Why is a Cro-Magnon called a reasonable person. The emergence of speech among Cro-Magnons

Introduction 3

1. Characteristics of the settlement of Cro-Magnons 4

2. Cro-Magnon lifestyle 9

Conclusion 28

References 29

Introduction

The origin of man and subsequent racial genesis are rather mysterious. Nevertheless, the scientific discoveries of the past two centuries have helped somewhat lift the veil over the mystery. It is now firmly established that in the conditionally called "prehistoric" era, two types of people lived in parallel on earth - homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthal man) and homo cromagnonis, which is also commonly called homo sapiens-sapiens (Cro-Magnon man or reasonable man). Neanderthal man was first discovered in 1857 in the Neander Valley near Düsseldorf. Cro-Magnon man - in 1868 in the Cro-Magnon grotto in the French province of Dordogne. Since the first discoveries of the two types of ancient people mentioned, numerous more finds of them have been made, which have provided new material for scientific developments.

Preliminary conclusions from scientific discoveries. Judging by basic anthropometric characteristics and genetic analysis, Cro-Magnon man is almost identical to the modern species Homo sapiens-sapiens and is believed to be the immediate ancestor of the Caucasoid race.

This work aims to give a general description of the way of life of the Cro-Magnons.

For this, the following tasks are set:

Describe the settlement of Cro-Magnons.

Consider the lifestyle of the Cro-Magnons.

The work consists of an introduction, two chapters, a conclusion and a list of references.

Characteristics of the settlement of Cro-Magnons

By 30 thousand BC. e. Cro-Magnon groups have already begun moving east and north in search of new hunting grounds. By 20 thousand BC. e. migration to Europe and Asia has reached such proportions that in the newly developed areas, the number of game began to gradually decline.

People were desperately looking for new food sources. Under the pressure of circumstances, our distant ancestors could well become omnivorous again, eating both plant and animal food. It is known that it was then that for the first time people turned to the sea in search of food.

The Cro-Magnons became more inventive and creative, creating more elaborate dwellings and clothing. Innovations allowed groups of Cro-Magnons to hunt new types of game in the northern regions. By 10 thousand BC. e. Cro-Magnons spread to all continents, with the exception of Antarctica. Australia was inhabited 40 - 30 thousand years ago. After 5-15 thousand years, groups of hunters crossed the Bering Strait, getting from Asia to America. These later and more complex communities preyed primarily on large animals. Cro-Magnon hunting methods gradually improved, as evidenced by a large number of animal bones discovered by archaeologists. In particular, in Solutre, a place in France, the remains of more than 10,000 horses were found. In Dolni Vestonice in the Czech Republic, archaeologists have unearthed a large number of mammoth bones. According to a number of archaeologists, since the migration of people to America, which occurred about 15 thousand years ago, in less than one millennium, most of the fauna of North and South America was destroyed. The ease with which the Aztec civilization was defeated by the Spanish conquistadors is explained by the horror that gripped the foot Aztec soldiers at the sight of mounted warriors. The Aztecs had never seen horses before: even during the early migrations from northern to central America, their ancestors exterminated all the wild horses that lived on the American prairies in search of food. They did not even imagine that these animals can be used not only as a source of food.

The resettlement of Cro-Magnons around the globe was called "the period of unconditional success of mankind." The impact of a carnivorous lifestyle on human development has been very significant. The migration of the most ancient peoples to areas with a more temperate climate stimulated genetic changes. The settlers had lighter skin, less massive bone structure, and straighter hair. The skeleton, especially among the Caucasian peoples, was formed slowly, and their light skin was more resistant to frost than dark. More bright skin also better absorbed vitamin D, vital for deficiency sunlight(in areas where days are shorter and nights are longer).

By the time when the man of the modern type was finally formed, the vast geographical expanses of the Earth had already been mastered. They were also inhabited by archanthropes and paleoanthropes, so that the Cro-Magnon man had only two empty continents to master - America and Australia. True, with regard to Australia, the question remains open. It is possible that it was inhabited by paleoanthropes, who contributed to the formation of the Australian neoanthrope. Most ancient skull in Australia found in the area of ​​the lake. Mungo, 900 km west of Sydney. The antiquity of this skull is 27-35 thousand years. Obviously, the beginning of human settlement in Australia should be attributed to this time. Although the skull from Mungo does not have a supraorbital ridge, it is very archaic - it has a sloping forehead and a sharp inflection of the occiput. It is possible that the Mungo skull represents a local variant of a paleoanthrope, and there is no reason to deny its participation in further development Homo sapiens on the Australian continent.

As for America, from time to time there is information about the discovery of very ancient skeletons on its territory, but all these finds are morphologically related to Homo sapiens. Thus, scientists argue about the time of the settlement of the American mainland, but they are unanimous that America was settled by a man of the modern type. Most likely, the settlement of the American continent took place approximately 25-20 thousand years ago along the Bering Sea Isthmus, which existed at that time on the site of the current Bering Strait.

The Cro-Magnon lived at the end of the ice age, or rather, at the end of the Wurm glaciation. Warming and cooling succeeded each other quite often (of course, on the scale of geological time), and the glaciers either retreated or advanced. If at that time the surface of the Earth could be observed from a spacecraft, it would resemble the multi-colored surface of a colossal soap bubble. Scroll through this period so that millennia fit into minutes, and silver-white ice fields creep forward like spilled mercury, but they are immediately thrown back by an unfolding carpet of green vegetation. Coastlines will waver like pennants in the wind as the blue of the ocean expands and contracts. Islands will rise from this blue and disappear into it again, like stones over which a stream is crossed, and it will be blocked by natural dams and dams, forming new ways for human resettlement. On one of these ancient routes, the Cro-Magnon traveled from present-day China to the north, to the cold expanses of Siberia. And from there he probably went overland through Beringia to North America. 1

Over many generations, people gradually moved to the northeast of Asia. They could go in two ways - from the depths of the Asian continent, from the territory of present-day Siberia, and along the Pacific coast, skirting the Asian continent from the east. Obviously, there were several waves of "settlers" from Asia to America. The earliest of them moved along the coast, and their origin is associated with the regions of Eastern and southeast Asia. Later Asian migrants moved from the interior of the Asian continent.

In America, people were met by the harsh expanses of Greenland, the sharply continental climate of North America, the tropical forests of the South American continent and the cold winds of Tierra del Fuego. Settling in new areas, a person adapted to new conditions, and as a result, local anthropological variants were formed. 2

The population density in the Cro-Magnon era was low - only 0.01-0.5 people per 1 sq. km. km, the number of groups was about 25-30 people. The entire population of the Earth at that time is estimated from several tens of thousands to half a million people. The territory of Western Europe was somewhat denser. Here, the population density was about 10 people per 1 km, and the entire population of Europe at the time the Cro-Magnons lived there was about 50 thousand people.

It would seem that the population density was very low, and human populations did not have to compete for food and water sources. However, in those days, man lived by hunting and gathering, and his "vital interests" included vast territories over which herds of ungulates roamed - main object hunting of an ancient man. The need to preserve and increase their hunting grounds forced a person to move further and further, to the still uninhabited areas of the planet.

