The Stone Age is a cultural and historical period in the development of mankind, when the main tools of labor were made mainly from stone, wood and bone; At the late stage of the Stone Age, the processing of clay from which dishes were made spread. The Stone Age basically coincides with the era of primitive society, starting from the time of the separation of man from the animal state (about 2 million years ago) and ending with the era of the spread of metals (about 8 thousand years ago in the Near and Middle East and about 6-7 thousand years ago in Europe). Through a transitional era - the Chalcolithic - the Stone Age gave way to the Bronze Age, but among the Australian aborigines it persisted until the 20th century. Stone Age people were engaged in gathering, hunting, and fishing; In the late period, hoe farming and cattle breeding appeared.

Stone ax of the Abashevo culture

Paleolithic

The Paleolithic is divided into early (lower; up to 35 thousand years ago) and late (upper; up to 10 thousand years ago). In the Early Paleolithic, archaeological cultures are distinguished: pre-Chelles culture, Chelles culture, Acheulean culture, Mousterian culture. Sometimes the Mousterian era (100-35 thousand years ago) is distinguished as a special period - the Middle Paleolithic. Pre-Chellian stone tools were pebbles chipped at one end and flakes chipped from such pebbles. The tools of the Chelles and Acheulian eras were hand axes - pieces of stone chipped on both surfaces, thickened at one end and pointed at the other, rough chopping tools (choppers and choppers), having less regular outlines than axes, as well as rectangular ax-shaped tools (cleavers) and massive flakes. These tools were made by people who belonged to the type of archanthropus (Pithecanthropus, Sinanthropus, Heidelberg man), and, possibly, to the more primitive type of Homo habilis (prezinjanthropus). Archanthropes lived in warm climates, mainly in Africa, southern Europe and Asia. The oldest reliable Stone Age monuments in Eastern Europe date back to the Acheulian time, dating back to the era preceding the Ris (Dnieper) glaciation. They were found in the Azov region and Transnistria; Flakes, hand axes, and choppers (rough chopping tools) were found in them. In the Caucasus, the remains of hunting camps of the Acheulian era were found in the Kudaro Cave, Tson Cave, and Azykh Cave.
During the Mousterian period, stone flakes became thinner, breaking off from specially prepared disc-shaped or turtle-shaped cores - cores (the so-called Levallois technique). Flakes were turned into scrapers, points, knives, and drills. At the same time, bones began to be used as tools, and the use of fire began. Due to the onset of cold weather, people began to settle in caves. Burials testify to the origin of religious beliefs. The people of the Mousterian era belonged to the paleoanthropes (Neanderthals). Burials of Neanderthals were discovered in the Kiik-Koba grotto in Crimea and in the Teshik-Tash grotto in Central Asia. In Europe, Neandarthals lived in the climatic conditions of the beginning of the Würm glaciation and were contemporaries of mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, and cave bears. For the Early Paleolithic, local differences in cultures were established, determined by the nature of the tools they made. In the Molodova site on the Dniester, the remains of a long-term Mousterian dwelling have been discovered.
In the Late Paleolithic era, a person of the modern physical type emerged (neoanthropus, Homo sapiens - Cro-Magnons). The burial of a neoanthrope was discovered in the Staroselye grotto in Crimea. Late Paleolithic people settled Siberia, America, and Australia. Late Paleolithic technology is characterized by prismatic cores, from which elongated plates were broken off and turned into scrapers, points, tips, burins, and piercings. Awls, eyed needles, shovels, and picks were made from bones and mammoth tusk horns. People began to settle down, along with the use of caves, they began to build long-term dwellings - dugouts and above-ground structures, both large communal ones with several hearths, and small ones (Gagarino, Kostenki, Pushkari, Buret, Malta, Dolni Vestonice, Pencevan). Skulls, large bones and tusks of mammoths, deer antlers, wood, and skins were used in the construction of dwellings. Dwellings formed settlements. The hunting economy developed, fine art appeared, characterized by naive realism: sculptural images of animals and naked women from mammoth ivory, stone, clay (Kostenki, Avdeevskaya site, Gagarino, Dolni Vestonice, Willendorf, Brassanpui), images of animals engraved on bone and stone fish, engraved and painted conventional geometric patterns - zigzag, diamonds, meanders, wavy lines (Mezinskaya site, Předmosti), engraved and painted monochrome and polychrome images of animals, sometimes people and conventional signs on the walls and ceilings of caves (Altamira, Lascaux). Paleolithic art was partly associated with female cults of the matrilineal era, with hunting magic and totemism. Archaeologists have identified various types burials: crouched, sessile, painted, with grave goods. In the Late Paleolithic, several cultural areas are distinguished, as well as a significant number of smaller cultures: in Western Europe - Périgordian, Aurignacian, Solutrean, Magdalenian cultures; in Central Europe - the Selet culture, the culture of leaf-shaped tips; in Eastern Europe - Middle Dniester, Gorodtsovskaya, Kostenki-Avdeevskaya, Mezinskaya cultures; in the Middle East - Antelian, Emirian, Natufian cultures; in Africa - Sango culture, Sebil culture. The most important Late Paleolithic settlement in Central Asia is the Samarkand site.
On the territory of the East European Plain, successive stages of the development of Late Paleolithic cultures can be traced: Kostenki-Sungir, Kostenki-Avdeevka, Mezin. Multi-layered Late Paleolithic settlements have been excavated on the Dniester (Babin, Voronovitsa, Molodova). Another area of ​​Late Paleolithic settlements with remains of dwellings different types and examples of art are the Desna and Sudost basin (Mezin, Pushkari, Eliseevichi, Yudinovo); the third area is the villages of Kostenki and Borshevo on the Don, where over twenty Late Paleolithic sites were discovered, including a number of multi-layered ones, with the remains of dwellings, many works of art and single burials. A special place is occupied by the Sungir site on Klyazma, where several burials were found. The world's northernmost Paleolithic monuments include the Bear Cave and the Byzovaya site on the Pechora River in Komi. Kapova Cave in the Southern Urals contains painted images of mammoths on the walls. In Siberia, during the Late Paleolithic period, the Maltese and Afontovo cultures were successively replaced; Late Paleolithic sites were discovered on the Yenisei (Afontova Gora, Kokorevo), in the Angara and Belaya basins (Malta, Buret), in Transbaikalia, and in Altai. Monuments of the Late Paleolithic are known in the Lena, Aldan, and Kamchatka basins.

