chopping tools (choppers) - chipped pieces or pebbles of flint, less regular in shape than handaxes. These tools were intended for cutting, scraping, striking, making wooden clubs, spears, and digging sticks. There were also stones. cores (kernels), from which flakes were broken off. In the pre-Chelian, Shellic and Acheulian eras, people of the most ancient stage of development (Pithecanthropus, Sinanthropus, Atlanthropus, Heidelberg man) were common. They lived in warm climates. conditions and did not settle far beyond the area of ​​their original appearance; would be inhabited. parts of Africa, southern Europe and southern Asia (mainly territories located south of 50 ° north latitude). In the Mousterian era, flint flakes became thinner and broke off from the disc-shaped core. By upholstering along the edges (retouching), they were turned into triangular points and oval side-scrapers, along with which there were small axes processed on both sides. The use of bone for production began. targets (anvils, retouchers, points). Man has mastered the methods of obtaining the fire of the arts. by; more often than in previous eras, he began to settle in caves and mastered the territory with moderate and even severe climatic conditions. conditions. The people of the Mousterian era belonged to the Neanderthal type (see Neanderthals). In Europe, they lived in harsh climates. conditions of the ice age, were contemporaries of mammoths, woolly rhinos, sowing. deer. The ancient Paleolithic refers to the initial stage of the development of primitive society, to the era of the primitive human herd and the birth of the tribal system. It was irreligious. period; it was not until the Mousterian era that primitive religions perhaps began to emerge. beliefs. Ancient Paleolithic. technology and culture were generally uniform throughout. Local differences were minor and cannot be clearly and undeniably determined.

For the Late Paleolithic technology is characterized by prismatic. nucleus, from which elongated knife-shaped flint blades were broken off, which were then converted with the help of retouching and chips into various tools of differentiated forms: scrapers, points, tips, incisors, piercings, scrapers, etc. Mn. of them were used in wooden and bone handles and frames. A variety of bone awls, needles with an eye, the tips of a hoe, spear-darts, harpoons, spear-throwers, polishes, picks, etc. appeared. The caves also continued to be used as dwellings. In connection with the advent of more advanced hunting weapons, hunting has reached a higher level of development. This is evidenced by the huge accumulations of bones found in the Late Paleolithic. settlements. The Late Paleolithic is the time of the development of the matriarchal tribal system (see Matriarchy). Art appeared and reached a high development - sculpture from mammoth tusk, stone, sometimes from clay (Dolni-Vestonice, Kostenki, Montespan, Pavlov, Tyuk-d "Oduber), carving on bone and stone (see Malta, Mezinskaya site ), drawings on the walls of caves (Altamira, La Mut, Lasko). Late Paleolithic art is characterized by amazing liveliness and realism. Numerous images of women with emphasized signs of a woman-mother have been found (see Dolni Vestonice, Petrzkovice, Gagarino, Kostenki), apparently reflecting female cults of the era of matriarchy, images of mammoths, bison, horses, deer, etc., partially associated with hunting magic and totemism, conditional schematic signs - rhombuses, zigzags, even meanders. During the transition to the late Paleolithic, modern physical type humans (Homo sapiens) arose and for the first time signs of the three main modern racial types appeared - Caucasoid (Cro-Magnon), Mongoloid and Negroid (Grimaldians). Late Paleolithic people settled much more widely than Neanderthals. They settled in Siberia, the Urals, the north of Germany. Moving from Asia through the Bering Strait, they first settled America as well (see Sandia, Folsom). In the late Paleolithic, several vast, distinct areas of cultural development arose. Three areas are especially clearly traced: the European glacial, Siberian and African-Mediterranean. The European periglacial region covered the territories of Europe that experienced directly. the influence of glaciation. The Late Paleolithic of Europe is dated by radiocarbon method 40-8 thousand years ago. years BC e. People here lived in harsh climates. conditions, hunted mammoths and sowing. deer, built winter dwellings from animal bones and skins.

The inhabitants of the Siberian region lived in similar natural conditions, but they developed wood processing more widely, developed a slightly different stone processing technique, and massive, roughly hewn kam spread. tools, to-rye resemble Acheulian axes, Mousterian side-scrapers and pointed points and are harbingers of the Neolithic. axes. The African-Mediterranean region, in addition to Africa, covers the territory. Spain, Italy, the Balkan Peninsula, the Crimea, the Caucasus, the countries of Bl. East. Here people lived surrounded by thermophilic flora and fauna and hunted for the most part. on gazelles, roe deer, mountain goats; more than in the north, the gathering of growers was developed. food, hunting did not have such a pronounced arctic. character, bone processing was less developed. Here microlytic spread earlier. flint inserts (see below), bow and arrows appeared. Differences in the Late Paleolithic the cultures of these three areas were still insignificant and the areas themselves were not separated by clear boundaries. It is possible that there were more than three such regions, in particular the South-East. Asia, the Late Paleolithic, which is still insufficiently studied, forms the fourth large area. Within each of the regions there were more fractional local groups, the cultures of which differed somewhat among themselves.

The transition from the Late Paleolithic to the Mesolithic coincided with the end. thawing europ. glaciation and with the establishment on the ground in general modern. climate, modern animal and raise. peace. European antiquity. Mesolithic is determined by radiocarbon method - 8-5 thousand years BC. e.; antiquity of the Mesolithic East - 10-7 thousand years BC. e. Characteristic Mesolithic. cultures - the Azil culture, the Tardenois culture, the Maglemose culture, etc. For the Mesolithic. technology is characterized by the spread of microliths - miniature flint tools geometric. outlines (in the form of a trapezoid, segment, triangle), used as inserts in wooden and bone frames, and also, especially in sowing. areas and at the end of the Mesolithic, roughly hewn chopping tools - axes, adzes, pickaxes. All these Mesolithic kam. tools continued to exist in the Neolithic. In the Mesolithic, the bow and arrow spread. The dog, which was first tamed in the Late Paleolithic, was widely used by people at that time. Mezolitich, people settled further to the north, mastered Scotland, the Baltic states, and even part of the coast of the North. Arctic ca., settled in America (see Denbigh), first penetrated into Australia.

The most important characteristic feature of the Neolithic is the transition from the appropriation of finished products of nature (hunting, fishing, gathering) to the production of vital products, although appropriation continued to occupy an important place in the economy. activities of people, In the Neolithic era, people began to cultivate plants and cattle breeding arose. The defining elements of the Neolithic. cultures were earthenware (Ceramics), molded by hand, without the use of a potter's wheel, stone. axes, hammers, adzes, chisels, hoes (in their production, sawing, grinding and drilling of stone were used), flint daggers, knives, arrowheads and spears, sickles (in the manufacture of which squeezing retouch was used), various microliths and roughly chipped chopping tools that arose back in the Mesolithic, various products made of bone and horn (fish hooks, harpoons, hoe tips, chisels) and wood (hollowed canoes, oars, skis, sledges, handles of various kinds). Primitive spinning and weaving spread. The Neolithic is the heyday of the matriarchal tribal system and the transition from the maternal clan to the paternal clan (see Patriarchy). The uneven development of culture and its local originality in different territories, which emerged in the Late Paleolithic, intensified even more in the Neolithic. There is a large number of different Neolithic. cultures. The tribes of different countries at different times passed the stage of the Neolithic. Most of the Neolithic monuments of Europe and Asia dates back to the 5th-3rd millennium BC. e.

