Cro-Magnons- the general name of the early representatives of modern man, who appeared much later than the Neanderthals and coexisted with them for some time (40-30 thousand years ago). In appearance and physical development practically indistinguishable from modern man.

The term "Cro-Magnon" can mean in a narrow sense only people found in the grotto of Cro-Magnon and living nearby 30 thousand years ago; in a broad sense, this is the entire population of Europe or the whole world of the Upper Paleolithic.

Number of achievements, changes in social organization The life of the Cro-Magnon was so great that it was several times greater than the number of achievements of the Pithecanthropus and the Neanderthal combined. The Cro-Magnons inherited from their ancestors a large active brain and a fairly practical technology, thanks to which, in a relatively short period of time, they made an unprecedented step forward. This manifested itself in aesthetics, the development of communication and symbol systems, tool-making technology and active adaptation to external conditions, as well as in new forms of social organization and a more complex approach to their own kind.

Etymology

The name comes from the rocky grotto of Cro-Magnon in France (the city of Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Syreuil in the Dordogne department), where in 1868 the French paleontologist Louis Larte discovered and described several human skeletons along with tools Late Paleolithic. The age of this population is estimated at 30 thousand years.

Geography

The most important fossil finds: in France - Cro-Magnon, in the UK - the Red Lady from Payviland, in the Czech Republic - Dolni Vestonice and Mladech, Serbia - Lepenski Vir, in Romania - Peshtera-cu-Oase, in Russia - Markina Gora, Sungir , Denisova cave and Oleneostrovsky burial ground, in the Southern Crimea - Murzak-Koba.

culture

The Cro-Magnons were carriers of a number of cultures of the Upper Paleolithic (Gravettes culture) and Mesolithic (Tardenois culture, Maglemose, Ertebölle). In the future, the territories of their habitat experienced migration flows of other representatives of the Homo sapiens species (for example, the Culture of Linear Band Pottery). These people made tools not only from stone, but also from horn and bone. On the walls of their caves, they left drawings depicting people, animals, hunting scenes. Cro-Magnons made various decorations. They had their first pet, a dog.

Numerous finds testify to the presence of a hunting cult. The figurines of animals were pierced with arrows, thus killing the beast.

The Cro-Magnons had funeral rites. Household items, food, jewelry were placed in the grave. The dead were sprinkled with blood-red ocher, a net was put on their hair, bracelets were put on their arms, flat stones were placed on their faces, and they were buried in a bent position (in the fetal position).

According to another version, modern representatives Negroid and Mongoloid races formed autonomously, and the Cro-Magnons spread for the most part only in the range of the Neanderthals (North Africa, the Middle East, middle Asia, Europe). The first people with Cro-Manoid features appeared 160,000 years ago in East Africa(Ethiopia). They left it 100,000 years ago. They penetrated into Europe through the Caucasus to the Don River basin. Migration to the West began approximately 40,000 years ago, and after 6,000 years, rock art appeared in the caves of France.

Cro-Magnon migration to Europe

Genetics

see also

• The Guanches are an extinct aboriginal people of the Canary Islands, representatives of the afalu-mechtoid subrace, considered close to the Cro-Magnons in their anthropological type.

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Literature

• P. I. Boriskovsky. pp. 15-24 // STRATUM plus. 2001-2002. No. 1. In the beginning there was a stone;
• Roginsky Ya. Ya., Levin M. G., Anthropology, M., 1963;
• Nesturkh M. F., The origin of man, M., 1958, p. 321-38.

