The civilizations of mankind that existed before ours were sufficiently developed. We know little of what they achieved, and of the major discoveries they made. Archaeologists have found many artifacts as evidence that these civilizations existed. But somehow they forgot about them. Meanwhile, the finds from the places of settlement of our ancestors are impressive. We will present you the pictures of the most unusual and significant.

1. Devices of ancient people.

Scientists - historians are constantly changing their minds about what level of development the ancient civilizations had. Over the past 20 years, scientists have brought their significant revaluation to the degree of increase. And all, because of the found planispheres and prototypes of heating batteries. Unprecedented achievements for those times! And the Nimrud lens and the Antikythera mechanism are fantastic even now!

Nimrud's lens is believed to have been mounted on a Babylonian telescope. It was found by archaeologists in the Assyrian capital of Nimrud. The study of celestial bodies, the main business of scientific astronomers in those days. And the knowledge was collected weighty. And that was 3,000 years ago. Impressive, agree!

The Antikythera mechanism (200 BC) is a device for calculating the movement of celestial bodies. It is surprising that such a device appeared millennia ago. And what a clever inventor invented it!

2. Rama Empire

For a long time it was believed that Indian civilization did not arise until 500 BC. However, discoveries made in the last century pushed back the origin of Indian civilization by several thousand years.

In the Indus Valley, the cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro were discovered, which were perfectly planned even by modern standards. The Harappan culture also remains a mystery. Its roots are hidden for centuries, and the language has not yet been unraveled by scientists. There are no buildings in the city that would testify to various social classes, there are no temples or other places of worship. No other culture, including Egypt and Mesopotamia, had this level of city planning.

3. Longue Caves

Longue - the Chinese call another wonder of the world. A system of 24 caves was discovered by accident in 1992. The time of the appearance of the caves dates back to the 2nd century BC. Despite its titanic volume (to carve such caves into hard rock, about a million cubic meters of stone would have to be removed), no evidence of construction has been found. The carvings covering the walls and ceilings of the caves are made in a special manner and are full of symbols. According to officially unconfirmed information, seven discovered grottoes repeat the location of the seven stars of the constellation Ursa Major.

4. Nan Madol

On an artificial archipelago in Micronesia near the island of Pohnpei are the ruins of the ancient prehistoric city of Nan Madol. The city is built on a coral reef of basalt blocks, the weight of which reaches 50 tons. The city is crossed by many canals and underwater tunnels. Some of its streets are flooded. The scale of this structure can be compared with the Great Wall of China or the Egyptian pyramids. At the same time, there is not a single record of who built the city and when it was built.

5 Stone Age Tunnels

From Scotland to Turkey, beneath hundreds of Neolithic settlements, archaeologists have found evidence of an extensive network of underground tunnels. In Bavaria, some tunnels are up to 700 meters long. The fact that these tunnels have survived for 12,000 years is a testament to the extraordinary skill of the builders and the enormous size of their original network.

6. Puma Punku and Tiwanaku

Puma Punku is a megalithic complex near the ancient pre-Inca city of Tiwanaku in South America. The age of the megalithic ruins is extremely controversial, but archaeologists are unanimous that they are older than the pyramids. The ruins are believed to be 15,000 years old. The massive stones used in the construction are cut and fitted to each other so precisely that there is no doubt that the builders clearly had an advanced knowledge of stone cutting, geometry, and they had the tools to do this. The city also had a functioning irrigation system, sewers, and hydraulic machinery.

7. Metal mount

Continuing the conversation about Puma Punku; It is worth noting that at this construction site, as well as in the Korikancha temple, the ancient city of Ollantaytambo, Yurok Rumi and in ancient Egypt, a special metal fastener was used to fasten huge stones. Archaeologists have discovered that the metal was poured into grooves cut into the stones, which means that the builders had portable factories. It is not clear why this technology and other methods of building megaliths were lost.

8. Mystery of Baalbek

As a result of archaeological excavations in Baalbek (Lebanon), some of the best preserved Roman ruins in the world have been found. The megalithic mound on which the Romans built their temples makes this place especially mysterious. The stone monoliths of this mound weigh up to 1,200 tons each and are the largest processed stone slabs in the world. Some archaeologists believe that the history of Baalbek is about 9,000 years old.

