The life of ancient man directly depended on the tribe in which collective work was established. Everyone lived in common housing because it was easier to survive that way. Having united in a community, they could pass on experience from older generations to younger ones, who, in turn, learned to hunt and make various tools from wood and stone. Skills and knowledge have been passed on from generation to generation for many centuries.

Every student should know the history of their ancestors. They can gain knowledge from textbooks that describe the life of ancient people. Grade 5 provides an opportunity to get acquainted with the first people and learn the features of their life.

First fire

The fight against natural elements has always interested man. Conquering fire was the first step towards the survival of mankind. Ancient people first became acquainted with fire through volcanic eruptions and forest fires. People were not afraid of the scale of the disasters that befell them, but on the contrary, they wanted to use fire for their own benefit. Therefore, they learned to extract it artificially. Getting fire was a rather labor-intensive process, so it was carefully protected and preserved. Ancient people made fire in the following way. They took a dry piece of wood, made a hole in it and twisted a stick in it until smoke appeared, followed by fire in the dry leaves near the hole.

Weapons and tools

The life history of ancient people has interesting facts. Scientists have found interesting finds: labor and many household items. They surprise you with their ingenuity. All items were made by ancient craftsmen from scrap materials: wood, bone and stone. The main tools of labor were considered to be objects made of stone. With their help, wood and bone were subsequently processed. Many tribes made war clubs, arrows, spears and knives from stone for protection. Deer and whale bone were used to make axes for making boats from a single tree trunk. The process of making one boat with such a tool could take up to three years. Dog bone needles were used to sew shoes and clothes.

Cooking Features

The life of ancient man could not do without cooking. The first people made household items mainly from bushes and branches, leather, bamboo, wood, coconut shells, birch bark, etc. Food was cooked in wooden troughs into which hot stones were thrown. In a later period, people learned to make dishes from clay. This marked the beginning of real cooking. The spoons were analogous to river and sea shells, and the forks were ordinary wooden sticks.

Fishing, hunting and gathering

In communities, fishing, hunting and gathering were an integral part of the life of ancient people. This type of food production belongs to the appropriating form of farming. In ancient times, people collected fruits, bird eggs, larvae, snails, root vegetables, etc. This was predominantly the work of the women of the tribe. Men got the role of hunters and fishermen. While hunting, they used various techniques: traps, traps, drives and roundups. The purpose of the hunt was to obtain food and other means of subsistence, namely: horns, tendons, feathers, fat, bones and skins. They used sticks with sharp stone tips to catch fish, and later they began to weave nets.

Raising livestock

The appropriating form of economy was replaced by the producing one. We can highlight one main one - cattle breeding. ancient people changed over time, from nomads they turned into sedentary ones, they stopped trying to leave the places of their settlements, and settled in them forever. Therefore, domestication and breeding of animals became possible. Cattle breeding arose from hunting. The first were sheep, goats and pigs, later cattle and horses. Accordingly, an indispensable pet was a dog, which guarded the house and was an ally on the hunt.

Agriculture

Women played a leading role in the development of agriculture, as they were engaged in gathering. The life of ancient man changed radically when he mastered this type of food acquisition. Trees were cut down from stone with axes and then burned. This freed up space in flattering areas. A digging stick with a sharp tip was an improvised hoe. The first people used it to dig the ground. Later they invented a shovel - a stick with a flat end, and a hoe - an ordinary branch with an appendage to which a sharp stone, a bone tip or an animal horn was tied. All over the world, ancient people grew in fields those plants that were native to their habitat. Corn, potatoes and pumpkins were grown in America, rice in Indochina, wheat in Asia, cabbage in Europe, and so on.

Crafts

Over time, the life of ancient man forced him to master various crafts. They developed according to the conditions of the area where the first people lived and the availability of nearby raw materials. The earliest of them are considered to be: woodworking, pottery, leather dressing, weaving, processing of hides and bark. There is a guess that pottery arose from the process of weaving vessels by women. They began to coat them with clay or squeeze out recesses for liquids in the pieces of clay themselves.

Spiritual life

The spiritual life of ancient man is visible in the cultural heritage of Ancient Egypt. This great civilization left a significant mark on the history of all mankind. Religious motifs permeate all the work of the Egyptians. The first people believed that human earthly existence was only a transition to this stage. This stage was not considered so important. From birth, people were preparing to leave for a more perfect other world. The reflection of the spiritual life of Ancient Egypt is reflected in painting and other forms of art.

Human life in the art of Ancient Egypt

Extraordinary and vibrant painting flourished in the state. The Egyptians were deeply religious people, so their whole life consisted of rituals, which can be seen in the themes of their paintings and drawings. Most of the paintings are dedicated to the highest mystical beings, glorification of the dead, religious rites and priests. To this day, the finds of these works are true examples of art.

Egyptian artists produced paintings in accordance with strict boundaries. It was customary to depict the figures of gods, people and animals strictly in frontal view, and their faces in profile. It looks like some kind of mystical scheme. Among the Egyptians, painting served as decoration for religious buildings, tombs and buildings where noble citizens lived. Also, the painting of Ancient Egypt is characterized by monumentality. In the temples of their gods, Egyptian artists created images that sometimes reached enormous sizes.

The painting of Ancient Egypt has a unique, unique style, incomparable to any other.

The ancient civilization of the first people captivates with its versatility and depth. This period is an important stage in the development of all humanity.

1.1. Prerequisites for the emergence and development of travel

The need for movement 1 and travel 2 arose among our ancestors in ancient times. Moreover, the term “travel” can be interpreted literally, since “acquaintance” with new territories was vital.

The movements (migration) of primitive groups, or ethnosocial organisms (ESO), could be of the following nature:

1. Intra-ethnic migrations, when movements occurred within the territory occupied by the EDF.
2. Ethno-emigration, in which separate ESO groups took part. They went beyond the habitat of their collective and then lost their structural connection with it.
3. Migration of the ESO itself. This was the most common type of migration in ancient times. He, in turn, could have the character:

ESO relocation - moving it to a new territory;
- resettlement of the ESO - movement of one or several parts of the primitive collective to another territory without loss of structural ties with the ESO;
- ESO segmentation - in form representing the same thing as resettlement, but with the simultaneous creation of migrants’ own ESO. ESO segmentation can also be characterized as ethnic partiality. Sometimes, as a result of ethno-migration separation, the ESO itself could collapse (disintegrate).

The primitive collective, living in a clearly defined territory, rarely violated its borders - this could lead to clashes with other tribes, whose territory it invaded. The territory inhabited by the ESO could not be small in size, since it was a “feeding landscape” for people - the level of the “appropriating economy”.

All members of the collective took part in intra-ethnic migration to one degree or another. These were seasonal migrations of hunters, and later, when fishing appeared, movements of fishermen for spawning fish in rivers or schools of fish in the seas. Intra-ethnic migration fully applies to gathering. In search of edible plants, worms, insects, various larvae, etc. people had to walk many kilometers almost every day across “their” territory.

