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Ancient people: their life, way of life and tools. Interesting facts about primitive people A short story about ancient man

Plan

1. Historical eras.
2. Introduction to history and archaeology.

4. The primitive world.
5. Conclusion.

1. Historical eras.

The history of mankind can be divided into several large eras:

• - primitive history;
• - ancient world history;
• - history of the Middle Ages;
• - history of modern times;
• - history of modern times.

2. Introduction to history and archeology

The most ancient era of human history is called primitive.

How did people learn about primitive people? Scientists carry out excavations, extracting from the ground things of ancient people, their bones. Scientists who carry out excavations are called archaeologists.

Archeology - the science of antiquity. It studies the history of society through the remains of people's lives and activities. Scientists believe that the most ancient people, “traces” of which were found in Africa and Asia, lived more than a million years ago. Based on the remains of the skeletons of ancient people, it was possible to establish what they looked like.

The first known ancestors of humans and apes lived more than two million years ago and were called Dryopithecus.

3. The difference between primitive man and modern man.

Ancient man was very different from you and me - modern people - and looked like a large monkey. However, people did not walk on four legs, as almost all animals walk, but on two legs, but at the same time they leaned forward greatly. The man’s hands, hanging down to his knees, were free, and he could do simple work with them: grab, hit, dig the ground. People's foreheads were low and sloping. Their brains were larger than those of apes, but significantly smaller than those of modern humans. He could not speak, made only a few abrupt sounds, with which people expressed fear and anger, called for help and warned each other about danger, and ate only what he found.

These were arboreal animals, reminiscent in their structure of apes. Some of them led only an arboreal lifestyle. They could have given rise to a line of animals that later became the ancestors of humans.

4. The primitive world.

The most ancient era human history is called primitive. Primitive (tribal) community. Characterized by collective labor and consumption.

Primitive people They lived in groups because it was impossible to cope with the difficulties of life alone. They did not need to worry about warm clothes. They lived where it was always warm. Primitive people built dwellings to protect themselves from the scorching rays of the sun, bad weather, and predators.

The first tools of human labor were hands, nails and teeth, as well as stones, debris and branches from trees. The first people had to hunt, collect various plants, and also learn to make the first simple tools from sticks, bones and animal horns, and then from stone.

Main occupation of ancient people There were hunting and fishing (occupations for men), which required great strength and dexterity. Ancient man was unlikely to be able to count to more than five, but he could sit motionless for hours in ambush during a hunt or build a cunning trap for a huge mammoth. Gathering (an activity for women) - the ability to understand different plants and collect edible mushrooms, as well as the exchange of prey with other tribes.

Ancient man together with other animals, he fled from the fire in fear. But then a daredevil was found who began to use the fire left by natural phenomena as a result of thunderstorms, volcanic eruptions, and forest fires. Man did not yet know how to make fire himself. And therefore the big problem was maintaining the fire. The loss of fire was tantamount to the death of the entire family. Later, man learned to make fire, and fire saved him during a period of cooling on Earth. He began to use fire to cook food. He could fry a piece of meat on it, bake root vegetables on coals and remove them in time so that they do not burn. Fire gave man something that does not exist in nature.

Within each tribe, certain customs and rules of behavior developed. Living in caves, they painted on the walls. People and animals were sculpted from clay or carved out of stone, and dishes were decorated. They probably wanted to depict the world in which they lived.

5. Conclusion.

Primitive history lasted hundreds, thousands of years. During this time, people populated all continents except Antarctica. They appeared on the territory of our country about half a million years ago.

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Primitive people were very similar to monkeys. They had rough facial features. The nose was flattened, the forehead was low and the jaw protruded. A person had to walk by bending down. His body was covered with fur, and his fingers were clumsy and unskillful. Ancient people did not speak. They could communicate only with sharp sounds. In this way they expressed their emotions, called for help or warned of danger.

