The Neolithic era - the new Stone Age - was marked by the appearance of stone tools (axes, scrapers, knives, arrowheads and spears, and many others). This radically changed not only the methods of processing wood, but also played an important role in the development of agriculture, because durable stone tools made it easier and faster to cultivate the soil, as well as clear new areas of land from trees.

At the same time, the first animals were domesticated by humans. Thus, the way of life of primitive man gradually improved. This was also facilitated by the transition to a sedentary lifestyle, which necessitated the construction of the first examples of the Neolithic, among which the following can be distinguished:

• adobe huts
• dugouts
• log cabins
• huts made of branches and twigs

The use of stone axes and fire made it possible to fell large trees and make solid, strong logs from them, which were then used to build warm and durable buildings.

Types of Neolithic building materials

Of course, use as building material It was possible only in those places where forests grew in abundance, but in other areas other types of natural raw materials were used to build houses.

The building materials of the Neolithic era were very diverse. Residents of each locality built houses from the most accessible and widespread materials. Thus, the following types of materials were used for the construction and decoration of dwellings:

• natural
• stone and rocks
• tree branches and twigs
• logs from large trees

WITH further improvement tools of labor are increasingly developed and construction technologies. Thus, a person’s work is gradually made easier.

Trypillian culture

Archaeologists discover buildings from the Stone Age in various places on our planet. In the Dnieper region (Ukraine), the remains of settlements were also discovered, the construction of which dates back to the 3rd - 2nd millennium BC. These are world-famous buildings of the Trypillian culture - standing at one of the highest stages of development of the Neolithic era.

Indeed, the high achievements of culture became known thanks to archaeological excavations on the territory of Ukraine, where the remains of ancient settlements of this amazing people were discovered in different places.

Types of Neolithic dwellings

Further development human society required the unity of the team to perform many functions - joint hunting and fishing, cultivating the land and building residential buildings. Therefore, the primitive people of the Neolithic era lived in large clan groups.

For this purpose, dwellings of a significant area were built in the form of a round hut, which could easily accommodate about a hundred people at the same time.

A similar site, dating back to the 4th millennium BC, was discovered by archaeologists on the banks of the Amu-Darya River (Turtkul region, Uzbekistan). The huge hut had an area of ​​about 300 square meters. meters, and could easily accommodate the inhabitants of an entire primitive family.

However, the construction of common housing large area was not the only achievement of the Stone Age. On the contrary, the variety of types of buildings from the Neolithic era still fascinates scientists today. And in fact, there are more than enough reasons for admiration - after all, the Neolithic era even had its own! Of course she characteristic features can be distinguished only conditionally, but nevertheless, the buildings of the Stone Age already had their own characteristics, which became more and more noticeable over time.

Thus, there were sites that included several separate dugouts completely small size, designed to accommodate 5 - 6 people. The dugouts were covered with a hut on top.

Stone Age Man's Dwelling - Reconstruction at the Archaeological Museum

In the center of the structure there was a hearth for heating the home and cooking food - this is what the simple Neolithic era was like. But such primitive housing arrangement was also for ancient man a significant step forward.

Change social order, and the gradual separation of a paired family lead to the appearance of separate houses with a small area (up to 25 - 30 sq. meters).

In villages such houses were located different scheme. In particular, about the settlement of the Trypillian culture in the Kolomiya region (III - II millennium BC), it can be said that the buildings were located in the form of two concentric circles, which created some feeling of security for the inner part of the settlement, the central part of which remained free. Apparently, in the center of the village they were carrying out ritual ceremonies and celebrations were held.

Thus, we see that Neolithic architecture was quite diverse and varied. At the same time, buildings in different parts The lights differ from each other in their features, but are almost identical in functionality.

Science generally attributes pile buildings to the later Stone Age due to the fact that the most ancient of them actually arose at that time and that in some places, for example on most lakes in Eastern Switzerland and in the Austrian Alps, they disappear at the end of the Stone Age (Copper Age), which, in terms of artistry, is generally on the same level as stone. It should, however, now be stipulated that even on Lake Zurich, in Wollishofen, a pile structure was found, probably already from the Bronze Age, that pile buildings in Western Switzerland existed throughout the prehistoric metallic period, and that among some primitive peoples of all parts of the world they still represent the predominant type of structures.

