How many years did the Cro-Magnons live? Ancient Cro-Magnon man - characteristics of lifestyle, tools, interesting facts with photos and videos

Ah, m. Cro Magnon. From the name of the Cro Magnon grotto in France, where in the second half of the 19th century. Skeletons of these people were discovered. Mn. People of the Late Paleolithic era. BAS 1. We are civilized Cro-Magnons and will no longer understand the strange, stupid truth about... ... Historical Dictionary Gallicisms of the Russian language

CRO-MANNON, nca, husband. Fossil man of the late Paleolithic era. | adj. Cro-Magnon, oh, oh. Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

- (nyo), tsa, m., soul. (after the name of the Cro Magnon cave in France, where fossil remains were first found). Human modern type, which existed in Europe in the Upper Pleistocene. || Wed. archanthrope, neanderthal, neoanthrope,... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

Noun, number of synonyms: 1 person (86) Dictionary of synonyms ASIS. V.N. Trishin. 2013… Dictionary of synonyms

Representative of an extinct race of people ( Homo sapiens), the remains of which were first discovered in 1866 in France in the Cro-Magnon cave. At the end of the Paleolithic, the Cro-Magnon race inhabited Europe, North Africa and Western Asia. Geological Dictionary: in 2 volumes... Geological encyclopedia

Common name for fossil people modern look, belonging to neoanthropes and living about 40 thousand years ago... Large medical dictionary

M. see Cro-Magnons Explanatory Dictionary by Efremova. T. F. Efremova. 2000... Modern explanatory dictionary Russian language Efremova

Cro-Magnon, Cro-Magnon, Cro-Magnon, Cro-Magnon, Cro-Magnon, Cro-Magnon, Cro-Magnon, Cro-Magnon, Cro-Magnon, Cro-Magnon, Cro-Magnon, Cro-Magnon (Source: “Full accentuated paradigm according to A. A. Zaliznyak”) ... Forms of words

Cro-Magnon- (2 m), R. Cro-Magno/ntsa, TV. Cro-Magno/Ncem; pl. Cro-Magno/Ntsy, R. Cro-Magno/Ntsy… Spelling dictionary Russian language

Cro-Magnon- Cro-Magnon/ets/… Morphemic-spelling dictionary

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Human. Super encyclopedia for the smart and inquisitive, I. E. Gusev. Man yesterday, today, tomorrow... What are we, who we were and what we will become in the future? Since ancient times, man has sought to know himself. Gradually his guesses and conjectures turned into...

Cro-Magnon man

The earliest evidence of the existence of the modern type of homosapiens is 30–40 thousand years old. Scientists first “met” this ancestor of ours in 1868, when workers accidentally discovered in the Cro-Magnon cave (France) the remains of a prehistoric man who, as research has shown, lived 28 thousand years ago. Since then, the name Cro-Magnons has been assigned to people of this type. Today, traces of Cro-Magnon man have been found on all continents - Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, North and South America. According to the structure of the skull and the rest of the skeleton, this is the “final” reasonable person practically no different from you and me, except that he had a slightly more massive physique, but this reservation applies only to the first, most ancient representatives of the modern human type. The growth and body structure of the Cro-Magnons were completely consistent with the growth and body structure of the Cro-Magnons modern people. The skull and teeth also have all the signs of a modern type, the brow ridges are usually weakly expressed or practically absent, the average brain volume is 1350 cm3.

Numerous finds of late Paleolithic human skeletons allow us to gain insight into the state of health of our ancestors. Their middle age was 30 years, in exceptional cases they lived up to 50 years or more. However, the average age remained at this level until the Middle Ages, so we can safely say that the health of Late Paleolithic hunters was quite satisfactory given the living conditions of that time. Pathological changes in bones are much less common than traumatic defects. Judging by the finds, in most cases they had very healthy teeth. Dental caries was practically non-existent.

Hunting was the main occupation of the Cro-Magnons. Their life was subject to the annual migration cycles of herds of large ungulates, which were the main object of hunting. Long cold winter ice age These people spent time in permanent camps, where fairly durable and warm huts were equipped. In the summer, the tribe wandered after the herds of animals, making short stops and living in light tents made of poles and skins. Such “classic” sites are widely known in Europe primitive man, like Cro-Magnon and Combe Capelles in France, Oberkassel in Germany, Przedmosti and Dolní Vestonice in the Czech Republic.

