8 what are syncretic arts. Artistic culture of primitive society: syncretism and magic

A special kind of synthesis of arts - syncretism was a form of existence of ancient art. This form of synthesis was characterized by an undivided, organic unity of different arts, which had not yet spun off from a single original historical stem of culture, which included in each of its phenomena not only the rudiments of various types of artistic activity, but also the rudiments of scientific, philosophical, religious and moral consciousness.

The worldview of the ancient man was of a syncretic nature, in which fantasy and reality, realistic and symbolic, were mixed. Everything that surrounded a person was conceived as a single whole. For primitive man, the supernatural world was closely connected with nature. This mystical unity was based on the fact that the supernatural is common to both nature and man.

Primitive syncretism is the indivisibility, the fusion of art, mythology, religion. Ancient man comprehended the world through myth. Mythology as a branch of culture is a holistic view of the world, transmitted in the form of oral narratives. The myth expressed the worldview and worldview of the era of its creation. The first myths were ritual ceremonies with dances, in which scenes from the life of the ancestors of a tribe or clan were played out, which were depicted as half-humans - half-animals. Descriptions and explanations of these rites were passed down from generation to generation, gradually separating themselves from the rites themselves - there was a transformation into myths in the proper sense of the word - stories about the life of totemic ancestors. Later, the content of myths is not only the deed of the ancestors, but also the deeds of real heroes who have done something exceptional. Along with the emergence of belief in demons and spirits, religious myths begin to be created. The most ancient monuments of art testify to the mythological relationship of man to nature. In his desire to master the forces of nature, man created magic apparatus. It is based on the principle of analogy - the belief in gaining power over an object through mastering its image. Primitive hunting magic is aimed at mastering the beast, its goal is a successful hunt. The center of magical rites in this case is the image of an animal. Since the image is perceived as a reality, the depicted animal as a real one, then the actions performed with the image are thought of as occurring in reality. The principle on which primitive magic is based lies at the basis of witchcraft common among all peoples. The first magical images can be considered handprints on the walls of caves and stones. It is a deliberately left sign of presence. Later it will become a sign of possession. Along with hunting magic and in connection with it, there is a cult of fertility, expressed in various forms. erotic magic. The religious or symbolic image of a woman, the feminine, which is found in the primitive art of Europe, Asia, Africa, in compositions depicting hunting, occupies an important place in rituals aimed at the reproduction of those species of animals and plants that are necessary for food. Studies have shown that most of the female figurines were placed in a specially designated place near the hearth.

Image of people in animal masks. These drawings indicate that the magical dressing of a person, disguise, was an essential part of both the hunt itself and the magic associated with it. Magical rites, where characters reincarnated as an animal often appeared, may also have been associated with some mythological heroes who had the appearance of an animal. Various rituals, which included dances, theatrical performances, had the goal of attracting the beast, mastering it or enhancing its fertility.

In modern traditional art, as well as in primitive art, art serves as a universal tool of magic, while at the same time performing a broader religious function. Rock carvings of the rain bull of the Bushmen, Australian Wongina, symbolic signs of the Dogon, statues of ancestors, masks and fetishes, decoration of utensils, painting on the bark - all this and much more has a special cult purpose. Everything plays an important role in rituals aimed at ensuring military victory, a good harvest, successful hunting or fishing, protection from diseases, etc.

The connection of art with religion, which is found already in the Paleolithic era and can be traced right up to the modern era, was the reason for the manifestation of the theory according to which art is derived from religion: "religion is the mother of art." However, the syncretic nature of primitive culture and the specific forms of primitive art suggest that even before religious ideas were formed, art already partially performed those functions that only later would form certain aspects of magico-religious activity. Art appeared and was already sufficiently developed when religious ideas were only in their infancy. Moreover, there is enough reason to believe that it was the development of pictorial activity that stimulated the emergence of such early cults as hunting magic. The objective existence of religion is unthinkable outside of art. All major religious cults and rites everywhere and at all times were closely associated with various types of art. From the oldest forms of traditional rites, which use sculpture and painting (masks, statues, body paintings and tattoos, drawings on the ground, rock art, etc.), music, singing, recitative, and where the whole complex as a whole is a special a kind of theatrical action, up to the modern church, which is a real synthesis of strictly canonized art - everything is so permeated with art that in these collective actions it is almost impossible to distinguish religious ecstasy from that which is caused by the actual rhythms of painting, plastic arts, music, singing.

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abstract

Artistic culture of primitive society: syncretism and magic

Introduction

figurative primitive art rite

The origins and roots of our culture are in primitive times.

Primitiveness is the childhood of mankind. Most of the history of mankind falls on the period of primitiveness.

Under primitive culture, it is customary to understand an archaic culture that characterizes the beliefs, traditions and art of peoples who lived more than 30 thousand years ago and died long ago, or those peoples (for example, tribes lost in the jungle) that exist today, preserving intact the primitive Lifestyle. Primitive culture covers mainly the art of the Stone Age, it is pre - and non-literate culture.

Together with mythology and religious beliefs, primitive man developed the ability to perceive and depict reality in an artistic way. A number of researchers believe that the artistic creativity of primitive people could be more accurately called "pre-art", since it had a magical, symbolic meaning to a greater extent.

It is difficult now to name the date when the first artistic abilities appeared, inherent in human nature. It is known that the very first works of human hands discovered by archaeologists are tens and hundreds of thousands of years old. Among them are various products made of stone and bone.

Anthropologists associate the true emergence of art with the appearance of homo sapiens, which is otherwise called Cro-Magnon man. Cro-Magnons (as these people were named after the place of the first discovery of their remains in the Cro-Magnon grotto in southern France), who appeared from 40 to 35 thousand years ago.

Most of the products were designed for survival, so they were far from decorative and aesthetic purposes and performed purely practical tasks. Man used them to increase his security and survival in a difficult world. However, even in those prehistoric times, there were attempts to work with clay and metals, to scratch drawings or to make inscriptions on cave walls. The same household utensils that were in the dwellings already had noticeable tendencies to describe the surrounding world and develop a certain artistic taste.

The purpose of my work is to determine the role of artistic culture in primitive society.

To achieve this goal, I put forward the following tasks:

Studying the history of the development of the culture of primitive society

Determination of the features of primitive art.

Analysis of its role in primitive society.

1 . Perhyodization of primitiveness

The oldest human tool dates back to about 2.5 million years ago. According to the materials from which people made tools, archaeologists divide the history of the Primitive World into stone, copper, bronze and iron ages.

The Stone Age is divided into ancient (Paleolithic), middle (Neolithic) and new (Neolithic). The approximate chronological boundaries of the Stone Age are over 2 million - 6 thousand years ago. The Paleolithic, in turn, is divided into three periods: lower, middle and upper (or late). The Stone Age was replaced by the Copper Age (Neolithic), which lasted 4-3 thousand BC. Then came the Bronze Age (4th-beginning of the 1st millennium BC), at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. it was replaced by the Iron Age.

Primitive man mastered the skills of agriculture and cattle breeding for less than ten thousand years. Prior to this, for hundreds of millennia, people obtained their livelihood in three ways: gathering, hunting and fishing. Even in the early stages of development, the mind of our distant ancestors affected. Paleolithic sites, as a rule, are located on capes and when enemies enter one or another wide valley. Rough terrain was more convenient for driven hunting for herds of large animals. Its success was ensured not by the perfection of the tool (in the Paleolithic, these were darts and horns), but by the complex tactics of beaters chasing mammoths or bison. Later, by the beginning of the Mesolithic, bows and arrows appeared. By that time, the mammoth and rhinoceros had died out, and small, shameless mammals had to be hunted. It was not the size and coherence of the team of beaters that became decisive, but the dexterity and accuracy of an individual hunter. In the Mesolithic, fishing also developed, nets and hooks were invented.

These technical achievements - the result of a long search for the most reliable, most expedient tools of production - did not change the essence of the matter. Mankind still appropriated only the products of nature.

The question of how this ancient society, based on the appropriation of products of wild nature, developed into more advanced forms of farming and pastoralism, is the most difficult problem of historical science. In the excavations carried out by scientists, signs of agriculture dating back to the Mesolithic era were found. These are sickles, consisting of silicon inserts inserted into bone handles, and grain grinders.

In the very nature of man lies the fact that he cannot be only a part of nature: he forms himself by means of art.

Osothe virtues of primitive art

For the first time, the involvement of hunters and gatherers of the Stone Age in the fine arts was attested to by the famous archaeologist Eduard Larte, who found an engraved plate in 1837 in the Shaffo grotto. He also discovered the image of a mammoth on a piece of mammoth bone in the grotto of La Madeleine (France).

A characteristic feature of art at a very early stage was syncretism.

Human activity associated with the artistic development of the world, simultaneously contributed to the formation of homo sapiens (reasonable man). At this stage, the possibilities of all psychological processes and experiences of primitive man were in their infancy - in a collective unconscious state, in the so-called archetype.

As a result of the discoveries of archaeologists, it was found that monuments of art appeared immeasurably later than tools, almost a million years.

Monuments of Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic hunting art show us what people's attention was focused on at that time. Paintings and engravings on rocks, sculptures made of stone, clay, wood, drawings on vessels are devoted exclusively to scenes of hunting game animals.

The main object of creativity of the Paleolithic Mesolithic and Neolithic times were animals.

And rock carvings and figurines help us to capture the most essential in primitive thinking. The spiritual forces of the hunter are aimed at comprehending the laws of nature. The very life of primitive man depends on this. The hunter studied the habits of a wild beast to the smallest subtleties, which is why the artist of the Stone Age was able to show them so convincingly. Man himself did not enjoy as much attention as the outside world, which is why there are so few images of people in cave paintings and Paleolithic sculptures are so close in the full sense of the word.