Based on the construction of the base for the huts, two systems of pile structures are distinguished: pile buildings in the proper sense of the word, a typical representative of which is Robenhausen, in Switzerland, and buildings located on logs piled on top of each other (Packwerkbau), in Niederwil. In real pile buildings, the piles that supported the entire structure were driven into the bottom of the lake so that they protruded one or two meters out of the water. The piles on top were connected to each other by inserting them cross beams, and these latter, to form a deck or platform, were connected by two rows of crosswise superimposed on each other wooden beams. The essence of another kind of building was that rows of beams or logs were laid on top of each other lengthwise and crosswise, forming a raft on which new beams were laid when the tree, saturated with water, began to sink; they continued to pile up the beams until all bottom part the structure did not sink to the bottom.

Family houses of ancient people on Alpine lakes.

On the platform of pile buildings of the Alpine lakes, each individual hut was placed on a hard floor made of yellow clay; the very method of building the hut and erecting the roof probably did not differ from that used for buildings on land. From the remains it was more than once possible to determine that the walls were woven from twigs, and the outside was coated with clay, on a layer of which geometric decorative patterns were then squeezed out.

Tectonics, carpentry, and at the same time European house-building, obviously, should consider these pile buildings, of which the most ancient are believed to have arisen about seven thousand years ago, to be one of their first major successes. To the question of why exactly such buildings were built, a question that has been repeatedly proposed and received quite various solutions, we can, for our part, referring to the pile buildings of many contemporary primitive peoples, answer that the ancient lake inhabitants were forced to settle above the surface of the water, probably for many reasons combined. The main ones, apparently, were, firstly, the need to protect themselves from land animals, not only four-legged animals, but also snakes, and secondly, the convenience of fishing and killing animals that came to the shore to quench their thirst. These reasons were perhaps joined by the need for cleanliness and, finally, the pleasure of living above clear green waters.

Tombstones and burial vaults.

Tombs of Stone Age people (tombs of knights).

Along with these remains of the dwellings of people of the later Stone Age, we get acquainted with tombs, namely the graves of knights (Hünengräber), and other megalithic, that is, built from huge stones, tombs. We do not go into consideration of the question of whether these graves and tombs arose in imitation of cave tombs of other times and countries, as Sophus Muller believes, and whether in this case they should be considered artificial depressions made in the rocks. While pile structures occur naturally in geographic areas of standing water, megalithic tombs, which in some areas date back to the Metal Age, are found where there are powerful rocks. If in pile buildings we see the beginnings of wooden architecture, then in megalithic monuments we see the first attempts of the art of building from stone, and although this art has not yet succeeded in erecting anything truly artistic from huge, almost uncouth blocks, it is already reaching an understanding of the law of maintenance and heaping in its monumental simplicity, and the strength is calculated for eternal times, and the powerful tension of forces, expressed in the heaping of gigantic stones on top of each other, is dedicated to pious memories and testifies that these heroes of hoary antiquity, who made up the flesh of our flesh, were animated by exactly the same feelings that are characteristic of us.

Types of burials (dolmens).

Grave buildings are divided into dolmens, graves with passages and graves in the form of stone boxes. Dolmens themselves are free-standing grave structures: huge, sometimes somewhat smoothed inside, and on the outside rough stones form the walls of tetrahedral, multifaceted or almost round grave structures; their flat roof consists of one huge stone, sometimes protruding far forward above the walls, as a result of which such a structure looks like a giant table. In the north, dolmen tombs of this kind were surrounded by earthen embankments, which have now disappeared. The graves with passages were built in the same way, but more spacious and covered with an earthen mound, on the surface of which the ceiling stones of the inner chamber originally lay open, and on the side there was a covered stone passage leading from the outside inwards. Large graves of this kind in the north are called “rooms of giants.” “Stone boxes” are similar burial chambers, but without passages leading into them. IN ancient times, in Sweden, they usually stood out as their top part from an earthen hill heaped on them, but in the Bronze Age they were completely hidden under it. According to Scandinavian scientists, dolmens are the oldest, and stone boxes are the latest forms of megalithic tombs. Tombs with passages, forming gigantic rooms, are found in addition to the northwestern part of the European continent in England, Ireland and the Iberian Peninsula. The largest structure of this kind in Northern Europe is located near New Grange, in Ireland. The Antekveri stone grave in Spain is even more significant in size. Having a length of 25 meters and a width of 6 meters, this grave is supported inside by pillars, which give it the character of a building of the highest level.