The main difference between the Cro-Magnon man and all the anthropoid creatures that preceded him is the immeasurably more advanced and varied inventory accompanying the finds of the remains of Cro-Magnon man. The main weapon of Stone Age man was a spear with a stone or bone tip. The Cro-Magnons achieved real virtuosity in the art of making these tools. You can often find bone tips with a groove for the outflow of blood, harpoons with spikes directed backwards (“herringbone”). Paleolithic hunters already knew a variety of systems of traps and snares. In the coastal settlements of the Cro-Magnons, nets and nets were discovered, woven from vines and used for fishing, and also various types fishing rods The first stone arrowheads and bows, heavy bone clubs, and bone knives, often decorated with ornamental carvings, date back to the same period. Leather dressing has also reached a high degree of perfection. Even some ethnographic groups modern people, for example the Eskimos or some peoples of Siberia, recognized masters of leather processing, have a less rich set of tools than Cro-Magnon hunters.

Cro-Magnons made necklaces from shells, fangs of predatory animals, feathers, flowers and bones, carved figurines of animals and people from bone or made from baked clay. But the most amazing thing was the art of Cro-Magnon rock painting. It reached such heights that the 19th century scientists who discovered rock paintings era Upper Paleolithic, for a long time refused to believe that they were made by “primitive savages.” And in this extraordinary, unheard of flowering of art lies, probably, the mystery of the origin modern man. Contrary to popular misconceptions not long ago, it was not work that “made the monkey a man” - Louis Leakey’s “skillful man” chiseled his stones for hundreds of thousands of years, but never became a man. And certainly not a sport - Australopithecus ran long distances and threw stones for millions of years, but just as he was a monkey, he remained a monkey. And it’s not the volume of the skull that matters here - the Neanderthal had a head like a beer kettle, but where is he now, this Neanderthal?

Only culture, which mysteriously awakened the stupid troglodyte, allowed him to shortest time lose animal features and become human in true sense this word. The influence of culture on biological development man from the very beginning was exceptionally strong, but in the last phases of evolution it acquired downright decisive importance!

The spiritual life of Paleolithic humanity, Paleolithic art and attempts at reconstruction social relations Thousands of articles and hundreds of books are devoted to that time. However, the mystery of the origin human culture I have not received any satisfactory explanation until now. Possible with a large share confidence to assume that it will never be resolved. And, probably, those religious philosophers are right who claim that history is a dialogue between man and God, and when this dialogue stops, it will also stop. human history. How else can you conduct a dialogue with God if not in the language of culture?

The burials of the Cro-Magnons discovered by archaeologists prove the presence of a developed system of cults among them. religious ideas. Burials with features of a complex funeral ritual are known from Late Paleolithic deposits. In most burials, the graves are covered with shoulder blades, jaws and other large bones of mammoths. Providing the dead with a “last refuge” is typical not only for primitive people, but also for historical time (Roman sarcophagi, etc.), and even for our days. The existence of some complex rituals among the Cro-Magnons is also evidenced by the finds of bowls made from human skulls. But the main proof that it was during these times that man’s dialogue with God began is the paintings of caves - amazing and amazing rock paintings made charcoal and mineral pigments. It is curious that most of these paintings are located in secluded, poorly lit and inconvenient places, which suggests that they were clearly not intended for wide viewing, but served as a place for some kind of ritual actions or ceremonies in which a small circle of people took part. Another thing is interesting: as researchers have established, painting in such places is often multi-layered, that is, primitive hunters, having got here, added their drawings to those made by their predecessors. That is, people of different tribes living in different times, the meaning of these drawings was clear and sacred meaning the places where they were. This allows us to talk about the existence unified system religious ideas, at least among significant groups Cro-Magnon tribes. And although it is clear that the main element of this cult was probably the worship of certain hunting deities, the picture of the world of Cro-Magnon man is still far from full clarity. And this is not the only secret of the Cro-Magnons.

