cave age. Stone Age

20.06.2020

Stone Age in archeology

Definition 1

The Stone Age is a vast period of human development preceding the Age of Metals.

Since humanity has developed unevenly, the time frame of the era is controversial. In some cultures, stone tools were widely used even in the age of metals.

Various types of stone were used to make stone tools. Flint and limestone schists were used for cutting tools and weapons, while working tools were made from basalt and sandstone. Wood, antler, bones, and shells were also widely used.

Remark 1

In this period, the human habitat expanded significantly. By the end of the era, some types of wild animals were domesticated. Since mankind did not yet have a written language in the Stone Age, it is often called the prehistoric period.

The beginning of the period is associated with the first hominids in Africa, who guessed to use a stone to solve everyday problems about 3 million years ago. Most Australopithecus did not use stone tools, but their culture is also studied within this period.

Research is carried out on the basis of stone finds, since they have come down to our time. There is a branch of experimental archeology that deals with the restoration of dilapidated tools or the creation of copies.

periodization

Paleolithic

Definition 2

The Paleolithic is the period of the most ancient history of mankind from the moment of the separation of man from the animal world and until the final retreat of the glaciers.

The Paleolithic began 2.5 million years ago and ended around 10 thousand years BC. e .. In the Paleolithic era, man began to use stone tools in his life, and then to engage in agriculture.

People lived in small communities and were engaged in gathering and hunting. In addition to stone tools, wood and bone tools were used, as well as leather and vegetable fibers, but they could not survive to this day. During the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, the first works of art began to be created and religious and spiritual rites arose. Ice and interglacial periods succeeded each other.

Early Paleolithic

The ancestors of modern man Homo habilis began the first use of stone tools. These were primitive tools called cleavers. They were used as axes and stone cores. The first stone tools were found in Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, which gave the name to the archaeological culture. Hunting was not yet widespread, and people ate mainly the meat of dead animals and by gathering wild plants. Homo erectus, a more developed species of man, appears about 1.5 million years ago, and after 500 thousand years, a person masters Europe and begins to use stone axes.

Early Paleolithic cultures:

Olduvai culture;
Acheulean culture;
Abbeville culture;
Altasheilen culture;
Zhungasheilen culture;
Spatasheylen culture.

Middle Paleolithic

The Middle Paleolithic began about 200 thousand years ago and is the most studied era. The most famous finds of the Neanderthals living then belong to the Mousterian culture. Despite the general primitiveness of the Neanderthal culture, there is reason to believe that they honored the elderly and practiced tribal burial rituals, which demonstrates the predominance of abstract thinking. The range of people during this period expanded into such previously undeveloped territories as Australia and Oceania.

Over a certain period of time (35-45 thousand years), the coexistence and enmity of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons continued. At their sites, gnawed bones of a different type were found.

Middle Paleolithic cultures:

Mycocian culture;
Mousterian culture;
Blatspitzenskaya group of cultures;
Aterian culture;
Ibero-Moorish culture.

Upper Paleolithic

The last ice age ended about 35-10 thousand years ago and then modern people settled throughout the Earth. After the first modern humans arrived in Europe, their cultures grew rapidly.

Through the Bering Isthmus, which existed before the rise in the level of the world ocean, people colonized North and South America. The Paleo-Indians supposedly formed into an independent culture about 13.5 thousand years ago. On the planet as a whole, there were widespread hunter-gatherer communities who used different types of stone tools depending on the region.

Some of the cultures of the Upper Paleolithic:

France and Spain;
Chatelperon culture;
Gravettian culture;
Solutrean culture;
Madeleine culture;
Hamburg culture;
Federmesser group of cultures;
Bromm culture;
Ahrensburg culture;
Hamburg culture;
Lingbin culture;
Clovis culture.

Mesolithic

Definition 3

Mesolithic (X-VI thousand BC) - the period between the Paleolithic and Neolithic.

The beginning of the period is associated with the end of the last ice age, and the end - with the rise in the level of the world's oceans, which changed the environment and forced people to look for new sources of food. This period is characterized by the appearance of microliths - miniature stone tools that significantly expanded the possibilities of using stone in everyday life. Thanks to microlithic tools, hunting efficiency has increased significantly and more productive fishing has become possible.

Some of the Mesolithic cultures:

Buren culture;
Dufensee culture;
Oldesroyer group;
Maglemose culture;
Guden culture;
Klosterlind culture;
Kongemose culture;
Fosna-Khensback culture;
Komsa culture;
Soviet culture;
Azil culture;
Asturian culture;
Natufian culture;
Capsian culture.

Neolithic

During the Neolithic Revolution, agriculture and cattle breeding appear, pottery develops, and the first large settlements are founded, such as Chatal-Guyuk and Jericho. The first Neolithic cultures began around 7000 BC. e. in the "fertile crescent" zone: the Mediterranean, the Indus Valley, China and the countries of Southeast Asia.

The growth in the human population led to an increase in the need for plant foods, which gave impetus to the rapid development of agriculture. For agricultural work, stone tools began to be used in tillage, as well as in harvesting. Large stone structures, such as the towers and walls of Jericho or Stonehenge, demonstrate the emergence of significant human resources and forms of cooperation between large groups of people. Although most Neolithic tribes were comparatively simple and had no elites, in general there were markedly more hierarchical communities in Neolithic cultures than in earlier Paleolithic hunter-gatherer cultures. In the Neolithic period, regular trade appears between various settlements. The settlement of Skara Brae in Orkney is one of the finest examples of a Neolithic village. It used stone beds, shelves and even separate rooms for toilets.

Some Neolithic cultures:

Linear-tape ceramics;
notched ceramics;
Ertebel culture;
Rössen culture;
The culture of Michel Berger;
Culture of funnel-shaped cups;
Culture of spherical amphorae;
Battle ax culture;
Late Ertebel culture;
Chassey culture;
Lahugit group;
Finnish culture;
Horgen culture;
Andrew culture.

Main periods of the Stone Age

STONE AGE: on Earth - more than 2 million years ago - up to 3 millennium BC; on the territory of Kaz-na - about 1 million years ago until the 3rd millennium BC. PERIODS: Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) - more than 2.5 million years ago - up to 12 millennium BC. e., is divided into 3 epochs: early or lower paleolith - 1 million years ago-140 thousand years BC (Olduvai, Acheulean period), middle paleolith - 140-40 thousand years BC. (Late Acheulean and Mousterian period), Late or Upper Paleolithic - 40-12 (10) thousand years BC (Aurignac, Solutre, Madeleine eras); Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) - 12-5 thousand years BC e.; Neolithic (New Stone Age) - 5-3 thousand years BC. e.; Eneolithic (Copper Stone Age) - XXIV-XXII centuries BC

The main periods of primitive society

STONE AGE: on Earth - more than 2 million years ago - up to 3 millennium BC; periods:: Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) - more than 2.5 million years ago - up to 12 millennium BC. e., is divided into 3 epochs: early or lower paleolith - 1 million years ago-140 thousand years BC (Olduvai, Acheulean period), middle paleolith - 140-40 thousand years BC. (Late Acheulean and Mousterian period), Late or Upper Paleolithic - 40-12 (10) thousand years BC (Aurignac, Solutre, Madeleine eras); Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) - 12-5 thousand years BC e.; Neolithic (New Stone Age) - 5-3 thousand years BC. e.; Eneolithic (Copper Stone Age) - XXIV-XXII centuries BC BRONZE AGE - end of the III-beginning of the I-th millennium BC

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

History of the Stone Age- the longest and oldest of the pages of mankind known to us, which is characterized by fundamental changes in the worldview and lifestyle of people.