The main artistic feature of primitive art was the symbolic form, the conditional nature of the image. Symbols are both realistic images and conventional ones. Often, works of primitive art represent entire systems of symbols that are complex in their structure, carrying a great aesthetic load, with the help of which a wide variety of concepts or human feelings are conveyed.

Culture in the Paleolithic Age. Originally not separated into a special type of activity and connected with hunting and the labor process, primitive art reflected a person's gradual knowledge of reality, his first ideas about the world around him. Some art historians distinguish three stages of visual activity in the Paleolithic era. Each of them is characterized by a qualitatively new pictorial form. Natural creativity - composition of ink, bones, natural layout. It includes the following moments: ritual actions with the carcass of a killed animal, and later with its skin thrown over a stone or rock ledge. Subsequently, a stucco basis for this skin appears. The animal sculpture was an elementary form of creativity. The next second stage - an artificial pictorial form includes artificial means of creating an image, the gradual accumulation of "creative" experience, which was expressed at the beginning in a full volume sculpture, and then in a bas-relief simplification.

The third stage is characterized by the further development of the Upper Paleolithic art, associated with the appearance of expressive artistic images in color and three-dimensional representation. The most characteristic images of painting of this period are represented by cave paintings. The drawings were made with ocher and other paints, the secret of which has not been found to this day. The palette of the Stone Age is visible, it has four basic colors: black, white, red and yellow. The first two were rarely used.

Similar stages can be traced in the study of the musical layer of primitive art. The musical principle was not separated from movement, gestures, exclamations and facial expressions.

The musical element of natural pantomime included: imitation of the sounds of nature - onomatopoeic motifs; artificial intonation form - motifs, with a fixed pitch position of the tone; intonation creativity; two - and trisonic motives.

An ancient musical instrument made from mammoth bones was discovered in one of the houses at the Mizinskaya site. It was intended to reproduce noise and rhythmic sounds.

The subtle and soft tradition of tones, the imposition of one paint on another sometimes create the impression of volume, a feeling of the texture of the skin of an animal. For all its vital expressiveness and realistic generalization, Paleolithic art remains intuitively spontaneous. It consists of individual concrete images, it has no background, no composition in the modern sense of the word.

Primitive artists became the pioneers of all types of fine arts: graphics (drawings and silhouettes), paintings (images in color, made with mineral paints), sculptures (figures carved from stone or molded from clay). They also excelled in decorative art - stone and bone carving, relief.

A special area of ​​primitive art is ornament. It was used very widely already in the Paleolithic. Bracelets, all kinds of figurines carved from mammoth tusk are covered with geometric patterns. Geometric ornament is the main element of Mizinsky art. This ornament consists mainly of many zigzag lines.

What does this abstract pattern mean and how did it come about? There have been many attempts to resolve this issue. The geometric style did not really correspond to the brilliant realist drawings of cave art. Having studied the cut structure of mammoth tusks with the help of magnifying instruments, the researchers noticed that they also consist of zigzag patterns, very similar to the zigzag ornamental motifs of the Mezin products. Thus, the pattern drawn by nature itself turned out to be the basis of the Mezin geometric ornament. But the ancient artists not only copied nature, they introduced new combinations and elements into the original ornament.

Vessels of the Stone Age, found in the sites of the Urals, had rich ornamentation. Most often, the drawings were squeezed out with special stamps. They were usually made from round, carefully polished flat pebbles of yellowish or greenish stones with sparkles. Cuts were made along their sharp edges; stamps were also made of bone, wood, and shells. If you press such a stamp on wet clay, a pattern similar to the impression of a comb is applied. The impression of such a stamp is often called comb, or serrated.

In all the cases carried out, the original plot for the ornament is determined relatively easily, but, as a rule, it is almost impossible to guess it. The French archaeologist A. Breuil traced the stages of schematization of the image of a roe deer in the late Paleolithic art of Western Europe - from the silhouette of an animal with horns to a kind of flower.

Primitive artists also created works of art in small forms, primarily small figurines. The earliest of them, carved from mammoth tusk, from marl and chalk, belong to polealite.

Some researchers of Upper Paleolithic art believe that the most ancient monuments of art, according to the purposes they served, were not only art, they had a religious and magical significance, they oriented man in nature.

Culture in the Mesolithic and Neolithic eras. Later stages in the development of primitive culture date back to the Mesolithic, Neolithic, and to the time of the spread of the first metal tools. From the appropriation of the finished products of nature, primitive man gradually passes to more complex forms of labor, along with hunting and fishing, he begins to engage in agriculture and cattle breeding. In the new Stone Age, the first artificial material invented by man appeared - refractory clay. Previously, people used what nature gave - stone, wood, bone. Farmers depicted animals much less often than hunters, but they decorated the surface of clay vessels with magnification.

In the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, the ornament survived the dawn, and images appeared. Transmitting more complex and abstract concepts. Many types of arts and crafts were formed - ceramics, metalworking. Bows, arrows and pottery appeared. On the territory of our country, the first metal products appeared about 9 thousand years ago. They were forged - casting appeared much later.

Culture of the Bronze Age. Starting from the Bronze Age, bright images of animals almost disappear. Dry geometric schemes are spreading everywhere. For example, profiles of mountain goats carved on the cliffs of the mountains of Azerbaijan, Dagestan, Central and Central Asia. People spend less and less effort on creating petroglyphs, hastily scratching small figures on the stone. And although in some places the drawings break even today, the ancient art will never be revived. It has exhausted its possibilities. All his highest achievements are in the past.

The last stage in the development of the Bronze Age tribes in the Northwestern Caucasus is characterized by the existence of a large center of metallurgy and metalworking. Copper ores were mined, copper was smelted, and the production of finished products from alloys (bronze) was established.

At the end of this period, along with bronze objects, iron objects begin to appear, which mark the beginning of a new period.

The development of productive forces leads to the fact that part of the pastoral tribes go over to nomadic pastoralism. Other tribes, continuing to lead a settled way of life based on agriculture, are moving to a higher stage of development - to plow agriculture. At this time, there are social shifts among the tribes.

In the late period of primitive society, artistic crafts developed: products were made from bronze, gold and silver.

Types of settlements and burials. By the end of the primitive era, a new type of architectural structures appeared - fortresses. Most often, these are structures made of huge, roughly hewn stones, which have been preserved in many places in Europe and the Caucasus. And in the middle, forest. Strip of Europe from the second half of the 1st millennium BC. settlements and burials spread.

Settlements are divided into fortified (cities, settlements) and fortified (fortifications). Settlements and settlements are usually called monuments of the Bronze and Iron Ages. The settlements are understood as settlements of the Stone and Bronze Ages. The term "parking" is very conditional. Now it is being replaced by the concept of "settlement". A special place is occupied by Mesolithic settlements called kyekenmeddings, which means "kitchen heaps" (they look like long heaps of oyster shell waste). The name is Danish, since these types of monuments were first discovered in Denmark. On the territory of our country, they are found in the Far East. Excavations of settlements provide information about the life of ancient people.

A special type of settlements - Roman terramaras - fortified settlements on piles. The building material of these settlements is marl, a type of shell rock. Unlike the piled settlements of the Stone Age, the Romans built terramaras not in a swamp or lake, but in a dry place, and then the entire space around the buildings was filled with water to protect them from enemies.

Burials are divided into two main types: grave structures (mounds, megaliths, tombs) and ground, that is, without any grave structures. At the base of many mounds of the Yamnaya culture, a cromlech stood out - a belt of stone blocks or slabs placed on edge. The size of the pit mounds is very impressive. The diameter of their cromlechs reaches 20 meters, and the height of other heavily swollen mounds even now exceeds 7 meters. Sometimes stone tombstones, tomb statues, stone women - stone statues of a person (warriors, women) rose on the mounds. The stone woman was an inseparable whole with the mound and was created with the expectation of a high earthen pedestal, for a view from all sides of the most remote points.

The period when people adapted to nature, and all art was reduced, in fact, “to the image of the beast”, has ended. The period of man's dominance over nature and the dominance of his image in art began.

The most complex structures are megalithic burials, that is, burials in tombs built of large stones - dolmens, menhirs. Dolmens are widespread in Western Europe and in the south of Russia. Once in the north-west of the Caucasus, dolmens numbered in the hundreds.

The earliest of them were erected more than four thousand years ago by tribes that had already mastered agriculture, cattle breeding and copper smelting. But the builders of dolmens did not yet know iron, had not yet tamed the horse and had not yet lost the habit of stone tools. These people were very poorly equipped with construction equipment. Nevertheless, they created such stone structures that not only the Caucasian aborigines of the previous era did not leave behind, but also the tribes who later lived along the shores of the Black Sea. It was necessary to try many variants of structures before coming to the classical design - four slabs placed on the edge, bearing the fifth - a flat ceiling.

Engraved megalithic tombs are also a monument of the primitive era.

Menhirs are individual stone pillars. There are menhirs up to 21 meters long and weighing about 300 tons. In Carnac (France), 2683 menhirs are arranged in rows in the form of long stone alleys. Sometimes the stones were arranged in the form of a circle - this is already a cromlech.