Cro-Magnons - common name early representatives of modern humans, who appeared much later than the Neanderthals and coexisted with them for some time (40-30 thousand years ago). By appearance And physical development practically no different from modern man.

The term "Cro-Magnon" can mean in the narrow sense only people discovered in the Cro-Magnon Grotto and living nearby 30 thousand years ago; V in a broad sense this is the entire population of Europe or the entire world of the Upper Paleolithic era.

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

Etymology

The name comes from the rock grotto of Cro-Magnon in France (the town of Les Eyzy de Taillac-Sireuil in the Dordogne department), where in 1868 the French paleontologist Louis Larte discovered and described several human skeletons along with Late Paleolithic tools. The age of this population is estimated at 30 thousand years.

Geography

The most important fossil finds: in France - Cro-Magnon, in Great Britain - the Red Lady of Pavyland, in the Czech Republic - Dolni Vestonice and Mladeč, Serbia - Lepenski Vir, in Romania - Peshtera ku Oase, in Russia - Markina Gora, Sungir , Denisova Cave and Oleneostrovsky burial ground, in the Southern Crimea - Murzak-Koba.

Culture

The Cro-Magnons were the carriers of a number of cultures of the Upper Paleolithic (Gravettian culture) and Mesolithic (Tardenoise culture, Maglemose, Ertebølle) eras. Subsequently, their habitat areas experienced migration flows of other representatives of the Homo sapiens species (for example, the Linear Band Ceramics Culture). These people made tools not only from stone, but also from horn and bone. On the walls of their caves they left drawings depicting people, animals, and hunting scenes. The Cro-Magnons made various decorations. They got their first pet - a dog.

Numerous finds indicate the presence of a cult of hunting. The animal figures were pierced with arrows, thus killing the animal.

The Cro-Magnons had funeral rites. Household items, food, and jewelry were placed in the grave. The dead were sprinkled with blood-red ochre, hair nets were put on, bracelets were put on the hands, flat stones were placed on the face, and they were buried in a bent position (fetal position).

According to another version, modern representatives Negroid and Mongoloid races formed autonomously, and Cro-Magnons spread for the most part only in the area of Neanderthals ( North Africa, Middle East, Central Asia, Europe). The first humans with Cromanoid features appeared 160,000 years ago in East Africa(Ethiopia). They left it 100,000 years ago. They entered Europe through the Caucasus to the Don River basin. Migration to the West began approximately 40,000 years ago, and after 6 thousand years it appeared rock painting in the caves of France.

Migration of Cro-Magnons to Europe

Genetics

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Literature

P.I. Boriskovsky. pp. 15-24 // STRATUM plus. 2001-2002. No. 1. In the beginning there was a stone;
Roginsky Ya. Ya., Levin M. G., Anthropology, M., 1963;
Nesturkh M.F., Origin of Man, M., 1958, p. 321-38.

Popular science literature

Eduard Storch - "Mammoth Hunters". A book with links to real archaeological sources
B. Bayer, U. Birstein and others. History of mankind, 2002, ISBN 5-17-012785-5

Notes

Links

- Upper Paleolithic site of an ancient man near Vladimir, 192 km from Moscow



Extinct genera Hominini/Hominina

People (genus Homo)