Stone Age features:

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

Historical chronology of the Stone Age

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

Rice. 1 - Chronology of the Stone Age

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

Paleolithic

During this period, people lived together in small tribes and used stone tools. The source of food for them was the gathering of plants and the hunting of wild animals. At the end of the Paleolithic, the first religious beliefs in the forces of nature (paganism) appeared. Also, the end of this period is characterized by the appearance of the first works of art (dances, songs and drawing). Most likely, primitive art stemmed from religious rites.

The climate, which was characterized by changes in temperature, from the ice age to warming and vice versa, had a great influence on humanity at that time. The unstable climate managed to change several times.

Mesolithic

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

Neolithic

The new stone age was a big step in the development of mankind. During this time, people have learned not only to extract, but also to grow food, while using improved tools for cultivating the land, harvesting and cutting meat.

For the first time, people began to unite in large groups to create significant stone buildings, such as Stonehenge. This indicates a sufficient amount of resources and the ability to negotiate. The emergence of trade between different settlements also testifies in favor of the latter.

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

In details stone age history considered in lecture courses below.

Stone Age

The Stone Age is the oldest period in the history of mankind, when the main tools and weapons were made mainly of stone, but wood and bone were also used. At the end of the Stone Age, the use of clay (dishes, brick buildings, sculpture) spread.

Periodization of the Stone Age:

Paleolithic:

Lower Paleolithic - the period of the appearance of the most ancient types of people and wide distribution Homo erectus.
The Middle Paleolithic is a period of displacement of erectus by evolutionarily more advanced human species, including modern humans. Neanderthals dominated Europe during the entire Middle Paleolithic.
The Upper Paleolithic is the period of domination of the modern type of people throughout the globe in the era of the last glaciation.

Mesolithic and Epipaleolithic; the terminology depends on how much the region has been affected by the loss of megafauna as a result of the melting of the glacier. The period is characterized by the development of technology for the production of stone tools and the general culture of man. Ceramic is missing.

Neolithic - the era of the emergence of agriculture. Tools and weapons are still made of stone, but their production is brought to perfection, and ceramics are widely distributed.

The Stone Age is divided into:

● Paleolithic (ancient stone) - from 2 million years to 10 thousand years BC. e.

● Mesolithic (medium stone) - from 10 thousand to 6 thousand years BC. e.

● Neolithic (new stone) - from 6 thousand to 2 thousand years BC. e.

In the second millennium BC, metals replaced stone and put an end to the Stone Age.

General characteristics of the Stone Age

The first period of the Stone Age is the Paleolithic, which includes early, middle and late periods.

Early Paleolithic ( to the turn of 100 thousand years BC. e.) is the era of the archanthropes. Material culture developed very slowly. It took more than a million years to move from roughly beaten pebbles to hand axes, in which the edges are evenly processed on both sides. Approximately 700 thousand years ago, the process of mastering fire began: people support the fire obtained in a natural way (as a result of lightning strikes, fires). The main activities are hunting and gathering, the main type of weapon is a club, a spear. Archanthropes master natural shelters (caves), build huts from twigs with which stone boulders block (south of France, 400 thousand years).

Middle Paleolithic- covers the period from 100 thousand to 40 thousand years BC. e. This is the era of the paleoanthrope-Neanderthal. Harsh time. Icing of large parts of Europe, North America and Asia. Many heat-loving animals died out. Difficulties stimulated cultural progress. The means and methods of hunting (battling hunting, corrals) are being improved. Very diverse axes are created, and thin plates chipped from the core and processed are used - scrapers. With the help of scrapers, people began to make warm clothes from the skins of animals. Learned how to make fire by drilling. Intentional burials belong to this era. Often the deceased was buried in the form of a sleeping person: arms bent at the elbow, near the face, legs half-bent. Household items appear in the graves. And this means that some ideas about life after death have appeared.

Late (Upper) Paleolithic- covers the period from 40 thousand to 10 thousand years BC. e. This is the Cro-Magnon era. The Cro-Magnons lived in large groups. The technique of stone processing has grown: stone plates are sawn and drilled. Bone tips are widely used. A spear thrower appeared - a board with a hook on which a dart was placed. Found many bone needles for sewing clothes. The houses are semi-dugouts with a frame made of branches and even animal bones. The norm was the burial of the dead, who are given a supply of food, clothing and tools, which spoke of clear ideas about the afterlife. During the Late Paleolithic period, art and religion- two important forms of social life, closely related.

Mesolithic, middle stone age (10th - 6th millennium BC). In the Mesolithic, bows and arrows, microlithic tools appeared, and the dog was tamed. The periodization of the Mesolithic is conditional, because in different parts of the world development processes proceed at different speeds. So, in the Middle East, already from 8 thousand, the transition to agriculture and cattle breeding begins, which is the essence of a new stage - the Neolithic.

Neolithic, New Stone Age (6–2 thousand BC). There is a transition from an appropriating economy (gathering, hunting) to a producing one (agriculture, cattle breeding). In the Neolithic era, stone tools were polished, drilled, pottery, spinning, and weaving appeared. In 4-3 millennia, the first civilizations appeared in a number of regions of the world.

7. Neolithic period culture

Neolithic - the era of the emergence of agriculture and animal husbandry. Neolithic monuments are widespread in the Russian Far East. They belong to the period 8000-4000 years ago. Tools and weapons are still stone, however, their production is brought to perfection. The Neolithic is characterized by a large set of stone tools. Ceramics (ware made of baked clay) was widespread. The Neolithic inhabitants of Primorye learned how to make polished stone tools, jewelry and pottery.

Archaeological cultures of the Neolithic period in Primorye are Boysmanskaya and Rudninskaya. Representatives of these cultures lived in year-round frame-type dwellings and exploited most of the available environmental resources: they were engaged in hunting, fishing, and gathering. The population of the boyman culture lived on the coast in small villages (1-3 dwellings), engaged in summer fishing in the sea and caught up to 18 species of fish, including such large ones as the white shark and stingray. In the same period, they also practiced collecting mollusks (90% were oysters). In autumn they were engaged in gathering plants, in winter and spring hunting for deer, roe deer, wild boars, sea lions, seals, dolphins, and sometimes gray whales.

On land, individual hunting probably prevailed, and on the sea, collective hunting. Fishing was done by men and women, but women and children fished with a hook, and men with spears and harpoons. Hunter-warriors had a high social status and were buried with special honors. Shell mounds have been preserved in many settlements.

As a result of a sharp cooling of the climate 5–4.5 thousand years ago and a sharp drop in sea level, the Middle Neolithic cultural traditions disappear and are transformed into the Zaisanov cultural tradition (5–3 thousand years ago), the population of which had a widely specialized life support system, which is found on continental monuments. already included agriculture. This allowed people to live both on the coast and in the depths of the continent.

People belonging to the Zaisanov cultural tradition settled in a wider area than their predecessors. In the continental part, they settled along the middle reaches of rivers flowing into the sea, favorable for agriculture, and on the coast, in all potentially productive and convenient places, using all available ecological niches. Representatives of the Zaisanov culture certainly achieved greater adaptive success than their predecessors. The number of their settlements increases significantly, they have a much larger area and the number of dwellings, the size of which also became larger.