The more advanced technology of Cro-Magnon man made available to him those sources of food that were unfamiliar to his predecessors. Hunting tools improved, and this expanded the Cro-Magnon's ability to hunt for new types of cottages. With meat food, people received new sources of energy. Feeding on nomadic herbivores, migratory birds, marine pinnipeds and fish, man, along with their meat, gained access to a very wide range of food resources.

Even greater opportunities were opened for Cro-Magnon man by the use of grains of wild-growing cereals for food. In North Africa, in the upper reaches of the Nile, 17 thousand years ago, people lived in whose diet, apparently, cereals played a significant role. Stone sickles and primitive grain graters have been preserved - limestone slabs with a shallow recess in the middle for grain and a recess in the form of a wide trough, along which flour was probably poured. Obviously, these people were already making bread - in the form of simple unleavened cakes baked on hot stones.

Thus, Cro-Magnon man ate much better than his predecessors. This could not but affect the state of his health and overall life expectancy. If for the Neanderthal the average life expectancy was about 25 years, then for the Cro-Magnon man it increased to 30-35 years, remaining at this level until the Middle Ages.

The dominance of the Cro-Magnons was the cause of their own downfall. They fell victim to their own success. Overcrowding soon led to the depletion of hunting areas. Long before this, herds of large animals in densely populated areas were almost completely destroyed. As a result, there was competition for limited food sources. The rivalry in turn led to war, and the war led to subsequent migrations.

Cro-Magnon lifestyle

For modern researchers, the most striking difference between the Cro-Magnon culture is a technological revolution in stone processing. The meaning of this revolution was a much more rational use of stone raw materials. Its economical use was of fundamental importance for ancient man, since it made it possible not to depend on natural sources of flint, carrying with it a small supply. If we compare the total length of the working edge of the product, which a person received from one kilogram of flint, you can see how much longer it is for the Cro-Magnon master compared to the Neanderthal and archanthropus. The oldest man from a kilogram of flint could make only from 10 to 45 cm of the working edge of the tool, the Neanderthal culture made it possible to obtain 220 cm of the working edge from the same amount of flint. As for the Cro-Magnon man, his technology turned out to be many times more effective - he received 25 m of working edge from a kilogram of flint.

The secret of the Cro-Magnon was the emergence of a new method of processing flint - the method of knife-shaped plates. The bottom line was that from the main piece of flint - the core - long and narrow plates were broken off, from which various tools were then made. The cores themselves had a prismatic shape with a flat upper face. The plates were broken off with a precise blow on the edge of the upper face of the core, or were pressed out with the help of bone or horn pushers. The length of the plates was equal to the length of the core - 25-30 cm, and their thickness was several millimeters. 3

The knife-blade method was probably of great help to hunters who went on multi-day expeditions to areas where not only flints, but also other fine-grained rocks were almost absent. They could take with them a supply of cores or plates, so that there would be something to replace the tips of spears that broke off during an unsuccessful throw or remained in the wound of an animal that managed to escape. And the edges of the flint knives, which cut through the joints and tendons, broke off and became dull. Thanks to the knife-blade method, new tools could be made on the spot.

The second important achievement of the Cro-Magnon was the development of new materials - bones and horns. These materials are sometimes referred to as Stone Age plastics. They are durable, ductile and free from such a disadvantage as fragility inherent in wood products. Obviously, the aesthetic appeal of bone products, from which beads, jewelry and figurines were made, also played an important role. In addition, the source of these materials was practically inexhaustible - they were the bones of the same animals that the Cro-Magnon man hunted.

The ratio of stone and bone tools immediately distinguishes the inventory of the Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon sites. Among Neanderthals, for every thousand stone tools, there are at best 25 bone products. At Cro-Magnon sites, bone and flint are equally represented, or even bone tools predominate.

With the advent of bone needles, awls and piercings, fundamentally new possibilities appeared in the processing of skins and in the manufacture of clothing. Large animal bones also served as building material for the dwellings of ancient hunters and as fuel for hearths. 4

The Cro-Magnon no longer depended on natural shelters such as caves and rock canopies. He built dwellings where he needed, and this created additional opportunities for long-distance migrations and the development of new lands.

The third achievement of the Cro-Magnons was the invention of fundamentally new hunting tools, unknown to his predecessors. These include, first of all, a bow and a spear thrower. Spear throwers increased the range of the spears of the ancient hunters, almost three times increasing their range and impact power, and played big role in the lives of ancient hunters. They were made, as a rule, from deer antlers, decorated with carved figures and patterns, and were often real works of art.

However, the spear thrower meant hunting in open spaces, where it was easy to frighten off prey and where the hunter himself remained unprotected in front of a wounded beast. The invention of the bow made it possible to hunt from cover, in addition, the arrow flew further and faster than the spear.

No less important for the Cro-Magnon man were the devices for catching fish - spears and fish braces, which is an analogue of a fishing hook. In South Africa, archaeologists have found small cylindrical stones with grooves that could be used as sinkers for fishing nets.

Further progressive development of culture in the Upper Paleolithic was expressed primarily in the improvement of methods for their manufacture. The finish of the guns has become more perfect, as the retouching technique is now improving. By pressing with force the end of an elastic bone stick or a flint wringer on the edge of a stone, a person quickly and deftly chipped (as if he was cutting off) one after another long and narrow flakes of flint. A new plate manufacturing technique is emerging. Previously, the plates were chipped from the disc-shaped core. Such a core was, in fact, a simple rounded pebble, from which flakes were removed, pounding it in a circle from the edges to the center. Now the plates were chipped off from the prismatic core.

Accordingly, the direction of the blows that separated the plates also changed. These blows were no longer applied obliquely, not obliquely, but vertically, from one end of the core to the other. Narrow and long blades of a new type, obtained from prismatic cores, made it possible to drastically change and expand the range of small stone tools that were required in conditions of an incomparably more developed way of life than before: scrapers different kind, points, punctures, various cutting tools. For the first time, flint tools appear, the working edges of which are, in principle, designed in the same way as modern steel cutters. This is usually a massive cutting edge formed by cleavage planes converging at an acute angle. With such a flint chisel, it was easier to cut wood, bone and horn, cut deep grooves in them and make cuts, successively removing one chip after another.

In the Upper Paleolithic, various bone spearheads and throwing weapons, including compound harpoons with teeth, first appear. During the excavations of the Meiendorf site, near Hamburg (Germany), harpoons and deer shoulder blades were found, pierced by such harpoons.

The most important event in the development of hunting weapons was the invention of the first mechanical device for throwing darts - a spear thrower (throwing board), which is a rod with a hook at the end. By lengthening the span of the arm, the spear thrower greatly increased thereby the force of impact and the range of the dart.

A variety of stone tools appeared for butchering carcasses and processing the skins of hunted animals, for making wooden and bone products.

In the Upper Paleolithic, the way of life of people became much more complicated, the structure of primitive community. Separate groups of Neanderthals were, in all likelihood, alien and even hostile to each other. Significant value for rapprochement different groups should have had the occurrence of exogamy, i.e. prohibition marital relations within the clan and the establishment of a permanent marriage relationship between representatives of different genera. The establishment of exogamy as a social institution, which testifies to the growing development and complication of social relations, can be attributed to the Upper Paleolithic time.

