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Neolithic name. Main features and achievements of the Neolithic era

NEOLITHIC AGE. EARLY AGRICULTURAL CULTURES OF THE NEOLITHIC ERA OF SOUTH EURASIA

1) Neolithic was the last period of the Stone Age. Its beginning in Eurasia dates back to the 6th millennium BC, it is usually associated with the appearance of ceramic dishes. This date is quite arbitrary, and the transition itself was not instantaneous. The rest of the stone inventory of the early Neolithic period does not always differ from the Mesolithic.

In the Neolithic in the northern hemisphere, nature acquired a more stable character than in the Mesolithic and an appearance close to the modern one. Along the shores of the Arctic Ocean there was tundra, to the south - forest-tundra, from the Baltic to Pacific Ocean there was a strip of forests, to the south of which lay forest-steppes and steppes. Each plant zone developed its own corresponding animal world.

The Neolithic is associated with fundamental changes in the method of production, called the Neolithic Revolution, and a number of innovations that have become the property of mankind.

In the south of Russia, partly in Central Asia, Transcaucasia, Ukraine and Moldova, during the Neolithic era, in a number of places, people switched to productive forms of economy - agriculture and animal husbandry. However, in most of the territory of Eurasia in the Neolithic, the economy remained appropriative; it was based on hunting, fishing and gathering.

In the Neolithic, old stone processing techniques were preserved and continued to prevail. There was a technique of double-sided beating, Levallois technique, and retouching. But none of these techniques were suitable for processing stones such as jade or jasper, since they do not produce correct chips. Grinding, sawing and sharpening of stone, as well as grinding, appear, with which tough stones are well processed. Grinding began to be used in the manufacture of flint tools. The blanks obtained by beating or chopping were processed on a flat stone, adding wet sand, which was the grinding material. It was also added to the end of the hollow tube when the stone was drilled. Drilling appeared in the Neolithic, although not everywhere. New stone processing techniques are also one of the differences of the Neolithic. ,

In some areas, the extremely limited supply of flint led to the widespread use of bone tools, the forms of which are varied and stable. Community bone-carving workshops are emerging, an example of which is a workshop in a settlement

In the Neolithic, stone chisels, chisels, and adzes appeared, the differentiation of which was facilitated by the spread of grinding and sharpening of stone tools. The stone ax became a highly productive tool: archaeologists tried to cut down a pine tree with a diameter of 25 cm, which took 75 minutes. All methods of stone processing, including grinding and drilling, were mastered by man in the Mesolithic, and later only became more widespread and improved. The industry at Caspian sites is characterized by high technology of stone processing: extremely regular prismatic cores and microliths are common. In the Caucasian Black Sea region, stone polishing was mastered - a number of polished axes were found at the site. The Neolithic ended the Stone Age and brought humanity to the threshold of a new era. The Neolithic was the time of the formation and beginning of the spread of the productive economy. The technology of stone processing reached an extremely high level of development and was subsequently supplemented by only a few, although important, techniques that no longer changed its general nature.

2) Ancient pottery is one of the branches of human economic activity. It is associated with the most ancient production of artificial materials that arose in human society. Before its appearance, ancient man used natural materials, sometimes subjecting them to mechanical processing. For example, stones, bones, shells, wood, and animal skin were used to make household items. And pottery is a qualitatively new stage in the relationship between man and nature. The plastic raw materials used in pottery - clay, silt - in their natural state do not have the qualities that clay vessels need. That is, it is not fireproof or waterproof. And only after a person carries out some targeted actions (selection and preparation of raw materials, making a vessel, firing), a finished product is obtained from the raw materials. It was in the process of working with pottery that man first learned to transform natural material, changing its inherent qualities with the help of his own knowledge and his will. Pottery production arose early in human history. Initially, its purpose was to make dishes and other small household crafts from plastic materials (silt, silty clay, clay). The emergence of pottery dates back to the Neolithic (in the Volga region - 8,000 thousand years ago).

Fragments of ancient pottery are the most common finds at archaeological sites. Its study helps determine the cultural affiliation and chronological affiliation of various monuments and cultures.

Pottery is a system of interconnected labor skills at all stages of tableware production. In general, the process of making ceramics includes three stages: preparatory (at this stage the selection of raw materials, their extraction, processing and preparation of the molding mass take place); creative (at this stage the actual vessel of a certain shape is manufactured) and fixative (at this stage the vessel is given strength and its moisture permeability is eliminated). Since in traditional societies there was a mechanism for transferring knowledge and skills from generation to generation through contact, that is, personally, most often through related channels, and also because these skills were quite conservative, the totality of labor operations turned into conservative cultural traditions. And for each individual human “collective” these cultural traditions were specific. Therefore, by studying the ceramics of different archaeological cultures and identifying these specific pottery traditions characteristic of different groups of ancient populations, it is possible to make historical reconstructions. The emergence of mixed technological traditions was possible only in the process of cultural mixing of bearers of different labor skills. In the primitive era, such mixtures were possible if people with different labor skills were included in the joint cultural and economic activities of groups.

3) In 1926-1939 N.I. Vavilov identified 7 main geographical centers of origin of cultivated plants.

South Asian tropical center (about 33% of the total number of cultivated plant species).

East Asian center (20% of cultivated plants).

South-West Asian center (14% of cultivated plants).

Mediterranean center (approximately 11% of cultivated plant species).

Ethiopian center (about 4% of cultivated plants).

Central American Center (approximately 10%)

Andean (South American) center (about 8%)

Thus, tropical India and Indochina with Indonesia are considered as two independent centers, and the South-West Asian center is divided into Central Asian and Western Asian; the basis of the East Asian center is considered to be the Yellow River basin, and not the Yangtze, where the Chinese, as a farming people, penetrated later. Centers of ancient agriculture have also been identified in Western Sudan and New Guinea. Fruit crops (including berries and nuts), having larger areas, extend far beyond the centers of origin. The reason for this lies in its predominantly forest origin (and not in the foothills as for vegetable and field crops), as well as in the peculiarities of selection. New centers have been identified: Australian, North American, European-Siberian.

Some plants were introduced into cultivation in the past outside these main centers, but the number of such plants is small. If previously it was believed that the main centers of ancient agricultural crops were the wide valleys of the Tigris, Euphrates, Ganges, Nile and other large rivers, then Vavilov showed that almost all cultivated plants appeared in the mountainous regions of the tropics, subtropics and temperate zones. The main geographical centers of the initial introduction into culture of most cultivated plants are associated not only with floristic richness, but also with ancient civilizations.

It has been established that the conditions in which the evolution and selection of a crop took place impose requirements on the conditions of its growth. First of all, this is humidity, day length, temperature, and duration of the growing season.

As studies of specific monuments show, the transition to a productive economy is an extremely complex process. But what in the diet of producing societies could have an impact on human biology? Research in the field of human evolutionary biology shows that the dynamics of such morphological indicators as overall body size, brain volume, such behavioral characteristics as the size of the food search area, the level of aggressiveness, gender differences in activity - all this is in one way or another directly related to the type of nutrition. In hunter-fisher-gatherer societies, the ratio of food obtained by hunting and obtained through zoo- and phyto-gathering is always associated with the degree of mobility of the population, with the characteristics of the demographic structure. It is generally difficult to characterize the nutritional characteristics of people in the early productive economy, since cultural diversity is superimposed on landscape and zonal diversity; the phenomenality of food traditions begins to prevail over patterns. In order for the productive economy to enter the life of society, serious social events had to occur. In this regard, ethnographic observations describing the relationships between tribes of hunter-gatherers, pastoralists and farmers are very important. Relations between hunters and farmers and cattle breeders everywhere take the form of an exchange of labor products. Farmers copied patterns of jewelry and body treatments from hunter-gatherers. The funeral rites were copied from the farmers. “The pygmies and farmers treated each other with some contempt, considering the other side to be second-class citizens or even animals.

The pastoralists were more aggressive towards the neighboring Bushmen, as they needed to expand their pastures. Due to the reduction of available land, hunter-gatherers are losing much-needed resource flexibility. As a result, they begin to specialize in fishing rather than farming. They are happy to take dogs and other pets, but do not express interest in breeding them themselves. Thus, they are ready to perceive the results of the cultural activities of pastoralists and farmers, and not to reproduce elements of this culture. Hunter-gatherers are not adapted to the monotonous, exhausting work of people in a productive economy. This is an insurmountable obstacle for them. Farmers adopt only spiritual manifestations from hunter-gatherers and join some of their cults. Thus, it is obvious that not every hunter-fisher-gatherer society carries within itself the potential for development into a producing society. The emergence of agricultural settlement is invariably associated with a change in the demographic structure and an increase in the birth rate. Considering an increase in the birth rate in a population as an indicator of an improvement in life is not always legitimate. More often than not, in human societies, high birth rates accompany low levels of economic and social development.

There is a connection between the intensity of economic activity and the increase in the birth rate. Perhaps the sharp increase in the birth rate in societies of sedentary farmers is associated with the significant participation of women in agricultural work. In this case, we are dealing with a mechanism that connects the ability for a certain type of activity and a certain way of life with population growth. In the most general terms, we can say that changes in behavior entail demographic transformations. The idea that the specifics of nutrition (diet composition, regimen) can have an effect on the characteristics of a person’s physiology and psyche without his conscious participation in this seems important. In general, we can say that farming increases the proportion of carbohydrates in food and reduces the amount and variety of proteins.