Chapter 2:Definition

* Syncretism - the indivisibility of various types of cultural creativity, characteristic of the early stages of its development. (Literary Encyclopedia)

* Syncretism - a combination of rhythmic, orchestic movements with song-music and word elements. (A.N. Veselovsky)

* Syncretism - (from the Greek synkretismos - connection)

o Indivisibility characterizing the undeveloped state of any phenomenon (for example, art in the initial stages of human culture, when music, singing, dancing were not separated from each other).

o Mixing, inorganic fusion of heterogeneous elements (for example, various cults and religious systems). (Modern Encyclopedia)

* Magic is a symbolic action or inaction aimed at achieving a certain goal in a supernatural way. (G.E. Markov)

Magic (witchcraft, sorcery) is at the origins of any religion and is a belief in the supernatural ability of a person to influence people and natural phenomena.

Totemism is associated with the belief in the kinship of the tribe with totems, which are usually certain types of animals or plants.

Fetishism is a belief in the supernatural properties of certain objects - fetishes (amulets, amulets, talismans) that can protect a person from harm.

Animism is associated with ideas about the existence of the soul and spirits that affect people's lives.

Fine art of primitive people

During excavations, we often find images of the head of a rhinoceros, a deer, a horse, and even the head of an entire mammoth carved on ivory. These drawings breathe some kind of wild mysterious power, and in any case, undoubted talent.

As soon as a person provides for himself at least a little, as soon as he feels safe in the slightest degree, his look is looking for beauty. He is amazed by the bright colors of paints - he paints his body with all kinds of colors, rubs it with fat, hangs it with necklaces of berries, fruit stones, bones and roots strung on a cord, even drills into his skin to fix jewelry. Thick nets of vines teach him to weave his own beds for the night, and he weaves a primitive hammock, equalizing sides and ends, taking care of beauty and symmetry. The elastic branches make him think of a bow. By rubbing one piece of wood against another, a spark is produced. And, along with these necessary discoveries of extraordinary importance, he takes care of dancing, rhythmic movements, bunches of beautiful feathers on his head and careful painting of his physiognomy.

Paleolithic

The main occupation of the Upper Paleolithic man was the collective hunting of large animals (mammoth, cave bear, deer). Its extraction provided society with food, clothing, building material. It was on hunting that the efforts of the oldest human collective were concentrated, which represented not only specific physical actions, but also their emotional experience. The excitement of the hunters (“excessive emotions”), reaching its climax at the moment of the destruction of the beast, did not stop at the same second, but continued further, causing a whole range of new actions of the primitive man in the animal carcass. "Natural pantomime" is a phenomenon in which the rudiments of artistic activity are focused - a plastic action played around an animal carcass. As a result, the initially naturalistic "excessive action" gradually turned into such human activity, which created a new spiritual substance - art. One of the elements of "natural pantomime" is an animal carcass, from which the thread stretches to the origins of fine art.

Artistic activity also had a syncretic character and was not divided into genera, genres, types. All its results had an applied, utilitarian character, but at the same time they also retained a ritual and magical significance.

From generation to generation, the technique of making tools and some of its secrets were passed down (for example, the fact that a stone heated on fire is easier to process after cooling). Excavations at the sites of Upper Paleolithic people testify to the development of primitive hunting beliefs and witchcraft among them. From clay they sculpted figurines of wild animals and pierced them with darts, imagining that they were killing real predators. They also left hundreds of carved or painted images of animals on the walls and arches of the caves. Archaeologists have proven that monuments of art appeared immeasurably later than tools - almost a million years.

Historically, the first artistic and figurative expression of man's ideas about the world was primitive fine art. Its most significant manifestation is rock painting. The drawings consisted of compositions of military struggle, hunting, cattle driving, etc. Cave paintings try to convey movement, dynamics.

Rock drawings and paintings are diverse in the manner of execution. The mutual proportions of the depicted animals (mountain goat, lion, mammoths and bison) were usually not respected - a huge tour could be depicted next to a tiny horse. Non-compliance with proportions did not allow the primitive artist to subordinate the composition to the laws of perspective (the latter, by the way, was discovered very late - in the 16th century). Movement in cave painting is transmitted through the position of the legs (crossing legs, for example, depicted an animal on the run), tilt of the body or turn of the head. There are almost no moving figures.

When creating rock art, primitive man used natural dyes and metal oxides, which he either used in pure form or mixed with water or animal fat. He applied these paints to the stone with his hand or with brushes made of tubular bones with tufts of hairs of wild animals at the end, and sometimes he blown colored powder through the tubular bone onto the damp wall of the cave. Paint not only outlined the contour, but painted over the entire image. To make rock carvings using the deep cut method, the artist had to use coarse cutting tools. Massive stone chisels were found at the site of Le Roque de Ser. The drawings of the Middle and Late Paleolithic are characterized by a more subtle elaboration of the contour, which is conveyed by several shallow lines. Painted drawings, engravings on bones, tusks, horns or stone tiles were made using the same technique.

Archaeologists have never found landscape drawings in the Old Stone Age. Why? Perhaps this once again proves the primacy of the religious and secondary aesthetic functions of culture. Animals were feared and worshiped, trees and plants were only admired.

Both zoological and anthropomorphic images suggested their ritual use. In other words, they performed a cult function. Thus, religion (the veneration of those depicted by primitive people) and art (the aesthetic form of what was depicted) arose almost simultaneously. Although, for some reasons, it can be assumed that the first form of reflection of reality originated earlier than the second. Since the images of animals had a magical purpose, the process of their creation was a kind of ritual, therefore, such drawings are mostly hidden deep in the depths of the cave, in underground passages several hundred meters long, and the height of the vault often does not exceed half a meter. In such places, the Cro-Magnon artist had to work lying on his back in the light of bowls with burning animal fat. However, more often rock paintings are located in accessible places, at a height of 1.5-2 meters. They are found both on the ceilings of caves and on vertical walls.

The person is rarely depicted. If this happens, then a clear preference will be given to a woman. A magnificent monument in this regard can serve as a female sculpture found in Austria - "Venus of Willendorf". This sculpture has remarkable features: the head is without a face, the limbs are only outlined, while the sexual characteristics are sharply emphasized.

Paleolithic Venuses are small sculptures of women who were depicted with pronounced signs of gender: large breasts, a bulging belly, and a powerful pelvis. This gives grounds to draw a conclusion about their connection with the ancient fertility cult, about their role as cult objects.

It is very interesting that in the same monument of the Late Paleolithic, female statuettes are usually presented, not of the same type, but of different styles. Comparison of the styles of Paleolithic art, along with technical traditions, made it possible to discover striking and, moreover, specific features of the similarity of finds between remote areas. Similar "Venuses" have been found in France, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic, Russia and many other parts of the world.

In addition to the images of animals on the walls, there are images of human figures in frightening masks: hunters performing magical dances or religious rites.

Both rock carvings and figurines help us capture the most essential in primitive thinking. The spiritual forces of the hunter are aimed at comprehending the laws of nature. The very life of primitive man depends on this. The hunter studied the habits of a wild beast to the smallest subtleties, which is why the artist of the Stone Age was able to show them so convincingly. The man himself did not enjoy such attention as the outside world, which is why there are so few images of people in the cave paintings of France and so faceless in the full sense of the word Paleolithic sculptures.

The composition "Fighting Archers" is one of the most striking Mesolithic compositions (Spain). The first thing you should pay attention to is the content of the image associated with the person. The second point is the means of representation: one of the episodes of life (the battle of archers) is reproduced with the help of eight human figures. The latter are variants of a single iconographic motif: a person in rapid motion is depicted by somewhat zigzag dense lines, slightly swelling in the upper part of the “linear” torso and a rounded spot of the head. The main pattern in the arrangement of the iconographically unified eight figures is their repetition at a certain distance from each other.

So, we have before us an example of a clearly expressed new approach to solving a plot scene, due to an appeal to the compositional principle of organizing the depicted material, on the basis of which an expressive and semantic whole is created.

A similar phenomenon becomes a characteristic feature of Mesolithic rock paintings. Another example is Dancing Women (Spain). The same principle prevails here: the repetition of an iconographic motif (a female figure in a conventionally schematic manner, depicted in silhouette with an exaggerated narrow waist, a triangular head, a bell-shaped skirt; repeated 9 times).

Thus, the considered works testify to a new level of artistic comprehension of reality, expressed in the appearance of a compositional "design" of various plot scenes.

Culture continues to develop, religious ideas, cults and rituals become much more complicated. In particular, faith in the afterlife and the cult of ancestors is growing. The burial ritual is carried out by burying things and everything necessary for the afterlife, complex burial grounds are being built.

The visual art of the Neolithic era is enriched with a new type of creativity - painted ceramics. The earliest examples include pottery from the settlements of Karadepe and Geoksyur in Central Asia. Ceramic products are distinguished by the simplest form. The painting uses a geometric ornament placed on the body of the vessel. All signs have a certain meaning associated with the emerging animistic (animate) perception of nature. In particular, the cross is one of the solar signs denoting the sun and the moon.

The transition from matriarchy to patriarchy also had serious consequences for culture. This event is sometimes defined as the historical defeat of women. It entailed a profound restructuring of the entire way of life, the emergence of new traditions, norms, stereotypes, values ​​and value orientations.

As a result of these and other shifts and transformations, profound changes are taking place in the entire spiritual culture. Along with the further complication of religion, mythology appears. The first myths were ritual ceremonies with dances, in which scenes from the life of distant totemistic ancestors of a given tribe or clan were played out, which were depicted as half-humans - half-animals. Descriptions and explanations of these rites were passed down from generation to generation, gradually separated from the rites themselves and turned into myths in the proper sense of the word - stories about the life of totemic ancestors.

2. Primitive syncretism

Initially, the boundaries between the artistic and non-artistic (life-practical, communicative, religious, etc.) spheres of human activity were very indefinite, vague, and sometimes simply elusive. In this sense, people often talk about the syncretism of primitive culture, meaning its characteristic diffuseness of different ways of practical and spiritual exploration of the world.