The increase in hunting productivity in the Upper Paleolithic contributed to an even clearer division of labor between men and women. Some were constantly engaged in hunting, while others, with the development of relative settledness (due to the same greater productivity of hunting), spent more time in the parking lots, leading the increasingly complicated group economy. Women in the conditions of more or less sedentary life made clothes, various utensils, collected edible and technical plants, for example, used for weaving, cooked food. It is also extremely important that it was the women who were mistresses in public dwellings, while their husbands were strangers here.

With the dominance of group marriage, characteristic of this stage of the tribal system, when the father is not exactly known, the children, of course, belonged to women, which increased the social role and influence on public affairs of the mother.

All this served as the basis for a new form of primitive communal relations - the maternal tribal community.

Direct indications of the design of the maternal clan at this time are, on the one hand, communal dwellings, and on the other hand, widespread images of women in which one can see images of female ancestors known from folklore, for example, among the Eskimos and Aleuts.

On the basis of the further complication of the social life of the Cro-Magnons, significant changes are taking place in all areas of their culture: there is already enough developed art, in labor practice a person accumulates experience and positive knowledge.

Thus, it was necessary to significantly change the general view of the life of the Cro-Magnon inhabitants not only of the Russian Plain, but of all of Europe. The Cro-Magnons used to be seen as wandering miserable savages, constantly moving from place to place, not knowing peace and more or less stable settlement. Now the general way of their life and their social system have been revealed in a new way.

An absolutely exceptional picture of the dwelling of ancient mammoth hunters in terms of expressiveness and scale was revealed, for example, in one of the numerous Kostenki settlements - in Kostenki I. Studying this place, archaeologists found out that bonfires, animal bones and flints processed by human hand filled the base of the ancient dwelling, outside of which finds were found only occasionally.

The ancient dwelling, unearthed in Kostenki I by excavations in 1931-1936, had an oval shape in plan. Its length was 35 m, width - 15-16 m. The living area thus reached a size of almost 600 square meters. m. With such a large size, the dwelling, of course, could not be heated by one hearth. In the center of the living area, along its long axis, symmetrically located hearth pits stretched at intervals of 2 m. There were 9 foci, each about 1 m in diameter. These hearths were topped with a thick layer of bone ash and charred bones used as fuel. Obviously, the inhabitants of the dwelling, before leaving it, launched their hearths and did not clean them for a long time. They also left unused reserves of fuel in the form of mammoth bones located near the hearths.

One of the hearths served not for heating, but for a completely different song. Pieces of brown iron ore and spherosiderite were fired in it, thus extracting mineral paint - bloodstone. This paint was used by the inhabitants of the settlement in such large quantities that the layer of earth that filled the recess of the dwelling was in places completely painted in red of various shades.

Another characteristic feature of the internal structure of the large dwellings in Kostenki I was also found. Large tubular mammoth bones, vertically dug into the ground, were found next to the hearths or somewhat away from them. Judging by the fact that the bones were covered with notches and notches, they served as a kind of "workbench" for the ancient masters.

The main living area was bordered by additional rooms - dugouts, located along its contour in the form of a ring. Two of them stood out among the others for their larger size and were located almost symmetrically on the right and left sides of the main dwelling. On the floor of both dugouts, the remains of fires that warmed these rooms were noticed. The roof of the dugouts had a frame made of large bones and mammoth tusks. The third large dugout was located at the opposite, far end of the living area and, obviously, served as a storage room for parts of the mammoth carcass. 5

A curious household touch here are also special pits - storage for especially valuable things. In such pits, sculptural images of women, animals, including a mammoth, a bear, a cave lion, decorations from molars and fangs of predators, mainly arctic fox, were found. In addition, in a number of cases, selected flint plates were found, lying several pieces together, large arrowheads of excellent quality, apparently deliberately hidden in specially dug recesses. Considering all this and noting that the figurines of women were broken, and mostly insignificant things turned out to be on the floor of the dwelling, one of the researchers of the Kostenkovo ​​sites, P.P. Efimenko, believes that the large dwelling of Kostenki I was abandoned "under emergency circumstances." In his opinion, the residents left their home, capturing all the most valuable things. They left in place only what was hidden in advance, including figurines. The enemies, having discovered the statuettes of women, broke them in order to destroy the tribal "patrons" of the Kostenkovo ​​community and cause even more damage to it.

Excavations in Kostenki thus revealed a picture of the domestic life of an entire community, which included dozens, and maybe hundreds of people who lived in a vast, already well-arranged by that time, complex common dwelling. This complex and at the same time harmonious picture of the ancient settlement clearly shows that in the life of its inhabitants there was a certain internal routine, which was built on the traditions inherited from previous generations, on the rules of behavior of its members strictly defined by necessity and custom. These traditions were based on the experience of collective labor activity, continuously growing over the course of millennia. The whole life of the Paleolithic community was based on the joint work of its members, on their common struggle with nature.

The most they have in their clothing is a more or less wide belt around the hips, or something like a wide triangular tail that falls behind, as can be seen on the famous figurine from Lespug (France). Sometimes it looks like a tattoo. Much attention was paid by women to the hairstyle, sometimes very complex and magnificent. Hair either falls down in a solid mass, or is collected in concentric circles. Sometimes they are arranged in zigzag vertical rows.

Inside their low and cramped semi-underground winter dwelling, the people of Cro-Magnon time, obviously, were naked or half-naked. Only outside the dwelling they appeared in clothes made of skins and a fur hood. In this form, they are presented in the works of Paleolithic sculptors - in fur clothes or naked with only one belt on the body.

Paleolithic figurines are interesting not only because they truly convey the appearance of the Cro-Magnons, but also because they represent the art of the Ice Age.

In labor, a person developed speech and thinking, learned to reproduce the forms of things he needed according to a predetermined plan, which was the main precondition for creative activity in the field of art. In the course of the development of social and labor activity, finally, specific needs arose that caused the birth of art as a special sphere. public consciousness and human activity.

In the Upper Paleolithic, as we see, the technique of hunting economy becomes more complicated. Homebuilding is born, takes shape new way life. In the course of the maturation of the tribal system, the primitive community becomes stronger and more complicated in its structure. Thinking and speech develop. The mental outlook of a person is immeasurably expanded and enriched spiritual world. Along with these general achievements in the development of culture, of great importance for the emergence and further growth of art was the specifically important circumstance that the upper Cro-Magnon man now began to widely use the bright colors of natural mineral paints. He also mastered new methods of processing soft stone and bone, which opened up before him previously unknown possibilities for conveying the phenomena of the surrounding reality in a plastic form - in sculpture and carving.

Without these prerequisites, without these technical achievements, born of direct labor practice in the manufacture of tools, neither painting nor the artistic processing of bone, which mainly represents the art of Cro-Magnons known to us, could have arisen.

The most remarkable and most important thing in the history of primitive art lies in the fact that from its first steps it went mainly along the path of truthful transmission of reality. The art of the Upper Cro-Magnons, taken in its best examples, is remarkable for its amazing fidelity to nature and accuracy in the transfer of vital, most significant features. Already in the early days of the Upper Cro-Magnons, in the Aurignacian monuments of Europe, examples of true drawing and sculpture, as well as cave paintings identical with them in spirit, are found. Their appearance, of course, was preceded by a certain preparatory period. 6

The deep archaism of the earliest cave images is reflected in the fact that the appearance of the most ancient of them, early Aurignacian, was caused at first glance by associations that seemed to accidentally flare up in the mind of a primitive man who noticed a similarity in the outlines of stones or rocks with the appearance of certain animals. But already in the Aurignacian time, next to the samples of archaic art, in which the natural resemblance and creativity of man are fancifully combined, such images were also widespread, which entirely owe their appearance to the creative imagination of primitive people.

