The Stone Age lasted more than two million years and is the longest part of our history. The name of the historical period is due to the use of tools made of stone and flint by ancient people. People lived in small groups of relatives. They collected plants and hunted for their food.

Cro-Magnons are the first modern people who lived in Europe 40 thousand years ago.

Stone Age man did not have a permanent home, only temporary camps. The need for food forced groups to look for new hunting grounds. It will be a long time before a person learns to cultivate the land and keep livestock so that he can settle in one place.

The Stone Age is the first period in human history. This is a symbol of the time frame when a person used stone, flint, wood, plant fibers for fastening, and bone. Some of these materials did not fall into our hands because they simply rotted and decomposed, but archaeologists around the world continue to record stone finds today.

Researchers use two main methods to study preliterate human history: through archaeological finds and by studying modern primitive tribes.

The woolly mammoth appeared on the continents of Europe and Asia 150 thousand years ago. An adult specimen reached 4 m and weighed 8 tons.

Considering the duration of the Stone Age, historians divide it into several periods, divided depending on the materials of the tools used by primitive man.

• Ancient Stone Age () – more than 2 million years ago.
• Middle Stone Age () – 10 thousand years BC The appearance of a bow and arrow. Hunting for deer, wild boar.
• New Stone Age (Neolithic) – 8 thousand years BC. The beginning of agriculture.

This is a conditional division into periods, since in each individual region progress did not always appear simultaneously. The end of the Stone Age is considered the period when people mastered metal.

First people

Man was not always the way we see him today. Over a long period of time the building human body changed. The scientific name for man and his closest ancestors is hominid. The first hominids were divided into 2 main groups:

• Australopithecus;
• Homo.

First harvests

Growing food first appeared 8 thousand years BC. in the Middle East. Some wild grains remained in reserve for the next year. The man observed and saw that if the seeds fall into the ground, they sprout again. He began to deliberately plant seeds. By planting small plots, more people could be fed.

To control and plant crops, it was necessary to stay in place, this prompted people to migrate less. Now we have managed not only to collect and receive what nature provides here and now, but also to reproduce it. This is how agriculture was born, about which read more.

The first cultivated plants were wheat and barley. Rice was cultivated in China and India 5 thousand years BC.

Gradually they learned to grind grain into flour in order to make porridge or cakes from it. The grain was placed on a large flat stone and ground into powder using a grindstone. Coarse flour contained sand and other impurities, but gradually the process became more refined and the flour purer.

Cattle breeding appeared at the same time as agriculture. Man had herded livestock into small pens before, but this was done for convenience during the hunt. Domestication began 8.5 thousand years BC. The goats and sheep were the first to succumb. They quickly got used to human proximity. Noticing that large individuals give more offspring than wild ones, man learned to select only the best. So livestock became larger and meatier than wild ones.

Stone processing

The Stone Age is a period in human history when stone was used and processed to improve life. Knives, tips, arrows, chisels, scrapers... - achieving the desired sharpness and shape, the stone was turned into a tool and weapon.

The emergence of crafts

Cloth

The first clothes were needed to protect against the cold and they were animal skins. The skins were pulled out, scraped out and fastened together. Holes in the skin could be made using a pointed awl made of flint.

Later, plant fibers served as the basis for weaving threads and subsequently for making fabric. The fabric was decorated decoratively using plants, leaves, and bark.

Decorations

The first decorations were shells, animal teeth, bones, and nut shells. Random searches for semi-precious stones made it possible to make beads held together with strips of thread or leather.

Primitive art

Primitive man revealed his creativity using the same stone and cave walls. By at least, it is these drawings that have survived intact to this day (). Animal and human figures carved from stone and bone are still found all over the world.

End of the Stone Age

The Stone Age ended the moment the first cities appeared. Climate change, a sedentary lifestyle, the development of agriculture and cattle breeding led to the fact that clan groups began to unite into tribes, and the tribes eventually grew into large settlements.

The scale of settlements and the development of metal brought man into a new era.

Stone Age

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

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

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

The oldest 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), which had less regular outlines than axes, as well as rectangular ax-shaped tools (cleavers) and massive flakes that broke off from Nucleus ovs (cores). The people who made pre-Chelles - Acheulian tools belonged to the type of archanthropes (See Archanthropes) (Pithecanthropus, Sinanthropus, Heidelberg Man), and, possibly, to an even more primitive type (Homo habilis, Prezinjanthropus). People lived in a warm climate, mainly south of 50° north latitude (most of Africa, southern Europe and southern Asia). In the Mousterian era, stone flakes became thinner, because... broke off from specially prepared disc-shaped or turtle-shaped nuclei - cores (the so-called Levallois technique); flakes were turned into various scrapers, points, knives, drills, choppers, etc. The use of bone (anvils, retouchers, points) became widespread, as did the use of fire; Due to the onset of cooling, people began to settle in caves more often and developed wider territories. Burials testify to the emergence of primitive religious beliefs. People of the Mousterian era belonged to the paleoanthropes (See Paleoanthropes) (Neanderthals).

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

In the Late Paleolithic era, a person of the modern physical type emerged (neoanthropus (See Neoanthropes), Homo sapiens- Cro-Magnons, man from Grimaldi, etc.). Late Paleolithic people settled much more widely than Neanderthals, populating 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, piercings, staples, etc. Awls, eyed needles, spatulas, picks and other items made of bone, horn and mammoth tusk appeared. People began to settle down; Along with cave camps, long-term dwellings spread - dugouts and above ground, both large communal ones with several hearths, and small ones (Gagarino, Kostenki (See Kostenki), Pushkari, Buret, Malta, Dolni Vestonice, Pensevan, etc.). Skulls, large bones and tusks of mammoths, reindeer antlers, wood and skins were used in the construction of dwellings. Dwellings often formed entire villages. The hunting industry has reached a higher stage of development. Fine art appeared, characterized in many cases by striking realism: sculptural images of animals and naked women made of mammoth tusk, stone, sometimes clay (Kostenki I, Avdeevskaya site, Gagarino, Dolni Vestonice, Willendorf, Brassanpui, etc.), engraved on bone and stone images of animals and fish, engraved and painted conventional geometric patterns - zigzag, rhombuses, meanders, wavy lines (Mezinskaya site, Předmosti, etc.), engraved and painted (monochrome and polychrome) images of animals, sometimes people and conventional signs on the walls and ceilings of caves (Altamira, Lascaux, etc.). Paleolithic art, apparently, is partly connected with the female cults of the era of the maternal race, with hunting magic and totemism. There were a variety of burials: crouched, sessile, painted, with grave goods.

In the Late Paleolithic there were several large cultural areas, as well as a significant number of smaller cultures. For Western Europe these are Périgordian, Aurignacian, Solutrean, Magdalenian and other cultures; for Central Europe - Seletsky culture, etc.

