Questions for testing in the discipline “History of Science and Technology. History of science and technology Lecture abstracts prepared by Associate Professor, Candidate of Cultural Studies History of science and technology periods of development
Development of technology in primitive and early slave society. The beginnings of science.“Labor created man himself” - this deep thought of Engels should be understood in the sense that labor, man’s production of the means necessary for his existence, played a decisive role in separating man from the animal world, in the development of his consciousness. At the same time, a turning point in the process of human evolution There was a moment when man began to produce tools. Gathering, housing construction - all these initial forms of production activity also take place in the animal world. Animals can use tools, but only man began to make tools. “The labor process begins only with the manufacture of tools” (Engels).
The primary tool - the "hand axe", or "chop", a roughly beaten stone - was made during the period of the so-called Chelles culture. More advanced processing of this tool dates back to the Acheulean culture, when traces of the use of fire appeared. In the next (Mousterian) era, stone tips and small bone tools are found. Probably, a person in this era knew a spear with a stone or bone tip. Traces of fires have been found for this era. This is the period of Neanderthal man, completing the evolution of man during the Early Paleolithic period. The society of that time was a “primitive herd” and already in the process of labor developed the original speech. The biological development of man ends in the era of the so-called Aurignacian-Solutrean culture, which includes Cro-Magnon man and Grimaldian man, who are representatives of different racial types. But both people are completely rational beings, the type Homo sapiens (reasonable man). Here people are already making composite tools with wooden handles.
In addition to the chopper and scraper, a knife, bone needles, an awl, and fishhooks are made. At this stage there is a transition to a stable form of society - early tribal society. Primitive forms of art appear: sculpture, images, jewelry. Permanent dwellings appear; Instead of a fire, the remains of a hearth are found. Needles indicate the making of clothing. In the next era, the Magdalenian, which together with the Aurignacian-Solutrean stage constitutes the Late Paleolithic period, technology receives further development. A device for throwing a spear and a harpoon are made.
In the early Neolithic era, during the period of the so-called Azilian culture, stone arrowheads are found. Man learned to make a bow and arrow, a new long-range weapon that played a huge role in his social evolution. This weapon served man before the invention of firearms and for a long time existed alongside firearms. Hunting has become more prey, the race has become stronger. At the same time, the first animal domesticated by man appeared - the dog. In an even later era, the Maglemose era, a stone ax appears (about 6000 BC). Subsequently, the evolution of this tool continues and clay cuttings appear - pottery production arises. The ax is still roughly beaten and attached to the handle. In the advanced Neolithic era, the ax was ground and drilled. Probably, in the process of processing stone, man learned to make fire.
Making primitive tools required not only great physical effort, but also intense mental work. In primitive society, mental and physical labor merged into a single creative process. The primitive master who made tools showed great ingenuity and observation; he was a creative man.
Forms of obtaining a means of subsistence gradually evolved. From the initial gathering, man moved on to hunting and fishing, and then to agriculture. A stone ax was used to cut down a planting area in the forest, and burnt out bushes and stumps. The soil was loosened with a hoe. A major step in the development of agriculture was the domestication of animals. Cattle appear towards the end of the Neolithic. In the Bronze Age, the transition to plow farming took place.
The further development of productive forces is associated with the use of metal. First of all, man became acquainted with precious metals. In Egypt, gold items date back to the 6th millennium BC. e. Native copper in Asia was used in the 6th-5th millennium BC. e. Copper smelting in Western Asia dates back to the 5th millennium BC. e. Copper smelting has long been known in Central Asia, China and India. In Europe, copper smelting dates back to the mid-3rd millennium BC. e. (In Cyprus). In the 4th millennium BC. e. Bronze appeared (Mesopotamia). After bronze came iron. The first evidence of iron production dates back to 2000 BC. e. belong to the blacks of Africa. In Egypt and Asia, the use of iron dates back to 1300 BC. e., in Europe - 1000 BC. e.
The development of production and the complication of the economy led to the division of handicraft and agricultural labor, to the emergence of exchange and private property, to a violation of the correspondence between the growth of productive forces and the communal-clan social organization. The clan system collapses, the slave system emerges, and the state appears.
In the process of labor, a person learned a lot. Shepherds and farmers established a connection between the seasons and the positions of the heavenly bodies and laid the beginnings of astronomy. Hunters studied the habits of animals, tool makers accumulated vast experience in studying the mechanical properties of bodies. Builders used the properties of the lever, metallurgists found a way to melt metals. These working people were the first scientists. In folk tales, songs, and epics we find evidence of these rudiments of knowledge. People know that sound is transmitted better on the ground than through the air (the motif of eavesdropping on a chase in folk tales), they know that force can be compared not only by lifting a load, but also by deformation (pulling a bow in the Odyssey), in the epic about Svyatogor it is very Action and reaction are accurately depicted. But people didn’t know even more. Man learned to conquer nature, but nature was still strong and incomprehensible. This “powerlessness of the savage in the fight against nature” was the source of religion. So, in the first steps of the emergence of knowledge, a contradiction arises between the known and the unknown, true and false, giving rise to the struggle of knowledge with ignorance, science and religion. This struggle permeates the entire history of science, right down to modern sophisticated forms of religion - idealistic theories. With the advent of classes and the state, religion is consolidated by the interests of the ruling classes, scientific knowledge is separated from the producer, usurped by the ruling class and becomes the prerogative of the priestly class. Speaking about the emergence of fantastic religious ideas in primitive society, Engels wrote: “These various false ideas about nature, about the essence of man himself, about spirits, magical forces, etc., for the most part have only a negative economic basis; The low economic development of the prehistoric period had as its addition, and sometimes even as a condition and even as a cause, false ideas about nature. And although economic need was and over time increasingly became the main spring of the advancing knowledge of nature, it would still be pedantry to look for economic reasons for all this primitive nonsense. The history of science is the history of the gradual elimination of this nonsense or its replacement with new, but still less absurd nonsense.”
The beginning of the elimination of “nonsense,” that is, the replacement of fantastic religious ideas about the world with ideas based on observations and arguments of reason, was the beginning of true science. Science opposed religion’s claims to a monopoly in “explaining” the world and human existence and set as its goal the explanation of the world from itself. But in order to set such a task and begin to solve it, social consciousness had to reach a higher level of development than the one at which it was in the era of tribal and early slave society.
On the verge of the Lower and Upper Paleolithic, about 40 - 30 thousand years ago, a difficult to explain radical leap physically and, most importantly, intellectual development emerging man: a modern type of man appears - and has hardly changed since then - Homo sapiens, the history of human society begins. The history of "material production" of primitive man is not very rich. Inventions such as inserted stone tools, bow, arrows, traps, mastery of fire were made for the first time, labor may not have created man, but ensured its survival in changing natural conditions.
Sources for studying primitive knowledge and technologies include the following: archaeological - buildings, sites, burials, remains, etc.; written- significant symbols left on the walls of caves, tools; ethnographic- study of primitive tribes and nationalities living in the modern world; anthropological- bone remains of people, muscle structure of animals and birds, etc.; linguistic - study of the stages of language formation, onomastics. Qualitatively new archaeological the material that appears along with the new biological species of man are images - sculptural, graphic, pictorial geometric signs, as well as images created in the likeness of objects existing in nature. Mastering this new type of activity - artistic creativity - is the greatest discovery of man. The creation of the first "works of art" was not artificial imitation of labor activity, but it was caused by the need for self-expression.