They accepted only the gifts of nature for food. They did not yet have the skills to grow edible plants themselves. They themselves had to engage in gathering - collecting berries, fruits, vegetables, edible roots and fruits. Then the ancient people learned to hunt.

However, these were people, not animals. They could sharpen the stone on their own, albeit very clumsily. Ancient people took two stones and beat one against the other until pieces broke off and one stone became sharp. Thus, a chopper was obtained - the first tool of labor. Its sharp edge was intended for cutting, and its blunt edge was intended for striking. They also sharpened a stick with it to dig the ground and use it as a spear.

Ancient people were wary of fire caused by natural phenomena, but on the other hand, they discovered that fire can be useful. The fire makes it warm and light. Predators are also afraid of fire. The fire could be used to cook food and burn spears. So gradually people learned to use fire. Mastery of fire united primitive people. More than a million years ago, people began to use fire.

From the very beginning, people did not know how to make fire, they only used it. They had to keep the fire burning, keeping it burning, around the clock in any weather.

To get nutritious meat for food, people had to hunt. For them it was more important than gathering. The volume of prey depended on the hunters themselves. From their skills and mastery of weapons. Ancient people hunted big animals. A large animal killed could feed more people. A lot of small animals had to be killed for a large number of people. Only a few people could kill the big beast. Therefore they hunted in groups. People drove the animal to a dead end, and then finished it off. It was possible to drive the animal in the right direction using fire. Each person on the hunt was assigned his own place. Hunters passed on their skills and experience over generations.

Over many millennia, people have acquired the skills to cut stone. They made their own devices for different jobs. They skinned the animals with scrapers. They cut the skins with stone knives.

Strong glaciation also forced the ancient people to change their way of life. A great cooling on Earth occurred more than 100 thousand years ago. Heat-loving animals died. They were replaced by new animals covered with fur and hair. With the advent of glaciation, man still managed to survive. Man learned to build a dwelling. The tusks and bones of mammoths, as well as the skins of killed animals, were used for their construction. Homemade clothes, also made from animal skins, kept people warm.

Option 2

Now humanity has all the conditions for a comfortable and peaceful life: food, housing, material support, energy, various equipment and weapons. But this is how it is in our time, and nothing like this existed before. What happened then? It is interesting how the very first people lived on Earth. How did they eat? Where did you live? And what did you do?

Subsistence of primitive people.

The basis of their diet was meat. But first it was necessary to get this meat, which is much more difficult. You have to gather a group of 10 - 15 people, take the right equipment, choose the right moment of attack and strategy.

People could hunt saber-toothed tigers, for example. But the most interesting thing was when the attack on the mammoth began. A large animal whose strength is enough to break all the bones with one blow. Not only is the mammoth huge, but it is also quite thick. Because of this, its skin is not easy to penetrate. There are also tusks that act as weapons. It is already clear that such a beast cannot be defeated alone. Even a group of experienced hunters could not cope with the animal. But in our time there are no mammoths, since they became extinct. So, the meat has been obtained, now it needs to be cooked. And this is another problem, since there was not always fire.

Problems with cooking.

Primitive people did not immediately learn to make fire, which is why they ate meat raw. And it was possible to get the flame by pure chance. The man picked up 2 wooden sticks and began to rub them against each other. First there were sparks, and then one of the sticks caught fire. Next, the torch was thrown into a pile of firewood. The result is getting a fire. It is also worth noting that later people began to gather. So their diet included berries and fruits.

Dwellings of primitive people.

If the human race had difficulties with food, then they decided not to stand on ceremony with their place of residence. They found an unoccupied cave, hung several torches in it for lighting, arranged it according to that fashion - that’s it, the house was ready. If the cave was occupied by someone, the men killed the animal, and the cave was no longer occupied by anyone.

How were tools created?

Whether spears, axes, or knives, the principles of creation are the same. The man took the stone and sharpened it to the desired shape and sharpness. Next, absolutely any stick was taken, and everything was tied together with a kind of rope into a single structure.