Ethnoemigration could occur for several reasons. A group of hunters, fishermen or gatherers could move to a sufficiently large distance from their habitat and, for objective reasons, could not reunite with their group. Objective reasons include the following factors:

Climatic - river floods, volcanic eruptions, avalanches, rockfalls, etc.;
- biological - persecution of a group of people by predators or large animals dangerous to them: mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, etc.;
- social - the pursuit of hunters of a primitive collective after a group that has invaded their territory.

It is unlikely that there could have been strong subjective reasons that forced primitive people to leave their collective. Life not only alone, but also in a small group was simply impossible during the Paleolithic 3 and Mesolithic 4 . No wonder one of the most terrible types of punishment was expulsion from the tribe. It was a condemnation to certain death either from predators or from hunger.

The migration of primitive people was a common phenomenon. Relocations were necessary. Climatic changes were, as a rule, very long-lasting: the advance of glaciers or interglacial periods lasted tens and hundreds of thousands of years. They brought a gradual change in flora and fauna. But there could also be short-term cataclysms, such as earthquakes, that forced people to leave a given territory. But migration was influenced not least by anthropogenic factors.

Hunters most often killed young animals and females - they were easier to hunt and their meat was tastier. This led to the population collapse. Often, during driven hunts, hunters killed more animals than were necessary for their life. This can be seen in the example of archaeological excavations in Solutre (France). Here, on an area exceeding a hectare, a bone deposit more than 5 m thick was discovered. Primitive hunters destroyed about 100 thousand wild horses. Obviously, not everything was eaten. Many of the skeletons were in “anatomical order.” These were the skeletons of animals whose herds completely died after falling off a cliff. A similar picture was observed in the village of Amvrosievka, Donetsk region, where at least 1,000 bison were destroyed, which is half of the entire population of these animals today. In the Old World, mammoths, mastodons, woolly rhinoceroses, cave bears and panthers, giant deer disappeared, and in the New World - proboscideans, camels, horses, etc. In general, the first settlers in America exterminated more than 30 species of large animals. Of course, climate change played a certain role in the disappearance of these animals, which also led to changes in their food supply. But the anthropogenic factor was undoubtedly very large.

During the Upper Paleolithic there was a decline of 75% in animals whose mass was from 100 to 1000 kg, by 41% in those weighing from 5 to 100 kg, and by only 2% in those whose weight was less than 5 kg. This led to a crisis of specialized hunting, forcing people not only to “invent” new types of weapons: boomerang, bow and arrow, spear thrower, but also to begin an intensive search for new hunting places, i.e. move, exploring new territories.

Gatherers often set fires: they set the grass on fire to allow new, more succulent plants to appear as quickly as possible. In a number of areas, the restoration of the previous vegetation cover did not occur, and animals disappeared accordingly. People had to look for new territories. This had a particularly detrimental effect on the forest-tundra in the northern regions, whose zonal border was pushed to the south.

Migration as settlement is also characteristic of the entire period of human prehistory. Already in the Paleolithic era, about 2 - 3 million people lived on Earth. But this type of migration experienced a boom in the Neolithic era, 5 when, as a result of the Neolithic revolution, the population increased at least 10 times. The Neolithic Revolution made the transition from an appropriating economy to a producing one. Agriculture and cattle breeding appeared.

In the era of the first social division of labor into settled farmers and nomadic pastoralists, differentiation of migration processes began depending on the type of activity. The demographic explosion has added new dynamics to the processes under consideration. With the beginning of the Neolithic revolution, the usual routes changed and their meaning changed. From now on, it is necessary to find more convenient and rich pastures for livestock, and select places for sowing cereals that give maximum yield. The type of activity of nomadic pastoralists directly implied constant movement.

Resettlement most often took the form of intrusion. This was typical for agricultural peoples. The agricultural tribes led, of course, a sedentary lifestyle. The original “anchors” of settled life were sown fields, cattle pens and stone, very heavy grain grinders.

Having moved to new spaces, farmers literally “bite into” it. The cultivated areas were firmly held by migrants, and only a portion of the descendants left for new lands. The development of agriculture made it possible to begin the creation of an anthropogenic habitat for cultivated plants, and irrigation technology arose. The advent of wheeled transport made it possible to make a breakthrough beyond densely populated areas. During the Chalcolithic period, settlement took place in the form of mass spontaneous agricultural colonization.

For pastoral tribes, resettlement often took the form of an invasion, which indeed often resembled an invasion or attack. Pastoral tribes, unlike their hunter ancestors, often had to drive their herds away during migrations through enemy or arid territories.

During the period of the appropriating economy, migration acted to a large extent as a means of preserving the ESO. Much changes during the transition to a producing economy. Cultivated plants and domesticated animals quickly spread throughout the ecumene, often moving tens of thousands of kilometers away from the centers of origin of their species.

Getting to know new territories was important for hunters who had to track down animals. Obviously, the hunters had to move significantly away from their camps. In order for other members of the tribe to help them carry or cut up the prey, the first maps began to be created. “Cartography” existed everywhere. Of course, the maps were not perfect. These first maps were made on the ground using stones, shell rock, fragments of wood and bone, and sometimes even bird feathers. They marked safe paths, convenient passages, fords, watering places, pastures, burrows and resting places for animals. Some tribes of Melanesians and Polynesians used similar “visual aids” even in the 20th century. But on such seemingly primitive maps, since ancient times, Melanesians managed to show even the directions of winds, currents, reefs and underwater coral islands in the ocean, which Europeans began to do only in the Middle Ages. These maps, even by today's standards, are impressive, because they covered territories of over a thousand square kilometers.

The oldest known maps include those made on animal bones about 11-14 thousand years ago. These finds are far from isolated: Yakutia, southern Europe, East Africa, Melanesia, etc. Thus, on a mammoth tusk found near the village of Mezhirichi in Ukraine, a map of a settlement located on the river bank was carved (Fig. 1.1).

Rice. 1.1. Stone Age map showing riverside dwellings

Over time, when pictography appeared, maps began to be depicted on the walls of caves. It is unlikely that it will be possible to unravel all those icons that were drawn next to animals during the Upper Paleolithic period in the caves of Lascaux (France), Altamira (Spain), Kapova (Southern Urals), etc. It is likely that these could have been the most convenient hunting routes of those times .

Gathering was directly related to movement. Women and children had to change their usual routes at least in accordance with the changing seasons. If we take into account that gathering was more stable than hunting, and at the same time remember that it was mainly food of plant origin (low-calorie), then in order to feed the members of the primitive “herd”, and this is up to 40 individuals, it was necessary to collect daily almost up to a hundredweight of various roots, leaves and fruits. What kind of territory should the feeding landscape be in order to satisfy the needs of a particular primitive community over a certain period of time?

