Ancient Indo-Europeans - who are they? Ancient Greek cities and colonies. The ancient Greek civilization consisted of cities and colonies engaged in trade and agriculture and located on the coast of the Mediterranean and Black Seas.

The Celts can safely be called the core of the formation of almost all the titular nations of Central Europe. One and a half thousand years before the birth of Christ, the tribes of the Celts concentrated only in the eastern part of France, in the adjacent part of Western Germany, southern Belgium and northern Helvetia, or Switzerland. But already in the 4th century BC, the Celts began to spread rapidly throughout the European part of the continent.

They reached the territory of modern Poland and Western Ukraine. Their raids are well remembered by the Balkans and the Apennines. With their ferocity, they made a huge impression on the inhabitants of Iberia (this is the current Spanish kingdom), and on the Saxons who inhabited the British Isles. They reached the territory of modern Scotland, Ireland, assimilated and drastically changed the attitude of the population of all of the above territories.

History of occurrence

The Celts are not aliens from distant continents. These are related tribes that lived in the Rhine valley, in the upper reaches of the Danube, in the upper reaches of the Seine, Meuse and Loire. The Romans, sincerely surprised by their appearance and manners, called them Gauls. Here you have the toponymy of famous words: the Gallic rooster, Galicia, Helvetia, halit.

But the word "Celt" has several artificial origin. It was proposed by Lloyd in the 17th century. A linguist who studies the linguistic similarity of different historical and ethnographic regions of Great Britain noted the similarity between them. He also gave them the name "Celtic group", which took root, becoming a household name for all ethnically homogeneous peoples, even before our era, "spread out" throughout Europe. The southern part of the continent did not succumb to expansion, although it was pretty frightened by such aliens.

Religion

The Celts are one of the most famous pagans, whose sacred traditions are being actively restored and theatricalized today. The Celts had an extensive pantheon of divine beings: Taranis and Esus, Lug and Ogmius, Brigantia and Cernunnos. But they did not have a single supreme deity, such as Zeus, Odin, Perun or Jupiter. It was replaced by the World Tree. In 98%, this was the name of the most sprawling and powerful Oak in a grove close to the Celtic settlement.

The oak was served by druid priests. They avoided human victims, but in case of urgent need they could water the root system of the head Oak with human blood. The priests were engaged in rituals and cults, the education of the children of the tribe. In addition, the priests owned the last word at any Judgment.

The average Celts believed in an afterlife, so they accompanied the dead with many necessary items, from plates and weapons to wives and horses. But they usually cut off the heads of enemies, because they believed that the human soul lives in the head. In the course of hostilities, they cut off and collected the heads of enemies, hanging them from the saddle. Having brought home, they nailed it over the entrance to the dwelling. The most valuable enemy heads were kept in containers filled with cedar oil. In scientific circles, the idea is circulating that later these heads were participants or objects of religious cults.

social organization

The Celtic tribes lived like typical tribal societies with a pronounced patriarchal character. At the head of the communities were priests and leaders, constantly pulling the "blanket" of power over themselves. Judicial power was nominally in the hands of the head of the clan. But very often he listened to the opinion of the Bregons. This is the lowest division of the druid priests, which was engaged in the interpretation of laws and monitored the observance of all required rites.

Male warriors were the backbone of the society of the Celtic tribes. It was they, the father or the eldest son, who received the ransom for the daughter when she got married. By the way, according to local laws, she could do this no more than 21 times. In the event of a divorce, women could take all their property.

The Celts had a very developed system of fines and ransoms. For example, for the murder of one man, the culprit had to pay the relatives of "7 slaves". Living slaves were the main monetary unit of the Celts. As a last resort, they were replaced by cows. There were penalties for beatings, mutilations, for injuries, for killing from an ambush or unintentionally taking the life of a member of the clan. The amount of payments was adjusted depending on what status the affected Celt occupied in society. The richer he was, the more his death "cost" the murderer.

The first Celts lived in dugouts, caves and huts half dug into the ground. Later, they began to build stone fortifications - oppidums. These are examples of the first European fortresses. With the development of civilization, they turned into entire fortification cities. The Celts-men were engaged in hunting, war and fishing. But the abundance of slaves allowed individual clans to engage in agriculture, moreover, quite effective. The Celts perfectly mastered the art of smelting and metal processing, cattle breeding and maintained trade relations with most of the European peoples that had not yet been captured.

The Celts are considered one of the most ferocious and tough warriors of the European continent. A huge impression on the opponents was made by the invasions of practically naked people, painted in blue paint and with their heads smeared with lime. In order to impress opponents not only by sight, but also by sound, they screamed and howled into special pipes, which were called carnyxes, and looked like the heads of wild animals. They had helmets on their heads, in which cock feathers were stuck. By the way, the Romans, who first saw the Celts on the battlefield, that is why they called them Gauls, that is, roosters.

Having sorted out and established a hierarchy within the Alpine territory, the Celts loudly declared themselves to the whole of Europe, attacking Massalia 600 years before Christ. This is today's Marseille and a former Greek colony. Blue naked people with tattoos and rooster feathers on their heads, screaming and smelling like lions, bears or wild boars, made an oppressive impression on opponents, sowed horror and panic, so they easily won.
After 200 years, after such striking episodic attacks, the Celts managed to capture Rome. Simultaneously with this event, the eastern groupings of the Celts began to move along the Danube, to the Balkan Peninsula, to the northern part of modern Greece. The attempt of the odious leader of the Celts, Brennus, to plunder the temple of Delphic Apollo and cut off the head of the statue of the Sun God dates back to the same time. But the thunderstorm that began frightened off the superstitious barbarians, giving Delphi the opportunity to admire their temple for another couple of centuries.

King Nicomedes the First (281-246 BC), sitting on the shaky throne of Bithynia in Asia Minor, invited a group of Celts, literally 10 thousand people, with wives, children, cows and slaves, to cross the Bosphorus and support him in dynastic wars . It was these ten thousand mercenaries that became the basis of Galatia, a state that existed for four hundred years in the vastness of modern northwestern Turkey.

Thus, the Celts very successfully settled on the mainland of Europe and firmly entrenched in the British Isles and Ireland. In those places where they were opposed by the empire, in the manner of Rome, the migratory military maneuver did not work. Therefore, the south of Iberia, the Apennine Peninsula and the coastline of the Balkans remained uncaptured by the barbarians. In these parts, they were only allowed to conduct trading operations and sometimes practice the art of surprise raids and primitive blitzkriegs.

The Irish and Cornish, the Bretons and the Scots, the Welsh, the East French, the Belgians, the Swiss, the indigenous people of Bohemia, and the West Germans today consider the Celts to be their ancestors.

Thracians

The Thracians became famous all over Europe because of their two tribesmen: the singer Orpheus and the rebel Spartak. The place where this ethnic group was formed and lived, Xenophanes and Herodotus called the Balkan Peninsula. The Thracians occupied the territory from the Pinda ranges and the Dinaric highlands to Staraya Planina and the Rhodope inclusive. They were recorded in the western part of Asia Minor, on the territory of the modern Turkish ulus of Anatolia. But beyond the Carpathian arc, the ethnic group that gave the world the legendary lyre musician did not spread.
Due to the fact that the now dead language of the Thracians belongs to the Indo-European language family, it is assumed that the representatives themselves ancient people came to the Balkans from South Asia. One of the large-scale stops of the ancestors of the Thracians, who left a number of characteristic artifacts there, was their long-term stay on the territory of modern Ukraine. In the very center of the state, in the Belogrudovsky forest of the Cherkasy region, tulip-shaped vessels, scoops, agricultural implements made of bronze, but with silicon inserts, were found.

"Lit" in the 11-9th century BC on the Podolsk Upland, between the Dnieper, the Southern Bug and the Dniester, the ancestors of the Thracians migrated beyond the Carpathians, to the Balkans, in order to form in this fertile area into a single ethnic monolith.

Religion

The Thracians were pagans who believed in animal gods, in gods - tamers of natural elements. According to them, the soul of a deceased person moved to the World of Ancestors and led a life there similar to that of the earth. In order to facilitate the existence of a fellow tribesman in another world and save his body from desecration by people and beasts, the Thracians built dolmens, or stone tombs, for their dead. For richer people, real "afterlife palaces" were created. They had a spacious burial chamber, a dromos corridor, and a vestibule, in which unpleasant surprises awaited potential disturbers of the peace of the body, such as a collapsed ceiling or a nest with snakes. For poorer tribesmen, individual small burial chambers were cut in the surrounding limestone or marl rocks.

During the formation of sacred beliefs, there was an alternation of the significance of female goddesses responsible for fertility, water, earth, and male images represented by gods, lords of hunting, lightning, wars and blacksmiths. The periods depended on what exactly the Thracians were doing at the moment. lived on fertile lands Ukraine and the Balkan Peninsula, being engaged in agriculture, female goddesses became more important. During periods of migration and search for new lands, when new territories had to be recaptured, male gods came to the fore. By the way, it was at this time that the role of priests decreased. But, as soon as the Thracians found a more or less stable haven, the priests again gained strength.

Agricultural products or the results of hunting were sacrificed to the gods; traces of human sacrifices have not been found to date.

social order

The Thracians in the period BC are the canonical representatives of the primitive communal system. They lived in scattered tribal groups, with an obligatory leader and chief sorcerer. The status of a member of the community directly depended on his wealth, the more horses, cows and food supplies a person had, the more his fellow tribesmen listened to his opinion. Women's rights were not infringed. But, before the main migration to the Balkans, polygamy was widespread among the Thracians, which also depended on the status of the “husband”. The richer a man was, the more wives he could take on his maintenance.
The Thracians actively used the work of slaves. Slaves were both prisoners of war and trespassing fellow tribesmen.

By the beginning of our era, Thracian society was divided into clear classes: princes, warriors, free people engaged in agriculture, trade or crafts, and slaves. With special talents or luck, there was a transition from one social category to another.

Thracian settlements differed geographically. Those peoples who are grouped in the territory modern Bulgaria, Slovakia, surrounded by forests and hidden behind mountain ranges, built unfortified settlements and considered mountain rivers, thickets and ridges to be the best elements of fortification.
The southern Thracians, who lived on the coast of the Adriatic, Mediterranean, Marmara and Pontic Seas, were forced to defend their own, open to all sea ​​travelers, settlements. Therefore, they fortified their settlements and built primitive but effective fortresses.

Wars with other nations and migrations

The heyday of the Thracian people fell on the 1st-5th century AD. There were more than two hundred Thracian tribes, therefore, for the convenience of study, scientists divided them into four regional groups.