White water lily is an aquatic plant. Or as they usually call it - water lily. The white water lily is in the water lily family. This family has more than 50 plant species

Archaeologists learn about the past by excavating ruins of ancient structures or places where people lived long ago. They examine the objects they find to piece together a mosaic of the past.

People have always been interested in history, but for centuries they drew knowledge about antiquity mainly from myths and legends and did not particularly strive to find material evidence from past times. At the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries. Rich Europeans began to travel and collect antiques. They began searching for them in Greece and Rome, where ancient buildings and sculptures were in plain sight. But, for example, in the Middle East, many cities were completely buried underground until Europeans began searching for antiquities.

This head of a young woman (less than 4 cm in height), found in Brassanpuis (France), is perhaps the oldest sculptural portrait. It was made from ivory about 24,000 years ago.

People began to explore the past, and the first “archaeologists” began to wander the world. Based on clues from ancient books, they began excavations, extracting many ancient objects from the ground. Unfortunately, many of the finds were damaged, but the first archaeologists obtained remarkable information about ancient civilizations.

Archaeologists excavating an ancient settlement carefully study every layer of soil they remove in search of antiquities.

This woman's body was well preserved due to the high acidity of the peat bog where it was found. Human remains provide information about how people ate and what diseases they suffered from.

One of the first archaeologists was the German merchant Heinrich Schliemann (1822–1890). After carefully reading the epic poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey” by the ancient Greek poet Homer, which described two lost cities, Troy and Mycenae, he decided to go in search of these cities. In 1870, near the Dardanelles in Asia Minor, he discovered Troy. In 1876, Heinrich Schliemann discovered the fortified city of Mycenae buried in a hill. In addition, in Mycenae he found many golden objects, which testified to the countless treasures of ancient Greek civilization.

Archaeologists have also been able to trace the history of writing by discovering clay tablets with ancient writings. One of these finds was the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, who ruled in the 7th century. BC. . This library contained 20,000 tablets with ancient inscriptions. When the texts were deciphered, scientists were able to read historical evidence about the life of disappeared civilizations and the social system of those times.

Today, archaeologists can use scientific methods to very accurately determine the age of an object. Without archaeologists, our knowledge of history would be very poor, and the lost cities of the ancient world might remain buried forever.

Every year a new layer of bark and sapwood grows on a living tree. When a tree is cut down, the layers of sapwood are visible in the cut as rings.

If you count the rings, you will know how old this tree is.

Unlike the tombs of other Egyptian pharaohs, all the buried treasures were preserved. The king wore a golden mask, and his mummy rested in three golden coffins, nested one inside the other. A separate room contained items that the pharaoh might need in the afterlife.

The first humanoid creatures, or hominids, appeared on Earth more than 4 million years ago. In different parts of Africa, the remains of apes called australopithecines were found. In Hadar (Ethiopia), the skeleton of one of the individuals was discovered, which was named “Lucy” (however, it later turned out that the skeleton belonged to a male). Scientists were able to find out that although Lucy resembled a chimpanzee, she was upright and walked on two legs. These are characteristic signs of a humanoid creature.

Australopithecus (1 to 1.5 m tall) with long arms and short legs looked like an ape, but walked upright. He had a low forehead and a small brain.

Humans, apes, and apes all descended from the same ancestor. It could have been Aegyptopithecus, or "Egyptian ape." She lived in Egypt about 35 million years ago and climbed trees on all fours.

Of all the descendants of this mammal, only humans developed bipedalism, that is, the ability to walk upright on two legs. Their hands were freed up and could be used for other purposes. About 2.5 million years ago in Africa appeared Homo habilis, a "handy man" who could use simple stone tools, rather than just his own teeth or hands, to kill and skin animals.

Homo habilis was probably the first man.