Popular science literature

• Eduard Storkh - Mammoth Hunters. Book with links to real archaeological sources
• B. Bayer, W. Birstein et al. History of Humanity, 2002, ISBN 5-17-012785-5

Notes

Links

• - Upper Paleolithic site of an ancient man near Vladimir, 192 km from Moscow

Extinct genera Hominini / Hominina People (genus Homo) Hominid finds Origin Spreading

An excerpt characterizing the Cro-Magnons

- Why, maybe.
Likhachev got up and rummaged through his packs, and Petya soon heard the warlike sound of steel on a bar. He climbed onto the wagon and sat on its edge. The Cossack sharpened his saber under the wagon.
- And what, the good fellows sleep? Petya said.
- Who is sleeping, and who is like this.
- Well, what about the boy?
- Is it spring? He was there, in the hallways, collapsed. Sleeping with fear. It was glad.
For a long time after that Petya was silent, listening to the sounds. Footsteps were heard in the darkness and a black figure appeared.
- What are you sharpening? the man asked, approaching the wagon.
- But the master sharpen his saber.
“It’s a good thing,” said the man, who seemed to be a hussar to Petya. - Do you have a cup left?
“At the wheel.
The hussar took the cup.
“It’s probably light soon,” he said, yawning, and went somewhere.
Petya should have known that he was in the forest, in the party of Denisov, a verst from the road, that he was sitting on a wagon recaptured from the French, near which horses were tied, that the Cossack Likhachev was sitting under him and sharpening his saber, which is great black spot to the right - a guardhouse, and a bright red spot below to the left - a dying fire, that the man who came for a cup was a hussar who wanted to drink; but he knew nothing and did not want to know it. He was in a magical realm, in which there was nothing like reality. A big black spot, maybe it was definitely a guardhouse, or maybe there was a cave that led into the very depths of the earth. The red spot may have been fire, or perhaps the eye of a huge monster. Maybe he’s definitely sitting on a wagon now, but it’s very possible that he’s not sitting on a wagon, but on a terribly high tower, from which if you fall, you would fly to the ground all day, a whole month - all fly and you will never reach . It may be that just the Cossack Likhachev is sitting under the wagon, but it may very well be that this is the kindest, bravest, most wonderful, most excellent person in the world, whom no one knows. Perhaps it was the hussar who was exactly passing for water and went into the hollow, or perhaps he had just disappeared from sight and completely disappeared, and he was not there.
Whatever Petya saw now, nothing would surprise him. He was in a magical realm where anything was possible.
He looked up at the sky. And the sky was as magical as the earth. The sky was clearing, and over the tops of the trees clouds quickly ran, as if revealing the stars. Sometimes it seemed that the sky was clearing and showed a black, clear sky. Sometimes it seemed that these black spots were clouds. Sometimes it seemed that the sky was high, high above the head; sometimes the sky descended completely, so that you could reach it with your hand.
Petya began to close his eyes and sway.
Drops dripped. There was a quiet conversation. The horses neighed and fought. Someone snored.
“Fire, burn, burn, burn…” whistled the saber being sharpened. And suddenly Petya heard a harmonious chorus of music playing some unknown, solemnly sweet hymn. Petya was musical, just like Natasha, and more than Nikolai, but he never studied music, did not think about music, and therefore the motives that suddenly came to his mind were especially new and attractive to him. The music played louder and louder. The tune grew, passed from one instrument to another. There was what is called a fugue, although Petya had no idea what a fugue was. Each instrument, now resembling a violin, now like pipes - but better and cleaner than violins and pipes - each instrument played its own and, without finishing the motive, merged with another, which began almost the same, and with the third, and with the fourth , and they all merged into one and again scattered, and again merged first into a solemn church, then into a brightly shining and victorious one.
“Oh, yes, it’s me in a dream,” Petya said to himself, swaying forward. - It's in my ears. Or maybe it's my music. Well, again. Go ahead my music! Well!.."
He closed his eyes. And with different sides, as if from afar, the sounds began to tremble, they began to harmonize, scatter, merge, and again everything united into the same sweet and solemn hymn. “Oh, what a delight! As much as I want and how I want,” Petya said to himself. He tried to lead this huge chorus of instruments.
“Well, hush, hush, freeze now. And the sounds obeyed him. - Well, now it's fuller, more fun. More, even happier. - And from an unknown depth rose increasing, solemn sounds. “Well, voices, pester!” Petya ordered. And first, men's voices were heard from afar, then women's. The voices grew, grew in a steady solemn effort. Petya was terrified and joyful to listen to their extraordinary beauty.
A song merged with the solemn victory march, and drops dripped, and burned, burned, burned ... a saber whistled, and again the horses fought and neighed, not breaking the chorus, but entering it.
Petya did not know how long this went on: he enjoyed himself, was constantly surprised at his own pleasure and regretted that there was no one to tell him. Likhachev's gentle voice woke him up.
- Done, your honor, spread the guard in two.
Petya woke up.
- It's getting light, really, it's getting light! he cried.
Previously invisible horses became visible up to their tails, and a watery light was visible through the bare branches. Petya shook himself, jumped up, took out a ruble bill from his pocket and gave it to Likhachev, waved it, tried the saber and put it in its sheath. The Cossacks untie the horses and tighten the girths.
“Here is the commander,” said Likhachev. Denisov came out of the guardhouse and, calling to Petya, ordered to get ready.