With ancient art, through pictograms , tie up the emergence of writing, the development of speech, all forms of socialization and communication. Primitive art, like all primitive culture in general, was syncretic and the image was organically included in other forms of life: myth, ritual, dance, economic activity . At the same time, the cognitive function (in addition to other functions), due to the specificity of the image, is most adequately represented precisely in the visual arts of primitive man. First of all, the images indicate that from the very beginning of human history, in addition to (beyond, before, etc.) science, concepts of the world arise highly symbolic and the result of abstract thinking, described in language in mythopoetic form.
It is believed that primitive art begins with the first naturalistic images on the walls paleolithic caves- impressions of a human hand and random interweaving of wavy lines pressed into damp clay by the fingers of the same hand ("pasta" and "meanders"). In parallel with this, schematic trends appear, which become dominant in the last period of Paleolithic art, primarily in the form geometric drawings. In monumental Paleolithic cave art mineral paints(mainly red-yellow part of the spectrum) were used to apply similarly grouped by counting-calendar principle a series of spots within the contours of their figures. A clear indication of this is the cave complexes with polychrome paintings. Altamira(in northern Spain) Lascaux(France), the absolute age of which is determined by radiocarbon analysis at 15 thousand years.
In the Upper (or Late) Paleolithic of modern people, the development of fine art had a number of features that make it possible to identify the rather complex plots of myths about people, animals, heavenly bodies. The development of solar symbolism during this period is evidenced by bone and stone circles and disks with radially diverging rays, circles with a dot in the center. Sometimes solar circles alternate with crescents as elements of carved ornament on semicircular baguettes made of reindeer antler. Paleolithic ornaments and frescoes in their “cosmobiological” motifs clearly reveal calendar implications. Works of primitive art developed from simple geometric notches and patterns on guns up to ritual figurines. During Mesolithic place of animal the center of attention of the primitive artist is Human . There, the object dominates everything, its weight, materiality, its color and volume, here all the attention absorbed in action, movement . Rock painting compositions become multi-figured. In the Neolithic, the tendency for the development of pictorial forms from reproduction, imitation and understanding of living, individual, natural forms and specific situations to phenomena of a general order, to a general dry scheme and, ultimately, to sign.
Aesthetic, cognitive and other functions of art are gradually receding into the background, giving way to communicative, ideological, memorial. Since the end of the Neolithic, art has been enriched with more and more new subjects, at the same time its visual language, becoming more general and capacious, loses its expressiveness, sharpness, and emotionality. One of the cycles of the process of comprehending the surrounding world ends: “When the spirit is captured, the image is discarded.”
Human society in primitive ideas appears as a complex combination of elements with cosmological teleology. For the primitive consciousness everything cosmologized , because everything is included Space, which forms the highest value within mythopoetic universe. Only that which is sacralized (marked as sacred) is essential and real, and only that which is part of the Cosmos is sacralized. This all-sacredness and “non-existence” constitute one of the characteristic features mythopoetic model of the world . People didn't differentiate themselves from surrounding them nature. The feeding area, plants, animals and the tribe itself are one whole. Human properties were attributed to nature, even to the point of consanguinity and a dualistic division into two intermarital halves. Characteristic for people properties of nature, up to the reproduction of natural phenomena. With ancient art, through pictograms, associate the appearance writing, speech development, all forms of socialization and communication. The entire primitive culture as a whole was syncretic and the images were organically included in other forms of life: myth, ritual, dance, economic activity. At the same time educational function (in addition to other functions), due to the specifics of the image, is most adequately represented precisely in the visual arts of primitive man. The sign, symbolic system arose as a need for systematization and transmission of knowledge, emotions, and also as a manifestation of magical and religious activity.
Meaning of life and man saw its goal precisely in ritual, the main social and economic activity of the human collective. Here you need to understand the so-called pragmatism of primitive man, which is focused on values of the sign order to a much greater extent than on material values, if only due to the fact that the latter are determined by the former, but not vice versa. Pragmatism of ritual is explained primarily by the fact that it is the main operation for preserving “one’s” Cosmos, managing it, checking the effectiveness of its connections with cosmological principles(degree of compliance). From here - the primary role of ritual in the mythopoetic model of the world, installation on operationalism for those who use this model. Only in ritual is the highest level of sacredness achieved and at the same time a feeling of the most intense experience of existence, a special fullness of life, and one’s own rootedness in a given universe is gained.
Collective forms of labor, ancestral farming, the construction of “ancestral” dwellings, family dwellings, leads to the need redistribution of food products, tools , etc. Begins to be created structural-organizational model of society .
Achievements in economic life- receiving surplus food, the emergence of new types of tools and the construction of settled settlements - made man independent from the surrounding nature. During the period lasting from the 10th to the 3rd millennium BC. There have been fundamental changes in the material and spiritual life of people, which made it possible to single out this stage and call it - Neolithic revolution. Neolithic Revolution characterized by a transition from hunting To cattle breeding, from collecting To agriculture , mastering new technological operations, with formation of new social relations in society. In progress domestication plants and animals, man adapted them to his needs and at the same time changed his activities, i.e. after gathering period And hunting It's time agriculture and cattle breeding. With the breeding of animals began the period mixed agricultural activity. During this period, people were divided into farmers and pastoralists, who created different cultures. The development of technology and social life in agricultural cultures led to the emergence first civilizations. Surplus agricultural products made it possible to develop specialization and cooperation within the team, which led to division of labor, inevitable when performing hard work beyond the strength of one family. To the main steps ancient society can be attributed to: emergence, accumulation and specialization simple tools; use and receipt fire; Creation ; invention bow and arrow; division of labor into hunting, fishing, cattle breeding, farming ; manufacturing clay products and firing in the sun and fire; the birth of the first crafts: carpentry, pottery, basket weaving ; metal smelting and alloys first copper then bronze and iron; production of tools from them; Creation wheels and carts; usage animal muscle power for moving; Creation river and sea simple vehicles (rafts, boats), and then ships.
Summarizing the main achievements in the pre-civilization period, it can be argued that people possessed: the technology of basic forms of activity that ensure the maintenance of life ( hunting, gathering, herding, farming, fishing); knowledge animal habits and selectivity in choice fruits; natural history knowledge ( properties of stone, their changes with heating, types of wood, orientation by stars) ; medical knowledge(simple methods of healing wounds, surgical operations, treatment of colds, bloodletting, intestinal lavage, stopping bleeding, using balms, ointments, treating bites, cauterization with fire, psychotherapeutic actions); elementary counting system, measurement distances using body parts (nail, elbow, hand, arrow flight, etc.); elementary time measurement system using the comparison of the positions of stars, the division of seasons, knowledge of natural phenomena; transfer of information over distances (smoke, light and sound signals).
To the main achievements material and technical progress ancient society can be attributed to: the use and receipt fire ; Creation complex, composite tools; invention bow and arrow ; manufacturing clay products and firing in the sun and fire; the emergence of the first crafts; metal smelting and alloys; Creation simplest vehicles.
Technical progress, being immanent in the nature of man as a rational being with a dynamic system of needs, is already characteristic of the primitive (prehistoric) era. The absence of science as a method of cognitive activity led to the fact that technical progress in primitive communities and great civilizations of the Ancient East was expressed mainly in the expansion of the variety of skills and techniques, differentiation of labor and its management within the same - instrumental - technological basis.