All these archaic samples of ancient art are characterized by a pronounced simplicity of form and the same dryness of color. Paleolithic man at first limited himself to only coloring his contour drawings with strong and bright tones of mineral paints. It was quite natural in dark caves, dimly lit by barely burning wicks or by the fire of a smoky fire, where the halftones would be simply invisible. Cave drawings of that time are usually figures of animals, made with only one linear contour, outlined with red or yellow stripes, sometimes completely filled inside with round spots or filled with paint.

At the Madeleine stage, new progressive changes take place in the art of the Cro-Magnons, mainly in cave paintings. They are expressed in the transition from the simplest outline and smoothly filled with paint drawings to multi-color paintings, from a line and a smooth monochromatic color field to a spot that conveys the volume and shape of an object with different paint density, a change in tone strength. The simple, albeit colorful drawings of that time are now growing, therefore, into real cave painting with the transfer of the forms of the living body of the depicted animals, characteristic of its best examples, for example, in Altamira.

The vital, realistic nature of Cro-Magnon art is not limited to mastery in the static depiction of the shape of the body of animals. He found his most complete expression in the transmission of their dynamics, in the ability to grasp movements, to convey instantly changing specific poses and positions.

Despite all its truthfulness and vitality, the art of the Cro-Magnons remains fully primitive, truly infantile. It is fundamentally different from the modern one, where the artistic story is strictly limited in space. Cro-Magnon art does not know air and perspective in the true sense of the word; in these drawings, the ground is not visible under the feet of the figures. It also lacks composition in our sense of the word, as a deliberate distribution of individual figures on a plane. The best Cro-Magnon drawings are nothing more than instantaneous and frozen individual impressions with their characteristic amazing liveliness in the transmission of movements.

Even in those cases where large clusters of drawings are observed, no logical sequence, no definite semantic connection is found in them. Such, for example, is the mass of bulls in the painting of Altamira. The accumulation of these bulls is the result of repeated drawing of figures, their simple accumulation over a long time. The random nature of such combinations of figures is emphasized by the heaping of drawings on top of each other. Bulls, mammoths, deer and horses randomly lean on each other. More early drawings overlap with subsequent ones, barely translucent under them. This is not the result of a single creative effort of the thought of one artist, but the fruits of the uncoordinated spontaneous work of a number of generations, connected only by tradition.

Nevertheless, in some exceptional cases, especially in miniature works, in engravings on bone, and sometimes also in cave paintings, the rudiments of narrative art and, at the same time, a peculiar semantic composition of figures are found. First of all, these are group images of animals, meaning a herd or a herd. The emergence of such group drawings is understandable. An ancient hunter constantly dealt with herds of bulls, herds of wild horses, with groups of mammoths, which were for him the object of a collective hunt - a paddock. That is how, in the form of a herd, they were depicted in a number of cases.

There are in the art of the Cro-Magnons and the beginnings of a perspective image, however, very peculiar and primitive. As a rule, animals are shown from the side, in profile, and people are shown from the front. But there were certain techniques that made it possible to revive the drawing and bring it even closer to reality. So, for example, the bodies of animals are sometimes given in profile, and the head in front, with eyes to the viewer. On the images of a person, on the contrary, the torso was given in front, and the face in profile. There are cases when the animal is depicted from the front, schematically, but in such a way that only the legs and chest, branched deer antlers are visible, and the back is missing, closed by the front half of the body. Together with the plastic images of women, the art of the Upper Cro-Magnons is just as characteristic of sculptural images of animals, equally true to nature, made of mammoth tusk, bone, and even clay mixed with bone ash. These are the figures of a mammoth, bison, horses and other animals, including predators.

The art of the Cro-Magnons grew up on a certain social basis. It served the needs of society, was inextricably linked with a certain level of development of the productive forces and production relations. With a change in this economic basis, society changed, the superstructure changed, including art. Therefore, the art of Cro-Magnons can by no means be identical with realistic art. later eras. It is just as unique in its originality, in its primitive realism, as is the entire Cro-Magnon era that gave birth to it - this true "humanity's childhood". 7

The vitality and truthfulness of the best examples of Cro-Magnon art were primarily due to the peculiarities of working life and the worldview of Paleolithic people that grew out of it. The accuracy and sharpness of the observations reflected in the images of animals were determined by the daily labor experience of ancient hunters, whose whole life and well-being depended on knowledge of the lifestyle and nature of animals, on the ability to track them down and master them. Such knowledge of the animal world was a matter of life and death for primitive hunters, and penetration into the life of animals was such a characteristic and important part of the psychology of people that it colored their entire spiritual culture, starting, judging by the data of ethnography, from the animal epic and fairy tales, where animals perform the only or main characters, ending with rituals and myths in which people and animals represent one inseparable whole.

Cro-Magnon art gave people of that time satisfaction with the correspondence of images to nature, clarity and symmetrical arrangement of lines, strength colors these images.

Abundant and carefully executed decorations delighted the human eye. A custom arose to cover the simplest household items with ornaments and often give them sculptural forms. Such, for example, are daggers, the hilt of which is turned into a figurine of a deer or a goat, a spear-winder with the image of a partridge. The aesthetic nature of these adornments cannot be denied even in those cases when such adornments acquired a certain religious meaning and magical character.

The art of the Cro-Magnons was of great positive significance in the history of ancient mankind. Consolidating his work life experience in living images of art, primitive man deepened and expanded his ideas about reality and more deeply, comprehensively cognized it, and at the same time enriched his spiritual world. The emergence of art, which meant a huge step forward in human cognitive activity, at the same time largely contributed to the strengthening of social ties.

Monuments of primitive art testify to the development of human consciousness, about his life at that distant time. They also tell about the beliefs of primitive man. The fantastic notions from which the oldest religious beliefs of Stone Age hunters arose include the beginnings of reverence for the forces of nature and, above all, the cult of the beast.

The origin of the rude cult of the beast and hunting witchcraft was due to the importance of hunting as the main source of existence of the ancient people of this period, the real role that belonged to the beast in their daily life. The beasts took over from the start important place in the mind of primitive man and in primitive religion. 8

Transferring to the animal world the relations characteristic of primitive tribal communities, inextricably linked with each other by marriage unions and exogamous norms, primitive He also thought of this animal world as if in the form of a second and completely equal half of his own community. From this developed totemism, i.e., the idea that all members of a given genus are descended from a particular animal, plant, or other “totem” and are connected with this type of animal by an indissoluble bond. The very word totem, which entered science, was borrowed from the language of one of the North American Indian tribes - the Algonquins, in whom it means "his kind." Animals and people, according to totemic ideas, had common ancestors. Animals, if they wanted to, could take off their skins and become human beings. Giving people their own meat of their own free will, they died. But if people saved their bones and performed the necessary rituals, the animals returned to life again, thus “providing” an abundance of food, the well-being of the primitive community.