Hominid finds

Origin

Spreading

An excerpt characterizing Cro-Magnons

- Why, it’s possible.
Likhachev stood up, rummaged through his packs, and Petya soon heard the warlike sound of steel on a block. He climbed onto the truck and sat on the edge of it. The Cossack was sharpening his saber under the truck.
- Well, are the fellows sleeping? - said Petya.
- Some are sleeping, and some are like this.
- Well, what about the boy?
- Is it spring? He collapsed there in the entryway. He sleeps with fear. I was really glad.
For a long time after this, Petya was silent, listening to the sounds. Footsteps were heard in the darkness and a black figure appeared.
- What are you sharpening? – the man asked, approaching the truck.
- But sharpen the master’s saber.
“Good job,” said the man who seemed to Petya to be a hussar. - Do you still have a cup?
- And over there by the wheel.
The hussar took the cup.
“It’ll probably be light soon,” he said, yawning, and walked off somewhere.
Petya should have known that he was in the forest, in Denisov’s party, a mile from the road, that he was sitting on a wagon captured from the French, around which the horses were tied, that the Cossack Likhachev was sitting under him and sharpening his saber, that there was a big black spot to the right is a guardhouse, and a bright red spot below to the left is a dying fire, that the man who came for a cup is a hussar who was thirsty; but he knew nothing and did not want to know it. He was in magical kingdom, in which there was nothing similar to reality. A large black spot, perhaps there was definitely a guardhouse, or perhaps there was a cave that led into the very depths of the earth. The red spot might have been fire, or maybe the eye of a huge monster. Maybe he’s definitely sitting on a wagon now, but it’s very possible that he’s not sitting on a wagon, but on a terrible high tower, from which if you fall, you would fly to the ground for a whole day, a whole month - you’d keep flying and never reach it. It may be that just a Cossack Likhachev is sitting under the truck, but it may very well be that this is the kindest, bravest, most wonderful, most ripper in a world that no one knows. Maybe it was just a hussar passing for water and going into the ravine, or maybe he just disappeared from sight and completely disappeared, and he was not there.
Whatever Petya saw now, nothing would surprise him. He was in a magical kingdom where everything was possible.
He looked at the sky. And the sky was as magical as the earth. The sky was clearing, and clouds were moving quickly over the tops of the trees, as if revealing the stars. Sometimes it seemed that the sky cleared and a black, clear sky appeared. Sometimes it seemed that these black spots were clouds. Sometimes it seemed as if the sky was rising high, high above your head; sometimes the sky dropped completely, so that you could reach it with your hand.
Petya began to close his eyes and sway.
Drops were dripping. There was a quiet conversation. The horses neighed and fought. Someone was snoring.
“Ozhig, zhig, zhig, zhig...” the saber being sharpened whistled. And suddenly Petya heard a harmonious choir of music playing some unknown, solemnly sweet hymn. Petya was musical, just like Natasha, and more than Nikolai, but he had never studied music, did not think about music, and therefore the motives that unexpectedly came to his mind were especially new and attractive to him. The music played louder and louder. The melody grew, moving from one instrument to another. What was called a fugue was happening, although Petya did not have the slightest idea what a fugue was. Each instrument, sometimes similar to a violin, sometimes like trumpets - but better and cleaner than violins and trumpets - each instrument played its own and, not yet finishing the tune, merged with another, which started almost the same, and with the third, and with the fourth , and they all merged into one and scattered again, and again merged, now into the solemn church, now into the brightly brilliant and victorious.
“Oh, yes, it’s me in a dream,” Petya said to himself, swaying forward. - It's in my ears. Or maybe it's my music. Well, again. Go ahead my music! Well!.."
He closed his eyes. And with different sides, as if from afar, sounds began to tremble, began to harmonize, scatter, merge, and again everything united into the same sweet and solemn anthem. “Oh, what a delight this is! As much as I want and how I want,” Petya said to himself. He tried to lead this huge choir of instruments.
“Well, hush, hush, freeze now. – And the sounds obeyed him. - Well, now it’s fuller, more fun. More, even more joyful. – And from an unknown depth arose intensifying, solemn sounds. “Well, voices, pester!” - Petya ordered. And first, male voices were heard from afar, then female voices. The voices grew, grew in uniform, solemn effort. Petya was scared and joyful to listen to their extraordinary beauty.
The song merged with the solemn victory march, and drops fell, and burn, burn, burn... the saber whistled, and again the horses fought and neighed, not breaking the choir, but entering into it.
Petya didn’t know how long this lasted: he enjoyed himself, was constantly surprised by his pleasure and regretted that there was no one to tell it to. He was awakened by Likhachev's gentle voice.
- Ready, your honor, you will split the guard in two.
Petya woke up.
- It’s already dawn, really, it’s dawning! - he screamed.
The previously invisible horses became visible up to their tails, and a watery light was visible through the bare branches. Petya shook himself, jumped up, took a ruble from his pocket and gave it to Likhachev, waved, tried the saber and put it in the sheath. The Cossacks untied the horses and tightened the girths.
“Here is the commander,” said Likhachev. Denisov came out of the guardhouse and, calling out to Petya, ordered them to get ready.

