Cro-Magnons are inhabitants of the Late Stone Age, who were similar in many of their features to our contemporaries. The remains of these people were first discovered in the Cro-Magnon grotto, located in France, which gave them their name. Many parameters - the structure of the skull and features of the hand, body proportions and even the size of the brain of Cro-Magnons are close to modern humans. Therefore, the opinion has taken root in science that they are our direct ancestors.

Appearance Features

Researchers believe that Cro-Magnon man lived about 30 thousand years ago, and it is interesting that for some time he coexisted with Neanderthal man, who later finally gave way to a more modern representative of primates. For about 6 thousand years, scientists believe, these two types of ancient people simultaneously inhabited Europe, in sharp conflict over food and other resources.

Despite the fact that the Cro-Magnon was not much inferior in appearance to our contemporaries, muscle mass was more developed in him. This was due to the conditions in which this person lived - the physically weak were doomed to death.

What are the differences?

• The Cro-Magnon has a characteristic chin protuberance and a high forehead. The Neanderthal had a very small chin, and the brow ridges were characteristically pronounced.
• Cro-Magnon man had the volume of the brain cavity necessary for brain development, which was not the case in more ancient people.
• The elongated pharynx, flexibility of the tongue and the location of the oral and nasal cavities allowed Cro-Magnon man to receive the gift of speech. Neanderthal man, as researchers believe, could make several consonant sounds; his speech apparatus allowed him to do this, but he did not have speech in the traditional sense.

Unlike the Neanderthal man, the Cro-Magnon man had a less massive build, a high skull without a sloping chin, a wide face and narrower than modern people eye sockets.

The table shows some features of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons, their differences from modern man.

As can be seen from the table, the Cro-Magnon man, in terms of structural features, is much closer to our contemporaries than to Neanderthal man. Anthropological finds indicate that they could interbreed.

Geography of distribution

The remains of Cro-Magnon-type humans are found in various parts of the world. Skeletons and bones have been discovered in many areas European countries: Czech Republic, Romania, Great Britain, Serbia, Russia, and also in Africa.

Lifestyle

Researchers were able to recreate a model of the Cro-Magnon lifestyle. Thus, it has been proven that it was they who created the first settlements in the history of mankind, in which they lived in fairly large communities, including from 20 to 100 members. It was these people who learned to communicate with each other and possessed primitive speech skills. The Cro-Magnon lifestyle meant doing business together. Thanks largely to this, they were able to achieve impressive success in the hunting-gathering economy. Thus, hunting in large groups, together, allowed these people to obtain large animals as prey: mammoths, aurochs. Such achievements were, of course, beyond the capabilities of one hunter, even the most experienced.

In short, the Cro-Magnon lifestyle largely continued the traditions of Neanderthal people. They also hunted, used the skins of killed animals to make primitive clothing, and lived in caves. But independent buildings made of stones or tents made of skins could also be used as a dwelling. Sometimes they dug original dugouts to provide shelter from bad weather. In the matter of housing, Cro-Magnon man managed to make a small innovation - nomadic hunters began to build light, dismountable huts that could be easily erected during a stop and assembled.

Community life

The structural features and lifestyle of the Cro-Magnon man make him in many ways similar to a modern person. So, in the communities of these ancient people there was a division of labor. The men hunted and killed wild animals together. Women also took part in food preparation: they collected berries, seeds and nutritious roots. The fact that jewelry is found in the graves of children indicates that the parents had warm feelings for their descendants, grieved over the early loss, and tried to at least take care of the child posthumously. Due to the increased life expectancy, Cro-Magnon man was able to pass on his knowledge and experience to the next generation, and be more attentive to raising children. Therefore, child mortality has also decreased.

Some burials differ from others in their rich decorations and abundance of utensils. Researchers believe that noble members of the community, respected for some merit, are buried here.

Tools of labor and hunting

The invention of the harpoon is the merit of the Cro-Magnon man. The lifestyle of this ancient man changed after the appearance of such weapons. Affordable, effective fishing gave complete food in the form of sea and river inhabitants. It was this ancient man who began to make snares for birds, something his predecessors had not yet been able to do.

When hunting, ancient man learned to use not only strength, but also ingenuity, constructing traps for animals many times larger than himself. Therefore, obtaining food for an entire community required much less effort than in the days of their predecessors. The corralling of herds of wild animals and mass round-ups of them were popular. Ancient people mastered the science of collective hunting: they frightened large mammals, forcing them to flee to those areas where it was easiest to kill prey.