The first weak beginnings of such a primitive cult of the beast can be found, judging by the finds in Teshik-Tash and in the Alpine caves, possibly already at the end of the Mousterian time. Monuments clearly testify to its development. cave art the upper Cro-Magnon, whose content is almost exclusively images of animals: mammoths, rhinos, bulls, horses, deer, predators, such as a cave lion and a bear. In the first place, of course, are those animals, the hunting of which was the main source of food: ungulates.

To understand the meaning of these cave drawings, the conditions in which they are located are also important. In itself, the preservation of cave drawings is determined by the stable hygroscopic regime inside the caves, which are also isolated from the influence of temperature fluctuations that took place on the surface of the earth. The drawings are usually located at a considerable distance from the entrance, for example, in Nio (France) - at a distance of 800 m. The constant life of a person at such a distance from the entrance to the caves, in the depths, where eternal darkness and dampness reigned, of course, was impossible. To get into the most wonderful repositories of cave art, sometimes even now you have to make your way into the dark depths of the caves through narrow wells and crevices, often crawling, even swim across the underground rivers and lakes blocking the further path.

What thoughts and feelings guided the primitive sculptors and painters of the ancient Stone Age, their drawings show no less clearly. Here are bison with darts or harpoons stuck in them, animals covered with wounds, dying predators, whose blood is pouring from a wide-open mouth. Schematic drawings are visible on the figures of mammoths, which may depict hunting pits, which, as some researchers believe, served to catch these ice age giants.

The specific purpose of cave drawings is also evidenced by the characteristic overlap of some drawings on others, their multiplicity, showing that the images of animals were made, apparently, not forever, but only for one time, for one or another separate rite. This can be seen even more clearly on small, smooth tiles, where overlapping patterns often form a continuous grid of intersecting and completely tangled lines. Such pebbles must have been re-coated each time with red paint, on which the drawing was scratched. Thus, these drawings were made only for one specific moment, "lived" only once.

It is believed that female figurines of the Upper Cro-Magnons were also largely associated with witchcraft hunting rites. Their meaning is determined, according to these views, by the ideas of the ancient hunters who believed in a kind of "division of labor" between men who kill animals and women who, with their witchcraft, were supposed to "attract" animals under the blows of the hunters' spears. This assumption is well substantiated by ethnographic analogies.

At the same time, female figurines are, apparently, evidence of the existence of a cult of female spirits, characteristic of ancient communities with a maternal clan. This cult is well known according to the beliefs of various tribes, including not only agricultural, but also purely hunting ones, such as the Aleuts and Eskimos of the 17th-18th centuries. n. e., whose way of life, due to the harsh Arctic nature and hunting, showed the greatest similarity with the everyday life of Cro-Magnon hunters in the glacial regions of Europe and Asia. 9

The culture of these Aleutian and Eskimo tribes in its general development, of course, went far ahead in comparison with the culture of the upper Cro-Magnons, but it is more interesting that in their religious beliefs much has been preserved that helps to understand the ideas that the female Paleolithic figurines brought to life.

The development and nature of the primitive religious ideas and rituals that developed among the Cro-Magnons can also be judged from the Upper Paleolithic burials. The earliest Upper Cro-Magnon burials were found in the vicinity of Menton (Italy); they belong to the Aurignacian time. People who buried their dead relatives in Menton grottoes laid them in clothes lavishly decorated with sea shells, necklaces and bracelets made of shells, animal teeth and fish vertebrae. Flint plates and bone dagger-shaped points were found from tools with skeletons in Menton. The dead were covered in mineral red paint. So, in the Grimaldi caves in the vicinity of Menton, two skeletons were found - young men 15-17 years old and old women, laid on a cooled fire in a crouched position. On the skull of the young man, decorations from the headdress, consisting of four rows of drilled sea shells, survived. Bracelets made of the same shells were placed on the left hand of the old woman. Near the body of the young man were, in addition, flint plates. Above, but also still in the Aurignacian layer, lay two children's skeletons, in the pelvic region of which about a thousand drilled shells were found, apparently decorating the front of the clothes.

Cro-Magnon burials show that by that time it was customary to bury the dead with jewelry and tools that they used during life, with food supplies, and sometimes even with materials for making tools and weapons. From this we can conclude that at this time ideas about the soul are already emerging, as well as about the "land of the dead", where the deceased will hunt and lead the same life that he led in this world.

According to these ideas, death usually meant a simple departure of the soul from the human body to the "world of ancestors." The “Land of the Dead” was often imagined to be located in the upper or lower reaches of the river where this tribal community lived, sometimes underground, in the “underworld”, or in the sky, or on an island surrounded by water. Once there, the souls of people obtained food for themselves by hunting and fishing, built dwellings and lived a life similar to the earth.

Something similar to these beliefs, judging by the archaeological sites noted above, must have existed among Paleolithic people. From that era, such views have come down to our time. They are also at the basis of modern religions that have developed in a class society.

Noteworthy is such a characteristic feature of Cro-Magnon burials as the sprinkling of the dead in the graves with blood. According to the views described by ethnographers on the role of red paint in various rites, among many tribes of recent times, red paint - bloodstone - should have replaced blood - the source life force and the seat of the soul. Judging by their wide distribution and obvious connection with the hunting way of life, such views go back to the distant primitive past.

Conclusion

So, in conclusion, we can say the following: Cro-Magnon archaeological cultures differ significantly from each other in some specific features of flint and bone products. This is one of the signs in which the Cro-Magnon culture as a whole differs from the Neanderthal: Neanderthal tools from various regions have very a high degree similarities. Perhaps such a differentiation of Cro-Magnon products means real cultural differences between individual tribes of ancient people. On the other hand, a certain style in the manufacture of tools could reflect the individual manner of some ancient master, a manifestation of his personal aesthetic preferences.

Cro-Magnon culture includes another phenomenon that arose only among modern man. We are talking about the art of the Stone Age, art, the works of which can be considered not only the wall paintings of the Ancient caves, but also the tools of Cro-Magnon man themselves, tools sometimes so perfect in their lines and shapes that they can hardly be reproduced by anyone living today. of people.

Thus, the tasks are solved, the purpose of the work is fulfilled.

Bibliography

1. Boriskovsky P.I. The ancient past of mankind. M., 2001.

2. Ancient civilizations. Under the general editorship of G. M. Bongard-Levin. M., 2009.

3. Ancient civilizations: from Egypt to China. M., 2007.

4. Ibraev L. I. The origin of man. M., 2004

5. History ancient world. Ed. D. Reder and others - M., 2001. - Part 1-2.

6. History primitive society. In 3 vols. M., 2000.

7. Mongait A.L. Archeology of Western Europe / Stone Age. M., 2003.

In Neanderthal cultures, in cultures Cro-Magnons the late Paleolithic was dominated by stone tools ... similar techniques and tools, cro-magnons got almost inexhaustible source... and clothing In construction cro-magnons basically followed the old...

Where did the huge Cro-Magnon population come from and where did it disappear to? How did races come about? Whose descendants are we?

Why were Cro-Magnons distributed throughout the world? Could one population live on a huge area from Vladimir to Beijing? What archaeological finds support this theory? Why was the Cro-Magnon brain more brain modern man? Why do the classical Neanderthals of Europe bear little resemblance to modern humans? Could they have lost their speech a second time? Was the Neanderthal a Bigfoot and a Cro-Magnon hunter? During what period did the geological and cultural catastrophe occur? What did the sudden and simultaneous melting of two large glaciers lead to? Where did the Cro-Magnons go? How did the major racial groups form? Why was the Negroid racial group the last to appear? Did the Cro-Magnons keep in touch with their space handlers? Paleoanthropologist Alexander Belov discusses whose descendants we are and who is watching us from space?