The beginnings of agriculture in the Neolithic are recorded both in Primorye and in the Amur region, but the process of development of the economy of Neolithic cultures has been studied most fully in the basin of the Middle Amur.

The oldest local culture, called Novopetrovskaya, belongs to the early Neolithic and dates back to the 5th-4th millennium BC. e. Similar changes have taken place in the economy of the population of Primorye.

The emergence of agriculture in the Far East led to the emergence of economic specialization between the farmers of Primorye and the Middle Amur region and their neighbors in the Lower Amur (and other northern territories), who remained at the level of the traditional appropriating economy.

The last period of the Stone Age - the Neolithic - is characterized by a complex of features, none of which is mandatory. In general, the trends that developed in the Mesolithic continue to develop.

The Neolithic is characterized by an improvement in the technique of making stone tools, especially their final finishing - grinding, polishing. Mastered the technique of drilling and sawing stone. Neolithic jewelry made of colored stone (especially widespread bracelets), cut from a stone disk, and then ground and polished, have an impeccably regular shape.

Forest areas are characterized by polished woodworking tools - axes, chisels, adzes. Along with flint, jade, jadeite, carnelian, jasper, shale stone and other minerals are beginning to be used. At the same time, flint continues to prevail, its extraction is expanding, the first underground workings (mines, adits) appear. Tools on blades, insert microlithic technique are preserved, finds of such tools in agricultural areas are especially numerous. Liner reaping knives and sickles are common there, and from macroliths - axes, stone hoes and grain processing tools: grain graters, mortars, pestles. In areas dominated by hunting and fishing, there is a wide variety of fishing gear: harpoons used to catch fish and land animals, arrowheads of various shapes, hooks for baiting, simple and compound (in Siberia they were also used to catch birds), various kinds of traps for medium and small animals. Often traps were made on the basis of a bow. In Siberia, the bow was improved with bone overlays - this made it more elastic and long-range. In fishing, nets, slings, stone baubles of various shapes and sizes were widely used. In the Neolithic, the processing of stone, bone, wood, and then ceramic objects reached such perfection that it became possible to aesthetically emphasize this master's skill by decorating a thing with an ornament or giving it a special shape. The aesthetic value of a thing, as it were, enhances its utilitarian value (for example, Australian aborigines believe that an unornamented boomerang kills worse than a decorated one). These two trends - improvements in the function of a thing and its decoration - lead to the flowering of applied art in the Neolithic.

In the Neolithic, ceramic products were widespread (although they were not known in a number of tribes). They are represented by zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figurines and utensils. Early ceramic vessels were made on a base woven from rods. After firing, an imprint of weaving remained. Later they began to use the harness and molded-on technique: the imposition of a clay tourniquet with a diameter 3-4 see spiral shape. So that the clay does not crack when it dries, leaners were added to it - chopped straw, crushed shells, sand. More ancient vessels had a rounded or sharp bottom - this indicates that they were placed on an open fire. Dishes of settled tribes have a flat bottom adapted to the table and the hearth of the oven. Ceramic dishes were decorated with paintings or relief ornaments, which became richer with the development of the craft, but retained the main traditional elements and decoration techniques. Due to this, it was ceramics that began to be used to distinguish territorial cultures and to periodize the Neolithic. The most common decoration techniques are carved (on wet clay) ornament, molded decorations, finger or nail tucks, pitted pattern, comb (using a stamp in the form of a comb), a pattern applied with a stamp "retreating shoulder blade" - and others.

The ingenuity of Neolithic man is striking.

melted on a fire in a clay bowl. It is the only material that melts at such a low temperature and is still suitable for making glazes. Pottery was often made so skillfully that the thickness of the wall in relation to the size of the vessel was the same ratio as the thickness of the egg shell to its volume. K. Levi-Strauss believes that the invention of primitive man is fundamentally different than that of modern man. He calls it the term "bricolage" - the literal translation is "rebound play". If a modern engineer sets and solves a problem, discarding everything extraneous, then the bricoleur collects and assimilates all the information, he must be ready for any situation, and his solution is, as a rule, associated with a random goal.

Spinning and weaving were invented in the Late Neolithic. The fiber of wild nettle, flax, bast of trees was used. The spindle whorl is evidence that people have mastered spinning - stone or ceramic attachments that make the spindle heavier and contribute to its smoother rotation. The fabric was obtained by weaving, without a loom.

The organization of the population in the Neolithic was tribal and, as long as hoe agriculture persists, the head of the clan is a woman - matriarchy. With the beginning of arable agriculture, and it is connected with the appearance of draft cattle and improved tools for tilling the soil, patriarchy will be established. Within the genus, people live in families, either in communal ancestral homes or in separate houses, but then the genus owns a whole village.

In the economy of the Neolithic, both producing technologies and appropriating forms are presented. The territories of the producing economy are expanding in comparison with the Mesolithic, but in most of the ecumene either the appropriating economy is preserved, or it has a complex character - appropriating, with elements of the producer. Such complexes usually included animal husbandry. Nomadic agriculture, which used primitive furrow arable implements and did not know irrigation, could develop only in areas with soft soil and natural moisture - in floodplains and on foothill and intermountain plains. Such conditions developed in 8-7 millennium BC. e. in three territories that became the earliest centers of agricultural cultures: Jordanian-Palestinian, Asia Minor and Mesopotamian. From these territories, agriculture spread to the south of Europe, to Transcaucasia and Turkmenistan (the settlement of Jeytun near Ashgabat is considered the border of the agricultural ecumene). The first autochthonous centers of agriculture in the northern and eastern parts of Asia formed only by the third millennium BC. e. in the basin of the middle and lower Amur. In Western Europe in the 6th-5th millennia, three main Neolithic cultures developed: Danubian, Nordic and Western European. The main agricultural crops cultivated in the Near East and Central Asian centers are wheat, barley, lentils, peas, in the Far East - millet. In Western Europe, oats, rye, and millet were added to barley and wheat. By the third millennium BC. e. in Switzerland, carrots, cumin, poppy, flax, apples were already known, in Greece and Macedonia - apples, figs, pears, grapes. Due to the variety of specializations of the economy and the great need for stone for tools, an intensive inter-tribal exchange began in the Neolithic.

The number of population in the Neolithic increased dramatically, for Europe over the previous 8 thousand years - almost 100 times; population density has increased from 0.04 to 1 person per square kilometer. But mortality remained high, especially among children. It is believed that no more than 40-45% of people survived the age of thirteen. In the Neolithic, a stable settlement begins to be established, primarily on the basis of agriculture. In the forest regions of the east and north of Eurasia - along the coasts of large rivers, lakes, the sea, in places favorable for catching fish and animals, settled life is formed on the basis of fishing and hunting.

Neolithic buildings are diverse, depending on the climate and local conditions, stone, wood, and clay were used as building materials. In the agricultural zones, houses were built of wattle covered with clay or mud bricks, sometimes on a stone foundation. Their shape is round, oval, sub-rectangular, one or more rooms, there is a courtyard fenced with adobe fence. Often the walls were decorated with paintings. In the late Neolithic, extensive, apparently cult houses appear. Areas from 2 to 12 and more than 20 hectares were built up, such villages were sometimes combined into a city, for example, Chatal-Hyuyuk (7-6 millennium BC, Turkey) consisted of twenty villages, the central of which occupied 13 hectares. The building was spontaneous, the streets were about 2 m wide. The fragile buildings were easily destroyed, forming telly - wide hills. The city continued to be built on this hill for thousands of years, indicating the high level of agriculture that ensured such a long settled life.