Mesolithic and Neolithic

The transition from the Late Paleolithic to the Mesolithic coincides with the end of the Ice Age and the formation of modern climate. According to radiocarbon data, the Mesolithic period for the Middle East is 12-9 thousand years ago, for Europe - 10-7 thousand years ago. In the northern regions of Europe, the Mesolithic lasted until 6-5 thousand years ago. The Mesolithic includes the Azilian culture, the Tardenoise culture, the Maglemose culture, the Ertbelle culture, and the Hoa Binh culture. Mesolithic technology is characterized by the use of microliths - miniature stone fragments of geometric shapes in the shape of a trapezoid, segment, or triangle. Microliths were used as inserts in wooden and bone frames. In addition, beaten chopping tools were used: axes, adzes, and picks. During the Mesolithic period, bows and arrows spread, and the dog became a constant companion of man.
The transition from the appropriation of finished products of nature (hunting, fishing, gathering) to agriculture and cattle breeding occurred during the Neolithic period. This revolution in the primitive economy is called the Neolithic revolution, although appropriation continued to occupy a large place in the economic activities of people. The main elements of Neolithic culture were: earthenware (ceramics), molded without a potter's wheel; stone axes, hammers, adzes, chisels, hoes, in the manufacture of which sawing, grinding, and drilling were used; flint daggers, knives, arrow and spear tips, sickles, made by pressing retouching; microliths; products made of bone and horn (fishhooks, harpoons, hoe tips, chisels) and wood (dugouts, oars, skis, sleighs, handles). Flint workshops appeared, and at the end of the Neolithic - mines for the extraction of flint and, in connection with this, intertribal exchange. Spinning and weaving arose in the Neolithic. Neolithic art is characterized by a variety of indented and painted ornaments on ceramics, clay, bone, and stone figurines of people and animals, monumental painted, incised and hollowed-out rock images - writings, petroglyphs. The funeral rites became more complicated. The uneven development of culture and local uniqueness have intensified.
Agriculture and cattle breeding originated first in the Middle East. By the 7th-6th millennium BC. include the settled agricultural settlements of Jericho in Jordan, Jarmo in Northern Mesopotamia, and Catal Huyuk in Asia Minor. In the 6th-5th millennium BC. e. In Mesopotamia, developed Neolithic agricultural cultures with adobe houses, painted ceramics, and female figurines became widespread. In the 5th-4th millennia BC. Agriculture became widespread in Egypt. The agricultural settlements of Shulaveri, Odishi, and Kistrik are known in Transcaucasia. Settlements like Jeitun in Southern Turkmenistan are similar to the settlements of Neolithic farmers of the Iranian Plateau. In general, during the Neolithic era, Central Asia was dominated by tribes of hunters and gatherers (Kelteminar culture).
Under the influence of the cultures of the Middle East, the Neolithic developed in Europe, over most of which agriculture and cattle breeding spread. In Great Britain and France, in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Ages, tribes of farmers and herders lived who built megalithic structures made of stone. Farmers and pastoralists of the Alpine region are characterized by pile buildings. In Central Europe, agricultural Danube cultures with ceramics decorated with ribbon patterns took shape in the Neolithic. In Scandinavia until the second millennium BC. e. lived tribes of Neolithic hunters and fishermen.
The agricultural Neolithic of Eastern Europe includes monuments of the Bug culture in Right Bank Ukraine (5-3rd millennium BC). Cultures of Neolithic hunters and fishermen of the 5th-3rd millennia BC. identified in the Azov region, in the North Caucasus. In the forest belt from the Baltic Sea to Pacific Ocean they spread in the 4th-2nd millennia BC. Ceramics decorated with pit-comb and comb-prick patterns are typical for the Upper Volga region, the Volga-Oka interfluve, the coast of Lake Ladoga, Lake Onega, and the White Sea, where rock carvings and petroglyphs associated with the Neolithic are found. In the forest-steppe zone of Eastern Europe, in the Kama region, and in Siberia, Neolithic tribes used ceramics with comb-prick and comb patterns. Their own types of Neolithic ceramics were common in Primorye and Sakhalin.

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.

Paleolithic era:

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

Tools of the Mousterian era (120 thousand years ago - 40 thousand years BC) - Middle Paleolithic

The most common technique is Levallois (characterized by the chopping of flakes and blades from a specially prepared disc-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) tortoiseshells (Levallois)

3) amorphous

4) proto-prismatic (prismatic will appear in the Upper Paleolithic)

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

The range of stone products expanded, and it was then the use of bone as a raw material for the manufacture of tools begins

Main types of weapons:

1) scraper

2) points

3) scrapers

5) punctures

7) awls

9) retouchers

A pointed point is a massive almond-shaped/triangular-shaped 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 several working edges. Intended for processing leather/hides/wood.

Tools of the Upper Paleolithic era (40 thousand years BC - 12-10 thousand years BC)

Stone tools

Basic techniques:

1) prismatic splitting technique (blanks from a prismatic core), giving blanks more correct form– plates (economical use of material) – primary workpiece

2) grinding

3) polishing

4) sawing

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

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

Basic stone tools:

1) denticulated

2) punctures

3) incisors (a massive cutting edge formed by chipping planes converging at an acute angle; with such a cutter one could more easily cut wood, bone and horn, cut deep grooves into them and make cuts, sequentially removing one chip after another)

4) scrapers (convex blade processed with scraper retouch)

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

6) composite tools (made by combining inserts and the main part of the weapon)

7) daggers; knives with concave blades

Bone tools

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

Bone tools:

2) harpoons

3) piercings with a dedicated sting

4) needles/needle pads

5) bow and arrows

Genus Australopithecus

Australopithecus – These are highly developed bipedal creatures that lived in Eastern and Southern Africa from 5-6 to 1 million. years ago.

Characteristics of Australopithecus:

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

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

In the East In Africa, not far from the Olduvai Gorge, footprints of 3 australopithecines that walked along the slope more than 3 million years ago were discovered.

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

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

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

Australopithecus species:

1. Australopithecus africanus(A. Africanus).

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

Ø They lived about 3-2.5 million years ago.

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

Danube 2-1 million years ago

Settlements and cities

Characteristic of the entire era THE GREAT SETTLEMENT population than in the Mesolithic era. A number of dwellings were discovered, built from materials that were located in the immediate environment:

1) Southern regions - mud brick buildings

2) Mountains - dwellings made of stone

3) Forest zone – dugouts/semi-dugouts

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

In this era there appear THE FIRST FORTENTED SETTLEMENTS for the purpose of accumulating food supplies and the need to protect them. If a settlement occupied an advantageous position in relation to others, then it could become an important administrative and economic center, and subsequently become a proto-city (Jericho, Chatal Guyuk).

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

2) Catal Huyuk (Anatolia, Turkey) - a village consisting of large adobe buildings decorated with paintings of 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 are the most important invention of the Neolithic. The origin cannot be associated with any one center; it probably happened independently in a number of places.

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

2 ways to make a vessel:

1) Knockout

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

Burials

This era is characterized by “standardization” of the funeral rite, i.e. stable forms of corpse disposition, funeral structures, and sets of grave goods appear stable system of worldviews. Naturally, they differed in societies that led different economic lives.