Cro-Magnon man managed to walk up the stairs evolutionary development much taller than his predecessor, the Neanderthal. He began to use more advanced tools, which allowed him to gain advantages in hunting. So, with the help of spear throwers, this ancient man was able to increase the distance traveled by the spear. Therefore, hunting has become safer, and prey has become more abundant. Long spears were also used as weapons. Tools became more complex, needles, drills, scrapers appeared, for which ancient man learned to use everything that came to hand: stones and bones, horns and tusks.

A distinctive feature of Cro-Magnon tools and weapons is narrower specialization, careful workmanship, and the use of a variety of materials in production. Some products are decorated with carved ornaments, indicating that ancient people were not alien to their unique understanding of beauty.

Food

The basis of the Cro-Magnon diet was the meat of animals killed in hunts, primarily mammals. At the time when these ancient people lived, horses, goats, deer and aurochs, bison and antelope were common, and they served as the main source of food. Having learned to fish with harpoons, people began to eat salmon, which in abundance rose through the shallow water to spawn. Of the birds, according to anthropologists, ancient inhabitants could catch partridges - these birds fly low and could well have become the victim of a well-thrown spear. However, there is a hypothesis that they were also able to catch waterfowl. According to scientists, the Cro-Magnons stored meat reserves in glaciers, the low temperature of which did not allow the product to spoil.

Plant foods were also used by the Cro-Magnons: they ate berries, roots and bulbs, and seeds. In warm latitudes, women mined shellfish.

Art

The Cro-Magnon man also became famous for the fact that he began to create objects of art. These people painted colorful images of animals on the walls of caves and carved anthropomorphic figures from ivory and deer antlers. It is believed that by painting silhouettes of animals on the walls, ancient hunters wanted to attract prey. Researchers believe that it was during this period that the first music and the earliest musical instrument- stone pipe.

Funeral rituals

The fact that the Cro-Magnon lifestyle has become more complex compared to his ancestors is also evidenced by changes in funeral traditions. Thus, burials often contain an abundance of jewelry (bracelets, beads and necklaces), which indicate that the deceased was rich and noble. Attention to funeral rituals, covering the bodies of the dead with red paint allowed researchers to conclude that the inhabitants of the ancient Stone Age had some rudiments of beliefs about the soul and afterlife. Household items and food were also placed in the graves.

Achievements

The Cro-Magnon lifestyle in the harsh conditions of the Ice Age meant that these people had to take tailoring more seriously. Based on the finds - rock paintings and remains of bone needles - the researchers concluded that the inhabitants of the Late Stone Age knew how to sew primitive items of clothing. They wore jackets with hoods, pants, even mittens and shoes. Clothes were often decorated with beads, which researchers believe was a sign of honor and respect among other members of the community. It was these people who learned to make the first dishes using baked clay. Scientists believe that during the time of the Cro-Magnons, the first animal was domesticated - the dog.

The era of the Cro-Magnons is separated from us by a thousand years, so we can only guess how exactly they lived, what they used for food and what kind of order reigned in the settlements. Therefore, many controversial and ambiguous hypotheses arise, which have not yet found serious scientific evidence.

• The discovery of a Neanderthal child's jaw, mutilated by a stone tool, led researchers to think that Cro-Magnons could have eaten Neanderthals.
• It was Cro-Magnon man who caused the extinction of the Neanderthals: a more developed species displaced the latter into territories with an arid climate, where there was practically no prey, dooming them to death.

The structural features of the Cro-Magnon man in many ways bring him closer to the modern type of man. Thanks to developed brain, these ancient people were new round evolution, their achievements both in practical and in spiritual sense truly great.

>>History: Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons. The emergence of human races

Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons. The emergence of human races.

4. The emergence of “homo sapiens”

1. Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons.

Appeared about 200-150 thousand years ago new type ancient man. Scientists called him "Homo sapiens" (on Latin"Homo sapiens") This type includes Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon.

Neanderthal was named after the site where his remains were first found in the Neanderthal Valley in Germany. He had highly developed brow ridges, powerful jaws pushed forward with large teeth.