Tombstones.

Along with real dolmens, which were sometimes only monuments in honor of the dead, there were less complex stone heaps (Steinsetzungen) and often simple pillars, which can be considered as historical monuments or as symbols religious ideas. The desire to place stones to perpetuate some event appeared everywhere earlier than the ability to create architectural or sculptural objects from stones. works of art. Individual stones of this kind, very often found in France, are known under the Gallic name menhir, while groups of menhirs are called cromlechs. Menhirs, sometimes reaching enormous heights, look like roughly hewn obelisks correct form. They are often found in groups or in the form of rows and circles. On the Karnak field, in the Morbigan department of France, there are, or until recently stood, 11 thousand of these menhirs arranged in eleven rows - a whole army of silent witnesses to the powerful manifestation of forces that were driven by something higher than the daily needs of man and which transferred him to the spiritual world of unearthly ideas. Stone circles in Scandinavia, France and England have always encircled sacred spaces, which served, on the one hand, for deliberative meetings, and on the other, for sacrifice and other religious activities. For example, the most extensive of the so-called “Druid temples” in England, namely, a round structure surrounded by a rampart and a moat at Abury, in Wiltshire, which occupied an area of ​​28 1/2 morgues, apparently belonged to the Stone Age.

Beginning in southern Sweden, Denmark and mainly in south-west Germany, where huge boulders left by the Ice Age begged to be collected and piled on top of each other, dolmens and stone monuments stretch by the hundreds of thousands across England and Ireland in Western France (Normandy and Brittany), from here, along the north of Spain along the coast of Portugal, they pass into Southern Spain, then, bypassing the sea, they are found in North Africa and along the entire African coast of the Mediterranean Sea, then appear in Crimea and Palestine and, finally, in India, especially on its western coast, while inside the land, if they are found, it is only alone, in the space between the Baltic Sea and the Crimea, on the routes connecting the East with the West. Previously they thought that these were boundary stones marking the path of the Aryans from India to Northern Europe. Krause wittily defended the opinion that the stones in question, on the contrary, indicate the path of the Aryan tribes from Northern Europe throughout their current area of ​​distribution right up to India. But it is impossible to prove the correctness of either view. In the end, megalithic buildings also belong to manifestations of human forces that are repeated under the same conditions among different peoples.

The most famous stone historical and archaeological monuments created by man include the pyramids of Giza, Stonehenge, dolmens, idols of Easter Island and stone balls of Costa Rica.
Today I would like to bring to your attention a selection of not so famous, but no less interesting stone historical and archaeological structures of antiquity.

Valley of the Jars in Laos

The Valley of Jugs is a group of unique sites that contain unusual historical and archaeological monuments - huge stone jugs. These mysterious objects are located in Xiang Khouang province, Laos. Thousands of gigantic stone vessels are scattered among the dense tropical flora. The size of the jugs ranges from 0.5 to 3 meters, and the weight of the largest reaches 6 thousand kg. Most giant stone pots have cylindrical shape, but oval and rectangular jugs are also found. Round disks were found next to the unusual vessels, which were presumably used as lids for them. These pots were made from granite, sandstone, rock and calcined coral. Scientists suggest that the age of the stone bowls is 1500 – 2000 years.

The territory of the valley includes more than 60 sites on which groups of gigantic vessels are located. All the sites are stretched along one line, which may be evidence that there used to be an ancient trade route here, which was served by sites with jugs. The city of Phonsavan is concentrated greatest number jugs, this place is called the “First Platform”, on which there are about 250 vessels of various sizes.

There are a huge number of theories and assumptions regarding who created such unique vessels and for what purposes. According to scientists, these jugs were used by the ancient people living in southeast Asia, whose culture and customs still remain unknown. Historians and anthropologists suggest that the huge jars could have been funerary urns and were used in funeral rituals. There is a version that food was stored in them, another version says that food was collected in the vessels. rainwater, which was used by trade caravans. Laotian legends say that these gigantic jugs were used as ordinary utensils by the giants who lived here in ancient times. Well, the version of local residents says that rice wine was made and stored in megalithic jugs. No matter how many versions and theories are put forward, the Valley of the Jugs undoubtedly remains an unsolved mystery.