Neolithic art

The cult of fertility appears in the southern regions, where tribes have already switched to a productive economy. Genetically they are associated with maternal-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.

Neolithic art movements

Paleolithic art

Art of small forms Monumental art Applied

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 the separation of man from the animal world) - before the appearance of metal (8-9 thousand years ago in the Ancient East and about 6-5 thousand years ago in Europe).

Periodization:

1. Paleolithic– ancient Stone Age – (3 million years BC – 10 thousand years BC).

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

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

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

Paleolithic era:

1) Lower Paleolithic - Olduvai (3 million - 800 thousand years ago) and Acheulian (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, Acheulian and Mousterian are monuments in France.

Cenozoic era:

1) Paleogene

3) Anthropocene 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)

4) Holocene (10 thousand years BC – today)

Major glaciations:

1) Danube (2-1 million years ago)

2) Günz (1 million - 700 thousand years ago)

3) Mindel (Oka) (500 - 350 thousand years ago)

4) Riss (Dnieper) – (200 – 120 thousand years ago)

5) Wurm (Valdai) (80 – 11 thousand years ago)

· The Stone Age correlates with geological periods:

o PLEISTOCENE– 2.5 million years to 10 thousand years BC.

o HOLOCENE– 10 thousand years before - to this day

Main periods of the Stone Age

STONE AGE: on Earth - more than 2 million years ago - up to the 3rd millennium BC; on the territory of Kaz-na - about 1 million years ago to the 3rd millennium BC. PERIODS: Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) - more than 2.5 million years ago - until the 12th millennium BC. e., is divided into 3 eras: Early or Lower Paleolithic - 1 million years ago - 140 thousand years BC (Olduvai, Acheulean period), Middle Paleolithic - 140-40 thousand years BC. (late Acheulian and Mousterian periods), late or upper Paleolithic - 40-12 (10) thousand years BC (Aurignacian, 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.

Main periods primitive society

STONE AGE: on Earth - more than 2 million years ago - until the 3rd millennium BC; periods:: Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) - more than 2.5 million years ago - until the 12th millennium BC. e., is divided into 3 eras: Early or Lower Paleolithic - 1 million years ago - 140 thousand years BC (Olduvai, Acheulean period), Middle Paleolithic - 140-40 thousand years BC. (late Acheulian and Mousterian periods), late or upper Paleolithic - 40-12 (10) thousand years BC (Aurignacian, Solutre, Madeleine eras); Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) - 12-5 thousand years BC. e.; Neolithic (New Stone Age) - 5-3 thousand years BC. e.; Chalcolithic (Copper Stone Age) - XXIV-XXII centuries BC BRONZE AGE - end of the 3rd - beginning of the 1st millennium BC IRON AGE - beginning of the 1st millennium BC

The Stone Age is an ancient period of human development. This cultural and historical period is characterized by the fact that during its course people made labor and hunting tools mainly from stone. In addition to stone, wood and bone were also used. The Stone Age lasted from 2.6-2.5 million years ago to 3.5-2.5 thousand years BC. e. It is also worth noting that there is no strict framework for the beginning and end of the Stone Age for the reason that in different parts On Earth, humanity developed unevenly and in some regions the Stone Age lasted much longer than in others. The beginning of the use of stones as tools is also controversial, since the age of finds and new discoveries may deepen or bring closer the beginning of the Stone Age.

In general, the beginning of the Stone Age dates back to 2.6-2.5 million years ago. It was during this period, as shown archaeological excavations in Africa, human ancestors learned to split stones to obtain a sharp edge (Olduvai culture).

The Stone Age is divided into several periods, which we will note briefly here, but will be studied in more detail in subsequent articles:

1. . Covers most of the Stone Age, starting from 2.6-2.5 million years ago and ending with 10 thousand years BC. e., that is, almost the entire Pleistocene period. The difference is that Pleistocene is a term that defines a period in the geochronology of the Earth, and Paleolithic is a term that defines the culture and history of the development of ancient man who learned to process stone. In turn, the Paleolithic is divided into several periods: Early Paleolithic, Middle Paleolithic and Upper Paleolithic. During this time, the culture of Stone Age man and the culture of stone processing advanced significantly.

2. . Immediately after the Paleolithic begins new period- Mesolithic, which lasted throughout the X-VI thousand years BC.

3. . The Neolithic is the New Stone Age, which began during the so-called Neolithic Revolution, when human communities began to move from hunting and gathering to agriculture, agriculture and livestock farming, which, in turn, led to a revolution in the processing of stone tools.

4. - Copper-Stone Age, Copper Age or Chalcolithic. Transitional period from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age. Covers the period of the IV-III millennium BC. e.

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The cultural history of man is usually divided into two large eras: the culture of primitive society and the culture of the era of civilization. The era of primitive society covers most of human history. The most ancient civilizations arose only 5 thousand years ago. The primitive era mainly occurs in stone Age- the period when the main tools were made of stone . Therefore, the cultural history of primitive society is most easily divided into periods based on an analysis of changes in the technology of making stone tools. The Stone Age is divided into:

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

●Mesolithic (Middle 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 new era metals replaced stone and brought an end to the Stone Age.

General characteristics of the Stone Age

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

Early Paleolithic ( until the turn of 100 thousand years BC. BC) is the era of the archanthropes. Material culture developed very slowly. It took more than a million years to move from roughly hewn pebbles to axes with smooth edges on both sides. Approximately 700 thousand years ago, the process of mastering fire began: people support fire obtained naturally (as a result of lightning strikes, fires). The main types of activity are hunting and gathering, the main type of weapon is a club and a spear. Archanthropes master natural shelters (caves), build huts from twigs that cover stone boulders (southern France, 400 thousand years).

Middle Paleolithic– covers the period from 100 thousand to 40 thousand years BC. e. This is the era of the paleoanthropus-Neanderthal. Harsh time. Icing of large parts of Europe, North America and Asia. Many heat-loving animals became extinct. Difficulties stimulated cultural progress. Hunting means and techniques are being improved (round-up hunting, drives). A wide variety of axes are created, and thin plates chipped from the core and processed - scrapers - are also used. With the help of scrapers, people began to make warm clothes from animal skins. Learned how to make fire by drilling. Intentional burials date back to this era. Often the deceased was buried in the form of a sleeping person: arms bent at the elbow, near the face, legs bent. Household items appear in graves. 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 era of the Cro-Magnon man. The Cro-Magnons lived in large groups. Stone processing technology has grown: stone plates are sawed and drilled. Bone tips are widely used. A spear thrower appeared - a board with a hook on which a dart was placed. Many bone needles have been found for sewing clothes. The houses are half-dugouts with a frame made of branches and even animal bones. The norm became the burial of the dead, who were 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 to each other.