The fastest pace of the Neolithic. culture developed in the countries of Bl. East, where agriculture and livestock rearing first arose. People who widely practiced the collection of wild cereals and, perhaps, made attempts at their arts. cultivation belongs to the Natufian culture of Palestine, dating back to the late Mesolithic (9-8th millennium BC). Along with microliths, sickles with flint inserts, bone hoes and kam are found here. mortars, In the 9th-8th millennium BC. e. primitive agriculture and cattle breeding also originate in the North. Iraq (see Karim-Shahir). Somewhat more advanced Neolithic farmer cultures with adobe houses, painted ceramics and female figurines were common in the 6th-5th millennium BC. e. in Iran and Iraq. The Late Neolithic and Eneolithic of China (3rd and early 2nd millennium BC) are represented by farmers. Yangshao and Longshan cultures, which are characterized by the cultivation of millet and rice, the manufacture of painted and polished ceramics on the potter's wheel. In the jungles of Indochina at that time there were still tribes of hunters, fishermen and gatherers (Bakshon culture) who lived in caves. In the 5th-4th millennium BC. e. farmer the tribes of the developed Neolithic also inhabited Egypt (see Badarian culture, Merimde-Beni-Salam, Faiyum settlement).

The development of the Neolithic cultures in Europe proceeded on a local basis, but under the strong influence of the cultures of the Mediterranean and Bl. East, from where the most important cultivated plants and certain types of domestic animals probably penetrated into Europe. On the territory England and France in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Ages. century lived farmers., Cattle breeders. tribes that built megalithic. buildings made of huge blocks of stone. For Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. centuries of Switzerland and adjacent territories is characterized by a wide distribution of pile buildings, the inhabitants of which were preim. livestock breeding and agriculture, as well as hunting and fishing. To the Center. Europe in the Neolithic took shape agriculture. Danubian cultures with characteristic pottery decorated with ribbon ornaments. In northern Scandinavia at the same time and later, up to the 2nd millennium BC. e., Neolithic tribes lived. hunters and fishermen.

Stone Age in the USSR. The oldest monuments of K. in. in the USSR belong to the Shell and Acheulean times and are common in Armenia (Satani-Dar), Georgia (Yashtukh, Tsona, Lashe-Balta, Kudaro), in the North. Caucasus, in the south of Ukraine (see Luka Vrublevetskaya) and in Wed. Asia. A large number of flakes, hand axes, coarse chopping tools made of flint, obsidian, basalt, etc. were found here. The remains of a hunting camp of the Acheulian era were discovered in the Kudaro cave. Sites of the Mousterian era are spread farther north, up to cf. currents of the Volga and Desna. The Mousterian caves are especially numerous in the Crimea. In the Kiik-Koba grotto in the Crimea and in the Teshik-Tash grotto in Uzb. Burials of Neanderthals were discovered in the SSR, and in the Staroselye cave in the Crimea - the burial of the Mousterian man of the modern. physical type. Late Paleolithic the population of the territory The USSR settled in much wider areas than the Mousterians. The Late Paleolithic is known, in particular, in the Bass. Oka, Chusovoy, Pechora, Yenisei, Lena, Angara. Late Paleolithic parking of the Russian Plain belong to Europe. periglacial area, sites of the Crimea, the Caucasus and Wed. Asia - to the African-Mediterranean region, Siberian sites - to the Siberian region. Three stages of development of the Late Paleolithic were established. cultures of the Caucasus: from the caves of Hergulis-Klde and Taro-Klde (I stage), where they are still represented in means. number of Mousterian points and side-scrapers, to the Gvardzhilas-Klde cave (stage III), where many microliths are found and the transition to the Mesolithic is traced. Established the development of the Late Paleolithic. cultures in Siberia from early sites such as Buret and Malta, flint tools to-rykh closely resemble the Late Paleolithic of Europe. periglacial area, to later sites such as Afontova Gora on the Yenisei, for which the predominance of massive stones is characteristic. tools resembling the ancient Paleolithic and adapted for woodworking. Periodization of the Late Paleolithic Rus. the plains cannot yet be considered firmly established. There are early monuments such as Radomyshl and Babino I in Ukraine, which still preserve separate. Mousterian tools, many settlements dating back to the middle period of the Late Paleolithic, as well as sites closing the Late Paleolithic of the Vladimirovka type in Ukraine and Borshevo II on the Don. A large number of multilayer Late Paleolithic. settlements were excavated on the Dniester (Babino, Voronovitsa, Molodova V). Numerous have been found here. flint and bone tools, remains of winter dwellings. Another district, where a large number of different Late Paleolithic are known. settlements that delivered a variety of stones. and bone products, works of art, the remains of dwellings, is the Desna basin (Mezin, Pushkari, Chulatovo, Timonovskaya parking, Suponevo). The third such district is the vicinity of the villages of Kostenki and Borshevo on the right bank of the Don, where several dozen Late Paleolithic were found. sites with the remains of various dwellings, many works of art and four burials. The northernmost Late Paleolithic in the world. the monument is the Bear Cave on the river. Pechora (Komi ASSR). It should also be called the Kapova Cave to the South. Urals, on the walls of which a swarm was found realistic. painted images of mammoths, somewhat reminiscent of the paintings of Altamira and Lasko. In the steppes of the North. In the Black Sea and Azov regions, peculiar settlements of bison hunters (Amvrosievka) were common.

Neolithic on the territory. The USSR is represented by numerous diverse cultures. Some of them belong to ancient farmers. tribes, and part of the primitive hunters and fishermen. To the farmer Neolithic and Eneolithic include monuments of the Trypillia culture of the Right-Bank Ukraine (4th-3rd millennium BC), sites of Transcaucasia (Kistrik, Odishi, etc.), as well as settlements such as Anau and Jeytun in the South. Turkmenia (late 5th - 3rd millennium BC), reminiscent of Neolithic settlements. Iranian farmers. Neolithic cultures. hunters and fishermen of the 5th-3rd millennium BC e. also existed in the south - in the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov, in the North. Caucasus, in the Aral Sea region (see Kelteminar culture); but they were especially widespread in the 4th-2nd millennium BC. e. in the north, in the forest belt from the Baltic to the Pacific, approx. Numerous neolithic hunting and fishing cultures, for which the pit-comb ceramics culture is characteristic, are represented along the shores of Lake Ladoga and Onega and the White Cape (see White Sea culture, Kargopol culture, Karelian culture, Oleneostrovskiy burial ground), on the Upper Volga (see Volosovskaya culture), in the Urals and Trans-Urals, in the bass. Lena, in the Baikal region, in the Amur region, in Kamchatka, on Sakhalin and on the Kuril Islands. In contrast to the much more homogeneous Late Laleolithic cultures, they clearly differ among themselves in the forms of ceramics, ceramics. ornament, certain features of tools and utensils.