9. Giza Plateau

The Great Pyramid in Egypt is ideal in terms of geometry. How the ancient Egyptians achieved this is unknown. It is also interesting that the erosion of the Sphinx, as scientists have proven, was due to precipitation, and this area became a desert only 7,000 - 9,000 years ago. The Pyramid of Menkaure also belongs to the pre-dynastic period. It was also built from limestone blocks and has exactly the same traces of erosion as the Sphinx.

10. Göbekli Tepe

Dating from the end of the last ice age (12,000 years ago), a temple complex in southeastern Turkey has been called the most important archaeological discovery of modern times. Ancient ceramics, writing, the already existing wheel and metallurgy - its construction implies a level of development far beyond the development of Paleolithic civilizations. Göbekli Tepe consists of 20 circular structures (only 4 have been excavated so far) and elaborately carved columns up to 5.5 meters high and weighing up to 15 tons each. No one can say with certainty who created this complex and how its creators got their advanced knowledge of masonry.

Be interesting with

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 want to bring to your attention a selection of not so famous, but no less interesting stone historical and archaeological structures of antiquity.

Valley of pitchers in Laos

The Valley of Pitchers is a group of unique sites that contain unusual historical and archaeological monuments - huge stone jugs. These mysterious objects are located in the province of Xiangkhouang, in Laos. Thousands of gigantic stone vessels are scattered among the dense tropical flora. The size of the jars ranges from 0.5 to 3 meters, and the weight of the largest reaches 6,000 kg. Most giant stone pots are cylindrical, but oval and rectangular jugs are also found. Round discs were found next to unusual vessels, which were supposedly used as lids for them. These pots were made from granite, sandstone, rock and calcined coral. Scientists suggest that the age of 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 sites are stretched along one line, which may be evidence that there used to be an ancient trade route here, which was served by platforms with jugs. The largest number of jugs is concentrated in the city of Phonsavan, this place is called the “First Site”, on which there are about 250 vessels of various sizes.

There are a huge number of theories and assumptions regarding who and for what purposes such peculiar vessels were created. According to scientists, these jugs were used by an ancient people living in southeast Asia, whose culture and customs are still 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 rainwater was collected in the vessels, which was used by trade caravans. Lao legends say that these gigantic jugs were used as ordinary dishes by the giants who lived here in ancient times. Well, the version of local residents says that rice wine was made and stored in megalith jars. No matter how many versions and theories are put forward, the Valley of Pitchers 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 of ancient culture in Ukraine. These are the remains of the sandstone of the Sarmatian Sea, due to natural transformations, a unique stone monolith gradually formed on this place, in which caves and grottoes were formed for thousands of years, which ancient people used for religious purposes. Rock paintings and stone tablets with ancient inscriptions, 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 heap of stones with an area of ​​about 30,000 square meters. meters, up to 12 meters high. The heap in shape resembles a barrow (Ukrainian grave), hence its name comes from. The stone grave at first was probably a sandstone shoal of the Sarmatian Sea, the only sandstone outcrop in the entire Azov-Black Sea basin, which makes it a unique geological formation.

Neither in the Stone Grave itself, nor in the immediate vicinity of it, human settlements have been found that can be associated with the monument. 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 III-II millennium BC. e., related to the so-called. "Land of Cities". It is 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 territory adjacent to it with a whole complex of archeological monuments of different times is a natural-landscape and historical-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 the Chelyabinsk State University carried out routine surveys of archaeological sites in the Bolshekaraganskaya Valley, in the southwest of the Chelyabinsk Region. The valley was supposed to be flooded in order to arrange an extensive reservoir there for neighboring state farms. The builders were in a hurry, and archaeologists hastily compiled a map of ancient monuments for posterity, 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 - they had not been found before in the steppe zone. During the study, it turned out that the monument was a village created according to a pre-thought-out plan, with a clear urban planning idea, complex architecture and fortification.
Over the next few years, 20 more such settlements were discovered, which made it possible to talk about the discovery of an interesting ancient culture, which received the conditional name “Country 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 gave completely new data on the migration routes of the Indo-Europeans and made it possible to prove that a fairly highly developed culture existed in the South Ural steppes 4 thousand years ago. 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 or 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, utensils and much more.
Particularly unique are stone statues - balbals, which were placed in front of the stone statues of batyrs, commanders, a string of balbals is placed. Sometimes their number reaches 200.