Mesolithic, Middle Stone Age (10th – 6th millennium BC). In the Mesolithic, bows and arrows, microlithic tools appeared, and the dog was domesticated. The periodization of the Mesolithic is conditional, because in different areas of the world development processes proceed with at different speeds. Thus, in the Middle East, already from 8 thousand, the transition to agriculture and cattle breeding began, which constitutes the essence of the 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 economy (farming, cattle breeding). In the Neolithic era, stone tools were polished, drilled, pottery, spinning, and weaving appeared. In the 4th–3rd millennia, the first civilizations emerged in a number of areas of the world.

Primitive art: functions and forms

Art in the original meaning of the word means a high degree of skill in any activity. In the 19th century the term "art" came to be used to refer only to creative activity aimed at creating artistic images , i.e. images that can make a strong aesthetic impression on people. The term “aesthetics” comes from the Greek aisthetikos - “sensual” and is associated with the feeling of beauty, beauty.

Ancient philosophers associated beauty with usefulness and expediency, with good. So ancient Greek philosopher Socrates called beautiful a shield well adapted for protection, a spear adapted for an accurate throw, etc. However, beauty cannot be explained only by adaptability and usefulness. This was understood by Aristotle, who explained beauty and how harmony in device and forms. Aristotle was sure that “nature strives for beauty,” for purposeful harmony.

Every person’s sense of beauty is born from observing nature and its creations: beautiful landscape, sunrise or sunset, a beautiful flower, etc. These impressions formed the concept of beauty as such a harmonious combination of sounds, colors, shapes, proportions that evoked bright positive emotions in a person. Thus, first man saw beauty in nature, and then sought to create it himself.

About art of primitive society we can judge from the visual arts (sculpture and painting), since almost no traces remain of music and dance, although they existed and played an important role.

For primitive man, the creation of beauty was not the main task. He created vivid images to master the surrounding world. And in the future, the tasks of art were never reduced only to creating beauty. Its functions are much wider: art is a way of understanding the world through artistic images.

Among the works of primitive fine art, two images dominate. The first and main one is the image of an animal, mainly a large one, associated with the theme of getting food. The second is the image of a woman-mother, associated with the theme of procreation.

The primacy of the image of a large animal is clear. Hunting large animals and defending against large predators were the most emotionally powerful acts of human activity. And man sought to master these emotions and adapt to them. Therefore, art developed primarily as an element of hunting of magic. Hunters created images for rituals aimed at subjugating the objects of the hunt. The image (model) of the animal was made of clay or stones, and its outline was also drawn on the wall. At first the outline was very general. For example, animals in profile were most often depicted with only two legs. Then the drawing became more and more accurate. Clay models and paintings in the open air could not exist for a long time. Only what was in the caves has reached us.

The most perfect drawings were found in caves in the foothills of the Pyrenees, separating France and Spain. In 40 caves, paintings made with paint or scratched with stone 20–10 thousand years ago were found. The most famous cave in Lascaux (France) is called the prehistoric Sistine Chapel. It contains a hall of giant bulls painted in red, black and yellow ochre. In the axial passage there is a picturesque group of cows and horses painted in red paint. A mysterious composition: a bison wounded by a man with a bird's beak, and a rhinoceros leaving the scene of the tragedy.

A number of caves with drawings from the Upper Paleolithic era were found in Italy, Georgia, Mongolia, and the Urals (Kapovaya Cave). The presence of fundamentally similar forms of art in Europe and Asia shows that the development process artistic creativity humanity was fundamentally one.

In addition to large rock paintings, people during this period created small sculptures (figures of animals carved from bone, wood, stone), and small drawings scratched on stone and bone. The widespread practice of making animal figurines indicated that people wanted to have their images regardless of practical activities. A small figurine of a deer is not an object for hunting magic. She is a memory and a symbol of great real world. The man wanted to have this image at hand. This means that it gave him emotional satisfaction and, therefore, had aesthetic significance.

Animal images also predominate in small forms. But in small sculpture there is a lot anthropomorphic images These are predominantly female figurines, emphasizing the forms associated with childbirth and feeding. They also played an obvious applied function: they were associated with demographic magic aimed at preserving and procreating the race. The most famous is a figurine made of soft limestone 6 cm high, found in Austria in the town of Willendorf. She was named the Venus of Willendorf. Characteristically, there is no attempt to convey the woman’s face, since the artist created a generalized image, not an individual one.

decorative arts. Cro-Magnons widely used pendants, beads, and bracelets. Some of them had magical significance. For example, a hunter has a necklace made from the teeth of killed animals. But a woman’s string of white shells was also a decoration, because it emphasized the oval shape of her face, the darkness of her skin, etc. The first jewelry can also be considered the first purely aesthetic works of art.

From the Late Paleolithic there is evidence that man mastered and song and dance art . They are also associated with production magic, with rituals of preparation and completion of the hunt. For example, after a hunt, the main function of song and dance was to throw out excess emotions that arose during the dangerous hunt. It is easy to imagine the following picture: a large animal is killed, the danger has passed, people rejoice, jump around the animal, and scream. Gradually, the screams and jumps begin to coordinate and follow a certain rhythm. The rhythm is fixed by shock and noise effects. Screams acquire a common tonality: low tones for men and high tones for women. People understand that these actions provide emotional release and cultivate them. The development of intonation - the alternation of sounds of different tones - was facilitated by the imitation of the sounds of nature, especially birds and animals. Mastery of rhythm and intonation leads to the emergence of music, singing, and dancing. At Paleolithic sites, hollow bones were found - the first pipes and pipes. Gradually people realized that certain melodies and movements gave the greatest emotional satisfaction. This is how the natural selection of the best samples took place and the idea of ​​the canon of beauty was formed.

To summarize the above, let us draw some conclusions about the essence and functions of primitive art. Art was an element of industrial and demographic magic, and in this regard played an important role as a way of regulating and expressing people's emotions. It also had a decorative function, manifested in a person’s decoration of himself, household items and tools. Gradually, in the process of selecting the best examples, the aesthetic function of art as a way of creating beauty is strengthened.

Paleolithic

Early Paleolithic

About 2.588 million years ago, the Pleistocene began - the longest section of the Quaternary period of the geological history of the Earth, or rather its earliest part - the Gelazian stage. At this time, significant changes occurred both in the Earth's climate and in its biosphere. Another decrease in temperature led to a decrease in the evaporation of water from the ocean surface, as a result of which the forests of East Africa began to be replaced by savannas. Faced with a lack of traditional plant foods (fruits), the ancestors of modern humans began to look for more accessible food sources in the dry savannah.