History of the study of the Stone Age. The conjecture that the era of the use of metals was preceded by a time when stones served as weapons was first expressed by Rome. poet and scientist Lucretius Carus in the 1st century. BC e. But only in 1836 the Danish archaeologist K. Yu. material change of three cultural-historical. epochs (Kam. Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age). The existence of a fossil, Paleolithic. man, a contemporary of now extinct animal species, proved in the 40-50s. 19th century during the violent struggle against the reactionary, clerical science of the French. archaeologist Boucher de Perth. In the 60s. English scientist J. Lebbock dismembered K. v. to the Paleolithic and Neolithic, and the French. archaeologist G. de Mortillet created generalizing works on K. v. and developed a more fractional periodization of the latter (the eras of the Shellic, Acheulean, Mousterian, Solutrean, etc.). To the 2nd floor. 19th century also include studies of the early Neolithic. kitchen heaps (see Ertbölle) in Denmark, Neolithic. pile settlements in Switzerland, numerous. Paleolithic and neolithic. caves and sites in Europe and Asia. In the very con. 19th century and at the beginning 20th century were discovered and studied late Paleolithic. multicolor paintings in the caves of Yuzh. France and Sev. Spain (see Altamira, La Moute). A number of Paleolithic and neolithic. settlements was studied in Russia in the 70-90s. 19th century A.S. Uvarov, I.S. Polyakov, K.S. Merezhkovsky, V.B. Antonovich, A.A. Paleolithic Kirillovskaya camp in Kyiv with wide areas.

In the 2nd floor. 19th century studying To. was closely associated with Darwinian ideas, with progressive, albeit historically limited, evolutionism. This found its most striking expression in the activities of G. de Mortillet. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. in the bourgeois science about K. century. (primitive archeology, paleoethnology), although the methodology of archeol. work, but to replace evolutionist constructions, anti-historical, reactionary ones spread. constructions connected with the theory of cultural circles and with the theory of migrations; often these concepts are also directly related to racism. Similar anti-evolution theories are reflected in the works of G. Kossinna, O. Mengin and others. At the same time, against the anti-historical. racist concepts K. in. performed by the progressive bourgeois. scientists (A. Hrdlichka, G. Child, J. Clark, and others) who sought to trace the development of primitive mankind and its economy as a natural process. A major achievement of foreign researchers 1st half. and ser. 20th century is the elimination of extensive white spots on the archaeol. maps, discovery and research numerous. monuments of K. v. in European countries (K. Absolon, F. Proshek, K. Valoh, I. Neusstupni, L. Vertes, M. Gabori, K. Nicolaescu-Plupsor, D. Vercu, I. Nestor, R. Vulpe, N. Dzhanbazov, V. Mikov, G. Georgiev, S. Brodar, A. Benats, L. Savitsky, J. Kozlovsky, V. Khmelevsky, and others), in Africa (L. Liki, K. Arambur, and others), on . East (D. Garrod, R. Braidwood, etc.), Korea (To Yu Ho, etc.), China (Jia Lan-po, Pei Wen-chung, etc.), India (Krishnaswami, Sankalia, etc. ), in the Southeast. Asia (Mansuis, Heckeren, and others) and in America (A. Kroeber, F. Rainey, H. M. Warmington, and others). The technique of excavation and publication of archeola has been significantly improved; monuments (A, Rust, B. Klima, etc.), a comprehensive study of ancient settlements by archaeologists, geologists, and zoologists has spread, the radiocarbon dating method is beginning to be used (X. L. Movius and others), statistical. method of studying stones. tools (F. Bord and others), generalizing works devoted to the art of K. v. (A. Breuil, P. Graziosi and others).

In Russia, the first two decades of the 20th century. marked by generalizing works on K. century, as well as carried out at a high scientific level for their time. level, with the involvement of geologists and zoologists, excavations of the Paleolithic. and neolithic. settlements of V. A. Gorodtsov, A. A. Spitsyn, F. K. Volkov, P. P. Efimenko and others. concepts related to the theory of cultural circles and the theory of migrations have not received any wide circulation in Russian. primitive archaeology. But researches on To. in the pre-revolutionary Russia were very small.

After Oct. socialist. revolution research K. v. in the USSR acquired a wide scope and gave the results of paramount scientific. values. If by 1917 only 12 Paleolithic were known in the country. locations, now their number exceeds 900. Paleolithic were first discovered. monuments in Belarus (K. M. Polikarpovich), in Armenia and South Ossetia (S. N. Zamyatnin, M. Z. Panichkina, S. A. Sardaryan, V. I. Lyubin, etc.), in Cf. Asia (A. P. Okladnikov, D. N. Lev, Kh. A. Alpysbaev, and others), in the Urals (M. V. Talitsky, S. N. Bibikov, O. N. Bader, and others). Numerous new paleolithic sites have been discovered and explored in the Ukraine and Moldavia (T. T. Teslya, A. P. Chernysh, I. G. Shovkoplyas, and others), and in Georgia (G. K. Nioradze, N. Z. Berdzenishvili, and A. N. . Kalanadze and others). Discovered the most northern Paleolithic. monuments in the world: on Chusovaya, Pechora and in Yakutia on the Lena. Many have been discovered and deciphered. Paleolithic monuments. lawsuit. Created a new method of excavation of the Paleolithic. settlements (P. P. Efimenko, V. A. Gorodtsov, G. A. Bonch-Osmolovsky, M. V. Voevodsky, A. N. Rogachev and others), which made it possible to establish the existence at the end of the ancient Paleolithic, as well as during the entire Late Paleolithic, settlement and permanent communal dwellings (for example, Buret, Malta, Mezin). The most important Paleolithic settlements on the territory USSR excavated in a continuous area from 500 to 1000 m2 or more, which made it possible to unearth entire primitive settlements consisting of groups of dwellings. A new method for restoring the functions of primitive tools based on the traces of their use has been developed (S. A. Semenov). The nature of the ist. changes that took place in the Paleolithic - the development of the primitive herd as the initial stage of the primitive communal system and the transition from the primitive herd to the matriarchal tribal system (P. P. Efimenko, S. N. Zamyatnin, P. I. Boriskovsky, A. P. Okladnikov, A (A. Formozov, A. P. Chernysh, etc.). The number of Neolithic monuments known in present. time on the territory The USSR is also many times greater than the number known in 1917, which means. number of neolithic settlements and cemeteries have been explored. Created generalizing works on chronology, periodization and history. neolithic illumination. monuments of a number of territories (A. Ya. Bryusov, M. E. Foss, A. P. Okladnikov, V. I. Ravdonikas, N. N. Turina, P. N. Tretyakov, O. N. Bader, M. V. Voevodsky, M Rudinsky, A. V. Dobrovolsky, V. N. Danilenko, D. Ya. Telegin, N. A. Prokoshev, M. M. Gerasimov, V. M. Masson, etc.). Neolithic monuments have been studied. monumental art - rock carvings by S. -Z. USSR, Siberia and Sea of ​​Azov (Stone Grave). Significant progress has been made in the study of ancient agriculture. cultures of Ukraine and Moldova (T. S. Passek, E. Yu. Krichevsky, S. N. Bibikov); the periodization of Trypillia culture monuments was developed; Trypillia sites, which remained mysterious for a long time, are explained as the remains of communal dwellings. Owls. researchers K. century. a lot of work has been done to expose the antiist. racist concepts of reaction. bourgeois archaeologists. Monuments of K. v. successfully studied by archaeologists and other socialist countries, to-rye, just like the owls. scientists creatively apply the method of ist. materialism.