The transition from the Late Paleolithic to the Mesolithic coincided with the final extinction of glaciation and the establishment of a generally modern climate. Radiocarbon dating of the European Mesolithic 10-7 thousand years ago (in the northern regions of Europe the Mesolithic lasted until 6-5 thousand years ago); Mesolithic Middle East - 12-9 thousand years ago. Mesolithic cultures - Azilian culture, Tardenoise culture, Maglemose culture, Ertbølle culture, Hoa Binh culture, etc. The Mesolithic technology of many territories is characterized by the use of microliths - miniature stone tools of geometric shapes (in the shape of a trapezoid, segment, triangle), used as inserts in wooden and bone frames, as well as beaten chopping tools: axes, adzes, picks. Bows and arrows were distributed. The dog, which was probably domesticated already in the Late Paleolithic, was widely used by people in the Mesolithic.

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

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

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

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

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

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

History of the study of K. v. The guess that the era of the use of metals was preceded by a time when stones served as weapons was expressed by Lucretius Carus in the 1st century. BC e. In 1836 dates. archaeologist K. J. Thomsen identified 3 cultural and historical eras based on archaeological material (C. Century, Bronze Age, Iron Age). The existence of Paleolithic fossil man was proven in the 40-50s. 19th century in the fight against reactionary clerical science, the French archaeologist Boucher de Pert. In the 60s The English scientist J. Lubbock dismembered the K. century. into the Paleolithic and Neolithic, and the French archaeologist G. de Mortillier created generalizing works on the K. century. and developed a more fractional periodization (Chellean, Mousterian eras, etc.). By the 2nd half of the 19th century. include studies of Mesolithic kitchen heaps (See Kitchen heaps) in Denmark, Neolithic pile settlements in Switzerland, numerous Paleolithic and Neolithic caves and sites in Europe and Asia. At the end of the 19th century. and at the beginning of the 20th century. Paleolithic painted images were discovered in caves in southern France and northern Spain.

In the 2nd half of the 19th century. study of K. v. was closely connected with Darwinian ideas (see Darwinism), with progressive, although historically limited, evolutionism. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. and in the 1st half of the 20th century. in the bourgeois science of capitalism. (primitive archaeology, prehistory, paleoethnology) the methodology of archaeological work was significantly improved, enormous new factual material was accumulated that did not fit into the framework of the old simplified schemes, and the diversity and complexity of the development of cultures of the Caucasian century was revealed. At the same time, ahistorical constructions associated with the theory of cultural circles, the theory of migration, and sometimes directly with reactionary racism became widespread. Progressive bourgeois scientists, who sought to trace the development of primitive humanity and its economy as a natural process, opposed these reactionary concepts. A serious achievement of foreign researchers of the 1st half and mid-20th century. is the creation of a number of general manuals, reference books and encyclopedias on K. v. Europe, Asia, Africa and America (French scientist J. Dechelet, German - M. Ebert, English - J. Clark, G. Child, R. Waughrey, H. M. Warmington, etc.), elimination of extensive white spots on archaeological maps, discovery and study of numerous monuments of the K. century. in European countries (Czech scientists K. Absolon, B. Klima, F. Proshek, I. Neustupni, Hungarian - L. Vertes, Romanian - K. Nikolaescu-Plopsor, Yugoslav - S. Brodar, A. Benac, Polish - L Savitsky, S. Krukovsky, German - A. Rust, Spanish - L. Pericot-Garcia, etc.), in Africa (English scientist L. Leakey, French - K. Arambur, etc.), in the Middle East (English). scientists D. Garrod, J. Mellart, K. Kenyon, American scientists - R. Braidwood, R. Soletsky, etc.), in India (H. D. Sankalia, B. B. Lal, etc.), in China (Jia Lan-po, Pei Wen-chung, etc.), in Southeast Asia (French scientist A. Mansuy, Dutch - H. van Heckeren, etc.), in America (American scientists A. Kroeber, F. Rainey, etc. .). Excavation techniques have improved significantly, the publication of archaeological monuments has increased, and comprehensive research of ancient settlements by archaeologists, geologists, paleozoologists, and paleobotanists has spread. The radiocarbon dating method has become widely used, statistical method studying stone tools, generalizing works devoted to the art of stone centuries have been created. (French scientists A, Breuil, A. Leroy-Gouran, Italian - P. Graziosi, etc.).

In Russia, a number of Paleolithic and Neolithic sites were studied in the 70-90s. 19th century A. S. Uvarov, I. S. Polyakov, K. S. Merezhkovsky, V. B. Antonovich, V. V. Khvoika and others. The first 2 decades of the 20th century. were marked by generalizing works on geological history, as well as excavations of Paleolithic and Neolithic settlements carried out at a high level for their time, with the involvement of geologists and zoologists, by V. A. Gorodtsov, A. A. Spitsyn, F. K. Volkov, P. P. Efimenko and others.

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

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

Lit.: Engels F., The origin of the family, private property and the state, M., 1965; by him, The role of labor in the process of transformation of a monkey into a human, M., 1969; Abramova Z. A., Paleolithic art on the territory of the USSR, M. - L., 1962; Aliman A., Prehistoric Africa, trans. from French, M., 1960; Beregovaya N.A., Paleolithic localities of the USSR, M. - L., 1960; Bonch-Osmolovsky G. A., Paleolithic of Crimea, c. 1-3, M. - L., 1940-54; Boriskovsky P.I., Paleolithic of Ukraine, M. - L., 1953; by him, Ancient Stone Age of South and Southeast Asia, L., 1971; Bryusov A. Ya., Essays on the history of the tribes of the European part of the USSR in the Neolithic era, M., 1952; Gurina N.N., Ancient history of the north-west of the European part of the USSR, M. - L., 1961; Danilenko V.N., Neolith of Ukraine, K., 1969; Efimenko P.P., Primitive society, 3rd ed., K., 1953; Zamyatnin S.N., Essays on the Paleolithic, M. - L., 1961; Clark J.G.D., Prehistoric Europe, [trans. from English], M., 1953; Masson V.M., Central Asia and the Ancient East, M. - L., 1964; Okladnikov A.P., Neolithic and Bronze Age of the Baikal region, parts 1-2, M. - L., 1950; his, Distant Past of Primorye, Vladivostok, 1959; by him, Morning of Art, L., 1967; Panichkina M.Z., Paleolithic of Armenia, L., 1950; Ranov V. A., Stone Age of Tajikistan, c. 1, Soul., 1965; Semenov S. A., Development of technology in the Stone Age, Leningrad, 1968; Titov V.S., Neolith of Greece, M., 1969; Formozov A. A., Ethnocultural areas on the territory of the European part of the USSR in the Stone Age, M., 1.959; his own, Essays on Primitive Art, M., 1969 (MIA, No. 165); Foss M.E., Ancient history of the north of the European part of the USSR, M., 1952; Child G., At the Origins of European Civilization, trans. from English, M., 1952; Bordes F., Le paléolithique dans ie monde, P., 1968; Breuil N., Quatre cents siècles d "art pariétal, Montignac, 1952; Clark J. D., The prehistory of Africa, L., 1970: Clark G., World L., prehistory, 2 ed., Camb., 1969; L" Europe à la fin de l"âge de la pierre, Prague, 1961; Graziosi P., Palaeolithic art, L., 1960; Leroi-Gourhan A., Préhistoire de l"art occidental, P., 1965; La prehistoire. P., 1966; La préhistoire. Problems et tendances, P., 1968; Man the hunter, Chi., 1968; Müller-Karpe N., Handbuch der Vorgeschichte, Bd 1-2, Münch., 1966-68; Oakley K. P., Frameworks for dating fossil man. 3 ed., L., 1969.