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

Archaeological site of Gunung Padang

The sacred mountain of Gunung Padang is located in the Bandung region, 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 was found on top.

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), to the top of which the locals climb for meditation. For the second time, she flashed in 1949, after which she disappeared for exactly 30 years. Only in 1979 scientists - geographers and geologists - climbed to its top.
At the top of the mountain, they found hundreds of blocks of stone of the correct form, arranged in a certain order.

In addition to the obvious division of Mount Padang into five levels, megaliths scattered over the entire height of the mountain, over an area of ​​900 square meters, andesite columns, etc., studies have shown the presence of a hollow chamber. The size of the chamber is 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 turn. Soil samples taken 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 is a mysterious stone that, it would seem, has been standing forever in the marshes of Penwit.

Callanish, located on the Isle of Lewis in the Greater Hebrides, is currently the largest monument of the 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 earlier (until 3000 a sanctuary was located here).

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

Avebury, Wittshire. Local farmers habitually herd sheep among the peers of Stonehenge, which date back to 2500 BC.

Brodgar Circle, Stromness, Orkney - British response to the pyramids of Egypt. The stone period dates back to 3000 BC. Only 27 out of 60 statues remain.

Rollite Stones, Oxfordshire.

Bryn Selley, Anglesey, Wales. Wales is rich in ancient placers of stones, but the most famous pagan building is, of course, Bryn Seli (“The Mound of the Dark Room”). On the island of Anglesey, he appeared in the Neolithic period (4000 years ago).

Arbor Low, Middleton upon Yolgreave, Derbyshire. 50 stones stand silently on Arbor Low, 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 - a chamber tomb, dolmens and menhirs) on the island of Lake Turgoyak (near Miass) in the Chelyabinsk region. The island is located near the western shore of the lake and, at low water levels, is connected to the shore by an isthmus, turning into a peninsula.
The megaliths were presumably built about 6,000 years ago, in the 4th millennium BC. uh

Cult site Vera Island.

The largest building on the island is megalith No. 1 - a stone structure 19 × 6 m in size, cut into the rocky ground and covered with massive stone slabs. The walls of the structure are made by dry laying of massive stone blocks. The megalith consists of three chambers and corridors connecting them. Rectangular pits carved into the rock were found in two chambers of the megalith. The connection of the building with the main astronomical directions was fixed. The building is preliminarily interpreted as a temple complex.

An architectural complex at the bottom of China's Fuxian Lake

The pyramid was found at the bottom of the Chinese lake Fuxian (southwestern province of Yunnan).
Its height is 19 m, the length of the side of the base is 90 m. The structure is built of stone slabs and has a stepped 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. Archaeologists raised an earthenware vessel from the bottom of the lake, which, according to experts, was made during the Eastern Han Dynasty, which ruled in 25-220 AD, Xinhua reports.

We fly into space, race to build skyscrapers, clone living organisms and do a lot of things that until recently seemed impossible. And at the same time, they are still unable to unravel the mysteries of the builders and thinkers who lived millennia ago. An ancient cobblestone weighing a hundred tons surprises us more than a computer the size of half a palm.

Goseck Circle, Germany, Goseck

A ring system of concentric ditches and wooden fences was created between 5000 and 4800 BC. Now the complex is reconstructed. Presumably, it was used as a solar calendar.

Statues of "reptilians", French Polynesia, Nuku Hiva island

Statues in a place called Temehea-Tohua in the Marquesas Islands depict strange creatures, the appearance of which in the mass consciousness is associated with aliens. They are different: there are large large-mouthed "reptilians", and there are others: with small bodies and disproportionately large elongated helmet-heads with huge eyes. They have one thing in common - an evil expression on their faces. Whether they were aliens from other worlds or just masked priests is unknown. The statues date from around the beginning of the 2nd millennium.