It is believed that around the same time (2.5-2.6 million)

years ago) are the earliest, crudest and most primitive stone tools currently found, made by the ancestors of modern man. Although more recently, in May 2015, the journal Nature published the results of research and excavations in Lomekwi, where tools made by an as yet unidentified hominid were found, whose age is estimated at 3.3 million.

years. This is how the lower or early paleolithic– the most ancient part of the Paleolithic ( ancient stone age). In other regions of the planet, the production of stone tools (and, accordingly, the onset of the Paleolithic) began later. In western Asia it happened around 1.9 million.

years ago, in the Middle East - about 1.6 million years ago, in Southern Europe - about 1.2 million years ago, in Central Europe - less than a million years ago.

One of the species of australopithecus, Australopithecus garhi, was probably one of the first to make stone tools. His remains are approximately 2.6 million years old.

years were discovered only relatively recently, in 1996. Along with them, the most ancient stone tools were found, as well as animal bones with traces of processing with these tools.

About 2.33 million years ago, Homo habilis (lat. Homo habilis) appeared, possibly descended from Australopithecus gari.

MHC test (grade 10)

Adapting to the savannah climate, he included roots, tubers and animal meat in his diet in addition to traditional fruits. At the same time, the first people were content with the role of scavengers, scraping off the remains of meat from the skeletons of animals killed by predators with stone scrapers, and extracting bone marrow from bones split by stones. It was Habilis who created, developed and spread the Olduvai culture in Africa, which flourished between 2.4 and 1.7 million years ago.

years ago. At the same time as Homo habilis, there was another species - Rudolf man (lat. Homo rudolfensis), however, due to the extremely small number of finds, very little is known about him.

About 1.806 million

years ago, the next - Calabrian - stage of the Pleistocene began, and around the same time two new species of people appeared: the working man (Latin: Homo ergaster) and the upright man (Latin: Homo erectus). The most important change in the morphology of these species there was a significant increase in brain size.

Homo erectus soon migrated from Africa and spread widely throughout Europe and Asia, moving from a scavenger role to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle that dominated the rest of the Paleolithic.

Along with erectus, the Olduvai culture also spread (in Europe, before Leakey’s discoveries, it was known as Chelles and Abbeville).

A man working in Africa soon created a more advanced Acheulian culture of stone processing, but it spread to Europe and the Middle East only after hundreds of thousands of years, and did not reach Southeast Asia at all. At the same time, in Europe, in parallel with the Acheulean, another culture arose - the Klektonian.

According to various estimates, it existed in a period of time from 300 to 600 thousand years ago and was named after the city of Clacton-on-Sea in Essex (Great Britain), near which corresponding stone tools were found in 1911. Similar instruments were later found in Kent and Suffolk.

The creator of these instruments was Homo erectus.

Approximately 781 thousand years ago, the Ionian stage of the Pleistocene began. At the beginning of this period, another one appeared in Europe the new kind– Heidelberg man (lat. Homo heidelbergensis). He continued to lead a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and used stone tools belonging to the Acheulean culture, but somewhat more advanced.

Some time later - according to various estimates, from 600 to 350 thousand.

years ago - the first people appeared, with the features of a Neanderthal or proto-anderthal.

The first attempts by man to use fire date back to the Early Paleolithic. However, fairly reliable evidence of fire control dates back to the very end of this period - a time about 400 thousand years ago.

Middle Paleolithic

The Middle Paleolithic replaced the Early Paleolithic about 300 thousand years ago and lasted until about 30 thousand.

years ago (in different regions the time boundaries of the period may differ significantly). During this time, significant changes occurred in all areas of life. primitive humanity, coinciding with the emergence of new species of people.

From the protoanderthals that arose at the end of the Early Paleolithic to the second half of the Middle Paleolithic (approximately 100-130 thousand)

years ago) the classic Neanderthal (lat. Homo neanderthalensis) was formed.

Neanderthals, who lived in small related groups, were able to perfectly adapt to the cold climate during the last ice age and populated large areas of Europe and Asia that were not covered with ice. Survival in harsh climates was made possible by a number of changes in the lives of these ancient people. They created and developed the Mousterian culture, which used Levallois techniques for stone processing and was the most progressive throughout most of the Middle Paleolithic.

The improvement of hunting weapons (spears with stone tips) and a high level of interaction with their fellow tribesmen allowed Neanderthals to successfully hunt the largest land mammals (mammoths, bison, etc.), whose meat formed the basis of their diet.

The invention of the harpoon made it possible to successfully catch fish, which became an important source of food in coastal areas. To protect themselves from the cold and predators, Neanderthals used shelter in caves and fire, and they also cooked food on fire.

To preserve meat for future use, they began to smoke and dry it. An exchange with other groups of valuable raw materials (ochre, rare high-quality stone for making tools, etc.) that were unavailable in the area in which one or another group lived was developed.

Archaeological evidence and comparative ethnography studies indicate that Middle Paleolithic people lived in egalitarian (egalitarian) societies.

Equal distribution of food resources avoided starvation and increased the community's chances of survival. Members of the group took care of injured, sick and old fellow tribesmen, as evidenced by remains with traces of healed injuries and at a considerable age (of course, by Paleolithic standards - about 50 years).

Neanderthals often buried their dead, leading some scientists to conclude that they developed religious beliefs and concepts, such as belief in life after death. This can be indicated, among other things, by the orientation of the graves, the characteristic poses of those who died in them, and the burial of utensils with them. However, other scientists believe that the burials were carried out for rational reasons. The development of thinking was manifested in the appearance of the first examples of art: rock paintings, decorative items made of stone, bone, etc.

About 195 thousand

years ago in Africa appeared anatomically modern man reasonable. According to the currently dominant hypothesis of the African origin of man, after several tens of millennia, anatomically modern people began to gradually spread beyond Africa.

There is some evidence that about 125 thousand years ago, having crossed the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, they appeared on the Arabian Peninsula (the territory of modern UAE), a little later - about 106 thousand.

years ago - on the territory of modern Oman, and about 75 thousand years ago - possibly on the territory of modern India. Although no human remains have been found in those places dating back to this time, the obvious similarities between stone tools found there and in Africa suggest that they were created by modern man.

Another group of people, passing through the Nile Valley, reached the territory of modern Israel about 100-120 thousand years ago. The settlers moving south and east gradually populated southeast Asia, and then, taking advantage of the reduced sea level due to glaciation, reached Australia and New Guinea about 50 thousand years ago, and a little later, about 30 thousand years ago.

years ago - and numerous islands east of Australia.

The first anatomically modern humans (Cro-Magnons) entered Europe through the Arabian Peninsula about 60 thousand years ago. About 43 thousand years ago, large-scale colonization of Europe began, during which Cro-Magnons actively competed with Neanderthals. In terms of physical strength and adaptability to the climate of Europe during the glaciation period, the Cro-Magnons were inferior to the Neanderthals, but were ahead of them in technological development.

And after 13-15 thousand years, by the end of the Middle Paleolithic, the Neanderthals were completely forced out of their habitat and became extinct.