P. I. Boriskovsky.

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

Paleolithic sites and finds of human fossil remains in Europe.

cultural-historical a period during which there was still no metal processing, and the main tools and weapons were manufactured by Ch. arr. made of stone; Wood and bone were also used. Through the transitional era - Chalcolithic, K. century. gives way to the Bronze Age. K.v. coincides with most of the era of the primitive communal system. In absolute chronological figures, the duration of the K. century. dates back hundreds of thousands of years - from the time of the separation of man from the animal state (about 800 thousand years ago) and ending with the era of the spread of the first metals (about 6 thousand years ago in the Ancient East and about 4-5 thousand years ago in Europe). Several decades ago, certain tribes of the globe who were lagging behind in their development lived in conditions close to K. century. In turn, K. v. is divided into the ancient K. century, or Paleolithic, and the new K. century, or Neolithic. The Paleolithic is the era of the existence of fossil man and belongs to that distant time when the climate of the earth and its growth. and the animal world were quite different from modern ones. People of the Paleolithic era used only chipped stones. tools, not knowing polished stones. tools and pottery - ceramics. Paleolithic people hunted and gathered food (plants, shellfish, etc.). Fishing was just beginning to emerge, and agriculture and cattle breeding were unknown. Neolithic people already lived in modern times. climatic conditions and surrounded by modern animal world. In the Neolithic, along with chipped stones, polished and drilled stones appeared. tools, as well as pottery (ceramics). Neolithic people, along with hunting, gathering, and fishing, began to engage in primitive hoe farming and raise domestic animals. The transition from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic was at the same time a transition from the period of primary appropriation of finished products of nature to the period when man through production. activity learned to increase the production of natural products. Between the Paleolithic and Neolithic there is a transitional era - the Mesolithic. The Paleolithic is divided into ancient (lower, early) (800-40 thousand years ago) and late (upper) (40-8 thousand years ago). The ancient Paleolithic is divided into Archaeolic. eras (or cultures): pre-Chelles, Chelles, Acheulian and Mousterian. Some archaeologists distinguish the Mousterian era (100-40 thousand years ago) into a special period - the Middle Paleolithic. The division of the Late Paleolithic into the Aurignacian, Solutrean and Magdalenian eras, in contrast to the division into the Ancient Paleolithic eras, does not have universal significance; the Aurignacian, Solutrean and Magdalenian eras are traced only in periglacial Europe. The most ancient stones the tools were pebbles chipped with several rough chips at one end, and flakes chipped from such pebbles (chip pebble cultures, pre-Chelles era). Basic The tools of the Chelles and Acheulian eras were massive flint flakes, slightly chipped along the edges, hand axes - almond-shaped pieces of flint roughly chipped on both surfaces, thickened at one end and pointed at the other, adapted for gripping by hand, as well as coarse chopping tools (choppers) - chipped pieces or pebbles of flint, having less regular outlines than a chop. These tools were intended for cutting, scraping, striking, making wooden clubs, spears, and digging sticks. There were also cams. cores (cores), from which flakes broke off. In the pre-Chelles, Chelles and Acheulean eras, people of the most ancient stage of development (Pithecanthropus, Sinanthropus, Atlantropus, Heidelberg man) were common. They lived in warm climates. conditions and did not spread far beyond the area of ​​their initial appearance; were populated b. parts of Africa, southern Europe and southern Asia (mainly territories located south of 50° north latitude). During the Mousterian era, flint flakes became thinner and broke off from the disc-shaped core. By trimming along the edges (retouching), they were turned into triangular points and oval scrapers, along with which there were small axes processed on both sides. The use of bone for production began. targets (anvils, retouchers, points). Man has mastered the methods of making fire in the arts. by; more often than in previous eras, he began to settle in caves and developed territory with moderate and even harsh climates. conditions. The people of the Mousterian era belonged to the Neanderthal type (see Neanderthals). In Europe they lived in harsh climates. conditions ice age, were contemporaries of mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, sowing. deer. The ancient Paleolithic belongs to the initial stage of development primitive society , to the era of the primitive human herd and the emergence of the tribal system. It was irreligious. period; It was only during the Mousterian era that primitive religions may have begun to emerge. beliefs. Ancient Paleolithic technology and culture were generally homogeneous everywhere. Local differences were minor and cannot be clearly and indisputably determined. For the Late Paleolithic The technique is characterized by prismatic core, from which elongated knife-like flint plates were broken off, which were then transformed, with the help of retouching and chipping, into various tools of differentiated forms: scrapers, points, tips, burins, piercings, staples, etc. Mn. of these were used in wooden and bone handles and frames. A variety of bone awls, needles with an eye, hoe tips, spear-darts, harpoons, spear throwers, polishes, picks, etc. appeared. Pedestrianism developed and large communal dwellings spread: dugouts and above-ground ones. The caves also continued to be used as dwellings. In connection with the advent of more advanced hunting weapons, hunting has reached a higher stage of development. This is evidenced by the huge accumulations of bones found in the Late Paleolithic. settlements. The Late Paleolithic is the time of development of the matriarchal clan system (see Matriarchy). Art appeared and achieved high development - sculpture from mammoth tusk, stone, sometimes from clay (Dolni Vestonice, Kostenki, Montespan, Pavlov, Tyuk-d ´ Oduber), bone and stone carving (see Malta, Mezinskaya site ), drawings on the walls of caves (Altamira, La Mut, Lascaux). For the Late Paleolithic The art is characterized by amazing liveliness and realism. Numerous were found. images of women with emphasized signs of a woman-mother (see Dolni Vestonice, Petřkovice, Gagarino, Kostenki), apparently reflecting female cults of the matriarchal era, images of mammoths, bison, horses, deer, etc., partly associated with hunting magic and totemism, conventional schematic signs - rhombuses, zigzags, even meanders. A variety of burials appeared: crouched, painted, with rich grave goods. During the transition to the Late Paleolithic, modern man arose. physical type (Homo sapiens) and for the first time signs of the three main modern racial types appeared - Caucasian (Cro-Magnons), Mongoloid and Negroid (Grimaldians). Late Paleolithic people spread much more widely than Neanderthals. They settled Siberia, the Urals, and the north of Germany. Moving from Asia through the Bering Strait, they first populated America (see Sandia, Folsom). In the Late Paleolithic, several vast, distinct areas of cultural development arose. Three areas are especially clearly visible: European periglacial, Siberian and African-Mediterranean. The European periglacial region covered the areas of Europe that were directly affected. influence of glaciation. The Late Paleolithic of Europe is dated by radiocarbon dating to 40-8 thousand years BC. e. People here lived in harsh climates. conditions, hunted mammoths and sowing. deer, built winter shelters from animal bones and skins. The inhabitants of the Siberian region lived in similar natural conditions, but