There is no reason to attribute the decrease in these characteristics only to the nutrigenic factor. Environmental factors (humidity, temperature) have similar biological effects. There is probably no need to contrast climatic factors with nutritional ones, since the choice of nutritional strategy is one of the options for adapting society to local, including climatic, characteristics. Reducing overall body size (height, latitudinal dimensions, weight) is beneficial, and often vital, when food resources are limited. The parameters that determine the minimum required amount of energy and plastic substances should be considered: the need for physical strength and the need to warm the body (for areas with a cold climate). Certain groups of the population may choose to reduce their body size to better ensure that the body receives energy and essential nutrients. Increasing the proportion of thermally processed food, food boiled in water, food with faster absorption significantly increases its energy value and reduces its nutritional properties. Here you can also give classic examples of vitamin C deficiency and beriberi disease (vitaminosis B). Heating and boiling water causes many water-soluble salts to precipitate out. Therefore, the intake of certain forms of minerals into the body decreases. The insipid taste of boiled and baked food is probably the starting point for the widespread development in culinary traditions of seasoning food with certain substances that enhance the taste of the dish. First of all, it is table salt. Until now, the attitude towards mushrooms in different cultures is not the same. According to K. Eijditz, many peoples of the North (from the Yakuts in the east to the Swedes in the west) experienced a traditional antipathy to mushrooms, which began to disappear relatively recently. Finnish researcher I. Maninnen shares the same opinion: “Finns still treat mushrooms with disdain. As a last resort, they only eat lamellar ones, and they won’t eat spongy ones.” The same thing, in his opinion, is observed among the Bashkirs and some peoples of Siberia. A number of similar facts can be traced from the literary materials. It is interesting that for many peoples of northeastern Eurasia, the rejection of mushrooms as food was combined with the use of red fly agaric as a narcotic drug. The mode of human life undergoes more significant changes. The amount of labor spent daily on agricultural work becomes extremely stressful and has many biological and social consequences. It is especially important to note that the ideas of hunter-fisher-gatherers about the connection between life-death-birth-fertility remain unchanged in structure. Only the central place in these cults is given not to the wild animal, but to the cultivated plant.

4) The agricultural and pastoral economy of the late tribal community is represented by a number of archaeological sites of the developed Neolithic and Chalcolithic.

The uneven development of various cultures and their local uniqueness in different territories, which emerged in the Paleolithic, intensified in the Neolithic. There are already dozens of archaeological cultures of the Neolithic era.

Neolithic culture developed most rapidly in the countries of the Middle East, where agriculture and breeding arose first livestock. Above we talked about the Natufian culture dating back to the late Mesolithic, whose carriers, as one can assume, had already made attempts to grow cereals. Signs of the emergence of a productive economy in Northern Iraq date back to an even earlier time. Here, in the foothills of Southern Kurdistan, settlements were discovered (Karim Shahir and others), the inhabitants of which apparently domesticated sheep and goats. The found fragments of grain graters and flint blades for sickles suggest that here, just like among the Natufians, highly specialized gathering was very developed, immediately preceding agriculture, or agriculture itself. Only in the 7th millennium BC. e. the process of evolution has reached a state where we can no longer speculate, but with complete confidence, state the cultivation of grain bread and the breeding of goats and sheep in many places. Economic progress is clearly visible in the sustainability of settlement areas. As a result of the renewal of periodically destroyed adobe houses over the centuries, Neolithic villages gave rise to powerful layers rising above the plain in the form of “residential hills,” or “telloi,” sometimes reaching 15 m in height or more. Some Early Neolithic sites have stone vessels, but not yet ceramics; this phase of development was called the Pre-Pottery Neolithic. In the Middle East, this phase is best represented by the lower layers of such monuments as Jarmo in Iraq, Ras Shamra in Syria, Hacilar in Turkey, Jericho in Palestine, Khirokitia in Cyprus.

A typical site of the Mesopotamian Neolithic is Tell Hassuna (in Iraq, near Mosul). The layers here range from the Early Ceramic to the Eneolithic periods. Already the first settlers left traces of their stay here in the form of curved walls and large jugs made of rough ceramics. Millstones and hoes made of polished stone indicate farming. Bone remains indicate hunting of gazelles and wild asses and breeding of bulls and sheep

In 5-4 millennia BC. e. agricultural tribes of the developed Neolithic also inhabited Egypt. In Upper (Southern) Egypt, the first farmers were people of the Badari culture (named after the modern settlement in the area of which monuments of this culture were excavated). The settlements of the Badari culture were located on the spurs of the plateaus; dwellings were built from rods coated with clay, as well as from mats that served as screens. The basis of the economy was primitive agriculture and cattle breeding, combined with hunting. The land was worked with stone hoes. It is possible that the Badarians sowed without preliminary soil treatment - directly into the wet silt that remained on the shore after the Nile floods. The main tools were made of stone, wood and bone, but individual copper items were also found. The Badarians knew weaving and knew how to weave baskets.

Neolithic) - New Stone Age, the last stage of the Stone Age. Different cultures entered this period of development at different times. In the Middle East, the Neolithic began around 9500 BC. e. The entry into the Neolithic is timed to coincide with the transition of culture from the appropriating (hunters and gatherers) to the producing (agriculture and/or cattle breeding) type of economy, and the end of the Neolithic dates back to the time of the appearance of metal tools and weapons, that is, the beginning of the Copper, Bronze or Iron Age. Since some cultures of America and Oceania have still not completely transitioned from the Stone Age to the Iron Age, the Neolithic is not a specific chronological period in the history of mankind as a whole, but characterizes only the cultural characteristics of certain peoples.

Unlike the Paleolithic, when there were several species of people, all of them, except the last one, became extinct before the onset of the Neolithic.

During this era, stone tools were polished, drilled, and spinning and weaving developed. For the Neolithic forest zone, fishing became one of the leading types of economy. Active fishing contributed to the creation of certain reserves, which, combined with hunting animals, made it possible to live in one place all year round. Transition to sedentary lifestyle life led to the appearance of ceramics. At this time, cities begin to be built. One of the most ancient cities is Jericho, built by one of the first Neolithic cultures, developing directly from the local predecessor Natufian culture of the Mesolithic era. Some cities were well fortified, which indicates the existence of organized wars at that time. Armies and professional warriors began to appear. Social stratification, division of labor, the formation of technologies, etc. began. We can say that the beginning of the formation of ancient civilizations is associated with the Neolithic era.

The historical change that occurred during the transition to the Neolithic is described as the Neolithic revolution (the transition from an appropriating economy to a producing one). At the same time, not all achievements of the Neolithic were perceived by different cultures at the same time. For example, the pre-ceramic Neolithic cultures in the Middle East did not yet have pottery, and the early Japanese Jomon culture very early mastered the art of making ceramic products, but much later switched to a producing type of economy and entered the Neolithic. Cultures that, although they adopted certain achievements of the Neolithic (usually only ceramics), but, like the Jomon, remained committed to hunting and gathering for a long time, are called sub-Neolithic.

Neolithic settlements were located primarily close to places that supported the existence of people - close to rivers where they fished and hunted poultry, close to fields where cereals were grown, if the tribes were already engaged in agriculture. Flint remained the main type of stone. As the population grew and the economy developed, the number of tools also increased. The simplest way to extract flint was to collect it on the surface, most often in river valleys. A more advanced, but also more labor-intensive way was to develop it in mines. This is how the beginnings of mining arose. In the Neolithic, old methods of stone processing continued to prevail: the technique of double-sided trimming, chipping, and retouching. At the same time, grinding, sawing and sharpening of stone also appears. Bone tools were widely used. In the Neolithic, the improvement of weapons continued, large spear tips and bone daggers, sometimes equipped with flint inserts, appeared. Such a weapon was capable of hitting a large animal - elk or deer. But there are also small flint points - for hunting fur-bearing animals, so as not to damage their skin. Among the most important tools in the Neolithic is the ax, previously unknown. Stone chisels, chisels, and adzes also appear. The ax helped to build houses, fences, corrals, and also to make rafts, boats, sleds, and skis. One of the signs of the Neolithic is the appearance of ceramics. An important development was the emergence of weaving. The prerequisite for weaving was basket weaving and the invention of fishing nets. Intertribal exchange continues to develop. The figures of animals and people that appeared in the Mesolithic became more numerous and varied. Some figurines are pendants, perhaps amulets. Beads made of bone, stone, and shells are often found.

In the fine art of the Neolithic, one can see the awakening of human thought. There are more people on the planet. Tribes begin to populate new spaces and fight with other tribes. The opposition of one human community to another conglomerate is the theme of the art of the new Stone Age. Rock art is becoming more and more conventional. It is rather a hasty story conveyed by means visual arts. There was no writing then, and the awakened thought required consolidation. Rock paintings found on the territory of Norway clearly demonstrate the emergence of abstract thinking: drawn people and animals become more and more sketchy, conventional images of tools and weapons, vehicles, and geometric figures appear.