The Neanderthal could not speak clearly because his vocal apparatus was not sufficiently developed. Neanderthals made tools from stone and built primitive houses. They hunted large animals. Their clothing was animal skins. Neanderthals buried their dead in specially dug graves. For the first time, they had ideas about death as a transition to the afterlife.

For a long time it was believed that Neanderthals preceded the emergence of modern humans. IN last years Scientists have found that Neanderthals lived for some time at the same time as another type." Homo sapiens" - a Cro-Magnon whose remains were first found in the Cro-Magnon cave in France. The appearance and brain of the Cro-Magnons were like those of modern people. Cro-Magnons are our direct ancestors. Scientists They call Cro-Magnons, like modern people, “Homo sapiens, sapiens,” that is, “reasonable, intelligent man.” This emphasizes that man is the owner of the most developed mind on our planet. Cro-Magnons appeared about 40 thousand years ago.

2. Mammoth hunters.

About 100 thousand years ago, the temperature on Earth became sharply cold and the last glacial period. Very cold periods of time alternated with periods of warming. The northern part of Europe, Asia, and America was covered with a powerful glacier.

During the glaciation in Europe, only for a short time summer period the ground thawed and vegetation appeared on it. However, it was enough to feed large herbivores - mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, bison, and reindeer. Hunting these animals provided enough meat, fat and bones to feed people and even to heat and light their homes.

Hunting at that time became the most important occupation of the Cro-Magnons. They began to make tools not only from stone, but also from mammoth tusks and deer antlers. Tips made of deer antler with teeth curved at the base were attached to the spears. Such a spear was deeply stuck in the body of a wounded animal. Darts (short spears) were used to pierce small animals. Fish were caught using wicker traps and harpoons with sharp tips.

People have learned to sew clothes from fur. They invented bone needles, which were used to sew the skins of foxes, arctic foxes, wolves and smaller animals.

Residents of the Eastern European plains built houses from mammoth bones. The foundation of such a house was made from the skulls of huge animals.

3. Tribal communities.

It was impossible to hunt mammoth and other large animals and build houses from their bones alone. Dozens of people were required, organized and observing a certain discipline. People began to live in tribal communities. This community included several large families, forming the genus. Close and distant relatives formed a single team. The clan community had common dwellings, tools, and food supplies. The men hunted together. They jointly engaged in the manufacture of tools and construction. The woman-mother enjoyed special respect from the large family. Initially, the relationship was on the maternal side. In the habitats of ancient people, skillfully made female figurines are often found. Women were engaged in gathering, preparing food and storing food supplies, maintaining a fire in the hearth, sewing clothes and, most importantly, raising children.

The clan community, the clan, considered themselves descended from one ancestor - a person, an animal, or even a plant. The ancestor of the clan was called a totem. The clan bore the name of its totem. There could be a clan of a wolf, a clan of an eagle, a clan of a bear.

Communities were ruled by the wisest members of the clan - the elders. They had great life experience, preserved ancient legends and customs. The elders ensured that all members of the clan followed the established rules of behavior, so that no one claimed the share of another when distributing food, clothing and space in the home.

Children in the clan community were raised together. The children knew the customs of the family and followed them. As boys grew older, they had to pass tests to be accepted as adult male hunters. The boy had to remain silent under the hail of blows. They made cuts on his body, rubbed ashes, colored earth and plant juices into them. The boy had to spend several days and nights alone in the forest. A lot had to be endured to become a real man of the family.

4. The emergence of human races.

With the advent of the Cro-Magnon man, human race: Caucasoid, Mongoloid, Negroid. Representatives of different races differ in skin color, eye shape, hair color and type, skull length and shape, and body proportions.

The Caucasian (Eurasian) race is characterized by light skin, wide eyes, soft hair on the head, and a narrow and sharply protruding nose. Men grow a beard and mustache. In the Mongoloid (Asian-American) race special features are yellowish or reddish skin, straight black hair, lack of facial hair in men, narrow eyes, high cheekbones. The Negroid race is distinguished by dark skin, curly, coarse hair, a wide nose, and thick lips.

External differences are of secondary importance. All races have equal opportunities for development.