they developed wood processing more widely, developed a slightly different technique for processing stone, and massive, roughly hewn stones became widespread. tools that resemble Acheulean handaxes, Mousterian side scrapers and points and are harbingers of the Neolithic. axes. The African-Mediterranean region, in addition to Africa, covers the territory. Spain, Italy, the Balkan Peninsula, Crimea, the Caucasus, countries of the Middle East. East. Here people lived surrounded by heat-loving flora and fauna and hunted primarily. on gazelles, roe deer, mountain goats; Gathering was more developed than in the north. food, hunting did not have such a pronounced arctic. character, bone processing was less developed. Microliths spread here earlier. flint inserts (see below), bow and arrows appeared. Differences between the Late Paleolithic the cultures of these three regions were still insignificant and the regions themselves were not separated by clear boundaries. It is possible that there were more than three such areas, in particular the South-East. Asia, the Late Paleolithic period has not yet been sufficiently studied, forms the fourth large region. Within each region there were more fractional local groups, the cultures of which were somewhat different from each other. The transition from the Late Paleolithic to the Mesolithic coincided with the end. thawing of Europe glaciation and with the establishment on earth in general of modern times. climate, modern animal and raises it. peace. Antiquity of Europe. The Mesolithic is determined by the radiocarbon method - 8-5 thousand years BC. e.; Mesolithic antiquity Bl. East - 10-7 thousand years BC. e. Characteristic Mesolithic. cultures - Azilian culture, Tardenoise culture, Maglemose cultures, etc. For Mesolithic. technology is characterized by the proliferation of microliths - miniature flint geometric tools. outlines (in the form of a trapezoid, segment, triangle), used as inserts in wooden and bone frames, and also, especially in the north. areas and at the end of the Mesolithic, roughly hewn chopping tools - axes, adzes, picks. All these Mesolithic. Kam. tools continued to exist in the Neolithic. Bows and arrows became widespread in the Mesolithic. The dog, which was first domesticated in the Late Paleolithic, was widely used by people at that time. Mesolithic, people settled further to the north, developed Scotland, the Baltic states, even part of the northern coast. Arctic region, settled throughout America (see Denbigh), and first penetrated Australia. The most important characteristic feature of the Neolithic is the transition from the appropriation of finished products of nature (hunting, fishing, gathering) to the production of vital products, although appropriation continued to occupy an important place in households. human activities. During the Neolithic era, people began to cultivate plants and cattle breeding arose. The defining elements of the Neolithic. cultures were pottery (Ceramics), molded by hand, without the use of a potter's wheel, stone. axes, hammers, adzes, chisels, hoes (in their production sawing, grinding and drilling of stone were used), flint daggers, knives, arrow and spear tips, sickles (in the manufacture of which squeezing retouching was used), various microliths and roughly hewn chopping tools that arose in the Mesolithic, various products made of bone and horn (fishhooks, harpoons, hoe tips, chisels) and wood (dugouts, oars, skis, sleighs, handles of various kinds). Primitive spinning and weaving spread. The Neolithic is the time of the heyday of the matriarchal clan system and the transition from the maternal clan to the paternal clan (see Patriarchy). The uneven development of culture and its local uniqueness in different territories, which emerged in the Late Paleolithic, intensified even more in the Neolithic. There is a large number of different Neolithic. crops Tribes from different countries went through the Neolithic stage at different times. Most of the Neolithic monuments of Europe and Asia dates back to the 5th-3rd millennium BC. e. The fastest pace of the Neolithic. culture developed in the countries of the Middle East. East, where agriculture and livestock breeding arose first. People who widely practiced collecting wild grains and may have attempted their arts. cultivation, belongs to the Natufian culture of Palestine, dating back to the late Mesolithic (9-8th millennium BC). Along with microliths, sickles with flint inserts, bone hoes and stones are found here. mortars, In the 9th-8th millennium BC. e. primitive agriculture and cattle breeding also originated in the North. Iraq (see Karim Shahir). Somewhat more developed Neolithic. agriculturalist cultures with adobe houses, painted pottery and female figurines were common in the 6th-5th millennium BC. e. in Iran and Iraq. The late Neolithic and Chalcolithic of China (3rd and early 2nd millennium BC) are represented by agriculturalists. the Yangshao and Longshan cultures, which are characterized by the cultivation of millet and rice, and the production of painted and polished ceramics on a potter's wheel. At that time, tribes of hunters, fishermen and gatherers (Bakshon culture) still lived in the jungles of Indochina, living in caves. In the 5th-4th millennium BC. e. agriculturalist tribes of the developed Neolithic also inhabited Egypt (see Badari culture, Merimde-Beni-Salame, Fayum settlement). Development of the Neolithic cultures in Europe proceeded on a local basis, but under the strong influence of the cultures of the Mediterranean and the Middle East. East, from where the most important cultivated plants and certain species of domestic animals probably penetrated into Europe. On the territory England and France in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Ages. century there lived farmers and cattle breeders. tribes who built megalithic. buildings made of huge blocks of stone. For the Neolithic and Early Bronze Ages. century, Switzerland and adjacent territories are characterized by a wide distribution of pile buildings, the inhabitants of which were primarily engaged in. livestock breeding and agriculture, as well as hunting and fishing. To the Center In Europe, agriculture took shape in the Neolithic. Danube cultures with characteristic ceramics decorated with ribbon designs. In northern Scandinavia at the same time and later, up to the 2nd millennium BC. e., lived the Neolithic tribes. hunters and fishermen. Stone Age on the territory of the USSR. The most ancient monuments K.v. in the USSR belong to the Chelles and Acheulian times and are distributed in Armenia (Satani-Dar), Georgia (Yashtukh, Tsona, Lashe-Balta, Kudaro), in the North. Caucasus, southern Ukraine (see Luka Vrublevetskaya) and Wed. Asia. A large number of flakes, hand axes, rough chopping tools made of flint, obsidian, basalt, etc. were found here. The remains of a hunting camp of the Acheulean era were discovered in the Kudaro cave. Sites of the Mousterian era are distributed further to the north, up to Wed. currents of the Volga and Desna. Mousterian caves are especially numerous in Crimea. In the Kiik-Koba grotto in Crimea and in the Teshik-Tash grotto in Uzbekistan. The SSR discovered the burials of Neanderthals, and in the Staroselye cave in the Crimea - the burial of a modern Mousterian man. physical type. Late Paleolithic population of the territory The USSR settled over much wider areas than the Mousterians. The Late Paleolithic is known, in particular, in the Bass. Oka, Chusovoy, Pechora, Yenisei, Lena, Angara. Late Paleolithic The sites of the Russian Plain belong to Europe. periglacial region, sites of the Crimea, Caucasus and Middle East. Asia - to the African-Mediterranean region, sites of Siberia - to the Siberian region. Three stages of development of the Late Paleolithic have been established. cultures of the Caucasus: from the Hergulis-Klde and Taro-Klde caves (stage I), where they are still represented in the mean. quantity of Mousterian points and side scrapers, to the Gvardjilas-Klde cave (III stage), where