Lit .: Engels F., Origin of the family, private property and the state, M., 1963; his, The role of labor in the process of turning a monkey into a man, M., 1963; Abramova Z. A., Paleolithic. claim on the territory of the USSR, M.-L., 1962; Beregovaya N. A., Paleolithic localities of the USSR, MIA, No 81, M.-L., 1960; Bibikov S. N., Early Tripoli settlement of Luka-Vrublevetskaya on the Dniester, MIA, No 38, M.-L., 1953; Bonch-Osmolovsky G. A., Paleolithic of the Crimea, c. 1-3, M.-L., 1940-54; Boriskovsky P. I., Paleolithic of Ukraine, MIA, No 40, M.-L., 1953; his, The most ancient past of mankind, M.-L., 1957; Bryusov A. Ya., Essays on the history of the tribes of Europe. parts of the USSR in the Neolithic. era, M., 1952; World History, vol. 1, M., 1955; Gurina N. H., Ancient history of the north-west of the European part of the USSR, MIA, No 87, M.-L., 1961; Efimenko P. P., Primitive Society, 3rd ed., K., 1953; Zamyatnin S. N., On the emergence of local differences in the Paleolithic culture. period, in Sat: The origin of man and the ancient settlement of mankind, M., 1951; his own, Essays on the Paleolithic, M.-L., 1961; Kalandadze A.N., On the history of the formation of prenatal society in the territory. Georgia, Tr. Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of Georgia. SSR, vol. 2, Tb., 1956 (in Georgian, abstract in Russian); Draw an ancient history of Ukrainian PCP, K., 1957; Nioradze G.K., Paleolithic of Georgia, Tr. 2nd Intern. conference of the Association for the Study of the Quaternary Period of Europe, c. 5, L.-M.-Novosib., 1934; Neolithic and Eneolithic of the south of Europe. parts of the USSR, MIA, No 102, M., 1962; Okladnikov A.P., Yakutia before joining the Russian state, (2nd ed.), M.-L., 1955; his, Distant Past of Primorye, Vladivostok, 1959; Essays on the history of the USSR. The primitive communal system and the oldest state-va on the territory. USSR, M., 1956; Passek T. S., Periodization of Trypillia settlements, MIA, No 10, M.-L., 1949; her, Early agricultural (Trypillia) tribes of the Dniester region, MIA, No 84, M., 1961; Rogachev A. N., Multilayer sites of the Kostenkovsko-Borshevsky region on the Don and the problem of cultural development in the Upper Paleolithic on the Russian Plain, MIA, No 59, M., 1957; Semenov S. A., Primitive technology, MIA, No 54, M.-L., 1957; Teshik-Tash. Paleolithic Human. (Collection of articles, editor-in-chief M. A. Gremyatsky), M., 1949; Formozov A. A., Ethnocultural areas on the territory. European parts of the USSR in the Stone Age, M., 1959; Foss, M. E., Ancient History of the North of Europe. parts of the USSR, MIA, No 29, M., 1952; Chernysh A.P., Late Paleolithic of Middle Transnistria, in the book: Paleolithic of Middle Transnistria, M., 1959; Clark J. G., Prehistoric Europe, trans. from English, M., 1953; Child G., At the origins of European civilization, trans. from English, M., 1952; his, Ancient East in the light of new excavations, trans. from English, M., 1956; Aliman A., Prehistoric. Africa, trans. from French, Moscow, 1960; Bordes Fr., Typologie du paléolithique ancien et moyen, Bordeaux, 1961; Boule M., Les hommes fossiles, 4th ed., P., 1952; Braidwood R. and Howe B., Prehistoric investigations in Iraqi Kurdistan, Chi., 1960; Breuil H., Lantier R., Les hommes de la pierre ancienne, P., 1959; Dechelette J., Manuel d "archéologie, t. 1, P., 1908; Clark G., World prehistory, Camb., 1962; Graziosi P., L" arte delia antica età della pietra, Firenze, 1956; Neustupny J., Pravek Ceskoslovenska, Praha, 1960; Istoria Romîniei, (t.) 1, (Buc.), 1960; Milojcic V., Chronologie der jüngeren Steinzeit Mittel-und Südosteuropas, V., 1949; Movius H. L., The lower palaeolithic cultures of Southern and Eastern Asia. Transactions of the Amer. phil. society..., n. s., v. 38, pt 4, Phil., 1949; Oakley K. P., Man the tool-maker, 5 ed., L., 1961; Pittioni R., Urgeschichte des österreichischen Raumes, W., 1954; Rust A., Vor 20,000 Jahren. Rentierjäger der Eiszeit, 12 Aufl.), Neumünster, 1962: Sauter M. R., Préhistoire de la Méditerranée, P., 1948; Varagnac André, L "homme avant l" écriture, P., 1959; Wormington H. M., Ancient man in North America, Denver, 1949; Zebera K., Ceskoslovensko ve starsi dobé kamenné, Praha, 1958.

Stone Age

a cultural and historical period in the development of mankind, when the main tools and weapons were made mainly of stone and there was still no metal processing, wood and bone were also used; at a late stage To. the processing of clay, from which dishes were made, also spread. Through the transitional era - the Eneolithic K. c. is replaced by the Bronze Age (See Bronze Age). K. v. coincides with most of the era of the primitive communal system and covers the time from the separation of man from the animal state (about 1 million 800 thousand years ago) and ending with the era of the spread of the first metals (about 8 thousand years ago in the Ancient East and about 6-7 thousand years ago in Europe).

K. v. It is divided into the ancient K. v., or Paleolithic, and the new K. v., or Neolithic. The Paleolithic is the era of the existence of fossil man and belongs to that distant time when the climate of the earth and its flora and fauna were quite different from modern ones. Paleolithic people used only chipped stone tools, not knowing polished stone tools and earthenware (ceramics). Paleolithic people were engaged in hunting and gathering food (plants, mollusks, etc.). Fishing was just beginning to emerge, while agriculture and cattle breeding were not known. Neolithic people already lived in modern climatic conditions and surrounded by modern flora and fauna. In the Neolithic, along with chipped, polished and drilled stone tools, as well as pottery, spread. Neolithic people, along with hunting, gathering, fishing, began to engage in primitive hoe farming and breed domestic animals. Between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic, a transitional era is distinguished - the Mesolithic.

The Paleolithic is divided into ancient (lower, early) (1 million 800 thousand - 35 thousand years ago) and late (upper) (35-10 thousand years ago). The ancient Paleolithic is divided into archaeological epochs (cultures): pre-Chellenic (see. Galek culture), Shellic culture (see. Shellic culture), Acheulean culture (see. Acheulean culture), and Mousterian culture (see. Mousterian culture). Many archaeologists single out the Mousterian era (100-35 thousand years ago) as a special period - the Middle Paleolithic.

The oldest, pre-Shellian stone tools were pebbles chipped at one end, and flakes chipped from such pebbles. The tools of the Shellic and Acheulean eras were hand axes, pieces of stone chipped on both surfaces, thickened at one end and pointed at the other, coarse chopping tools (choppers and choppings), which had less regular outlines than axes, as well as rectangular ax-shaped tools (jibs) and massive flakes that broke off from Nucleus ov (cores). The people who made pre-Chellian-Acheulean tools belonged to the type of archanthropes (See Archanthropes) (Pithecanthropus, Sinanthropus, Heidelberg man), and, possibly, to an even more primitive type (Homo habilis, Prezinjanthropus). People lived in a warm climate, mostly south of 50° north latitude (most of Africa, southern Europe, and southern Asia). In the Mousterian era, stone flakes became thinner, because. they broke off from specially prepared disk-shaped or tortoiseshell nuclei - nuclei (the so-called Levallois technique); flakes were turned into a variety of side-scrapers, pointed points, knives, drills, hems, etc. The use of bone (anvils, retouchers, points), as well as the use of fire, spread; in view of the beginning of a cold snap, people more often began to settle in caves and mastered wider territories. Burials testify to the origin of primitive religious beliefs. The people of the Mousterian era belonged to the paleoanthropes (See Paleoanthropes) (Neanderthals).