The first group includes, in fact, Thrace. This is a historical and cultural region that occupies the territory of today's Bulgaria and the European territory of Turkey. Another, no less famous region of compact residence of the Thracians is called Dacia. These are the lands of today's Romania. The third and fourth regions, Mysia and Bithynia, were nearby, on the peninsula of Asia Minor, on the coast of the Marmara and Pontic Seas, only one to the west, and the other to the east, ending at the very ridges of the Pontic Mountains.
Soon after the resettlement of the Thracians to the Balkans, the great migrations of the so-called "peoples of the sea" began. This gave them a chance to firmly gain a foothold on the land they had chosen. Until the fifth century BC, the Thracians were mainly occupied with intra-tribal conflicts and attempts to unite under the rule of one leader, a potential monarch.
The result of long negotiations and episodic wars was the emergence of the Odrysian kingdom, which became the largest state of its time. The last state of the Thracians formed before our era is Dacia. Gathered under his control all the lands inhabited by this ethnic group, the king of Burebista. With the power and power of weapons, he connected a vast territory into a single organism. This included lands from the Southern Bug itself, the Carpathian valleys, all of Bulgaria, Moravia and Staraya Planina.
After Burebista was killed by the rebels, the unification was continued by King Decebalus. For this, he had to fight all his life with the Romans, who did not want the appearance of a single Thrace. Emperor Trajan spent five years of his life conquering the kingdom of Decebalus. After the defeat of the Thracian troops, the king stabbed himself with a sword, and the Romans turned Dacia into their colony.
A little later, already in the 5th century AD, the Celts came to the lands of the Thracians, drove out the Romans and formed their own kingdom, the Gallic one, choosing the city of Tilis for the capital. Over time, the Thracians successfully assimilated with the Scythian plows, therefore they became the basis for the formation of the southern branch of the Slavs: Bulgarians, Slovaks, Czechs, Yugoslav peoples.

Goths

The peak of the influence of the Goths on Europe fell on the 1st-8th century AD. Many Swedish kings and Spanish aristocrats proudly call themselves descendants of one of the most significant nations in Europe. The formation of the ethnic group itself took place in the southeastern part of the Scandinavian Peninsula, even before our era. This is the territory of today's Sweden. The Gothic historian of Alanian origin Jordanes of Croton called this place Scandza. A separate line in the definition of the area where the Goths were identified as a people is the island of Gotland, a narrow arrow stretching along the coast of Sweden.

History of occurrence

In the first century AD, Berig, a charismatic leader and northern "Moses", launched the entire European process of the "Great Migration of Nations". Berig and his loyal people, on three ships, sailed across the Baltic Sea, landing in the north of modern Poland, in the region of Gdansk, Sopot and Gdynia. The epic about the motivation of people, swimming and the first steps in Pomorie are described by the historian Jordan in the work "Getica".
The passengers of the three ships gave birth to three basic tribes: the forest tervings, the steppe greitungs, and the powerful and aggressive Gepids. In the meantime, having united, they forced out the vandals and ruts who had already mastered it from the fertile Pomorye. The union of three Gothic tribes took shape in the so-called Wolbar culture.
The oppressed ruts and vandals began to move south, to an even more comfortable Mediterranean. The Roman Empire felt the consequences of such a global migration. The Goths themselves, led by the leader Filimer, moved south in the 6th century, occupying almost the entire territory of modern Ukraine and Romania, giving rise to the unique Chernyakhiv culture.

Religion

Despite a huge impact ready for a modern ethnic European solitaire, accurate information about religion has not been preserved. The main source about them is the work of the historian Jordanes. And since he was the current Bishop of Croton, he deliberately did not pay any attention to the host of gods of the early pagan Goths.
A smaller but more reliable source is the Herver Saga. It mentions only the god of battles, thunder and lightning - Donar, but does not deny the existence of other divine beings. The clergy did not have much influence on the bulk of the population. They lived separately from the tribe, in the Mirkvid forest, among fabulous and mythical creatures. There is a version that the Ukrainian-Romanian Molfars received power and knowledge precisely from their Ostrogothic ancestors.
The early Goths burned their dead, the later ones carefully laid them out in the burial grounds. Metal ornaments, goblets, combs and ceramic dishes were found next to the dead people more than once.
More information has been preserved about the sacral preferences of the Visigoths. In the 4th century, the leader Freitigern, seeing the great benefit of a centralized religion, ordered Byzantine emperor Constantius II and Archbishop of Nicomedia Christian priest.
The priest Vulfil, an ethnic Goth, arrived at the Visigothic leader. It was he who helped turn Freitingern's subjects into Christians. Bishop Ulfilas compiled the Gothic alphabet and, using it, translated it into native language Bible. In the 6th century, all the Visigoths, given by King Reccared, converted to Christianity.

social organization

The powerful Gothic people did not have a permanent leader, only situational leaders appeared, whose influence was lost after a raid, advance or military action against the enemy. IN Peaceful time or an episodic lull, the entire Gothic people was divided into genera. At the head of each was his leader, who jealously guarded his authority and land.
The leaders of the most large births could enter into vassal relations with their fellow tribesmen. To some, sayons or vigilantes, the leaders issued weapons. Others, bucellarii or boyars, received weapons and decent plots of land. The leaders had unlimited power, and especially in the battle period and the period preceding it.
Initially, back in those days when the Goths had just set foot on Polish soil, the leader was chosen by an assembly of free people. In the period from the first to the seventh century, the right of succession to the throne and the right to elect constantly replaced one another, causing instability in society, inter- and intra-tribal squabbles.
Women of the early Goths had more rights than those that ladies of the 5th-8th century could use. The people used the work of slaves, fortunately, the wars regularly supplied free labor.

Wars with other nations and migrations

The basis of the power and expansion of the Goths was laid in an ideal military organization. The main structural unit of the army was considered a dozen fighters. They were managed by a dean. Hundreds were made from dozens. She obeyed the centenary. Hundreds were made into a thousand, headed by millennials. But the millenarians themselves did not plan battles, but only obediently carried out the orders that came from the leader, leader, later the king, or his monarch-substitute - duki. In battle actions, the late Goths willingly replaced the infantry with cavalry.
The tribes of the Goths already in the 3rd century split into two parts. During the active, militant displacement from the territory of modern Moldova, then Dacia, the Romans, the great people dispersed in different directions.

The first is the eastern branch. They are the descendants of the Greytungs - people of the boundless steppes, or Ostrogoths. They engaged in the dense development of the territory between the Dnieper and the Dniester within the borders of modern Ukraine, Transnistrian Moldavia, the Danube part of Romania and a small part modern Russia represented by the Taman Peninsula. The historian Herodotus, traveling along the Northern Black Sea coast, was surprised by the beauty, freedom and martial art of Gothic women. He “settled” his Amazons, who became a legend, right here, in the interfluve of the Dnieper and Dniester. From their position, the Goths were pushed back by subsequent invasions of the Goons.

The second branch are the heirs of the Tervingi. They are Western Goths or Visigoths who moved west.
The Visigoths crossed the Bosporus and ended up in Greece, where they marked themselves by plundering the Chalkidiki peninsula and attacking Thrace. We visited Corinth and raced on horseback through Athens. In the Balkans, after a skirmish with the Visigoths, Marcus Aurelius fled, leaving the lands of modern Serbia to the enemy. A little later, the Goths caught up with the Romans, and once again defeated their army at Andrianople. The last chord, before walking a victorious march along the entire Apennine coast, was the destruction of Rome by the troops of Alaric.
After this, the Visigoths in the 5th century AD. invade Iberia, Gallicia and establish their kingdoms everywhere. Then they had to defend their lands from the warlike Franks, African Arabs and the strengthened troops of Emperor Justinian. Until the 9th century, the Goths were completely assimilated with the local population. All that remained of them were beautiful legends, the linguistic bases of a number of modern languages, and unique jewelry artifacts, such as treasures with many crowns found in Toledo and Jaén.

Etruscans

The Etruscans are a people who once lived in the central part of the Apennine Peninsula. This is today's Tuscany, Lazio, Umbria and Emilia-Romagna. Much of what is today considered to be primordially Roman traditions was inherited by the Romans from the Etruscans. For example, gladiatorial fights or masked saturnalia, the culture of ablution and koafur in terms, funeral rites and the high art of sculptural and mosaic images.

Origin

Already in the 7th century BC, the inhabitants of Etruria, today's central Italy, mastered writing and the art of conveying forms and emotions with the help of a chisel and brushes. There are two main versions of the origin of such a highly civilized people. According to the first, the Etruscans lived in the Apennines since the Stone Age, developing on this land, learning and establishing themselves as one of the most advanced peoples in Europe. According to the second version, the ancestors of the Etruscans settled this fertile land, migrating here from the east.
Herodotus believed that great architects and sculptors came here from Asia Minor. In time, he connected this resettlement with the end of the Trojan War. The settlers called themselves Tyrrhenians or "children of the sea". At the same time, the name of Aeneas emerges, allegedly leading the migration of the ancestors of the Etruscans to the shores of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Today, most accept the second, Trojan-Aeneas version of the origin of the cultural ancestors of the Romans. The intermediate point of the migration of the flow of Trojan refugees was the island of Sardinia. A great many early artifacts have been found on it, similar to those left by the Etruscan culture on the peninsula.

Religion

The great people had a host of gods, but did not forget to deify the forces of nature. The main god was Tin, belonging to Heaven. His wife and assistant were Menrwa and Uni, respectively. The deities of a smaller caliber included 16 more gods responsible for their own sector of the sky and the branch of earthly work. In addition to them, the deities of the third echelon included spirits living in plants, stones, rocks, in streams and lakes. Separate respect was given to the god of the sea and the master of the underworld. He was settled, either in the vent of Etna, or in the crater of Stromboli, constantly bursting with fire. He was represented by Aeneas in the form of a fiery demon with dancing snakes on his head.
The Etruscans respected and served the spirits of their ancestors. Small food and jewelry-souvenir sacrifices were regularly made to all the gods, trying not to miss or forget anyone, so as not to anger.
In special cases, human sacrifices were appointed. In times difficult for the whole people, the most exalted members of society killed themselves with their own hands, sacrificing them. When rich and respected people died, the Etruscans forced captives or slaves to fight among themselves, until the first death, so that the blood and soul of the deceased would appease the god of the underworld, who accepted the soul of their deceased.
Having moved to Italy, the Etruscans began to cremate their dead on fires, the size of which corresponded to the status of the deceased. After that, the ashes were collected and placed in an urn. All urns were buried in specially designated cemeteries - urn fields.
social organization
The entire territory of the Etruscans was divided between twelve policies. Each was headed by a king. But the power of the king was like that of the high priest in Egypt. The kings were engaged in rituals and harmonization of moods between gods and people. Political power, the treasury and international, or rather interstate relations, were in the hands of the princes, who received their positions by hereditary or elective methods.
Only King Lukomon managed to become the king of Etruscan Rome, who gathered in his hands all the powers of the first person of the state. He moved the princes to a lower position. The role of adviser, boyar, senator, but nothing more.
Women had the same status as men. Their position in society was determined by their wealth. All women and men, except for the priests, cut their hair short. Cultists only removed them from their foreheads using a gold or silver hoop.

Wars with other nations and migrations

The son of the Greek Demarat, Lukomon (second half of the 7th century BC), who became the first real Etruscan king, opened the era of power and greatness of the Etruscans. Under him, the Roman Empire became the center of 12 colonies inhabited by kindred peoples. At the same time, a constant, purposeful expansion into the southern regions of the Apennine Peninsula was noted.
After the murder of Lukomon, power passed to his son Servus Tullius. Servus was killed by his own brother, Tarquinius the Proud. He gladly tried on the toga of the new Roman king. He was a tough monarch, with the manners of a tyrant and a sadist, therefore, although he regularly expanded the territory of his kingdom within the boundaries of the Apennine Peninsula, he was captured and expelled from Rome in disgrace. The Etruscans moved from the phase of the monarchy to the phase of the Republic.