In Europe, from Holland to the Danube, communal houses with many hearths and houses of a one-room structure with an area of 9.5 x 5 m were built. In Switzerland and southern Germany, buildings on piles were common and houses made of stones are found. Semi-dugout houses, which were widespread in previous eras, are also found, especially in the north and in the forest zone, but, as a rule, they are complemented by a log cabin.

Burials in the Neolithic, both single and group, more often in a crouched position on the side, under the floor of the house, between houses or in a cemetery, taken out of the village. Ornaments and weapons are common in grave goods. Siberia is characterized by the presence of weapons not only in male but also in female burials.

G.V.Child proposed the term "Neolithic revolution", referring to deep social shifts (the crisis of the appropriating economy and the transition to a producing one, an increase in the population and the accumulation of rational experience) and the formation of fundamentally important sectors of the economy - agriculture, pottery, weaving. In fact, these changes did not occur suddenly, but throughout the entire time from the beginning of the Mesolithic to the Paleometallic Age and at different periods in different territories. Therefore, the periodization of the Neolithic differs significantly in different

natural areas.

Let us cite as an example the periodization of the Neolithic for the most well-studied territories of Greece and Cyprus (according to A.L. Mongait, 1973). The Early Neolithic of Greece is represented by stone tools (of which large plates and scrapers are specific), bone tools, often polished (hooks, spatulas), ceramics - female figurines and dishes. Early female images are realistic, later ones are stylized. Vessels are monochrome (dark gray, brown or red), on round ones there are annular moldings around the bottom. Dwellings are semi-dugout, quadrangular, on wooden poles or with wattle walls coated with clay. Burials are individual, in simple pits, in a bent position on the side.

The Middle Neolithic of Greece (according to excavations in the Peloponnese, Attica, Euboea, Thessaly and other places) is characterized by mud-brick dwellings on a stone foundation of one to three rooms. Buildings of the megaron type are characteristic: a square interior room with a hearth in the middle, the protruding ends of two walls form an entrance portico, separated from the courtyard space by pillars. In Thessaly (the site of Sesklo) there were unfortified agricultural settlements forming telli. Pottery is thin, fired, with glaze, many spherical vessels. There are ceramic dishes: polished gray, black, tricolor and matte painted. Lots of fine clay figurines.

The Late Neolithic of Greece (4th-3rd millennium BC) is characterized by the appearance of fortified settlements (the village of Demini in Thessaly) with a "leader's dwelling" in the center of the acropolis measuring 6.5 x 5.5 m (the largest in the village).

In the Neolithic of Cyprus, features of the influence of the cultures of the Middle East are visible. The early period is dated to 5800-4500 BC. BC e. It is characterized by a round-ovoid shape of adobe houses up to 10 m in diameter, forming settlements (a typical settlement is Khirokitia). The inhabitants were engaged in agriculture and kept pigs, sheep, goats. They buried under the floor in houses, a stone was placed on the head of the deceased. Tools typical of the Neolithic: sickles, grain grinders, axes, hoes, arrows, along with them knives and bowls made of obsidian and stylized figurines of people and animals made of andesite. Ceramics of the most primitive forms (by the end of the 4th millennium, ceramics with comb ornaments appeared). Early Neolithic people in Cyprus artificially changed the shape of the skull.

In the second period from 3500 to 3150 BC. e. along with rounded buildings, quadrangular ones with rounded corners appear. Comb ornament pottery becomes common. Cemeteries are moved outside the village. Period from 3000 to 2300 BC. e. in the south of Cyprus, it belongs to the Eneolithic, the Copper-Stone Age, the period transitional to the Bronze Age: along with the predominant stone tools, the first copper products appear - jewelry, needles, pins, drills, small knives, chisels. Copper was found in Asia Minor in 8-7 millennium BC. e. Finds of copper products in Cyprus, apparently, the result of an exchange. With the advent of metal tools, they are increasingly replacing less effective stone ones, the zones of the productive economy are expanding, and the social differentiation of the population begins. The most characteristic pottery of this period is white and red with geometric and stylized floral ornaments.

Subsequent historical and cultural periods are characterized by the decomposition of the tribal system, the formation of an early class society and the most ancient states, which is the subject of study of written history.

8. The art of the ancient population of the Far East

9 Language, science, education in the state of BOHAI

Education, science and literature. In the capital of the Bohai State Sangyeong(modern Dongjingcheng, PRC) educational institutions were established in which mathematics, the basics of Confucianism and Chinese classical literature were taught. Many offspring of aristocratic families continued their education in China; this testifies to the widespread use of the Confucian system and Chinese literature. The education of Bohai students in the Tang Empire contributed to the consolidation of Buddhism and Confucianism in the Bohai environment. The Bohai, who were educated in China, made a brilliant career in their homeland: Ko Wongo* and O Gwangchang*, who spent many years in Tang China, became famous in the civil service.

The tombs of two Bohai princesses, Chong Hyo* and Chong He (737-777), were found in the PRC, on whose tombstones verses in ancient Chinese were carved; they are not only a literary monument, but also a brilliant example of calligraphic art. The names of several Bohai writers who wrote in Chinese are known, these are Yanthesa*, Wanhyoryom (? - 815), Inchon*, Chongso*, some of them visited Japan. Yanthes' works The milky way is so clear», « Night sound of laundry" And " The moon glows in a frosted sky” are distinguished by an impeccable literary style, and they are highly regarded in modern Japan.

A fairly high level of development of Bohai science, primarily astronomy and mechanics, is evidenced by the fact that in 859 the scientist from Bohai O Hyosin * visited Japan and presented one of the rulers with an astronomical calendar " sunmyeongnok» / «Code of heavenly bodies», having taught local colleagues how to use it. This calendar was used in Japan until the end of the 17th century.

Cultural and ethnic kinship ensured strong ties between the Bohai and United Silla, but the Bohai had active contacts with Japan as well. From the beginning of the VIII to the X century. 35 Bohai embassies visited Japan: the first was sent to the islands in 727, and the last one dates back to 919. Bohai ambassadors brought furs, medicines, fabrics with them, and took away handicrafts and fabrics of Japanese masters to the mainland. There are 14 known Japanese embassies in Bohai. As Japanese-Sillan ties deteriorated, the island nation began to send its embassies to China through Bohai territory. Japanese historians have come to the conclusion that there are close ties between Bohai and the so-called. "Okhotsk culture" on the east coast of Hokkaido.

From the beginning of the 8th century Buddhism is widely spread in Bohai, there is a lively construction of temples and monasteries, the foundations of some structures have survived to our time in the territory of Northeast China and the Primorsky Territory. The state brought the Buddhist clergy closer to itself, the social status of the clergy steadily increased not only in the spiritual sphere, but also among the ruling class. Some of them became important government officials, for example, the Buddhist monks Inchon and Chonso, who became famous as talented poets, were sent to Japan at one time with important diplomatic missions.

In the Russian Primorye, settlements and the remains of Buddhist temples dating back to the Bohai period are being actively studied. They found bronze and iron arrowheads and spears, ornamented bone objects, Buddhist figurines and many other material evidence of the highly developed Bohai culture.

For the preparation of official documents, the Bohai, as was customary in many countries of East Asia at that time, used Chinese hieroglyphic writing. They also used the ancient Turkic runic, that is, alphabetic writing.