The peculiarity of the initial stage of the artistic development of mankind lies in the fact that we also do not find there any definite and clear genre-specific structure. Verbal creativity is not yet separated in it from the musical, the epic from the lyrical, the historical and mythological from the everyday. And in this sense, aesthetics has long been talking about the syncretism of early art forms, while the morphological expression of such syncretism is amorphism, that is, the absence of a crystallized structure.

Syncretism prevailed in various spheres of life of primitive people, mixing and connecting seemingly unrelated things and phenomena:

* syncretism of society and nature. Primitive man perceived himself as an organic part of nature, feeling his kinship with all living beings, without separating himself from the natural world;

* syncretism of the personal and the public. Primitive man identified himself with the community to which he belonged. "I" replaced the existence of "we" as a species. The emergence of man in his modern form was associated with the displacement or replacement of individuality, which manifested itself only at the level of instincts;

* syncretism of various spheres of culture. Art, religion, medicine, agriculture, animal husbandry, handicrafts, food procurement were not isolated from each other. Objects of art (masks, drawings, figurines, musical instruments, etc.) have long been used mainly as objects of everyday life;

* syncretism as a principle of thinking. In the thinking of primitive man there was no clear opposition between the subjective and the objective; observed and imagined; external and internal; the living and the dead; material and spiritual. An important feature of primitive thinking was the syncretic perception of symbols and reality, of the word and the object that this word denoted. Therefore, by harming an object or an image of a person, it was considered possible to inflict real harm on them. This led to the emergence of fetishism - the belief in the ability of objects to have supernatural powers. The word was a special symbol in primitive culture. Names were perceived as part of a person or thing.

3. Magic. Rites

The world for primitive man was a living being. This life manifested itself in "personalities" - in man, animal and plant, in every phenomenon that a person encountered - in a clap of thunder, in an unfamiliar forest clearing, in a stone that unexpectedly hit him when he stumbled on a hunt. These phenomena were perceived as a kind of partner with his own will, "personal" qualities, and the experience of the collision subjugated not only the actions and feelings associated with this, but, to no lesser extent, the accompanying thoughts and explanations.

The most ancient in their origin forms of religion include: magic, fetishism, totemism, erotic rites, funeral cult. They are rooted in the conditions of life of primitive people. We will focus on magic in more detail.

The most ancient form of religion is magic (from the Greek megeia - magic), which is a series of symbolic actions and rituals with spells and rituals.

Magic, as one of the forms of primitive beliefs, appears at the dawn of the existence of mankind. It is to this time that researchers attribute the appearance of the first magical rituals and the use of magical amulets that were considered an aid in hunting, for example, necklaces made of fangs and claws of wild animals. The complex system of magical rites that developed in ancient times is now known from archaeological excavations and from descriptions of the life and way of life of peoples living in a primitive system. It is impossible to perceive it in isolation from other primitive beliefs - they were all closely interconnected.

The magical rites performed by the ancient sorcerers often represented a real theatrical performance. They were accompanied by chanting, dancing, or playing bone or wooden musical instruments. One of the elements of such sound accompaniment was often the colorful, noisy attire of the sorcerer himself.

Among many peoples, magicians, sorcerers often acted as communal "leaders", and even recognized tribal leaders. They were associated with the idea of ​​a special, as a rule, inherited, witchcraft power. Only the owner of such power could become a leader. Ideas about the magical power of the leaders and their extraordinary involvement in the world of spirits are still found on the islands of Polynesia. They believe in the special power of the leaders, which is inherited - mana. It was believed that with the help of this power, the leaders win military victories and directly interact with the world of spirits - their ancestors, their patrons. In order not to lose mana, the leader observed a strict system of prohibitions, taboos.

Primitive magical rites are difficult to restrict from the instinctive and reflex actions associated with material practice. Based on this role that magic plays in people's lives, the following types of magic can be distinguished: harmful, military, sexual (love), healing and protective, fishing, meteorological and other minor types of magic.

One of the most ancient are magical rites that ensured a successful hunt. In many primitive peoples, members of the community, led by their communal magician, turned to totem spirits for help in hunting. Often the rite included ritual dances. Images of such dances are conveyed to the present day by the art of the Stone Age of Eurasia. Judging by the surviving images, at the center of the ritual was a sorcerer-caster, who dressed in the "disguise" of one or another animal. At that moment, he seemed to resemble the spirits of the ancient ancestors of the tribe, half-humans, half-animals. He was going to enter the world of these spirits.

Often such ancestral spirits needed to be won over. Traces of the “appeasing” ritual were discovered by archaeologists on one of the Carpathian mountains. There primitive hunters for a long time piled up the remains of animals. The rite, apparently, contributed to the return of the souls of animals that died at the hands of man to the heavenly abode of spirits. And this, in turn, could convince the spirits not to be angry at people who exterminate their children.

Prayer is a ritual. On the Papuan island of Tanna, where the gods are the souls of dead ancestors, patronizing the growth of fruits, the leader says a prayer: “Compassionate father. Here is food for you; eat it and give it to us." In Africa, the Zulus think that it is enough to call on the ancestors, without mentioning what the one who prays needs: "Fathers of our house" (they say). When they sneeze, it is enough for them to hint at their needs if they are standing next to the spirit: “Children”, “cows”. Further, prayers that were previously free take on traditional forms. Among savages one can hardly find a prayer in which a moral good or forgiveness for an offense would be asked for. The beginnings of moral prayer are found among the semi-civilized Aztecs. Prayer is an appeal to a deity.

The sacrifice appears next to the prayer. Distinguish the theory of the gift, honoring or deprivation. At first, what was valuable was sacrificed, then little by little what was less valuable, until it came to worthless symbols and signs.

The gift theory is a primitive form of offering, with no idea what the gods do with the gifts. North American Indians make sacrifices to the earth by burying them in it. They also worship sacred animals, including humans. So, in Mexico, they worshiped a young captive. A large share of the offerings belongs to the priest as a servant of the deity. It was often believed that life is blood, so blood is sacrificed even to incorporeal spirits. In Virginia, the Indians sacrificed children and thought that the spirit was sucking blood from their left breasts. Since the spirit in early acmeism was considered as smoke, this idea can be traced in the rites of smoking.

Innumerable images of sacrificial ceremonies in the temples of ancient Egypt show the burning of incense balls in incense burners in front of images of the gods.

Even if the food is not touched, it may mean that the spirits have taken its essence. The soul of the victim is transferred to the spirits. There is also a transmission of sacrifices by fire. Motives: to get a benefit, to avoid the bad, to get help or forgiveness of an insult. Along with the fact that gifts are gradually turning into signs of reverence, a new doctrine arises, according to which the essence of sacrifice is not that the deity receives a gift, but that the worshiper sacrifices it. (Deprivation theory)

Rites - fasting - painful excitement for religious purposes. One such excitation is the use of drugs. Ecstasy and fainting are also caused by increased movements, singing, screaming.

Customs: burial of the body from east to west, which is associated with the cult of the sun. In none of the Christian ceremonies has the custom of turning east and west reached such fullness as in the rite of baptism. The one who was baptized was placed facing the west and forced to renounce Satan. The orientation of the temples to the east and the conversion of those who keep silent to the same direction was preserved both in the Greek and in the Roman churches.

Other rites of primitive magic were aimed at ensuring fertility. Since ancient times, various images of spirits and deities made of stone, bone, horn, amber, and wood have been used for these rites. First of all, these were figurines of the Great Mother - the embodiment of the fertility of the earth and living beings. In ancient times, figurines were broken, burned or thrown away after the ceremony. Many peoples believed that the long-term preservation of the image of a spirit or deity leads to its unnecessary and dangerous for people resurrection. But gradually such a revival ceases to be considered something undesirable. Already in the ancient Paleolithic settlement of Mezin in Ukraine, one of these figurines in the so-called sorcerer's house was fixed in an earthen floor. She probably served as the object of constant incantations.

Fertility was also ensured by the magical rites of calling rain, which were widespread among many peoples of the world. They are still preserved among some peoples. For example, among the Australian tribes, the magical rite of making rain goes like this: two people take turns scooping up enchanted water from a wooden trough and spraying it in different directions, at the same time making a slight noise with bunches of feathers in imitation of the sound of falling rain.

It seems that everything that fell into the field of view of an ancient person was filled with magical meaning. And any important, significant action for the clan (or tribe) was accompanied by a magical ritual. Rituals were also accompanied by the manufacture of ordinary, everyday items, such as pottery. This order can be traced among the peoples of Oceania and America, and among the ancient farmers of Central Europe. And on the islands of Oceania, the manufacture of boats turned into a real festival, accompanied by magical rites led by the leader. The entire adult male population of the community took part in it, spells and praises were sung for the long service of the ship. Similar, although less large-scale, rituals existed among many peoples of Eurasia.

Rites, incantations and performances dating back to primitive magic have survived the ages. They have firmly entered the cultural heritage of many peoples of the world. Magic continues to exist today.

Conclusion

The culture of primitive society - the most ancient period of human history from the appearance of the first people to the emergence of the first states - covers the longest and perhaps the least studied period of world culture. But we are all firmly convinced that everything that the ancient man did, all trial and error - all this served the further development of society.

Until now, we use, albeit improved, the techniques that our ancestors invented (in sculpture, painting, music, theater, etc.). And so there are still rites and rituals that were performed by ancient people. For example, they believed in God-Sky, who watches over everyone and can interfere in the lives of ordinary mortals - isn't this the "ancestor religion" of Christianity? Or the Goddess that was worshiped - this religion is the predecessor of modern Wicca.