Even before the first civilizations, peoples Caucasian divided into large groups: Semites and Indo-Europeans. Semites got their name from the biblical Shem (Sem), the son of the patriarch Noah. They settled the Middle East North Africa. Modern Semitic peoples include Arabs and Jews. Indo-Europeans (they are also called Aryans) settled over a vast territory, occupying Europe, Northern and part of Central India, Iran, Central Asia, the peninsula Asia Minor. TO Indo-European peoples belonged to the Indians, Iranians, Hittites, Celts, Greeks, Romans, as well as Slavs and Germans. The languages ​​they spoke are called Indo-European.

IN AND. Ukolova, L.P. Marinovich, History, 5th grade

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Cro-Magnon - was a person in modern sense words, naturally, more primitive, but still human. The era in which Cro-Magnon man lived falls on the period from the 40th to the 10th millennium BC. The first discoveries of the skeleton of Cro-Magnon man were made in 1868 in the southwest of France in the Cro-Magnon cave. So, about 40 thousand years ago in different areas The globe has undergone a series of cultural shifts in entirely new directions. The events of a person’s life begin to develop along a different path and at a different, accelerated pace, and the main driving force now becomes the person himself.

Number of achievements, changes in social organization The life of the Cro-Magnon man was so great that it was several times greater than the number of achievements of Australopithecus, Pithecanthropus and Neanderthal man combined. The Cro-Magnons inherited from their ancestors a large active brain and quite practical technology, thanks to which they took an unprecedented step forward in a relatively short period of time. This manifested itself in aesthetics, the development of communication and symbol systems, tool-making technology and active adaptation to external conditions, as well as in new forms of social organization and a more complex approach to one's own kind.

All Cro-Magnons used some kind of stone tools and were engaged in hunting and gathering. They achieved many amazing achievements, spread throughout geographical areas, suitable for habitation. The Cro-Magnons created the first primitive forms of firing pottery, built kilns for this, and even burned coal. In the mastery of processing stone tools They surpassed their ancestors, learned to make all kinds of tools, weapons and devices from bone, tusks, deer antlers and wood.

All areas of activity of the Cro-Magnons were improved compared to their ancestors. They made better clothing, built hotter fires, built larger dwellings, and ate a much wider variety of food than their predecessors.

Among other things, scientists have found that the Cro-Magnons had another important innovation - art. Cro-Magnon man was a caveman, but with one difference: his unkempt appearance hid developed intelligence and a complex spiritual life. The walls of his caves were covered with painted, carved and scratched masterpieces, very expressive and full of immediate charm.

The Cro-Magnon man differed from his predecessors in physiological characteristics. First, his bones are lighter than those of his ancestors. Secondly, the Cro-Magnon skull is in every way similar to the skull of modern people: a clearly defined chin protrusion, a high forehead, small teeth, the volume of the brain cavity corresponds to the modern one. Finally, it has the physical characteristics necessary for the formation of complex speech. The arrangement of the nasal and oral cavities, the elongated pharynx (the section of the throat located directly above the vocal cords), and the flexibility of the tongue gave it the ability to form and produce distinct sounds, much more varied than those available to early humans. However, modern man had to pay a high price for the gift of speech - of all living beings, only he can suffocate by choking on food, since his elongated pharynx also serves as the vestibule of the esophagus.

A straight gait was destined to become first a rule, and then a necessity. Meanwhile, more and more hands fell to the share of various types activities. Already in monkeys there is a well-known division of functions between the arms and legs. The hand serves primarily for collecting and holding food, as some lower mammals do with the help of their front paws. Using their hands, some monkeys build nests in trees or, like chimpanzees, canopies between branches for protection from the weather. They grab sticks with their hands to protect themselves from enemies or throw fruits and stones at them. And although the number and general arrangement of bones and muscles are the same in ape and man, the hand of even a primitive savage was capable of performing hundreds of operations inaccessible to a monkey. Not a single monkey's hand has ever made even the crudest stone tool.

When processing stone, wood, skins, and making fire, human hands developed. Particularly important was the development of the thumb, which helped to firmly hold both the heavy spear and the thin needle. Gradually, the hand actions became more and more confident and complex. In collective work, the mind and speech of people developed.

The beginning of dominance over nature expanded man's horizons. On the other hand, the development of labor necessarily contributed to a closer unity of members of society. As a result, the emerging people had a need to say something to each other. Need created an organ for itself: the undeveloped larynx of the monkey was slowly but steadily transformed, and the organs of the mouth gradually learned to pronounce one articulate sound after another.