many microliths are found and the transition to the Mesolithic can be traced. The development of the Late Paleolithic has been established. cultures in Siberia from early monuments such as Buret and Malta, flint tools of which closely resemble the late Paleolithic of Europe. the periglacial region, to later monuments such as Afontova Gora on the Yenisei, which are characterized by a predominance of massive stones. tools reminiscent of ancient Paleolithic ones and adapted for wood processing. Periodization of the Late Paleolithic Rus. plains cannot yet be considered firmly established. There are early monuments of the type of Radomyshl and Babino I in Ukraine, which still preserve parts. Mousterian tools, many settlements dating back to the middle period of the Late Paleolithic, as well as sites closing the Late Paleolithic such as Vladimirovka in Ukraine and Borshevo II on the Don. A large number of multi-layered Late Paleolithic. settlements excavated on the Dniester (Babino, Voronovitsa, Molodova V). Numerous were found here. flint and bone tools, remains of winter dwellings. Another region where a large number of Late Paleolithic objects from different periods are known. settlements that brought a variety of stones. and bone products, works of art, remains of dwellings, is the Desna basin (Mezin, Pushkari, Chulatovo, Timonovskaya site, Suponevo). The third similar area is the vicinity of the villages of Kostenki and Borshevo on the right bank of the Don, where several dozen Late Paleolithic objects have been discovered. sites with the remains of various dwellings, many works of art and four burials. The world's northernmost Late Paleolithic. The monument is the Bear Cave on the river. Pechora (Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic). One should also mention Kapova Cave in the South. Ural, realistic images were found on the walls. painted images of mammoths, somewhat reminiscent of the paintings of Altamira and Lascaux. In the Northern steppes. In the Black Sea and Azov regions, unique settlements of bison hunters were common (Amvrosievka). Neolithic on the territory The USSR is represented in large numbers. diverse cultures. Some of them belong to the ancient farmers. tribes, and some to primitive hunters and fishermen. To the farmer Neolithic and Chalcolithic include monuments of the Trypillian culture of Right Bank Ukraine (4th-3rd millennium BC), sites of Transcaucasia (Kistrik, Odishi, etc.), as well as settlements such as Anau and Dzheitun in the South. Turkmenistan (late 5th - 3rd millennium BC), reminiscent of Neolithic settlements. farmers of Iran. Neolithic cultures hunters and fishermen of the 5th-3rd millennium BC. e. also existed in the south - in the Azov region, in the North. Caucasus, in the Aral Sea region (see Kelteminar culture); but they were especially widespread in the 4th-2nd millennium BC. e. in the north, in the forest belt from the Baltic to the Pacific approx. Numerous Neolithic hunting and fishing cultures, which are characterized by pit-comb ceramic culture, are represented along the shores of Lakes Ladoga and Onega and the White Sea (see Belomorskaya culture, Kargopol culture, Karelian culture, Oleneostrovsky burial ground), on the Upper Volga (see Volosovskaya culture), in the Urals and Trans-Urals, in the basin. Lena, in the Baikal region, in the Amur region, on Kamchatka, on Sakhalin and on the Kuril Islands. In contrast to the much more homogeneous Late Laleolithic. cultures, they clearly differ from each other in the forms of ceramics, ceramics. ornament, certain features of tools and utensils. History of the study of the Stone Age. The idea that the era of the use of metals was preceded by a time when stones served as weapons was first expressed by Rome. poet and scientist Lucretius Carus in the 1st century. BC e. But only in 1836 the Danish archaeologist K. J. Thomsen pointed to the archaeol. material replacement of three cultural-historical. eras (Camstone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age). Existence of fossil, Paleolithic. human, a contemporary of now extinct animal species, was proven in the 40-50s. 19th century during the violent struggle against the reactionary, clerical science of the French. archaeologist Boucher de Perth. In the 60s English scientist J. Lubbock dismembered K. v. to the Paleolithic and Neolithic, and the French. archaeologist G. de Mortillier created generalizing works on the history of history. and developed a more detailed periodization of the latter (Chellean, Acheulian, Mousterian, Solutrean, etc. epochs). To 2nd half. 19th century also include studies of the Early Neolithic. kitchen heaps (see Ertbelle) in Denmark, Neolithic. pile settlements in Switzerland, numerous. Paleolithic and Neolithic caves and sites in Europe and Asia. In the very end 19th century and at the beginning 20th century were discovered and studied Late Paleolithic. multicolor paintings in the caves of Yuzh. France and North Spain (see Altamira, La Mut). A number of Paleolithic and Neolithic settlements were studied in Russia in the 70-90s. 19th century A. S. Uvarov, I. S. Polyakov, K. S. Merezhkovsky, V. B. Antonovich, A. A. Ivostrantsev and others. Especially noteworthy is the development of V. V. Khvoika (90s) excavation methods Paleolithic Kirillovskaya parking lot in Kyiv with wide areas. In the 2nd half. 19th century study of K. v. was closely associated with Darwinian ideas, with progressive, albeit historically limited, evolutionism. This found its most striking expression in the activities of G. de Mortillier. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. in bourgeois science about K. v. (primitive archaeology, paleoethnology), although archaeological techniques have been significantly improved. works, but in place of evolutionist constructions anti-historical, reactionary theories spread. constructs related to the theory of cultural circles and the theory of migration; Often these concepts are also directly related to racism. Similar anti-evolution. theories were reflected in the works of G. Kossinna, O. Mengin and others. At the same time, against the ahistorical. racist concepts of K. v. were performed by the department. progressive bourgeois. scientists (A. Hrdlicka, G. Child, J. Clark, etc.) who sought to trace the development of primitive humanity and its economy as a natural process. A major achievement of foreign researchers in the 1st half. and ser. 20th century is the elimination of extensive white spots on archaeoli. maps, discovery and exploration of numerous. monuments to K. century. in European countries (K. Absolon, F. Proshek, K. Valoch, I. Neustupni, L. Vertes, M. Gabori, C. Nikolaescu-Plupshor, D. Verchu, I. Nestor, R. Vulpe, N. Dzhanbazov, V. Mikov, G. Georgiev, S. Brodar, A. Benatz, L. Savitsky, J. Kozlovsky, V. Khmelevsky, etc.), on the territory of Africa (L. Liki, K. Arambur, etc.), on the Black Sea coast . East (D. Garrod, R. Braidwood, etc.), in Korea (To Yu Ho, etc.), China (Jia Lan-po, Pei Wen-chung, etc.), in India (Krishnaswami, Sankalia, etc. ), in the South-East. Asia (Mansuy, Gekeren, etc.) and in America (A. Kroeber, F. Rainey, H. M. Wargmington, etc.). The technique of excavating and publishing archaeology has improved significantly; monuments (A, Rust, B. Klima, etc.), a comprehensive study of ancient settlements by archaeologists, geologists, zoologists has spread, the radiocarbon dating method is beginning to be used (X. L. Movius, etc.), statistical. method of studying stones. tools (F. Bord and others), generalizing works devoted to the art of K. v. were created. (A. Breuil, P. Graziosi, etc.). In Russia, the first two decades of the 20th century. marked by generalizing works on calculus, as well as scientific research carried out at a high level for its time. level, with the involvement of geologists and zoologists, Paleolithic excavations. and Neolithic settlements of V. A. Gorodtsov, A. A. Spitsyn, F. K. Volkov, P. P. Efimenko and others. Antiist. concepts related to the theory of cultural circles and the theory of