10 Religious representation of the Bohai people

Shamanism was the most common type of religious worldview among the Bohais. Buddhism is spreading among the Bohai nobility and officials. In Primorye, the remains of five Buddhist idols of the Bohai time have already been discovered - at the Kraskinsky settlement in the Khasansky district, as well as Kopytinskaya, Abrikosovskaya, Borisovskaya and Korsakovskaya in the Ussuriysky district. During the excavation of these idols, many intact or fragmented statuettes of Buddha and body-satvas made of gilded bronze, stone and baked clay were found. Other objects of Buddhist worship were also found there.

11. Material culture of the Jurchens

The Jurchen-Udige, who formed the basis of the Jin Empire, led a sedentary lifestyle, which was reflected in the nature of the dwellings, which were above-ground wooden structures of a frame-pillar type with kans for heating. The canals were built in the form of chimneys longitudinal along the walls (one or three channels), which were covered with pebbles, limestone and carefully coated with clay from above.

Inside the dwelling there is almost always a stone mortar with a wooden pestle. Rarely, but there is a wooden mortar and a wooden pestle. Known in some dwellings are smelting forges, stone bearings of a pottery table.

The residential building, together with a number of outbuildings, constituted the estate of one family. Summer pile barns were built here, in which a family often lived in the summer.

In the XII - early XIII centuries. The Jurchens had a diversified economy: agriculture, cattle breeding, hunting*fishing.

Agriculture was provided with fertile lands and a variety of tools. Written sources mention watermelon, onion, rice, hemp, barley, millet, wheat, beans, leek, pumpkin, garlic. This means that field cultivation and gardening were widely known. Flax and hemp were grown everywhere. Linen for clothes was made from flax, sacking was made from nettle for various technological industries (tiles in particular). The scale of weaving production was large, which means that land areas for industrial crops were allotted on a large scale (History of the Far East of the USSR, pp. 270-275).

But the basis of agriculture was the production of grain crops: soft wheat, barley, chumiza, kaoliang, buckwheat, peas, soybeans, beans, cowpea, rice. Plowed land cultivation. Arable implements - ralas and plows - draft. But plowing the land required more careful processing, which was done with hoes, shovels, ice picks, pitchforks. A variety of iron sickles were used for harvesting grain. The finds of straw cutter knives are interesting, which indicates a high level of fodder preparation, that is, not only grass (hay), but also straw was used. The grain-growing economy of the Jurchens is rich in tools for hulling, crushing and grinding cereals: wooden and stone mortars, foot groats; written documents mention water hullers; and along with them - foot. There are numerous hand mills, and a mill driven by draft cattle was found at the Shaygin settlement.

Animal husbandry was also an important branch of the Jurchen economy. Cattle, horses, pigs and dogs were bred. Jurchen cattle are well known for many virtues: strength, productivity (both meat and dairy).

Horse breeding was perhaps the most important branch of animal husbandry. The Jurchens bred three breeds of horses: small, medium and very small in height, but all very adapted to movement in the mountain taiga. The level of horse breeding is evidenced by the developed production of horse harness. In general, it can be concluded that in the era of the Jin Empire in Primorye, an economic and cultural type of arable farmers developed with developed agriculture and animal husbandry, for that time highly productive, corresponding to the classical types of agrarian-type feudal societies.

The Jurchen economy was significantly supplemented by a highly developed handicraft industry, in which the leading place was occupied by iron (ore mining and iron smelting), blacksmithing, carpentry and pottery, where the main production was tiles. Handicrafts were supplemented by jewelry, weapons, leather and many other types of occupations. Weapons have reached a particularly high level of development: the production of bows with arrows, spears, daggers, swords, as well as a number of defensive weapons.

12. Spiritual culture of the Jurchens

Spiritual life, the worldview of the Jurchen-Udige represented an organic fused system of religious ideas of an archaic society and a number of new Buddhist components. Such a combination of archaic and new in the worldview is characteristic of societies with an emerging class structure and statehood. The new religion, Buddhism, was practiced primarily by the new aristocracy: state and military

tip.

The traditional beliefs of the Jurchen-Udige included many elements in their complex: animism, magic, totemism; anthropomorphized ancestor cults are gradually intensifying. Many of these elements were fused in shamanism. Anthropomorphic figurines, expressing the ideas of the cult of ancestors, are genetically related to the stone statues of the Eurasian steppes, as well as to the cult of patron spirits and the cult of fire. The cult of fire had a wide

spreading. It was sometimes accompanied by human sacrifices. Of course, sacrifices of a different type (animals, wheat and other products) were widely known. One of the most important elements of the cult of fire was the sun, which found expression in a number of archaeological sites.

Researchers have repeatedly emphasized the significant impact on the culture of the Jurchens of the Amur and Primorye culture of the Turks. Moreover, sometimes it is not only about the introduction of some elements of the spiritual life of the Turks into the environment of the Jurchens, but about the deep ethnogenetic roots of such ties. This allows us to see in the culture of the Jurchens the eastern region of a single and very powerful world of steppe nomads, which took shape in a peculiar way in the conditions of the coastal and Amur forests.

13. Writing and education of the Jurchens

Writing --- Jurchen script (Jur.: Jurchen script in Jurchen script.JPG dʒu ʃə bitxə) is the script used to write the Jurchen language in the 12th-13th centuries. It was created by Wanyan Xiyin on the basis of the Khitan script, which, in turn, is derived from Chinese, partially deciphered. Part of the Chinese script family

There were about 720 signs in the Jurchen script, among which there are logograms (they denote only meaning, not related to sound) and phonograms. Jurchen script also has a key system similar to Chinese; signs were sorted by keys and the number of features.

At first, the Jurchens used the Khitan script, but in 1119 Wanyan Xiyin created the Jurchen script, which later became known as the "big script", since it included about three thousand characters. In 1138, a "small letter" was created, costing several hundred characters. By the end of the XII century. the small letter superseded the big one. The Jurchen script is undeciphered, although scientists know about 700 characters from both letters.

The creation of the Jurchen script is an important event in life and culture. It demonstrated the maturity of the Jurchen culture, made it possible to turn the Jurchen language into the state language of the empire, and create original literature and a system of images. The Jurchen script is poorly preserved, mainly various stone steles, printed and handwritten works. Very few handwritten books have survived, but there are many references to them in printed books. The Jurchens also actively used the Chinese language, in which quite a few works have been preserved.

The available material allows us to speak about the originality of this language. In the XII-XIII centuries, the language reached a fairly high level of development. After the defeat of the Golden Empire, the language fell into decline, but did not disappear. Some words were borrowed by other peoples, including the Mongols, through whom they entered the Russian language. These are such words as “shaman”, “bridle”, “bit”, “cheers”. Jurchen war cry "Hurrah!" means ass. As soon as the enemy turned around and began to flee from the battlefield, the front soldiers shouted "Hurrah!", letting the rest know that the enemy turned his back and he must be pursued.

Education --- At the beginning of the existence of the Golden Empire, education had not yet acquired national significance. During the war with the Khitan, the Jurchens used every means to get Khitan and Chinese teachers. The famous Chinese educator Hong Hao, having spent 19 years in captivity, was an educator and teacher in a noble Jurchen family in the Pentacity. The need for competent officials forced the government to deal with education. Poetry was taken at bureaucratic exams. All willing men (even the sons of slaves) were allowed to take the exams, except for slaves, imperial artisans, actors and musicians. To increase the number of Jurchens in administrations, the Jurchens took a less difficult exam than the Chinese.