Everything that happened in the past always finds echoes in the future.

Listusedliterature

1. Bagdasaryan N.G. Culturology: Textbook for students. tech. universities - M .: Higher. school, 1999.

2. Gnedich P.P. "World History of Art"

3. History of the Ancient World, 2006-2012

4. History of primitive society. General issues. Problems of anthroposocigenesis. Science, 1983.

5. Kagan. M.S. Forms of primitive art

6. Kravchenko A.I. Culturology: Textbook for universities. - 3rd ed. - M.: Academic project, 2001

7. Lyubimov L. The Art of the Ancient World, M., Enlightenment, 1971.

8. Literary encyclopedia. - In 11 volumes. Edited by V.M. Friche, A.V. Lunacharsky. 1929-1939.

9. Markova A.N. Culturology - Textbook, 2nd edition edited by

10. Pershits A.Ts. and others History of primitive society. M., Nauka, 1974.

11. Primitive society. The main problems of development. M., Nauka, 1975.

12. Sorokin P. The crisis of our time // Sorokin P. Man. Civilization. Society. M., 1992. S. 430.

13. Modern Encyclopedia, 2000

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Syncretism - in the broad sense of the word - the indivisibility of various types of cultural creativity, characteristic of the early stages of its development. Most often, however, this term is applied to the field of art, to the facts of the historical development of music, dance, drama and poetry. In the definition of A. N. Veselovsky S. - "a combination of rhythmic, orchestic movements with song-music and elements of the word."

The study of S.'s phenomena is extremely important for resolving questions of the origin and historical development of the arts. The very concept of "S." was put forward in science as a counterbalance to abstract-theoretical solutions to the problem of the origin of poetic genera (lyrics, epic and drama) in their supposedly sequential emergence. From the point of view of S.'s theory, both the construction of Hegel, who affirmed the sequence: epic - lyricism - drama, and the constructions of J. P. Richter, Benard, and others, who considered the original form of lyrics, are equally erroneous. From the middle of the XIX century. these constructions are increasingly giving way to the theory of S., the development of which is undoubtedly closely connected with the successes of bourgeois evolutionism. Already Carrière, who basically adhered to Hegel's scheme, was inclined to think about the initial indivisibility of poetic genera. G. Spencer also expressed the corresponding provisions. The idea of ​​S. is touched upon by a number of authors and finally formulated with complete certainty by Scherer, who, however, does not develop it in any broad way in relation to poetry. The task of an exhaustive study of the phenomena of S. and clarification of the ways of differentiation of poetic genera was set before himself by A. N. Veselovsky, in whose works (mainly in the “Three Chapters from Historical Poetics”) the theory of S. received the most striking and developed (for pre-Marxist literary criticism) development, substantiated by vast factual material.

In the construction of A. N. Veselovsky, the theory of secularism basically boils down to the following: in the period of its inception, poetry not only was not differentiated by gender (lyrics, epic, drama), but in general it itself was far from being the main element of a more complex syncretic whole: the leading role in this syncretic art was played by dance - “rhythmic orchestic movements accompanied by song-music”. The lyrics were originally improvised. These syncretic actions were significant not so much in meaning as in rhythm: sometimes they sang without words, and the rhythm beat on the drum, often the words were distorted and distorted to please the rhythm. Only later, on the basis of the complication of spiritual and material interests and the corresponding development of the language, "an exclamation and an insignificant phrase, repeated indiscriminately and understanding, as a support for a melody, will turn into something more integral, into a real text, an embryo of a poetic one." Initially, this development of the text was due to the improvisation of the lead singer, whose role grew more and more. The lead singer becomes a singer, only the chorus remains for the choir. Improvisation gave way to practice, which we can already call artistic. But even with the development of the text of these syncretic works, dance continues to play a significant role. The choral song-game is involved in the ritual, then connected with certain religious cults, the development of the myth is reflected in the nature of the song-poetic text. However, Veselovsky notes the presence of non-ritual songs - marching songs, work songs. In all these phenomena - the beginnings of various types of arts: music, dance, poetry. Artistic lyrics became isolated later than artistic epic. As for drama, in this matter A. N. Veselovsky resolutely (and rightly) rejects the old ideas about drama as a synthesis of epic and lyrics. The drama comes directly from the syncretic action. The further evolution of poetic art led to the separation of the poet from the singer and the differentiation of the language of poetry and the language of prose (in the presence of their mutual influences).

In all this construction of A. N. Veselovsky there is much that is true. First of all, he substantiated the idea of ​​the historicity of poetry and poetic genera in their content and form with a huge amount of factual material. The facts of S., attracted by A. N. Veselovsky, are not subject to doubt. With all this, on the whole, the construction of A. N. Veselovsky cannot be accepted by Marxist-Leninist literary criticism. First of all, in the presence of some individual (often correct) remarks about the connection between the development of poetic forms and the social process, A. N. Veselovsky interprets the problem of secularism as a whole in isolation, idealistically. Without considering syncretic art as a form of ideology, Veselovsky inevitably narrows the field of art to the phenomena of only art, only artistic creativity. Hence, not only a number of "blank spots" in Veselovsky's scheme, but also the general empirical character of the whole construction, in which the social interpretation of the analyzed phenomena does not go further than references to class-professional, etc. points. Essentially, questions about the relation of art (in its initial stages) to the development of language, to myth-making remain outside Veselovsky's field of vision, the connection between art and ritual is not fully and deeply considered, only a passing mention is made of such an essential phenomenon as labor songs, etc. e. Meanwhile, S. encompasses the most diverse aspects of the culture of pre-class society, and is by no means limited to forms of artistic creativity. Given this, it is possible to assume that the path of development of poetic genera from syncretic "rhythmic, orchestic movements with song-music and word elements" is not the only one. It is no coincidence that A. N. Veselovsky blurs the question of the significance of oral prose traditions for the initial history of the epic: mentioning them in passing, he cannot find a place for them in his scheme. It is possible to take into account and explain the phenomena of S. in their entirety only by revealing the social and labor basis of primitive culture and the various connections that connect the artistic creativity of primitive man with his labor activity.

G. V. Plekhanov went in this direction in explaining the phenomena of primitive syncretic art, widely using Bucher's work “Work and Rhythm”, but at the same time arguing with the author of this study. Fairly and convincingly refuting Bucher's position that play is older than labor and art is older than the production of useful objects, G. V. Plekhanov reveals the close connection between primitive art-play and the labor activity of a pre-class person and with his beliefs conditioned by this activity. This is the undoubted value of the work of G. V. Plekhanov in this direction (see mainly his "Letters without an address"). However, for all the value of the work of G. V. Plekhanov, in the presence of a materialistic core in it, it suffers from flaws inherent in Plekhanov's methodology. Biologicalism, which has not been completely overcome, is manifested in it (for example, imitation of animal movements in dances is explained by the “pleasure” experienced by primitive man from discharging energy when reproducing his hunting movements). Here is the root of Plekhanov's theory of art-play, based on an erroneous interpretation of the phenomena of the syncretic connection between art and play in the culture of "primitive" man (partially remaining in the games of highly cultured peoples). Of course, the syncretism of art and play takes place at certain stages of the development of culture, but this is precisely a connection, but not an identity: both are different forms of showing reality, - play is an imitative reproduction, art is an ideological and figurative reflection. The phenomenon of S. receives a different coverage in the works of the founder of the Japhetic theory - Acad. N. Ya. Marra. Recognizing the language of movements and gestures (“manual or linear language”) as the most ancient form of human speech, Acad. Marr connects the origin of sound speech, along with the origin of the three arts - dancing, singing and music - with magical actions that were considered necessary for the success of production and accompanied this or that collective labor process ("Japhetic theory", p. 98, etc.). So. arr. S., according to the instructions of Acad. Marr, also included the word (“epos”), “the further shaping of the rudimentary sound language and development in terms of forms depended on the forms of society, and in the sense of meanings on the social worldview, first cosmic, then tribal, estate, class, etc. » ("On the origin of language"). So in the concept of acad. Marra S. loses its narrow aesthetic character, being associated with a certain period in the development of human society, forms of production and primitive thinking.

S.'s problem has not yet been sufficiently developed. It can only receive its final resolution on the basis of a Marxist-Leninist interpretation of both the process of the emergence of syncretic art in a pre-class society and the process of its differentiation under the conditions of social relations of a class society (see “Poetic Generations”, “Drama”, “Lyrics”, “ Epos, Ritual Poetry).