In Europe, they lived mainly in the harsh climatic conditions of the beginning of the Würm glaciation (see the Würm era), they were contemporaries of mammoths, woolly rhinos, and cave bears. For the ancient Paleolithic, local differences have been established in different cultures, determined by the nature of the tools produced.

In the era of the late Paleolithic, a person of the modern physical type developed (neoanthrope (See Neoanthropes), Homo sapiens - Cro-Magnons, a man from Grimaldi, etc.). Late Paleolithic people settled much more widely than the Neanderthals, settled in Siberia, America, Australia.

The Late Paleolithic technique is characterized by prismatic cores, from which elongated plates were broken off, turning into scrapers, points, tips, incisors, piercings, scrapers, etc. Awls, needles with an eye, spatulas, picks, and other items made of bone, horn, and mammoth tusk appeared. People began to move to a settled way of life; along with the cave camps, long-term dwellings spread - dugouts and ground dwellings, both large communal ones with several hearths, and small ones (Gagarino, Kostenki (See Kostenki), Pushkari, Buret, Malta, Dolni-Vestonice, Pensevan, etc.). In the construction of dwellings, skulls, large bones and mammoth tusks, reindeer horns, wood and skins were used. Dwellings often formed entire villages. The hunting industry has reached a higher level of development. Fine art appeared, characterized in many cases by striking realism: sculptural images of animals and naked women made of mammoth tusk, stone, sometimes clay (Kostenki I, Avdeevskaya site, Gagarino, Dolni-Vestonice, Willendorf, Brassanpuy, etc.), engraved on bones and stone images of animals and fish, engraved and painted conditional geometric ornament - zigzag, rhombuses, meander, wavy lines (Mezinskaya site, Prshedmosti, etc.), engraved and painted (monochrome and polychrome) images of animals, sometimes people and conventional signs on the walls and ceilings of caves (Altamira, Lasko, etc.). Paleolithic art, apparently, is partly connected with the female cults of the maternal era, with hunting Magic and Totemism. There were various burials: crouched, sitting, painted, with grave goods.

There were several large cultural areas in the Late Paleolithic, as well as a significant number of smaller cultures. For Western Europe, these are the Perigord, Aurignacian, Solutrean, Madeleine and other cultures; for Central Europe - Selet culture, etc.

The transition from the Late Paleolithic to the Mesolithic coincided with the final extinction of the glaciation and with the establishment of the modern climate in general. Radiocarbon dating of the European Mesolithic 10-7 thousand years ago (in the northern regions of Europe, the Mesolithic lasted until 6-5 thousand years ago); Mesolithic of the Near East - 12-9 thousand years ago. Mesolithic cultures - Azil culture, Tardenois culture, Maglemose culture, Ertbölle culture, Hoabin culture, etc. The Mesolithic technique of many territories is characterized by the use of microliths - miniature stone tools of geometric outlines (in the form of a trapezoid, segment, triangle), used as inserts in wooden and bone frames, as well as chipped chopping tools: axes, adzes, picks. Bows and arrows spread. The dog, which was tamed, perhaps already in the late Paleolithic, was widely used by people in the Mesolithic.

The most important feature of the Neolithic is the transition from the appropriation of finished products of nature (hunting, fishing, gathering) to the production of vital products, although appropriation continued to occupy a large place in the economic activity of people. People began to cultivate plants, cattle breeding arose. The decisive changes in the economy that occurred with the transition to pastoralism and agriculture are called by some researchers the "Neolithic Revolution". The defining elements of the Neolithic culture were earthenware (ceramics), molded by hand, without a potter's wheel, stone axes, hammers, adzes, chisels, hoes (their production used sawing, grinding and drilling of stone), flint daggers, knives, arrowheads and spears, sickles (made by pressing retouching), microliths and chopping tools that arose back in the Mesolithic, all kinds of products made of bone and horn (fish hooks, harpoons, hoe tips, chisels), and wood (hollowed canoes, oars, skis, sledges , handles of various kinds). Flint workshops spread, and at the end of the Neolithic - even mines for the extraction of flint and, in connection with this, intertribal exchange of raw materials. Primitive spinning and weaving arose. Characteristic manifestations of Neolithic art are a variety of indented and painted ornaments on ceramics, clay, bone, stone figurines of people and animals, monumental painted, incised and hollowed out rock carvings (petroglyphs, petroglyphs). The funeral rite becomes more complex; cemeteries are being built. The uneven development of culture and its local originality in different territories intensified even more in the Neolithic. There is a large number of different Neolithic cultures. The tribes of different countries at different times passed the stage of the Neolithic. Most of the Neolithic monuments of Europe and Asia date back to the 6th-3rd millennium BC. e.

Neolithic culture developed most rapidly in the countries of the Middle East, where agriculture and livestock rearing first arose. People who widely practiced the collection of wild cereals and, possibly, made attempts to grow them artificially, belong to the Natufian culture of Palestine, dating back to the Mesolithic (9-8th millennium BC). Along with microliths, sickles with flint inserts and stone mortars are found here. In the 9th-8th millennium BC. e. primitive agriculture and cattle breeding also originated in the North. Iraq. By the 7th-6th millennium BC. e. include the settled agricultural settlements of Jericho in Jordan, Jarmo in northern Iraq, and Chatal Huyuk in southern Turkey. They are characterized by the appearance of sanctuaries, fortifications and often of considerable size. In the 6th-5th millennium BC. e. in Iraq and Iran, more developed Neolithic agricultural cultures with adobe houses, painted pottery, and female figurines are common. In the 5th-4th millennium BC. e. agricultural tribes of the advanced Neolithic inhabited Egypt.

The progress of Neolithic culture in Europe proceeded on a local basis, but under the strong influence of the cultures of the Mediterranean and the Near East, from which, probably, the most important cultivated plants and some species of domestic animals penetrated into Europe. On the territory of England and France in the Neolithic and the early Bronze Age, agricultural pastoral tribes lived, constructing megalithic structures (see Megalithic cultures, Megaliths) from huge blocks of stone. The Neolithic and Early Bronze Age of Switzerland and the adjacent territories are characterized by a wide distribution of piled buildings (see Pile Buildings), whose inhabitants were mainly engaged in cattle breeding and agriculture, as well as hunting and fishing. In Central Europe, in the Neolithic, the Danubian agricultural cultures took shape with characteristic ceramics, decorated with ribbon ornaments. In northern Scandinavia at the same time and later, up to the 2nd millennium BC. e., lived tribes of Neolithic hunters and fishermen.

K. v. on the territory of the USSR. The oldest reliable monuments of the K. century. belong to the Acheulean time and date back to the era preceding the Rissky (Dnieper) glaciation (see Rissky Age). They are found in the Caucasus, in the Azov region, Transnistria, Central Asia and Kazakhstan; flakes, hand axes, choppers (rough chopping tools) were found in them. In the caves of Kudaro, Tsonskaya and Azikhskaya in the Caucasus, the remains of hunting camps of the Acheulian era were discovered. The sites of the Mousterian era are spread further to the north. In the grotto of Kiik-Koba in the Crimea and in the grotto of Teshik-Tash in Uzbekistan, burials of Neanderthals were discovered, and in the grotto of Staroselye in the Crimea - a burial of a neoanthrope. In the site of Molodova I on the Dniester, the remains of a long-term Mousterian dwelling were discovered.