In 1151 the State University was opened. Two professors, two teachers and four assistants worked here, later the university was enlarged. Higher educational institutions began to be created separately for the Chinese and Jurchens. In 1164, they began to create a State Institute for the Jurchens, designed for three thousand students. Already in 1169, the first hundred students were released. By 1173 the Institute began to operate at full capacity. In 1166, an institute for the Chinese was opened, in which 400 students studied. Education at the university and institutes had a humanitarian bias. The main attention was paid to the study of history, philosophy and literature.

During the reign of Ulu, schools began to open in the regional cities, from 1173 - Jurchen, only 16, and from 1176 - Chinese. The school accepted after passing the exams on the recommendations. The students lived fully. Each school had an average of 120 students. There was such a school in Suiping. Small schools were opened in the centers of the districts, 20-30 people studied in them.

In addition to higher (university, institute) and secondary (school), there was primary education, about which little is known. During the reign of Ulu and Madage, urban and rural schools developed.

A large number of textbooks were printed by the university. There is even a manual that served as cheat sheets.

The recruitment system for students was graded and class based. Noble children were first recruited for a certain number of places, then less noble ones, etc., if there were places left, they could recruit children of commoners.

Since the 60s of the XII century. education becomes the most important concern of the state. When in 1216, during the war with the Mongols, officials proposed to remove students from allowances, the emperor firmly rejected this idea. After the wars, schools were the first to be restored.

It can be unequivocally stated that the Jurchen nobility was literate. Inscriptions on pottery suggest that literacy was widespread among the common people as well.

22. Religious representations of the Far East

The basis of the beliefs of the Nanais, Udeges, Orochs and, to some extent, the Tazes was the universal idea that all the surrounding nature, the whole living world, is filled with souls and spirits. The religious ideas of the Taz differed from the rest in that they had a large percentage of the influence of Buddhism, the Chinese cult of ancestors and other elements of Chinese culture.

The Udege, Nanai and Orochi initially represented the earth in the form of a mythical animal: an elk, a fish, a dragon. Then gradually these ideas were replaced by an anthropomorphic image. And finally, numerous and powerful master spirits of the area began to symbolize the earth, taiga, sea, rocks. Despite the common basis of beliefs in the spiritual culture of the Nanais, Udeges and Orochs, some special moments can be noted. So, the Udege believed that the formidable spirit Onku was the owner of the mountains and forests, whose assistant was less powerful spirits-owners of certain areas of the area, as well as some animals - a tiger, a bear, an elk, an otter, a killer whale. Among the Orochs and Nanais, the spirit of Enduri, borrowed from the spiritual culture of the Manchus, was the supreme ruler of all three worlds - the underground, earthly and heavenly. The master spirits of the sea, fire, fish, etc. obeyed him. The spirit of the owner of the taiga and all animals, except for bears, was the mythical tiger Dusya. The greatest reverence in our time for all the indigenous peoples of the Primorsky Territory is the master spirit of the fire Pudja, which is undoubtedly associated with the antiquity and wide spread of this cult. Fire, as a giver of heat, food, life, was a sacred concept for indigenous peoples, and a lot of prohibitions, rituals and beliefs are still associated with it. However, for different peoples of the region, and even for different territorial groups of the same ethnic group, the visual image of this spirit was completely different in terms of gender, age, anthropological and zoomorphic features. Spirits played a huge role in the life of the traditional society of the indigenous peoples of the region. Almost the entire life of an aboriginal was previously filled with rituals either appeasing good spirits or protecting them from evil spirits. Chief among the latter was the powerful and omnipresent evil spirit Amba.

The rituals of the life cycle of the indigenous peoples of Primorsky Krai were basically common. Parents protected the life of an unborn child from evil spirits and subsequently until the moment when a person can take care of himself or with the help of a shaman. Usually, the shaman was approached only when the person himself had already used unsuccessfully all rational and magical methods. The life of an adult was also surrounded by numerous taboos, rituals and rituals. Funeral rites were aimed at ensuring as much as possible the comfortable existence of the soul of the deceased in the afterlife. To do this, it was necessary to observe all the elements of the funeral ritual and provide the deceased with the necessary tools, means of transportation, a certain supply of food, which the soul should have had enough to travel to the afterlife. All things left with the deceased were deliberately spoiled in order to free their souls and so that in the other world the deceased would get everything new. According to the ideas of the Nanai, Udege and Oroch people, the human soul is immortal and after a while, having reincarnated into the opposite sex, it returns to its native camp and inhabits the newborn. The representations of the basins are somewhat different and according to them, a person has not two or three souls, but ninety-nine, which die one by one. The type of burial among the indigenous peoples of Primorsky Krai in traditional society depended on the type of death of a person, his age, gender, and social status. So, the funeral rite, and the design of the grave of twins and shamans differed from the burial of ordinary people.

In general, shamans played a huge role in the life of the traditional society of the region's aborigines. Depending on their skill, shamans were divided into weak and strong. In accordance with this, they had various shamanic costumes and numerous attributes: a tambourine, a mallet, mirrors, staves, swords, ritual sculpture, ritual structures. Shamans were deeply believing in spirits people who set the goal of their lives to serve and help their relatives free of charge. A charlatan, or a person who wanted to receive any benefits from shamanic art in advance, could not become a shaman. Shamanic rituals included rituals for treating the sick, searching for the missing thing, obtaining commercial prey, seeing off the soul of the deceased to the afterlife. In honor of their helper spirits and patron spirits, as well as to reproduce their strength and authority in front of their relatives, strong shamans held a thanksgiving ceremony every two or three years, which was similar in its basis among the Udege, Oroch and Nanais. The shaman with his retinue and with everyone who wished toured his “domains”, where he entered every dwelling, thanked the good spirits for their help and drove out the evil ones. The rite often acquired the significance of a folk public holiday and ended with a plentiful feast at which the shaman could only eat small pieces from the ear, nose, tail and liver of the sacrificial pig and rooster.

Another important holiday of the Nanai, Udege and Orochs was the bear holiday, as the most striking element of the bear cult. According to the ideas of these peoples, the bear was their sacred relative, the first ancestor. Due to its outward resemblance to a man, as well as natural intelligence and cunning, the bear has been equated with a deity since ancient times. In order to once again strengthen family relations with such a powerful creature, as well as to increase the number of bears in the fishing grounds of the clan, people organized a celebration. The holiday was held in two versions - a feast after killing a bear in the taiga and a holiday arranged after a three-year bear rearing in a special log cabin in the camp. The last option among the peoples of Primorye existed only among the Orochs and Nanais. Numerous guests from neighboring and distant camps were invited. At the festival, a number of gender and age prohibitions were observed when eating sacred meat. Certain parts of the bear carcass were kept in a special barn. Like the subsequent burial of the skull and bones of the bear after the feast, this was necessary for the future rebirth of the beast and, therefore, the continuation of good relations with the supernatural relative. The tiger and killer whale were also considered similar relatives. These animals were treated in a special way, worshiped and never hunted. After accidentally killing a tiger, he was given a funeral ceremony similar to a human one, and then the hunters came to the burial place and asked for good luck.