After this, the Etruscans captured almost the entire central part of modern Italy, gained access to the ports of the Adriatic Sea and established active trade relations with the Greek policies.
Trade with the Greeks did not prevent them from entering into permanent military alliances, and from time to time from fighting against them. So they "gave" Sardinia to the Carthaginians, but conquered Corsica from the Greeks.
Then began a period of military and territorial degradation. The Syracusans took Corsica and Elba from the Etruscans. The Republicans lost influence in Latium, lost the roads that connected them with Campania and Basilicata. Rome was lost (the battle for Fidenae and Vei) and Bologna was given to the Gauls. The temporary truce of the conglomerate of Perugia, Croton and Arezzio with the Romans no longer saved the great civilization.
The Etruscans first became allies of the Romans against a more powerful and terrible enemy, the Gauls. Then, already together, only under the Roman banners, they took part in the first and second Punic Wars, which the Romans started against the Carthaginians. Due to the fact that not a single Etruscan settlement raised an uprising in a difficult period for the Romans, they were recognized as equivalent to the new owners of their land.
Then the Etruscans were granted Roman citizenship, and they very organically merged into the Roman Empire, bringing with them a high aesthetic culture and original rituals. Longest of all, as purebred Etruscans, the haruspex, long-haired priests-soothsayers, held out. As early as 199, Etruscan speech could be heard on the streets of Rome and on the shores of the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Roman art of this period is called Etruscan-Roman, and the most complete collection of artifacts, jewelry, especially brooches, sarcophagi, sculptures and black-bodied ceramics can be seen in one of the Vatican Museums, in 9 rooms of the Etruscan Museum.

Vikings

History of occurrence
Residents of coastal settlements looked anxiously at the waters of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea. After all, at any moment narrow ships with bright sails and rearing stems could appear from there. In a matter of minutes, ruthless warriors jumped off them, burned houses, killed townspeople and retreated with lightning speed, taking all the most valuable and edible.

The Vikings called themselves people who inhabited the Scandinavian and Jutland peninsulas. The peoples of Western Europe most affected by their raids called them Normans. And although in our time the word "Viking" is a symbol of fearlessness, courage and heroism, but, both in the Scandinavian sagas and in European chronicles, the term has a sharply negative connotation to refer to those who left their native land for the purpose of robbery.

But, no matter how they are called, the place of origin of the legendary warriors is the territory of the modern Norwegian, Danish and Swedish kingdoms. The history of the military glory of the Vikings began from the edge of Fennoscandia, when Scandinavian tribes, genetic relatives of the Angles and Danes, forced the nomadic Finns to the east, to places abounding in swamps and lakes. The exact time the Viking ancestors appeared in Scandinavia is unclear, but artefacts left by hunters and gatherers dating back 10-9 thousand years ago have been found in Finnmark and Nurmer.

social organization

The ancestors of the people who became Vikings lived in scattered groups or counties. 20-30 such groups were quite enough to create local conflicts, maintain excellent combat readiness of all warriors and organize regular quarrels between leaders, kings or jarls in a local way.
In order to coordinate the actions of the jarls, to analyze land claims and issues of succession to the throne in each county, a single assembly was created - Ting. Ting did not have a permanent center. All free Scandinavians could attend the meeting. But only a group made up of representatives from each county dealt with the cases. The only condition was that the representative did not directly depend on his jarl.
Each county was divided into smaller structural units, hundreds or herads. It was ruled by a hersir, who received a position from his parent. It was they who resolved civil litigation, but the kings were engaged in the "international" policy of their county, became the head of the army during hostilities. And although it was believed that the king was of divine origin, and the tribesmen paid him a tax, the so-called viru, but as soon as the king began to openly infringe on the rights of his fellow tribesmen or went against their interests, he could be killed or expelled from his native land.
The Vikings were led by jarls and cuirassiers. The bulk of the Normans were free peasants or bonds. It was they who, suffering from the scarcity of local soil, went on distant campaigns. It was they who, having set sail from their native shore, instantly turned into Vikings.
A small part of society was made up of slaves, who were mined during military campaigns. It is worth noting that the children of a slave could become a Jarl or Khersir. Slaves were not allowed to the Thing.
A special position was occupied by the Hirdmanns, the king's retinue. They were at the maintenance of the monarch, protected him from the insinuations of his fellow tribesmen and accompanied him on the hunt, and formed the core of the army.
The boundaries between members of class groups were not rigid. Thanks to his personal merits, a slave could become a free man. Women occupied a worthy place in society, attended feasts and could fully inherit the property of their parent. And a certain Freydis, the daughter of Eric the Red, even led a trip to Vinland, killing all her competitors at the end of the voyage.

Religion

The restless and warlike nature of the Vikings was fully consistent with their gods. All the deities of these legendary pagans lived in the majestic fortress - Asgard. The citadel occupies a central place in the human world, in Midgard. The walls and towers of the divine fortification reach the sky, and from enemies of any plan they are protected by thick walls and sheer cliffs.
The most important god is Odin. He was considered the creator of the Universe, he was the best interpreter of runes and knew all the sagas in the world. He was in charge of the war and distributed the victories. He was in charge of a dozen Valkyrie maidens. It was Odin who was considered the owner of the Valhalla palace, in which he received the souls of the Scandinavians who died in battle. Everyone who honestly died moved to the palace, where there was an uninterrupted feast, the warriors told sagas, sang and danced.
Odin's wife, Frigga, was responsible for marriage, love and childbearing. She was considered a seer, but preferred not to share her knowledge with people. The god Thor, the master of thunder and lightning, protected Asgard, Middlegard and Valhalla from the giants.

Wars with other nations and migrations

Wars with other peoples and migrations are directly related to the existence of the very concept of "Viking". When a resident of the Scandinavian peninsula, and later of Jutland, left his native land in search of booty, he began to be called a "Viking".
There are two main streams of migration, accompanied by active hostilities. The inhabitants of the territory, which is occupied by the modern Swedish kingdom, were oriented to the southeast. The silhouettes of the Varangian-Viking Drakkars were well known in the valley of the Dnieper, the Vistula, on the Daugava, on the Niva. They even managed to get to the valley of the Northern Dvina, which they called the land of Biarmia. But the bulk of the operations were trading, because the ancient Russians fought no worse than the Varangians. Many of the failed Varangians had to earn money by being hired by the whole team in the squad of the Russian prince. Such a phenomenon was very common, bringing benefits to both parties.
Another stream, from the lands of today's Norwegian and Danish kingdoms, was oriented to the West. In the deltas of the Elbe, the Rhine, the Seine, the Thames, the Loire, the Charente and the Garron, the local population looked warily into the sea, expecting raids by warriors with whom it was impossible to negotiate. Due to their low landing and the ability to move both due to the force of the wind under sail and due to rowers, drakkars, coming from the sea, easily climbed up large rivers, robbing cities. The warlike Normans are well remembered on the coast of Spain and France. There is evidence that they even reached Byzantium.
In the year 960, Gardar Svafarson's ship was thrown out by a storm on the island of Iceland. Already 14 years later, the Vikings began to colonize and populate this region, which is as harsh as Scandinavia, but which had an additional attraction due to the sources of thermal waters. The reason for all the migrations and military raids of the Vikings was a very inefficient agriculture in the narrow mountain valleys and high density"hungry mouths" in coastal areas where it was possible to fish.

Over time, the nobility of the Vikings began to consider their main source of enrichment, namely military raids aimed at Western, less eastern and central Europe. And a breakthrough in shipbuilding, namely the art of building longships, provided the Vikings with free, easy and graceful movement throughout the North Atlantic.

Germans

History of occurrence

The core of the formation of the ethnos of the ancient Germans was the middle part of Europe from the Oder to the Rhine. In addition to these lands, now occupied by the FRG, western Poland, the Netherlands and Belgium, traces of an ancient people are found in the south of Jutland and on the southern edge of eastern Scandinavia, which belong to today's Kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden.
The Germans began to be considered a full-fledged ethnic group only in the 1st century BC. And already from the beginning of our era, the Germans began to actively "spread" across Central Europe, attacking even the northern borders of the great, seemingly eternal, Roman Empire. The result of the attacks of the Russo-headed barbarians was the fall of the Western part of the Roman Empire, and various traces of the presence of the Germans were found on a vast territory from Cape Roca to the Crimean Peninsula and from the English Channel to the southern African coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
Initially, the Germanic ethnos was compared with the Celts. Only the former was considered even more wild and pristine in terms of culture than the Celts, who fought naked, blue and with rooster feathers on their heads. In order to somehow distinguish their unpredictable northern neighbors, the Latins began to call them "Germans", which means others.

Spreading across Europe, the Germans actively assimilated with the captured peoples. So they replenished their gene pool with Celts and Slavs, Goths and a number of small tribes who hid from the Great Migration of Peoples in the rather isolated Alpine mountain valleys. But the basis of the nation is still considered those tribes that originally lived at the mouth of the Elbe, in the south of Jutland and Fennoscandia.

Religion

According to Strabo and Julius Caesar, the Germans were far less pious than the Celts. They endowed with divine power only sunlight and moonlight and the warmth that fire exudes. But the German customs to know the future surprised even the Romans. Like a terrible fairy tale, the peoples of Europe passed on to one another stories about gray-haired witches cutting the throats of their victims. By the way the blood fills the fortune-telling cauldron, women determined the outcome of future battles, the fate of a newborn or the life path of a new leader.
Having settled in Europe, the Germans acquired a small host of their own gods, borrowing them from the captured tribes. This is how the myth about the god Mann, who gave birth to their people, appeared. The ancestors of today's Danes and Germans began to recognize classical Greek and Roman gods such as Mercury or Mars. A special place was occupied by the cult of women. Each of them implied the divine principle, which makes it possible to reproduce their own kind.

Having known foreign gods, the ancient Germans did not lose their love for various fortune-telling. Soothsayers actively used runes, the insides of birds, the neighing of sacred horses. Predictions of the outcome of an important battle, obtained by simulating a duel, were popular. In the “probe”, an honorary tribesman and a prisoner from a potential enemy converged in a mortal battle. In the 4th century, Christianity began to penetrate the lands of the ancient Germans.

social organization

At the head of the tribe, the clan were leaders - military leaders. They were surrounded by a ring of elders, experienced warriors, and prophetic priests. The bulk of the warriors were formed by free Germans. They were the main force and voice of the people's assemblies, where they came in full military attire. By the way, it was here that the next leader and new military leaders were chosen, responsible for the outcome of future battles.
The lower social levels were occupied by freedmen and slaves. The slave was obliged to pay the owner a dues, and he could kill him with impunity.
With the beginning of our era, the Germans appear kings, whose power was inherited. But before the next war, despite the presence of a king in the region, a leader was still elected, authorized by the function of a commander. Both kings and leaders had their own squad, which they fed, armed and clothed. Money was paid only after another successful robbery or military raid on neighbors.
Elders, elderly and experienced warriors, were engaged in the division land plots dealt with property and interpersonal disputes. In order to make decisions faster, the power of the elders was reinforced by a detachment of warriors who were supported by the community.
According to the notes of the same Julius Caesar, who wanted to know everything about his opponents thoroughly, the ancient Germans did not have their own land plots. Each year, the king, chief or elder was engaged in the redistribution of land suitable for cultivation. Therefore, most members of the community preferred to engage in animal husbandry. Cows and sheep have long been the most stable currency. This was until the Germans copied the very concept of “money” from their enemies and launched their own coins into circulation.
At the beginning of the first century, the Germans had poorly developed handicrafts, shipbuilding, and even the manufacture of fabrics from plant fibers. Both women and men wore cloaks and capes made of animal skins. Pants were worn only by the richest citizens. The family of the average German lived with their cattle in a long, one-story house covered with clay.