When did the type of modern man, commonly called Homo sapiens, arise? All ancient finds in the Upper Paleolithic layers are dated in absolute numbers to 25–28 thousand years ago. The formation of Homo sapiens led to the coexistence of late progressive forms of Neanderthals and emerging small groups of modern humans for several millennia. The process of replacing the old species with a new one was quite long and complex.

The expansion of the frontal lobes of the brain was the main morphological feature that distinguished the emerging modern humans from the late Neanderthals. The frontal lobes of the brain are the seat of not only higher thinking, but also social functions. The growth of the frontal lobes expanded the sphere of higher associative thinking, and with it contributed to the complication public life, diversity labor activity, caused further evolution of body structure, physiological functions, and motor skills.

The brain volume of “homo sapiens” is twice as large as that of “homo habilis.” He is taller and has an upright figure. “Reasonable people” speak coherently.

In appearance, the “reasonable people” who lived in different countries, were different from each other. Natural conditions such as abundance or scarcity sunny days, sharp winds carrying clouds of sand, very coldy, left their mark on appearance of people. Their division into three main races began: white (Caucasoid), black (Negroid) and yellow (Mongoloid). Subsequently, the races were divided into subraces (for example, yellow - into Mongoloid and Americanoid), areas with a population of transitional races were formed on the borders between races (for example, on the border between the Caucasoid and Negroid races, the transitional Ethiopian race appeared). However, the physiological differences between the different races are not significant; from a biological point of view, all modern humanity belongs to the same subspecies species Homo sapiens. This is confirmed, for example, genetic research: DNA variation between races is only 0.1%, and genetic diversity within races is greater than differences between races.

Thus, the process of evolution explains the presence of similarities in external and internal structure humans and mammals. Let us briefly list them: the presence of a head, torso, limbs, hair, nails. The skeletons of both humans and mammals are made of the same bones. Similar layout and functions internal organs. Like mammals, humans feed their young with milk. But a person also has significant differences, which will be discussed further.

Who are Cro-Magnons? These are fossil people, completely similar in their appearance and development for modern man. They lived 40-10 thousand years ago in Europe. At the same time, they coexisted with Neanderthals for at least 7 thousand years. Their first skeletons and tools from the Upper Paleolithic era were found in 1868 in France in the Cro-Magnon cave.

It should be noted that such a term as “Cro-Magnon” implies several concepts at once:

1. These are people whose remains were discovered in the Cro-Magnon Grotto, and who lived on Earth approximately 40-30 thousand years ago.

2. These are the people who inhabited Europe during the Upper Paleolithic period.

3. These are all people who lived on globe during the Upper Paleolithic period.

It must be said that there is also such a concept as neoanthropes. It implies the general collective name Homo sapiens, that is, Homo sapiens. It includes both Cro-Magnons and modern people. That is, you and I are neoanthropes who completely replaced the paleoanthropes (Cro-Magnons) 30 or 40 thousand years ago. And the first neoanthropes appeared on Earth approximately 200 thousand years ago in Africa.

But let's not look that far, but return to more recent times. Fossil remains of Cro-Magnons were found in Africa in Fish Hook and the Cape Flats. Their age was estimated at 35 thousand years. In Europe, as already mentioned, 30 thousand years. In Asia, the age of the remains was 40-10 thousand years. In New Guinea 19 thousand years.

Cro-Magnon settlement

Ancient people also reached Australia. They lived there beautifully 20-14 thousand years ago. But in America, near Los Angeles, a settlement was found, the age of which dates back to 23 thousand years ago. But there are also later settlements from 11 to 13 thousand years ago.

At the excavation sites, experts discovered the remains of individuals of different sexes and ages. At the same time, the ancient people were buried in accordance with the funeral rites of that distant era. They differed very little in their morphological structure from modern people. However, the bones of the skeletons and skulls were more massive. At least, anthropologists came to this opinion.

Where did the modern human species originate?

Currently, experts are asking questions: which of the ancient people can be considered the ancestors of modern man and in what historical period did they appear? The first traces of people similar to us were discovered in Africa. These finds range in age from 200 to 100 thousand years. One of the finds was made in Kherto in Ethiopia in 1997. There, paleontologists from California discovered remains 160 thousand years old.