Along with the Mousterian culture itself, in the Middle Paleolithic era its local variants also existed in some regions. Very interesting in this regard is the Aterian culture in Africa, which was discovered at the beginning of the 20th century near the city of Bir el-Ather in eastern Algeria, after which it was named.

Initially, it was believed that it first appeared about 40 thousand years ago, then this boundary was pushed back to 90-110 thousand years. In 2010, the Ministry of Culture of Morocco published a press release in which it was reported that objects of Aterian culture dating back up to 175 thousand years had been discovered in the prehistoric caves of Ifri n'Amman.

years. In addition to stone tools, drilled mollusk shells were also found at Aterian sites, presumably serving as decorations, which indicates the development of aesthetic feelings in humans.

In Europe, there were such early and transitional varieties of Mousterian as the Teylac and Micoq industries. In the Middle East, the Emirian culture developed from Mousterian.

During the same period, there were also independent cultures in Africa, formed from the earlier Acheulean, such as Sangoi and Stilbeian. Very interesting is the Howiesons-Port culture, which arose (possibly from the Stilbeian) in South Africa around 64.8 thousand years ago.

years ago. In terms of the level of production of stone tools, it corresponds rather to the cultures of the beginning of the Late Paleolithic, which appeared 25 thousand years later. We can say that in terms of its level it was significantly ahead of its time.

However, having existed for just over 5 thousand years, it disappeared approximately 59.5 thousand years ago, and tools from more primitive cultures reappeared in the region of its distribution.

Late Paleolithic

The Late Paleolithic - the third and final stage of the Paleolithic - began around 40-50 thousand years ago.

years ago and ended about 10-12 thousand years ago. It was during this period that modern man became first the dominant and then the only representative of his own species. The changes in the life of mankind during this period are so significant that they are called the Late Paleolithic revolution.

During the Late Paleolithic, significant climate changes occurred in areas inhabited by humans.

Since the vast majority of the period occurred during the last ice age, the overall climate of Eurasia varied from cold to temperate. Along with climate changes, the area of ​​the ice sheet changed, and, accordingly, the area of ​​human distribution. Moreover, if in the northern regions the territory suitable for habitation decreased, then in the more southern regions it increased due to a significant decrease in the level of the World Ocean, the waters of which were concentrated in glaciers.

So, during the maximum of the Ice Age, which occurred 19-26.5 thousand years ago, sea level fell by about 100-125 m. Therefore, many archaeological evidence of human life who lived on the coast in those days is now hidden by the waters of the seas and is located at a considerable distance from the modern coastline.

On the other hand, glaciation and low sea levels allowed man to move across the Bering Isthmus that existed at that time to North America.

Since the beginning of the Late Paleolithic, the variety of artifacts left by people has increased significantly. Manufactured instruments are becoming more specialized, and their manufacturing technologies are becoming more complex.

Important achievements are inventions various types tools and weapons. In particular, about 30 thousand years ago a spear thrower and a boomerang were invented, 25-30 thousand years ago - a bow and arrow, 22-29 thousand years ago - a fishing net. Also at this time, a sewing needle with an eye, a fishing hook, a rope, an oil lamp, etc. were invented. One of the most important achievements of the Late Paleolithic can be called the taming and domestication of the dog, which, according to various estimates, occurred 15-35 thousand years ago.

years ago (and possibly earlier). A dog has much better developed hearing and sense of smell than a human, which makes it an indispensable assistant in protecting against predators and hunting.

More advanced tools and weapons, methods of hunting, building housing and making clothing allowed people to significantly increase their numbers and populate previously undeveloped territories. The earliest evidence of organized human settlements dates back to the Late Paleolithic.

Some of them were used all year round, although more often people moved from one settlement to another depending on the season, following food sources.

Instead of a single dominant culture, diverse regional cultures with numerous local varieties emerge in different places, existing part simultaneously, partly replacing each other. In Europe, these are the Chatelperonian, Seletian, Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean, Badegulian and Magdalenian cultures.

In Asia and the Middle East - Baradostian, Zarzian and Kebarian.

In addition, during this period the flourishing of fine and decorative arts began: Late Paleolithic man left many rock paintings and petroglyphs, as well artistic products made of ceramics, bone and horn.

One of the ubiquitous varieties is female figurines, the so-called Paleolithic Venus.

MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC: material culture of people. Main parking areas.

The Middle Paleolithic, or Middle Old Stone Age, is an era that lasted from 150,000 to 30,000 years ago.

Upper Paleolithic cultures

More precise dating is difficult using existing methods. The Middle Paleolithic of Europe is called the Mousterian era after a famous archaeological site in France. The Middle Paleolithic has been well studied.

It is characterized by widespread human settlement, as a result of which paleoanthropus (Middle Paleolithic man) settled throughout almost the entire glacier-free territory of Europe. The number of archaeological sites has increased significantly. The territory in Europe is populated up to the Volga.

Mousterian sites appear in the Desna basin, the upper reaches of the Oka, and the Middle Volga region. In Central and Eastern Europe there are 70 times more Middle Paleolithic sites than Early Paleolithic ones. At the same time, local groups and cultures emerge, which becomes the basis for the birth of new races and peoples.

Tools The production of stone tools has improved. The stone industry of that time is called "Levallois". It is characterized by the chipping of flakes and blades from a specially prepared disc-shaped “core”. They are distinguished by their durability.

Double-sided tools in some regions were also used in the Middle Paleolithic, but they changed significantly. Hand axes are reduced in size and are often made from flakes.

Leaf-like points and points of various types appear, which were used in complex tools and weapons, such as throwing spears. A typical Mousterian tool - a scraper - has multi-bladed forms. Mousterian tools are multifunctional: they were used for processing wood and hides, for planing, cutting and even drilling. It is believed that European Mousterian developed in two main zones - in Western Europe and in the Caucasus - and from there they spread throughout Europe.

A direct connection between the Middle and Early Paleolithic has been established in rare cases. Archaeological cultures are divided into early Mousterian (existed in the Riess-Würm period) and late Mousterian (Würm I and Würm II; absolute period - 75/70-40/35 thousand BC).

years ago). Archaeological sites Mousterian sites are quite clearly divided into base camps (the remains of which are often found in large and well-closed caves, where thick cultural layers with a fairly diverse fauna were formed), and temporary hunting camps (poor industry).

There are also workshops for the extraction and primary processing of stone. Base camps and temporary hunting camps were located both in caves and in the open air. Mousterian flint mining sites were found in the canton of Bern (Switzerland) in the form of vertical pits 60 cm deep, dug with horn tools. The primary processing of flint took place here. In Balatenlovas (Hungary) there were mines for the extraction of dyes. In southwestern France, Mousterian sites were found under rock overhangs and in small caves, which rarely exceed 20-25 m in width and depth.