migrations have not received any widespread dissemination in Russian. primitive archaeology. But research on K. century. in the pre-revolutionary Russia were very small. After Oct. socialist Revolution of research of K. v. in the USSR acquired a wide scope and produced the results of paramount scientific research. meanings. If by 1917 only 12 Paleolithic stones were known in the country. locations, now their number exceeds 900. Paleolithic was discovered for the first time. monuments in Belarus (K. M. Polikarpovich), in Armenia and South Ossetia (S. N. Zamyatnin, M. Z. Panichkina, S. A. Sardaryan, V. I. Lyubin, etc.), in Wed. Asia (A.P. Okladnikov, D.N. Lev, Kh.A. Alpysbaev, etc.), in the Urals (M.V. Talitsky, S.N. Bibikov, O.N. Bader, etc.). Numerous new paleolithic monuments were discovered and studied in Ukraine and Moldova (T. T. Teslya, A. P. Chernysh, I. G. Shovkoplyas, etc.), in Georgia (G. K. Nioradze, N. Z. Berdzenishvili, A. N. . Kalanadze and others). The northernmost Paleolithic has been discovered. monuments in the world: on Chusovaya, Pechora and in Yakutia on the Lena. Numerous numbers have been discovered and deciphered. Paleolithic monuments lawsuit A new technique for Paleolithic excavations has been created. settlements (P.P. Efimenko, V.A. Gorodtsov, G.A. Bonch-Osmolovsky, M.V. Voevodsky, A.N. Rogachev, etc.), which made it possible to establish the existence at the end of the ancient Paleolithic, as well as throughout the entire Late Paleolithic, sedentary life and permanent communal dwellings (for example, Buret, Malta, Mezin). The most important Paleolithic settlements in the territory In the USSR, a continuous area of ​​500 to 1000 m2 or more was excavated, which made it possible to uncover entire primitive settlements consisting of groups of dwellings. A new technique has been developed for restoring the functions of primitive tools based on traces of their use (S. A. Semenov). The nature of the story has been established. changes that took place in the Paleolithic - the development of the primitive herd as the initial stage of the primitive communal system and the transition from the primitive herd to the matriarchal clan system (P. P. Efimenko, S. N. Zamyatnin, P. I. Boriskovsky, A. P. Okladnikov, A. A. Formozov, A. P. Chernysh, etc.). Number of Neolithic monuments known to this day. time per territory The USSR is also many times greater than the number known in 1917, which means. number of Neolithic settlements and burial grounds have been explored. Generalizing works devoted to chronology, periodization and history have been created. Neolithic lighting monuments of a number of territories (A. Ya. Bryusov, M. E. Foss, A. P. Okladnikov, V. I. Ravdonikas, N. N. Turina, P. N. Tretyakov, O. N. Bader, M. V. Voevodsky, M Y. Rudinsky, A. V. Dobrovolsky, V. N. Danilenko, D. Ya. Telegin, N. A. Prokoshev, M. M. Gerasimov, V. M. Masson, etc.). Neolithic monuments have been studied. monumental art - rock carvings of the north-west. USSR, Siberia and the Azov region (Stone grave). Major advances have been made in the study of ancient agriculture. culture of Ukraine and Moldova (T. S. Passek, E. Yu. Krichevsky, S. N. Bibikov); a periodization of monuments of Trypillian culture has been developed; Trypillian sites, which remained mysterious for a long time, are explained as the remains of communal dwellings. Sov. researchers K. v. A lot of work has been done to expose anti-ists. racist concepts of reaction. bourgeois archaeologists. Monuments to K. century are successfully studied by archaeologists in other socialist countries, which are the same as the Owls. scientists creatively use the historical method in their research. materialism. Lit.: Engels F., The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, M., 1963; by him, The role of labor in the process of transformation of a monkey into a man, M., 1963; Abramova Z. A., Paleolithic. art on the territory of the USSR, M.-L., 1962; Beregovaya N.A., Paleolithic localities of the USSR, MIA, No. 81, M.-L., 1960; Bibikov S.N., Early Tripolye settlement of Luka-Vrublevetskaya on the Dniester, MIA, No. 38, M.-L., 1953; Bonch-Osmolovsky G. A., Paleolithic of Crimea, c. 1-3, M.-L., 1940-54; Boriskovsky P.I., Paleolithic of Ukraine, MIA, No. 40, M.-L., 1953; his, The Ancient Past of Mankind, M.-L., 1957; Bryusov A. Ya., Essays on the history of the tribes of Europe. parts of the USSR in the Neolithic. era, M., 1952; World History, vol. 1, M., 1955; Gurina N. N., Ancient history of the north-west of the European part of the USSR, MIA, No. 87, M.-L., 1961; Efimenko P.P., Primitive society, 3rd ed. , K., 1953; Zamyatnin S.N., On the emergence of local differences in Paleolithic culture. period, in the collection: The origin of man and the ancient settlement of mankind, M., 1951; by him, Essays on the Paleolithic, M.-L., 1961; Kalandadze A.N., On the history of the formation of prenatal society in the territory. Georgia, Tr. Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of Georgia. SSR, vol. 2, Tb., 1956 (in Georgian, summary in Russian); Draw a long time ago? history? Ukrainian? PCP, K., 1957; Nioradze G.K., Paleolithic of Georgia, Tr. 2nd Int. Conference of the Association for the Study of the Quaternary Period of Europe, c. 5, L.-M.-Novosib., 1934; Neolithic and Chalcolithic of southern Europe. parts of the USSR, MIA, No. 102, M., 1962; Okladnikov A.P., Yakutia before joining the Russian state, (2nd ed.), M.-L., 1955; his, Distant Past of Primorye, Vladivostok, 1959; Essays on the history of the USSR. The primitive communal system and the most ancient states in the territory. USSR, M., 1956; Passek T.S., Periodization of Trypillian settlements, MIA, No. 10, M.-L., 1949; hers, Early agricultural (Tripillian) tribes of the Dniester region, MIA, No. 84, M., 1961; Rogachev A.N., Multilayer sites of the Kostenkovsko-Borshevsky region on the Don and the problem of cultural development in the Upper Paleolithic era on the Russian Plain, MIA, No. 59, M., 1957; Semenov S. A., Primitive technology, MIA, No. 54, M.-L., 1957; Teshik-Tash. Paleolithic Human. (Collection of articles, chief editor M. A. Gremyatsky), M., 1949; Formozov A. A., Ethnocultural areas in the territory. Europe parts of the USSR in the Stone Age, M., 1959; Foss M.E., Ancient history of the north of Europe. parts of the USSR, MIA, No. 29, M., 1952; Chernysh A.P., Late Paleolithic of Middle Transnistria, in the book: Paleolithic of Middle Transnistria, M., 1959; Clark J. G., Prehistoric Europe, trans. from English, M., 1953; Child G., At the Origins of European Civilization, trans. from English, M., 1952; his, The Ancient East in the light of new excavations, trans. from English, M., 1956; Aliman A., Prehistoric. Africa, trans. from French, M., 1960; Bordes Fr., Typologie du pal?olithique ancien et moyen, Bordeaux, 1961; Boule M., Les hommes fossiles, 4?d., P., 1952; Braidwood R. and Howe B., Prehistoric investigations in Iraqi Kurdistan, Chi., 1960; Breuil H., Lantier R., Les hommes de la pierre ancienne, P., 1959; Dechelette J., Manuel d´arch?ologie, t. 1, P., 1908; Clark G., World prehistory, Camb., 1962; Graziosi P., L´arte delia antica et? della pietra, Firenze, 1956; Neustupn? J., Pravek Ceskoslovenska, Prague, 1960; Istoria Romniei, (t.) 1, (Buc.), 1960; Milojcic V., Chronologie der j?ngeren Steinzeit Mittel-und S?dosteuropas, V. , 1949; Movius H. L., The lower palaeolithic cultures of Southern and Eastern Asia. Transactions of the Amer. phil. society..., n. s., v. 38, pt 4, Phil., 1949; Oakley K. P., Man the tool-maker, 5 ed., L., 1961; Pittioni R., Urgeschichte des sterreichischen Raumes, W., 1954; Rust A., Vor 20 000 Jahren. Rentierger der Eiszeit, 12 Aufl.), Neum?nster, 1962: Sauter M. R., Pr?histoire de 1l M?diterran?e, P., 1948; Varagnac Andr?, L'homme avant l'?criture, P., 1959; Wormington H. M., Ancient man in North America, Denver, 1949; Zebera K., Ceskoslovensko ve starsi dob? kamenn?, Praha, 1958. P. I. Boriskovsky. Leningrad. -***-***-***- Paleolithic sites and finds of skeletal remains of fossil humans in Asia and Africa