18. The essence of the concept of “Neolithic revolution”. Features of the transition to agriculture and livestock farming in the Middle East, Western Asia and the European region

Neolithic Revolution - the transition of human communities from primitive hunter-gatherer economies to agriculture based on agriculture and/or animal husbandry. According to archaeological data, the domestication of animals and plants occurred at different times independently in 7-8 regions. The earliest center of the Neolithic revolution is considered to be the Middle East, where domestication began no later than 10 thousand years ago.

The concept of "Neolithic revolution" was first proposed by Gordon Childe in the mid-twentieth century. In addition to the emergence of a productive economy, it includes a number of consequences that are important for the entire way of life of Neolithic man. The small, mobile bands of hunters and gatherers who dominated the previous Mesolithic era settled in cities and towns near their fields, radically altering the environment through cultivation (including irrigation) and storage of harvested crops in specially constructed buildings and structures. An increase in labor productivity led to an increase in population, the creation of relatively large armed detachments guarding the territory, the division of labor, the revival of trade exchange, the emergence of property rights, centralized administration, political structures, ideology and new systems of knowledge that made it possible to transmit it from generation to generation not only orally, but also in writing. The appearance of writing is an attribute of the end of the prehistoric period, which usually coincides with the end of the Neolithic and the Stone Age in general.

The first attempts to cultivate some plants were made about 10 thousand years ago. Barley and wheat, cultivated in the same era in the Fertile Crescent region of the Middle East, turned out to be successful and important in their consequences for the history of mankind. In the same era and in the same region - in the Zagros mountains (Ganji Dare, etc.) - goats and sheep were domesticated.

In the early Holocene, taro began to be bred in Melanesia.

Somewhat later, about 9 thousand years ago in South-East Asia Rice was domesticated.

Purposeful cultivation of plants created the conditions for the development of society, which led to the emergence of the first civilizations (by the 3rd millennium BC). Thanks to the cultivation of the land, Neolithic people managed for the first time in history to adapt natural environment living to one's own needs. In the Neolithic era, a productive economy emerged. Obtaining surplus food, the emergence of new types of tools and the construction of settled settlements made man relatively independent of the surrounding nature. The increased concentration of the population changed the structure of the tribe from a tribal community to a neighboring one. During the Neolithic Revolution, which lasted about seven millennia, the material and spiritual foundations of the cultures of Mesopotamia and other regions of Western Asia, Egypt, China, Japan and ancient America were laid. A radical change in the material, artistic and religious aspects of people's lives occurred after the advent of writing in Mesopotamia and Egypt by the 3rd millennium BC. e.

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Main events and inventions:

o distribution of ceramic ware;
o invention of a method for producing tissues;
o the Neolithic revolution of the transition to agriculture and cattle breeding - the greatest event in human history;
o new methods of stone processing, stone axe, adze;
o stone and bone hoes, grain grinders.

Main features and achievements of the Neolithic era

The Neolithic was the last period of the Stone Age. Its beginning in Eurasia dates back to the 6th millennium BC, it is usually associated with the appearance of ceramic dishes. This date is quite arbitrary, and the transition itself was not instantaneous. The rest of the stone inventory of the early Neolithic period does not always differ from the Mesolithic.

In the Neolithic in the northern hemisphere, nature acquired a more stable character than in the Mesolithic and an appearance close to the modern one. Tundra stretched along the shores of the Arctic Ocean, forest-tundra stretched to the south, a strip of forests stretched from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean, to the south of which lay forest-steppes and steppes. Each plant zone developed its own corresponding animal world.

The Neolithic is associated with fundamental changes in the method of production, called the Neolithic Revolution, and a number of innovations that have become the property of mankind.

In the Neolithic, all previous achievements in stone processing were used (plate technology, and in some places microlithic, chipping techniques and pressing retouching). New methods of stone processing also appeared: grinding, drilling, sawing, polishing.

Rice. 19.

1 - sharp-bottomed vessel; 2, 3 - retouched arrowheads; 4 - stone ax

Using squeezing retouching, arrowheads, darts, piercings and knife-like plates were created. The technique of making inserted tools - knives and daggers - developed. In the Neolithic, polished axes, adzes and other tools made of stone were widely used, especially in forest areas. Initially, chips were used to make an ax blank, giving it the main features of the future weapon.

Then the ax was polished completely or only its working part, using special grinding plates. It was experimentally established that the production of ground axes was not a lengthy process, as previously thought.

Work on an ax made of siliceous shale required only 2.5-3 hours, and from more than hard rocks- from 10 to 35 hours. Stone sawing was done in various ways: flint saws, rope and bone tools. Drilling out bushings for handles in stone axes was done using a tubular bone, which was rotated, constantly adding sand under it. For this purpose, obviously, special frames were used. The workpiece had to be firmly clamped, the tubular bone was inserted into the sleeve and rotated with the help of a bow string, and sand was added. There is a fundamental technological and functional difference between the Neolithic ax and the adze. The ax is always symmetrical in shape, and the adze, intended for hewing, making boats, and troughs, is asymmetrical and has a beveled body. Polished axes and adzes mounted on wooden handles were quite advanced tools. With their help, it became possible to develop the forest areas of Eurasia, build more advanced wooden dwellings, boats, and manufacture various wooden devices.

Rice. 20.

I - area of comb ceramics; II - Neolithic of the Central Russian Plain (region of pit-comb ceramics); III - Karelian Neolithic culture; IV - Kargopol culture; V - region of the White Sea culture of the north; VI - Neolithic of the south; VII - region of the Kama-Ural Neolithic; VIII - region of the Kelteminar Neolithic; IX - Dzheitun culture; X - West Siberian Neolithic region; XI - Neolithic Southern Siberia; XII - Baikal Neolithic region; XIII - Amur Neolithic region; XIV - Middle Lena Neolithic region; XV - Neolithic of North-East Asia and the Arctic zone

It is no coincidence that in the Neolithic the need for flint increased, and the first mine workings for stone extraction arose. Neolithic flint mines were discovered in the Upper Volga, Belarus and Bulgaria.

Neolithic people created new materials that were not typical of nature - ceramics and textiles.

The invention of pottery in the Neolithic was extremely important. Although in some places ceramic products appeared much earlier (for example, in Japan, ceramics have been known since the 9th millennium BC), ceramic dishes became widespread only in the Neolithic. Long before this, probably since the Middle Paleolithic, people used bark, wood, and twig baskets to store food supplies. Clay dishes made it possible to cook food. Simple in shape, it had a conical, slightly pointed bottom and a body that flared upward. Such vessels look like an egg with part of the blunt end cut off. That's why they are called ovoid. The most ancient clay vessels were made on a base woven from twigs. Along with this, another manufacturing method was used - by placing bundles of raw clay rolled into a ring on top of each other. The hand-made pottery was rough, poorly and unevenly fired. Neolithic vessels were mostly decorated with simple designs in the form of recesses, pits or herringbones.

The acquisition of dishes by mankind influenced subsequent history, changed everyday culture and human physiology. It was from the Neolithic that food began to be cooked. It also had archaeological significance: with the advent of ceramics, the number of archaeological sources sharply increased. Ceramics and fragments of vessels (shards) are becoming widespread archaeological material. Great importance at the same time, he received an ornament on ceramics as a source of research.

Another achievement of the Neolithic was the invention of methods for obtaining fabrics. Fiber suitable for spinning thread was produced from plants and wool. Making fabric is a complex and multi-stage process.

First you need to get fiber from animal hair or nettles, wild hemp, etc., and make threads from it that are twisted using a spindle. To make fabric, in addition to threads, a frame and a shuttle were required. The bed is a horizontal or vertical frame onto which the warp threads were pulled. To prevent them from getting tangled, they tied flat stone weights with holes. They are often found at settlement sites. Using a shuttle, transverse threads were passed through the warp threads from left to right and vice versa. Using a comb, the threads were compacted. This is how a simple weave fabric was obtained. All ancient fabrics were like this. They were used to sew clothes, sacks, bags, and make fishing gear. Archaeologists find only spindle whorls, ceramic or stone, round or conical with a hole in the center, which were put on a spindle, and sometimes small pieces of fabric as evidence of the fabric-making process. It is important that the fabric and clothing made from it are made by man himself; this is their fundamental difference from clothing made from animal skins.

In the Neolithic, two large zones of archaeological cultures developed - the zones of producing and appropriating economies. Within them, various types of complex economies emerged, firmly associated with specific natural and geographical conditions. Each of the zones has its own features of the development and relationship of human groups with the natural environment, its own traditions in the development of technology, features of ceramics and ornament.

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Occupies a special place in the history of civilization Neolithic era, playing the role of the final chord of the Stone Age with its way of life, stone, wood and bone tools. But until the moment when the baton of time was finally intercepted by products made of copper and its alloys, the Neolithic was characterized by blurred chronological boundaries, depending on the characteristics of development in different climatic zones. For example: the onset of the Neolithic in the Middle East and North Africa dates back to the VIII-VII millennium BC, in Central Asia and southern Europe - VII-IV millennium BC, in the wooded areas of Eurasia - VI- V millennium BC, and in some territories this period extended until the III-II century BC.