Quickly in the semi-darkness they dismantled the horses, tightened the girths and sorted out the commands. Denisov stood at the guardhouse, giving his last orders. The infantry of the party, slapping a hundred feet, advanced along the road and quickly disappeared between the trees in the predawn fog. Esaul ordered something to the Cossacks. Petya kept his horse in line, impatiently waiting for the order to mount. washed cold water His face, especially his eyes, burned with fire, chills ran down his back, and something in his whole body trembled quickly and evenly.
- Well, are you all ready? Denisov said. - Come on horses.
The horses were given. Denisov was angry with the Cossack because the girths were weak, and, having scolded him, sat down. Petya took up the stirrup. The horse, out of habit, wanted to bite his leg, but Petya, not feeling his weight, quickly jumped into the saddle and, looking back at the hussars moving behind in the darkness, rode up to Denisov.
- Vasily Fyodorovich, will you entrust me with something? Please… for God's sake…” he said. Denisov seemed to have forgotten about the existence of Petya. He looked back at him.
“I’ll tell you about one thing,” he said sternly, “obey me and not meddle anywhere.
During the entire journey, Denisov did not say a word to Petya and rode in silence. When we arrived at the edge of the forest, the field was noticeably brighter. Denisov said something in a whisper to the esaul, and the Cossacks began to drive past Petya and Denisov. When they had all passed, Denisov touched his horse and rode downhill. Sitting on their haunches and gliding, the horses descended with their riders into the hollow. Petya rode next to Denisov. The trembling in his whole body grew stronger. It was getting lighter and lighter, only the fog hid distant objects. Driving down and looking back, Denisov nodded his head to the Cossack who was standing beside him.
- Signal! he said.
The Cossack raised his hand, a shot rang out. And at the same moment there was heard the clatter of galloping horses in front, shouts from different directions, and more shots.
At the same moment as the first sounds of trampling and screaming were heard, Petya, kicking his horse and releasing the reins, not listening to Denisov, who shouted at him, galloped forward. It seemed to Petya that it suddenly dawned brightly, like the middle of the day, at the moment a shot was heard. He jumped to the bridge. Cossacks galloped ahead along the road. On the bridge he ran into a straggler Cossack and galloped on. There were some people in front—they must have been Frenchmen—running from the right side of the road to the left. One fell into the mud under the feet of Petya's horse.

Cro-Magnons - the origin of modern man

Cro-Magnons - the common name of the ancient representatives of modern man, who appeared much later than the Neanderthals and coexisted with them for some time (40-30,000 years ago). Their appearance and physical development were in fact no different from modern humans.

Approximately 40–30,000 years ago, the third greatest event in the life of our planet took place. The first, which happened several billion years ago, was the origin of life. The second is the beginning of humanization, the transition from ape to ape-man - about 2 million years ago. The third event is the appearance of man modern type, Homo sapiens - Homo sapiens.

40-30,000 years ago, it appears and very quickly (quickly in this case, when a millennium is a trifle) takes the place of the Neanderthals.