Stonehenge, UK, Salisbury

Altar, observatory, tomb, calendar? Scientists have not come to a consensus. Five thousand years ago, a ring ditch and ramparts around it with a diameter of 115 m appeared. A few centuries later, ancient builders brought here 80 four-ton stones, and a couple of centuries later - 30 megaliths weighing 25 tons. The stones were set in a circle and in the form of a horseshoe. The form in which Stonehenge has survived to this day is largely the result of human activity in recent centuries. People continued to work on the stones: the peasants chipped off pieces of amulets from them, the tourists marked the territory with inscriptions, and the restorers figured out for the ancients how they had it right.

Pyramid of Kukulkan, Mexico, Chichen Itza

Every year, on the days of the spring and autumn equinoxes, thousands of tourists gather at the foot of the sanctuary of the supreme Mayan deity - the Feathered Serpent. They observe the miracle of the "appearance" of Kukulkan: the Serpent moves down along the balustrade of the main staircase. The illusion is created by the play of triangular shadows cast by the nine platforms of the pyramid at the moment when the setting sun illuminates its northwestern corner for 10 minutes. If the sanctuary had been displaced even by a degree, none of this would have happened.

Karnak stones, France, Brittany, Karnak

In total, about 4,000 megaliths up to four meters high are arranged in slender alleys near the city of Karnak. The rows run parallel to each other or diverge like a fan, in some places they form circles. The complex dates back to the 5th-4th millennium BC. There were legends in Brittany that it was the wizard Merlin who made the ranks of Roman legionnaires turn to stone.

Stone balls, Costa Rica

Pre-Columbian artifacts scattered off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica were discovered in the 1930s by banana plantation workers. Hoping to find gold inside, the vandals destroyed many balls. Now most of the rest are kept in museums. The diameter of some stones reaches 2.5 meters, weight - 15 tons. Their purpose is unknown.

Georgia Guidestones, USA, Georgia, Elbert

In 1979, someone under the pseudonym R.C. Christian ordered a construction company to manufacture and install a monument - a structure of six granite monoliths with a total weight of more than 100 tons. On the four side plates are engraved ten commandments to descendants in eight languages, including Russian. The last paragraph reads: "Do not be a cancer for the Earth, leave a place for nature too!"

Nuraghi Sardinia, Italy, Sardinia

Semi-conical structures resembling huge beehives (up to 20 m high) appeared in Sardinia at the end of the 2nd millennium BC, before the arrival of the Romans. The towers were built without a foundation, from stone blocks superimposed on each other, not fastened with any mortar and held only by their own weight. The purpose of the nuraghe is unclear. It is characteristic that archaeologists have repeatedly discovered miniature models of these towers made of bronze during excavations.

Saxahuaman, Peru, Cusco

The archaeological park at an altitude of 3700 meters and an area of ​​3000 hectares is located north of the capital of the Inca Empire. The defensive and at the same time temple complex was built at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries. Zigzag crenellated walls, reaching 400 meters in length and six in height, are made of multi-ton stone blocks, including 200-ton ones. How the Incas installed these blocks, how they adjusted them one under the other, is unknown. From above, Saxahuaman looks like the toothy head of the puma Cuzco (the city was founded in the form of a sacred animal of the Incas).

Arkaim, Russia, Chelyabinsk region

The settlement of the Bronze Age (III-II millennium BC) is located on the same latitude as Stonehenge. Coincidence? Scientists don't know. Two rows of circular walls (the diameter of the far one is 170 m), a drainage system and a sewerage system, a well in every house are evidence of a highly developed culture. The monument was discovered by students and schoolchildren from an archaeological expedition in 1987. (In the photo - a model-reconstruction.)

Newgrange, Ireland, Dublin

The Celts called it Fairy Mound and considered it the home of one of their chief gods. A round structure made of stone, earth and rubble with a diameter of 85 meters was erected more than 5000 years ago. A corridor leads inside the mound, ending with a ritual chamber. On the days of the winter solstice, this chamber is brightly illuminated for 15–20 minutes by a ray of sun that enters the window above the tunnel entrance.