Primitive people could not often change their place of residence, if only because it had to be strengthened as much as possible against predators and other large animals, and this always required large and time-consuming efforts.

Gathering had to be not only effective, but also as safe as possible. And here we can also talk about the presence of certain routes.

When fishing entered the lives of our ancestors, they were able not only to master the rivers, but on rather fragile boats they managed to go out to the open sea, hunting deep-sea fish, sea animals, and even such giants as whales.

The fact that the development of the world's oceans began in the primitive era is confirmed by the facts of human settlement of the island archipelagos of the Pacific Ocean and Australia at the turn of the Paleolithic and Mesolithic.

In the primitive era, the first “trade” routes began to be established. The exchange was carried out not only with neighboring tribes, where it had the character of a “gift exchange” if the relationship was friendly, or “silent” if it was strained or hostile. Sometimes a “product” could travel hundreds or even thousands of kilometers before reaching the consumer. The need for a particular product generated demand for it; it could be specially “ordered.”

Using the example of the Australian aborigines and a number of South American tribes, similar features were identified in the formation and development of exchange relations, for the implementation of which it was necessary to overcome sometimes very vast spaces.

By the Neolithic era, special counter points appeared - prototypes of markets. These meeting points for exchange transactions were located, as a rule, at the junction of the borders of several friendly tribes. Very often, holidays for which neighboring tribes arrived were also used for exchange. It is known that special holidays began to arise, on which people gathered specifically for exchange transactions, i.e. trade. But it was also possible to agree on receiving the necessary goods at the funeral ceremony.

Intermediary trade was actively developing. Thus, some items were found more than 1000 km from the place where they were made. The places of growth or extraction of a particular product were often clearly localized. It could be diorite, which was used to make axes; ocher - for body painting; Picheri - a plant from the leaves of which a drug was produced, etc.

The figure of the traveling “trader” was considered inviolable. Australian “merchants” had special “messenger rods” by which they could be easily recognized.

Since the Neolithic period, exchange operations have been intensified. Long before the third social division of labor occurs and merchants themselves are singled out as a social stratum, tribes “delegate” their members to territories known and little known to them for the extraction/exchange of necessary goods.

In prehistoric times, our ancestors, when “traveling,” were mainly guided by external motivation, i.e. objective reasons, the main one of which was survival. Man in those distant times was almost completely dependent on nature. Any natural changes could cost lives. The destruction of specific animals and plants could not be restored in the Paleolithic and Mesolithic era; people did not yet know cattle breeding and agriculture. Often the only possible way out of a crisis situation was to leave their homes in the hope of finding something better.

Was there any intrinsic motivation in people whose life, full of dangers, gave them little time for leisure?

Yes, I was. Australian aborigines in terms of their level of development at the beginning of the 20th century. were at the Neolithic level. European ethnographers recorded the following characteristic features of their life: “... Mutual visits and hospitality are a very striking and characteristic feature of the life of all Australian tribes. Different groups pay each other visits even when they live very far from each other. These visits are made both by whole groups and often by individuals. Australians make the rounds with visits that last anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. It happens that some group has to spend the whole winter on the road to reach their destinations.”

Acceptance and visiting can be characterized precisely as internal motivation. So, for example, when the fruits of a tree growing in an area occupied by one group ripen, representatives of other tribes gather from all sides and are freely allowed by the owners to collect the fruits. Using the example of the natives of northern Queensland, researchers could repeatedly observe the following: if there was an abundance of any product in the tribe’s territory, then neighbors were invited to collect or hunt. In general, if there were food supplies for more than one day and they could not eat it, then neighboring tribes were invited: if they were at a distance of 2.5 - 3.0 km, then with special repeated cries, and if further, then they lit fires in certain places bonfires.

The separation of tribes with a productive economy (farming and cattle breeding) from the general mass of other tribes led over time to the first social division of labor: settled agriculture and nomadic cattle breeding. The second social division of labor is the separation of crafts (blacksmithing, pottery, weaving), when the production of products for exchange or sale took place from other activities, primarily the most important of them - agriculture.

Already in the Neolithic (and perhaps earlier), a ritual for welcoming guests began to take shape. Moreover, the ritual was different for men and women. In order for neighbors to be able to find a tribe that had left the site, a furrow was made on the ground, the direction and length of which indicated where and at what distance the owners had gone. It should be noted that the boundaries of the tribes’ feeding areas were strictly observed.

Internal motivation also includes “emotions of novelty”, expressed in the desire to expand the range of means that satisfy needs by becoming familiar with any new, unknown and unprecedented object, and an impulsive desire for economic communication.

The need for acquaintance with new, diverse phenomena of life, related to internal motivation, has been one of the natural character traits of a person since the primitive era.

“Marriage” travels become a characteristic part of life during the transition from the primitive herd to the clan community. Family and marriage relations in the primitive herd were either promiscuity or harem in nature. With the transition to the clan community, marriage within it was prohibited. Marriage partners could only be sought outside the clan, in other consanguineous groups. This phenomenon is called exogamy. Accordingly, in order to choose a wife, it was necessary to travel to the territory of the neighboring clan community. Echoes of this phenomenon can be seen in genealogical myths, traditions and beliefs. Such, for example, is information about the 12 tribes of ancient Israel, 6 tribes of Indians, 4 phyla of ancient Athenians, 24 elders of the Huns, etc. Marriage rights and privileges established within a particular group developed into a system on which the society of the clan period was built.

A detailed overview and analysis of exogamous relationships can be found in L. Morgan.

The emergence of a constant, ever-increasing surplus product triggers another migration factor - the military one. This factor, having mainly external motivation, also has some internal features, for example, self-affirmation. With the transition of society to the so-called “military democracy”, aggressive military campaigns begin. They become an integral part of people's lives during the transition to early class societies. Military campaigns begin during the Eneolithic 6, when certain groups already accumulated a certain surplus of production. In the second half of the 5th millennium BC. e. The socio-economic and demographic situation in Western Asia and the Balkans begins to change, creating a constant threat of military attacks on agricultural centers. This leads to the need to create larger social systems - tribal unions.

In the forest zones of Central and Western Europe, there has been a transition to slash-and-burn agriculture 7 . This also caused the growth of surplus product, the beginning of social stratification and, as a consequence, the beginning of military migrations and the transition to subtribal associations. Only in the Bronze Age did mass agricultural colonization begin to acquire a systematically organized character, demonstrating the features of expansion.

The movements of primitive people had multiple motivations; they were a characteristic feature of their way of life. All any important spheres of life of the primitive collective were directly related to migration processes. It can be stated that the life of primitive people without “travel” would have been simply impossible.