A more intelligent species of primitive man, Homo erectus or Homo erectus, first appeared in Africa approximately 1.8 million years ago. He was taller and slimmer than Homo habills, but with strongly protruding jaws and massive brow ridges. Able to move quickly on the ground, Homo erectus became the first hominid to leave Africa and travel north and east. His remains were found in China, on the island of Java and in Europe. Chewing raw meat was not easy for human ancestors; millennia passed before they learned to soften food over fire. Homo erectus already cooked on fire.

These hominids lived in groups. Males hunted, while females collected edible plants and took care of children. Animal bones found in China at one of the sites indicate that primitive people successfully hunted elephants, rhinoceroses, wild horses, bison, camels, wild boars, rams and antelopes. Hunting such large animals could not have been successful with the primitive weapons they possessed, unless it was assumed that Homo erectus were much smarter than their ancestors. It is possible that they had the rudiments of speech.

These hunters and gatherers constantly moved from place to place. At night they slept in caves or built primitive huts from branches and animal skins. The females collected wood for the fire. Males made stone tools, including those that could be used to cut up the carcass of a killed animal.

China 500,000 years ago. A group of Homo erectus settles down for the night. A fire was lit, which also helps drive away wild animals, and the meat was cut into pieces.

About 750,000 years ago, people resembling modern humans appeared. These were the first Homo sapiens(“reasonable man”) Their remains have been found in Africa, Europe and Asia.

One of the types Homo sapiens there were Neanderthals who appeared more than 200,000 years ago. They got their name from the Neander Valley in Germany, where their bones were found in one of the caves in 1857. Chinless, with heavy jaws and overhanging brow ridges, Neanderthals looked somewhat beast-like, but their brains were larger than those of modern humans.

Neanderthals went extinct about 30,000 years ago. They probably lost to modern man in the struggle for food.

Modern humans, whose scientific name is Homo sapiens sapiens, first appeared about 125,000 years ago and reached Europe 40,000 years ago. They had neither protruding brow ridges nor massive jaws, like the first Homo sapiens. Their faces were distinguished by a high forehead and chin. The brain was larger than that of any of their ancestors, with the exception of Neanderthals. After the disappearance of the Neanderthals, they remained the only people on planet Earth.

Our immediate ancestors Homo sapiens sapiens appeared approximately 125,000 years ago, most likely in Africa, from where they spread throughout the world.

Direction of spread of Homo sapiens sapiens

People began drawing and carving on cave walls long before they learned to write. The most famous examples of rock paintings were found in 1940 in France, in the Lascaux cave.

They are made about 18,000 years ago with paints made from natural minerals. For drawing they used sticks or their own palms.

For primitive nomads, life mainly consisted of an endless search for food. Cave paintings and other works of art discovered in caves indicate that they may have had religious beliefs and practices that they believed would help them find food. The rock art was not intended for display. The drawings were made with paints, and sometimes carved into the dark walls and ceilings of caves, where no one could see them.

Artists of the time had to use burning branches to see their creations and ladders to reach high places.

Since the rock paintings were hidden in the depths of the caves, it can be assumed that they served as part of a secret ritual, the purpose of which was to attract good luck in the hunt. People probably believed that by drawing an animal, they could count on prey. It is possible that some of the drawings depict scenes from real life. However, people have been painting and carving on cave walls for 20,000 years, and examples of primitive art have been found in Europe, Africa, Asia, North and South America and Australia. These images allow us to judge changes in climate and environment.

Ancient people left imprints of their hands on the walls. They put their palm to the wall and traced its outline with paints.

As time passed, hunters became more skilled and used more and more effective weapons. Sometimes they managed to push large prey off a steep cliff, or lure it into a swamp. Once people had speech, they were able to discuss plans for hunting together in detail, which made it more effective.

The Paleolithic era, or Old Stone Age, covers the period from the beginning of the use of simple tools (approximately 2.5 million years ago) to the Neolithic, or New Stone Age, when people began to engage in agriculture (12,000 years ago).