Caves in Combes Grenada and Le Peyrard (Southern France) were deepened. Dwellings made of mammoth bones with the remains of open-air fire pits in the middle were found at the site of Molodova I on the Dniester. Until the end of Würm I, large dwellings with several fire pits were built, found in France (Le Peyrard, Vaux-de-l'Obezier, Eskicho-Grano).

Remains of ten small dwellings found in the lower reaches of the Durand River (France) Archaeological cultures F. Borda's research revealed different cultures that were not tied to territory. At the same time, different cultures could coexist in the same area. The paths of development are determined by the limitations of the raw materials used, the level of technological development, and a certain set of tools.

There are Levallois, jagged, typical Mousterian, Charente, Pontic and other development paths. Bord's conclusions about the existence of “Mousterian cultural communities” were criticized by L. Binford. Settlement increased, which was supposed to contribute to the consolidation of human groups that lived sedentary.

High level of tribal social relations. For example, a person who lost an arm lived for a long time after losing his ability to work; the team could give him such an opportunity.

Archaeological periodization of history. The oldest period of human history (prehistory) - from the appearance of the first people to the emergence of the first states - was called the primitive communal system, or primitive society.

At this time, there was a change not only in the physical type of a person, but also in tools, housing, forms of organization of groups, family, worldview, etc.

Taking these components into account, scientists have put forward a number of systems for the periodization of primitive history. The most developed is archaeological periodization, which is based on a comparison of human-made tools, their materials, forms of dwellings, burials, etc.

According to this principle, the history of human civilization is divided into centuries - stone, bronze and iron. In the Stone Age, which is usually identified with the primitive communal system, three eras are distinguished: Paleolithic (Greek - ancient stone) - up to 12 thousand.

years ago, Mesolithic (middle stone) - up to 9 thousand years ago, Neolithic (new stone) - up to 6 thousand years ago. Epochs are divided into periods - early (lower), middle and late (upper), as well as into cultures characterized by a uniform complex of artifacts. A culture is named after its place modern location(“Chelles” – near the city of Chelles in Northern France, “Kostenki” – from the name of a village in Ukraine) or by other characteristics, for example: “culture of battle axes”, “culture of log burials”, etc. The creator of the Lower Paleolithic cultures was a person like Pithecanthropus or Sinanthropus, Middle Paleolithic - Neanderthal, Upper Paleolithic - Cro-Magnon.

This definition is based on archaeological research in Western Europe and cannot be fully extended to other regions. On the territory of the former USSR, about 70 sites of the Lower and Middle Paleolithic and about 300 sites of the Upper Paleolithic have been studied - from the Prut River in the west to Chukotka in the east. During the Paleolithic period, people initially made rough hand axes from flint, which were standardized tools.

Then the production of specialized tools begins - these are knives, piercings, scrapers, composite tools, such as a stone axe.

The Mesolithic is dominated by microliths - tools made of thin stone plates, which were inserted into a bone or wooden frame. It was then that the bow and arrows were invented. The Neolithic is characterized by the production of polished tools from soft stones - jade, slate, slate. The technique of sawing and drilling holes in stone is mastered. The Stone Age is replaced by a short period of the Eneolithic, i.e. the existence of cultures with copper-stone implements. The Bronze Age (Latin – Chalcolithic; Greek – Chalcolithic) began in Europe in the 3rd millennium.

BC. At this time, in many regions of the planet, the first states emerged, civilizations developed - Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Mediterranean (Early Minoan, Early Helladic), Mexican and Peruvian in America. On the Lower Don, settlements of this time were studied in Kobyakovo, Gnilovskaya, Safyanovo, on the shores of the Manych lakes. The first iron products appeared on the territory of Russia in the 10th–7th centuries.

BC – among the tribes that lived in the North Caucasus (Scythians, Cimmerians), in the Volga region (Dyakovo culture), Siberia and other regions. Note that frequent and massive migrations of various peoples from the east, passing through the territory of Central Russia and the Don steppes, destroyed the settlements of the sedentary population, destroyed entire cultures that could, under favorable conditions, develop into civilizations and states. Another periodization system based on a complex characteristic material and spiritual cultures, proposed in the 70s of the XIX century.

L. Morgan. In this case, the scientist was based on a comparison of ancient cultures with modern cultures American Indians. According to this system, primitive society is divided into three periods: savagery, barbarism and civilization. The period of savagery is the time of the early tribal system (Paleolithic and Mesolithic), it ends with the invention of the bow and arrow. During the period of barbarism, ceramic products appeared, agriculture and animal husbandry appeared.

Civilization is characterized by the emergence of bronze metallurgy, writing and states. In the 40s of the 20th century. Soviet scientists P.P. Efimenko, M.O. Kosven, A.I. Pershits et al. proposed systems for the periodization of primitive society, the criteria of which were the evolution of forms of ownership, the degree of division of labor, family relationships, etc.

In a generalized form, such periodization can be represented as follows: the era of the primitive herd; the era of the tribal system; the era of the decomposition of the communal-tribal system (the emergence of cattle breeding, plow farming and metal processing, the emergence of elements of exploitation and private property). All of these periodization systems are imperfect in their own way.

There are many examples when stone tools of Paleolithic or Mesolithic form were used by peoples Far East in the 16th-17th centuries, while they had a tribal society and developed forms of religion and family.

Therefore, the optimal periodization system should take into account greatest number indicators of social development.

LATE PALEOLITHIC: art and religious ideas. In the Late Paleolithic, major shifts occurred in the development of productive forces and human society as a whole. The most striking expression of the maturity of human societies in the Late Paleolithic is the emergence of art and the composition of all the basic elements of primitive religion.

Cave paintings, sculptural images of people and animals, engravings on bones, and various decorations appeared; deliberate burials of people with tools, weapons and jewelry. Most of the Upper Paleolithic monuments are definitely of a religious nature. Describing and systematizing them requires time, which we do not have, but we must not forget that, according to the correct remark of the modern American philosopher Huston Smith, “Religion is not primarily a collection of facts, but a collection of meanings.

One can endlessly enumerate gods, customs and beliefs, but if this activity does not give us the opportunity to see how with their help people overcame loneliness, grief and death, then no matter how impeccably accurate this enumeration is made, it has not the slightest relation to religion "

Let's try to see behind the facts of the Upper Paleolithic finds their significance in the spiritual quest of the Cro-Magnon man. The first ordered forms of social organization arise - clan and tribal community. The main features of primitive society are formed: consistent collectivism in production and consumption, common property and equal distribution in groups. 35 - 12 thousand.

years ago - the most severe phase of the last Würm glaciation, when modern people settled throughout the Earth. After the appearance of the first modern people in Europe (the Cro-Magnons), there was a relatively rapid growth of their cultures, the most famous of which are the Chatelperonian, Aurignacian, Solutrean, Gravettian and Magdalenian archaeological cultures. North and South America were colonized by humans through the ancient Bering Isthmus, which was later flooded by rising sea levels and became the Bering Strait.