An important role was played by thanksgiving rituals in honor of good spirits before leaving for the hunt and directly at the place of hunting or fishing. Hunters and fishermen treated good spirits with pieces of food, tobacco, matches, a few drops of blood or alcohol and asked for help so that the right animal would meet, so that the spear would not break or the trap would work well, so as not to break a leg in a windbreak, so that the boat would not capsize, so as not to meet the tiger. Nanai, Udege and Oroch hunters built small structures for such ritual purposes, and also brought treats for the spirits under a specially chosen tree or on a mountain pass. Tazy used for this purpose joss-houses of the Chinese type. However, the influence of the neighboring Chinese culture was also experienced by the Nanai and the Udege.

23. Mythology of the indigenous peoples of the Far East

The general worldview of primitive peoples, their idea of the world is expressed in various rituals, superstitions, forms of worship, etc., but mainly in myths. Mythology is the main source of knowledge of the inner world, the psychology of primitive man, his religious views.

Primitive people in the knowledge of the world set themselves certain limits. Everything that primitive man knows, he considers based on real facts. All "primitive" people are animists by nature, according to them, everything in nature has a soul: both man and stone. That is why the rulers of human destinies and the laws of nature are their spirits.

The most ancient scientists consider myths about animals, about celestial phenomena and luminaries (sun, moon, stars), about the flood, myths about the origin of the universe (cosmogonic) and man (anthropogonic).

Animals are the protagonists of almost all primitive myths in which they speak, think, communicate with each other and with people, and perform actions. They act either as the ancestors of man, or as the creators of the earth, mountains, rivers.

According to the ideas of the ancient inhabitants of the Far East, the Earth in ancient times did not look like it does now: it was completely covered with water. To this day, myths have survived in which a tit, duck or loon get a piece of land from the bottom of the ocean. The earth is put on water, it grows, and people settle on it.

The myths of the peoples of the Amur region tell about the participation in the creation of the world of a swan and an eagle.

The mammoth is a powerful creature that transforms the face of the Earth in Far Eastern mythology. He was represented as a very large (like five or six elks) animal, causing fear, surprise and respect. Sometimes in myths, the mammoth acts in conjunction with a giant serpent. Mammoth gets so much from the bottom of the ocean

land to be sufficient for all people. The serpent helps him level the ground. Rivers flowed along the writhing traces of his long body, and where the earth remained untouched, mountains formed, where the mammoth's foot stepped or lay the body of a mammoth, deep depressions remained. So ancient people tried to explain the features of the earth's relief. It was believed that the mammoth is afraid of the sun's rays, so it lives underground, and sometimes at the bottom of rivers and lakes. It was associated with landslides of the coast during floods, cracking of ice during ice drift, even earthquakes. One of the most common images in Far Eastern mythology is the image of an elk (deer). This is understandable. The elk is the largest and strongest animal in the taiga. Hunting for him served as one of the main sources of existence of the ancient hunting tribes. Terrible and powerful is this beast, the second (after the bear) owner of the taiga. According to the ideas of the ancients, the Universe itself was a living being and was identified with the images of animals.

The Evenks, for example, have preserved the myth of a cosmic moose living in the sky. Running out of the celestial taiga, the elk sees the sun, hooks it on its horns and takes it into the thicket. Eternal night falls on the earth. They are scared, they don't know what to do. But one brave hero, putting on winged skis, sets off on the trail of the beast, overtakes him and strikes him with an arrow. The hero returns the sun to people, but he himself remains in the sky the keeper of the star. Since then, it seems that the change of day and night has been going on on earth. Every evening, the elk takes the sun away, and the hunter overtakes him and returns the day to people. The constellation Ursa Major is associated with the image of the elk, and the Milky Way is considered the trail of the hunter's winged skis. The connection between the image of an elk and the sun is one of the most ancient ideas of the inhabitants of the Far East about space. Evidence of this is the rock carvings of Sikochi-Alyan.

The inhabitants of the Far Eastern taiga elevated the horned mother moose deer (deer) to the rank of the creator of all living things. Being underground, at the roots of the world tree, she gives birth to animals and people. The inhabitants of the coastal regions saw the common progenitor as a walrus mother, both an animal and a woman.

Ancient man did not separate himself from the outside world. Plants, animals, birds were for him the same creatures as he himself. It is no coincidence that therefore primitive people considered them their ancestors and relatives.

Folk decorative art occupied an important place in the life and way of life of the natives. It reflected not only the original aesthetic worldview of peoples, but also social life, the level of economic development and interethnic, intertribal ties. The traditional decorative art of the peoples has deep roots in the land of their ancestors.

A vivid evidence of this is the monument of ancient culture - petroglyphs (drawings-scribbles) on the rocks of Sikachi-Alyan. The art of the Tungus-Manchus and Nivkhs reflected the environment, aspirations, creative imagination of hunters, fishermen, gatherers of herbs and roots. The original art of the peoples of the Amur and Sakhalin has always delighted those who came into contact with it for the first time. The Russian scientist L. I. Shrenk was very impressed by the ability of the Nivkhs (Gilyaks) to make crafts from different metals, decorate their weapons with figures made of red copper, brass, and silver.

A great place in the art of the Tungus-Manchus and Nivkhs was occupied by cult sculpture, the material for which was wood, iron, silver, grass, straw, combined with beads, beads, ribbons, and fur. Researchers note that only the peoples of the Amur and Sakhalin were able to make amazingly beautiful applications on fish skin, paint birch bark, and wood. The art of the Chukchi, Eskimos, Koryaks, Itelmens, and Aleuts reflected the life of a hunter, a sea St. John's wort, and a tundra reindeer breeder. For many centuries they have achieved perfection in walrus bone carving, carving on bone plates depicting dwellings, boats, animals, scenes of hunting for a sea animal. The famous Russian explorer of Kamchatka, academician S.P. Krasheninnikov, admiring the skill of the ancient peoples, wrote: “Of all the work of these other peoples, which they do very cleanly with stone knives and axes, nothing was more surprising to me than a walrus bone chain ... She consisted of rings, similar to chiseled smoothness, and was made from one tooth; her upper rings were larger, the lower ones smaller, and her length was a little less than half a yard. I can safely say that, in terms of the purity of work and art, no one would consider another for the labors of a wild Chukchi and made with a stone tool.

Stone Age

Chron. framework: 3 million years ago 6-5 thousand years ago in Europe).

Periodization:

1. Paleolithic

2. Mesolithic

3. Neolithic

primary cleavage and subsequent secondary stone processing.

Ages of the Paleolithic:

Cenozoic era:

1) Paleogene

Paleolithic:

Major glaciations:

1) Danube (2-1 million years ago)

The Stone Age correlates with geological periods:

o PLEISTOCENE

o HOLOCENE

Mousterian tools (120 thousand years ago - 40 thousand years BC) - Middle Paleolithic

The most common technique is Levallois (characterized by the chipping of flakes and blades from a specially prepared disk-shaped core). Upholstery and retouching are used as secondary processing.

The era is characterized by the improvement of stone splitting techniques, as evidenced by the various forms of Mousterian cores:

1) disc-shaped

2) tortoiseshell (Levallois)

3) amorphous

4) protoprismatic (prismatic will appear in the Upper Paleolithic)

Types of blanks for splitting / splitting of cores: flakes and plates

There is an expansion of the set of stone products, and it was then the use of bone as a raw material for the manufacture of tools begins

Main types of guns:

1) scrapers

2) points

3) scrapers

5) punctures

7) awl

9) retouchers

A point is a massive almond-shaped/triangular stone product with straight or slightly convex, retouched edges. They were used for composite tools (in the Upper Paleolithic) and for other economic purposes.