Coral Castle, USA, Florida, Homestead

The whimsical structure was single-handedly built in 28 years (1923-1951) by the Latvian immigrant Edward Lindskalnin in honor of lost love. How a man of modest height and build moved huge blocks in space remains a mystery.

Yonaguni pyramids, Japan, Ryukyu archipelago

Monuments of huge stone platforms and pillars located under water at a depth of 5 to 40 meters were discovered in 1986. The main of these structures has the form of a pyramid. Not far from it is a large platform with steps, similar to a stadium with spectator stands. One of the objects resembles a huge head, like the moai statues on Easter Island. There is a debate in the scientific community: many believe that the formations lying on the bottom of the ocean are of exclusively natural origin. But loners like Masaaki Kimura, a professor at Ryukyu University who has repeatedly dived to the ruins, insist that a person was involved.

Great Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe, Masvingo

One of the largest and oldest stone structures in South Africa has been built since the 11th century, and in the 15th century it was abandoned for some unknown reason. All structures (up to 11 meters in height and 250 in length) were built using the dry masonry method. Presumably, up to 18,000 people lived in the settlement.

Delhi Column, India, New Delhi

An iron column over 7 meters high and weighing over 6 tons is part of the Qutb Minar architectural complex. It was cast in honor of King Chandragupta II in 415. For unclear reasons, the column, which is almost 100% iron, is virtually indestructible. Scientists are trying to explain this fact for various reasons: the special skill and technology of ancient Indian blacksmiths, dry air and specific climatic conditions in the Delhi region, the formation of a protective shell - in particular, as a result of the fact that the Hindus anointed the sacred monument with oils and incense. Ufologists, as usual, see in the column another proof of the intervention of extraterrestrial intelligence. But the secret of "stainless steel" has not yet been unraveled.

Nazca Lines, Peru, Nazca Plateau

A 47-meter spider, a 93-meter hummingbird, a 134-meter eagle, a lizard, an alligator, a snake, other zoomorphic and humanoid creatures ... Giant images from a bird's eye view seem to be scratched on a rock devoid of vegetation, as if with one hand, in the same style . In fact, these are furrows up to 50 cm deep and up to 135 cm wide, made at different times in the 5th-7th centuries.

Nabta Observatory, Nubia, Sahara

In the sands next to a dried-up lake is the oldest archaeoastronomical monument on the planet, 1000 years older than Stonehenge. The location of the megaliths allows you to determine the day of the summer solstice. Archaeologists believe that people lived here seasonally, when there was water in the lake, so they needed a calendar.

Antikythera mechanism, Greece, Antikythera

A mechanical device with dials, hands and gears at the beginning of the 20th century was found on a sunken ship sailing from Rhodes (100 BC). After lengthy research and reconstruction, scientists found that the device served astronomical purposes - it made it possible to monitor the movement of celestial bodies and make very complex calculations.

Baalbek Plates, Lebanon

The Roman temple complex dates back to the 1st-2nd century AD. But the Romans did not build sanctuaries in an empty place. At the base of the temple of Jupiter lie more ancient slabs weighing 300 tons. The western retaining wall is made up of a series of "trilithons" - three limestone blocks, each more than 19 m long, 4 m high and weighing about 800 tons. Roman technology was not able to lift such a weight. By the way, not far from the complex for more than one thousand years there is another block - under 1000 tons.

Göbekli Tepe, Turkey

The complex on the Armenian Highlands is considered the oldest of the largest megalithic structures (approximately X-IX millennium BC). At that time, people were still engaged in hunting and gathering, but someone was able to erect circles from huge steles with images of animals.

Primitive society- a period in the history of mankind before the invention of writing, after which there is the possibility of historical research based on the study of written sources.

The term prehistoric came into use in the 19th century. In a broad sense, the word "prehistoric" is applicable to any period before the invention of writing, starting from the moment the Universe arose (about 14 billion years ago), but in a narrow sense - only to the prehistoric past of man.

Usually in the context they give indications of exactly which “prehistoric” period is being discussed, for example, “prehistoric apes of the Miocene” (23-5.5 million years ago) or “Homo sapiens of the Middle Paleolithic” (300-30 thousand years ago).