Alexander Belov: The Soviet anthropologist Debets, he believed that he even introduced the term "Cro-Magnons in the broadest sense of the word" into science. What does this mean? People Upper Paleolithic more or less similar to each other, no matter where they lived, on the territory of the Russian Plain, in Europe, or in Australia, or in Indonesia, and even in America there are remains of the Cro-Magnons. In fact, they were distributed all over the world, and from this we conclude that the population was more or less homogeneous. And so Debets just introduced the concept of "Cro-Magnons in the broadest sense of the word" into science. He united in this population all the people of the Upper Paleolithic who lived regardless of where they lived, they were more or less similar to each other, and he called them this term, "Cro-Magnons in the broadest sense of the word." That is, it is not connected with the Cro-Magnon grotto in France or in some parts of Europe. They find, for example, the skull of Sungir 1, an old man according to Vladimir, he is very similar, Cro-Magnon, to a similar skull 101, which was found near Beijing in the Dragon Bones Cave, in fact, one to one just a skull. You can see on the map how large the distance between Vladimir and Beijing is, that is, approximately the same population lived for a huge distance. It was, of course, not numerous, that is, there are few remains of the Cro-Magnons, it must be said, that is, this population was not numerically numerous. And this is what is characteristic of Cro-Magnons, they are united not only by a single morphotype, they are also united by the presence of a large brain. If, on average, a modern person has 1350 average volume of cubic centimeters of the brain, then Cro-Magnons have an average of 1550, that is, 200-300 cubes, a modern person, alas, has lost. Moreover, he lost not just the cubes of the brain, as if abstractly, he lost just those zones, those representations of the associative and parietal frontal zones of the brain, that is, this is exactly the substrate by which we think, where the intellect itself is based. And in fact, the frontal lobes, they are responsible for inhibitory behavior, for the fact that, roughly speaking, we do not hold back emotions, we expose ourselves to some kind of unrestrained, emotional affects. And if these brakes are turned off, then, of course, a person can already switch to some affective behavioral responses. This is very bad and detrimental to his own fate and the fate of the society in which he lives. And this is exactly what we see among the Neanderthals, the early Neanderthals, they are called atypical, they lived about 130 thousand years ago, they are found in Asia, mainly in Europe, Asia Minor, they were more or less still similar to modern people. And the classic Neanderthals of Europe, their chin protrusion actually disappears, they have a high larynx, they have a flat base of the skull. This suggests that the Neanderthals lost their speech for the second time, this is what it says. Alexander Zobov, our famous Russian and Soviet anthropologist, spoke and wrote a lot about this. And in fact, a paradoxical thing turns out, and their culture also becomes practically, so they dig a trench and accidentally discover the backbone of Neanderthals without any accompanying archaeological inventory or so on. This suggests that this is, if you like, roughly speaking, a Bigfoot of such an Upper Paleolithic. And they, apparently, were simply hunted by the Cro-Magnons. In Croatia, this massacre is known, when 20 bones and broken skulls of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons were found, most likely such fights or battles in the Upper Paleolithic took place between Neanderthals, the predecessors of modern people, and Cro-Magnons.

And in this regard, the question arises, where did the Cro-Magnons go, in fact, and who are we, modern people? There are several versions on this score, but if we follow the tradition of Soviet anthropology and Debets, in particular, then it is quite clear and clear picture it is drawn that the classic Cro-Magnons, Cro-Magnon-like types, they spread throughout the Earth, created a rather high culture, it was apparently associated with some new unusual technologies that we have already lost, we don’t know, and with some kind of knowledge which, unfortunately, we also lost, and with a connection, perhaps with our cosmic predecessors, this also indicates, for example, wands, some astronomical calendar carved circles and others different features, this is evidence of this. And somewhere in the region of the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary, about 10 thousand years ago, a geological cultural catastrophe occurs. But in historical terms, this Upper Paleolithic is actually replaced by the Mesolithic, the Middle Stone Age, that is, the ancient stone Age, he is replaced by the Mesolithic. And in fact, the Middle Stone Age, during this period of time, amazing things happen. Suddenly melt, suddenly melt, I would say, both glaciers, and the huge Scandinavian glacier, the thickness of which reached three kilometers in height, and it reached Smolensk, that's how it was, its epicenter over the Gulf of Bothnia. At the same time, the North American glacier is melting, which generally occupied half of North America, the continent, in terms of power and latitude. And naturally, the level of the World Ocean in this period, 12-10 thousand years BC, it rises sharply to 130-150 meters. And it’s clear that people who find themselves in this situation, they will be divided, Africa is separated from Asia, Europe is also separated from Asia by water barriers, that is, on the site of the Russian Plain, seas are formed here that merge into the Caspian and Black Seas, and into the Mediterranean then. Many racial groups, future racial groups, being in isolation, in island isolation, so to speak, firstly, the population is sharply reduced, that is, anthropologists talk about the “bottleneck” that racial groups go through, all racial groups, this is exactly what is happening. at this point, and that, in general, they are geologically separated. And once in an isolate, in a geological isolate, such basic racial groups begin to form, Caucasoids in Europe, Mongoloids in Asia, this is Far East, Asia, central Asia, and Africans on the African continent. This is due to the fact that genetic exchange, it does not go between these groups for several millennia, at least.

Here, cultural isolation must also be added to this. Cultural isolation may even have done more negative than such purely geographical isolation. The Negroids are changing quite a lot, and it is the Negro race that appears at this moment. Negroids, they are very young, one might say, that is, this is the Neolithic, the end of the Mesolithic, the beginning of the Neolithic, at least 9-10 thousand years before the new era, blacks appear.

Cro-Magnons(Fig. 1) are the immediate ancestors of modern humans. This species, according to scientists, appeared more than 130 thousand years ago. Archaeological finds indicate that the Cro-Magnons lived for more than 10 thousand years in the neighborhood with another kind of people - the Neanderthals. In fact, Cro-Magnons have no external differences with modern people. There is another definition of the term "Cro-Magnon". In a narrow sense, this is a representative of the human race who lived on the territory of modern France, they got their name from the place where researchers first discovered a large number of remains of ancient people - the Cro-Magnon Gorge. But more often, Cro-Magnons are called all the ancient inhabitants of the planet. During the Upper Paleolithic period, this species dominated most of the land surface, with a few exceptions - in places where Neanderthal communities still remained.

Rice. 1 - Cro-Magnon

Origin

Unanimous opinion about how it appeared kind of Cro-Magnon not among anthropologists and historians. There are two main theories. Most scientists believe that this species appeared in the eastern part of Africa, and then spread through the Arabian Peninsula throughout Eurasia. Adherents of this theory believe that the Cro-Magnons later divided into 2 main groups:

1. Ancestors of modern Hindus and Arabs.
2. Ancestors of all modern Mongoloid peoples.

As for the Europeans, according to this theory, they are representatives of the first group, who migrated about 45 thousand years ago. Archaeologists have found a huge amount of evidence in favor of this theory, but still the number of scientists who adhere to alternative point vision does not decrease with age.