The hunters were armed with spears, bows and arrows, knives, and for fishing they made fishhooks. People studied their surroundings to understand where herds might gather or where prey might be hiding. Knowing the environment saved a lot of time and effort and made life easier.

Most hunter-gatherers lived in small groups of two or three families, which could easily subsist on large prey such as mammoth or bison. Each group probably had a leader who made decisions and made plans.

About 20,000 years ago, the Ice Age lasted on Earth. Huge woolly mammoths were then found in the northern regions. For hunters they served as desired prey.

Hunters armed themselves with wooden spears with sharp stone tips. When throwing, wooden or bone devices and spear throwers were used, which allowed the hunter to throw a spear with greater force. Fishermen caught fish in the lake with a net, and women collected nuts and fruits.

Hunting was very important, but plant foods were an essential part of the diet. People found certain types of nuts, fruits and edible herbs. They discovered that bees collected honey, and with it the food became sweeter. People dug up the ground to find roots and tubers of plants. Thanks to plant foods, it was possible to survive difficult times when hunting was unsuccessful. However, the most essential food product remained meat.

Animal skins could be used to make clothing. First, the skin was tanned so that it would not crack. To do this, they stretched it on the ground and scraped it out, removing the fat. Then they smoothed it out with bone tools to make it soft. When the dressing was completed, pieces of the desired shape were cut out of the skin with a stone knife. Holes were made along the edges so that the pieces could be connected to each other, and they were sewn together with a bone needle, using animal tendons as threads.

In the evening the whole group gathered at the parking lot. Shelters were made from animal skins stretched over wooden frames. Mammoth hunters built conical-shaped dwellings from the bones of these animals. They also built huts from intertwined branches, forming a continuous tent, inside of which there was a frame made of thick sticks. Animal skins could be placed on top of the branches.

Temporary shelters were often arranged in a circle to better protect against wild animals and bad weather. The fire scared away the animals.

The most ancient people still very much resembled monkeys - rough faces with flattened noses, low and sloping foreheads, protruding jaws. When walking, the person leaned forward strongly. His fingers were clumsy, and his body was covered with fur. People could not yet speak, but only made abrupt sounds, warning each other about danger, calling for help, expressing joy and anger.

The earliest people lived in small groups. They ate what nature provided. People did not know how to grow cereals, vegetables and fruits, but collected edible roots, fruits, and other gifts of nature. This activity is called gathering. Their other most important occupation was hunting.

However, these were people, not animals. Having selected a suitable stone, they sharpened its edge - they hit it with another stone and chipped off pieces. A sharpened stone became man's first tool. This rubbed. It was used to plan or chop with a sharp edge, and to hit with a blunt edge. Other tools were made with the help of a chopper - digging stick for collecting, and later - a spear for hunting.

Making fire. Modern drawings

Mastering Fire

Fires occur in nature - from lightning strikes, volcanic eruptions. For a long time, ancient people were afraid of fire. But they noticed that fire can be beneficial. It provides warmth and light and repels predators. Food cooked over a fire is softer and tastier than raw food. The spear tips were burned and sharpened in the fire.

Mastering fire not only united people, but also developed their thinking. People needed to know what was suitable as fuel, how much wood to put in the fire. People began to use fire more than a million years ago.

At first, people only used fire, but did not know how to light it themselves. We had to keep the fire going day and night. When leaving for a new place, people took the fire with them. First, man learned to use fire, then - to make it.

The importance of hunting in the life of primitive people

Hunting became a more important activity for ancient people than gathering. She gave people nutritious meat food. Success in hunting largely depended on the people themselves, because hunters could improve hunting techniques and their weapons.

Primitive people hunted large animals. One large animal provided food for everyone at once, and a lot of small animals would need to be caught. To hunt them, you need traps, which people did not yet know how to make. It was possible to defeat the big beast only through the joint efforts of the hunters, so primitive people did not hunt alone, but collectively.