National Historical and Archaeological Reserve "Stone Grave"

Historical and archaeological reserve "Stone Grave", which is located near the city of Melitopol on the banks of the Molochnaya River and is a world monument ancient culture in Ukraine. These are the remains of sandstone of the Sarmatian Sea; as a result of natural transformations, a unique stone monolith gradually formed in this place, in which caves and grottoes were formed over thousands of years, which ancient people used for religious purposes. Rock paintings and stone tablets with ancient writings, mysterious signs and images dating back to the 22nd – 16th millennium BC have survived to this day.

The stone grave is located 2 km from the village of Mirnoye, Melitopol district, Zaporozhye region and is a pile of stones with an area of ​​​​about 30,000 square meters. meters, up to 12 meters high. The shape of the pile resembles a mound (Ukrainian grave), hence its name. The stone grave at first was probably a sandstone shoal of the Sarmatian Sea, the only sandstone outcrop in the entire Azov-Black Sea depression, which makes it a unique geological formation

No human settlements that can be associated with the monument were found either in the Stone Grave itself or in the immediate vicinity of it. Based on this, the researchers conclude that the stone grave was used exclusively for religious purposes, as a sanctuary

Arkaim

Arkaim is a fortified settlement of the Middle Bronze Age at the turn of the 3rd-2nd millennium BC. e., related to the so-called. "Land of Cities" Located on an elevated cape formed by the confluence of the Bolshaya Karaganka and Utyaganka rivers, 8 km north of the village of Amursky, Bredinsky district and 2 km southeast of the village of Aleksandrovsky, Kizilsky district, Chelyabinsk region. The settlement and the adjacent territory with a whole complex of archaeological monuments of different times is a natural landscape and historical and archaeological reserve - a branch of the Ilmensky state reserve named after V.I. Lenin Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The monument is distinguished by the unique preservation of defensive structures, the presence of synchronous burial grounds and the integrity of the historical landscape.

In the summer of 1987, archaeologists from Chelyabinsk state university carried out routine surveys of archaeological sites in the Bolshekaragan Valley, in the southwest of the Chelyabinsk region. The valley was supposed to be flooded to create a large reservoir there for neighboring state farms. The builders were in a hurry, and archaeologists hastily compiled a map of ancient monuments for posterity, so as never to return here again. But the attention of the researchers was attracted by the ramparts, which, as it turned out, surrounded the settlement of an unusual type - such as steppe zone hadn't been found before. During the study, it became clear that the monument was a settlement created according to a pre-thought-out plan, with a clear urban planning idea, complex architecture and fortification.
Over the next few years, another 20 such settlements were discovered, which made it possible to talk about the discovery of an interesting ancient culture, which received the code name “Land of Cities.”

In science, this archaeological culture is called Arkaim-Sintashta. The significance of the discovery of Arkaim and other fortified settlements of this type is indisputable, as it provided completely new data on the migration routes of the Indo-Europeans and made it possible to prove that 4 thousand years ago a fairly highly developed culture existed in the South Ural steppes. The Arkaim people were engaged in metallurgy and metalworking, weaving, and pottery. The basis of their economy was cattle breeding.
The fortified settlements of the Arkaim-Sintashta culture date back to the turn of the 3rd-2nd millennium BC. They are five to six centuries older than Homeric Troy, contemporaries of the first dynasty of Babylon, the pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and the Cretan-Mycenaean culture of the Mediterranean. The time of their existence corresponds to the last centuries of the famous civilization of India - Mahenjo-Daro and Harappa.

Stone monuments in the Ulytau mountains

Archaeologists have discovered groups of stone sculptures and rock paintings with images of sabers, daggers, dishes and much more.
Particularly unique are the stone sculptures - balbals, which were placed in front of the stone statues of warriors; a string of balbals is placed in front of the commanders. Sometimes their number reaches 200.

Along with male statues, female ones were also installed. Depending on the age of the person, they are called “girl-stone”, “woman-stone”, “old woman-stone”. That is why there is another Slavic name for balbals - stone women.