Progress in changing the nature of technical knowledge is due to the beginning of its acquisition of a theoretical foundation due to the emergence of philosophy as a new type of worldview, which in turn allowed the formation of the rudiments of science as a fundamentally new type of knowledge. However, if in one respect traditional philosophy contributed to the development of science and, consequently, to the acceleration of the pace of technological progress, then in another, by cultivating speculativeness as an ideal of knowledge, and also acquiring a religious-mystical character in late antique and medieval culture, it slowed down these processes. In addition, the specificity of the social structure and connections in slave-owning and feudal societies did not stimulate the spread of innovative knowledge and complex technical devices. In general, the process of imparting a scientific character to technical knowledge lasted for two millennia.
The origin of technical knowledge in primitive society and civilizations of the East
The history of technical sciences is inextricably linked with the history of technical knowledge, which arises as a result of the development of the culture of the Ancient World. Technical knowledge in ancient cultures represented a religious and mythological understanding of practical human activity and was used, for example, in the construction of religious monuments.
V. G. Nedorezov offers the following set of characteristics of early forms of technical knowledge:
- 1. Syncretism. Technical knowledge was improved thanks to rare empirical discoveries, which were consolidated by collective experience. At the same time, it was not divided into information about the subject, method, and motives of the activity. External to the content of technical knowledge, the form of its translation was often mythological ideas.
- 2. Pre-reflexivity. The immediate goal of activity was usually presented in a transformed imaginary form, external to its content: submission to elders, tribal traditions, religious imperatives. The means of activity were poorly correlated with real goals; their choice was determined by tradition. A person does not recognize himself as a subject of his own technical practice.
- 3. Empiricality. Technical knowledge existed mainly in the form of skills in simple actions with objects of labor, had no independent significance, and was not at least partially systematized or generalized.
- 4. Regulatory and prescription nature. The organization of work in traditional societies was itself a social institution, a function of a special group. Technical rules, easily formulated, took the form of normative law or divine sanction.
- 5. Traditionalism. Technical creativity was predominantly impersonal in nature; technical innovations, destroying traditional mechanisms of inheritance, were characterized by a frightening break with tradition, sanctified by existing religious norms and the experience of previous generations. The leading mechanisms in the translation of technical knowledge were inheritance mechanisms, which reproduced unchanged the established structures of technical practice.
- 6. Impersonality. Technical knowledge existed primarily in the “personal” form of skills and abilities, in the absence of a well-developed system of concepts capable of expressing it. The “personal” form of knowledge prevented its generalization, systematization and universalization, despite, for example, significant achievements in the field of mathematics and astronomy.
The history of technical knowledge can be traced back to the technological process of making stone tools in primitive society. It was necessary to know how to give the workpiece its original shape (an axe, a tip, a scraper or other tool), create and polish a working surface - a cutting edge, attach it to a wooden handle, arrow, spear, etc. Thus, the first technological operations were drilling, sawing, and polishing.
In primitive society, the following stages of technological progress can be distinguished:
I. Paleolithic (ancient Stone Age, until the XIII-XII thousand BC). Beginning of stone processing for making tools (flint was mainly used due to its ability to produce sharp chips). Using and receiving fire. Manufacturing of dwellings - huts, dugouts, etc. Invention of the spear and spear thrower. The end of the era marks the appearance of primitive water vehicles - rafts, single-tree boats.
II. Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age). Making “microliths” - miniature (1-2 cm) tools, and later placing them in holders made of bone or wood. The appearance of bows and arrows, as well as complex tools for hunting and fishing. Distribution of land vehicles such as sleighs. The beginning of animal domestication.
III. Neolithic (new stone age). The first major technological revolution (the so-called nonashtic), flowing in different regions of the earth from the 8th to the 3rd millennium BC. The transition from hunting to cattle breeding, from gathering to farming. Mastering heat treatment technologies. Making dishes, including clay. The invention of the wheel and cart, sails, the use of the muscular power of animals to move them.
Surplus agricultural products made it possible to develop specialization and cooperation within the team, which led to a division of labor that was inevitable when performing hard work that was beyond the strength of one family.
Weaving began to spread widely among agricultural tribes, as evidenced by clay sinkers discovered during archaeological excavations. The raw materials were wool, then silk, cotton and linen. The handloom appeared in the 1000 BC. There are known machines with horizontal and vertical base arrangements.
At that time, early farmers became acquainted with metal (first copper, later bronze and iron). Gradually, crafts emerged (carpentry, pottery, basket-weaving, etc.) and people specially engaged in them appeared. In the Stone Age, the shape of tools was largely determined by the quality of the material itself. Melting and casting technology opened up more opportunities to create more efficient and effective shapes. To ensure casting, a whole set of tools was created - bellows to support the pumped metal, clay molds, a crucible, and a blower. Significant progress in the field of metallurgy was associated with the discovery of the production of iron obtained cheesecake method (the ore was heated with charcoal, lumps were formed from it, which were subjected to repeated forging to displace slag and restore iron).
Areas of knowledge of primitive society:
- Technology of the main forms of activity that support life (hunting, gathering, cattle breeding, farming, fishing).
- Knowledge of animal habits and selectivity in choosing fruits.
- Natural history knowledge (properties of stone, their changes with heating, types of wood, orientation by stars).
- Medical knowledge (simple techniques for healing wounds, surgical operations, treatment of colds, bloodletting, intestinal lavage, stopping bleeding, using balms, ointments, treating bites, cauterization with fire, psychotherapeutic actions).
- An elementary counting system, measuring distances using body parts - nails, elbows, hands, etc.
- An elementary system for measuring time by comparing the positions of stars, dividing the seasons, knowledge of natural phenomena.
- Transmission of information over distances (smoke, light and sound signals).
The development of technology and social life in Neolithic cultures led to the emergence of the first civilizations. The largest of them are characterized by a significant level of technical and technological development.
Economy Ancient Egypt was based on crop production. Agriculture technology was completely dependent on the hydraulic regime, therefore the main condition for the production of agricultural crops and, consequently, the very existence of people was the artificial regulation of river water levels with the help of dams, canals, and dams for irrigation and drainage. In a hot climate, this ensured high yields of cereals, vegetables, and fruits. As a result, along with agriculture, hydraulic engineering, construction, and architecture developed.
The level of development of technology and engineering in Egypt can be judged by numerous texts and drawings on papyri, reliefs on the walls of tombs, sarcophagi, temples, and pyramids. The economic life of Ancient Egypt seems to be very extensive and multifaceted, starting with the organization of household life and ending with such industries as agriculture, animal husbandry, weaving, fishing and hunting, winemaking, handicraft production, metal smelting, jewelry, military equipment, and construction. To this day, there are several technological secrets of Egypt that remain unsolved: the durability of paints, non-flammable papyrus with asbestos coating, embalming.
It is noteworthy that, according to some scientists, the fine art of Ancient Egypt has nothing in common with drawing and painting. The oldest drawings are nothing more than professionally executed artistic drawings.
IN Mesopotamia a unique and diversified economy was formed. Individual achievements in the field of architecture, crafts, agriculture, cattle breeding, river and sea vessels, land carts remained imprinted on clay tablets, reliefs, in palace paintings, drawings on dishes, on jewelry, on household items (unlike Egyptian on Mesopotamian images the lightness and freedom of the drawings are observed).
The most important areas of agricultural activity were irrigation (construction of canals and irrigation), combating soil salinity, and fertilizing with sludge during floods. The highest grain yields (from 1:15 to 1:40) were facilitated not only by the climate, but also by the appearance of new agricultural tools, for example, a plow with a special funnel for seeds (“automatic seeder”) in the 7th century. BC. Clay towers were built to store grain.
The technique and technology of Mesopotamia developed primarily in the direction of improving weapons, since states with steel weapons, war chariots and powerful siege weapons had a decisive advantage on the battlefield, where the fate of the irrigation economy was decided.