Why the Neolithic is amazing

Despite the traditional attraction to stone, wood and bone, the Neolithic era can surprise with the progressiveness of processing techniques such as grinding, drilling, sawing. The Stone Age is easy to distinguish in history not only by products made of polished stone, but also by ceramics in all spheres of life (dishes, spindle whorls, sinkers, small plastics, etc.). In addition, the Neolithic is characterized as the era of the strong introduction of agriculture and cattle breeding into life, which began its journey from the Middle East, and over time confidently conquered the territories of Eurasia and the entire planet.

Could such changes leave other socio-economic areas untouched? human life and activities? The time of this period in history is generally considered to be the Neolithic revolution, which transformed not only the social structure of society of that time, but also the worldview. The main characteristics by which the achievements of the Neolithic era are assessed are ceramic products and new groups of tools. Another standard for measuring the achievements of the Neolithic is the introduction of productive types of economy.

Natural conditions of the Neolithic era

The heat and humidity of the Atlantic period, which touched the planet 6000-2600 BC, left its mark both on the world of flora and fauna, and on the physical-geographical zones that shifted to the north. The analysis of spore-pollen traces, which showed the predominance of heat-loving plants, mixed and coniferous forests, and a riot of different grasses of the steppe, helps to clarify the picture regarding the types of vegetation of that time. Just in time Neolithic period formation of chernozems occurs in the southern territories - and podzolic, bog soil covers in northern latitudes. The fauna world also surprises with its richness and diversity. At that time, even in the north there were herds of aurochs, red deer and elk. Ancient forests also served as a reliable shelter for wild boars, bears, beavers, martens, squirrels and other animals. And the lakes, seas and rivers of the Neolithic were overflowing with fish, shellfish and sea animals. Waterfowl, which occupy a worthy place in the cohort of numerous birds of various species, were also hunted.

True, with the onset of the subboreal period (2600-1200 BC), which brought the chill of lower temperatures and a reduction in the biological productivity of ecosystems to the Earth, man again had to adapt to tougher conditions.

Economic and domestic characteristics of the Neolithic

The traditions of the appropriating type of economy outlived themselves, which is why the Neolithic people stopped waiting for mercy from nature - and set a course for the production type of economy. Approximately 10-11 thousand years ago, humanity came to the need to expand sources of food resources through agriculture and cattle breeding. But the period of economic changes depended on geographical characteristics terrain. In some territories, this transition lasted until the advent of the Iron Age, and in other places, the manufacturing economy appeared even before the appearance of ceramics (pre-ceramic Neolithic).

Despite geographical differences, the process of following new form management is characterized by a number of defining moments. An important role in this was played by natural prerequisites such as the diversity or scarcity of the flora and fauna of certain territories. It is precisely these reasons that explain the emergence of several main centers for the domestication of animals, their selection and cultivation of plants.

It is worth paying special attention to the area between the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, to the Indus Valley, which is considered to be the birthplace of legumes and rice crops. Wheat and barley began to conquer the planet from the lands of northern Africa, the Near East and Northern Iran. Mesoamerica is considered the birthplace of maize and our beloved potatoes.

Scientists still do not have a consensus about the centers of domestication of animals, although Asia Minor and Iran are considered to be point “A”, from which domesticated large-horned and small livestock, as well as artiodactyl pigs emerged. On the question of where and when horses were first domesticated, scientists have not yet come to a common opinion. And in order to preserve the harvest as much as possible, man tamed the cat, which in Egypt was considered a deity, as evidenced by the presence of a cat’s head in the goddess Bastet.

Rice. 1 - Neolithic economy

Most likely, the first skills of domesticating animals were acquired while caring for their wounded and young brethren, caught by humans and preserved as a food supply. And the experience of primitive selection was gained already during gathering, inspiring the desire to increase the harvest. Moreover, an increase in the number of relatives also played a role, as did a decrease in productivity as a result of climate change. And an example in the form of excessive activity of hunters, which led to a decrease in the number of animals, can be considered evidence of the harm caused to nature by man himself.

Taking the path of a producing economy is conditionally divided into two directions:

selection of plants rich in carbohydrates and proteins;
domestication of animals that provide meat and milk to humans.

To survive in harsh conditions, Neolithic people They conducted a complex economy, including agriculture, cattle breeding, as well as gathering, fishing and hunting. The proportional ratio of different types of activities directly depended on the landscape and climatic features of the habitat. In this historical era, societies of pastoralists and farmers shared the planet with adherents of traditional activities, since in some regions they were very successful, and people did not have objective reasons for switching to a different form of farming.

Fortified settlements of the Neolithic period

The reason for the settlement of the population is the transition to farming, which ties them to one place and leads to the construction of solid dwellings from the material that a particular territory is rich in. As an example, it is worth mentioning the dwellings of the southern regions made of raw bricks dried under the scorching sun. The inhabitants of the mountainous areas well understood the convenience of stone mining and used it in construction. In forest settlements, wooden buildings were erected; in forest-steppes, structures coated with clay on a wicker frame were erected. There were preferences for the size and shape of buildings, which depended on climatic conditions and cultural traditions.

Rice. 2 - Wooden house of the Neolithic period

Moreover, settlements where a lot of food supplies were stored could attract people of all kinds, from whom fortified buildings helped protect themselves. The advantageous location of the area, which plays an administrative and economic role, was also important. It was precisely these villages, where crafts were concentrated, religious buildings were erected and people gathered to exchange goods, that became the ancestors of large cities. For reliability and protection, settlements like Jericho were surrounded by seven-meter walls and defensive towers, which made it possible to comfortably survive the hardships of a siege and other vicissitudes of fate.

It was important not only to strengthen the adobe walls with plaster, but also to pay tribute to aesthetic pleasure - decorating with paintings.

Large selection of tools

Maintaining a complex economy would be impossible without the availability of a variety of tools. In Neolithic times man used scrapers, cutters, piercings, staples, as well as a number of tools of the serrated and notched type, without which it was impossible to do in the dressing of leather, skins, tailoring and footwear. Man could not do without chopping tools, knives, arrowheads, sickles, hoes, stone and slate axes. Hammers, adzes, chisels, plows, picks, hooks and harpoons, tops and other structures for fishing have also reached us.

Rice. 3 - Neolithic stone tools: 1-6 - arrowheads; 7 - knife; 8 - chopping weapon; 9-11 - tips; 12-14 - non-geometric microliths (plates with retouching); 15-18 - geometric microliths; 19-21 - scrapers; 22, 23, 27 - polished slate axes; 24 - flint ax; 25, 26 - cores

Common techniques at that time were considered:

double-sided upholstery;
flow retouching;
grinding;
sawing;
drilling

Need for stone

A noticeable increase in population and the complexity of economic management are inextricably linked with an increase in the need for materials. In addition to being used in production, quartzite, obsidian, slate, jasper, jade, rock crystal and other rocks mined in the Neolithic era also served as objects of exchange. Mining sites (wells and shafts with supports) were often used for primary processing.

Weaving

In the Neolithic era, man managed to find other ways to provide clothing, when, in addition to leather and fur, materials made through weaving mills with spindle whorls and soft stone weights were used. At the same time, a spindle appeared, with the use of which the issue of spinning and winding threads from nettle, hemp, castor oil, cotton, and flax was resolved.

Ceramics

The possibilities of making dishes increased significantly with the ability to use ceramic dough, which, in addition to clay, included admixtures of talc, asbestos, sand, crushed shell, gruss or straw, which made it possible to eliminate cracking during firing. To decorate products with ornaments, craftsmen used comb stamps, spatulas, sticks, tubes and other devices. And the fire, where it is not so easy to achieve the desired temperature and ensure uniform firing, was gradually replaced by pottery forges.

Rice. 4 - Neolithic ceramics

Neolithic culture

Neolithic people, who embarked on the path of economic change, could not help but undergo changes in spiritual ideas, which served to create religious beliefs and cults of the forces of nature. Under the influence of many rituals developed Neolithic cultures associated with totemism and animism.

Some ideas about the spiritual aspirations of those times are said by burials. In the long centuries of the Neolithic, people used standard rituals, burial structures, sets of accompanying equipment and generally accepted poses of the dead. For example: in agricultural communities, the dead were considered protectors of the living, which is why burials were made under the floor of the home. The emergence of social inequality is evidenced by the presence of rich grave goods in burials, which took place during the late Neolithic.

In the steppe zones and forest-steppe regions of Eastern Europe, funerary monuments like Scythian mounds appear. But here the dead already maintain an elongated position, and do not lie crouched on their sides. Burials of forest gatherers represent both burials within the sites and outside their territories. Typically, corpses were buried in ground pits along with equipment, weapons and jewelry.

Neolithic art

How did the features of residential buildings and lifestyle depend on territorial features, so the Neolithic culture cannot be separated from human activity and centuries-old traditions. For example: respect for the mother-ancestor passed into the cult of fertility, personified in female figurines. True, in the Neolithic era, this image was schematic, if not abstract, since it was presented in the form of a rod with traces of signs of gender.