Test questions and assignments

1. Define the concept of “travel”.
2. Name the types of migrations of primitive groups, or ethnosocial organisms (ESO).
3. What is the difference between intra-ethnic migration and ethno-emigration?
4. Describe the types of migration of the ESO itself.
5. How did climatic-geographical and anthropogenic factors influence migrations during the primitive era?
6. What were the external motives for migrations in primitive times? List them and describe them.
7. Was there an internal motivation that prompted ancient people to travel?
8. What do you know about primitive cartography?

Literature

1. Alekseev V.P. The formation of humanity. - M., 1984.
2. Alekseev V.P., Lershits A.I. History of primitive society. - M., 1990.
3.
4. James P., Thorpe N. Ancient inventions: Trans. from English - Minsk, 1997.
5. Taylor E.B. Primitive culture. - M., 1989.
6. Heyerdahl T. Ancient man and the ocean. - M., 1982.
7. Shapoval G.F. History of tourism. - Minsk, 1999.

1 Move - place, transfer to another place. - Ozhegov S.I., Shvedova N.Yu. Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. - M., 1999. - P. 506.
2 Travel - a trip or movement on foot to some places, countries (usually for acquaintance or recreation). - Right there. - P. 633.
3 Paleolithic (from Greek. palaios- ancient and litos- stone) - ancient Stone Age. The Paleolithic is divided into lower, middle and upper (from 4-3 million to 15 thousand years ago).
4 Mesolithic (from Greek. mesos- average and litos- stone) - Middle Stone Age (15 - 10 (5) thousand years BC).
5 Neolithic (from Greek. neos- new and litos- stone) - new Stone Age (10 (5) -3 thousand years BC).
6 Eneolithic (from lat. aeneus- copper and Greek litos- stone) - the Copper-Stone Age, replacing the Neolithic.
7 In slash-and-burn farming, trees and shrubs are initially cut down (slashed) in the area to be sown, then they are burned in the same place, using the resulting ash as fertilizer.

"Journey to the Past"

Purpose: To give an idea of ​​primitive man. About the life and activities of ancient people.

Educational:

To acquaint children with the appearance and life of the primitive

Expand your vocabulary, introduce new words (leader, tribe, chopper);

Developmental;

Development of coherent speech, word creation (inventing names of primitive people);

Educating;

Fostering an ecological culture;

Cultivating observation of changes in phenomena and events in the surrounding life.

Handout; black wax crayons, white sheets of paper, 2 containers for water, artificial fish, red circles to imitate berries.

Progress of the lesson.

Hello guys! I'm glad to see you! Today we are waiting for an amazing journey, exciting games and much more interesting things. I want you to succeed and have a good mood all day!

Guys, what can you call the time in which we live? (The present)

What will time about past events be called? (Past)

Guys, is it possible for a person to find himself in the past? (No)

Why do you think so? (Time moves in one direction, it cannot be turned back.)

What can help us return to the past?

(children's reasoning)

Let's take a trip in the Time Machine. And we will go to the distant, distant past, several centuries ago. Amazing adventures await us.

To turn on our time machine, we need to know the code. The code will be a word, after solving which we will launch the Time Machine entrance and find out who will meet us in the past.

Making riddles about a person

This means that we will be met in the past by MAN, but these will be our ancestors, the first people

It's time to put the Machine into motion. Take your seats.

It was a long time ago. On our green and blooming planet, where various animals and birds already lived, man appeared. Where did he come from? Whether it came from monkeys or whether it came from outer space, we don’t know. But he still appeared.

Look at the forest. Strange creatures live in this forest. Look at them. (pictures depicting primitive man)

How do they look?

(children’s statements; the body is covered with hair, looks like a monkey, moves on two legs)

This creature did not have sharp teeth or claws, but it was fast and agile.

Who does this creature look like?

(children's reasoning - monkey and human)

And who more? (per animal)

So this is still a monkey that looks like a human. Scientists called such a monkey HUMAN-LIKE. She was the very ancestor from whom man descended.

They did not build houses for themselves, but spent the night in thickets of bushes and on tree branches.

Do you think they needed clothes?

(children's reasoning)

What could they eat?

(children's reasoning)

They ate what nature gave them - plants and berries, sometimes the remains of the prey of predatory animals.

They also did not have tools. They lived in herds. And they had their own leader, as well as elders - old and wise, who taught the young.

How did they communicate with each other?

(children's reasoning)

They communicated using different sounds and gestures.

Now we will play with you:

Game "Harvest"

Let's see which of our girls will be the fastest and reap a rich harvest.

(girls collect red circles scattered throughout the group, the one with the most circles wins. The game ends when all the circles have been collected).

1,2,3 we take off, we all close our eyes

We're flying to wonderland, past blue skies

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 you can open your eyes

The climate gradually changed, and man himself changed. Plant food became scarce. The apes began to starve.

What do you think helped them survive?

(children's reasoning)

The anthropoid ape began to think, reflect, and managed to use a stone to split a bone, then another, and there was bone marrow. Then they began to look for sharper stones.

Why did they do this?

(children's reasoning)

This is how the guys came up with the first tools - CUTS - sharpened fragments of stone on both sides. And the anthropoid ape turned into a HUMAN SKILLIAN

And since the climate has changed - it has become colder, what is necessary for HUMAN SKILLS to survive in more difficult conditions?

(children's reasoning)

Yes, they needed housing.

What could they build their own housing from?

(children's reasoning - from branches and stems of plants, or they made housing in caves). They also lived in herds and communicated using sounds and gestures.

So, we have already met two types of the first people on Earth. (HUMAN-LIKE and HUMAN-SKILLED)

What did scientists call them? (children's answers)

Fizminutka:

"Monkeys"

Children stand in a circle or scattered, repeating movements in accordance with the text.

We are funny monkeys.

We play too loud.

We clap our hands, (Clap.)

We stomp our feet, (Stomp.)

Puff out our cheeks, (Puff out our cheeks.)

Let's jump on our toes (Bounce in place.)

And even to each other

We'll show you the tongues. (Show tongue.)

Let's jump together to the ceiling, (They jump up.)

Let's put our finger to our temple. (They bring a finger to their temple.)

Let's open our mouth wider, (Open their mouth.)

We'll make all the faces. (They make faces.)

How can I say the number 3 -

Everyone, freeze with grimaces!

We continue our journey. Taking our seats in the time machine:

1,2,3 we take off, we all close our eyes

We're flying to wonderland, past blue skies

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 you can open your eyes

As time passed, the planet became even colder.

What do you think a person needed to fight the cold?

(children's reasoning)

That's right, they needed clothing and fire.

Man had to learn a lot to think and the skillful man was replaced by MAN-REASONABLE

They became skilled hunters, learned to make many new tools from stone, wood and animal bones, as well as weapons that made hunting easier for them (stone tips, bone needles, stone axe)

What did they make their clothes from?