IN Ancient India The most outstanding achievement, which has the most important methodological relation to technical knowledge, was the creation of the decimal positional number system. The Indians developed rules for arithmetic operations that are practically no different from modern ones. The great achievement of Indian mathematicians was the creation of developed algebraic symbolism. This contributed to the progress of Indians in architecture and construction, where they used geometric concepts. Otherwise, the technical knowledge of Indian civilizations remained at a purely craft level (which did not prevent one from achieving mastery in weaving, ceramics production, smelting and metal processing).
Arts and crafts in Ancient China began to develop intensively after 1500 BC, when bronze processing was already known. In terms of the level of culture of this time, China was ahead of the rest of Asia and Europe. Technical progress was observed in construction, and above all in the creation of hydraulic structures. Irrigation canals and inland waterways were intensively laid. The technique of constructing embankments and supporting walls, sometimes stretching for hundreds and thousands of kilometers, also developed.
The ancient Chinese made many of the most important discoveries in science and technology, ahead of discoveries in other countries - the compass, seismograph, paper, printing (by carving text on stone and transferring it to paper). Significant successes have been achieved in mathematics, astronomy, and medicine.
With maritime civilization Phoenicians Also A number of technical innovations are associated, such as the manufacture of glass or significant improvements in sailing navigation, including the creation of multi-tiered warships. Of utmost importance for the subsequent progress of scientific and technical knowledge was their creation of an alphabetic letter, which served as the basis for all subsequent letter-sound systems, including European ones. The former disordered hieroglyphic-syllabic writing of the Egyptians, Babylonians, Chinese, etc. it was cumbersome in structure, confusing, not accessible to everyone, provided conditionally descriptive information, and did not have the proper accuracy and strict certainty.
So, all ancient civilizations (including the civilizations of pre-Columbian America) had extensive practical experience, thanks to which they erected structures that were grandiose in size and design; they developed specific knowledge in the field of mathematics, astronomy, and medicine, which were transmitted according to the principle of exclusive ownership, from the elder to the youngest in age and rank within the priestly caste. Knowledge was considered received from God, the patron of the caste, so it was in a “frozen” form, not discussed, not critically analyzed, and was exclusively prescription. The training was based on the principle of transferring ready-made deterministic algorithms. This method of transferring knowledge within professional and social groups is determined by a model in which the place of the individual is taken by a collective generalized custodian.
A striking representative of this model was the Egyptian civilization. The civilizations of Mesopotamia, India and China were characterized by more dynamic processes of accumulation and renewal of knowledge.
In general, the technical knowledge of the civilizations of the Ancient East was of an applied nature; it was not fundamental, theoretical and systematic(in the modern sense of these terms). Knowledge was needed exclusively for everyday life, as well as for the performance of religious rituals. Even in the exact sciences - mathematics, astronomy - there was no distinction between exact and approximate solutions to problems - any solution turned out to be acceptable if it led to the desired results. Solving complex mathematical problems using multi-degree equations and particular design problems did not lead the priests, the then carriers of knowledge, to the need for generalizations, the creation of a logical research tool, a system of evidence, since in this case knowledge would lose its sacredness.
Literature Alekseev V.P., Pershits A.I. History of primitive society. M., Virginsky V.S., Khoteenkov V.F. Essays on the history of science and technology from ancient times to the mid-15th century. M., Larichev V.E. Wisdom of the snake. Primitive man, Moon and Sun. Novosibirsk, Essays on the history of natural science in ancient times. M., The Origin of Things: Essays on Primitive Culture / Ed. E.V. Smirnova. M., Semenov Yu.I. At the dawn of human history. M., Shukhardin S.V. History of science and technology: Textbook. Part 1. M., 1974.
Beginning of tool making. Origin of Man In 1959, Louis Leakey found very primitive stone tools made from pebbles in the Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania); in 1960, in the same place, along with pebble tools, the remains of a creature were discovered, which L. Leakey considers the creator of these tools and therefore called him “homo habilis” (“skillful man”).
Homo habilis, judging by the found remains dating back to 2.5 million years ago, existed for more than half a million years. Homo habilis - apparently, the first creature that consciously made tools for labor and hunting: the first still roughly processed stone pebbles (tools of the Olduvai culture) - were repeatedly found along with the remains of this creature.
Acheulean culture (1.7 - 0.1 million years ago) Tools of the Acheulean type became smaller and more elegant than those of Abbeville. Acheulean “masters” began to process the stone with numerous small, light and frequent blows (retouching), giving the working part of the hand ax a smoother surface. It is assumed that representatives of the Acheulian culture already maintained fire 700 thousand years ago, but did not yet know how to make it.
Mousterian era or Middle Paleolithic (Neanderthals) The emergence of the Mousterian culture dates back to about 300 thousand years ago, the decline of the culture is associated with cooling and the disappearance of the Neanderthals about 30 thousand years ago. The Mousterian technique of stone processing is characterized by disc-shaped and single-platform cores (cores), from which fairly wide flakes were broken off, which were transformed by beating along the edges into various tools (scrapers, points, drills, knives, etc.).
Improving technology Along with impact retouching, which was used in the Acheulean period, counter impact retouching was invented in the Mousterian era. The new method consisted in the fact that the tool being made was rested on a stone or bone base (anvil), and it was struck with a wooden mallet. The blow transmitted through the tool to the anvil was returned to the tool, and stone flakes flew off from its processed part facing the anvil. As a result, subtle and thorough retouching appeared on the blades of the tools.
Hunting These data are based on counting the bones of animals killed 55 thousand years ago and found at the summer camp site of Salzgitter-Lebenstadt in Germany: a - Reindeer, 72%. b - Mammoth, 14%. c - Bison, 5.4%. d - Horse, 4.6%. d - Woolly rhinoceros, 2%. e - Other animals, 2%.
Neanderthal burials a - The body of the deceased in a sleeping position. b - The body is oriented in the east-west direction. c - The head is turned in a southerly direction. g - Stone pillow. d - Burnt bones. e - Tools made of stone. g - Forest horsetail bedding. h - Flowers.
The Late Paleolithic 35 - 12 thousand years ago is the most severe phase of the last Würm glaciation, when modern people settled throughout the Earth. After the appearance of the first modern people in Europe (the Cro-Magnons), there was a relatively rapid growth of their cultures, the most famous of which are the Chatelperonian, Aurignacian, Solutrean, Gravettian and Magdalenian archaeological cultures.
Technological innovations of this era included significant changes in the production of stone tools, which led to the introduction of stone blades. They were used to process leather, bone and horn. In addition to heavy spears, light throwing darts and harpoons appeared. The fishhook was invented for fishing, and needles with an eye were invented for making clothes.
Stone processing using the pressing method By pressing a pointed tool against the outer edge of a flint blank, small flakes were broken off from its lower side. a - A sharpened stick or bone. b - Product being processed. c - Layer of bark on a stone work plate (anvil). a - Silicon knife, the back side of which is processed by pressing. b - Silicon scraper, rounded on one side by pressing. c - Chisel-shaped cutter for processing horn, bone or wood. d - A small drill for making holes in leather, wood, bone or antler. d - Bone needle with an eye pierced with a small drill.