War with other peoples and migrations

For the first time, Europe spoke about the Germans when northern colonies The Roman Empire in the 103rd year attacked Teutonic tribes. The new barbarians made an impression on a more civilized people, so the myths about them were filled with new ones, chilling blood, details.

For several centuries in a row, the Germanic tribes fought with the Roman Empire. The most famous battle took place in the Teutoburg Forest (September 9th year), during which 3 Roman legions were destroyed. Throughout the 2nd century, the Germans attacked, and the Romans tried to maintain at least their former borders.
The ferocity and attacks of the young tribe were so great that, due to their unwillingness to compete with the Germans for the lands of Dacia, the Romans left immediately after the death of Emperor Decius. But, despite the retreat, with the beginning of the Great Migration of Nations, the Germans still penetrated and settled in Roman lands. This happened in the 4th century.
In the 5th century, the Germans began to attack the Roman Empire from the other side. They easily knocked out the Roman governors from Iberia, the land of the present Spanish kingdom. Then they became famous in the wars with the Huns, converging on the Catalaunian field in battle with the hordes of Attila.
After that, the Germans began to take Active participation in the appointment of emperors by the Roman Empire. Romulus Augustus, who tried to show independence, was deposed, which provoked the beginning of the end of the Great Empire. In 962, King Otto the First began to form his own Roman-German Empire, which included more than a hundred small principalities.
The ancient Germans formed the basis of a number of European peoples: Germans, Danes, Belgians, Dutch, Swiss and Austrians.

Around the 7th century BC e. throughout Europe there is a change of bronze as the main material from which the tools of production were made, with iron. This was an event of great historical importance, not only because iron gave a greater economic effect, but also because the distribution area iron ore much wider than ores of other metals. The transition to iron was facilitated by the fact that there was some humidification and cooling of the climate. The vast steppes of the Bronze Age (when the forest-steppe reached the Leningrad-Yaroslavl line) were replaced by deciduous forests, the landscape zones that still exist today were established, floodplains suitable for agriculture increased, the number of lakes and swamps increased, where microorganisms accumulated ferruginous deposits - swamp ore.
With the advent of iron, the number of tribes using metal tools and weapons increased. The ancestors of the Slavs, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Finno-Ugric peoples of the northeast, who inhabited vast areas in Central and Eastern Europe, received the opportunity for faster development with the discovery of iron. Iron contributed to the growth of agriculture; the iron ax made it possible to clear the forest for arable land. The zone of hunting and fishing economy has sharply decreased. Agriculture and sedentary cattle breeding were widespread. Slavic tribes introduced their neighbors to agriculture - I measure, all, Karelians, Chud. In the language of Estonians (ancient Chud) there are words of Slavic origin associated with agriculture.

The emergence of settlements

By the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. There is another phenomenon that can be traced throughout Northern Europe from England to the Urals - fortified tribal settlements appeared in the forest belt, which were called “firmaments” or “grads” among the Slavs (a deserted city is called a settlement). Such settlements existed in Eastern Europe for about a thousand years until about the 5th - 6th centuries. n. e., and some even longer. The presence of tribal fortresses-fortifications testifies to the aggravated relations between the clans and to the intensification of the decomposition of primitive relations.

Ancient Slavs

In terms of their language, the Slavs belong to a large group of so-called Indo-European peoples inhabiting Europe and part of Asia up to and including India. The Indo-European languages ​​are related to each other and form several language families: Slavic, Germanic, Celtic, Romance, Iranian, Indian, etc. All these languages ​​have similar words that apparently belong to the primitive era. In ancient times, the distant ancestors of the Indo-European peoples spoke languages ​​close to all of them, but gradually these languages ​​\u200b\u200bbegan to separate from each other.
Slavic tribes have long occupied the Central part of Eastern Europe.

In the course of historical development, the Slavs settled in different directions, assimilating many neighboring tribes.
On the question of the origin and ancient history of the Slavs, there were many erroneous ideas. The chronicler Nestor correctly believed that the Slavs originally lived in Central and Eastern Europe approximately from the Elbe to the Dnieper and only in the first centuries of our era settled the Danube basin and the Balkan Peninsula.
Bourgeois scholars often defined the "ancestral home" of the Slavs as a very insignificant territory somewhere near the Vistula and the Carpathians, which is not true.
Schematically, the origin of the Slavs can be imagined as follows.
In a distant era, kindred tribes lived in Europe - the ancestors of the Indo-European peoples. Their means of communication was a primitive language with a small number of words. Later (during the Neolithic period and during the Bronze Age), these tribes began to settle, the connection between them weakened and some, initially very insignificant features in the language appeared, language families were created that reflected a different grouping of the ancient tribes. The ancestors of the Slavs can presumably be found among the tribes of the Bronze Age inhabiting the basins of the Odra, Vistula and Dnieper. At the same time, there was still no division of the Slavs by language into Western and Eastern. The problem of the origin of the Slavs is very complex; there are many controversial issues that are being explored by historians, linguists, anthropologists and archaeologists.
Slavic tribes in the second half of the 1st millennium BC. e.
Ancient authors of the 1st-6th centuries. n. e. they know the Slavs under the collective name of the Wends, Venets, Antes and the Slavs proper, calling them "the great people", "countless tribes". Even in the era of the earliest Slavic settlements, in the IV century. BC e., the Greeks knew the collective name "veneti", though in a somewhat distorted form - "eneti". The estimated maximum territory of the ancestors of the Slavs in the west reached Laba (Elba), in the north - to the Baltic Sea ("Gulf of Venedi"), in the east - to the Seim and Oka, and in the south their border was a wide strip of forest-steppe, walking from the left bank of the Danube further east towards Kharkov. Probably several hundred Slavic agricultural tribes lived on these vast lands. In the forest-steppe zone, according to Tacitus (1st century AD), the Slavs mixed with the Sarmatians. When Greek authors described Eastern Europe, they usually included in the concept of "Scythia" different nations including the Slavs. It is quite possible that under the name of "Scythian plowmen" and "Scythian farmers", who lived, according to Herodotus (5th century BC), somewhere in the Middle Dnieper, the Slavic tribes with their ancient agricultural culture are also hiding . It can be assumed that the southeastern part of the Slavic tribes, who lived in the forest-steppe Dnieper region, took part in the export of grain to Greece.

Tribes of Northeastern Europe

The Lithuanian-Latvian tribes related to the Slavs in the second half of the 1st millennium BC. e. still differed little from the Slavs in language and way of life.
The northern and eastern neighbors of the Slavs - the tribes of the Finno-Ugric language family (ancestors of the Estonians, Finns, Karelians, Mari, Mordovians, Vepsians), at that time had the same fortified settlements, but in the system of their economy, horse breeding for a certain time prevailed over agriculture . The culture of the Kama tribes developed in the Bronze Age. The Kama and Ural regions were closely connected with the Scythian world. Herodotus calls the tribes near the Urals, who lived along the Kama, Tissagets.

Scythians and Sarmatians

Of the disappeared peoples, the Scythians and Sarmatians, whose language belongs to the northern Iranian branch of the Indo-European peoples, left a big mark on the history of Eastern Europe. The culture of nomadic tribes, known in the VI-III centuries. BC e. on the territory from Hungary to Altai (Scythians, Sarmatians, Saks, Massagets), had some similarities, but these tribes never formed a single political entity. The disintegration of primitive communal relations became apparent among them quite clearly already in the 7th-6th centuries. BC e., at a time when the Scythians defeated the Black Sea tribes of the Cimmerians and made a series of campaigns on the Balkan Peninsula, in Asia Minor and Transcaucasia. In the west, the Scythians reached the lands of the Lusatian Slavs (near modern Berlin).
On the wealth of the Scythian leaders of the VI century. BC testifies to a huge mound near the village of Ulskaya in the Kuban, where slaves and about 500 horses were killed during the burial of the "king". A lot of gold is found in the Scythian "royal" mounds, which also indicates a far-reaching process of property stratification. To the east of the Dnieper lived Scythian nomadic tribes, to the west of the Dnieper - Scythian farmers. Dominant among the Black Sea nomadic tribes was the tribe of royal Scythians, who roamed between the Dnieper and the Lower Don. He owns rich burial mounds and fortified settlements near the Dnieper rapids.
On the vast territory of the Scythian-Sarmatian settlements, tribal unions and state associations of a slave-owning nature were formed in different places. In the 5th century BC e. a state arose among the Sindh tribes inhabiting the Taman Peninsula and the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov. Another state was formed in the steppes near the mouth of the Danube in the middle of the 4th century. BC e. At its head was King Atey, who fought with the Thracian tribes and with Macedonia. More durable was the Scythian state, which developed around II! V. BC e. centered in the Crimea. The names of the Scythian kings are known - Skilur and his son Palak. Excavations in the vicinity of Simferopol revealed the capital of the Scythian kingdom - the city of Naples with powerful stone walls and rich tombs; large granaries were also discovered, indicating the presence of a large grain farm. The Scythian kingdom, headed by Skilur, included both agricultural and pastoral tribes. Received at this time the development and craft. The Scythians and other tribes of the south of the European part of our Motherland, over the course of a number of centuries, created a vibrant and original culture, well known from many works of art kept in museums.
The Scythian tribes were not completely wiped off the face of the earth by the turbulent events that accompanied the crisis of slavery. Some of them were obviously assimilated by the Slavs. The Russian language came out victorious from contact with the language of the descendants of the Scythian-Sarmatians, but was enriched with several Scythian-Iranian words (“good” - along with the common Slavic “good”, “that-por” - along with “ax”; “dog” - along with common Slavic "dog", etc.). There are connections with Scythian art in Russian folk art. But the view of the Scythians as the direct ancestors of the Slavs should be considered erroneous. The remnants of the Scythian tribes subsequently merged with the Slavs.

Greek cities on the Black Sea coast of the 7th-1st centuries. BC e.

In the VII-VI centuries. BC e. The northern and eastern Black Sea coast attracted the attention of the Greek trading and robber squads that sailed all over the Mediterranean at that time. Lack of land in Attica, on the islands of the Archipelago and in Asia Minor forced the search for new lands. Developed trade relations demanded new factories. On the entire coast of the Black Sea (Pontus Euxinus - "hospitable sea"), Greek cities arose (Thira, Olbia, Chersonesos, Panticapaeum, Phanagorig, Fasis, etc.), in their appearance close to the cities of the metropolis. Typical slaveholding relations developed here.

Greek colonies arose on the sites of ancient settlements created by the labor of the local population, which reached a significant level of development at that time. IN Greek colonies there was agriculture, winemaking, salting of fish was carried out, grain stocks from the Scythian and Slavic lands were brought here, crafts, especially ceramics, were developed. Cities such as Olbia, Chersonese and Panticapaeum carried on extensive overseas trade. One of the articles of trade was the slaves bought by the Greeks from local princes. Many cities minted their own coins. Greek luxury items fell to the Scythian kings, without, however, displacing local Scythian products.
Greek cities possessed a very high culture, which was almost on the same level as in the metropolis. There were stone houses of slave owners, temples, theaters, decorated with sculpture and painting. On the streets stood stone pillars with the texts of state documents carved on them (for example, the “oath of the Chersonesians”). The inhabitants of the Black Sea cities, both Hellenes and "barbarians", knew the epic of Homer and the works of classical authors. The composition of the urban population gradually changed - more and more representatives of the "barbarian world" appeared in the cities as craftsmen or wealthy citizens.