(children's reasoning - from animal skins)

They also learned to make fire. First, after a thunderstorm, they collected smoldering embers, brought them into their home and used them to make a fire, adding dry branches. To prevent the fire from going out, they were on duty both day and night, putting branches and twigs into the fire.

One day after a thunderstorm, having tasted burnt fruits and charred bodies of animals, they realized that fried meat was much softer and tastier. This is how they learned another useful property of fire - cooking.

What do you think served as building material for housing at that time?

(children’s reasoning – branches, skins, animal bones, or caves)

What did they eat?

(children's reasoning - plants, berries, meat, fish).

The most courageous, strong, dexterous, fast and experienced men went hunting and fishing. So you and I will check which of our boys will turn out to be like this. They will go fishing. But those who will be the first to guess my riddles will go.

What was the name of the first tool? (chopping) the first one to guess comes out

Sweeps away in its path

Houses, trees and bushes.

Bright, red, mischievous,

Guess who? (fire) the second guesser comes out

And now our boys will compete with each other for the title of the fastest and most dexterous in catching fish.

Game "Who is faster"

(boys catch fish from containers, the game continues while the others count to 10, the one with the most fish in the bucket wins)

Well done!

The man lived not alone, but among other people.

What do people need to understand each other? How did they communicate?

You can call with gestures. How? (children pretend) Or you can use your voice (children show)

At first they communicated using sounds, but it was very inconvenient and then they came up with their own language, that is, different words and came up with names for themselves. (n.p. “Keen Eye”)

Since you and I are traveling through the past, let's imagine ourselves in the role of a person of that time and come up with names for ourselves. Stand in a circle.

Game "Come up with your name"

(children stand in a circle, saying their name)

Guys, ancient people were also the first artists. On the walls of the caves they painted various animals, as well as human figures, hunting scenes and other events from the life of their tribe. They had not yet learned how to make pencils and paints, so they drew with coal and liquid clay, with succulent roots and stems of plants, and also scratched figures on the walls of rocks and caves with sharp stones.

And now I suggest you try to create “rock” paintings yourself.

Individual creative work of children - children draw with dark-colored wax chalk on a white sheet of paper, then everyone shows their drawing and explains what they depicted.

You and I met the first people living on Earth. Therefore, the time in which they lived is called PRIMITIVE.

Our primeval adventure ends today. Close your eyes, our time machine is sent back to our time.

1,2,3 we take off, close our eyes again

1,2,3,4,5 here we are in the group again, you can open your eyes

Result:

What were the names of the first people (Humanoids)

What were they wearing?

What did you eat?

Who were they hunting?

Where did you live?

How was fire made?

Would you like to live in those times?

Did you enjoy our trip?

Yulia Maznina

Recently, bored with small and large trips, my sons and nephews decided to organize time travel at home. We have already looked, the next point of our travels into the past was the Stone Age. It is interesting to see how primitive people lived. But it so happened that we not only looked at the life of prehistoric people, but because of an error in the time machine, we turned into hominids - the ancestors of man, and we had to go through the entire path of evolution together with primitive people in order to again become Homo sapiens - a reasonable person. The game took us about two hours. The script is suitable for children aged 3 years and older.

Leading: If you were on our planet Earth 3 million years ago, everything around us would be a little different. And we would be the only people on it. Yes, yes, don't be surprised. At that time there was no man on Earth yet. Accountants believe that the first man appeared on our planet 2.4 million years ago. This happened in Northeast Africa.

On a map (physical or political) find northeast Africa, you can put some mark or stick a flag there.

Leading: Then primitive people went to Asia and Europe. Here the development of ancient man went faster. The first civilizations appeared in Asia.

Show Asia and Europe on the map. You can indicate the movement of primitive people with arrows (If your map is laminated, the arrows can be drawn or cut out of paper).

Leading: Do you want to see how primitive people lived and what they did? Then you and I need to get to the Stone Age, or rather, to its very beginning - to the Paleolithic era, when prehistoric people learned to use stone tools.

The presenter looks around the participants thoughtfully.

Leading: In order for primitive people to accept us as their own, you and I need to change our appearance a little. How did prehistoric people dress? They did not know how to make fabric; instead of fabric they used scraped and sun-dried animal skins. Primitive people preferred to leave their feet bare, but you and I can make special shoes - pistons - by collecting a piece of leather around the ankle.

Participants dress like primitive people. Instead of leather, you can use, for example, brown fabric. We secured the pistons around the ankles with rubber bands.

Leading: Are you ready to travel back in time? Turn on the time machine, let's go! Our goal is the Stone Age, the Paleolithic era.

Children launch the time machine, all participants move to the place marked with the “Paleolithic” sign (the presenter himself or participants who can read can read it). Any box, remote control, or children's steering wheel can act as a time machine. You can even just imagine that you have it and, for example, lies in the palm of your hand. We use a board with switches, latches and other pen development tools.

Leading: So-so. Looks like our time machine is acting up a bit today. You and I found ourselves not in the Paleolithic era, but a little earlier, when human ancestors, the hominids, lived on Earth. Nowadays, the ancestors of humans and great apes are called hominids.

Well, you and I, guys, will have to go through the same path that man went through in the process of his evolution - from Homo Habilis, still very similar to apes, to Homo sapiens, like us you. Forward!

1 stop. Human ancestors - hominids

Our first stop is the time of hominids, human ancestors similar to great apes such as chimpanzees and orangutans. What do you think human ancestors were able to do? What did you eat?

Leading: Absolutely right! Most likely, they still walked on four legs, could easily climb trees and ate what they could find around them: bananas and other fruits, roots dug out of the ground. Shall we try?

Participants walk on four legs, looking for something edible. They can climb onto a gym, sofa or bed on all fours. Hang a few bananas on a gym or door handle and let participants try to eat them without their hands. If you decide to eat root vegetables dug out of the ground (for example, carrots or turnips), they, of course, need to be cleaned.

2nd stop. A skilled man(Homo h abilis)

Leading: Shall we go further? Our next stop is the Paleolithic era, the time of the skilled man - Homo habilis (xOmo habilis). He was still very bent, with long arms and a large head. The height of a skilled adult was like the height of a current 12-year-old boy.

Participants depict what a skilled person was like. They try to bend so that the fingertips of their straightened arms reach their knees, then their ankles, then the floor.

Leading: A skilled man was the first to learn how to process stone and make tools from it. That is why scientists call this time in the history of our planet the Stone Age. What do you think a skilled man could do with his stone tools?

Participants express their assumptions. Try using pebbles to split apricot or plum pits, crush crackers, or dig up the soil in a pot with a houseplant.

Leading: Where did the skilled man live? He did not yet know how to build houses, but for housing he used the stone structures that nature provided him. Can you guess which ones?

Participants express their assumptions.

Leading: Absolutely right. Homo sapiens used caves for living. Let's do ours too.