Hunting 1. This is how a Cro-Magnon hunter (left) used a spear thrower. a - Spear thrower. b - Spear. 2. The right picture shows how much this increased the range of javelin throwing. a - Usually a hunter can throw a long spear 64 m; in fact, the distance at which you can hit prey is 13.7 m. b - The spear thrower helps to throw a spear at 137 m; with its help you can hit a victim at a distance of 27.4
Art The art of the Cro-Magnons went through four stages of development. The first period (32-25 thousand years ago) was characterized by images of animals and other objects, mostly poorly drawn on small objects that people carried with them. The second period (25-19 thousand years ago) includes early cave art, including handprints, as well as engraved and painted silhouettes of animals with arched backs. The third period (19-15 thousand years ago) was the pinnacle of cave art, as can be seen in the beautifully executed, dynamic drawings of horses and aurochs in the Lascaux cave in southwestern France and in other examples of relief sculpture. The fourth period (15-10 thousand years ago) is especially characterized by images on small objects, as well as symbolic signs and superbly executed in a realistic manner images of animals in the caves of Altamira in Northern Spain and Font-de-Gaume in France.
Mesolithic About 15 thousand years ago the Ice Age ended. Climate change has led to the extinction of many species of animals (mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, musk ox, etc.), which were previously hunted by humans. As a result, people were forced to hunt comparatively smaller animals and birds.
Insert tools The transition to hunting small animals and birds required the creation of more advanced tools. During the Mesolithic period, insert tools were invented and became widespread. The base of the insert tools was made of wood or bone, and the working part was made up of a set of small stone, most often flint, plates, called microliths.
Microliths Microliths were made from small plates (sometimes from small flakes). Plates 7-10 cm long and about 0.5 cm wide were chipped from prismatic or conical cores with proper protection. The edges of the plates were often so sharp that they could be used without additional processing - retouching.
Bow and arrows The first composite and rather complex insert weapon was the bow and arrows. The most ancient simple bows were made from a single bent stick, the ends of which were tied together with a bowstring made from animal tendons. At one end of the bow the string was attached with a knot, at the other it was put on with a loop.
Fishing Along with hunting, fishing is intensively developing. The most effective way was to catch fish using a net, which appeared during this period. The nets were woven from threads made from the bark of fibrous plants. The nets were purse seines.
Domestication The most important achievement of the Mesolithic was the domestication of animals. Dogs were used for hunting and home guarding. By 10-7 thousand years BC. e. in Iran, Iraq and the Southern Caspian region, the population began to move to the domestication of sheep, goats, rams and cattle. By the end of the Mesolithic (9-7 thousand years BC), the population of the Near and Middle East began to switch to agriculture. People began to domesticate and eat barley, wheat and other grains growing wild in these areas. With the increase in grain reserves, the problem of preserving the crop from rodents became very acute. For this purpose, man tamed a wild cat.
New knowledge New knowledge about the world around us is accumulated, skills that help us survive are developed and improved. Thus, people needed to know the features of the feeding area, the habits of animals, the properties of plants and natural minerals. The first experience in treating injuries received during hunting, dislocations, abscesses, snake bites, etc. appeared. The first surgical operations were carried out: tooth extraction, limb amputation.
Prehistoric era - this is the name of an indefinite period of time that preceded the one from which written and historical evidence begins, and which left traces of itself only in material monuments, in language data and in folk legends. Due to the fact that different peoples entered the arena of history at different times, the era of democracy is pushed back in different countries to more or less distant antiquity. Some peoples continue to live even now in the state of D., primitive culture (for example, some tribes of Eskimos, American Indians, African blacks, Melanesians); others were just recently - in the first half of this or at the end of the last century - at the same stage, such as the Kamchadals and Chukchi, whom the Russians still found living in the Stone Age. For the Russians themselves, the historical era began in the 9th century, for the Greeks and Romans - several centuries BC, for Egypt and Assyro-Babylonia - four millennia BC. Thus, when a complex and relatively high culture already existed on the banks of the Nile or Tigris and Euphrates, the Greeks were still barbarians, and in the middle and northern. Europe could still be in the Stone Age. The first attempts to understand the life of the D. era (in Europe) were made in the second half of the last century, when familiarization with the tools and products of various savages, on the one hand, and with Stone Age objects sometimes found in the soil of Europe, on the other, gave rise to comparing them with each other and leading to the assumption that the ancient inhabitants of Europe used similar tools and lived in the same manner as savage trappers. In the present century, the number of archaeological finds, especially in Europe, has increased significantly, and at the same time, linguistics - especially the so-called paleontology of language - and ethnography (especially the study of folk legends, customs, monuments of folk art) have made enormous progress. Research by geologists and paleontologists has also contributed new data to the understanding of the earliest human traces and their relationship to the geological era that preceded the modern period. Already about fifty years ago, a system of three successive periods, the so-called Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages, preceding - in Europe, at least - the historical period, was established in archeology. The most ancient, Stone Age, is characterized as an era when people did not yet know the use of metals and used tools and weapons made from flint and other types of stone, wood, bone or horn. Discoveries made (especially in France) in the late 50s and early 60s. , showed that the Stone Age had to last for a very long time and that it splits into two periods that differ significantly in the conditions of human existence and in the nature of his culture: Paleolithic(ancient stone) and Neolithic(new stone). The Paleolithic period refers to another geological era, when the outlines, climate, flora and fauna of central and northern Europe differed from the present ones, when man lived here under natural conditions different from those now. It was suggested that man appeared in Europe already in the so-called. Tertiary period, in the Pliocene or even Miocene era. This opinion was supported by the findings of apparently artificially chipped flints in undoubtedly Tertiary deposits of France and Portugal, as well as bones of Tertiary marine animals, with cuts also made as if by tools, that is, by a human hand. Closer research, however, showed the dubiousness of all these traces in the sense of their creation by man; For now, only the fact of human existence in the post-Tertiary, or post-Pliocene, era remains undoubted. This era coincides with the so-called ice age, when the climate of Europe became wetter and colder, as a result of which the mountain glaciers of the Alps, Pyrenees, and especially Scandinavia and Finland received powerful development and covered a significant part of European Russia and Western Europe. Reasoning theoretically, it is natural to assume that man must have appeared earlier than this era, precisely during the Tertiary period, when the climate was more favorable for him, when the flora and fauna were more diverse and, for example, monkeys were also found in southern Europe. So far, however, no remains of man from the Tertiary period have been found, and we meet him for the first time in an era close to the Ice Age, under conditions of existence that were not particularly favorable, requiring considerable effort to fight nature and obtain food for themselves. The remains of Paleolithic man and his culture have been found, and quite numerous, in various parts of Europe, in France, Belgium, England, Germany, Austria, Russia, etc., as well as in the North. America, partly in open deposits - river sediments, peat bogs, etc., partly in grottoes and caves. The finds in the caves are more numerous and interesting; the most remarkable were extracted from caves in the valley of the Weser River in France, from some caves in southern Germany, Switzerland, England (Kents' hole), Austria (in Galicia, along the Dniester) and Poland (Kelecka province). All these caves are located in limestones ; usually their bottom is covered with a layer of stalagmites, i.e. calcareous deposits produced by water saturated with carbon dioxide dripping from the ceiling and walls of the cave; thanks to this layer, bone and horn tools, as well as the bones of animals and human bones. Human bones, however, are quite rare, and some of them, although