Evidence of the development of Neolithic art is small plastic art, objects of applied art and monumental painting, which has come down to us in the form of rock paintings, where the main characters are warriors and hunters in cone-shaped capes and “ostrich” masks. Armed with axes, bows and boomerangs, they, together with dogs, chase bulls, goitered gazelles and wild boars. And scientists tend to consider the fantastic creatures present in hunting stories to be spirits that patronize wild animals and hunters.

A characteristic feature of the rock art of Eurasia are piscians and petroglyphs. The images of dancing people, skiers, and hunters harpooning a large fish on a boat make an unforgettable impression.

Objects of small plastic appear before us in the form of figures of animals, snakes, fish, and waterfowl. A wooden scoop with a handle in the shape of a bird, an elk's head or an image of a bear as a decoration for the tops has survived to this day. A applied arts Neolithic lives in the wealth of ornamental arrays decorating ceramics and objects made of bone, as well as wood.

During the Neolithic era, humanity confidently populated different geographical zones, forcing new forms of economic management, social structure of society and views on the world.

NEOLITHIC

The emergence of new forms of economy and the widespread use of new environments occurred during the Neolithic era (in Greek neos - new). IN geographical environment Changes were still taking place caused by various tectonic processes, and the level and coastlines of the seas and lakes fluctuated. Neolithic settlements also testify to this: some of them are covered by thick lake sediments, while others, once located near the water, ended up on hills.

The Neolithic covers the warm and humid Atlantic climatic period (5500-3000 BC) and the beginning of the dry and also warm subboreal period (before 500 BC). The Neolithic, like the previous era, began and ended at different times in different territories. On average, this is the period from the VI-IV millennia BC. e. until the 3rd millennium BC. e.

The settlement of human groups in the Neolithic occurred even more intensively than in the Mesolithic. People found themselves in different natural conditions, adapted to them, and this largely determined the existence of various and numerous Neolithic cultures. Differences are expressed in the forms of tools, dwellings, household items and in forms of farming. In the warm, fertile south, some tribes already in the Neolithic mastered producing forms of economy, while in the north it remained consuming for a long time.

The uneven development of different areas and the diversity of Neolithic cultures require a definition of the term “Neolithic”. According to some archaeologists, this is primarily the era of a productive economy. However, not everyone agrees with the definition of archaeological eras on economic and cultural, i.e. sociological, grounds. Supporters of archaeological periodization believe that the Neolithic is characterized by several features that reflect the characteristics of this era.

Neolithic settlements were located primarily close to places that ensured the existence of people - near rivers where they fished and hunted birds, near fields where cereals were grown if the tribes were already engaged in agriculture. But it was also noted that the density of the Neolithic population depended on sufficient supplies of stone necessary for the manufacture of tools. The main type of such stone remained flint. With growth

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population, with the development of the economy, the number of tools also grew. More and more raw materials were needed to make them. Flint is found in limestone or chalk deposits, sometimes exposed to the surface. The simplest way to extract flint was to collect it on the surface, most often in river valleys. In cases where flint lay in strata overlain by anthropogenic sediments (usually sand or loess), it was mined in open pits. If the corresponding layers were visible in the cliffs of river banks or ravines, flint workings over time turned into adits - horizontal underground galleries.

Flint deposits have been studied in the Novgorod region, the Upper Volga, the Urals and other places. Mass production of tools arose near flint mining sites.

But there was not enough flint everywhere. Where there was little of it, other breeds were used, primarily for the manufacture of large tools. Exchange develops, mainly with flint, intertribal ties expand, and technical advances spread to neighboring and sometimes remote areas. Flint from different deposits differs in color and other qualities, by which one can judge its origin. Tools made of Volga flint are found at sites from Lake Ilmen to the Gulf of Finland and further in Estonia, Karelia, and the Leningrad region.

But not all regions could satisfy their needs with imported flint. In the Neolithic, new types of stone were sought and mastered, even those that could not produce thin chips like flint. Jasper and jade rarely served as material for tools in the Paleolithic. The use of such rocks is one of the differences between the Neolithic and previous eras.

In the Neolithic, old stone processing techniques were preserved and continued to prevail. There was a technique of double-sided upholstery, Levallois technique, and retouching. But none of these techniques were suitable for processing stones such as jade or jasper, since they do not produce correct chips. Grinding, sawing and sharpening of stone, as well as grinding, appear, with which tough stones are well processed. Grinding began to be used in the manufacture of flint tools. The blanks obtained by beating or chopping were processed on a flat stone, adding wet sand, which was the grinding material. It was also added to the end of the hollow tube when the stone was drilled. Drilling appeared in the Neolithic, although not everywhere. New stone processing techniques are also one of the differences of the Neolithic. ,

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pieces of horn, sawn bones, blanks and finished products from this material. The standardization of processing techniques and the uniformity of products suggests that this is a workshop for the manufacture of bone and antler tools. But the plasticity and strength of bone was also valued where flint was not rare.

In the Neolithic, the improvement of weapons and tools continued. In the southern regions, microlithic technology was further developed; in the northern regions, large spearheads and bone daggers, sometimes equipped with flint inserts, appeared. Such a weapon was capable of hitting a large animal - elk or deer. But there are also small flint arrowheads intended for hunting various animals, including fur animals. A spear with a wooden shaft and a flint tip tied to it with a vein thread was found in the Sarnat peat bog in Latvia. In another peat bog the remains of large onions were discovered. There are all kinds of scrapers, knives made of large knife-like plates, on which the “handle” - a place for the hand - is wrapped in birch bark. Punches, drills and other small tools are common.

The importance of the ax was especially great in forest areas, where | he was a weapon in the fight against the forest. The main type of dwelling in the north was a half-dugout with a log house, as it were, inserted into it. The roof, covered with skins and bark, was supported by pillars. Above-ground dwellings known archaeologically were also built. In summer, the life of the settlement took place outside the walls of the dwellings - around the fires.

They built all kinds of fences, necessary both for hunting (when certain areas were surrounded by wattles and fences) and for cattle breeding (when corrals for livestock were built). Fences were built to block the river to catch fish. (A narrow hole was left in the stake for the passage of fish, and tops were placed there, from which the fish caught in them could not get out). They made rafts, boats, sleds, and skis. The spread of these means of transportation meant the expansion of the territory developed by people, the spread of progress.

Bone carving has not yet become a craft.

Ceramics are considered the main feature of the Neolithic. It arose in many places at the same time, but borrowing is not excluded. For example, on Far North ceramic ware came from the south.

The main method of making clay vessels was tape, or rope. They rolled out a long ribbon from the prepared clay dough, laid it spirally one turn at a time in the shape of the future pot, then smoothed it out, dried it in air and fired it. Despite the primitiveness of production, I suck

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The holes sometimes had thin walls and relative symmetry. Fingerprints were found on some of the pots. Judging by the size of the prints, it can be assumed that these dishes were made by women.

Food was cooked over fires, and a flat-bottomed pot over a fire is unstable. Therefore, the shape of the pots was often semi-ovoid, otherwise pointed-bottomed. It was more convenient to place sharp-bottomed vessels between stones or in a small hole around which a fire was built. Often, although not always, such vessels indicate some mobility of the population.

The vessels were most often decorated with a stamp, pricks, or a pattern that was drawn with a stick on wet clay. It is believed that combinations of seemingly the most arbitrary patterns reflected the symbolism established in the tribe. Therefore, the uniformity of the ceramic ornament serves as a guide for identifying a Neolithic culture, probably a tribe, and for establishing the genetic relationship of sometimes distant tribes.

In a number of places, Neolithic tribes neighbored more developed ones, among whom metal was already known, from where it sometimes penetrated to tribes that did not yet have their own metallurgy. Metal in the Neolithic is a random phenomenon. For metal production, productive forces were not yet sufficiently developed. The absence of metal or the randomness of finds of things made from it are also characteristic of the Neolithic.

The high level of development of the fishing industry of the northern sites is emphasized by an extremely rare find - nets, which, as can be assumed, appeared in the Mesolithic. They were found, for example, at the Sarnate site (Latvia). Threads for nets were made from bast, nettle, and wild hemp. Special needles for knitting nets have been found.

Stone sinkers are a common find. Large and small, solid and composite fishhooks indicate that fish were also caught with fishing rods, and possibly with nets.

Baskets appeared, the weaving of which, as well as the knitting of nets, served as a prerequisite for weaving. It is possible that the fabrics were originally woven. A sign of weaving is primarily the spindle whorl - small weights made of stone or clay, mounted on the spindles to give it stability and uniform rotation. They have been known since the Neolithic.

In the Neolithic, exchange developed, in which flint played a significant role. It is believed that the exchange contributed to the penetration of cultivated plants and animals into a number of areas. But the connections between the different territories of our country were still very weak, the reason for this was the low population density, vast spaces, taiga forest, swamps, mountains, and poor development of means of transportation.

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New forms of the economy developed first of all in the south of our country - in Central Asia. The regions of Ukraine and Moldova were only slightly behind it. All these areas are closest to the centers of ancient Eastern civilization, and a number of important economic achievements penetrated from there during the Neolithic era. The transition to new productive forms of economy was also facilitated by the generous southern nature.