Use a table, chairs and blankets to create a cave.

Leading: A skilled person obtained food for himself by collecting foxes, plant fruits, and digging up plant roots. Bird nests were a great success for ancient man.

Make a bird's nest out of paper or newspaper in advance. Place a few chocolate eggs or Kinder Surprise capsules with little edible surprises inside. Move the nest higher and let the participants find it.

3 stop. Homo erectus (Homo Erectus)

Leading: Our next stop is the Paleolithic era, the time of Homo Erectus (Homo Erectus). An adult Homo erectus was slightly shorter than modern humans, but his arms were longer than yours and mine. He invented a chopper and hunted small animals. A chop is a piece of stone, sharpened at one end, which ancient people held in their fists and used as a knife, ax or pick. He also learned how to keep the fire going. Where do you think fire came from in prehistoric man?

Participants express their assumptions.

Leading: Yes, ancient people could encounter fire during a thunderstorm, when lightning struck a dry tree and it caught fire. The ancient man did not yet know how to receive fire himself, so the fire had to be protected. What could put out the fire? How could the fire be passed on to other people?

Participants express their assumptions. You can conduct experiments: extinguish a candle with water from a spray bottle, blowing it out, blocking the access of air, covering it with a jar or covering it with sand or salt. Light one candle from another - this is how ancient people could transfer fire to each other.

Leading: So, primitive man had to protect the fire from rain and wind, make sure that the smoldering fire was not covered or trampled, so that the fire always had access to air and had something to burn. In caves, ancient people made a fireplace, lined it with stones, and regularly threw brushwood (dry branches) into the fire so that it would not go out. Let's make a fireplace in our cave.

Participants choose a place for a fireplace in the cave and cover it with stones. We had real ones, but you can cut the stones out of cardboard. They collect brushwood (they can become simple pencils) and light a fire (you can roll up tubes from paper or napkins). We used brown cubes as firewood, and we made fire from red, yellow and orange cubes.

Leading: How do you think fire changed the life of ancient man?

Participants express their assumptions.

Leading: Absolutely right. Fire changed the diet of ancient man: if before he ate food only raw, now it could be cooked over a fire: fry meat, bake vegetables. Fire allowed ancient man to live in a cooler climate, because a fire was warmer. Fire made the life of primitive people safer: the light and smell of a fire scared away wild animals, which is probably why people still love to look at fire so much.

Prepare in advance small pieces of sausage, cheese, cucumber, fruit or marmalade (children especially like this option) and wooden sticks for kebabs. If you don't have long sticks, you can use toothpicks. Let the participants make their own kebabs and “roast” them over the fire. This game can be inserted into any quest and played at any holiday - it is always a success. It gives the participants the opportunity to relax a little, and those who have not previously participated in the game are immediately attracted to the game.

Stop 4: Heidelberg Man (Homo heidelbergensis)

Leading: Shall we go further? Our next stop is the Paleolithic era, the time of Heidelberg man - Homo heidelbergensis (homo heidelbergensis). He was even taller than Homo erectus and was strong and strong. Do athletes now train with dumbbells? What could the Heidelberg man have used?

Do some exercises with stones. Instead of real stones, you can take bags of cereal (preferably fabric) or thick books that are convenient to hold.

Leading: Heidelberg Man invented the spear and was already hunting large animals. Which ones do you think?

Leading: Not all species of animals hunted by prehistoric man exist today. Most of them died out. Died out:

Do you want to play with your child easily and with pleasure?

• big-horned deer (its horns reached 4 meters in span, with such horns you can’t get through the forest);
• mammoth (a close relative of the elephant, but much larger, the legs were short, and the body was covered with thick hair, so it was not afraid of the cold; mammoth tusks reached a length of 4 m);
• woolly rhinoceros (was similar to the rhinoceros that lives on our planet now, but its body was covered with thick hair, like a mammoth);
• cave bear (was larger and stronger than the common brown bear; scientists believe that it did not hibernate).

Bison - huge wild bulls - still live in America. Only the front part of their body is covered with thick hair, there is a hump on the back, and short and thick horns on the head.

Participants can depict the animals that the presenter talks about.

Leading: I think you and I also need to get a spear and go hunting. And before the invention of the spear, ancient people hunted by throwing stones at the animal.

A spear can be made from a stick by tying or taping a tip made of cardboard or other material to it. If you don't have a stick, you can cut a spear from a large piece of thick cardboard. In this case, it is better to take soft or rag balls as stones.

Go on a mammoth or elephant hunt. You can make a mammoth like this: place two chairs or put two large pillows on the floor and cover them with a large piece of fabric. When throwing spears, try to throw the covers off the chairs. And perhaps the older brother or dad will agree to become a mammoth. Let the woolly rhinoceros be a fitball - throw spears or stones and roll the fitball over the line.

Leading: Heidelberg Man also learned to build a dwelling from branches and skins. What do we call such dwellings now?

Participants express their options.

Leading: Right. We call a dwelling made of branches a hut, and if a rigid frame of branches is covered with animal skins, the result is a yaranga, tent, wigwam or tipi. Maybe they can build a house like this for you and me?

Build a model of a hut. You will need: a small piece of a travel mat, foam rubber or just plasticine, toothpicks, several crumpled foil candy wrappers or foil from a chocolate bar cut into pieces (the candy wrappers should be crumpled so that they can then be straightened out). First, hunt animals: place crumpled candy wrappers on the table, let the participants try to hit them with spears - toothpicks. Whoever hits the “beast” takes the candy wrapper for himself. Using a piece of camping rug, make a base for a teepee using toothpicks. Then use your fingers or a stick to tan the skins.(spread the candy wrappers) and cover the base of the wigwam with them. Secure the candy wrappers with glue or toothpicks. Ready!

5 stop. Neanderthal (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis)

Leading: It's time to go further along the path of human evolution. Our next stop is the Paleolithic era, the time of the Neanderthals - Homo sapiens neanderthalensis. He had massive bones and a muscular torso, and he was stooped. Neanderthal man learned to build dugouts and make fire. A dugout is a dwelling

Make a dugout from plasticine. Housing of the Heidelberg man from skins and a dugout, you can put all the dugouts in an empty box, add dry grass, leaves, buckwheat or other cereals, trees from the designer, you can make a fire from plasticine, an ancient man can also be molded from plasticine or taken from the designer. You can do it.

Leading: How did Neanderthals manage to make fire? Rub your palms together very, very hard, do you feel the warmth? Friction is the main ally in getting fire.

Participants warm their cheeks, foreheads, noses, heels, knees, etc.: they rub their palms against each other, and then apply them to different places.

Leading: The Neanderthal mastered both the arrow and the bow.

If you have a bow, place figurines (pictures of animals) on the floor and let the participants go hunting. We used a slingshot instead of a bow.