Bosporus kingdom. Savmak's uprising

The only major slave-owning state in the Northern Black Sea region was the Bosporan kingdom with its center in Panticapaeum - the Bosporus (now Kerch), which arose in the 5th century. BC e. and lasted until the 4th c. n. e., before the invasion of the Huns. It occupied the territory of the Kerch Peninsula. Taman Peninsula and the lower reaches of the Don. The eastern part of the kingdom was especially densely populated local tribes, whose aristocracy merged with the Greek slave owners.
At the end of the II century. BC e. here there was an uprising of slaves led by Savmak, suppressed with the participation of the troops of Mithridates, king of Pontus (a state in Asia Minor). Information about this uprising has been preserved because a triumphal statue was erected in Chersonesos to the commander Diophantus, who suppressed the movement of slaves in the Bosporus and delivered Chersonesos from the Scythians. The performance of Savmak was one of the links in the general chain of slave uprisings that swept the Mediterranean.
with a trembling hand we put on armor. A ferocious enemy, armed with a bow and arrows saturated with poison, inspects the walls on a panting horse... Sometimes, however, there is peace, but never faith in the world...»
The slave-owning city-policies (states) were powerless to resist the invasions of the Getae and Sarmatians and to protect the small lands subject to them from devastation. Roman occupation of the Black Sea region from the 1st century. BC e. and the inclusion of most cities in the Roman Empire could not significantly change the situation, since the Romans considered these cities only as a source of food and slaves, as transfer points in trade and diplomatic relations with the vast "barbarian" world, which at that time was approaching close to the narrow coastal strip of Greek colonies.

B.A. Rybakov - "History of the USSR from ancient times to the end of the XVIII century." - M., "Higher School", 1975.

The word "prehistoric" refers to the earliest period in the development of human civilization, before people learned to keep records of their history. The world has developed differently in different parts of it, in different regions our planet, prehistoric epochs began and ended at different times. Europe is no exception.

Do not think that if people could not write, then they had nothing to say about their achievements. The absence of prehistoric records does not mean that our species survived only by hunting and gathering. Archaeological finds suggest otherwise.

As you know, writing appeared during the division of society into new strata, which appeared due to the fact that the communities had an increased need for highly specialized artisans and organizers of these new activities. In this collection, you will learn about prehistoric Europe, and what interesting things happened in this part of the Earth in ancient times.

10. First Europeans

As many of us have heard, in theory, humanity first appeared on the African continent. This is confirmed by the oldest archaeological find - a tool carved from stone, made presumably 2.5 million years ago. Then, about 200,000 years ago, the first representative of the Homo sapiens species appeared, and 140,000 years later, ancient people began to migrate from African continent looking for new habitable land. The earliest evidence of modern humans in Europe refers to the discovery of human bones in a cave in what is now Romania. According to scientists, the skulls found in the Cave with Bones (Pestera cu Oase) are about 37,800 years old. These remains confirm that the ancient people who lived in these lands many thousands of years ago crossed their species with Neanderthals who lived here even before the advent of Homo sapiens. However, it seems that the ancestors did not allow Neanderthals to influence our nature, since traces of Neanderthal DNA are found in the blood of modern Europeans no more often than in other people who migrated to Europe much later. Their genetic heritage has practically disappeared from the face of the Earth.

Initially, researchers assumed that the route by which intelligent people entered Europe followed through the lands of the modern Middle East and today's Turkey. But more recent evidence indicates that the true route of Homo sapiens' exodus from Africa was via Russian borders. The remains of a 36,000-year-old "homo sapiens" were discovered in western Russia, and it is this find that is genetically closest to the appearance of modern Europeans. Moreover, some stone and bone artifacts have been unearthed just 400 km south of Moscow and date back to around 45,000 years. Human and ivory needles were found among these archaeological finds, indicating that these people used animal furs to survive in the harsh northern climate. They also diversified their diet by eating small mammals and fish, using all kinds of traps and snares in hunting. All this gave Homo sapiens a significant advantage in survival so far north of the homeland of the African forefathers, which was not the case with Neanderthals.

9. Neanderthals and their customs

Neanderthals were representatives of the human race who lived in the territory of almost all of Europe and western Asia, but then died out about 40,000 - 28,000 years ago. And it is not a coincidence at all that the extinction of this species occurred at the appearance of Homo sapiens in this region, as well as at the beginning of a serious cooling in the northern hemisphere. It is assumed that the last members of the Neanderthal tribes, gradually pushed to the edge of the continent by the new inhabitants of Europe, died out in the region of southern Spain. These two types of people descended from one common ancestor - the Heidelberg man (homo heidelbergensis) as early as 600,000 - 400,000 years ago. Subsequently, modern people, with the exception of peoples living in sub-Saharan Africa, appeared as a result of incest between representatives of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.

Archaeological evidence indicates that in addition to the ability to carve stone tools, Neanderthals also practiced the burial of their dead relatives and held religious ones in cave tombs. In addition, the most ancient hints of the construction of dwellings, found in a French cave, and which, according to scientists, are about 175,000 years old, belonged to Neanderthals. Even more recent finds indicate that individuals of this species practiced cannibalism, especially during times of famine or very poor nutrition. In the caves of Goyet and El Sidrón on the territory of modern Belgium and Spain, respectively, the remains of Neanderthals were found, according to which it can be concluded that these people were skinned, and all the marrow was sucked out of their bones. These bones were then used to make all kinds of tools and tools. For the same purposes, the ancient Neanderthals used the bones of horses and deer, which were also found in the mentioned caves.

8. Doggerland

Doggerland is the lands between present-day England and Denmark, sometimes referred to as "British Atlantis". Doggerland received such a nickname because this place is located at the bottom of the North Sea, and once it was inhabited. At the end of the last ice age, around 6300 BC, the melting of glaciers began, causing the world's sea level to rise by about 120 meters, flooding much of Europe's coastal areas. This event is most likely described in the well-known legend about Deluge.

In the prehistoric period, the current British Isles were part of a single European continent, and tribes, both Neanderthals and the ancestors of modern people, lived in the flooded territories today. The English Channel (the strait between France and England) was also land at that time. Scientists believe that there was a river valley here, where the modern Thames, Rhine and Seine merged into a single large-scale river system.

In addition to the many remains of mammoths, which were caught by fishermen fishing in the waters of the modern North Sea, stone tools of ancient people were also found here. Among the finds were the remains of deer antlers, probably used as a harpoon. The artifact dates back to 10,000 - 12,000 BC, when the site was the tundra of Doggerland. Archaeologists also discovered a fragment of a 40,000-year-old Neanderthal skull 16 km off the Danish coast, and the remains of an entire ancient settlement were found off the British coast. With the onset of climate change, the sea level steadily rose by 5-10 m every 100 years, gradually flooding the local slopes, hills and plains. Slowly but surely, therefore, the inhabitants of these lands were forced to move to the area sandbar Dogger Bank, the highest point in the area, remained an island until 6000 BC, when it was also completely submerged.

7 Sturegg Landslide

This incident can be compared to an apocalyptic event of biblical proportions, but it happened not so long ago as some stories about the sons of Adam and Eve. We are talking about the largest landslide in the history of mankind - Storegga (Storegga Slide), which occurred somewhere 8,400 - 7,800 years ago, 97 km from the Norwegian coast. A huge piece of land broke away from the continental shelf of Europe and sank into the bottomless depths of the North Sea. The landslide debris covered the bottom with an area of ​​95,000 square kilometers. According to geologists, a "scar" of 3,500 cubic kilometers of sedimentary rocks formed under the water. Such a volume could cover the whole of Iceland with a 34-meter layer of soil.

Most likely, the cause of the disaster was an earthquake, which provoked a powerful release of hydrate, which was waiting to be released from under the oceanic crust. All this destabilized part of the coastal land, which broke away from the mainland, plunging into sea waters. Then followed the largest tsunami, which for a long time devastated the land in the vicinity of the apocalyptic landslide. The remains of the Sturgette landslide rocks were found inland at a distance of 80 km from the coast and 30 km above the high tide. Bearing in mind that in those days the sea level was 14 m lower than today, it can be assumed that the height of the waves in some places exceeded 24 m.

Modern Scotland, England, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, Ireland, Holland, the Faroe, Orkney and Shetland Islands were very badly affected by this catastrophic landslide and powerful tsunami. Most of all, the impact of the earthquake was felt by the Doggerland valley, which, according to scientists, was completely flooded overnight. At one point, every living thing on Dogger Bank Island was washed into the sea.

Today, some scientists are worried that the activities of oil and gas companies may pose a serious threat to the region, and they should conduct more thorough exploration of the bottom, so as not to cause a new catastrophe. The Sturegga landslide was not the only one in the area, it is believed to be only part of a series of landslides that occurred here 50,000 to 6,000 years ago.

6. First Europeans in North America

Today, almost everyone knows that the first Europeans in North America were not the Spaniards under Christopher Columbus at the end of the 15th century, but rather the Vikings, led by Leif Eriksson, who had been there 4 centuries earlier. But even more recent finds indicate that even Scandinavian warriors were not the first visitors to the New World. The people of the Stone Age, who lived in the territory of modern France and northern Spain, were ahead of everyone else. The Solutreans first reached the shores of North America some 26,000 years ago during the great glaciation, when arctic ice practically connected the 2 continents. Probably, ancient Europeans traveled by boat along the ice floes, hunting for seals and birds. Their descendants are presumably modern Inuit and Eskimos.

The first evidence of this theory was discovered in 1970, when a fishing trawler 97 km off the coast of Virginia lifted from the seabed a 20-centimeter stone wedge, fang and front tooth of an ancient 22,700-year-old mastodon. What was most interesting about the stone blade was the technique by which it was made. It bore a striking resemblance to the rock processing methods used by the Solutrean tribes of prehistoric Europe.

After this incident, several other artifacts were discovered in 6 other areas along the entire East Coast of North America. The rarity of such finds is explained by the fact that in ancient times the sea level was much lower, and Stone Age people preferred to settle on the coasts. It is for this reason that so few archaeological finds are made on land. And although this is still not fully proven, and there are many gaps, but scientists are increasingly inclined to the hypothesis of the Solutrean origin of the skeleton found in the Florida region. The remains are believed to be 8,000 years old, and genetic markers indicate kinship only with Europeans, while involvement with Asian peoples has not been found.

In addition, some of the indigenous tribes of North America speak languages ​​that have nothing to do with the Indians, who have been found to have Asian roots.

5. History of blue eyes and fair skin

Scientists have come to the conclusion that blue eyes originate somewhere in the north of the Black Sea, and children with this eye color first began to be born 10,000 years ago. Until then, all people were brown-eyed or black-eyed. The oldest remains of a man with blue eyes date back 7 to 8,000 years, and were discovered in the north-west of modern Spain in a cave system near the city of León. The 30-35-year-old man found had blue eyes but still dark skin, much like today's sub-Saharan Africans, according to DNA analysis. The DNA of this man was compared with analyzes of ancient remains found in Sweden, Finland, Siberia and with the DNA of 35 modern Europeans. The results showed that this prehistoric culture, which spread across the mainland from Spain to Siberia, and is also known for the burials of people with figurines of the Paleolithic Venus, is partly the ancestor of many modern Europeans.