Syncretism

Syncretism

SYNCRETISM - in the broad sense of the word - the indivisibility of various types of cultural creativity, characteristic of the early stages of its development. Most often, however, this term is applied to the field of art, to the facts of the historical development of music, dance, drama and poetry. In the definition of A.N. Veselovsky S. - "a combination of rhythmic, orchestic movements with song-music and elements of the word."
The study of S.'s phenomena is extremely important for resolving questions of the origin and historical development of the arts. The very concept of "S." was put forward in science as a counterbalance to abstract-theoretical solutions to the problem of the origin of poetic genera (lyrics, epic and drama) in their supposedly sequential emergence. From the point of view of the theory of S., both the construction of Hegel, who asserted the sequence: epic - lyric poetry - drama, and the construction of J.P. Richter, Benard and others, who considered the original form of lyrics, are equally erroneous. From the middle of the XIX century. these constructions are increasingly giving way to the theory of S., the development of which is undoubtedly closely connected with the successes of bourgeois evolutionism. Already Carrière, who basically adhered to Hegel's scheme, was inclined to think about the initial indivisibility of poetic genera. G. Spencer also expressed the corresponding provisions. The idea of ​​S. is touched upon by a number of authors and finally formulated with complete certainty by Scherer, who, however, does not develop it in any broad way in relation to poetry. The task of an exhaustive study of the phenomena of S. and clarification of the ways of differentiation of poetic genera was set by A.N. Veselovsky (see), in the works of which (mainly in the “Three Chapters from Historical Poetics”) S.’s theory received the most vivid and developed ( for pre-Marxist literary criticism) development, substantiated by a huge amount of factual material.
In the construction of A.N. Veselovsky, the theory of secularism basically boils down to the following: in the period of its inception, poetry not only was not differentiated by gender (lyrics, epic, drama), but in general it itself was far from being the main element of a more complex syncretic whole: the leading role in this syncretic art was played by dance - “rhythmic orchestic movements accompanied by song-music”. The lyrics were originally improvised. These syncretic actions were significant not so much in meaning as in rhythm: sometimes they sang without words, and the rhythm beat on the drum, often the words were distorted and distorted to please the rhythm. Only later, on the basis of the complication of spiritual and material interests and the corresponding development of the language, "an exclamation and an insignificant phrase, repeated indiscriminately and understanding, as a support for a melody, will turn into something more integral, into a real text, an embryo of a poetic one." Initially, this development of the text was due to the improvisation of the lead singer, the role of which increased more and more. The lead singer becomes a singer, only the chorus remains for the choir. Improvisation gave way to practice, which we can already call artistic. But even with the development of the text of these syncretic works, dance continues to play a significant role. The choral song-game is involved in the ritual, then connected with certain religious cults, the development of the myth is reflected in the nature of the song-poetic text. However, Veselovsky notes the presence of non-ritual songs - marching songs, work songs. In all these phenomena - the beginnings of various types of arts: music, dance, poetry. Artistic lyrics became isolated later than artistic epic. As for the drama, in this matter A.N. Veselovsky resolutely (and rightly) rejects the old ideas about drama as a synthesis of epic and lyrics. The drama comes directly from the syncretic action. The further evolution of poetic art led to the separation of the poet from the singer and the differentiation of the language of poetry and the language of prose (in the presence of their mutual influences).
In all this construction of A.N. Veselovsky there is much that is true. First of all, he substantiated the idea of ​​the historicity of poetry and poetic genera in their content and form with a huge amount of factual material. There is no doubt about the facts of S., attracted by A.N. Veselovsky. With all this, in general, the construction of A.N. Veselovsky cannot be accepted by Marxist-Leninist literary criticism. First of all, in the presence of some separate (often correct) remarks about the connection between the development of poetic forms and the social process, A.N. Veselovsky interprets the problem of secularism as a whole in isolation, idealistically. Without considering syncretic art as a form of ideology, Veselovsky inevitably narrows the field of art to the phenomena of only art, only artistic creativity. Hence, not only a number of "blank spots" in Veselovsky's scheme, but also the general empirical nature of the entire construction, in which the social interpretation of the analyzed phenomena does not go further than references to class-professional, etc. moments. Essentially, questions about the relation of art (in its initial stages) to the development of language, to myth-making remain outside Veselovsky's field of vision, the connection between art and ritual is not fully and deeply considered, only a passing mention is made of such an essential phenomenon as labor songs, etc. d. Meanwhile, S. embraces the most diverse aspects of the culture of pre-class society, by no means being limited only to the forms of artistic creativity. Given this, it is possible to assume that the path of development of poetic genera from syncretic "rhythmic, orchestic movements with song-music and word elements" is not the only one. It is no coincidence that A.N. Veselovsky lubricates the question of the significance of oral prose traditions for the initial history of the epic: casually mentioning them, he cannot find a place for them in his scheme. It is possible to take into account and explain the phenomena of S. in their entirety only by revealing the social and labor basis of primitive culture and the various connections that connect the artistic creativity of primitive man with his labor activity.
G.V. Plekhanov went in this direction in explaining the phenomena of primitive syncretic art, widely using Bucher's work “Work and Rhythm”, but at the same time arguing with the author of this study. Fairly and convincingly refuting Bucher's position that play is older than labor and art is older than the production of useful objects, G.V. Plekhanov reveals the close connection between primitive art-play and the labor activity of a pre-class person and with his beliefs conditioned by this activity. This is the undoubted value of the work of G.V. Plekhanov in this direction (see mainly his "Letters without an address"). However, for all the value of the work of G.V. Plekhanov, in the presence of a materialistic core in it, it suffers from flaws inherent in Plekhanov's methodology. Biologicalism, which has not been completely overcome, is manifested in it (for example, imitation of animal movements in dances is explained by the “pleasure” experienced by primitive man from discharging energy when reproducing his hunting movements). Here is the root of Plekhanov's theory of art-play, based on an erroneous interpretation of the phenomena of the syncretic connection between art and play in the culture of "primitive" man (partially remaining in the games of highly cultured peoples). Of course, the syncretism of art and play takes place at certain stages of the development of culture, but this is precisely a connection, but not an identity: both are different forms of showing reality, - play is an imitative reproduction, art is an ideological and figurative reflection. The phenomenon of S. receives a different coverage in the works of the founder of the Japhetic theory (see) - Acad. N.Ya.Marra. Recognizing the language of movements and gestures (“manual or linear language”) as the most ancient form of human speech, Acad. Marr connects the origin of sound speech, along with the origin of the three arts - dancing, singing and music - with magical actions that were considered necessary for the success of production and accompanied one or another collective labor process ("Japhetic theory", p. 98, etc.). So. arr. S., according to the instructions of Acad. Marr, also included the word (“epos”), “the further development of the rudimentary sound language and development in terms of forms depended on the forms of the public, and in terms of meanings on the social worldview, first cosmic, then tribal, estate, class, etc. » ("On the origin of language"). So in the concept of acad. Marra S. loses its narrow aesthetic character, being associated with a certain period in the development of human society, forms of production and primitive thinking.
S.'s problem has not yet been sufficiently developed. It can only receive its final resolution on the basis of a Marxist-Leninist interpretation of both the process of the emergence of syncretic art in pre-class society and the process of its differentiation under the conditions of social relations of class society (see Poetic genera, Drama, Lyrics, Epos, Ritual poetry).

Literary encyclopedia. - In 11 tons; M .: publishing house of the Communist Academy, Soviet Encyclopedia, Fiction. Edited by V. M. Friche, A. V. Lunacharsky. 1929-1939 .

Syncretism

SYNCRETISM poetic forms. This term was introduced by the late academician A. N. Veselovsky, who shook the prevailing theory about the gradual development of poetic forms before him. Based on the continuity in the development of poetic forms in ancient Greece, expressed in the fact that the poems of Homer and Hesiod preceded the lyrics of Archilochus and Tyrtaeus, and the latter preceded the dramas of Aeschylus and Sophocles, scholarly researchers believed that the order of development of forms, which is laid down in Greece, can be applied to the literatures of all other nationalities. But after the folklore of uncultured peoples was brought to the study, and the very poems attributed to Homer were subjected to a more detailed study, it turned out that there were singers even before Homer. The Odyssey mentions Demodocus and Famir. There is an indication from Greek prose writers and philosophers that before Homer, various singers composed hymn-songs in honor of Apollo, and the hymn is already predominantly a lyrical work. Much more data has been opened to resolve the issue of the primary form of a poetic work by studying the work of uncultured peoples, and it turned out that for many peoples a poetic work is preceded by a song without words, consisting of only interjectional exclamations (see Glossolalia), each time newly created and strictly subordinated a kind of rhythm. This song was associated with actions and rites, reproducing various kinds of activities characteristic of a primitive or uncultured person and explained by the conditions of his life. This action, or rite, was of a mimic nature. There was an imitation of hunting for animals, for buffaloes, boas, elephants, etc., the life, voice and movements of those animals that were tamed or not tamed by man were depicted in pantomimes. Among the agricultural tribes, sowing grain, reaping it, threshing, grinding, etc. were reproduced in the game. Hostile clashes with other tribes also found an echo in special warlike action games that copied war with all its consequences. All these game-actions, or rituals, as Veselovsky calls them, required for themselves a whole group or even several groups of actors. The performers in most cases were men, and the spectators, but also active, were women. Game and action were expressed in dance, facial expressions and various body movements, in accordance with the content of the action. Women, as well as other spectators, depending on the course of the game, beat the time with their hands or percussion instruments like a drum. This primitive conducting brought harmony and order to the game. Clock strokes, in accordance with the course of the game, varied. From this we conclude that rhythm preceded meter, because such a complex game, of which we have just spoken, cannot admit of one-dimensional meter. In the most pathetic places, the spectators shouted their approval or disapproval. Thus, we see that in primitive play, dialogue and action, that which belongs to the form of drama, was expressed by facial expressions and dance, and lyricism by interjections. The epic in the sense of the story was also transmitted by various body movements. Some of these games, especially among the agricultural tribes, were timed to coincide with a certain time of the year, and the games themselves were calendar games. At the next stage, games associated with melody appear, thanks to the replacement of percussion instruments with strings and wind instruments. The melody must have arisen as a result of the weakening of affectivity in the game, thanks to its frequent repetition. The very content of the game could gradually change due to changing living conditions. The melody, in the absence of musical instruments, as well as in joint work, was expressed by vocal means, by voice in singing. And here the words often have nothing to do with the content of the rite: the same text, but in a different melody, supports a wide variety of games and works. Finally, at the last stage in the development of a syncretic game, a song appears with content that reveals the meaning of the game. Of the participating persons, a sing-along poet stands out, improvising the course of the unfolding game. The role of the lead singer was thus the role of the librettist. Particularly pathetic parts of the librettist's song were picked up by the audience, from which the choir subsequently stood out. The first poet was the spokesman for the entire mass of the population; he was a tribal poet, and therefore the personal assessment inherent in individual creativity was absent. The lyrical element in these improvisations was expressed very weakly, because the poet was obliged in his work to conform to the mood of the crowd. The epic element had to be consistent with the content of the actions themselves and therefore be distinguished by stability. The dramatic element could develop under special conditions, with the differentiation of the choir, which could manifest itself in martial rites, where, according to the very meaning of the game, the division of the participants into two groups, into two choirs, was required. Such a differentiation appeared in wedding songs, where the bride's relatives perform on one side, and the groom on the other, or, as can be seen from the song: “And we sowed millet, we sowed”, girls participate in one choir, boys in the other. Naturally, when another choir was singled out, another one sang as well. Thus, before the differentiation of poetic forms comes the complication of this syncretism.