Quickly in the semi-darkness they dismantled the horses, tightened the girths and sorted out the teams. Denisov stood at the guardhouse, giving the last orders. The party's infantry, slapping a hundred feet, marched forward along the road and quickly disappeared between the trees in the predawn fog. Esaul ordered something to the Cossacks. Petya held his horse on the reins, impatiently awaiting the order to mount. Washed with cold water, his face, especially his eyes, burned with fire, a chill ran down his back, and something in his whole body trembled quickly and evenly.
- Well, is everything ready for you? - Denisov said. - Give us the horses.
The horses were brought in. Denisov became angry with the Cossack because the girths were weak, and, scolding him, sat down. Petya took hold of the stirrup. The horse, out of habit, wanted to bite his leg, but Petya, not feeling his weight, quickly jumped into the saddle and, looking back at the hussars who were moving behind in the darkness, rode up to Denisov.
- Vasily Fedorovich, will you entrust me with something? Please... for God's sake... - he said. Denisov seemed to have forgotten about Petya’s existence. He looked back at him.
“I ask you about one thing,” he said sternly, “to obey me and not interfere anywhere.”
During the entire journey, Denisov did not speak a word to Petya and rode in silence. When we arrived at the edge of the forest, the field had already noticeably begun to get lighter. Denisov spoke in a whisper with the esaul, and the Cossacks began to drive past Petya and Denisov. When they had all passed, Denisov started his horse and rode downhill. Sitting on their hindquarters and sliding, the horses descended with their riders into the ravine. Petya rode next to Denisov. The trembling throughout his body intensified. It became lighter and lighter, only the fog hid distant objects. Moving down and looking back, Denisov nodded his head to the Cossack standing next to him.
- Signal! - he said.
The Cossack raised his hand and a shot rang out. And at the same instant, the tramp of galloping horses was heard in front, screams from different sides and more shots.
At the same moment as the first sounds of stomping and screaming were heard, Petya, hitting his horse and releasing the reins, not listening to Denisov, who was shouting at him, galloped forward. It seemed to Petya that it suddenly dawned as brightly as the middle of the day at that moment when the shot was heard. He galloped towards the bridge. Cossacks galloped along the road ahead. On the bridge he encountered a lagging Cossack and rode on. Some people ahead - they must have been French - were running with right side roads to the left. One fell into the mud under the feet of Petya's horse.

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

Origin and migration

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

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

Appearance

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

Life

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

Housing

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

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

Foraging for food

Hunting became firmly established in the life of the Cro-Magnon man. The realities of the Stone Age were such that in order to feed themselves, it was necessary to kill. The ancient inhabitants of our planet hunted well organized groups 10-20 people each. The objects of their persecution were large animals (mammoths, wolves, woolly rhinoceroses, bears, red deer, bison). By destroying the beast, they provided for their communities a large number skins and meat. The Cro-Magnons' main weapons for killing animals were spear throwers and bows. In addition to hunting, they were engaged in catching birds and fish (for the first activity they used snares, and for the second - harpoons and hooks).

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

Burials

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

Cro-Magnon Cultural Revolution

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

No less important discovery Cro-Magnons began to produce tools from animal raw materials. Spending a lot of time hunting, the ancient man noticed that the bones, horns and tusks of animals are characterized by increased strength. He began to make qualitatively new products from them that made his life easier. Bone needles and awls appeared, making it easier to sew clothes from skins. Animal raw materials began to be used in the construction of new homes, as well as to make jewelry and figurines from it. The development of new materials led to the invention of more advanced hunting tools - spear throwers and bows. These adaptations allowed the Cro-Magnons to kill animals that were many times their strength and size.

The way of life of the Cro-Magnons was not only about surviving among wildlife. Prehistoric people strived for beauty. They left their descendants many works of art. These include wall paintings in caves, tools decorated with unique ornaments, and figurines of bison, horses, deer and other animals made from flint, clay, bones and tusks. The ancient Cro-Magnons worshiped feminine beauty. Among the finds discovered by archaeologists, there are many figurines of the fair sex. Due to the splendor of their forms, modern historians called them “Venuses”.