they were found in deposits of the Paleolithic era, should be considered later, already of the Neolithic age, only buried in an older layer. On the contrary, animal bones are found in abundance and make up , apparently the remains of a meal of Paleolithic man. They are always split to extract the bone marrow, and some also bear traces of being struck with flint or burned by fire. The study of these bones makes it possible to reconstruct, to a certain extent, the fauna that surrounded modern man; on the other hand, it provides some grounds for dividing the Paleolithic deposits, according to their relative antiquity, into two eras. The most ancient can be recognized as those in which the remains of a mammoth (and another type of fossil elephant, El. antiquus) and the cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) and the remains of sowing are still relatively rare. deer. Later ones can be considered those in which the bones of reindeer predominate, and also the remains of wild primitive bull, saiga, arctic fox, wolverine and other northern and partly also steppe animals are found. The difference between these two types of deposits, however, is not clearly expressed, and therefore some, especially French archaeologists, following Mortillier and guided by the nature of the tools themselves left by man, accept other divisions, namely four, calling them by the names of those localities where individual eras are more clearly visible. expressed or where they were first definitely stated. First era - St. Acheuil or Chelles - characterized by the predominance of large flint tools, oval, almond-shaped or rounded-triangular in shape, chipped on both sides and used, it is believed, by hand (without a handle); the second era - Moustier - shows the predominance of smaller tools, also triangularly pointed, but chipped only on one side, and smooth on the other (beaten from a whole piece of flint or core) and perhaps served as spear tips - as well as wide scrapers ( racloirs); 3rd era - Solutré - is distinguished by the presence of elongated flint points, in the shape of a bay leaf, of different sizes, which served partly as spearheads, partly as arrows, and also as points and arrows made of deer antler, but simple and without decoration; finally, the 4th era - Madelaine - is characterized by an abundance of small flint tools: narrow scrapers (grattoirs), piercings, knife-like plates (lames), but, in particular, an abundance of tools made of reindeer horn, such as arrows, harpoons, awls, needles, spatulas, etc., often equipped with nicks, cuts and other decorations, and sometimes with images of animals made in relief or carving: sowing. deer, horse, bison, wild goat, even mammoth. This division into 4 eras, however, turns out to be suitable only for France, and even then it is not accepted everywhere and not by everyone; in other countries its use is fraught with difficulties, since some forms of tools are not found at all, while others are found together. The 4th era, Madelaine, is represented by a large number of caves and sites in general and gives a more complete understanding of the life of Paleolithic man. Obviously, man was then in the stage of a savage trapper, often staying in caves, in front of which he lit a fire and prepared food for himself; dressed in animal skins, which he sewed together with needles; knew how to skillfully work flint and bone; decorated himself with shells (fossils, sometimes brought from afar), stone and bone pendants, painted his face (pieces of red ocher were found); showed artistic aspirations, depicting the objects of his hunt on his tools, and apparently had some understanding of counting and property rights (tags with cuts, various icons on arrows, etc.). d.). But among the objects of his everyday life it is difficult to indicate any that had religious significance; It is also unknown what kind of dwellings he lived in, besides caves, and where he buried his dead. He did not have any domestic animals, not even a dog, nor did he have any pottery, or only the pitiful rudiments of it. Deposits of the Madelaine type were found, in addition to France, in Belgium, England, Switzerland, southern Germany, Poland, while in Moravia open deposits of an older era (Chelles?) were found, with mammoth bones and almond-shaped tools made of flint and mammoth bone. In general, it seems that culture during the Paleolithic period was quite similar in different parts of Europe. Judging by the fact that deposits of this period were not found in the north. Europe (Scandinavia, Denmark, Scotland, northern Germany and the northern half of European Russia), in the area of ancient glaciation, it must be assumed that they belong to the era of the Ice Age, and not later, in any case, the end of it.
As the ice sheet retreated and the climate changed to a more continental one, the fauna of the tundra was gradually replaced by the fauna (and flora) of the steppes, which undoubtedly existed at one time in Central Europe, as evidenced by the remains of saiga, ground squirrels, jerboas and other steppe animals, now preserved only in the steppes of southern and southeastern Russia. Man had to survive all these changes in climate and fauna and finally lived until the onset of the forest period, when the glaciers retreated to their modern limits, and the steppe in the West. Europe gave way to the forest, with its characteristic animal forms: noble. deer, elk, bison, primal. bull, bear, wild boar, marten, etc., which are still found today or were exterminated only in historical times. By this time, the Paleolithic era had already given way to the Neolithic, the distinctive features of which are as follows: the absence of extinct fossil animals - mammoth, rhinoceros, cavemen. bear, cave hyenas, etc., as well as northern forms of the tundra and steppe, and vice versa, the presence of modern forest forms; human use, next to tools made of flint, of polished tools made of various other, especially soft rocks, and, moreover, cut into special shapes - axes, chisels, hammers, picks, etc.; the use of pottery, burnt on fire and more or less richly decorated with various ornaments; the use of tools made of bone and antlers of red deer, elk, horse, birds, etc.; possession of domesticated animals, at least the dog, and by the end of the era also cattle, pigs, sheep, goats; introduction to agriculture; finally, traces of religious cult and clearly expressed concern for the dead, who were often buried in caves or, towards the end of the period, also in special stone tombs - dolmens (see). The deposits of the Neolithic era differ so sharply from the deposits of the Paleolithic that, according to some researchers, there must have been a break between both eras, that is, the Neolithic era appeared suddenly, brought to Europe by new tribes with greater culture. Others assume the continuity of cultural development, citing, among other things, the presence of the rudiments of pottery art and traces of a dog in some Paleolithic deposits. The deposits of the early Neolithic period may include the so-called. kitchen leftovers(klökkenmöddings) of Denmark - heaps of shells along the seashores, left over from the primitive inhabitants of the country and including the waste of their food, such as: empty shells of oysters and other shellfish, bones of animals and birds, as well as some stone tools (mostly broken and defective ). Among these tools one comes across, although rarely, polished ones, but roughly beaten ones predominate; among the animal bones there are no typical representatives of the Paleolithic fauna, although there are forms indicating a colder climate, such as, for example, wingless (Aica impennis), now completely exterminated, wood grouse, bison and some others. The presence of wood grouse indicates the existence of coniferous forests, which in Denmark were replaced a long time ago by oak forests, and in historical times by beech forests. The primitive savages of Denmark already owned a dog, although they were hardly yet familiar with pottery. More significant finds of the Neolithic age were made in many caves (both natural and artificial, hollowed out by man - especially in France, where many burial sites of this period were also found), at the sites of ancient workshops of stone tools (in areas rich in flint ), in peat bogs, randomly in fields and forests, especially in the remains pile buildings. The latter were first discovered in the winter of 1854 in Lake Zurich, due to the very low water level in it. The remains of piles at some distance from the shore prompted the drainage of this part of the lake, and the study proved the presence of a cultural layer at the base of the piles, with stone and bone tools preserved in it, pottery shards, animal bones, etc. Subsequently, many such pile structures were discovered in various lakes in Switzerland; it could be stated that they often represented extensive platforms, erected on hundreds of thousands of piles driven deep into the bottom of the lake, with many huts standing on them, in other words, entire villages connected to the shore only by a narrow bridge, which could be removed if necessary. It is calculated that in some lakes there were dozens of such villages in which thousands of people lived, subsisting on fishing, hunting, cattle breeding and farming. The fact that many of these pile buildings (Pfahlbauten, palafittes) were destroyed by fire favored the preservation of the objects that were on them, which, having burned and fallen to the bottom of the lake, were