The change from a consuming economy to a producing economy is sometimes called the “Neolithic revolution” in the literature. The term is now generally accepted, but it should be noted that the period of transition was extended, sometimes non-simultaneous even in neighboring territories.

At most Neolithic sites in the steppe and forest-steppe zones there are no signs of either agriculture or cattle breeding. The transition to a producing economy took place here much later.

Hoe farming is generally considered the most primitive form of land cultivation. But its occurrence also requires certain conditions. It is impossible to cultivate heavy soils, and especially turf, with a hoe, but on light soils a farmer can work with a hoe. Hoe farming developed along the course of those rivers that periodically overflowed, leaving significant alluviums of fertile silt on their banks.

On our territory, similar conditions existed on the banks of Central Asian rivers and streams. To retain water, areas were embanked. This was the simplest form of irrigation, called estuary. The emergence of a producing economy was caused by the internal development of productive forces. This was facilitated by wild cereals, common in the foothills of Turkmenistan, and the presence there of bezoar goats - the ancestors of domestic goats.

In the south of Central Asia, in a narrow strip near the spurs of the Kopetdag, the oldest agricultural culture on the territory of the USSR arose, called Dzheitun (VI millennium BC) after the typical Dzheitun site north of Ashgabat. This culture also covered areas of Northern Iran. The climate here is dry, not conducive to agriculture, but thanks to the flat terrain, estuary irrigation was possible. The villages were located on small hills that were not flooded by the river. The village of Dzheitun consisted of 30 square one-room houses for 5-6 people each. The houses were built from clay “rolls” of oval cross-section, 60-70 cm long. These are not bricks yet, are these harbingers of bricks? The “rolls” were not yet even enough, not dried, and especially not baked. Chopped straw was mixed into the clay for them. In the houses there were massive fireplaces made of the same “rolls”. The floors and walls of the houses were covered with plaster and painted. Near the dwellings there were outbuildings and small courtyards, some of them surrounded by clay fences. There are open pits in the courtyards, probably for storing grain.

The agricultural economy is evidenced by the imprints of barley and wheat grains found in the plaster of houses, the abundance of straw,

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mixed into the “bun” dough, as well as the nature of the tools.

In Dzheitun, microliths predominate; more than a third of all tools are inserts. The bone base of a reaping knife was found. Grain grinders were discovered, i.e., tools made of two stones, between which grain was ground into flour. But there is no shovel, no hoe, no

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other tillage implements. Probably, the land was cultivated with a digging stick - the most primitive of such tools.

The Dzheitun industry is diverse in the range of tools and manufacturing techniques. There were knives and sickles. Scrapers were apparently used to remove flesh from the skin. Flint scrapers were used to process arrow shafts. Stone drills were used to drill out shells for necklaces and the walls of vessels when repairing them. Sling balls are found in later layers. Many tools associated with the processing of hides are made of bone. These are scrapers cut from shoulder blade bones, as well as piercings and needles used in sewing leather products. There is no reliable data on weaving yet, but spindle whorls have been found - weights for spindles.

The dog was undoubtedly the most domesticated animal among the Dzheitun people. As for the goat and sheep bones found there, at this stage of the development of cattle breeding, wild and domesticated animals are even less distinguishable by their bones. Probably some of them were domesticated. The Late Dzheitun settlements are dominated by bones of domestic animals.

Pottery, which first appeared in the Middle East at the end of the 7th millennium, is characteristic of the earliest layers of the Dzheitun culture. It is flat-bottomed and made using the belt method from clay with a significant admixture of chopped straw. Some of the vessels are painted with red paint, the pattern resembles curly braces. Among the unpainted ones, one can note the quadrangular vessels, which arose, perhaps, in imitation of a wooden trough.

Burials are sometimes found on the territory of settlements, which is common for primitive communal settlements and reflects the cult of ancestors. There are only a few burials here.

At the Pessedgic Settlement, a building was excavated that was unusually large for Djeitun monuments, with solid external walls and a complex layout. There were no finds inside the house. The area of the building is so large that it could accommodate the population of the entire village. This already speaks of its social purpose. Open on the walls, frescoes depict ungulates and predatory animals, trees, triangles and diamonds. The painting is done with black and red paints on a white background. This is one of the oldest examples of indoor painting. Pessedgic painting dates back to the 6th millennium. The building, in all likelihood, was a sanctuary where religious ceremonies were performed.

The clay figurines of people and animals found at the settlement also had cult significance. The torso of a female figurine is relatively common. Lots of goat figurines. Some figurines are pendants, perhaps amulets. Beads are found made from bone, stone, shells, including cowrie shells originating from the Indian Ocean.

The Jeitun culture is believed to have been alien. The Dzheituns suddenly disappeared. But that doesn't mean it stopped once

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the development of ancient agricultural culture: it continued to develop in the next era.

In the Eastern Caspian region, the tribes of the Jebel culture seem to have begun to engage in cattle breeding: bones of sheep and goats speak about it, which with a certain degree of certainty can be considered to belong to domestic animals. The industry at Caspian sites is characterized by high technology of stone processing: extremely regular prismatic cores and microliths are common. Pointed-bottomed ceramics appeared. They find grain grinders, first flat, then boat-shaped. The Jebel people lived in caves until the Bronze Age. In the Neolithic, they lived simultaneously with the Dzheitun people, but there is little similarity between the cultures, although researchers consider it possible to assume that, judging by the flint implements, Dzheitun and Jebel are two branches of the same cultural root. However, the pastoral development path did not allow short term achieve such notable successes as it was in the Dzheitun culture.

Near the Kailyu Cave, a burial ground was explored, which is a family cemetery. The burials are oriented in the same way; the skeletons retain traces of the ocher that was sprinkled on the bodies of the buried. There is no doubt that the tribes who lived here believed in an afterlife.

A huge massif of the Kelteminar culture (V-IV thousand, maybe up to II thousand) is located near the Aral Sea. The main territory of the culture is the ancient Akchadarya delta of the Amu Darya.

The appearance of the Kelteminar culture is somewhat stagnant, as evidenced by many aspects of the life of these tribes. Most of their settlements were temporary, apparently seasonal, sites. Remains of dwellings are rare. The most studied settlement is Dzhanbaskala 4 in Khorezm, on the banks of the Amu Darya. The people there lived in large, conical-roofed dwellings made of wood and reeds, with an area of about 300 square meters. m. It was a common house for a whole family. A number of fireplaces were discovered in the dwellings, near which there were household remains: shards of dishes, animal bones. Each hearth corresponded to the household of a separate family. But the hearth, located in the center of the house, did not contain such remains; the soil under it was calcined by 50 cm. It is believed that the fire in this hearth was unquenchable, i.e. the hearth was a cult fire. If this is so, then we have before us the most ancient evidence of the cult of fire, which later characterized Central Asia.

There are no geometric tools here. At the settlement of Dzhanbaskala 4, not a single sickle insert was found, not a single bone of a dog - the hunter’s assistant and companion. Many arrows on flint plates, with a spike on one side; The farm was a hunting and fishing farm. Bones of catfish and pike were found; wild boar, deer and waterfowl were hunted. The role of gathering is significant, as evidenced by mollusk shells and bird egg shells. At a number of later monuments, bones of domestic animals were found, which may indicate the origin of the human race.

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Rice. 9. Inventory of the Kelteminar culture: I - early stage, II - late stage: 1-2 - flint tools, 3-4 - vessels and ornaments on them

leadership It is believed that the implements of the Kelteminar culture are related in origin to the culture of the Caspian Mesolithic. In some of its features, the kelteminar reveals similarities with the Neolithic monuments of the Urals and Western Siberia, in which southern connections are noticeable right up to the cultures of the south of Central Asia and even Iran.

In the early period, at the Kelteminar sites, the ceramics were round-bottomed or pointed-bottomed with incised ornaments. The late period is characterized by pots with a flat bottom and without ornament.

By the beginning of the 5th millennium BC. e. a productive economy emerges in the South Caucasus. But when this process began is difficult to say due to insufficient and uneven knowledge

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Neolithic of Central Transcaucasia and the middle part of the North Caucasus. However, the available data allow researchers to talk about local Mesolithic and Upper Paleolithic roots of the Caucasian Neolithic. In the early Neolithic, the economy here was based on hunting and gathering. In the Late Neolithic, both lowland and mountainous areas were developed, and settlements were located on the banks of rivers. Some of the sites are located in caves. The microlithic technique is widespread. There are numerous large knife-like blades, axes, chisels, as well as hoes, mortars, grain grinders, and sickle inserts, possibly indicating farming. Ceramics appear and spread. It is considered possible to talk about certain contacts between the Caucasus and the Middle East in the Neolithic era.