Further studies conducted on 800 blue-eyed people around the world from Turkey and Denmark to Jordan indicated that this trait can be traced back to one specific person. You can't say that about brown-eyed people. The reason why Europeans went from completely brown-eyed to 40% blue-eyed in just 10,000 years is still a mystery to geneticists. The best version says that a mutation in the DNA of blue-eyed Europeans affected their popularity and subsequently fertility. Blue-eyed men and women were more likely to be selected as partners because they seemed more attractive for mating.

Like the color of the eyes, the color of the skin of a considerable part of the people also changed in Europe, but a little later. The genes responsible for lighter skin tone originate in the Middle East. Europeans began to look like today's fair-skinned people only 5,800 years ago. Both of these new physical qualities have become a clear advantage for living in latitudes further from the equator, where the sun does not shine as hot as in the tropics. In addition, light skin color allows you to increase your intake of vitamin D. While dark skin and brown eyes protect a person from strong ultraviolet radiation due to their high melanin content, they represent a clear disadvantage in latitudes where the sun is not as active.

4. Cucuteni-Trypillian civilization and the first wheel

At a time when Europeans lived off hunting and gathering and used stones as tools and weapons, an Eneolithic archaeological civilization flourished in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bmodern Moldova, Ukraine and Romania for 3,000 years. Somewhere in 5500 - 2750 years. BC, the Cucuteni people created the largest communities for their time, in which up to 15,000 people lived at the same time, who built about 2,700 buildings. They inhabited an area of ​​approximately 360,000 sq. km and dispersed in a kind of confederations at a distance of 3-6 km from one another. Most likely it was a matriarchal society. Romanian archaeologists have recently made a number of interesting finds, including a huge temple complex. According to scientists, he is already 7,000 years old. The old building occupies 994 sq. m and is part of an incompletely excavated settlement, the area of ​​\u200b\u200bwhich presumably covers 250,000 sq. m. This is the largest archaeological find of its kind, and scientists still have a lot of work to study it.

The prehistoric Trypillian Cucuteni society was heavily dependent on agriculture and animal husbandry, but it also practiced conventional hunting. Archaeological evidence indicates that these people were also very skilled potters, jewelers and textile workers. Images of the swastika and yin-yang symbols appeared on their products 1000 years before these inscriptions began to be cultivated by Indian and Chinese civilization, respectively. About 70% of the Neolithic heritage of pottery originates here - in the region of Eastern Europe. Scientists also found that many Cucuteni settlements had a "double bottom". It seems that this civilization had a custom to demolish its settlements every 60-80 years, in order to rebuild their settlements in the same place later. Presumably, this was part of a ritual in honor of the cycle of death and rebirth, as well as a kind of religious sacrifice to the spirits.

Perhaps it was the Cucuteni-Trypillian civilization that was responsible for the invention of the wheel. The oldest wheel was previously thought to be 5,150 years old and was found in Slovenia. However, an artifact was discovered in Ukraine, possibly disproving the Slovenian authorship of the wheel. As it turned out, the ancient Trypillian culture sculpted clay toys in the form of bulls on wheels several centuries earlier. So far, this is not reliable evidence, but the chances that it was the cucuteni who invented the wheel are quite high.

The theory explaining their disappearance refers to the fact that the agrarian civilization suffered greatly from the detrimental climatic changes.

3. Turdas-Vinca culture and ancient writing in the world (protoscript)

The Turdas-Vinca culture, the Cucuteni-Trypillian civilization and several other peoples are most often combined into the Danube civilization, since they all settled on fertile lands near great river Danube. The Cucuteni lived further north, and the Vinca culture spread its influence over the territories of modern Serbia, parts of Romania, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Greece during the period 5700-3500 BC. BC.

Their hierarchical system remains unknown, and it is possible that they were not a political association. At the same time, this civilization was distinguished by a high degree of cultural unity, spreading over fairly large areas.

Both cucuteni and Turdas-Vinca were very advanced people for their time. It was they who first created copper tools, spinning machines and began to design furniture. However, artefacts belonging to this culture are still the subject of controversy, as some archaeologists see traces of Anatolian influence. Another camp of researchers believes that the Vinca became the successors of the Starcevo-Krish civilization (starcevo) that lived here. In any case, they sculpted amazing pottery, which was then found throughout the territory of their settlements.

Some researchers believe that the Vinca were even the inventors of the first written language. In 1961, on the territory of modern Transylvania (Romania), 3 small tablets were found dating back to about 5500 BC. Specialists in Mesopotamian culture do not recognize these tablets and their distinct symbols as an example of writing, stating that the artifacts are engraved with simple patterns that have a purely decorative function.

But many other scientists and linguists do not share this skepticism and believe that the world's first proto-writing appeared right here in the Balkans, almost 2000 years before the Sumerian cuneiform. To date, scientists distinguish 700 individual characters belonging to the writing of the Danube region, which is comparable to the number of hieroglyphs used by the ancient Egyptians. If this theory is justified, it will be possible to boldly declare that the cradle of modern European civilization is not Mesopotamia, but the Balkans.

2. Skeleton from Varna and the richest prehistoric tomb

During excavations in the 1970s near the port city of Varna in eastern Bulgaria, archaeologists came across a massive necropolis dating back to the 5th millennium BC. When they got to Grave No. 43, the scientists realized that they had discovered the richest prehistoric treasury. The treasure consisted of 3,000 gold artifacts, the total weight of which was 6 kg of the precious metal. In other graves, objects made of gold were also found, but there were much fewer of them.

This place is also distinguished by the fact that the oldest burial of a man from the privileged class was discovered here. Patriarchy in Europe was then only in its infancy, and until then only women and children were honored with elaborate and decorated graves.

The Varnian civilization reached its peak in the period from 4600 to 4200 BC, when this people first began to create products from gold. Having settled on the Black Sea coast and possessing goods very valuable for trade (gold, copper, salt), the Varnians got rich very quickly. Archaeological evidence indicates that this ancient culture was distinguished by a well-thought-out hierarchical structure, and it was here that the first foundations of a monarchical society were born, in which even then rapidly heating up benefits were distributed rather unevenly among its members.

The decline of the Varnian civilization occurred as suddenly as its heyday. The countless treasures and enviable prosperity of the Varnians attracted the attention of the steppe warriors and nomads. Evidence of the appearance of the first weapon, created not against an animal, but against a person, was also found precisely in Bulgarian burials. It was then that the first large-scale wars began, associated with the struggle for material benefits. Together with climate change, this has led to the rapid impoverishment of a once prosperous civilization.

1. Taming a dog

We decided to end this list with a story about man's best friend and about when this friendship began for the first time. So far, scientists and archaeologists say that the domestication of the dog occurred in different parts of the world almost simultaneously, and depending on the region of residence, we tamed quite different types of wolves. Humans not only domesticated wolves, but no other animal accepted us as quickly and friendly as today's dogs. We tamed many different animals, starting to acquire livestock when we chose a settled way of life, but dogs have been our helpers since the days of hunting and nomadism.

The most amazing thing is how early man managed to tame a wild wolf. Past expert estimates were based on the discovery of wolf remains that were 14,000 years old. But more recent finds of canine remains, both on the territory of modern Belgium and in central Russia, confirm the fact that representatives of the canine family were domesticated as early as 33,000 and 36,000 years ago. This discovery startled archaeologists, as it turned out that humans befriended dogs 20,000 years earlier than expected.

Current page: 1 (total book has 25 pages) [accessible reading excerpt: 17 pages]

Oleg Devletov
History of Europe from ancient times to the end of the 15th century

Foreword

Offered to the attention of the reader tutorial dedicated to the history of Europe. This region was not the first place on Earth where a man appeared, where revolutionary changes took place in his life that contributed to the emergence of civilization. Europe in this sense is secondary. But it was she who became the cradle of antiquity, which endowed the world with great achievements. Antique structures served as the basis for the formation medieval Europe, which already at the end of its existence showed the culture of the Renaissance. Finally, it was in Europe that an industrial society was born that contributed to the progress of mankind in science and technology. Europeans spoke loudly about the rights and freedoms of citizens in the new conditions, about the need state power maintain a balance of interests in society. Europe has given an example of mass movements of citizens in the struggle for their interests.

However, it was here that the ideas of colonialism were born, it was here that the bloodiest wars of the 20th century were unleashed, it was here that totalitarian regimes arose that completely subjugated the lives of people.

Overcoming the burden of the past, comprehending the present from the point of view of the value of a person, the uniqueness of his existence, the European Region has not left its leading position. The ideas of human rights, freedom and democracy, prosperity and progress, born in Europe, are still on the banners of those who see their future, the future of their fatherland among the most advanced forces peace. The proposed manual will help you to understand the originality of European history, its unique features.

Introduction

The European region has long been regarded by scholars as the center of world history. Indeed, it was here that the conditions for the industrial revolution were formed, which allowed the countries located in this part of the world to make a powerful breakthrough and overtake everyone in their development. Now this approach does not seem right. Asian countries are showing impressive progress. However, the European region continues to play a crucial role in the global process, with a rich past. Studying the history of Europe helps to understand the origins of the formation of current states, to fully appreciate the path of development European societies, their achievements in the field of economics, politics, culture, to understand the originality and to get an idea of ​​the general phenomena in the world historical process.

Our ideas about the history of Europe are formed on the basis of historical sources. A historical source should be understood in general as the form in which specific historical facts have come down to us. These can be written, material, oral, folklore, ethnographic, linguistic, photo and film documents, phono documents. Recently, an electronic document has been considered as a historical source.

A number of special and auxiliary historical disciplines also provide materials for the study of history. Among the special disciplines is historiography (a set of studies on a particular topic or historical era), source studies (the science of theoretical and applied problems of studying and using historical sources). Auxiliary historical disciplines include archeology, heraldry, historical geography, numismatics, onomastics, sphragistics and a number of other sciences.

Archeology studies the history of society on the basis of the material remains of the life and activities of people - material monuments. Heraldry draws attention to the study of emblems: public, private, emblems of institutions, societies, etc. Historical geography studies the physical, economic and political geography of the past of a country or territory. Numismatics explores coins and medals, onomastics - the meaning, the history of the emergence of geographical names, surnames and names of people. Finally, the subject of study of sphragistics are seals.

Based on these data, you can get a complete picture of the history of the region, a separate country. The findings of archaeologists, information from ancient authors, household items, analysis of linguistic structures and much more allow us to write the history of Europe until the end of the medieval era, summary which is presented in the proposed manual. The author has chosen a traditional (consecutive) version of the presentation of events: Primitiveness, Antiquity, the Middle Ages. Thus, this manual is devoted to the prehistory of Europe, antiquity and the Middle Ages.

Chapter 1. Prehistory of Europe

The main concepts of the chapter:

Paleolithic;

Acheulean culture;

Mousterian era;

totemism;

Animism;

Primitive art;

Mesolithic;

Neolithic revolution;

Uneven development;

Eneolithic;

social differentiation;

Property differentiation;

Hierarchical structure;

Bronze Age;

Iron age.

Question 1. Periodization of European history in accordance with the material of tools

Man appeared in the expanses of Europe about 2 million years ago. According to written sources, you can find out the history of man in Europe only for the last 3 thousand years. The remaining pages of the foggy past are able to reveal the data of such sciences as archeology, linguistics, paleoanthropology, geology, paleontology, etc.

Archeology distinguishes three main periods in the ancient history of Europe: stone, bronze, iron. The Stone Age is the longest of them. At this time, people made the main tools and weapons from wood, stone, horn and bone. Only at the very end of the Stone Age did the ancient inhabitants of Europe first get acquainted with copper, but they used it mainly for making jewelry. Most likely, tools and weapons made of wood were the most numerous among ancient people, but organic substances are not preserved, therefore stone products are the main sources for studying the existence of man.