The first scientific discovery of a modern human was a headless skeleton found in Wells (England) in 1823. It was a burial: the deceased was decorated with shells and sprinkled with red ocher, which subsequently settled on the bones. The skeleton was considered female and nicknamed “Red Lady” (a hundred years later it was recognized as male). But the most famous are later finds (1868) in the Cro-Magnon grotto (France), according to which all ancient people are often not quite named Cro-Magnons.

These were tall people (170-180 cm), practically no different from us, with large, ruggedly handsome features and broad faces. A similar anthropological type is still found among living people in the Balkans and the Caucasus. Subsequently, the remains of people of this type were found in many places in Europe, in our country from the Crimean caves to Sungir near the city of Vladimir.

In ancient times, humanity was no less diverse than it is now. Along with the Cro-Magnons, sometimes next to them, representatives of other forms lived in Europe and Asia.

Neoanthropes lived in the era of the so-called upper paleotype. Like the Neanderthals, they used more than just caves for housing. They built huts from tree trunks, mammoth bones and skins, and in Siberia even from stone slabs. Their tools are becoming more sophisticated; in addition to stone, horn and bone are used in their production. Modern man painted magnificent frescoes on the walls of caves depicting game animals: horses, mammoths, bison (probably for some kind of magical rituals), decorated himself with necklaces, bracelets and rings made of shells and mammoth bones; domesticated the first animal - the dog.

The Cro-Magnons lived in caves or huts at the very end of the last ice ages. At the same time, the climate was cold and winters were snowy; only short grasses and shrubs could grow in such conditions. Cro-Magnons hunted reindeer and woolly mammoths. Cro-Magnons learned to make many new types of weapons. They tied sharp points made of deer antler to their spears with the teeth pointing back so that the spear would stick deep into the side of the wounded animal. In order to throw a spear as far as possible, they used special throwing devices. These devices were made from deer antler, and some of them were decorated with different patterns.

They caught fish using harpoons carved from deer antlers, with tips and barbs curved back. Harpoons were tied to spears, and fishermen pierced fish with them right in the water.

Cro-Magnons built huts from long shin bones and mammoth tusks, covering the frame with animal skins. The ends of the bones were inserted into the skulls, since the builders could not stick them into the frozen ground. Many burials have been discovered in the earthen floors of Cro-Magnon huts and caves. This skeleton was covered with beads made from stones and shells that had previously been attached to its rotted clothing. The dead were usually placed in the grave in a bent position, with their knees pressed to their chins. Sometimes various tools and weapons are also found in graves.

These Cro-Magnons cut deer antlers using a chisel-shaped stone tool - a chisel.

They were probably the first people to learn how to make needles and sew. At one end of the needle they made a hole that served as an eye. Then they cleaned the edges and tip of the needle by rubbing it against a special stone. Perhaps they pierced the skin with a stone drill so that they could thread a needle through the resulting holes. Instead of thread, they used thin strips of animal skin or intestines. Cro-Magnons often sewed small beads made of colorful stones onto their clothes to make them look more elegant. Sometimes for these purposes they also used shells with holes in the middle.

Apparently, the Cro-Magnons and other people who lived at that time were practically no different from us in the development of higher nervous activity. At this level, human biological evolution is completed. The previous mechanisms of anthropogenesis have ceased to operate.

What were these mechanisms? Let us recall that the genus Homo originates from australopithecus - actually monkeys, but with a bipedal gait. Not a single monkey that moved from the trees to the ground did this, but not a single one, except our ancestors, made the main weapon of defense and attack, first selected in nature, and then artificially made. That is why the main factor of anthropogenesis is considered natural selection for better weapon activity. This is exactly what F. Engels meant when he noted that labor created man.

As a result of the cruel selection of the most skillful craftsmen and skilled hunters, such achievements of anthropogenesis as a large and complex brain, a hand suitable for the most delicate labor operations, a perfect bipedal gait and articulate speech were developed. It is also important to emphasize the fact that from the very beginning man was a social animal - already Australopithecus, apparently, lived in packs and only because of this were they able, for example, to finish off a weakened and wounded animal and fight off the attack of large predators.

All this led to the fact that at the stage of neoanthropes such powerful factors of evolution as natural selection and intraspecific struggle lost their significance and were replaced by social ones. As a result, human biological evolution almost ceased.