thereby guaranteed from decomposition and, later covered with silt, remained intact. millennium. In addition to stone and bone tools and bones of wild and domestic animals, some wooden tools, boats, oars, nets, ropes, charred fruits, plant seeds, remains of fabrics, etc. were also preserved here. Thus, it was possible to compile a fairly complete the concept of the fauna that surrounded man at that time, of his domestic animals, of the plant products that he used, of his food, occupations, etc. The culture of this people, who preferred to build their homes on the water, was quite high: they beautifully worked stone and bone; built houses and boats for himself; hunted red deer, wild boar, wild horse, mountain goat, primeval bull, bear, marten, etc.; caught different fish; had as domestic animals a small dog like a Spitz, cattle, small breeds of pigs, sheep and goats; collected various fruits and berries; engaged in farming; sowed special breeds of barley, wheat and flax (from which he knew how to weave canvas). In addition to Switzerland, pile structures were discovered in the lakes of the south. Germany, Austria, southern France, Ireland, and it turned out that not all of them belong to the Stone Age, but many of them (both in Switzerland and other countries) belong to the Bronze and even Iron periods, others, like, for example, Irish "crannodges" and some pile buildings in the Savoy lakes must even be attributed to the historical period - to the Carolingian era and even later. All in. Similar buildings were found in Italy (terramaras), erected not in lakes, but in swamps and lowlands, as if in imitation of lakes or in the spirit of routine; they already belong to the metal era. As remarkable monuments of the Neolithic era, we can also point out stone tombs, dolmens (see), or burial chambers (chambres sépulcrales), made of huge granite or limestone slabs, preserved in many areas of the West. Europe, from Denmark to Spain and the north. Africa, and representing different sizes, structure and content. In Russia, traces of the Paleolithic era are very scarce. In the caves of the Keletsk province. deposits were found corresponding to those discovered in the Paleolithic grottoes of France; in Kutaisi province, in one grotto, a human lower jaw was obtained from the same layer with the bones of a cave bear. The coexistence of humans and mammoths was established in 2-3 cases; The remains found in the village are especially noteworthy. Kostenki, on the Don, in loess, under a layer of black soil; here a lot of chipped flints were discovered next to the bones of a mammoth, including a pelvic bone, in the cup of which a fire had undoubtedly been lit, since traces of ash and coal were preserved. Also interesting are the finds made recently near Krasnoyarsk, on the Yenisei, namely flint tools, in the form of points like Moustier and others, in a layer where mammoth bones were also discovered. Deposits on the southern coast of Lake Ladoga belong to a later era, where, during the digging of the new Syask Canal, many stone tools (mainly polished, from clayey shale), also bone ones, many animal, bird and fish bones, and shards were extracted from a layer of peat dishes, fragments of a boat and the remains of several human skeletons. This man of the Ladoga region apparently lived by fishing and hunting, and he used the services of a dog, already having two breeds of it, one like a Spitz, the other a larger one, a hunting dog. Remains of the Neolithic period are found, in general, quite often on the soil of Russia, but usually by chance, in separate objects, on arable lands, river banks, in peat bogs, etc. However, several places are known where traces of a long-term stay or settlement could be identified and where many objects were mined that can give an idea of the life of Neolithic man. One of the most remarkable places of this kind is located near the village of Volosova (see), on the river. Veletme, near Oka and Murom; the cultural layer, located here at an insignificant depth, yielded a mass of bones - fish, birds, animals (especially elk, beaver, wild boar, bear), an entire skeleton of a domestic dog, thousands of stone, mostly chipped, but also polished tools, bone products, shards pottery, etc. These remains, which probably belonged to one of the Finnish tribes, perhaps to the ancient Murom, were found on a coastal sandy hill, just as in general the richest traces of the Stone Age are found along the banks of rivers and lakes. In that distant period, when all of central Russia was covered with huge forests, rivers and lakes were not only the most convenient routes for movement, but also the most suitable places for settlements, especially on the coastal dunes. Traces of similar sites, as well as burials, on the dunes were also found in Siberia, for example. on the banks of the Yenisei. In one such grave, near Krasnoyarsk, apparently dating back to the end of the Neolithic era, very characteristic carvings of an elk and a horse, made from elk horn, were found. Similar images of animals (as well as humans) made of bone and flint were found in Volosovo, and in the Ladoga region, and in some other places, which generally indicates some development of artistic taste among the population of Russia (and Siberia) during the Neolithic period - taste, which developed even more in the subsequent Copper or Bronze Age, as evidenced by numerous products of this period, with animal images, found in the Minusinsk region, Altai and the Urals, among other things, in the so-called. bone-bearing fortifications (see). On the contrary, we do not find this artistic taste, especially this realism in the depiction of animals, on products of the Neolithic era in the West. Europe. Realistic art of the Paleolithic era disappeared here for a long time, and from the Neolithic era only crude, emblematic rather than real images of people on the walls of some caves survived, which apparently had a certain relationship (as well as the images of an ax found there) to the religious cult. The Bronze Age in Western Europe also does not show the same artistic style as, for example, in Siberia or the Caucasus; Products of this era here, although often ornamented, are usually only lines, circles, curls, that is, they are equipped only with the so-called geometric ornament. Only much later, at the beginning of the Middle Ages, did the so-called animal ornament appear again in Western Europe, brought, perhaps, by the Goths and other peoples from the East.
The stone period gave way to the metallic period, and before the spread of iron as a material for tools, copper or bronze dominated in many areas. One cannot, however, think that copper was everywhere the first metal with which man became acquainted; In some areas, iron apparently became known earlier than copper, for example. in Africa. On the contrary, in the cultivated countries of America, especially in Mexico, the population already knew how to prepare tools from copper, without being familiar with iron before the arrival of Europeans. Only in the north of America did the Eskimos use meteorite iron, beating pieces from it and shaping them in the manner of stone. As a matter of fact, the processing of iron ore is easier and simpler than the processing of copper, and therefore it is quite possible that the ancient population of the West. Europe and Russia came to the art of making iron tools earlier than copper ones. But these primitive iron tools were very imperfect, small, brittle; it took centuries and the influence of a more developed culture for them to give way to more perfect and durable ones. Therefore, it was only necessary at that time for the copper or bronze industry to appear from somewhere, with its beautiful, varied, rather heavy and durable products, to find wide distribution and sales. Stone and bone tools continued to serve as before for a long time, especially those that sufficiently satisfied their purpose and at the same time were cheaper than metal ones, such as arrows, awls, hammers, weights for seines, etc.; but next to them bronze swords, knives, axes, chisels, etc. appeared. Where copper was first used to make tools and other products from it, as well as the invention of bronze (i.e., an alloy of copper and tin; see Bronze) is difficult say. It was suggested that bronze could have been invented in India, especially since there are rich tin deposits near India, on one of the Sunda Islands, Banka. But these deposits began to be developed already in the historical era; on the other hand, Indian bronzes usually show a different composition than European ones, containing a higher percentage of tin. It is most likely that bronze was invented somewhere in Western Asia; It is not without reason that Greek myths associated the first successes of metallurgy with some of the local peoples. From here, bronze art spread in all directions, which was especially facilitated by the Phoenicians, conducting trade relations along all the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, extracting copper from some Greek islands and from Spain, and tin from somewhere in England, from the Cassiteride Islands (it is believed from Cornwall), preparing various tools, weapons and vessels from these metals and supplying them to many peoples in exchange for other products. For the peoples of the north. In Europe (along the shores of the Baltic Sea), such a product was especially amber, which was highly valued in ancient times for jewelry, and then, perhaps, fur. The successors of the Phoenicians were