Leading: The Neanderthal also knew how to fish. I think you and I also need to learn how to fish like a Neanderthal - stunning the fish with a well-aimed hit from a sharpened stick.

You will need several inflated balloons. Before you inflate them, hide the “teeth” inside. The teeth can be selected from oblong buttons, construction set parts (they should have a through hole), or simply cut out of cardboard. Scatter the balloons around the room and give each participant a toothpick. The participants’ task is to catch the balloon with one or both feet without using their hands, and then pierce the balloon with a toothpick (it’s almost impossible to pierce a balloon by simply throwing a toothpick at it, we checked). Participants take the objects inside the ball for themselves.

Know-It-All: Neanderthals learned to make jewelry from the bones and teeth of animals and from the shells of sea and river mollusks. You and I also have trophies. Let's collect the decorations.

Participants receive a long thick thread and collect decorations.

6 stop. Cro-Magnon, aka Homo sapiens sapiens

Leading: Let's move on. Our last stop is the Mesolithic and Neolithic era, the time of the Cro-Magnons, or Homo sapiens sapiens (Homo sapiens sapiens). The Cro-Magnon man could already do almost everything: speak, process stone, wood and bone, hunt and fish, swim on a raft, draw, sing, dance and even fight.

The Cro-Magnons lived in clans - small groups consisting of relatives. Clans united into communities that lived and hunted in the same territory. When several clans and communities needed to unite to repel the attack of enemies, tribes appeared with a leader - the strongest and wisest hunter at their head.

Primitive people believed that each tribe had its own patron - an animal, a totem, from which the tribe originated. Let's come up with a totem for our tribe. And since the Cro-Magnon man already knew how to speak, we need to come up with names for ourselves.

Participants choose a spirit animal for the tribe and names for themselves. And they try to identify the totem animals of other tribes (from pictures of animal shadows).

Leading: When turning to a totem animal with a request for something, ancient people performed various rituals: they sang and danced. These rituals were also carried out by the shaman, that is, the sorcerer, of the tribe. Many rituals were performed to the accompaniment of primitive music. Of course, it was not like ours; the main thing in it was not the melody, but the rhythm. The first musical instruments were...what? How do you think?

Participants express their assumptions.

Leading: While processing stone, knocking stones against each other, the Cro-Magnons noticed sounds. Therefore, the first musical instruments were drums; they were beaten with hands, sticks, and large animal bones. Then rattles filled with seeds or dried berries appeared, then other instruments. Shall we find musical instruments and dance?

Participants find suitable instruments (drums, wooden sticks, spoons, noisemakers, flutes) and dance to primitive music (sounds can be used African drums) or to the funny “Song about Things” performed by M. Boyarsky. Instead of drums, you can use upside down pans, cardboard boxes, plastic containers, or simply bang on a stool or table.

Leading: Cro-Magnons learned not only to hunt, but also to fight. For protection, they surrounded their camps with a palisade made of logs, branches and even mammoth bones.

Leading: Cro-Magnons learned to make traps for wild animals. But you and I need to get around them.

Place sheets of paper, pieces of a floor mat, and building blocks on the floor. Have participants carefully walk around them without touching anything.

Leading: Cro-Magnons could also prepare food.

Give participants several pieces of thick thread. Let them lay out the snails on sheets of white paper, imagining that it is snow. You can lay the snails on the floor and cover them with “snow” (cotton wool or cotton pads).

Leading: Cro-Magnons talked about important events in their lives - successful hunts or attacks by enemies - by drawing on the walls of the cave. Some of these drawings (petroglyphs) can be seen in caves around the world even now. Petroglyphs are like letters from the past to the future. Then writing arose from these petroglyphs. At this point, prehistoric time ends; scientists study further history from written sources. What would you tell from here, from the end of prehistoric time, to those people who live now?

Participants make rock paintings. It is better to take cardboard for the base, and draw with beet juice, charred sticks or crayons. We drew with charred sushi sticks.

Leading: While the men hunted, the women took care of the gathering and their homes. They met many interesting plants. You and I are lucky too. What kind of plant do you think this is?

The presenter leads the participants to a suspended brown piñata - the fruit of the cocoa tree. Participants break the piñata, find chocolates and conclude that it is a cocoa tree. At our holiday table, children carried candy on a skin, holding it at both ends.

Instead of a conclusion

Leading: Today you go to kindergarten, study, your mothers and fathers work. What did primitive man do? Homo habilis lived by gathering - he ate what he could find (plants, animals, their eggs), Homo erectus began to hunt. Gradually, ancient man domesticated animals: the dog became his first companion. The ancient man had few things, he could easily move from place to place, so in the Neolithic era nomads appeared - people who raised livestock and constantly moved from place to place. Then the ancient man learned to grow plants himself, and not just collect them. This is how agriculture arose - the occupation of settled tribes. Thanks to him, a person was able to provide himself with everything he needed. Gradually, the first settlements arose, then cities, and civilization began to emerge. But more on that in the next trip.

Participants say goodbye to the presenter.

In preparing this game, I was greatly helped by the encyclopedia for children “We live in the Stone Age” from the “Walking into History” series (book in the Labyrinth) and the board card game “Once upon a time in the Stone Age” from the same series (game in the Labyrinth) .

Did you like the holiday game scenario? Save it to your social network wall to tell other parents about it and make your baby happy on the coming holiday!

It is known that the distinguishing feature of the ape from the representative of the human race is the mass of the brain, namely 750 g. This is how much is necessary for a child to master speech. Ancient people spoke in a primitive language, but their speech is a qualitative difference between the higher nervous activity of humans and the instinctive behavior of animals. The word, which became a designation for actions, labor operations, objects, and subsequently general concepts, acquired the status of the most important means of communication.

Stages of human development

It is known that there are three of them, namely:

• the oldest representatives of the human race;
• modern generation.

This article is devoted exclusively to the 2nd of the above stages.

History of Ancient Man

About 200 thousand years ago, the people we call Neanderthals appeared. They occupied an intermediate position between representatives of the most ancient family and the first modern man. Ancient people were a very heterogeneous group. A study of a large number of skeletons led to the conclusion that, in the process of the evolution of Neanderthals against the background of structural diversity, 2 lines were determined. The first was focused on powerful physiological development. Visually, the most ancient people were distinguished by a low, strongly sloping forehead, a low back of the head, a poorly developed chin, a continuous supraorbital ridge, and large teeth. They had very powerful muscles, despite the fact that their height was no more than 165 cm. The mass of their brain had already reached 1500 g. Presumably, ancient people used rudimentary articulate speech.

The second line of Neanderthals had more refined features. They had significantly smaller brow ridges, a more developed chin protuberance, and thin jaws. We can say that the second group was significantly inferior in physical development to the first. However, they already showed a significant increase in the volume of the frontal lobes of the brain.