The World History. Volume 1. Stone Age Badak Alexander Nikolaevich

Chapter 3. Mesolithic and Neolithic (Middle and New Stone Age)

As noted above, the Old Stone Age lasted hundreds of thousands of years. A significantly shorter period of time in the history of mankind occupies the period that preceded the appearance of metal tools and which scientists divide into two stages: the Mesolithic, i.e., the transition from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic, and the Neolithic proper, i.e., the time when ground tools were widely distributed from stone, and the production of pottery also begins.

Archaeologists believe that the period of dominance of the Mesolithic and Neolithic was between the 17th and 4th millennia BC. e. However, in some areas of the globe it began later and lasted much longer.

In the Mesolithic there is no clear sequence of archaeological cultures inherent in the Paleolithic. Its cultures are geographically limited.

The beginning of the Mesolithic period coincides with the final thawing of the glacier. In the territory liberated from the glacier, the climate, geographical landscape, flora and fauna changed. The Arctic cold climate was replaced by a warmer subarctic climate when the glacier was removed. The melting of the glacier brought a lot of water, new rivers formed, the water level in the World Ocean rose, and the outlines of the ancient seas underwent changes.

Following the glacier, the reindeer went north. The spaces freed from ice were covered with forests; moose, bison, roe deer, bears, and red deer lived in them. Forest animals were fleet-footed, and some of them were non-gregarious, so previous methods of hunting them were not suitable.

All this led to the development of more advanced microlithic (Greek micros - small) technology, throwing weapons, the invention of the bow and arrow, as well as the appearance of tools for wood processing (macrolites - roughly hewn chopping tools such as an ax) and fishing.

Microliths are flint products of small sizes (1–2 cm long) and various geometric shapes. The flint plates were further processed into the shape of triangles, trapezoids, rectangles, and semicircles. Microliths were used as inserts in longitudinal slots of wooden and bone frames in the manufacture of cutting, planing or piercing tools, as well as arrowheads.

Microliths were the working edge of tools and weapons. A composite tool equipped with microliths was lighter and was not inferior in quality to a tool made entirely of flint, the manufacture of which was labor-intensive and required a large amount of material. An insert that broke could be easily replaced, but the breakage of an all-flint tool could not be repaired.

The invention of the bow and arrow was a huge achievement for man. He acquired a fast-firing, long-range weapon, the accuracy and strength of which distinguished it favorably from a spear.

Undoubtedly, of great importance for man was his invention of the boomerang - a type of throwing club in the form of a curved flat piece of wood, crescent-shaped, with a curved helical surface barely visible to the eye, which determined the characteristics of its flight. Throwed by a skillful hand, the boomerang described arcs, loops, figure eights and other curves during its flight. It flew at a distance of up to 150 m. When it hit the target, it inflicted severe wounds with its pointed edge or end. Special view The boomerang had the ability - this, of course, also depended on the skill of the one who threw it - to return to its owner if it did not hit the target.