In the Caucasian Black Sea region there was a Neolithic culture with its own specific features that distinguished it from the early agricultural culture of Transcaucasia. The first group of settlements is represented by Early Neolithic sites, of which the best studied is Nizhneshilovskaya, dating back to the 5th millennium BC. e. It is located near Adler on the bank of the river, 5 km from its mouth. The inventory is characterized by a combination of geometric tools of a Mesolithic appearance with tools of typically Neolithic forms. Numerous tools in the form of trapezoids and segments that served as inserts, tools on knife-like plates - scrapers, burins and drills - were found here. Stone polishing was mastered - a number of polished axes were found at the site. There are no arrowheads, but there are sling balls, which are believed to have been the main weapon. The ceramics had no ornament, which is typical for the Caucasian Neolithic. The absence of arrows, fishing equipment, and animal bones suggests that the main occupation of the population was agriculture.

The second group of sites is represented by Late Neolithic settlements of the 4th millennium BC. e. in the Sochi-Adler region and in Abkhazia. There are no geometric tools here. Lots of stone hoes and grain grinders. Agriculture is undoubted, which confirms the hypothesis of its origin on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus in the Early Neolithic, such as the Nizhneshilovskaya site. With the further development of this type of economy, Late Neolithic settlements began to be located higher above the sea coast, near areas convenient for cultivation. Now it is already possible to trace the line of further development of the cultures of the Caucasian Black Sea region to the Neolithic, Early Bronze Age and beyond.

The Neolithic sites of the Caucasus and Crimea arose on the basis of similar Mesolithic cultures. In the Early Neolithic, such similarities still exist, but later the development paths of these areas diverged. In the Caucasus, the beginnings of agriculture appear early, and in the Crimea, hunting still predominates. Looking ahead, it can be noted that in the subsequent era, these paths led to the flourishing of agricultural culture in the Caucasus, and in the Crimea - to the formation of cattle breeding.

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Typical for the Crimean Neolithic are the sites Tash-Air 1 and Zamil-Koba, dating back to the mid-3rd millennium. In the developed Neolithic of Crimea, sites are most often located in mountainous and foothill parts, sometimes in caves, but more often outside them. Since the Mesolithic, people have settled less and less often in caves. The sharply increased thickness of the cultural layers indicates a strong settled state. The bones of domestic pigs, sheep and cows, although rare, apparently indicate the beginnings of primitive cattle breeding. Ceramics appear, still rough, with thick walls. The flint implements are similar to the Mesolithic ones, but their finishing is finer. Axes are found, and the number of bone tools increases.

At the end of the Neolithic, the quality of ceramics improved and the number of domestic animals increased.

On the Southern Bug and the Middle Dniester in the VI - early IV millennium BC. e. Neolithic sites are usually located in floodplains, on islands. The loess-silt soil favored the emerging agriculture that emerged during the period of the Bug-Dniester culture, although hunting remained the main type of economy. The parking lots housed small above-ground houses, and there were also half-dugouts; both of them have foci. In addition to microlithic tools, which include trapezoidal inserts, there are horn hoes and stone grain grinders. The arrowheads are made of bone. Apparently, animals were also domesticated.

The vessels are usually sharp-bottomed, although ceramics similar to the dishes of the Danube countries are known.

The climatic conditions of the southern and northern parts of the forest and forest-steppe zones of the European part of the USSR are still sharply different, and they were approximately the same in the Neolithic. The southern border of the taiga passed through the north of Latvia, the Yaroslavl and Kostroma Volga regions, and the border of the forest and steppe approximately coincided with the modern one.

During the period of its greatest spread, the Dnieper-Donetsk culture (late 5th - mid-3rd millennium) occupied forest-steppe Ukraine, southern Belarus and even penetrated into the Upper Dnieper region. Hunting and fishing were dominant, but signs of the beginning of domestication of animals are noticeable at sites in the southern part of the forest-steppe zone in the middle stage of the Neolithic: bones of cows, dogs, and pigs are sometimes found. However, cattle breeding was little developed: the bones of wild animals predominated.

The houses were pillar houses, slightly sunk into the ground, with open fireplaces in the center, and utility pits located next to the houses. Bone arrows, harpoons, and fishhooks are widespread. There are stone axes.

The ceramics are decorated with impressions of a comb stamp and pricks with a sharp stick. The vessels are sharp-bottomed; only in the late period and only in the Cherkassy group are flat-bottomed ones found.

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In the Azov region, the Mariupol burial ground was excavated (mid-4th millennium BC), the main part of the burials of which belong to the Dnieper-Donetsk culture. In a trench up to 28 m long and up to 2 m wide, there were more than 120 burials, mostly elongated, although there were also crumpled ones and corpses burned. The male skeletons lay with their heads to the east, the female ones - to the west. There are significantly more female burials, which is explained by the matrilineal nature of the family,

Rice. 10. Inventory of the Dnieper-Donetsk culture: 1 - stone axe, 2 - stone chopping tool, 3-4 - cores, 5-6 - stone nock-like plates, 7-8 - stone arrows, 9-10 - stone points, 11 - stone trapezoid, 12 - stone scraper, 13 - stone “iron”, 14 - stone chisel, 15 - bone point, 16 - bone point with liner, 17-18 - vessels

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when wives taken from another clan had to be buried in the cemetery of their clan. Some of the burials were sprinkled with ocher. The inventory includes things made of stone, bone, animal teeth, and shells. Particularly interesting are plates made from boar tusks, as well as decorations from shell valves, beads made from bone and stone. Special group consist of burials in pits dug in the already completed embankment of the burial ground (the so-called inlet ones). Copper is found in these burials, which is represented by finds of bracelets and beads. A stone mace of West Asian shape was found. These are already Eneolithic burials.

The burial site contains many boar bones, which indicates the process of pig domestication. Probably the main occupation of the population was cattle breeding, which became increasingly important. Two images of bulls made of bone were found.

Neolithic sites of the forest belt are located at the very edge of the water, which indicates the predominance of fishing in the economy. Hunting was important, and in some areas it was the leading type of economy. Both fishing and hunting required collective labor. For example, a sea animal was hunted on a large boat with big amount of people. The efforts of many people were needed in the construction of hunting pens and fishing pens. Collective labor also corresponded to collective distribution.

For the forest belt, a concentration of simultaneous settlements was noted within the strict limits of small territories, which reflects the clan structure of society. The totality of such limited complexes is assumed to correspond to the tribal organization of society.

In some places, where circumstances forced it, tribes settled in swampy lowlands. Dwellings in this case were sometimes built on stilts, as, for example, in a settlement on the Modlona River in Vologda region. Along the shore of a narrow and long cape there were five quadrangular houses. Their walls were made of poles intertwined with twigs, the floors were made of thin logs and covered with a layer of clay. The floor logs protruded beyond the house, forming a small platform in front of it. The house stood on stilts, rising 30-35 cm above the ground. There were large peaks between the houses. Such settlements in archeology are called pile settlements.

From the Kalinin to Ivanovo currents of the Volga, sites of the Upper Volga Neolithic culture (5th millennium BC) are widespread. The settlements are small, located in lake-like widenings of rivers, the dwellings are semi-dugouts. Flint tools have a Mesolithic appearance and speak of the local roots of the culture. The bulk of the tools are made on plates - scrapers, arrows, knives. Chopping tools are occasionally found. Arrows different forms, which indicates the diversity of animals and birds. The pottery is pointed-bottomed, ornamented with pricks made with a stick and with impressions of a comb stamp. Sometimes the vessels are painted red. In the inventory of parking lots there are

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steel or slate dies. The bone industry is close to the Kunda industry.

The Klyazma basin and the adjacent Oka and Volga currents were occupied by the tribes of the Lyalovo culture (V-III millennium BC), named after the site near the village of Lyalovo, located not far from Moscow, near the city of Zelenograd. It belongs to the peat bog type and is located on the banks of the Klyazma, where this river once spread

Rice. 11. Inventory of the Mariupol burial ground: 1-8 - pendants made of bone, mother-of-pearl and animal teeth, 9 - bone figurine of a bull, 10-15 - parts of necklaces made of bone plates, 16 - boar tusk, 17 - stone mace, 18-25 - flint guns

Rice. 12. Inventory of the Lyalovo culture: 1 - harpoon, 2-3 - chisels, 4 - arrow, 5 - chopping tool, 6-8 - scrapers, 9 - vessel (1 - bone, 2-8 - flint, 9 - clay)

widened into a small lake. Here there is a seasonal hut built on a special perch flooring. A polishing slab and tool blanks that must have been polished were found, as well as large stone chopping tools, carefully processed spear and arrowheads, and items made of bone and horn. The Lyalovites hunted waterfowl and fished. The site dates back to the 4th millennium BC. e.

The characteristic feature is semi-ovoid pottery, decorated with regular rows of indentations. Such an ornament, as proven, was applied with belemnites or sticks of different sections. A comb pattern is often found.

Very soon, separate groups of Oka-Volga Neolithic tribes began to penetrate to the north, and then to the north-west, as a result of which related cultures with similar pit-comb ceramics arose there, according to which the entire area of its distribution is sometimes called the region of pit-comb ceramic cultures .

It is believed that in its original place the Lyalovo culture split into a number of related cultures.