Paleolithic

In the Paleolithic, man began to use stone tools in his daily life. The Stone Age covers most of the history of mankind (about 99% of the time) on earth and begins 2.5, or 2.6 million years ago. The Stone Age is characterized by the appearance of stone tools, agriculture and the completion of the Pleistocene around 10 thousand years BC. e.

Early Paleolithic beginning at the end of the Pliocene epoch, in which the first use of stone tools by the ancestors of modern man Homo habilis began. These were relatively simple tools known as cleavers.

About 1.5 million years ago, a more developed human species appeared - Homo erectus. Representatives of this species learned to use fire and created more complex chopping tools from stone. About 1 million years ago, man mastered Europe and began to use stone axes.

Middle Paleolithic began about 200 thousand years ago and is the most studied era during which the Neanderthals lived (120-35 thousand years ago). Eventually the Neanderthals died out and were replaced by modern humans, who first appeared in Ethiopia about 100,000 years ago. Despite the fact that the culture of the Neanderthals is considered primitive, there is evidence that they honored their elders and practiced burial rituals that were organized by the entire tribe. Recently, in 1997, based on the DNA analysis of the first Neanderthal, scientists at the University of Munich concluded that the differences in genes are too great to consider Neanderthals the ancestors of Cro-Magnons (that is, modern people). For a long time (15-35 thousand years), Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons coexisted and were at enmity. In particular, at the sites of both Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons, gnawed bones of a different species were found.

During the Upper Paleolithic, which began about 35-10 thousand years ago, the last ice age ended and modern people settled throughout the Earth during this period. After the appearance of the first modern people in Europe (the Cro-Magnons), there was a relatively rapid growth of their cultures.

In general, hunter-gatherer communities began to dominate the planet, using different types of stone tools depending on the region.

Mesolithic

Mesolithic- the period between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic, X-VI thousand years BC. The period began with the end of the last ice age and continued until the rise in the level of the world sea. In this period, microliths appeared - miniature stone tools that greatly expanded the possibilities of using stone in the daily life of ancient people. Probably, in this time period, the domestication of the dog as a hunting assistant took place.

During the Paleolithic period, the first builders appeared who made do with the "gifts of nature" - earth, clay, wood, as well as the bones and skins of animals that were hunted primarily for food.

We will not know what the very first structures looked like - people did not care about their durability, choosing building materials and inventing structures. Little by little, archaeologists manage to recreate some of the oldest buildings, such as Siberian Paleolithic settlements, distributed in clusters or a kind of "nests" on the banks of the Angara and Yenisei. The earliest geological settlements of Malta and Buret are located on the Angara at a distance of 7 - 8 km from each other. The most characteristic feature of Paleolithic architecture is the widespread and constant use of animal bones as a building material, primarily mammoth and rhinoceros, as well as reindeer antlers.


Construction of dwellings from animal bones, and not from wood, archaeologists explain the climatic and landscape conditions of that time. Steppes and tundra probably stretched around Bureti, there was no forest. Therefore, it was necessary to use the material supplied by hunting - the main source of existence for people of the Paleolithic period.

Neolithic and Eneolithic

Neolithic- New Stone Age, circa 7000 BC e., was characterized by the emergence of agriculture and pastoralism during the so-called Neolithic Revolution, the development of pottery and the appearance of the first large settlements of people, such as Chatal-Guyuk and Jericho.


For the first time, large-scale stone structures, such as the towers and walls of Jericho or Stonehenge, began to be built. To some extent, this phenomenon laid the foundation for the development of social hierarchy and the emergence of elites. The settlement used stone beds, shelves and even toilet facilities.

During the Neolithic and Eneolithic(copper age - IV-III millennium BC), the material capabilities of a person are significantly increased. Wooden dwellings made of twigs on log-pillars take on the appearance of a relatively large structure. Such structures related to the III - II millennium before. n. e., were found in the Dnieper region in the Trypilsky settlement of Kolomeyshchina and on Southern Urals. The area of ​​houses here reached 150 m2, length - 30 m.