Microlithic arrowheads: oblique, lamellar, petiolate, segments, trapezoids, asymmetrical triangles.

The boomerang is known to many tribes around the world, but it is the characteristic weapon of the natives of Australia.

Roughly hewn chopping macroliths appeared at the end of the Mesolithic, but in the northern regions they were also found at earlier sites. There, their distribution was obviously associated with adaptation to post-glacial conditions of life in the forest.

Mesolithic man invented a boat, a net, a hook with a barb - everything that was necessary for catching fish.

The wide distribution of harpoons, the presence of nets, boats, the abundance of fish bones at sites - all this indicates the intensive development of fishing, which by the end of the Mesolithic became the main economic sector throughout Europe.

In the Mesolithic, wild animals were domesticated. Cattle breeding arose from hunting as a result of the domestication and then breeding of the very animals that people had previously hunted. Domesticated animals began to reproduce in captivity and produce new breeds of livestock.

It should be noted that the process of domestication itself took a very long time. Note that about 140 thousand people live on the planet. various types animals, of which only 47 species have been domesticated.

As you know, the first domestic animal was a dog. Its domestication began in the Late Paleolithic, but its widespread domestication took place already in the Mesolithic. It was not so difficult to tame a dog, since it eats the same things as humans, as well as the waste of human food. It is quite possible that the dog itself followed the person, picking up garbage. At first, dogs were used for food, then for hunting, transportation, and finally to guard sites.

According to some scientists, in the late Mesolithic (8th millennium BC) in Western Asia, goats, sheep, and cattle began to be domesticated. However, it is difficult to talk about this with complete confidence, since it is almost impossible to distinguish the bones of newly domesticated animals from the bones of wild animals. The presence of livestock in settlements is mainly determined by the ratio of bones of females and males, young and old animals, and the completeness of skeletons. In places where animals have been domesticated, there tend to be more bones from females and young animals, and their skeletons are more complete.

But reliable material about the domestication of sheep, goats and pigs dates back to the 7th millennium BC. e.

After the glacier retreated, the flora changed, and this in turn led to the development of gathering. In some areas it became highly organized and was the forerunner of agriculture.

According to ethnographers, in the process of gathering, people began to take care of wild plants and moved on to their cultivation: they weeded cereals, cut down shrubs that interfered with the growth of trees, and trimmed the tops of trees.

According to some scientists, the beginnings of agriculture appeared in the Mesolithic. Its signs are found in the upper layer of the Shanidar cave, in the settlement of Zavi Chemi (Iraq, 11th–9th millennium BC), in the Natufian culture (common in Palestine, Jordan, dating back to the 8th millennium BC) and etc. Most likely, the harvesting knives, mortars, hoes, and pestles found there were used for collecting and processing wild cereals, like those of the lakeside Indians of North America.

No traces of weaving were found in this period. Judging by the rock paintings, loincloths were used in the south. In the north, clothes were made from animal skins.

In rare cases, remains of dwellings are found in Mesolithic sites, since these were light and small buildings and could not survive to this day. The area of ​​the sites of this time is somewhat smaller than the Paleolithic ones. They were located, as a rule, along rivers, on sand dunes.

Judging by the multi-layered cultural remains (6-10 layers), ancient hunters periodically returned to their sites.

Relict representatives of the Mesolithic are the Bushmen (South Africa), Urabunna (Australia), Veddas (Ceylon), Guayaki (Paraguay), Fuegians and other tribes.

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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

The Stone Age is divided into the Old Stone Age (Paleolithic), the Middle Stone Age (Mesolithic), and the New Stone Age (Neolithic). During the Paleolithic period, the Earth's climate, flora and fauna were very different from the modern era. Paleolithic people used only chipped stone tools and did not know polished stone tools or pottery (ceramics). Paleolithic people hunted and gathered food (plants, shellfish). Fishing was just beginning to emerge; agriculture and cattle breeding were unknown. Between the Paleolithic and Neolithic there is a transitional era - the Mesolithic. In the Neolithic era, people lived in modern climatic conditions, surrounded by modern flora and fauna. In the Neolithic, polished and drilled stone tools and pottery became widespread. Neolithic people, along with hunting, gathering, and fishing, began to engage in primitive hoe farming and breed domestic animals.
The guess that the era of the use of metals was preceded by a time when only stones served as tools was expressed by Titus Lucretius Carus in the 1st century BC. In 1836, the Danish scientist K.Yu. Thomsen identified three cultural and historical eras based on archaeological material: Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age). In the 1860s, the British scientist J. Lubbock divided the Stone Age into Paleolithic and Neolithic, and the French archaeologist G. de Mortillier created general works on the stone and developed a more detailed periodization: Chelles, Mousterian, Solutrean, Aurignacian, Magdalenian, Robenhausen cultures. In the second half of the 19th century, research was carried out on Mesolithic kitchen middens in Denmark, Neolithic pile settlements in Switzerland, Paleolithic and Neolithic caves and sites in Europe and Asia. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Paleolithic painted images were discovered in caves in southern France and northern Spain. In Russia, a number of Paleolithic and Neolithic sites were studied in the 1870-1890s by A.S. Uvarov, I.S. Polyakov, K.S. Merezhkovsky, V.B. Antonovich, V.V. Conifer. At the beginning of the 20th century, archaeological excavations of Paleolithic and Neolithic settlements were carried out by V.A. Gorodtsov, A.A. Spitsyn, F.K. Volkov, P.P. Efimenko.
In the 20th century, excavation techniques were improved, the scale of publication of archaeological monuments increased, a comprehensive study of ancient settlements by archaeologists, geologists, paleozoologists, and paleobotanists became widespread, the radiocarbon dating method and the statistical method of studying stone tools began to be used, and general works on the art of the Stone Age were created. In the USSR, research into the Stone Age acquired a wide scope. If in 1917 there were 12 Paleolithic sites known in the country, then in the early 1970s their number exceeded a thousand. Numerous Paleolithic sites were discovered and studied in the Crimea, on the East European Plain, and in Siberia. Domestic archaeologists developed a method for excavating Paleolithic settlements, which made it possible to establish the existence of sedentary life and permanent dwellings in the Paleolithic; method of restoring the functions of primitive tools based on traces of their use, traceology (S.A. Semenov); Numerous monuments of Paleolithic art were discovered; monuments of Neolithic monumental art - rock carvings in the north-west of Russia, in the Azov region and Siberia were studied (V.I. Ravdonikas, M.Ya. Rudinsky).

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 monuments of the Stone Age in the territory of Eastern Europe belong 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 of 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 - Central 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 the remains of dwellings of various types and examples of art is 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 art - 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. They spread in the forest belt from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean 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.

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