Cro-Magnon skeletons found

As soon as an archaeologist from France Larte discovered 5 skeletons in the Cro-Magnon grotto under a thick layer of centuries-old deposits, he immediately guessed that he had met “acquaintances”. Shortly before this, the scientist became aware that, by order of the authorities of the Haute-Garonne department, 17 skeletons were buried in the parish cemetery, accidentally found in the Orignac cave in the Pyrenees. Larte could easily prove that the strict rules of Christian burial could be waived in relation to these people, and not only dug them back, but also established (using stone tools and animal bones from the Aurignac cave) that they were contemporaries of the same ice age where the classic Neanderthals lived. The tools of the Aurignacian man are in a slightly higher, i.e. late, layer than the tools of the Chapelles.

The two caves in which the most ancient people of the modern type were found gave them their names: the first person began to be called Cro-Magnon, and the first big period its history - period (culture) Aurignac.

Dozens of discoveries of Cro-Magnon skeletons and sites all over the world soon followed. Western Europe and North Africa, and the ancient "reasonable man" appeared in all splendor and splendor.

Parking lot Sungir

Sculptural portraits of a girl and a boy from the Sungir site

Sungir is an Upper Paleolithic Cro-Magnon site on the territory of the Vladimir region. There is a well-known paired burial of a boy aged 12–14 and a girl aged 9–10, lying with their heads to each other. What their bones could tell. As it turned out, the boy, despite his age, could throw a spear well. right hand. The girl, judging by the development of her fingers and forearm, often made scrolling movements with her right hand. We know that the clothes of the Sungir people were covered with many beads made of mammoth bone, and there were holes in the beads. These holes, apparently, were drilled by a young Cro-Magnon woman.

The structure of the right humerus and cervical vertebrae show that the girl often raised her right arm up, and her head was constantly tilted to the left. In order for such features to appear on the skeleton already in childhood, the load must be very strong! According to anthropologists, the girl regularly wore weights on her head, and held them with her right hand. Perhaps during the transitions from camp to camp, which were made by nomadic groups of Cro-Magnons, the little Cro-Magnon was a carrier on an equal basis with adults.

What was a Cro-Magnon

Cro-Magnons evoked admiration from their discoverers, mixed with envy: the first people - and immediately what!

They were Caucasians, of enormous height (on average 187 cm), with an ideal straight bipedal gait and a very large head (from 1600 to 1900 cm³). Such a large skull could still be considered a "relic of Neanderthalism", but this head already had a straight forehead, a high cranial vault, and a sharply protruding chin.

Cro-Magnon man did not know what metal was, did not suspect either agriculture or cattle breeding, but if we could transfer him through 400 centuries, he, apparently, would easily understand everything and could draw up an equation, write a poem, work on the machine and compete in a chess tournament.

Where did the Cro-Magnon come from?

A Cro-Magnon man appeared - for archaeologists and anthropologists - somehow at once: just here, in the caves of France and Italy, squat, powerful, invincible people lived, and suddenly they quickly, abruptly disappear, and people of the modern type are already hunting in their area. The newcomers are accompanied by an incredible technological revolution: instead of 3-4 primitive Neanderthal stone tools, about 20 stone and bone “devices” are used during the Aurignac period: awls, needles, tips, and so on. Immediately, as if from nothing, an amazing cave art.

This most powerful anthropological, technical and cultural upheaval now determines the entire human history. For billions of years, animals have existed only according to biological laws, improving, expanding the apparatus of adaptation, but not leaving the biological framework. But here comes major event: the development of a group of animals has reached such a stage that they include in the mechanism of their adaptation, in addition to their own teeth and paws, also an inanimate object that does not belong to the body: a stick, a stone.

According to one version, the Cro-Magnon is the ancestor of all modern people, having appeared in East Africa approximately 130-180,000 years ago. According to this theory, 50-60,000 years ago they migrated from Africa to the Arabian Peninsula and appeared in Eurasia. The first group was able to quickly populate the coast of the Indian Ocean, and the second migrated to the steppes of Central Asia. The second group is the ancestors nomadic peoples and much of the Middle Eastern and North African population. Migration from the Black Sea to Europe began approximately 40-50,000 years ago, presumably through the Danube corridor. 20,000 years ago, all of Europe was already inhabited.

How has everything changed?

Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon

From now on, this creature no longer belongs entirely to biology, there is a gap in the “biological fence”. Oldowan pebbles, an axe, a stone axe, a locomotive, an electronic computing device - these are phenomena of the same order: a living being uses and combines inanimate objects. "Who" dominates "what".

The breakthrough of biology that occurs in a social animal multiplies, intensifies in the pack, creates new relationships in this pack. But, apparently, the biological factor, that is, the physical structure of the creature, does not immediately get used to, is consistent with the new "organs" - tools: for about 2 million years, the first ape-men change not only their inventory, but also their physical structure. A hand squeezing a broken pebble makes the brain think hard and increase, but not remaining in debt, the brain sends its signals to the hand: it also improves.

Over thousands of centuries, tools go from rough stone, stick or bone to the Neanderthal axe, stone scraper and pointed point.

The brain during this period increases from 600–700 to 1500 cm³.

Gait - from semi-monkey to completely straight.

Hand - from a tenacious paw to a perfect tool.

The collective - from the animal flock to the first human social forms.

Some law of evolution, which we have not yet fully deciphered, causes the body of the ape-man to change along with his tools.

Comparison with modern man

Eventually there comes a point when biology and tools reach full agreement, a point from which brain and hand can do whatever work they want. The same brain and the same hand as a Cro-Magnon man will control a bow 20,000 years later, a plow 25,000 years later, and a few thousand years later, a locomotive, a car, an airplane, a rocket.

To move from a primitive ax to a more perfect one, it took from Pithecanthropus to become a Neanderthal. And in order to come from stone unpolished tips to the splitting of the atom, “nothing” was needed, that is, it seems that nothing fundamentally changed in the human body.

Instead of changing physically in the struggle for existence, man chose a different path. From now on, he began to improve "inanimate objects" and changed the structure of his society. Physical changes were replaced by faster and more painless - technical, social.

And how can we actually know that the biological development of man has stopped?

Discussions on this topic have been going on for a very long time. It has been noticed that there are secular, millennial fluctuations in the physical structure of a person: the Cro-Magnon man was taller than us, now, as you know, humanity is again growing quite rapidly. Several thousand years ago, human bones were more massive, then they became more elegant, tomorrow, perhaps, they will again become massive and bulky. Undoubtedly, "brachycephalization" is going on, an increase in the number of short-headed people compared to long-headed ones.

The reasons for these changes are cryptic: food, new image life? The seriousness of these changes is also conjectural: are these phenomena temporary, or tomorrow they will be covered by another change, or will a person still look different in a few tens or hundreds of millennia, not like now?

Guessing about the future, we have, however, the right to declare: over the past 30-40 thousand years, there have been gigantic changes in technology, but during the same time there have been no fundamental "bodily" changes.

Obviously, the “thousand-great-grandfathers” laid a good foundation!

Cro-Magnon culture

The Cro-Magnon created a rich and varied Late Paleolithic culture. There are descriptions of more than 100 types of complex stone and bone tools made with great skill, made by new, more efficient processing of stone and bone. To a large extent, the Cro-Magnons also improved hunting methods (driven hunting), hunting deer, mammoths, woolly rhinos, cave bears, wolves and other animals. They began to manufacture spear throwers (a spear could fly 137 m), as well as devices for catching fish (harpoons, hooks), and bird snares.

Cro-Magnons usually lived in caves, but at the same time, they built various dwellings from stone and dugouts, tents from animal skins, and even entire villages. Early neoanthropes could make sewn clothes, often decorated. So, at the Sungir site (Vladimir region), more than 1000 beads were found on the fur clothes of a man, and many other decorations were found - bracelets, rings.

Cro-Magnon was the creator of the remarkable European primitive art, which can be evidenced by multi-color painting on the walls and ceilings of caves ((Spain), Montespan, Lascaux (France), etc.), engravings on pieces of stone or bone, ornament, small stone and clay sculpture. Amazing images of horses, deer, bison, mammoths, female figurines, called by archaeologists “Venuses” for their splendor of forms, various objects carved from bone, horns and tusks or molded from clay, can no doubt testify to a highly developed sense of beauty among Cro-Magnons. Cave art reached its peak approximately 19-15,000 years ago. Scientists believe that the Cro-Magnons could have existed magical rites and rituals.