The second group of Neanderthals fought for their existence through the development of intra-group connections in the process of hunting, protection from an aggressive natural environment, enemies, in other words, by combining the forces of individual individuals, and not through the development of muscles, like the first.

As a result of this evolutionary path, the species Homo sapiens appeared, which translates as “Homo sapiens” (40-50 thousand years ago).

It is known that for a short period of time the life of ancient man and the first modern man was closely interconnected. Subsequently, the Neanderthals were finally supplanted by the Cro-Magnons (the first modern people).

Types of ancient people

Due to the vastness and heterogeneity of the group of hominids, it is customary to distinguish the following varieties of Neanderthals:

• ancient (early representatives who lived 130-70 thousand years ago);
• classical (European forms, the period of their existence 70-40 thousand years ago);
• survivalists (lived 45 thousand years ago).

Neanderthals: daily life, activities

Fire played an important role. For many hundreds of thousands of years, man did not know how to make fire himself, which is why people supported the one that was formed due to a lightning strike or a volcanic eruption. Moving from place to place, the fire was carried in special “cages” by the strongest people. If it was not possible to save the fire, then this quite often led to the death of the entire tribe, since they were deprived of a means of heating in the cold, a means of protection from predatory animals.

Subsequently, they began to use it for cooking food, which turned out to be more tasty and nutritious, which ultimately contributed to the development of their brain. Later, people themselves learned to make fire by cutting sparks from stone into dry grass, quickly rotating a wooden stick in their palms, placing one end in a hole in dry wood. It was this event that became one of the most important achievements of man. It coincided in time with the era of great migrations.

The daily life of ancient man boiled down to the fact that the entire primitive tribe hunted. For this purpose, men were engaged in the manufacture of weapons and stone tools: chisels, knives, scrapers, awls. Mostly males hunted and butchered the carcasses of killed animals, that is, all the hard work fell on them.

Female representatives processed skins and collected (fruits, edible tubers, roots, and branches for fire). This led to the emergence of a natural division of labor by gender.

To catch large animals, men hunted together. This required mutual understanding between primitive people. During the hunt, a driving technique was common: the steppe was set on fire, then the Neanderthals drove a herd of deer and horses into a trap - a swamp, an abyss. Next, all they had to do was finish off the animals. There was another technique: they shouted and made noise to drive the animals onto thin ice.

We can say that the life of ancient man was primitive. However, it was the Neanderthals who were the first to bury their dead relatives, laying them on their right side, placing a stone under their head and bending their legs. Food and weapons were left next to the body. Presumably they considered death to be a dream. Burials and parts of sanctuaries, for example, associated with the bear cult, became evidence of the emergence of religion.

Neanderthal tools

They differed slightly from those used by their predecessors. However, over time, the tools of ancient people became more complex. The newly formed complex gave rise to the so-called Mousterian era. As before, tools were made primarily of stone, but their shapes became more diverse, and the turning technique became more complex.

The main weapon preparation is a flake formed as a result of chipping from a core (a piece of flint that has special platforms from which the chipping was carried out). This era was characterized by approximately 60 types of weapons. All of them are variations of 3 main ones: scraper, rubeltsa, pointed tip.

The first is used in the process of butchering an animal carcass, processing wood, and tanning hides. The second is a smaller version of the hand axes of the previously existing Pithecanthropus (they were 15-20 cm in length). Their new modifications had a length of 5-8 cm. The third weapon had a triangular outline and a point at the end. They were used as knives for cutting leather, meat, wood, and also as daggers and dart and spear tips.

In addition to the listed species, Neanderthals also had the following: scrapers, incisors, piercings, notched, and serrated tools.

Bone also served as the basis for their manufacture. Very few fragments of such specimens have survived to this day, and entire tools can be seen even less frequently. Most often these were primitive awls, spatulas, and points.

The tools differed depending on the types of animals that Neanderthals hunted, and, consequently, on the geographical region and climate. Obviously, African tools were different from European ones.

Climate of the area where Neanderthals lived

The Neanderthals were less fortunate with this. They found a strong cold snap and the formation of glaciers. Neanderthals, unlike Pithecanthropus, who lived in an area similar to the African savanna, lived rather in the tundra and forest-steppe.

It is known that the first ancient man, just like his ancestors, mastered caves - shallow grottoes, small sheds. Subsequently, buildings appeared located in open space (the remains of a dwelling made from the bones and teeth of a mammoth were found at a site on the Dniester).

Hunting of ancient people

Neanderthals mainly hunted mammoths. He did not live to this day, but everyone knows what this beast looks like, since rock paintings with its image were found, painted by people of the Late Paleolithic. In addition, archaeologists have found the remains (sometimes even the entire skeleton or carcasses in permafrost soil) of mammoths in Siberia and Alaska.

To catch such a large beast, the Neanderthals had to work hard. They dug pit traps or drove the mammoth into a swamp so that it would get stuck in it, then finish it off.

Also a game animal was the cave bear (it is 1.5 times larger than our brown one). If a large male rose on his hind legs, then he reached 2.5 m in height.

Neanderthals also hunted bison, bison, reindeer, and horses. From them it was possible to obtain not only the meat itself, but also bones, fat, and skin.

Methods of making fire by Neanderthals

There are only five of them, namely:

1. fire plow. This is a fairly fast method, but requires significant physical effort. The idea is to move a wooden stick along the board with a strong pressure. The result is shavings, wood powder, which, due to the friction of wood against wood, heats up and smolders. At this point, it is combined with highly flammable tinder, then the fire is fanned.

2. Fire drill. The most common way. A fire drill is a wooden stick that is used to drill into another stick (a wooden plank) located on the ground. As a result, smoldering (smoking) powder appears in the hole. Next, it is poured onto the tinder, and then the flame is fanned. Neanderthals first rotated the drill between their palms, and later the drill (with its upper end) was pressed into the tree, covered with a belt and pulled alternately on each end of the belt, rotating it.

3. Fire pump. This is a fairly modern, but rarely used method.

4. Fire saw. It is similar to the first method, but the difference is that the wooden plank is sawed (scraped) across the fibers, and not along them. The result is the same.

5. Carving fire. This can be done by hitting one stone against another. As a result, sparks are formed that fall on the tinder, subsequently igniting it.

Finds from the Skhul and Jebel Qafzeh caves

The first is located near Haifa, the second is in the south of Israel. They are both located in the Middle East. These caves are famous for the fact that human remains (skeletal remains) were found in them, which were closer to modern people than to the ancients. Unfortunately, they belonged to only two individuals. The age of the finds is 90-100 thousand years. In this regard, we can say that modern humans coexisted with Neanderthals for many millennia.

Conclusion

The world of ancient people is very interesting and has not yet been fully studied. Perhaps, over time, new secrets will be revealed to us that will allow us to look at it from a different point of view.