IN recent times there is more and more evidence of the second version. Scientists who adhere to this theory believe that Cro-Magnons are modern Caucasians and do not belong to this species Negroids and Mongoloids. A number of scientists insist that the first Cro-Magnon man appeared on the territory of modern Ethiopia, and his descendants settled in northern Africa, the entire Middle East, Asia Minor, most Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent and all of Europe. They insist that the Cro-Magnons are practically in full force migrated from Africa more than 100 thousand years ago, and only a small part of them remained in the territory modern Egypt. Then they continued to develop new lands, ancient people reached France and the British Isles by the 10th century BC, passing through Caucasian Range, crossing the Don, Dnieper, Danube.

culture

Ancient Cro-Magnon Man began to live quite large groups, which was not observed in the Neanderthal. Often, communities numbered 100 or more individuals. Cro-Magnons, inhabiting Eastern Europe, sometimes lived in dugouts, such a dwelling was a "discovery" of that time. Caves and tents were more comfortable and spacious compared to similar types of Neanderthal dwellings. The ability to speak articulately helped them understand each other better, they actively cooperated if one of them needed help.

The Cro-Magnons became more skillful hunters and fishermen, these people first began to use the "driving" method, when a large animal was driven into a pre-prepared trap, and there inevitable death awaited him. The first similarities of fishing nets were also invented by the Cro-Magnons. They began to master the harvesting industry, dried mushrooms, and stocked up on berries. They also hunted birds, for this they used snares and loops, while often ancient people did not kill animals, but left them alive, designed primitive cages for birds and admired them.

Among the Cro-Magnons, the first ancient artists began to appear, who painted the walls of the caves with different colors. You can see the work of ancient masters in our time, for example, in France in the Montespan cave, several creations of ancient masters have survived to this day. But not only painting developed, the Cro-Magnons sculpted the first sculptures from stone and clay, and were engaged in engraving on mammoth tusks. Very often, ancient sculptors sculpted naked women, it was like a cult, in those days it was not harmony that was valued in a woman - ancient sculptors sculpted women with magnificent forms. And also sculptors and artists of antiquity often depicted animals: horses, bears, mammoths, bison.

The dead tribesmen, the Cro-Magnons were buried. In many ways, modern rituals resemble the rituals of those years. People also gathered, also cried. The deceased was dressed in the best skin, they put jewelry, food, tools that he used during his lifetime. The deceased was buried in the fetal position.

Rice. 2 - Cro-Magnon Skeleton

Leap in development

The Cro-Magnons developed more actively than the Neanderthals assimilated by them and the common ancestors of both types of Pithecanthropus. Moreover, they developed in many areas, a huge number of achievements were made by this particular species. The reason for such an intensive development is Cro-Magnon brain. Before a child of this species was born, the development of his brain completely coincided with the intrauterine development of the brain of a Neanderthal. But after birth, the baby's brain developed differently - there was an active formation of the parietal and cerebellar parts. The Neanderthal brain after childbirth developed in the same directions as that of a chimpanzee. The Cro-Magnon communities were much more organized than the Neanderthal communities, they began to learn spoken language, while the Neanderthals never learned to speak. Development proceeded at an incredible pace, Cro-Magnon tools- these are knives, hammers and other tools, some of which are still used, since, in fact, no alternative has yet been found for them. The Cro-Magnon man actively adapted to weather factors, their dwellings began to vaguely resemble modern houses. These people created social circles, built a hierarchy in groups, distributed social roles. Cro-Magnons began to realize themselves, think, reason, actively explore and experiment.

The emergence of speech among Cro-Magnons

Just as there is no unity among scientists on the issue of the emergence of the Cro-Magnon, so there is no unity with respect to another question - "how did speech originate among the first rational people?"

Psychologists have their own opinion on this matter. They argue, with an impressive evidence base, that Cro-Magnons adopted the experience of Neanderthals and Pithecanthropes, who had some rudiments of articulate communication.

Linguists of a certain kind (generativists) also have their own theory, supported by facts. However, it cannot be said that only generativists support this theory, many prominent scientists are on their side. These scientists believe that there was no inheritance from previous species, and the appearance of articulate speech is the result of some kind of brain mutation. Generativists, trying to get to the bottom of the truth and find confirmation of their theory, are looking for the origins of the proto-language - the first human language. So far, the disputes do not subside, and not one of the parties has exhaustive evidence of its correctness.

Differences between Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon

Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals are not so close species, moreover, they did not have a single ancestor. These are two species between which there was competition, skirmishes, and, possibly, local or general confrontation. They could not help but compete, as they shared the same niche and lived side by side. There are many differences between the two types:

• body constitution, size and physiological structure;
• skull volume, cognitive abilities of the brain;
• social organization;
• general level of development.

Studies conducted by scientists have shown that there is a significant difference in DNA between these two species. As for nutrition, there are also differences here, these two species ate differently, generalizing, we can say that the Cro-Magnons ate everything that the Neanderthals ate, plus plant foods. An interesting fact is that the body of Neanderthals did not absorb milk, and the basis of the diet of Neanderthals was the meat of dead animals (carrion). Cro-Magnons, on the other hand, only in rare cases, in cases where there were no other options, ate carrion.

Rice. 3 - Cro-Magnon skull

In the scientific community, disputes do not stop about whether these two species could interbreed with each other. There is plenty of evidence that they could. For example, it cannot be ruled out that in the structure and constitution of the body of some modern people, echoes of Neanderthal genes are sometimes traced. The two species lived in close proximity, mating certainly could have taken place. But scientists who claim that the Cro-Magnons assimilated the Neanderthals are opposed in disputes by other scientists, among whom there are famous personalities. They argue that after interspecific crossing, fertile offspring could not be born, that is, for example, a female individual (Cro-Magnon) could become pregnant from a Neanderthal, could even bear a fetus. But the born baby was weak to survive, and even more so to give life to his own offspring. These conclusions are supported by genetic studies.

Differences between Cro-Magnon and modern man

There are both minor and significant differences between modern man and his Cro-Magnon ancestor. For example, it was found that the average brain size of an earlier subspecies of humans was slightly larger. This, in theory, should indicate that the Cro-Magnons were more intelligent, their intellect was more developed. This hypothesis is supported by a small part of pundits. After all, a larger volume does not always guarantee best quality. In addition to the size of the brain, there are other differences that do not cause sharp disputes. It is proved that the ancestor had more dense vegetation on the body. There is also a difference in height, it is noticed that over time and evolution people have become taller. Average height the two subspecies differ significantly. Not only height, but also the weight of the Cro-Magnon was less. In those days, there were no giants weighing over 150 kilograms, and all because people could not always provide themselves with food, even in the required volumes. Ancient people did not live long, a person who lived to be 30 years old was considered an old man, and cases when a person experienced a 45-year milestone are generally rare. There is an assumption that the Cro-Magnons had better eyesight, in particular, they saw well in the dark, but these theories have not yet been confirmed.

Niramin - Aug 24th, 2016

The Cro-Magnons inhabited the Earth in the Upper Paleolithic (40-10 thousand years ago) and were the direct ancestors of modern people. The structure of their skull and hands, brain volume, body proportions were similar to ours. For the first time, the remains of these ancient people were discovered in the second half of the 19th century in France, in the grotto of Cro-Magnon, from which the name "Cro-Magnon" arose.