The Late Paleolithic population on the territory of the USSR was even more widespread. Successive stages of development of the Late Paleolithic in different parts of the USSR, as well as Late Paleolithic cultures are traced: Kostenkovo-Sungir, Kostenkovo-Avdeevskaya, Mezinskaya, etc. on the Russian Plain, Maltese, Afontovskaya, etc. in Siberia, etc. A large number of multi-layer Late Paleolithic settlements have been excavated on the Dniester (Babin, Voronovitsa, Molodova V, etc.). Another area where many Late Paleolithic settlements are known with the remains of dwellings of various types and examples of art is the Desna and Sudost basin (Mezin, Pushkari, Eliseevichi, Yudinovo, etc.). The third such area is the villages of Kostenki and Borshevo on the Don, where more than 20 Late Paleolithic sites have been found, including a number of multi-layer sites, with the remains of dwellings, many works of art and 4 burials. The Sungir site on the Klyazma is located separately, where several burials were found. The northernmost Paleolithic sites in the world include the Bear Cave and the Byzovaya site. R. Pechora (Komi ASSR). Kapova Cave in the Southern Urals contains painted images of mammoths on the walls. The caves of Georgia and Azerbaijan allow us to trace the development of the Late Paleolithic culture, different from that on the Russian Plain, through a number of stages - from the sites of the beginning of the Late Paleolithic, where Mousterian points are still present in a significant number, to the sites of the late Late Paleolithic, where many microliths are found. The most important Late Paleolithic settlement in Central Asia is the Samarkand site. In Siberia, a large number of Late Paleolithic sites are known on the Yenisei (Afontova Gora, Kokorevo), in the Angara and Belaya basins (Malta, Buret), in Transbaikalia, in Altai. The Late Paleolithic was discovered in the Lena, Aldan and Kamchatka basins.

The Neolithic is represented by numerous cultures. Some of them belong to ancient agricultural tribes, and some belong to primitive fishermen-hunters. The agricultural Neolithic includes monuments of the Bug and other cultures of the Right-Bank Ukraine and Moldavia (5th-3rd millennium BC), settlements of Transcaucasia (Shulaveri, Odishi, Kistrik, etc.), as well as settlements of the Jeytun type in South Turkmenistan, reminiscent of the settlements of the Neolithic farmers of Iran. Cultures of Neolithic hunters and fishermen of the 5th-3rd millennium BC. e. also existed in the south, in the Sea of ​​Azov, in the North Caucasus, and in Central Asia (the Kelteminar culture); but they were especially widespread in the 4th-2nd millennium BC. e. in the north, in the forest belt from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean. Numerous Neolithic hunting and fishing cultures, most of which are characterized by certain types of pottery decorated with pit-comb and comb-pricked patterns, are represented along the shores of Lake Ladoga and Onega and the White Sea (here, in some places, rock art related to these cultures is also found). images, petroglyphs), on the upper Volga and in the Volga-Oka interfluve. In the Kama region, in the forest-steppe Ukraine, in Western and Eastern Siberia, ceramics with comb-pricked and comb patterns were common among the Neolithic tribes. Other types of Neolithic pottery were common in Primorye and Sakhalin.

History of studying K. in. The conjecture that the era of the use of metals was preceded by a time when stones served as weapons was expressed by Lucretius Car in the 1st century. BC e. In 1836 dates. archaeologist K. Yu. Thomsen singled out 3 cultural-historical epochs on the basis of archaeological material (K. century, Bronze Age, Iron Age). The existence of a Paleolithic fossil man proved in the 40-50s. 19th century in the struggle against reactionary clerical science, the French archaeologist Boucher de Perth. In the 60s. the English scientist J. Lubbock dismembered the C. v. on the Paleolithic and Neolithic, and the French archaeologist G. de Mortillet created generalizing works on the K. century. and developed a more fractional periodization (the eras of the Shellic, Mousterian, etc.). By the 2nd half of the 19th century. include studies of Mesolithic kitchen piles in Denmark, Neolithic pile settlements in Switzerland, and numerous Paleolithic and Neolithic caves and sites in Europe and Asia. At the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. Paleolithic painted images were discovered in the caves of southern France and northern Spain.

In the 2nd half of the 19th century. studying To. was closely associated with Darwinian ideas (see Darwinism), with progressive, albeit historically limited, evolutionism. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. and in the first half of the 20th century. in the bourgeois science of k. (primitive archeology, prehistory, and paleoethnology), the methodology of archaeological work has been substantially improved; vast new factual material has been accumulated that does not fit into the framework of the old simplified schemes; At the same time, anti-historical constructions connected with the theory of cultural circles, with the theory of migrations, and sometimes directly with reactionary racism, became widespread. Progressive bourgeois scientists, who sought to trace the development of primitive mankind and its economy as a natural process, opposed these reactionary concepts. A serious achievement of foreign researchers of the 1st half and the middle of the 20th century. is the creation of a number of generalizing guides, reference books and encyclopedias on K. century. Europe, Asia, Africa and America (French scientist J. Dechelet, German - M. Ebert, English - J. Clark, G. Child, R. Vofrey, H. M. Warmington, etc.), the elimination of extensive white spots on archaeological maps, the discovery and study of numerous monuments of K. v. in European countries (Czech. scientists K. Absolon, B. Klima, F. Proshek, I. Neusstupni, Hungarian - L. Vertes, Romanian - K. Nikolaescu-Plopshor, Yugoslav - S. Brodar, A. Benac, Polish - L Savitsky, S. Krukovsky, German - A. Rust, Spanish - L. Perikot-Garcia, etc.), in Africa (English scientist L. Leakey, French - K. Arambur, etc.), in the Middle East (English scientists D. Garrod, J. Mellart, C. Kenyon, American scientists - R. Braidwood, R. Soletsky, etc.), in India (H. D. Sankalia, B. B. Lal, etc.), in China (Jia Lan-po, Pei Wen-chung, and others), in Southeast Asia (the French scientist A. Manxui, the Dutch - H. van Heckeren, and others), in America (the American scientists A. Kroeber, F. Rainey, and others .). The technique of excavations has improved significantly, the publication of archaeological sites has increased, and a comprehensive study of ancient settlements by archaeologists, geologists, paleozoologists, and paleobotanists has spread. The radiocarbon dating method and the statistical method of studying stone tools began to be widely used; (French scientists A, Breuil, A. Leroy-Gourhan, Italian - P. Graziosi and others).

In Russia, a number of Paleolithic and Neolithic sites were studied in the 70-90s. 19th century A. S. Uvarov, I. S. Polyakov, K. S. Merezhkovsky, V. B. Antonovich, V. V. Khvoyka, and others. The first two decades of the 20th century. The excavations of Paleolithic and Neolithic settlements by V. A. Gorodtsov, A. A. Spitsyn, F. K. Volkov, and P. P. Efimenko and others.