Archaeological site of Gunung Padang

The sacred mountain Gunung Padang is located in Bandung, West Java. The “Mountain of Light” (or “Mountain of Enlightenment”) is a mountain on the top and slope of which a multi-tiered complex of structures with a main pyramid on top was discovered.

The Dutch were the first to notice it in 1914. In their report, the Colonial Archaeological Survey referred to it as Mount Gunung Padang (Mountain of Enlightenment), at the top of which local residents rise for meditation. She flashed for the second time in 1949, after which she disappeared for exactly 30 years. Only in 1979 did scientists – geographers and geologists – climb to its summit.
At the top of the mountain they found hundreds of stone blocks of regular shape, arranged in a certain order.

In addition to the obvious division of Mount Padang into five levels, megaliths scattered throughout the entire height of the mountain, an area of ​​900 square meters, andesite columns, etc., research has shown the presence of a hollow chamber. The chamber measures 10 m in width, height and length.
It is widely believed that it is located in the “heart of the Mountain”.
The distance to the cavity is 25 meters from the rotation. Soil samples recovered by drilling indicate the age of the structure in the range from 20,000 to 22,000 BC.

Ancient stones of Great Britain

Men-En-Tol, Cornwall - a mysterious stone that has seemingly stood forever in the Penwith swamps.

Callanish, located on the Isle of Lewis in the Great Hebrides archipelago, is on at the moment the largest monument of megalithic culture of the British Isles. The reconstructed form of the "Callanish stones" was established presumably during the Neolithic period, approximately between 2.9 and 2.6 thousand years BC. Experts note that previously (until 3000 there was a sanctuary here).

Callanish is formed by thirteen vertically standing monuments or groups of stones that form circles up to thirteen meters in diameter. Average height stones is 4 meters, but can vary between 1-5 meters. The stones are cut from local gneiss. In terms of popularity, the Callanish stones can compete with Stonehenge.

Avebury, Wittshire. Local farmers routinely herd sheep among Stonehenge's coeval sites, which date back to 2500 BC.

Circle of Brodgar, Stromness, Orkney - Britain's answer to the pyramids of Egypt. The Stones period dates back to 3000 BC. Only 27 of the 60 sculptures remain.

Rolleith Stones, Oxfordshire.

Bryn Selley, Anglesey, Wales. Wales is rich in ancient scatterings of stones, but the most famous pagan structure is, of course, Bryn Cely (“Mound dark room"). On the island of Anglesey it appeared during the Neolithic period (4000 years ago).

Arbor Low, Midleton-on-Yolgreave, Derbyshire. 50 stones stand silently on the Arbor Low plateau, a short drive from Bakewell.

Castlerigg, Keswick, Lake District

Nine Stones, Dartmoor.

Megaliths of the Urals

Vera Island on Lake Turgoyak.
Megaliths of Vera Island - a complex of archaeological monuments (megaliths - chamber tombs, dolmens and menhirs) on an island in Lake Turgoyak (near Miass) in the Chelyabinsk region. The island is located around west bank lake and at low water levels it is connected to the shore by an isthmus, turning into a peninsula.
The megaliths were presumably built about 6000 years ago, in the 4th millennium BC. uh

Cult site Island of Faith.

The largest structure on the island is megalith No. 1 - a stone structure measuring 19x6 m, cut into the rocky ground and covered with massive stone slabs. The walls of the structure are made using dry masonry from massive stone blocks. The megalith consists of three chambers and corridors connecting them. In two chambers of the megalith, rectangular pits were found carved into the rock. The connection between the building and the main astronomical directions has been recorded. The building is tentatively interpreted as a temple complex.

Architectural complex at the bottom of the Chinese Lake Fuxian

The pyramid was found at the bottom of the Chinese lake Fuxian (southwestern Yunnan province).
Its height is 19 m, the length of the base side is 90 m. The structure is built from stone slabs and has a step structure. At the bottom of the lake there are about a dozen more similar objects and about 30 structures of other types. The area of ​​the entire architectural complex is about 2.5 square meters. km. From the bottom of the lake, archaeologists recovered a clay vessel, which, according to experts, was made during the Eastern Han Dynasty, which ruled from 25 to 220 AD, Xinhua reports.