People drove an animal or a whole herd of animals to a cliff or to a trap, and then finished it off with stones and spears. Fire also helped - you could set the grass on fire and, scaring the animals, drive them in the right direction. Hunting united and organized people. Everyone knew their place in the hunt. Young hunters learned from their elders. Hunting encouraged people to invent new tools. Hunting became the most important occupation of ancient people.

Stone Age tools

Over hundreds of thousands of years, people have learned to skillfully process stone. They no longer made crude choppers that served as a knife, a hammer, and an ax. For every job, their own tool was made. Scrapers they removed animal skins and scraped off the fat. Stone knives the skins were cut.

Stone tip tied with leather straps to the shaft. This spear is much better than a wooden one. Carved from bones and horns awls And needles. The bone was combined with wood, and it turned out harpoon- a spear with a jagged bone tip. They used to catch fish.

1. Stone knives. 2. Stone tips. 3. Bone harpoons

But the most important material remained stone. Scientists call the time when people used stone tools stone age.

Great Glaciation

Near 100 thousand years ago Another cold snap has arrived on the planet. It was advancing from the north onto the territory of Europe and Asia. glacier- a huge layer of ice up to 2 kilometers thick. Animals accustomed to a warm climate - antelopes, hippopotamuses, lions - died or went far to the south. Instead, others appeared who were not afraid of the cold - reindeer, bison, woolly rhinoceros, cave honey. And the largest and strongest animal was mammoth- a huge elephant with reddish-brown hair and long, curved tusks.

How did the great glaciation affect the life and development of man? The person did not die. He knew how to work, he had fire. He learned to hunt very large animals, even mammoths. But hunting them was a difficult and dangerous task. It was possible to defeat such large animals only together, setting traps for them. Mammoths were clumsy and fell into camouflaged pits. Each mammoth turned out to be a real “storehouse” of meat, bones and skins, because its weight reached 6 tons. The meat was well preserved in the cold, so people were able to stockpile it.

Glaciation forced man to take care of the construction of dwellings. Mammoth bones and tusks were used to build dugouts and huts. The top of the dwelling was covered with animal skins. People also had to come up with warm clothes. It was sewn together with bone needles from shaggy skins. Material from the site

Invention of the bow and arrow

Approximately 13 thousand years ago, after the great glaciation, warming began again. The glacier melted and, retreating to the north, left behind lakes and rivers. The natural and animal world has become similar to ours. They now began to hunt fast-running animals in small groups or alone. For such a hunt, a new weapon was required.

People have noticed that bent flexible branches straighten with great force. That's how they were invented onion And arrows, hitting the beast at a distance of hundreds of steps. The arrowheads were made of stone.

Stone knives appeared, consisting not of one piece of stone, but of small stone plates with sharp edges, which were inserted into handles made of bone or wood. A knife made of a stone plate on a bone holder was easy to repair, you just had to replace the broken plate.

By attaching a sharpened stone to a wooden handle, people made axe. After several thousand years, they learned to drill into stone with a hollow bone, adding sand to the stone. Then the butt was firmly placed on the handle.

While developing the territory liberated by the glacier, people invented raft, and then they began to hollow out thick tree trunks boats.

Thus, climate changes on the planet - the great glaciation, and then the melting of the glacier - forced man to adapt to new conditions every time and contributed to his development.

Questions about this material:

• What did hunting give the ancient people?

• Which of the tools of the ancient people was most useful to them?

• How did ancient people use fire?

• What role did animals play in people's lives?

• Why can hunting be considered a more important activity of primitive people than gathering?

• Why could hunting only be collective?

• There are several theories about the origin of man. One of them is the theory of evolution. And even though it has not yet given us a definite answer to this question, scientists continue to study ancient people. So we'll talk about them.

  History of ancient people

  Human evolution goes back 5 million years. The oldest ancestor of modern humans, Homo habilius, appeared in East Africa 2.4 million years ago.

  He knew how to make fire, build simple shelters, collect plant food, process stone and use primitive stone tools.