A scraper is a large product with one or more working edges. Designed for processing leather / skins / wood.

Upper Paleolithic tools (40 thousand years BC - 12-10 thousand years BC)

stone tools

Basic techniques:

1) prismatic splitting technique (blanks from a prismatic core), giving blanks of a more regular shape - plates (economical consumption of material) - primary blank

2) grinding

3) polishing

4) sawing

5) microlithic technique (mainly for liners) (secondary processing)

Moreover, the processing of the tusk bone is being improved, and the set of tools is also expanding (about 200 types in total).

Main stone tools:

1) dentate-notched

2) punctures

3) cutters (a massive cutting edge formed by chipping planes converging at an acute angle; with such a cutter it was easier to cut wood, bone and horn, saw through deep grooves in them and make cuts, successively removing one chip after another)

4) scrapers (a convex blade treated with a scraper retouch)

5) points (a group determined by the presence of a sharply retouched end)

6) composite tools (made by combining liners and the main part of the tool)

7) daggers; knives with concave blades

bone tools

Basic processing techniques: cutting / cutting with a chisel or knife / drilling

Bone tools:

2) harpoons

3) punctures with a dedicated stinger

4) needles / needle cases

5) bow and arrow

Genus Australopithecus

australopithecines - These are highly developed bipedal creatures that lived in East and South Africa from 5-6 to 1 million years ago. years ago.

Characteristics of Australopithecus:

1. There are gracile (small) and massive forms A. Brain volume - 435 - 600 cc. and 848 cc. resp. Weight - 30-40 kg. Height - 120 -130cm.

2. Note. trait A. - bipedia, i.e. walking on two legs (unlike modern and fossil primates).

In Vost. In Africa, not far from the Olduvai Gorge, footprints of 3 Australopithecus were found, which passed along the slope more than 3 million years ago.

3. Were nomads. Collected plants and their fruits. They hunted insects and small animals (competitors - baboons and wild pigs).

4. They didn’t make fire, they didn’t make tools, BUT they used sharp. sticks, stones, etc. for getting and crushing food.

5. Small size, small fangs and claws, low movement speed. made them easy prey for large predators.

Types of Australopithecus:

1. australopithecine africanus(A. Africanus).

Ø Finds: South Africa (Makapasgat, Shterfontein, Tong), East Africa (Omo River, Koobi-Fora site, Olduvai Gorge).

Ø Lived about 3-2.5 million years ago.

Ø Max. similarity with the genus Homo: the structure of the teeth and skull.

2. Australopithecus amanis(A. Anamensis) and Australopithecus afarensis(A. afarensis).

Ø Finds: East Africa.

Ø Lived about 4 million years ago

Ø Max. similarity with the genus Homo: the structure of the limbs

Danube 2-1 million years ago

Settlements and cities

Characteristic of the entire era BIG SETTLEMENT population than in the Mesolithic era. A number of dwellings built from materials that were in the immediate environment have been discovered:

1) Southern regions - buildings made of mud bricks

2) Mountains - dwellings made of stone

3) Forest zone - dugouts / semi-dugouts

4) Steppes / forest-steppes - the prototypes of huts and huts

During this era, there THE FIRST FORTIFIED SETTLEMENTS in order to accumulate food stocks and the need to protect them. If the settlement occupied an advantageous position in relation to others, then it could become an important administrative and economic center, and later become a proto-city (Jericho, Chatal-Guyuk).

1) Jericho (7 thousand years BC) - surrounded by seven-meter walls and defensive towers; in the walls - arrows the city was besieged and destroyed. Then it was rebuilt and still exists today.

2) Chatal-Guyuk (Anatolia, Turkey) - a settlement consisting of large adobe buildings, decorated with ornamental and zoomorphic motifs. There are public buildings.

In Europe, settlements are rare, they are mainly known in the southern regions and the Balkans.

Ceramics

Ceramics is the most important invention of the Neolithic. The origin cannot be attributed to any one center, it probably happened independently in a number of places.

Local clays + lean impurities (talc / asbestos / sand / crushed shell) = ceramic dough.

2 ways to make a vessel:

1) Knockout

2) The technique of molding - sequential attachment in rings or in a spiral, increasing the height of the product.

Burials

This era is characterized by the "standardization" of the funeral rite, i.e. stable forms of corpses, burial structures, sets of grave goods appear stable mindset. Naturally, they differed in societies that led different economic lives.

	Peculiarities	grave goods	Corpse position	Examples
Dnieper-Donets culture	Mariupol-type cemeteries - long trenches in which people are buried	Jewelry in the form of beads made of plates in the form of mother-of-pearl, bone jewelry, polished hatchets and adzes	Corpses lie stretched out on their backs	Mariupol burial ground (belongs to the Eneolithic!)
Burials of farmers	Associated with residential objects, known to all ancient farmers, the burials do not allow us to talk about social stratification (only in the late Neolithic, burials with a “rich” inventory rarely appear.	Ceramic vessels and decorations	The corpses lie under the floors of the dwellings, the poses resemble a person sleeping on their side. Burials are never massive	Burial regions: Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Balkans, Central Asia, Central and South-Eastern Europe
Burials of hunter-fisher-gatherers	2 types of burials: 1) individual burials in the sites 2) burial grounds outside the sites	Few: 1) stone/bone tools 2) hunting weapons 3) decorations made from shells or drilled fangs of animals 4) small zoomorphic figures	Corpse position in soil pits; the postures of the buried vary from straightened to crouched.	Sakhtysh, Tamula, Zviyenki - in the forest zone

Neolithic art

The cult of fertility - appears in the southern regions, where the tribes have already switched to a productive economy. Genetically, they are associated with maternal and tribal veneration, but the image of a woman becomes more conventional.

Solar cult - associated with solar signs, images of the solar boat, stories about the struggle of the sun with monsters. It is important for farmers, because the calendar cycle of work was timed to coincide with the annual cycle of the sun.

Directions of Neolithic art

Paleolithic art

Art of small forms Monumental art Applied art

Figurines Figurines

Answers to the colloquium (part 1)

Stone Age

Question 1. Periodization and chronology of the Stone Age.

Chron. framework: 3 million years ago(the time of isolation of man from the animal world) - before the appearance of metal (8-9 thousand years ago in the Ancient East and around 6-5 thousand years ago in Europe).

Periodization:

1. Paleolithic- the ancient stone age - (3 million years BC - 10 thousand years BC).

2. Mesolithic- medium - (10-9 thousand - 7 thousand years BC).

3. Neolithic- new - (6-5 thousand - 3 thousand years BC).

Such periodization is associated with changes in the stone industry: each period is characterized by peculiar techniques primary cleavage and subsequent secondary stone processing.

Ages of the Paleolithic:

1) Lower Paleolithic - Olduvai (3 million - 800 thousand years ago) and Acheulean (800 - 120 thousand years ago)

2) Middle Paleolithic - Mousterian (120-40 thousand years ago)

3) Upper (new, late) Paleolithic (40 thousand years ago - 10 thousand years BC).

Olduvai is a gorge in Africa, Acheul and Mousterian are monuments in France.

Cenozoic era:

1) Paleogene

3) Anthropogen or Quaternary period (Pleistocene and Holocene)

Paleolithic:

1) Final Pliocene (up to 2 million years ago)

2) Eopleistocene (2 million - 800 thousand years ago)

3) Pleistocene (800-700 - 10 thousand years BC)