Probably, the life expectancy of Cro-Magnons was longer than that of Neanderthals: about 10% already lived to be 40 years old. In this era, the primitive communal system was also formed.

Cro-Magnon cave with wall paintings

In the south-west of France, near the city of Villonaire, Charente department, speleologists and archaeologists have discovered a cave with ancient wall paintings.

Cave researchers managed to find a unique and extremely valuable underground hall with rock art back in December 2005, but the unique cave was reported much later. Such strong secrecy in recent times scientists are increasingly sticking to valuable finds to prevent unwanted visitors from destroying them.

Work in progress on dates rock paintings. Experts do not exclude that they may be older than those in the famous Lasko Cave and Altamira Cave. According to the first impressions of experts, we are talking about a Cro-Magnon site, that is, a period of 30,000 years ago. According to scientists, the find in Villonera could be a revolution in science - it used to be believed that in such ancient times people did not resort to painting the walls of their underground dwellings.

A, m. Cro Magnon. From the name of the Cro Magnon grotto in France, where in the second half of the 19th century. the skeletons of these people were found. Mn. Late Paleolithic people. ALS 1. We are civilized Cro-Magnons and will no longer understand the strange, idiotic truth about ... ... Historical dictionary gallicisms of the Russian language

CRO-MAGNON, nza, husband. Fossil man of the late Paleolithic era. | adj. Cro-Magnon, oh, oh. Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 ... Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov

- (nyo), nza, m., soul. (after the name of the Cro Magnon cave in France, where the fossils were first found). A man of the modern type that existed in Europe in the Upper Pleistocene. || Wed archanthropist, neanderthal, neoanthropist, ... ... Dictionary foreign words Russian language

Exist., Number of synonyms: 1 person (86) ASIS Synonym Dictionary. V.N. Trishin. 2013 ... Synonym dictionary

A representative of an extinct race of people (Homo sapiens), the remains of which were first discovered in 1866 in France in the Cro-Magnon cave. At the end of the Paleolithic, the Cro-Magnon race inhabited Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia. Geological dictionary: in 2 volumes ... Geological Encyclopedia

Common name for fossil humans modern look related to neoanthropes and lived about 40 thousand years ago ... Big Medical Dictionary

M. see Cro-Magnons Explanatory Dictionary of Ephraim. T. F. Efremova. 2000... Modern dictionary Russian language Efremova

Cro-Magnon, Cro-Magnon, Cro-Magnon, Cro-Magnon, Cro-Magnon, Cro-Magnon, Cro-Magnon, Cro-Magnon, Cro-Magnon, Cro-Magnon, Cro-Magnon, Cro-Magnon (Source: "Full accentuated paradigm according to A. A. Zaliznyak") ... Forms of words

Cro-Magnon- (2 m), R. cromagno/nza, Tv. cromagno/nce; pl. Cromagno / Ntsy, R. Cromagno / Ntsy ... Spelling Dictionary of the Russian Language

Cro-Magnon- Cro-Magnon / German / ... Morphemic spelling dictionary

Books

• Human. Superencyclopedia, I. Gusev. Man yesterday, today, tomorrow... What are we, who were we and what will we become in the future? Since ancient times, man has sought to know himself. Gradually, his conjectures and conjectures ...
• Human. Superencyclopedia for the smart and inquisitive, I. E. Gusev. Man yesterday, today, tomorrow... What are we, who were we and what will we become in the future? Since ancient times, man has sought to know himself. Gradually, his conjectures and conjectures turned into ...

BC e) they settled in Europe, and lived simultaneously with last representatives Neanderthals.

The beginning of the Upper Paleolithic era includes the so-called Paleolithic revolution- the transition to a more advanced technology for the production and use of tools, which occurred about 40 thousand years BC. During this period there was an explosive flowering of intellectual and cultural activities associated with the wide spread of people of the modern physical type, who replaced the ancient types of people. Bones were first found in the Cro-Magnon Grotto in France.