Scientists usually divide the Stone Age into three parts: the ancient Stone Age, or Paleolithic; the Middle Stone Age, or Mesolithic, and the New Stone Age, or Neolithic.

In the Paleolithic era (distinguish between Upper, Middle, Lower Paleolithic), a person, existing in the European space, was engaged in hunting and gathering. His stone tools were made without polishing and drilling, using the upholstering method. The living conditions of that time were extremely harsh: the Paleolithic coincides with the Pleistocene - the early part of the ice (Quaternary) period of the Earth's history.

The Mesolithic differs from the long Paleolithic in new natural conditions - the onset of the post-glacial period. Along with hunting and gathering, fishing began to develop, including sea fishing, hunting for marine mammals, and collecting sea mollusks. Man has learned to use smaller stone tools - microliths.

However, the main event in the development of the human community in Europe takes place in the Neolithic era. It is then that the appropriating type of economy is replaced by a producing one. Hunting, gathering, and fishing are being replaced by agriculture and cattle breeding. This most important milestone is called the Neolithic revolution, as it lays the foundation for the emergence of a new stage in the development of human society - the stage of civilization.

After the Stone Age comes the Bronze Age. Between them, the Copper-Stone Age (Eneolithic, Chalcolithic) is distinguished, however, this period can be traced not throughout Europe, but mainly in the south of the continent. At that time, agricultural and pastoral societies emerged and flourished there, with large settlements, developed social relations, religion, and even proto-writing.

In the Eneolithic era, the first large-sized copper tools appeared - for example, battle axes, as well as jewelry made of copper, gold and silver.

The Bronze Age in different parts of Europe lasted 1–2 thousand years. In the first half of the Bronze Age, bronze items (copper alloys) were rare, mainly axes, daggers, knives, spearheads, and jewelry. But in the second part of the Bronze Age, the first agricultural tools made of bronze, improved weapons (swords), defensive armor (helmets, armor, greaves), items made of sheet copper and bronze, highly artistic items made of gold and bronze appeared. The Bronze Age in the history of Europe ends at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e.

Since the end of the Paleolithic ancient Europe there is an uneven economic and cultural development. So, the Neolithic era in the southeast, and then in Central Europe, exists in parallel with the Mesolithic in the north and east of Europe. The Eneolithic in southeastern Europe develops parallel to the Paleolithic in the west, north and east of this part of the world. The Early Bronze Age on the territory of the Aegean coincides with the Late Eneolithic in the Danube and Central Europe, the Eneolithic of the south of Eastern Europe and the Late Neolithic of Northern and North-Eastern Europe.

Question 2. The formation of primitive man and society in Europe

Exist different kind theories of anthropogenesis (the origin and development of man as a species). long time the theological version of the divine creation of man in the image and likeness of God dominated. Since the 18th century scientific ideas about anthropogenesis begin to develop. IN mid-eighteenth century, K. Linnaeus in his book "The System of Nature" attributed man to the animal world, placing him in his classification next to the great apes. He gave the name Homo (hominids) to man.

A stormy response was caused by the publication of the works of Charles Darwin in the middle of the 19th century, in particular, the book "The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection".

The ape-like ancestors of man, being part of the nature around them, gradually changed due to changes in external conditions, which led to the emergence of modern man. Thus, according to Darwin, biological factors have the most important word in evolution. These are variability (mutations), selection (environment assessment of the effectiveness of these mutations) and heredity (transmission of these mutations). Among the properties of a person that represent specifically human in him, first of all, cognitive abilities (consciousness) and language are distinguished.

The formation of the cognitive features of modern man that make up consciousness - goal-setting, the ability to abstract, imagination, memory - was determined by changes in the body of people's ancestors. Among them - an increase in the volume of the brain - from 500 cubic centimeters in modern large apes to 1450 in modern humans, the opposition of the thumb (made it possible to manipulate objects), the formation modern look feet (make upright posture possible). This is the so-called hominin triad.

Another vision of the origin of man is the purely biological concept of the anatomist L. Bolk, expressed at the beginning of the 20th century. He believed that a person is, as it were, an "immature" monkey, its sexually mature embryo.

In 1876, Friedrich Engels published the article "The Role of Labor in the Process of the Transformation of Apes into Man". In it, he formulated the idea that human evolution occurred mainly for social reasons. F. Engels considered labor activity to be the main driving force behind the transformation of apes into humans, which at the same time distinguishes them from each other. "Labor created man", as well as his modern anatomy. The transition to upright posture led to the release of hands from the function of movement. Hands began to be used for the manufacture and use of tools. The complication of labor operations led to an increase in the brain, which again caused a complication of activity. Work also contributed to the rallying of the team, the emergence of speech and, finally, society. F. Engels considered the concrete mechanism of the influence of the socio-cultural environment on biological evolution to be the fixation in heredity of morphological features acquired in the process of labor.

The concept of G. Weinert (1935) indicates the importance of climatic features as external conditions for human existence. Modern man arose under the influence of the harsh conditions of the Ice Age. Fire helped man to fight these conditions. Fire played a huge role in the life of primitive people - it warmed, protected from ferocious predators ... Man lost hair on his body due to the constant wearing of clothes and heating with fire, large fangs and jaws due to a new way of cooking on fire and using fire to fight with predators. People gathered around hearths, which facilitated communication and led to the emergence of speech. These are the theses of the scientist.

Another option is represented by the concept of B.F. Porshnev, who focuses on psychological aspects human evolution.

Thus, the theories of human evolution have passed certain way development. IN domestic science there is an idea that the key factor in the evolutionary process was human activity in the production of tools. In this regard, it is generally accepted that human evolution can be represented in the form of the following main forms.

Handy man (Homo habilis). Lived 2-1.5 million years ago.

Homo erectus, Pithecanthropus, Sinanthropus. He lived from 1.6 million to 200,000 years ago.

reasonable man ( Homo sapiens), Neanderthal. He lived from 200 thousand to 35 thousand years ago.

Homo sapiens sapiens, Homo sapiens sapiens, Cro-Magnon. He lived 40 thousand - 10 thousand years ago.

Consider the development of man, his formation and the emergence of the first societies in accordance with the eras named after the materials from which the tools were made.

The era of the Paleolithic.

Ancient man appeared in Europe 2 million years ago. Its habitat was determined by the conditions of the Quaternary or Ice Age. The duration of this period on planet Earth, according to some scientists, was 2.8 or 3-3.5 million years. It was then that modern fauna appeared on the territory of Europe with such animals as the elephant and the horse. The Ice Age is divided into an earlier part (Pleistocene) and a later one (Holocene), and the end of the last glaciation, about 10 thousand years ago, is considered to be the boundary between them.

During the Pleistocene period, when there were significant temperature fluctuations, Europe experienced six or seven glaciations. The main centers of glaciation were Scandinavia, where the thickness of the glacier reached 3 km, New Earth and Northern Urals. By the end of the Pleistocene, the glacier covered only the Scandinavian Peninsula. These natural conditions formed the corresponding flora and fauna. For example, during the last glaciation, the tundra and cold steppes moved south to the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Dinaric Mountains and the Caucasus. And if in warm periods the representatives of the European fauna up to England were hippos and elephants with straight tusks, then during the cold snap, the mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, cave bear, cave lion began to spread.

How did man appear on European territory? Exist different points vision. Perhaps he came from India, many believe that the first hominids came from Africa. There are three possibilities for such a move. The first shortest route by land is through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, the second is through the Gulf of Tunis, the third is through Gibraltar.

The initial structural phase of Homo sapiens, the archanthrope, is considered by many anthropologists to be the ancient species of Homo erectus. Traces of the presence and remains of such an archanthrope are found by archaeologists both in Europe and in Asia. However, evidence of the stay of an archanthrope in Europe in ancient period Paleolithic. So in France, in Saint Valle, a stone tool was discovered, whose age is 2.3-2.5 million years. Another group of finds in France is Chiyac (1.8 million years ago) and La Roche Lambert (1.5 million years ago). A very interesting monument is the cave of Shandalya I (Istria), the age of the finds in which is about 1.6 million years ago. Two primitive pebble stone tools, a hominid tooth and many bones of mammals were found in the cave, a significant part of which belonged to young horses, rhinos, wild boars and were burned. It can be assumed that even then primitive man was familiar with the use of fire.

The oldest remains of the archanthrope found in Europe date back to 360–340 thousand years ago and represent fragments of a skull from Verteschsöllösch, a skull from Petralona, ​​and a jaw from Mauer near Heidelberg (Germany). Scientists note the differences in the found skeletons of the first Europeans and believe that there were a whole wave of settlements of an ancient person of various physical types.

An ancient human of the Homo erectuc type (upright man) can be described by the following characteristics. The volume of the brain is about 1000 cubic meters. cm, the cranial vault is rather flattened, the forehead is slightly convex, the lower jaw is massive, but without a chin, the supraorbital ridges are large. Bipedal walking had already been mastered by the archanthrope, but the shape of the skull and the structure of the facial skeleton contained much more from the ape.

How did ancient people live in Europe in the most distant times? Better known than others is the culture of the early Paleolithic of Europe, called the Acheulian (about 900 - 600 thousand years ago - 170 thousand years ago). It is widespread in the west and south of Europe, it is found in the center and in the east - in Transcarpathia, the Dniester region, the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov and the Caucasus. One of the characteristic tools of this period were hand axes (universal tools 35 cm long, oval-almond-shaped with two longitudinal blades and one pointed end).

According to the finds in Terra Amata and Le Lazare (France), scientists reconstructed the life of people of that era. Apparently, spring and winter habitats differed. At the base of a light dwelling in Terra Amata (by the way, the oldest found in Europe), an oval stone fence was laid. Its length is 8 -16 m, width - 4 -6.5 m. Inside the dwelling there were hearths and places for making tools. People lived here when they were engaged in hunting for herbivores, collecting marine fish, shellfish and turtles. Nearby, a shelter (11 x 3.5 m) was built in the cave of Le Lazare. Scientists managed to reconstruct the entrance, internal partitions, two hearths in a larger room and a small room without hearths. Even sleeping places are being restored, a kind of bed made of wolf, lynx, fox skins and algae. Archaeologists note that around the middle of the Acheulian era, regional differences begin to appear. Their causes remain unknown, although differences in environmental conditions, etc., can be assumed.

In the later Paleolithic era, which is also called the Mousterian (from 125/100 to 40 thousand years ago), ancient man settled in almost the entire ice-free territory of Europe, and, of course, much more monuments of that period were found. The territory of Russia is then populated up to the Volga. Perhaps there were two centers of development of the Mousterian era - Western Europe and the Caucasus. From there, new phenomena spread to the rest of Europe.

During this period, there were changes in the tools of human labor. The main tool becomes a scraper, which was used for processing wood and skins, for planing, cutting and even drilling.

The people of the Mousterian era lived in caves and grottoes, under rocky sheds, less often in open places. They continued to engage in hunting and gathering, but in this hunt differences began to appear associated with a certain type of pursued animal. For example, in the Crimea they hunted almost exclusively wild donkey and saiga, in the Caucasus, in the Vorontsovskaya cave, 98.8% of the remains of the fauna belong to the cave bear, in the Hungarian town of Erde, the object of spring hunting of ancient people was mainly the cave bear (about 500 individuals were killed ), and in summer - horses and hippos.