In South Africa, in Clazies River, the discovered remains are 118 thousand years old. In the northeastern part South Africa A skull 82 thousand years old was discovered in Border Cave. Remains were also found in Tanzania and Sudan. They are characterized by the fact that fossil human skulls are very similar in shape to the skulls of modern people. They do not have a sharply protruding nape, large brow ridges, or a sloping chin. At the same time, the volume of the brain is extremely large. Similar finds were discovered in the Middle East in the Qafzeh and Skhul caves.

Rock paintings in a cave

As a result of the efforts of paleontologists, it turned out that 40 thousand years ago people who had a modern appearance lived in Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia. In America they appeared much later, about 11-12 thousand years ago. But there are archaeologists who call the time period 30 thousand years.

Thus it turns out that the first Cro-Magnons saw the light of day in the southeastern regions of Africa approximately 200 thousand years ago. First they populated the hot continent, and then came to the Middle East. This happened 80-70 thousand years ago. Having settled in the Middle East, they moved to Europe and Asia, developing the southern and then northern regions. We got all the way to Australia, and after that we ended up in America.

Our direct ancestors were the complete opposite of Neanderthals. They had long limbs, height up to 180 cm, proportional bodies, well developed mandibles and an elongated skull. Subsequently, from them came the people of the current civilization, which is 7 thousand years old.

Nowadays there is an opinion that modern look people is the crown biological evolution, which transformed into social evolution. However, many do not agree with this. That is, biological changes continue to this day. It’s just that very little time has passed to talk about any physical transformations. But as we all know, the Cro-Magnons have changed significantly in appearance, thanks to the emergence of races.

Burial of the Cro-Magnons

Cultural achievements of the Cro-Magnons

Our direct ancestors differed from their predecessors not only in physical features. They also had a more highly developed culture. First of all, this concerns tools. They made them from stone, horn and bone. Moreover, initially, blanks were prepared en masse, and then they were processed and the necessary tools were obtained. They came up with a bow and arrows and spears. It should be noted that the level of culture was practically no different among the ancient people who inhabited different parts of the planet. They tamed the wolf, which became a domestic dog.

But the main thing, of course, is rock painting. Beautiful specimens have been preserved in caves from Britain to Lake Baikal rock paintings. In addition to them, figurines depicting animals and people were also discovered. They are made from limestone, bones and mammoth tusks. Knife handles were carved, and clothes were decorated with beads and painted with ocher.

Our ancient ancestors lived in communities. They numbered from 30 to 100 people. Not only caves, but also dugouts, huts, and tents served as housing. And this already points to settlements. They dressed in clothes made from skins. They communicated with each other through developed speech.

The main cult was the cult of hunting. This is indicated by the fact that many images of animals are complemented by arrows and spears. That is, first they killed the prey in the drawings, and only then they went on a real hunt.

The Cro-Magnons widely practiced funeral rites. This primarily indicates that ancient people thought about the afterlife. Jewelry, hunting tools, household items and food were placed in the graves along with the deceased. The bodies were sprinkled with blood-red ocher and sometimes covered with the bones of killed animals. It was customary to bury dead bodies in the fetal position. That is, in whatever position the fetus was in the womb, it was in the same position that it passed into the other world.

Ceramic figurine of Vestonice Venus

Cro-Magnon culture is characterized as Perigord culture. It is divided into earlier chatelperon and later Gravettian culture. The latter subsequently moved to Solutrean culture. An example of Gravettian culture is Vestonitskaya Venus, found in the Czech Republic in 1925. This is the oldest ceramic figurine, 11 cm high and 4 cm wide. An ancient kiln was also discovered in which clay crafts were fired, turning them into ceramic products.

In conclusion, it should be said that during the time of fabulous antiquity, a woman appeared in south-eastern Africa, from whom the entire human race descended. This woman is designated as mitochondrial Eve by mitochondrial DNA, inherited only through the female line. What kind of woman this is and how she ended up in hot Africa is unknown. But the beautiful creature was radically different from other women and marked the beginning of the human civilization that now dominates the blue planet.

Alexey Starikov

Cro-Magnons are early representatives of modern humans. It must be said that these people lived later than the Neanderthals and populated almost the entire territory modern Europe. The name “Cro-Magnons” can only be understood as those people who were found in the Cro-Magnon grotto. These people lived 30 thousand years ago and were similar to modern humans.