The ancient people of America, the Paleo-Indians most likely formed into an independent culture about 13.5 thousand years ago. In general, the planet became dominated by societies of hunter-gatherers who used Various types stone tools depending on the region. Numerous changes in human lifestyle are associated with climate changes of this era, which is characterized by the beginning of a new ice age.

The first examples of Paleolithic art were found in caves in France in the 40s of the 19th century, when many, under the influence of biblical views on the past of man, did not believe in the very existence of Stone Age people - contemporaries of the mammoth.

In 1864, in the La Madeleine cave (France), an image of a mammoth on a bone plate was discovered, which showed that people of that distant time not only lived with the mammoth, but also reproduced this animal in their drawings.

11 years later, in 1875, the cave paintings of Altamira (Spain) that amazed researchers were unexpectedly discovered, followed by many others. In the Upper Paleolithic, as we see, hunting techniques became more complex. House-building is emerging, a new way of life is taking shape. As the clan system matures, the primitive community becomes stronger and more complex in its structure. Thinking and speech develop. A person’s mental horizons expand immeasurably and his spiritual world is enriched.

Along with these general achievements in the development of culture great importance For the emergence and further growth of art, there was also the specifically important circumstance that Upper Paleolithic 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 previously unknown possibilities for him to convey phenomena of the surrounding reality in plastic form - in sculpture and carving.

Without these preconditions, without these technical achievements, born of direct labor practice in the manufacture of tools, neither painting nor the artistic processing of bones, which mainly represent the Paleolithic art known to us, could have arisen. The most remarkable and most important thing in the history of primitive art lies in that from its first steps it followed mainly the path of truthful transmission of reality. The art of the Upper Paleolithic, taken in its best examples, is distinguished by amazing fidelity to nature and accuracy in conveying vital, most significant features.

Already in the early days of the Upper Paleolithic, in the Aurignacian monuments of Europe, examples of truthful drawing and sculpture, as well as cave paintings identical in spirit, are found. Their appearance, of course, was preceded by a certain preparatory period. Paleolithic art had a huge positive value in the history of ancient mankind. Consolidating your labor in living images of art life experience, primitive man deepened and expanded his ideas about reality and gained a deeper, more comprehensive knowledge of 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 greatly contributed to the strengthening of social ties.

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STONE AGE ART

its first small forms were found by E. Larte during the excavation of a cave in the 60s of the 19th century, shortly after the recognition of the discoveries of Boucher de Perth (see prehistoric art). At the turn of the Mesolithic, animalism (depictions of animals) dried up, being replaced mostly by schematic and ornamental works.

Only in small regions - the Spanish Levant, Kobystan in Azerbaijan, Zarautsay in Central Asia and Neolithic rock paintings (petroglyphs of Karelia, rock paintings of the Urals) did the monumental-story tradition of the Paleolithic continue.

For a long time, caves with Paleolithic paintings were found only in Spain, France and Italy.

In 1959, zoologist A.V.

Paleolithic culture

Ryumin discovered Paleolithic drawings in the Kapova Cave in the Urals. The drawings were located mainly in the depths of the cave on the second, hard-to-reach tier.

Initially, 11 drawings were discovered: 7 mammoths, 2 horses, 2 rhinoceroses.

All of them were made with ocher - a mineral paint that was ingrained into the rock so that when a piece of the stone in the drawing broke off, it turned out that it was completely saturated with paint.

In some places the drawings were poorly differentiated, so it was difficult to make out who they depicted. Some squares, cubes, and triangles were visible here. Some images resembled a hut, others - a vessel, etc.

Archaeologists had to work hard to “read” these drawings.

There has been much debate about what time they belong to. A convincing argument in favor of their antiquity is their very content. After all, the animals depicted on the walls of the cave became extinct long ago. Carbon dating has shown that the earliest examples of cave painting known today number over 30 thousand.

years, the latest - approx. 12 thousand years.

In the Late Paleolithic, sculptural depictions of naked (less often clothed) women became widespread.

The sizes of the figurines are small: only 5 - 10 cm and, as a rule, no more than 12 - 15 cm in height. They are carved from soft stone, limestone or marl, less often from soapstone or ivory. Such figurines - they are called Paleolithic Venus - were found in France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, but especially many of them were found in Russia.

It is generally accepted that figurines of naked women depict the ancestral goddess, since they emphatically express the idea of ​​motherhood and fertility. Numerous figurines represent mature, full-breasted women with large bellies (probably pregnant).

Among the female figurines there are also clothed figures: only the face is naked, everything else is covered in a kind of fur “overall.” Sewn with the wool facing out, it fits tightly to the body from head to toe. The costume of an Old Stone Age man is especially clearly visible on the figurine found in 1963.

in Bureti.

The fur of the clothing is marked by semicircular pits and notches arranged in a certain rhythmic order. These pits are not present only on the face.

The fur is sharply separated from the convex face by deep narrow grooves that form a roll - a thick fluffy border of the hood. The wide and flat hood points towards the top.

Very similar clothes are still worn by Arctic sea game hunters and tundra reindeer herders. This is not surprising: 25 thousand years ago there was also tundra on the shores of Lake Baikal.

Cold, piercing winter winds forced Paleolithic people, like modern inhabitants of the Arctic, to wrap themselves in fur clothing.

Very warm, such clothes at the same time do not restrict movement and allow you to move very quickly.

Interesting works of Paleolithic art found at the Mezin Paleolithic site in Ukraine. Bracelets, all kinds of figurines and figures carved from mammoth tusk are covered with geometric patterns. Along with stone and bone tools, eyed needles, jewelry, remains of dwellings and other finds, bone items with a metrical pattern were found in Mezin.

This design consists mainly of many zigzag lines. In recent years, such a strange zigzag pattern has been found at other Paleolithic sites in V.

Central Europe. What does this “abstract” pattern mean and how did it come about? The geometric style really doesn’t fit in with the brilliantly realistic drawings of cave art. Where did “abstract art” come from? And how abstract is this ornament?

Having studied the structures of sections of mammoth tusks using magnifying instruments, the researchers noticed that they also consist of zigzag patterns, very similar to the zigzag ornamental motifs of Mezin products. Thus, the basis of the Mezin geometric ornament was a pattern drawn by nature itself.

But ancient artists did not only copy nature. They introduced new combinations and elements into the original ornament, overcoming the dead monotony of the design.

During the Mesolithic and Neolithic eras, art continued to develop. Interesting monuments ancient art Central Asia and the Black Sea region, the origins of which lie in the Near and Middle East. The favorable combination of natural conditions of the Near and Middle East allowed man to move from hunting and gathering to agriculture in the Mesolithic.

Both architecture and art developed rapidly here (see prehistoric art).