Special mention must be made of the working songs. Labor differs from play in that all movements in it must be proportionate and conditioned by the tact of work, which requires a certain uniformity. When making stone tools, when crushing grain in a mortar, when a hammer strikes an anvil, and in other works, a meter is developed, as a song scheme. Let's take one Russian phrase as an example:

I sow, I sow, I sow, I sow

I sow, I wind white lenochek (2)

White Lenochek, White Lenochek

White lenochek in tynochek ...

A strict trochee is sustained here. With differentiation, and especially with the stratification of the population into classes, songs with their own specific content stand out. In the songs of the Rig Veda, the whole process of crushing and squeezing grass to prepare the Indian deity Indra Soma, a special intoxicating drink, is accurately reproduced: And here, oh pestle, the wind blows in your face; squeeze soma for Indra's drink, oh mortar." Thus, with the division of labor, songs took on a more stable form and, at the same time, the song content diversified. These professional songs, in turn, were included in the content of the rite-game and complicated it.

The rite, under certain conditions, turned into a cult. This evolution of the rite did not bring about the cessation of the rite itself. The rite continues to exist along with the cult. The syncretism of forms could remain in both cases; only two forms of it were obtained: syncretism 1) ritual and 2) cult. The cult was developed during the evolution of religious beliefs. A cult could not develop under fesitism, due to the fact that the fetish was a family deity or even an individual deity. A cult developed only in cases where belief in a known deity was shared by an entire tribe or a significant group of them. In many cases, the rite itself already contained the features of the cult. Games depicting the worship of some animal after a successful hunt for it, for example, the worship of the carcass of a bear by Siberian foreigners, associated with its glorification and propitiation, are already not far from the cult, but they are not the cult itself, but a transitional step to it. The most important thing in the cult is the mysteriousness and incomprehensibility of some actions and the stability of the song text, turning into religious formulas, and, finally, the greater detail of the actions with less content of a separate religious plot compared to the rite. And the most important thing in a cult is a combination of actions with a certain verbal text. Here the melody and the word are of equal importance. Therefore, it is natural to ask why the cult ceased to be content with mere interjections and demanded a verbal shell for its further life? In French and German folk poetry, some works are performed with the help of a tale, expressed in prose, and singing, expressed in verse (singen und sagen, dire et chanter). Prose usually precedes verse and has the same content as verse. The same features are also found among uncultured peoples, for example, among the Kirghiz and Yakuts. Based on this, we have the right to conclude that the identical prose text preceding the poetic one appeared as a result of the desire to more fully and accurately acquaint one with the poetic text and the former song text, because the song text is not always audible. During the ritual performance of various plots, facial expressions and action could not always be understood, due to the complication of the rite with new details and due to the survival in the rite of actions that had lost their significance in the conditions of the new life. An excellent example illustrating our situation are many Russian conspiracies, in which those actions that must be performed are described in verbal form in a conspiracy: I will wash myself, wipe myself with a clean towel, cross myself, go out to the east, bow in all directions, etc. d.

Differentiation of the syncretism of forms appears very early, even before the stratification of the population into different classes. But this separate existence of various poetic forms has as yet very narrow boundaries and is conditioned by various phenomena of family life. First of all, there are lamentations, funeral songs. It takes a certain amount of talent to praise the deceased and to express grief over his death. Hence, the natural appeal of the relatives of the deceased, if there are no talented performers of the song ritual among them, to outside experienced persons. In this way, professional mourners arise among various peoples, and weeping among us. Thanks to these professional mourners, their communication with each other, a kind of literary school appears, developing its own style, its own techniques and its own scheme for a funeral song. Thus, along with differentiation, the song integrates in the sense of developing a stable form in it. The funeral song in its content is a lyric-epic work.

Before the division of the population into classes, singers had to sing in their works related to the rite only those events and express those feelings that agitated the entire mass of the population, therefore the epic and lyrical elements were distinguished by their schematicity and generality. With the division into classes, class psychology is more definite. Those events and feelings that were not interesting for one part of the population become interesting for another. With the rivalry between different classes, their own class ideology had to be developed. This in its totality, as well as many other conditions, put forward the appearance of its own special singers, spokesmen for the worldview of the class to which the singer himself belonged. Already in Homer's Iliad, representatives of not only the aristocracy, but also the demos, the people, are displayed. Thersites must be counted among these. And in any case, he was a strong personality, otherwise Homer would not have called him Contemptuous, and therefore we rank him among the ideologists of his class. The Song of Roland, no doubt, arose in the princely milieu, just like our "Lay of Igor's Campaign"; epics about the guest Terentishche, Stavr Godinovich, Sadka the rich guest came out of the middle of the bourgeoisie. Those songs about Ivan the Terrible, in which the handsome features of this tsar are sung, came from the folk, zemstvo environment. Professional singers were not alienated from the life of other classes. Dobrynya Nikitich, at the wedding of his wife, comes to Vladimir as a buffoon, a special professional folk singer; These alien singers for any class could be actors in the performance of one or another rite, and the content of the song in the rite was thus deepened, at the same time its very forms were developed. With the deepening of content and form, the song became interesting in itself, apart from the rite, and therefore it stood out and received a special existence. Thus, lyrical-epic songs of predominantly martial content stand out from the rite. From the cult, with the advent of the priesthood and the deepening of mythology, religious songs also of lyrical-epic content arise - hymns. When a lyrical-epic song is passed on to different singers and different generations, the effectiveness disappears and the song becomes purely epic. These are our epics, historical and even wedding songs. The torn song from the rite is integrated from the side of form and content, thanks to the individual creativity of class singers. Along with a purely epic song, there can also be a lyrical-epic song. Such are the Little Russian thoughts and many of our spiritual poems.

The development of new forms in the epic continues with the development of tribal consciousness and with the emergence of statehood. The lyrical-epic song at the first stages of its existence depicts some separate moment in the life of the hero, which is of great importance from the point of view of the emerging nationality. The emerging state, pursuing its own interests, collides with the interests of neighboring tribes and nationalities. As a result, wars arise between neighboring tribes. Heroes advance in both hostile camps. Given the duration of hostilities, the exploits of the heroes become diverse. At the end of hostilities, these exploits are sung by various singers, and everything is grouped around one main, outstanding hero. The same poetic transmission about the most important moments of hostilities takes place among a hostile tribe. When peaceful relations are resumed, songs about the same war pass from one tribe to another. Subsequently, all this is cycled and combined, and thus an epic, or heroic poem, arises. The Trojan War was sung by both the Achaeans and the Trojans. Among the Achaeans, Achilles was nominated as the main character, and among the Trojans, Hector. In the same way, from separate lyrical-epic songs dedicated to the cult, a mythological epic is composed, in the genus of Hesiod's Theogony.

It is much more difficult to point out the way in which a fairy tale is formed from that syncretism of poetic forms that we are talking about. We must think that fairy tales are different in their origin. Some of them got out of the ritual. Tales about the animal epic can be considered as such. Others could develop independently of the rite and cult in the close circle of the family and for the family. In those cases when the rite reproduced the hunt for various animals, for example, bison or seals, then those participating in this rite disguised themselves in the skins of the depicted animals, imitated their cry, movements, etc. Among the actors of the rite stand out, as already said, individual performers, singers and storytellers. These singers or narrators, as professionals, at an opportunity, separately or together with some other singer, reproduce the rite, eliminating actions from it because it is impossible to reproduce them, due to the lack of the mass of actors that is required for the ritual fulfillment of the plot; can be eliminated at the same time and redressing. The whole course of the rite is transmitted in this way in verbal form. From here, animals speak and become humanoid, and thus the tale of the animal epic has already been born. The further way of its development is already simple. The same path must be pointed out for isolating conspiracies from the cult, at least some of its types. The conspiracy was introduced from the cult, but developed outside the cult for the family and in the family, as can be seen from the analysis of conspiracies. And here the action is depicted very often in verbal form because it is impossible to perform it.

Proverbs and riddles stood out from ready-made forms - from fairy tales-songs, in modern times from fables, etc. The proverb “the beaten unbeaten one is lucky” is borrowed from the fairy tale about the fox and the wolf, “Yak Marko stumbles through hell” (malor.) from the fairy tale about Mark the Rich, “a legend is fresh, but hard to believe” from Griboyedov’s comedy “Woe from Wit”. On this basis, one must think that such proverbs as “a pitcher got into the habit of walking on water, there it will break its head”, “where a horse with a hoof, there is a crayfish with a claw”, and many others. others are fragments of former fairy tales that have come down to us in destruction. The same must be said about riddles and sayings.