It is surprising that for tens of thousands of years, pre-Cro-Magnon humanity has not undergone any changes. At the same time, according to modern concepts, the formation of features of the Cro-Magnon skeleton requires isolation and great amount years.

Evolutionary anthropologists believe that the Cro-Magnon population was between 1 and 10 million people, and in 100 thousand years they should have buried about 4 billion bodies with related artifacts. A significant part of the burials of these 4 billion should have been preserved. However, only a few thousand have been found.

Another ambiguity is the extinction of the Neanderthal. One of the dominant hypotheses about the causes of its extinction is its displacement (i.e., destruction) by Cro-Magnon, a competitor for an ecological niche, which occurred about 30 thousand years ago.

Cro-Magnon food

It has been established that the diet of a person of the late Paleolithic era (40-12 thousand years ago), who lived in Europe, consisted of wild fruits, vegetables, deciduous plants, roots, nuts, and lean meat. The results of anthropological studies unequivocally show that in the course of human evolution, a large role belonged to nutrition containing little fat, very little sugar, but including a large number of fiber and polysaccharides. The cholesterol content of bushmeat approximates that of livestock meat, but bushmeat contains an almost ideal ratio of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. Late Paleolithic people consumed a lot of animal protein at the expense of meat, which contributed to physical development and rapid puberty, but not longevity. An analysis of the remains of ancient people revealed characteristic diseases caused by malnutrition, in particular, beriberi, and their life expectancy averaged 30 years.

One way or another, due to the fact that meat food prevailed in the Cro-Magnon diet, they were more stately than their descendants (and ancestors), who preferred plant foods.

Cro-Magnon culture

Religion

From the end of 40 thousand BC. the heyday of the Matriarchy also began - associated with the Cro-Magnons and known mainly from excavations in Europe. The worship of the mother goddess was not just a local cult, but a global phenomenon. material from the site

Cave painting (rock)

During the life of the Cro-Magnons, there is a flourishing of cave (rock) painting, the peak of which was reached in 15-17 thousand BC. (gallery of cave drawings of Lascaux and Altamira).

A fresco in Altamira depicts a herd of bison and other

Cro-Magnon man

Cro-Magnon man

The earliest evidence of the existence of the modern Homo sapiens type is 30–40 thousand years old. Scientists first "met" this ancestor of ours in 1868, when workers accidentally discovered in the Cro-Magnon cave (France) the remains of a prehistoric man who, as studies have shown, lived 28 thousand years ago. Since then, the name Cro-Magnons has been attached to people of this type. Today, traces of Cro-Magnon man have been found on all continents - in Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, North and South America. In terms of the structure of the skull and the rest of the skeleton, this “final” rational person practically did not differ from you and me, except perhaps for a slightly more massive physique, but this reservation applies only to the first, most ancient representatives of the modern human type. The growth and body structure of the Cro-Magnons fully corresponded to the growth and body structure of modern people. The skull and teeth also have all the features of the modern type, brow ridges usually weakly expressed or practically absent, the average brain volume is 1350 cm3.

Numerous finds of Late Paleolithic skeletons allow us to get an idea of ​​the state of health of our ancestors. Them average age was 30 years, in exceptional cases they lived up to 50 years or more. However, the value of the average age remained at this level until the Middle Ages, so we can safely say that the health of the Late Paleolithic hunters was quite satisfactory in terms of the then living conditions. Pathological changes in the bones are much less common than traumatic defects. Judging by the findings, in most cases they had very healthy teeth. Dental caries practically did not occur.

Hunting was the main occupation of the Cro-Magnons. Their life was subject to annual cycles of migration of herds of large ungulates, which were the main object of hunting. These people spent the long cold winter of the ice age in permanent camps, where rather strong and warm huts were equipped. In summer, the tribe roamed after the herds of animals, making short stops and living in light tents made of poles and skins. In Europe, such "classic" parking lots are widely known. primitive man, like Cro-Magnon and Combe-Chapelle in France, Oberkassel in Germany, Predmost and Dolni Vestonice in the Czech Republic.