After the October Socialist Revolution, research by K. v. gained wide scope in the USSR. By 1917, 12 Paleolithic sites were known in the country, in the early 1970s. their number exceeded 1000. Paleolithic sites were first discovered in Belarus (K. M. Polikarpovich), in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia (G. K. Nioradze, S. N. Zamyatnin, M. Z. Panichkina, M. M. Huseynov, L. N. Solovyov and others), in Central Asia (A. P. Okladnikov, D. N. Lev, V. A. Ranov, Kh. A. Alpysbaev and others), in the Urals (M. V. Talitsky and etc.). Numerous new Paleolithic sites have been discovered and explored in the Crimea, on the Russian Plain, and in Siberia (P. P. Efimenko, M. V. Voevodsky, G. A. Bonch-Osmolovsky, M. Ya. Rudinsky, G. P. Sosnovsky, A. P. Okladnikov, M. M. Gerasimov, S. N. Bibikov, A. P. Chernysh, A. N. Rogachev, O. N. Bader, A. A. Formozov, I. G. Shovkoplyas, P. I . Boriskovsky and others), in Georgia (N. Z. Berdzenishvili, A. N. Kalandadze, D. M. Tushabramishvili, V. P. Lyubin and others). The most sowing are open. Paleolithic sites in the world: on the Pechora, Lena, in the Aldan basin and on Kamchatka (V. I. Kanivets, N. N. Dikov, and others). A methodology has been developed for excavating Paleolithic settlements, which made it possible to establish the existence of settled and permanent dwellings in the Paleolithic. A method for restoring the functions of primitive tools based on the traces of their use, traceology (S. A. Semenov) was developed. The historical changes that took place in the Paleolithic were covered - the development of the primitive herd and the maternal tribal system. Late Paleolithic and Mesolithic cultures and their relationships are revealed. Numerous monuments of Paleolithic art have been discovered and generalizing works dedicated to them have been created (S. N. Zamyatnin, Z. A. Abramova, and others). Generalizing works have been created on the chronology, periodization and historical coverage of Neolithic monuments in a number of territories, the identification of Neolithic cultures and their relationships, the development of Neolithic technology (V. A. Gorodtsov, B. S. Zhukov, M. V. Voevodsky, A. Ya. Bryusov , M. E. Foss, A. P. Okladnikov, V. N. Chernetsov, N. N. Gurina, O. N. Bader, D. A. Krainev, V. N. Danilenko, D. Ya. Telegin, V M. Masson and others). The monuments of Neolithic monumental art - rock carvings of S.-Z. USSR, Sea of ​​Azov and Siberia (V. I. Ravdonikas, M. Ya. Rudinsky and others).

Soviet researchers K. century. Much work has been done to expose the ahistorical concepts of reactionary bourgeois scientists, to illuminate and decipher the monuments of the Paleolithic and Neolithic. Armed with the methodology of dialectical and historical materialism, they criticized the attempts of many bourgeois scholars (especially in France) to attribute the study of calisthenics to to the field of natural sciences, to consider the development of the culture of K. in. like a biological process, or to design for the study of K. century. a special science of "paleoethnology", which occupies an intermediate position between the biological and social sciences. At the same time, owls researchers oppose the empiricism of those bourgeois archaeologists who reduce the tasks of studying Paleolithic and Neolithic monuments only to a thorough description and definition of things and their groups, and also ignore the conditionality of the historical process, the natural connection between material culture and social relations, their consistent natural development. For owls. researchers monuments to. - not an end in itself, but a source of study of the early stages of the history of the primitive communal system. They are particularly uncompromising in their struggle against the bourgeois idealistic and racist theories that are widespread among specialists in classical art. in the USA, Great Britain, and a number of other capitalist countries. These theories erroneously interpret and sometimes even falsify the data of the archeology of the K. v. for statements about the division of peoples into elected and unelected, about the inevitable eternal backwardness of certain countries and peoples, about the beneficence in human history of conquests and wars. Soviet researchers K. v. showed that the early stages of world history and the history of primitive culture were a process in which all peoples, large and small, participated and contributed.

Lit.: Engels F., Origin of the family, private property and the state, M., 1965; his, The role of labor in the process of turning a monkey into a man, M., 1969; Abramova Z. A., Paleolithic art on the territory of the USSR, M. - L., 1962; Aliman A., Prehistoric Africa, trans. from French, Moscow, 1960; Coastal N. A., Paleolithic locations of the USSR, M. - L., 1960; Bonch-Osmolovsky G. A., Paleolithic of the Crimea, c. 1-3, M. - L., 1940-54; Boriskovsky P. I., Paleolithic of Ukraine, M. - L., 1953; his, Ancient Stone Age of South and Southeast Asia, L., 1971; Bryusov A. Ya., Essays on the history of the tribes of the European part of the USSR in the Neolithic era, M., 1952; Gurina N. N., Ancient history of the north-west of the European part of the USSR, M. - L., 1961; Danilenko V.N., Neolit ​​of Ukraine, K., 1969; Efimenko P. P., Primitive Society, 3rd ed., K., 1953; Zamyatnin S. N., Essays on the Paleolithic, M. - L., 1961; Clark, J. G. D., Prehistoric Europe, [trans. from English], M., 1953; Masson V. M., Central Asia and the Ancient East, M. - L., 1964; Okladnikov A.P., Neolithic and Bronze Age of the Baikal region, part 1-2, M. - L., 1950; his, Distant Past of Primorye, Vladivostok, 1959; his own, Morning of Art, L., 1967; Panichkina M. Z., Paleolith of Armenia, L., 1950; Ranov V.A., Stone Age of Tajikistan, c. 1, Dush., 1965; Semenov S. A., Development of technology in the Stone Age, L., 1968; Titov V.S., Neolit ​​of Greece, M., 1969; Formozov A. A., Ethnocultural regions in the territory of the European part of the USSR in the Stone Age, M., 1,959; his own, Essays on primitive art, M., 1969 (MIA, No. 165); Foss M.E., The most ancient history of the north of the European part of the USSR, M., 1952; Child G., At the origins of European civilization, trans. from English, M., 1952; Bordes F., Le paleolithique dans ie monde, P., 1968; Breuil N., Quatre cents siècles d "art pariétal, Montignac, 1952; Clark J. D., The prehistory of Africa, L., 1970: Clark G., World L., prehistory, 2 ed., Camb., 1969; L" Europe à la fin de l "âge de la pierre, Praha, 1961; Graziosi P., Palaeolithic art, L., 1960; Leroi-Gourhan A., Préhistoire de l" art occidental, P., 1965; La prehistory. P., 1966; La prehistoire. Problems et tendances, P., 1968; Man the hunter, Chi., 1968; Müller-Karpe H., Handbuch der Vorgeschichte, Bd 1-2, Münch., 1966-68; Oakley, K. P., Frameworks for dating fossil man. 3 ed., L., 1969.

P. I. Boriskovsky.

Mousterian era: 1 - Levallois core; 2 - leaf-shaped tip; 3 - teyak point; 4 - discoid nucleus; 5, 6 - points; 7 - two-pointed tip; 8 - toothed tool; 9 - scraper; 10 - chopped; 11 - a knife with a butt; 12 - a tool with a notch; 13 - puncture; 14 - scraper type kina; 15 - double scraper; 16, 17 - longitudinal scrapers.

Paleolithic sites and finds of bone remains of fossil man in Europe.

Stone Age- the oldest and longest period in the history of mankind.

The Stone Age is characterized by the use of stone as the main solid material for the manufacture of tools designed to solve the problems of human life support.