Building traditions have been preserved for many centuries, gradually enriched by the acquired experience with more diverse and rational construction methods that correspond to the living conditions and the productive forces of society.

At the mouth of the Sonokhta River, archaeologists discovered the settlement of Bereznyaki, dating back to the 4th - 5th centuries, one of the early Slavic settlements. There are five residential log houses, and besides them there is a large public building, a building for storing communal bread, a special shed-forge, a building for such work as weaving, spinning, sewing. Houses and buildings are located on a hill in two rows with a street in the middle. The entire complex of the settlement is fenced with a log wall; at the gate is a corral for livestock.

A whole group of settlements is known in Ukraine, and among them the largest is Monastery (VIII - IX centuries) with semi-dugouts of a rectangular shape. Their ground part is built of rods smeared with clay on a frame of stakes. The cover was probably one-slope. Similar (typical?) residential buildings were widespread at the Timonovskaya site near Bryansk, in Volyn, on the Don near the village of Borsheva, and in other areas.

In contrast to the forest-steppe south, where semi-dugout dwellings are characteristic, in the north, already from the 4th-5th centuries. log dwellings predominate. The border between the southern and northern types of dwellings apparently ran along central Russia - in the region of Ryazan and Suzdal, where from about the 12th century. there are both types of dwellings - semi-dugouts and ground buildings.

Various clay models of houses discovered during archaeological excavations give some idea of ​​the early Slavic buildings. Most of the surviving models are stylized houses with gable roofs. But there are models of an unfinished house or models of only one roof.

Models discovered by archaeologists, as well as known to ethnographers, but for some reason not noticed by historians of the construction industry, rituals performed during the construction of a house, allow to some extent to recreate the construction methods. The construction of the ancient house took place, judging by the cycles of rituals, in three stages.

Clay ceremonial models also testify that, in addition to ordinary houses, there were also two-story buildings with a box covering, for example, in Rassokhovatka in Ukraine.

The model from Cascioarele (Romania) impresses with the number of homogeneous houses lined up in the same order. The researchers suggest that a model with a whole order of houses could be made during the construction of the whole village anew. Judging by the clay images, the houses in the settlement were "typical".

A simplified form of clay ritual models appeared: instead of three-dimensional, three-dimensional houses, flat clay tablets depicted only the outline of a house with a gable roof. On these plates are marked round windows and upper floors of the rafters.

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 ways of processing wood, but also played an important role in the development of agriculture, because it was easier and faster to work the soil with durable stone tools, as well as to clear new plots of land from trees.

At the same time, the first animals were tamed by man. Thus, the way of life of primitive man gradually improved. This was also facilitated by the transition to a settled way of life, 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 solid logs from them, from which warm and durable buildings were then folded.

Types of Neolithic building materials

Of course, use as a building material 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 dwellings.

The building material of the Neolithic era was the most diverse. Residents of each locality erected dwellings from the most accessible and common materials. So for the construction and decoration of dwellings, the following types of materials were used:

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

With the further improvement of tools, building technologies are also developing more and more. Thus, the work of man is gradually facilitated.

Trypillia culture

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

Types of dwellings of the Neolithic era

The further development of human society required the rallying 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 tribal groups.

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

A similar site, dated 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 a whole primitive family.

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

So, there were parking lots, which included several separate dugouts of a very small size, designed to accommodate 5-6 people. The dugouts were covered with a hut from above.

The dwelling of a man of the Stone Age - reconstruction in the Archaeological Museum

In the center of the building there was a hearth for heating housing and cooking - this was the unpretentious Neolithic era. But even such a primitive arrangement of housing was a significant step forward for the ancient man.

The change in the social system, and the gradual separation of the pair family lead to the appearance of separate houses of a small area (up to 25 - 30 square meters).

In the villages, such houses were located according to a different scheme. In particular, about the settlement of the Trypillia culture in the Kolomyia region (III-II millennium BC), it can be said that the buildings were located in the form of two concentric circles, which created a certain sense of security for the inner part of the settlement, the central part of which remained free. Apparently, in the center of the village, ritual ceremonies were performed and festivities were held.

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