General information about Cro-Magnons

The Cro-Magnons were very developed, and it must be said that their skills, achievements and changes in the social organization of life were many times superior to the Neanderthals and Pithecanthropes combined. This is what the Cro-Magnon man is associated with. The lifestyle of these people helped them take a big step forward in their development and achievements. Due to the fact that they were able to inherit an active brain from their ancestors, their achievements were manifested in aesthetics, technology for making tools, communication, etc.

origin of name

Associated with Homo sapiens, the number of changes in which was very large, is the Cro-Magnon man. The way of life of these differed from the way of life of their ancestors.

It is worth saying that the name “Cro-Magnon” comes from the Cro-Magnon rock grotto, located in France. In 1868, Louis Larte found several human skeletons in this area, as well as Late Paleolithic tools. He later described them, after which it was found that these people existed about 30,000 years ago.

Cro-Magnon body type

Compared to Neanderthals, Cro-Magnons had a less massive skeleton. The height of early human representatives reached 180-190 cm.

Their foreheads were straighter and smoother than those of Neanderthals. It is also worth noting that the Cro-Magnon skull had a high and rounded arch. The chin of these people was protruding, the eye sockets were angular, and the nose was rounded.

Cro-Magnons developed an upright gait. Scientists claim that their physique was practically no different from the physique of modern people. And this already says a lot.

The Cro-Magnon man was very similar to modern man. early human representatives was quite interesting and unusual compared to their ancestors. The Cro-Magnons contributed great amount efforts to be as similar as possible to modern man.

The earliest representatives of humans are Cro-Magnons. Who are Cro-Magnons? Lifestyle, housing and clothing

Not only adults, but also children know who Cro-Magnons are. We study the peculiarities of their stay on Earth at school. It must be said that the first representative of man to create settlements was the Cro-Magnon man. The lifestyle of these people was different from the Neanderthals. Cro-Magnons gathered in communities that numbered up to 100 people. They lived in caves and also tents made of skins. IN Eastern Europe representatives who lived in dugouts met. It is important that their speech was articulate. The clothes of the Cro-Magnons were skins.

How did the Cro-Magnon hunt? Lifestyle, tools of early human representatives

It must be said that the Cro-Magnons succeeded not only in the development social life, but also in hunting. The item “Peculiarities of the Cro-Magnon lifestyle” includes an improved method of hunting - driven fishing. Early representatives of man hunted northern, as well as mammoths, etc. It was the Cro-Magnons who knew how to make special spear throwers that could fly up to 137 meters. Harpoons and hooks for fishing were also tools of the Cro-Magnons. They created snares - devices for hunting birds.

Primitive art

It is important that it was the Cro-Magnons who became the creators of European culture. This is evidenced primarily by the multicolor painting in the caves. Cro-Magnons painted in them on walls and ceilings. Confirmation that these people were creators primitive art, are engravings on stones and bones, ornaments, etc.

All this testifies to how interesting and amazing the life of the Cro-Magnons was. Their way of life has become a subject of admiration even today. It should be noted that the Cro-Magnons took a huge step forward, which brought them significantly closer to modern man.

Funeral rites of the Cro-Magnons

It is worth noting that the early representatives of man also had funeral rites. It was customary among the Cro-Magnons to place it in the grave of the deceased. various decorations, household items, and even food. They were sprinkled on the hair of the dead, a net was put on them, bracelets were put on the hands, and flat stones were placed on the face. It is also worth noting that the Cro-Magnons buried their dead in a bent state, that is, their knees should have touched their chin.

Let us recall that the Cro-Magnons were the first to domesticate an animal - a dog.

One of the versions of the origin of Cro-Magnons

It must be said that there are several versions of the origin of early human representatives. The most common of them says that Cro-Magnons were the ancestors of all modern people. According to this theory, these people appeared in East Africa approximately 100-200 thousand years ago. It is believed that Cro-Magnons migrated to the Arabian Peninsula 50-60 thousand years ago, after which they appeared in Eurasia. According to this, one group of early human representatives quickly populated the entire coast of the Indian Ocean, while the second migrated to the steppes Central Asia. According to numerous data, it is clear that 20 thousand years ago Europe was already inhabited by Cro-Magnons.

To this day, many are fascinated by the way of life of the Cro-Magnons. One can briefly say about these early representatives of man that they were the most similar to modern man, since they improved their skills and abilities, developed and learned a lot of new things. The Cro-Magnons made a huge contribution to the history of human development, because it was they who took a huge step towards the most important achievements.