  Human ancestors began making tools 2.3 million years ago in East Africa and 2.25 million years ago in China.

  Primitive

  About 2 million years ago, the oldest human species known to science, Homo habilis, by striking one stone against another, made stone tools - pieces of flint beaten in a special way, choppers.

  They cut and sawed, and with a blunt end, if necessary, it was possible to crush bone or stone. Many choppers of various shapes and sizes were found in the Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania), so this culture of ancient people began to be called Olduvai.

  A skilled man lived only in the territory. Homo erectus was the first to leave Africa and enter Asia and then Europe. It appeared 1.85 million years ago and disappeared 400 thousand years ago.

  

  A successful hunter, he invented many tools, acquired a home and learned to use fire. The tools used by Homo erectus were larger than the tools of early hominids (man and his immediate ancestors).

  In their manufacture, a new technology was used - stone workpiece trimming on both sides. They represent the next stage of culture - Acheulean, named after the first finds in Saint-Acheul, a suburb of Amiens in .

  In their physical structure, hominids differed significantly from each other, which is why they are divided into separate groups.

  Man of the ancient world

  Neanderthals (Homo Sapiens neaderthalensis) lived in the Mediterranean region of Europe and the Middle East. They appeared 100 thousand years ago, and 30 thousand years ago they disappeared without a trace.

  About 40 thousand years ago, Neanderthals were replaced by Homo sapiens. Based on the place of the first discovery - the Cro-Magnon cave in Southern France - this type of person is sometimes also called a Cro-Magnon.

  In Russia, unique finds of these people were made near Vladimir.

  Archaeological research suggests that the Cro-Magnons developed a new way of making stone blades of knives, scrapers, saws, points, drills and other stone tools - they broke off flakes from large stones and sharpened them.

  About half of all Cro-Magnon tools were made of bone, which is stronger and more durable than wood.

  From this material, the Cro-Magnons also made new tools such as needles with eyes, hooks for fishing, harpoons, as well as cutters, awls and scrapers for scraping animal skins and making leather from them.

  

  The various parts of these objects were attached to each other using veins, ropes made from plant fibers and adhesives. The Périgord and Aurignacian cultures were named after the places in France where at least 80 different types of stone tools of this type were found.

  The Cro-Magnons also significantly improved their methods of hunting (driven hunting), hunting reindeer and red deer, mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, cave bears, wolves and other animals.

  

  Ancient people made spear throwers, as well as devices for catching fish (harpoons, hooks), and bird snares. The Cro-Magnons lived mainly in caves, but at the same time they built various dwellings from stone and dugouts, tents from animal skins.

  They knew how to make sewn clothes, which they often decorated. People made baskets and fish traps from flexible willow rods, and wove nets from ropes.

  Life of ancient people

  Fish played an important role in the diet of ancient people. Traps were set on the river for small fish, and larger fish were hit with a spear.

  But how did ancient people act when the river or lake was wide and deep? Drawings on the walls of caves in Northern Europe, made 9-10 thousand years ago, depict people in a boat chasing a reindeer floating down a river.

  

  The durable wooden frame of the boat is covered with animal skin. This ancient boat resembled the Irish currach, the English coracle, and the traditional kayak still used by the Inuit.

  10 thousand years ago there was still an ice age in Northern Europe. Finding a tall tree from which to hollow out a boat was difficult. The first boat of this type was found on the territory. Its age is about 8 thousand years, and it is made from.

  The Cro-Magnons were already engaged in painting, carving and sculpture, as evidenced by drawings on the walls and ceilings of caves (Altamira, Lascaux, etc.), human and animal figures made of horn, stone, bone and elephant tusks.

  Stone remained the main material for making tools for a long time. The era of the predominance of stone tools, dating back hundreds of thousands of years, is called the Stone Age.

  Key dates

  No matter how hard historians, archaeologists and other scientists try, we will never be able to reliably know how ancient people lived. But still, science has managed to make very serious progress in studying our past.

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