The ancestors of modern people made a dramatic breakthrough in evolution and far surpassed their predecessors in development. They knew how to make complex tools: needles, scrapers, drills, spearheads, bows and arrows, using not only wood and stone, but also horns, bones and tusks of animals. The Cro-Magnons knew how to sew clothes, make dishes from baked clay, and even created skillful jewelry and figurines. They highly valued art, engaged in bone carving and decorated the walls and ceilings of their dwellings. rock art. Scientists never cease to be amazed at the technique, materials and craftsmanship of cave paintings.

The lifestyle of the Cro-Magnon was significantly different from other ancient people. Cro-Magnons also lived mainly in caves, but already knew how to build huts from animal bones and skins. The first domestic animal - a dog - appeared in this era. The Cro-Magnons were fluent in speech, which allowed them to build new social relationships.

Cro-Magnons in the parking lot.

Photo: Cro-Magnon (Cro-Magnon). Reconstruction by M.M. Gerasimov.


Cro-Magnon skull.

Video: Evolution: Cro-Magnons

Cro-Magnons are considered to be the ancestors of modern man, who lived on our planet in the era of the late (or upper) Paleolithic (40-12 thousand years ago). The name of this species comes from the Cro-Magnon cave, located in the southwestern part of France. It was there that in 1868 the archaeologist Louis Larte, during excavations, stumbled upon the remains of ancient people, which in their own way differed from the previously discovered Neanderthal skeletons and resembled Homo sapiens. The find, whose age was about 30 thousand years, immediately attracted the attention of scientists who studied the history of that period, because then nothing was known about the way of life of the Cro-Magnons. In subsequent years, their remains, along with tools, were also found in other territories (Mladech and Dolni-Vestonice in the Czech Republic, Payviland in England, Peshtera-cu-Oase in Romania, Murzak-Koba in the Crimea, Sungir in Russia, Mezhirech in Ukraine, Fish Hook, Cape Flats in Africa, etc.).

Emergence and migration

The origin of the Cro-Magnons has not been fully studied to this day. Earlier historians and anthropologists adhered to the Marxist theory of the origin of this type of ancient man. According to her, the Cro-Magnon is a direct descendant of the Neanderthal. Many modern researchers question this theory. They are inclined to the version that Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons descended from common ancestor, after which each of them began to develop separately.

Modern scientists have not been able to reach a consensus about in which part of the planet the first ancestors of modern man appeared and when exactly it happened. The most common version says that the Cro-Magnons formed in separate view about 200 thousand years ago, and it happened in the eastern part of Africa. After 70 thousand years, they began migrating to the Middle East in search of new lands for life. From here, one part of the Cro-Magnons settled on the coast of the Indian Ocean, while the other moved north and reached the lands of Asia Minor and the Northern Black Sea region. Homo sapiens appeared in Europe approximately 40-45 thousand years ago.

Appearance

What did the Cro-Magnons look like? Ancient man, fossil man, differed from modern individuals in the structure of the body and the size of the brain. In contrast, representatives of Homo sapiens resembled current people but were larger. archaeological finds made it possible to find out that the Cro-Magnon men who inhabited ancient Europe, reached a height of 180 cm (women were shorter), had wide faces and deep-set eyes. reasonable was 1400-1900 cubic centimeters, which corresponds to this indicator in modern people. The way of life of the Cro-Magnons, who had to survive in the harsh conditions of antiquity, contributed to the formation of their well-developed muscle mass.

Life

They lived in communities, the number of which reached 100 people. Their main occupations were hunting and gathering plant foods. They were the first to make tools from bones and horns. Along with this, the use of stone tools remained widespread among them. Lighter and more advanced products allowed them to get more food, sew clothes, invent devices aimed at facilitating their existence. Scientists are convinced that the ancient people of this era had a well-developed speech.

dwelling

The Cro-Magnons still continued to settle in the caves, but new types of housing had already begun to appear. They learned how to build reliable tents from animal skins, wood and bones. Such houses could be moved, thanks to which the lifestyle of the Cro-Magnons ceased to be sedentary. Wandering from place to place in order to develop new lands, they carried housing and households with them. Cro-Magnons were the first prehistoric people who managed to domesticate a dog and use it as an assistant.

The ancestors of mankind had a widespread cult of hunting. This is evidenced by numerous finds of animal figurines pierced by arrows found during excavations of their settlements. Its walls were decorated with images of animals and hunting scenes.

Food extraction

Hunting has firmly entered the life of the Cro-Magnon. The realities of the Stone Age were such that in order to feed themselves, it was necessary to kill. The ancient inhabitants of our planet hunted well organized groups for 10-20 people. The objects of their persecution were large animals (mammoths, wolves, woolly rhinos, bears, red deer, bison). Destroying the beast, they provided their communities with a large amount of skin and meat. The main tools for killing animals among the Cro-Magnons were spear throwers and bows. In addition to hunting, they were engaged in catching birds and fish (snares were used for the first lesson, and harpoons and hooks were used for the second).

In addition to meat and fish, the descendants of modern man ate wild plants. The food of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons was very similar. They ate everything that nature gave them (bark, leaves and fruits of trees, stems, flowers and roots of plants, cereals, mushrooms, nuts, algae, etc.).

Burials

The Cro-Magnons had interesting burial customs. They laid the deceased relatives in the grave in a half-bent position. Their hair was decorated with a net, their hands with bracelets, and their faces were covered with flat stones. The bodies of the dead were sprinkled with color on top. Ancient people believed in the afterlife, so they buried their relatives along with household items, jewelry and food, being sure that they would need them after death.

Cro-Magnon Cultural Revolution

People who lived during the late Paleolithic period made a number of discoveries that allowed them to significantly surpass cultural development their predecessors. Their main achievement is the invention of a new method of processing flint, which went down in history under the name "knife plate method". This discovery made a real revolution in the manufacture of tools. The method consisted in the fact that separate plates were beaten off or squeezed out of the stone nodule (nucleus), from which various products were subsequently made. Thanks to new technology prehistoric people learned how to get up to 250 cm of working edge from one kilogram of flint (for Neanderthals this figure did not exceed 220 cm, and for their predecessors it barely reached 45 cm).

Not less than important discovery Cro-Magnon was the production of tools from animal raw materials. Spending a lot of time hunting, the ancient man noticed that the bones, horns and tusks of animals are distinguished by increased strength. He began to make qualitatively new products from them, which made his life easier. Bone needles and awls appeared, making it easier to sew clothes from skins. Animal raw materials began to be used in the construction of new dwellings, as well as to make jewelry and figurines from it. The development of new materials led to the invention of more advanced hunting tools - spear throwers and bows. These devices allowed the Cro-Magnons to kill animals that were many times their size and strength.

The lifestyle of the Cro-Magnons was not only about survival among the wild. prehistoric people strive for beauty. They left many works of art to their descendants. These are wall paintings in caves, and tools of labor decorated with unique ornaments, and figurines of bison, horses, deer and other animals made of flint, clay, bones and tusks. The ancient Cro-Magnons worshiped female beauty. Among the finds discovered by archaeologists, there are many figurines of the fair sex. For the splendor of forms, modern historians called them "Venuses".