The main difference between the Cro-Magnon man and all the anthropoid creatures that preceded him is the immeasurably more perfect and diverse inventory accompanying the finds of the remains of the Cro-Magnon man. The main weapon of a man of the Stone Age was a spear with a stone or bone tip. In the art of making these tools, the Cro-Magnons achieved true virtuosity. Often you can find bone tips with a groove for outflow of blood, harpoons with backward-pointing spikes (“herringbone”). Paleolithic hunters already knew various systems of traps and snares. In the coastal settlements of Cro-Magnons, nets and nets were found, woven from vines and used to fishing, as well as different types fishing rods. The first stone arrowheads and bows, heavy bone clubs, bone knives, often decorated with ornamental carvings, belong to the same period. Leather dressing has also reached a high degree of perfection. Even some ethnographic groups of modern people, for example, the Eskimos or some peoples of Siberia, recognized masters of leather processing, have a less rich set of tools than Cro-Magnon hunters.

Cro-Magnons made necklaces from shells, fangs of predatory animals, feathers, flowers and bones, carved from bone or made figurines of animals and people from baked clay. But the most amazing thing was the art rock art Cro-Magnons. It reached such heights that scientists of the 19th century, who discovered the rock paintings of the Upper Paleolithic, for a long time refused to believe that they were made by "primitive savages." And in this extraordinary, unheard-of flourishing of art, the riddle of the origin of modern man is probably hidden. Contrary to popular misconceptions until recently, it was by no means labor that “made the monkey a man” - the “skillful man” of Louis Leakey had been hammering his pebbles for hundreds of thousands of years, but he never became a man. And certainly not a sport - for millions of years Australopithecus ran long distances and threw stones, but as he was a monkey, he remained a monkey. And it's not about the volume of the skull - the Neanderthal had a head like a beer cauldron, but where is he now, this Neanderthal?

Only one culture, which mysteriously awakened a stupid troglodyte, allowed him to lose his bestial features and human in the shortest possible time. true sense this word. The influence of culture on the biological development of man from the very beginning was exceptionally strong, but in the last phases of evolution it has become downright decisive!

Thousands of articles and hundreds of books are devoted to the spiritual life of Paleolithic humanity, Paleolithic art and attempts to reconstruct the social relations of that time. However, the mystery of the origin of human culture has not received any satisfactory explanation so far. It can be assumed with a high degree of certainty that it will never be resolved. And those religious philosophers are probably right who claim that history is a dialogue between man and God, and when this dialogue stops, it will stop. human history. And how else can you have a dialogue with God, if not in the language of culture?

The burials of the Cro-Magnons discovered by archaeologists prove that they have a developed system of cult and religious ideas. Burials with features of a complex burial ritual are known from Late Paleolithic deposits. In most burials, the graves are covered with shoulder blades, jaws and other large bones of mammoths. Providing the dead with a “last shelter” is typical not only for primitive people, but also for historical time (Roman sarcophagi, etc.), and even for our days. The existence of some complex rituals among the Cro-Magnons is also evidenced by the finds of bowls made from human skulls. But the main evidence that it was at these times that a dialogue between man and God began is the cave paintings - amazing and amazing rock paintings made with charcoal and mineral pigments. It is curious that most of these paintings are located in secluded, poorly lit and uncomfortable places, which suggests that they were clearly not intended for wide viewing, but served as a place for some ritual actions or ceremonies in which a small circle of people took part. Another thing is also interesting: as researchers have established, painting in such places is often multi-layered, that is, primitive hunters, having got here, added their drawings to those made by their predecessors. That is, people of different tribes living in different times understood the meaning of these drawings and sacred meaning the places where they were. This allows us to speak about the existence of a unified system of religious ideas, at least among significant groups of Cro-Magnon tribes. And although it is clear that the main element of this cult was probably the worship of certain hunting deities, the picture of the world of Cro-Magnon man is still far from complete clarity. And this is not the only secret of the Cro-Magnons.