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Rice. 13. Inventory of the Volosovo culture: 1 - stone arrow, 2 - bone arrow, 3 - spear, 4 - scraper, 5 - scraper, 6 - knife, 7 - chisel, 8 - drilled ax, 9 - compound bone hook, 10 - figured flint (sculpture), 11 - bone image of a swan's head, 12 - bone harpoon, 13 - slate pendant, 14 - slate ring, 15 - vessel

The Volosovo culture (III - early II millennium BC) received its name from a site near Murom. It belongs to the pit-comb type. There is no consensus about its origin. The economy of Volosovo residents is fishing and hunting. At a later stage of development, the Volosovo tribes expanded their territory, assimilating or displacing the tribes of the Lyalovo culture. Along the Klyazma River, many Volosovo settlements are known, of which the Nikolo-Perevoz site on the Dubna River should be mentioned. The settlements are extensive, with large dugouts located on them. The Volosovo treasure is of interest - many stone objects covered with fine press retouching. Among them are spears, knives, arrows, as well as images of animals - a kind of stone sculpture of the “forest neolithic”.

The Narva culture (III-II millennium BC) covers Estonia, Lithuania, the Southern Baltic, and sites of the late stage -

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also Latvia and Northern Belarus. The Narva tribes are characterized by tools made of bone and horn of the Kunda type. There are few objects made of flint. The vessels are pointed-bottomed, often without ornament; comb and pitted ones are occasionally found. Along with large vessels, flat-bottomed bowls are known.

Of the northern Neolithic cultures, only in Narva can one cautiously assume the beginnings of cattle breeding: bones of cows are found at its sites, which often served as raw materials for the manufacture of tools. In other cultures, only the bones of domesticated dogs have been found. Hunting was an important type of economy among the Narva tribes.

The Narva culture includes the Sarnat peat bog site in Latvia. Soil conditions contributed to the good preservation of wooden and bone products. Almost 400 wonderful amber items - amulets and jewelry - and, in addition, more than 100 pieces of unprocessed amber were found at the site. There are two types of dwellings at the site: local, Sarnat, and another, which belonged to newcomers who brought pit-comb ceramics. Other northwestern cultures also changed under the influence of alien tribes.

The Lower Kama and Trans-Urals up to the Ob are occupied by monuments of the Ural Neolithic (IV-early 2nd millennium BC), rooted in the local Mesolithic. At hunting and fishing sites located at the edges of reservoirs, rectangular dugouts are found, sometimes of considerable size (up to 80 sq. m), with niches in the walls. The pottery is round-bottomed and has a comb pattern arranged in zones. The oldest site is Borovoe Lake on the Chusovaya River. There are leaf-shaped stone arrows, slightly curved knives, and many scrapers. In the future, flint implements become more complex. Only single burials are known. They are in small pits, the bones are twisted and sprinkled with ocher.

The Strelka peat site near Gorbunov is widely known. In it and in the Gorbunovsky peat bog, wood is preserved and beautiful wooden products were found: idols, oars, skis, sledge runners, ladles with bird heads on the handles, ritual vessels in the shape of an elk, etc. The ceramics here are ovoid, the ornament is combed, but there is no pitting here. Axes and adzes are polished, there are polished daggers, arrows, bone and horn harpoons. The discovery of skis indicates that hunting was also carried out in winter in deep snow.

In the mountainous part of the Western Urals, on the banks of the Vishera River, there are rock paintings depicting animals, fish, and sometimes people. Silhouette drawings, entirely painted over. It is believed that this was a sacrificial place.

Along the Trans-Ural rivers there are also images painted on rocks with red paint. Most of these are schematic drawings and only in a small part they are more realistic in nature. Mostly animals were depicted. Since the designs usually face south and many of them

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The Neolithic of the Baikal region (IV - early 2nd millennium BC) is known mainly from burial grounds in which hunting was common.

Rice. 14. Neolithic of the Baikal region: 1-2 - vessels, 3 - adze, 4-5 - arrows, 6 - compound tool, 7 - image of a fish, 8 - adze, 9 - harpoon, 10 - insert, 11 - harpoon

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whose equipment is spears, bows, quivers, arrows, knives. Noteworthy are the bows equipped with bone linings, which increased its elasticity. Subsequently, this technique became widely used not only in Siberia. Fishing also played a significant role in the economy. Fish were caught with nets and with the help of artificial bait - naturalistically made stone fish. Harpoons and fishhooks were also used.

Weapons are found in women's burials; apparently, women enjoyed equal rights with men.

The vessels of the Baikal region of this era are ovoid or round-bottomed.

Clothes were made from skins. Awls and needles in bone cases were found here.

Polishing and drilling of stone are widespread. Green jade, deposits of which are found in the Baikal region, was widely used. Jade constituted the wealth of local tribes: pieces of this stone and products made from it penetrated into distant countries as a result of exchange.

At a time when Neolithic technology dominated in the Baikal region, some tribes had already discovered metallurgy. The uneven development of the economy and culture of different regions and countries, which began with the emergence of human society, is becoming more and more noticeable. Some areas, for a number of reasons, are moving forward in their development, moving faster toward metal processing and major social changes. In other places, at the same time, Neolithic economy still dominates. The Neolithic cultures of Eastern Europe retained their backward appearance for a very long time, and in Siberia even longer.

A consequence of the uneven development of the economy was the emergence of sharp differences in ideology and art. When the legend of a dying and resurrecting deity appeared in agricultural countries, beliefs and rituals in the forest belt of Eurasia were still determined by hunting and fishing. They were actually embodied in the works of Neolithic art that have come down to us. These include numerous drawings and sculptures depicting animals and people. Some of them differ only slightly from works of Paleolithic and Mesolithic art.

Several centers of Neolithic art are noted in the forest belt of Eurasia. The first of them covers the north of the East European Plain. On the coastal granite rocks of Lake Onega, on the banks of the Vyg River near Belomorsk, silhouette images of people, moose, and boats are engraved with dot technology. Some boats are short and wide, others are narrow and long. There are often hunting scenes, of which the hunt for beluga whales from boats with a harpoon stands out. There are pictures of battles. In Belo rock paintings

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Go sea there are the oldest images of skiers in the world. The ski track has been knocked out several times, and in three cases it is solid, indicating a sliding track. The earliest of the rock paintings are located in the Besovy Sledki tract - they date back to the 3rd millennium BC. e.

Along with monumental art in the same area, small plastic art should be noted, which includes some finds from the Oleneostrovsky burial ground. These include a carved dagger handle in the shape of an elk’s head, and figures of people. Wooden sculptures have been preserved at the sites of Sarnate and Modlona.

The second center of art is located in the Urals. There are also rock carvings here, but they are painted. Elks, birds, people, solar signs are depicted. The drawings are often contour rather than silhouette, and next to them there are many ornamental compositions. Flint figurines are rare here, and wooden sculpture is well known thanks to finds in peat bogs, where huge rough idols and elegant wooden vessels in the form of birds and animals come from (Gorbunovsky and Shigirsky peat bogs).

The third center of Neolithic art is located in Siberia - on the Middle Yenisei, Angara, Upper Lena. There, in Late Neolithic times, stone figurines of fish were made, as well as rock paintings. Some are painted, others are engraved. The compositions and figures of people here are smaller than on the White Sea.

Both in the Paleolithic and Neolithic times there were areas where paintings and sculpture were absent. Probably, art here took on other forms, for example, reflected in the painting of vessels, which is well known to us, or in embroidery, which is extremely rarely traced.

It is believed that the appearance of paintings or figurines reflects the idea of the usefulness of this action for society, i.e. art is still closely connected with magic, with production activities of people. The open-air “picture galleries” apparently played the role of sanctuaries.

All these images are not simultaneous. The most recent stage in the development of Neolithic art apparently belongs to subjects with solar and lunar signs, as well as with fantastic animals devouring the sun, which are found in Siberia. Similar images appear in other places already in the Bronze Age as a reflection of agricultural and pastoral cults. Some researchers suggest the borrowing of southern ideological ideas by northern tribes, but such a process was hardly possible given the differences economic basis hunting and fishing north and cattle breeding and agricultural south. It is believed that the emergence of the cult of the sun and moon in the area of Lake Onega also stemmed from the economic base of society. After all, the northerners had to learn early how to navigate such a large lake during fishing and hunting. This may be the origin of the cosmic cult.

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The Neolithic ended the Stone Age and brought humanity to the threshold new era. The Neolithic was the time of the formation and beginning of the spread of the productive economy. The prerequisites were created for the emergence of metallurgy, closely connected with the manufacturing sectors of the economy.

The technology of stone processing reached an extremely high level of development and was subsequently supplemented by only a few, although important, techniques that no longer changed its general nature. Pottery appeared, significantly expanding the economic capabilities of people. Clay pots were necessary not only as kitchen utensils, but also as food storage, and in some cases, as containers for transporting them. People invented weaving, began to wear comfortable woven clothes and use fabrics in their households.

Ideas about the environment, including the celestial bodies, are developing.

The tribal system is reaching its zenith, which will further decline and accumulate the prerequisites for decomposition.

Prepared according to the edition:

Avdusin D. A.
Fundamentals of Archeology: Textbook. for universities, for special purposes "Story". - M.: Higher. school, 1989. - 335 pp.: ill.
ISBN 5-06-000015-X
© Publishing House "Higher School", 1989

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