As before, people lived in a pre-tribal tribal society in small isolated groups - communities, whose members were connected by common economic interests and ties of kinship. But there are changes associated with the spiritual sphere. Archaeologists find the first burials, and traces of rituals, possibly associated with the emergence of totemism.

Totemism - belief in a supernatural connection between a tribe, a community, a group of people and an animal, a bird. It is considered one of the first steps of religious consciousness

For example, there are cases of special treatment of the skulls and bones of bears: the skulls are put in special niches in caves or in boxes made of stone slabs (Drachenloch, Switzerland; Petershöhle, Germany), bones are buried in special stone structures (Regurdu, Southwestern France). Apparently, the bear - cave or brown - was a totem for many genera.

There is evidence of the use, although extremely rare, of ornamentation - rhythmic repetition of cuts on bones or stones, as well as the use of paint - primarily red ocher.

The appearance of burials should indicate that ancient people were already aware of their difference from the animal world. Perhaps some vague ideas about "life after death" were born in their heads.

The appearance of a person in the Middle Paleolithic era has undergone changes. According to the remains of Neanderthals found, they can be described as short, or medium-sized people, with large heads. They have no chin protrusion, there are protruding supraocular arches, a low flattened skull, and an occipital protrusion. The brain volume of Neanderthals is not less, and sometimes even more, than that of a modern person. The structure of the brain, however, is more primitive, for example, the frontal lobes of the brain are poorly expressed. It should be noted that, along with the type of Neanderthal, other forms of primitive man also existed in Europe. It is likely that crossbreeding of populations took place on the continent, which led to the fact that mutations or genetically favorable adaptations were transferred and increased.

Perhaps, by the end of the Middle Paleolithic, the process of the formation of Homo sapiens sapiens and the identification of racial groups and anthropological types begins. These processes will be clearly manifested in the upper, last period of the Paleolithic, the beginning of which dates from 37 to 32 thousand years ago.

The Upper Paleolithic is the time of the emergence and high rise of art. The changes that took place on the verge between the Middle and Upper Paleolithic affected not only the technique of making tools, economic activity man, but also his physical appearance. Upper Paleolithic man is Homo sapiens sapiens, or Cro-Magnon man, anthropologically very close to modern man. But how the population of Homo sapiens sapiens took the place of the Neanderthal population remains largely unclear.

In the Upper Paleolithic, not only does population density increase, but the human ecumene expands, covering new areas in the north and northeast of Europe and rising into mountainous regions. According to a number of scientists, bows and arrows spread in Europe at this particular time. The hunter-gatherers of the Upper Paleolithic had a communal-tribal organization. At a minimum, a community consists of a set of several families connected by consanguinity or closely related ties. It had an average of 25 members. Communities could form a larger association, communications within which were carried out through common rituals, as well as a network of marriages that guaranteed the biological preservation of its members. Such an association numbered from 200 to 500 people, it included from 7 to 19 minimum communities.

In the spiritual life of the Cro-Magnons, totemism and animism, intricately intertwined with hunting magic, became widespread.

Animism - animation of nature

This is evidenced by the burials found by scientists. The burial rite had well-established norms: heavily crouched burials were found on their sides, with knees drawn up almost to the chin, sprinkled with red ocher, the graves had tools, weapons, jewelry - beads and pendants. Burial structures were also attested - grave mounds, laying out of bones or slabs.

In the Upper Paleolithic of Europe, art develops and reaches its first take-off. Scientists distinguish two large groups of works of primitive art. This is rock and cave painting, as well as engraving, a kind of monumental art. Examples include the grottoes of the Dordogne (France), the caves in the Pyrenees (Northern Spain). Some of them contain dozens and hundreds of images. The most famous of the caves are Altamira in Spain, Lascaux and Font-de-Gaumes in France.

Images, originally made in the engraving technique, painted over in a single color, change towards multi-color images. Ancient artists attempt to give an idea of ​​the perspective and movement of an animal, and human figures are rare in this art.

Rice. 1. Altamira Cave

The second type of primitive art is works of horn, bone and stone. These are small forms and the first appearance of decorative art. For example, female figurines from 12 to 25 cm high made of mammoth tusk, found in France, Italy, Austria, etc.

The areas where primitive art originated are not numerous. This is the Mediterranean region - predominantly Italy, the Eastern region, which extends from Central Europe to Siberia (for example, Kapova cave in the Urals). But the most important in terms of the volume of monuments presented by archaeologists is the Franco-Cantabrian region, which includes the territory from Asturias in northern Spain to Provence in southeastern France, that is, the southern half of France and the northern strip of Spain near the Bay of Biscay.

Mesolithic.

Approximately 10 thousand years ago, the onset of the post-glacial period, or Holocene, began. It was marked by significant changes natural conditions in Europe. Ecological changes after the end of glaciation were of a complex nature: both temperature and humidity changed, and with them, vegetation and wildlife. At the end of the Pleistocene, many of the giant herbivores that were a feature of the Ice Age fauna became extinct. The mammoth existed in Ukraine until the 11th millennium, and the woolly rhinoceros and steppe bison until the 9th–8th millennium. The musk ox, giant deer, lion, and hyena disappeared, while the reindeer and arctic fox moved significantly north.

Started in Europe in the second half of the 9th millennium BC. a significant shift to the north of temperature zones meant that those regions that were previously inaccessible to it, for example, the north of Scandinavia and Scotland or the high mountain zones - the Swiss Alps, could be inhabited by man.

With the change in the nature of the animal world, the methods and techniques of hunting have changed. Mesolithic hunters focused on animals that lived alone or in small groups. Hunting became more difficult and less successful. The Mesolithic population of Europe was forced to turn to the extraction of other food resources - to fishing, sea fishing, collecting sea mollusks, more intensive gathering of seeds and fruits.

A person began to lead a more mobile lifestyle, using in different time year different ecological zones of its territory. A specific type of monuments appeared on the shores of the Mediterranean and North Seas and the Atlantic Ocean - shell, or kitchen, heaps (kyokkenmödingi). They were accumulations of the remains of human activity in the form of vast heaps of shells of marine mollusks mixed with the bones of marine and land mammals - the objects of hunting of the Mesolithic communities. The communities themselves became smaller, and the number of seasons when the whole community could meet was reduced.

A characteristic feature of most Mesolithic cultures of Europe is the abundance of microliths - tools made from small plates or flakes and having geometric shapes(triangles, trapezoids, segments, etc.). They most often served as arrowheads and throwing darts, but could be used as composite tools. An example of new phenomena in the life of Europeans is the data on the Franhti Cave (Greece). Here, scientists found obsidian, which was brought from about. Melos, located at a distance of 150 km from Franhti.

Consequently, approximately at the turn of the third and fourth quarters of the VIII thousand BC. boats appeared, and navigation began. Fishing played a significant role in the economy of the inhabitants of the cave. The boats probably caught large fish such as tuna. The only domestic animal in the Mesolithic era was the dog.

Neolithic and Neolithic Revolution.

Cardinal changes in the life of primitive man occurred in the Neolithic era. The New Stone Age begins in Europe at the turn of the 7th and 6th millennium BC. and captures the regions of the extreme southeast of Europe, the south of the Balkans, and the Northwestern Mediterranean. At the same time there are Mesolithic settlements. The completion of the Neolithic in Europe occurs at different times. In the Balkans, in the Lower and Middle Danube, the Neolithic is rather quickly replaced by the Eneolithic (Copper-Stone Age), or Copper Age. In other regions, for example, in the Baltics and Scandinavia, the Eneolithic is not distinguished, the Neolithic is directly replaced by the Bronze Age.

Neolithic - new era in the history of Europe and all mankind. The appearance of agriculture and cattle breeding, the transition to the productive nature of the economy leads to a stable settled way of life, to permanent settlements and more solidly built dwellings. This order has been preserved for thousands of years, until the emergence and spread of cities. Exchange relations receive a new impetus for their development. The new type of economy contributes to the growth of the population, its concentration in larger settlements, as well as the resettlement of farmers and pastoralists to new territories. For the first time, the unevenness in the development of individual regions of Europe appears clearly and vividly.

In the Neolithic era, a new technique for making stone tools appeared - grinding and polishing, dishes and other baked clay products - ceramics.

Europe was not the center where the process of transition to the Neolithic took place independently. It was located near the Near East, the most ancient center of the emergence of agriculture and cattle breeding. And, when the first evidence of a productive economy appeared in the south of the Balkan Peninsula at the turn of the 7th and 6th millennium BC, the Neolithic revolution in the Middle East, the beginning of which is attributed to the 9th-8th millennium BC, had already ended .

New phenomena were reflected in the social structure of society. It is with the transition to the Neolithic that scientists associate the emergence of a tribal society. The number and size of settlements, the density of their development, and the number of their inhabitants have increased. The population of ancient Europe increased significantly.

The agricultural population of Europe slowly spread from the south, the Balkans, to the north, northwest and northeast. It coexisted with hunter-gatherers. And this neighborhood was not always a conflict. But the impact on the surrounding landscape of farmers was significant: part of the forests were cleared, new, non-native plants and animals appeared, and then the likelihood of collisions with hunters and gatherers became more and more. The advantage was with the farmers, who had larger communities. As a result, hunters and gatherers found themselves in areas located on the outskirts of the range of agricultural crops.

Archaeologists from Denmark have described a very unusual burial of warriors who died in battle in the 1st century AD. The peculiarity of the grave was that the remains preserved traces of posthumous dismemberment and modification, as well as the teeth of animals. The authors believe that these data point to the rituals that existed among the ancient Scandinavians in relation to the dead warriors. The study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

about customs and military tactics tribes that inhabited Europe about 2000 years ago, we know mainly from ancient Roman written sources. However, these data do not allow us to fully understand not only the structure of society, but even to reliably estimate the size of the troops of the northern peoples of that time. In particular, in Roman sources there are references to the ritual attitude to the burial of warriors, but archaeological finds of battlefields of that time are extremely rare.

Between 2009 and 2014, researchers at the University of Aarhus in Denmark recovered 2,095 bones and bone fragments from the Alken Enge swamps. The remains were located on the territory of 75 hectares, immersed in lake and peat deposits, belonged to at least 82 people, mostly young men. In the new work, archaeologists have provided a detailed analysis of the marks on these remains, which suggests that the traces were left for ritual purposes. Based on the distribution of the bones, the authors estimated the total number of deaths at 380 people, which is significantly more than the population of a single village at that time. This may indicate that there was an army here, consisting of residents of different settlements.

On many bones, archaeologists found traces of severe injuries that did not heal, which speaks specifically of death in battle. Radiocarbon analysis of the remains indicated the same age of the remains. Remains of weapons were also found, including swords, spears and shields. The bones were brought to the site after the battle, as indicated by cut marks and animal teeth, as well as the location of some of the remains, such as four pelvic bones worn on a stick. "Traces of animal teeth show that animals gnawed these bones from six months to a year, as a result of which the remains should have become at least partially skeletons," the authors write.

Other marks indicate torn ligaments and tendons between the bones. Also, archaeologists practically did not find whole skulls (but found many of their fragments), which may indicate that ancient people intentionally broke them. "Alken Enge provides unequivocal evidence that the northern Germanic tribes had systematic and deliberate procedures for clearing battlefields," the authors conclude. “The practice of dismembering bodies, changing and redistributing bones indicate the ritual nature of the relationship to human remains.”