the Greeks and Etruscans, whose industrial products began to penetrate both central and northern Europe and southern Russia already several centuries before Christ. In France and other countries, treasures of the Bronze Age were found, consisting of many bronze tools and weapons, sometimes new (not used), sometimes old, broken and unusable. It is believed that the first were warehouses of traders (hidden, perhaps, from robbery, etc.) who were transporting new products to the north, and the second were warehouses of broken copper, also collected by itinerant traders for smelting. Little by little, the bronze industry spread among the barbarian peoples of Europe, but it could not produce such elegant products here as were delivered from the south, from cultivated countries, and were factory-produced items. Along with bronze tools, there was a proliferation of beads made from various compositions, clay, later glass, etc., as well as gold items. While classical bronze always contains a certain percentage of tin (Roman bronze also contains a little zinc or lead), barbarian bronzes contain tin in very different quantities, which could depend on the melting down of old bronze products, since each melting entails represents the loss of some part of the tin. If there was copper ore at hand, but there was no tin, it was necessary to make tools from pure copper, which were found, in quite large numbers, in Hungary and Siberia, less often in other countries. Hungarian copper tools are more similar in shape to the corresponding stone ones than to the typical bronze ones, which indicates their preparation by a population that still used or remembered tools made of stone. Typical Bronze Age tools are very distinctive and characteristic. These include the so-called. Celts- axes with a device (sleeve) at the end opposite the blade for inserting a handle, which (judging by the few known remains) had a curved shape and was connected to the tool with the help of a belt or rope, tied to an eyelet that was often on the side of the celt; swords are straight, pointed, medium in size, narrow, leaf-shaped, with a double blade and a small handle, not separated from the blade by a crossbar and often decorated with geometric patterns; spearheads, knives, daggers, chisels, etc. Ancient bronze (or copper) products from the Caucasus and Siberia show special types; in Siberia (and in the Urals) there are, however, celts, but of a special shape; in the Caucasus, their place is occupied by characteristic, beautifully curved hammer axes with a semicircular blade. Swords are very rare in both the Caucasus and Siberia; but daggers are very common, often with relief images of animals or animal and bird heads, and in Siberia there are also curved knives, with a ring for hanging from the belt. Within Russian borders, however, both in Siberia and the Urals, and in the Caucasus, the prosperity of the copper industry - or the heyday of the Bronze Age - coincided with the beginning of the Iron Age, as evidenced by the frequent presence of copper objects and iron ones, and often in identical forms. The Copper Age is also characterized by the fact that in many countries it was accompanied by the custom of burning the dead and burying their ashes under mounds (mounds). The population was already familiar with cattle breeding, and in the West. Europe - and with agriculture. In some graves from this century in Denmark, remains of sheepskins and woolen fabrics have been found; and the pile buildings of this century in Switzerland prove the familiarity of their population with many breeds of domestic animals, including horses, as well as with agriculture.
The Bronze Age gave way - in some places gradually, and in others, apparently, immediately, due to the arrival of new tribes - into the Iron Age. In Western Europe, the most characteristic eras of this century are known under the names of Hallstadt and La Tène, after the names of the two localities where these eras, or types of material culture, are designated most sharply and fully (see “Hallstadt burial ground”). They are replaced directly by the Roman era, i.e. historical. In the East, the Iron Age is represented, mainly. Thus, mounds and fortifications (q.v.), which belonged partly to the Finns, partly to the Slavs, partly to the nomadic Turkic peoples (in Germany - also to various Germanic and Celtic peoples), and turning directly into historical monuments. The most ancient of the Russian mounds can be considered southern Russian, steppe, containing, apparently, the remains of the Scythians or Sarmatians; Greek items from the 3rd - 4th centuries were found here. BC The difference between the tools and decorations of the Iron Age and the Bronze Age lies not only in the metal, but also in the forms of the products themselves. Leaf-shaped small swords, celts, etc. disappear, and their place is taken by long swords, ordinary axes, special types of arrowheads and spears, etc., and special types of jewelry are also spreading, such as, for example, various brooches, beads etc. The custom of burning corpses, although in some places continues or even arises again, is mostly replaced by the custom of burial in the ground, in extensive burial grounds or under separate mounds.
The data provided for understanding the history of the era by archaeological finds can be supplemented to a large extent by observations of the life of modern savages, many features and details of which have already served to explain various archaeological facts. So, for example, stone scrapers used by Eskimos to cleanse skins of flesh, snow, etc., made it possible to explain similar tools of the Stone Age of Europe, which therefore received the name “scrapers”. In a similar way, it was possible to explain the purpose of harpoons, rough flint axes, pieces of ocher and other objects, and to form an idea of how Stone Age people made fire, hollowed out boats, made stone tools, etc. Another kind of indication is given by the data of language, folk legends and, in general, echoes of antiquity in folk art. The names, for example, of metals among different peoples can sometimes explain the greater or shorter duration of acquaintance with one or another of them or borrowing from other peoples. Sometimes the names of some tools now made from metal among cultural peoples indicate a period when they were still made from stone. The names for bread and food in some languages turn out to be close to the names for meat and thus indicate a period when meat was the main, if not the only food. The Latin name for “money” - pecunia - indicates that it replaced the cattle (pecus) that had previously served for exchange; in the names of degrees of kinship, traces of a family structure other than the modern one are sometimes preserved, etc. Folk legends, beliefs, fairy tales, and rituals often also contain echoes of ancient D. antiquity; so, for example, the ritual of making “living fire” indicates the usual method of making fire in ancient times (by wiping it out of wood); stories about cannibals and the killing of decrepit old people are echoes of that era when both cannibalism and the killing of old people were still in use; various wedding rituals such as kidnapping, bride price, etc. indicate an era when these rituals were replaced by real actions of the same nature, etc. By comparing language data, ethnographic facts, products of folk art with observations of the life of modern savages, we We can formulate an idea of religious, family and social life in the Danish era and thereby supplement the information provided by archaeological data and relating mainly to material culture.
Literature: Lebbock, “Prehistoric Times” (translated under the editorship of D. Anuchin, M., 1874); his, "D. life" (St. Petersburg); Vorso, “Northern Antiquities”; L artet et Christy, "Reliquiae Aquitanicae" (description and image of objects found in Paleolithic deposits of French caves); Boyd Dawkins, "Cave Hunting" (German translation: "Höhlen-Bewohner"): contains a detailed analysis of the finds in the caves: Mortillet, "Le préhistorique" and his "Musée préhistorique" (atlas of drawings); Nadaillac, "Les premiers hommes"; Keller, "Die Pfahlbauten", and Gros, "Les palafittes" (details of Swiss pile buildings); Desor, "Le bel âge du bronze"; Montelius, "Antiquités suédoises"; Marsden and Sophus Miller, "The Antiquities of Denmark"; Lubbock, "The bronze Age", mainly in England; Chantre, "L"âge du bronze" (in France); Cartailhac, "La France préhistorique" (1889); his, "Les Ages préhistoriques de l"Espagne et du Portugal" (1886); his, "L"Age de la pierre dans les souvenirs et les superstitions populaires" (1878); Ranke, "Der Mensch" (vol. 2; review of finds, mainly in Germany); L indenschmidt, "Handbuch der deutschen Alterthumskunde"; Hoernes, "Urgeschichte d. Menschen" (1891); Pulsky, "Die Kupferzeit in Ungarn" and others. In Russia: gr. Uvarov, "Stone Age"; Inostrantsev, "D. man on the coast of Lake Ladoga"; Klements, "Antiquities of the Minusinsk Museum"; Radlov, "Siberian Antiquities"; Martin, "Atlas minus. Antiquities" (ed. in Stockholm, 1892); Chantre, "Le Caucase"; Virchow, "Das Gräberfeld von Koban"; also "Proceedings" of Russian archaeological congresses and publications of the Imperial Archaeological Commission and Moscow and St. Petersburg archaeology . societies; Geiger, "Urgeschichte des Menschen" (according to language); B. Taylor, "D. everyday life", and his, "Primitive culture" (Russian translation).
D. Anuchin.
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