Like the epic, the lyric also emerged from syncretism. In a rite that predicts a series of events, and was intended to prepare the tribe for war or hunting animals, naturally, the singer had to in one way or another evoke a certain mood among the participants. This mood, while the rite was wordless, was expressed in cries, and when the rite was combined with the verbal form, then with the corresponding verbal pathetic exclamations, which were picked up by all participants in the choir, and which formed a chorus - refrain, schematically expressing in the form of a formula the effectiveness of the entire group of participating persons . At the earliest stage of its development, refrain consists of the repetition of the same word or several. In the future, it is complicated by the figure of psychological parallelism. An example of a repetition from the military song of the otonis: “Rejoice with me, dear friends, rejoice children, and step onto the battlefield; be cheerful and joyful in the midst of these shields, the flowers of the bloody battle ”(Leturno. Liter, development. P. 109). An example of psychological parallelism: “You can’t pour water out of Volkhov, you can’t knock people out of Novgorod.” Refrain, the most striking in its expressiveness, often breaks away from its song and passes into another, sometimes changing the very content of another song, examples of which we can see in many Russian songs. With the appearance of two singers in the choir, the lyrical element of the song becomes more noticeable due to the dialogic development of the song itself. Hence the characteristic strophicity of the lyrics. So, the form of the lyrics is predetermined by repetitions, parallelism, i.e., by comparing the inner world of a person with the outer one, and strophicity. With the advent of class poetry, lyricism develops even more as a result of a sharp separation of the interests of one class from another, and thus a gnomic, instructive and satirical lyricism arises, and along with this, its forms naturally differ.

At first, poetic works of the syncretic form are distinguished by the expediency of their content, that is, by their utilitarian character. Rite and cult always pursue some goal.

The cult propitiates the deity, the rite prepares for battle or hunting. After the rite and cult lose their purpose, they naturally turn into drama with its ramifications. This transition is facilitated by the emergence of professional performers, first singers, and then buffoons as artists in their field.

Iv. Lyskov. Literary encyclopedia: Dictionary of literary terms: In 2 volumes / Edited by N. Brodsky, A. Lavretsky, E. Lunin, V. Lvov-Rogachevsky, M. Rozanov, V. Cheshikhin-Vetrinsky. - M.; L.: Publishing house L. D. Frenkel, 1925

Primitive art is a modern, long-rooted name for various types of fine art that arose in the Stone Age and lasted about 500 thousand years

The syncretism of primitive art is usually understood as the unity, indivisibility in it of the main forms of artistic creativity of fine arts, drama, music, dance, etc. But it is not enough to note only this. It is much more important that all these forms of artistic creativity are closely connected with the entire diverse life of the collective, with its labor activity, with initiation rites (initiations), with producing rites (rites of multiplying natural resources and human society itself, rites of "making" animals, plants and people), with rites that reproduce the life and deeds of totemic and mythological heroes, that is, with collective actions cast in a traditional form, playing a very important role in the life of primitive societies and imparting a certain social sound to primitive art.

One of the elements of primitive artistic creativity is the creation of tools.
Almost everything that comes out of the hands of a primitive creator, even the most ordinary household items, is of great artistic value, but a special place belongs to the tools of labor, on the creation of which the aesthetic sense of the primitive master was brought up from ancient times. After all, the aesthetic attitude to reality was formed in the very creative assimilation and transformation of the material world by man. It was forged historically, in labor, and the significance of tools in the development of an aesthetic sense was closely connected with their main, production function. Tools of labor were probably the first works of applied plastic art. Improving in practical expediency and at the same time acquiring aesthetic value, tools of labor laid the foundations for the art of sculpture.

In the tools of labor, as in many other works of primitive man, not only his technical thought is embodied, but also his aesthetic ideal. The perfection of these products is the result of not only technical, but also aesthetic requirements. The creator of the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic tools, as well as the tools of modern backward peoples, was and is guided by his artistic flair, his understanding of beauty, brought up by many millennia of creative assimilation of nature, changes in its forms in the process of labor.

Rock paintings were made in the Paleolithic, in caves. The material for creating images was [paint] from organic dyes (plants, blood) and charcoal (the scene of the battle of rhinos in the Chauvet cave - 32,000 thousand years). As a rule, cave paintings and charcoal drawings were carried out taking into account [[volume, perspective, color of the rocky surface and the proportion of figures, taking into account the transmission of the movements of the depicted animals. The rock paintings also depicted scenes of fights between animals and humans. All primitive painting, as part of primitive fine art, is a syncretic phenomenon and was presumably created in accordance with cults. Later, images of primitive fine art acquired the features of stylization.

Megaliths (Greek μέγας - large, λίθος - stone) - prehistoric structures made of large blocks

In the limiting case, this is one module (menhir). The term is not strictly scientific, therefore, a rather vague group of buildings falls under the definition of megaliths and megalithic structures. As a rule, they belong to the pre-literate era of the area.

The concept of the ancient world, geographical and chronological framework

The concept of "ancient world": chronological and geographical framework. Place of ancient civilizations in human culture. Synchronization of ancient cultures. Undifferentiated culture as a characteristic feature of ancient civilizations. Mythological thinking and space-time representations. Ritual, myth and art.
early art forms. Paleolithic art: chronology, main monuments (Lascaux, Altamira). Features of monumental art: purpose, technique, scale, organization of complexes. Hypotheses about the origin of art. "Mobile Art". Mesolithic: chronology, changes in human lifestyle. Microlites. Petroglyphs. Neolithic: periodization, differences in the pace of development of the northern and southern regions. Neolithic petroglyphs. Megalithic structures: menhirs, dolmens, cromlechs. The concept of "neolithic revolution". Syro-Palestinian, Anatolian, Mesopotamian centers.

The ancient world is a period in the history of mankind, distinguished between the prehistoric period and the beginning of the Middle Ages in Europe. In other regions, the time limits of antiquity may differ from European ones. For example, the end of the ancient period in China is sometimes considered the appearance of the Qin empire, in India - the Chola empire, and in America - the beginning of European colonization.

The duration of the written period of history is approximately 5-5.5 thousand years, starting from the appearance of cuneiform writing by the Sumerians. The term "classical antiquity" (or antiquity) usually refers to Greek and Roman history, which begins with the first Olympiad (776 BC). This date almost coincides with the traditional date of the founding of Rome (753 BC). The date of the end of European ancient history is usually considered the year of the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476 AD), and sometimes the date of the death of Emperor Justinian I (565), the emergence of Islam (622), or the beginning of the reign of Emperor Charlemagne.

Mediterranean and East

Akkad, Assyria, Ayrarat Kingdom, Atropatena, Britain, Babylonia, Greater Armenia, Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Macedonia, Ancient Rome

Etruria, Iberia, Kingdom of Judea, Ishkuza, Caucasian Albania, Carthage, Colchis, Kush, Manna, Media, Palestine, Persia, Scythia, Urartu, Phoenicia, Hittite Kingdom, Khorezm, Sumer, Asia Ancient India, Ancient China

Architect of ancient Egypt

The creation of a powerful centralized state under the rule of the pharaoh, who is considered the son of the god Ra, also dictated the main type of architectural structure - the tomb, which conveys the idea of ​​his divinity by external means. Egypt reaches its highest rise under the rulers of the III and IV dynasties. The largest royal tombs-pyramids are being created, on the constructions of which not only slaves, but also peasants worked for decades. This historical period is often called the "time of the pyramids", and its legendary monuments would not have been created without the brilliant development of the exact sciences and crafts in Egypt.

One of the earliest monuments of monumental stone architecture is the ensemble of burial structures of the pharaoh of the III dynasty Djoser. It was erected under the guidance of the Egyptian architect Imhotep and reflected the idea of ​​the pharaoh himself (however, this idea underwent significant changes several times). Abandoning the traditional form of mastaba, Imhotep settled on a pyramid with a rectangular base, consisting of six steps. The entrance was on the north side; underground corridors and a shaft were carved under the base, at the bottom of which there was a burial chamber. The mortuary complex of Djoser also included the southern cenotaph tomb with an adjoining chapel and a court for the heb-sed rite (the ritual revival of the pharaoh's life force in the run).

Step pyramids were erected by other pharaohs of the III dynasty (pyramids in Medum and Dahshur); one of them has diamond-shaped contours.

pyramids at Giza

The idea of ​​a pyramid tomb found its perfect expression in the tombs built in Giza for the pharaohs of the 4th dynasty - Cheops (Khufu), Khafre (Khafre) and Mikerin (Menkaur), who in ancient times were considered one of the wonders of the world. The largest of them was created by the architect Hemiun for Pharaoh Cheops. A temple was erected at each pyramid, the entrance to which was located on the banks of the Nile and was connected to the temple by a long covered corridor. Around the pyramids, mastabas were arranged in rows. The Pyramid of Menkaure remained unfinished and was completed by the pharaoh's son not from stone blocks. but from brick.

In the burial ensembles of the V-VI dynasties, the main role passes to temples, which are finished with more luxury.

Towards the end of the Old Kingdom period, a new type of building appears - the solar temple. It was built on a hill and surrounded by a wall. In the center of a spacious courtyard with chapels, a colossal stone obelisk with a gilded copper top and a huge altar at the foot was placed. The obelisk symbolized the sacred stone Ben-Ben, on which, according to legend, the sun rose, born from the abyss. Like the pyramids, the solar temple was connected by covered passages to the gates in the valley. Among the most famous solar temples is the Temple of Niusirra at Abydos.

A characteristic feature of the pyramids as architectural considerations was the ratio of mass and space: the burial chamber where the sarcophagus with the mummy stood was very small, and long and narrow corridors led to it. The spatial element has been kept to a minimum.