Timeline of the Stone Age

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

For the manufacture of all these various tools and other products, man used not only stone, but other hard materials: - volcanic glass, bone, wood, and for other purposes - soft organic materials of animal and vegetable origin. In the final period of the Stone Age, in the Neolithic, the first artificial material created by man, ceramics, became widespread. Stone tools and their fragments have a special place in the study of the life of primitive society, since the exceptional strength of stone allows products made from it to be preserved for hundreds of millennia. Bone, wood and other organic materials, as a rule, are not preserved for such a long time and therefore, for the study of especially remote epochs, stone products become, due to their mass character and preservation, become one of the most important sources.

The chronological framework of the Stone Age is very wide - it begins about 3 million years ago (the time of the separation of man from the animal world) and lasts until the appearance of metal (about 8-9 thousand years ago in the Ancient East and about 6-5 thousand years ago ago in Europe). The duration of this period of human existence, which is called prehistory and protohistory, correlates with the duration of "written history", just like a day with a few minutes or the size of Everest and a tennis ball. All the most important achievements of mankind: the addition of social institutions and certain economic structures, as well as the formation of man himself as a very special bio-social being, date back to the Stone Age.

In archaeological science, the Stone Age is usually divided into several main stages: the ancient Stone Age - the Paleolithic (3 million years BC - 10 thousand years BC); middle - Mesolithic - (10 - 9 thousand - 7 - thousand years BC); new - Neolithic (6 - 5 thousand - 3 thousand years BC). Archaeological periodization of the Stone Age is associated with changes in the stone industry: each period is characterized by peculiar methods of primary splitting and secondary processing of stone, resulting in a wide distribution of completely defined sets of products and their bright specific types.

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

Formation of scientific ideas about the Stone Age

The process of the formation of the archeology of primitive society, as an independent historical discipline, is lengthy and complex. Interest in collecting and studying prehistoric antiquities, especially stone products, existed for a long time. However, even in the Middle Ages, and even in the Renaissance, their origin was most often attributed to natural phenomena (the so-called thunder arrows, hammers, axes were widely known). works, and the development of geology associated with them, the further development of natural science disciplines, the idea of ​​material evidence for the existence of an "antediluvian man" acquired the status of a scientific doctrine. An important contribution to the formation of scientific ideas about the Stone Age, as the "childhood of mankind", was a variety of ethnographic data, while the results of studying the cultures of North American Indians, which began in the 18th century with the colonization of North America, and developed further in the 19th century, were especially often used. .

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

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

Scientific currents

The further development of Stone Age archeology, which includes the development of not only the ideas of evolutionism, but also such important scientific movements as geographical determinism, which explains many aspects of the development of society by the influence of natural and geographical conditions, diffusionism, which put along with the concept of evolution, the concept of cultural diffusion, i.e. e. spatial movement of cultural phenomena. A galaxy of prominent scientists of their time worked within these areas (L.R. Morgan. G. Ratzel, E. Reclus, R. Virkhov, F. Kossina, A. Grebner, etc.), who made a significant contribution to the formation of the basic postulates of the study of stone century. In the 20th century, new schools appeared, reflecting, in addition to those listed above, ethnological, sociological, and structuralist tendencies in the study of the Stone Age.

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

The main achievement of Stone Age archeology in the 20th century was the creation of clear ideas that different archaeological complexes characterize different population groups and that these groups, at different stages of development, can coexist. This denies the rough scheme of evolutionism, which assumes that all of humanity ascends the same steps - stages at the same time. The work of Russian archaeologists played a major role in the formation and formulation of new postulates about the existence of cultural diversity in the development of mankind.

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

STONE AGE (GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS)

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

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

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

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

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

Archaeological periodization of the Stone Age is associated with changes in the stone industry: each period is characterized by peculiar methods of stone processing and, as a result, a certain set of various types of stone tools.

The Stone Age correlates with geological periods:

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

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

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

The Paleolithic is divided into three main periods:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The most common types of flint tools of the Mousterian era were pointed and side-scrapers. These tools were
and themselves relatively flat fragments of flint, during the processing of which they tried to betray a triangular shape. At the scraper, one side was processed, which was the working one. At the points, two edges were processed, trying to sharpen the top as much as possible. Pointed and side-scrapers were used in butchering animal carcasses and processing skins. In the Mousterian era, primitive flint spearheads appear. Flint "knives" and "Chokurchin triangles" are typical for the Crimea. In addition to flint, bone was used from which piercings were made (small animal bones pointed at one end) and wringers (they were used to retouch flint tools).

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

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

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

The Late Paleolithic occurred in the second half of the Wurm glaciation. This is a period of very cold, extreme weather. By the beginning of the period, a person of the modern type is being formed - Homo sapiens (Cro-Magnon). By the same time, the formation of three large races - Caucasoid, Negroid and Mongoloid. People inhabit almost all inhabited land, with the exception of the territories occupied by the glacier. Cro-Magnons everywhere begin to use artificial dwellings. Bone products are widely used, from which not only tools are now made, but also jewelry.

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

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

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

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

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

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

At the end of the Paleolithic, global climatic changes occur. Warming leads to the melting of glaciers. The level of the world ocean rises, rivers become full-flowing, many new lakes appear. The Crimean peninsula takes shape close to modern. In connection with the increase in temperature and humidity, the place of cold steppes is occupied by forests. The fauna is changing. Large mammals characteristic of the ice age (for example, mammoths) go north and gradually die out. The number of herd animals is decreasing. In this regard, collective driven hunting is being replaced by individual hunting, in which each member of the tribe could feed himself. This happens because when hunting for a large animal, for example, for the same mammoth, the efforts of the entire team were required. And this justified itself, since as a result of success the tribe received a significant amount of food. The same method of hunting in the new conditions was not productive. It made no sense for the whole tribe to drive one deer, it would be a waste of effort and would lead to the death of the team.

In the Mesolithic, a whole complex of new tools appears. The individualization of hunting led to the invention of the bow and arrow. Bone hooks and harpoons for catching fish appear. They begin to make primitive boats, they were cut down from a tree trunk. Microliths are widespread. With their help, composite tools were made. The base of the tool was made of bone or wood; grooves were cut into it, into which microliths were fastened with resin (small flint products made from plates, less often from flakes, and served as inserts for composite tools and arrowheads). Their sharp edges served as the working surface of the tool.

Continue to use flint tools. These were scrapers and incisors. Silicon was also used to make segmented, trapezoidal, and triangular microliths. The shape of the nuclei changes, they become cone-shaped and prismatic. Tools were mainly made on blades, much less often on flakes.

The tips of darts, awls, needles, hooks, harpoons and pendants were made from bone. From the shoulder blades of large animals, knives or daggers were made. They had a smooth surface and pointed edges.

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

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

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

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

NEOLITHIC (VI - V millennium BC)

In the Neolithic era, there is a transition from appropriating types of economy (hunting and gathering) to reproducing - agriculture and cattle breeding. People have learned to grow crops and breed certain types of animals. In science, this unconditional breakthrough in the history of mankind has been called the "Neolithic Revolution".

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

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

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

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

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

In general, the "Neolithic revolution" in the Crimea never ended. There are much more bones of wild animals in the parking lots than of domestic ones. Agricultural implements are extremely rare. This indicates that the people who lived on the peninsula at that time, as before, as in previous eras, gave priority to hunting and gathering. Farming and gathering were in their infancy.