The origin and way of life of the Cro-Magnon people

Cro-Magnon is considered to be the ancestors of modern man, who lived on our planet in the era of the late (or upper) Paleolithic (40-12 thousand years ago). The name of this species of primitive people originated from Cro-Magnon Cave, located in the south-western part of France. It was there that in 1868 the archaeologist Louis Larthe, during the excavations, came across the remains of ancient people, who in their appearance differed from the Neanderthal skeletons discovered earlier and reminded the Homo sapiens. The discovery, which was about 30 thousand years old, immediately attracted the attention of scientists who studied the history of that period, because nothing was known about the way of life of the Cro-Magnon people at that time. In the following years, their remains, together with tools of labor, were found in other territories (Mladech and Dolni-Vestonice in the Czech Republic, Paviland in England, Peshtera-ku-Oas in Romania, Murzak-Koba in the Crimea, Sungir in Russia, Mezhirech in Ukraine, Fish Hook, Cape Flats in Africa, etc.).

Origination and migration

The origin of the Cro-Magnon people has not been fully studied to this day. Historians and anthropologists used to adhere to the Marxist theory of the emergence of this type of ancient man. If you believe her, the Cro-Magnon is a direct descendant of the Neanderthal man. Many modern researchers question this theory. They tend to the version that the Neanderthals and Cro-Magnonians descended from a common ancestor, after which each of them began to develop separately.

Modern scientists have not been able to reach a consensus on the part of the planet where the first ancestors of modern man appeared and when this exactly happened. The most common version says that the Cro-Magnons formed into a separate species about 200 thousand years ago, and it happened in the eastern part of Africa. After 70 thousand years, in search of new lands for life, they began migrating to the Middle East. Hence, one part of the Cro-Magnon settlers of the Near East and the coast of the Indian Ocean, and the other advanced northward and reached the lands of Asia Minor and the Northern Black Sea Coast. In Europe, a reasonable man appeared about 40-45 thousand years ago.

Appearance

What did Cro-Magnon look like? Ancient man, a fossil person, differed from modern individuals by the structure of the body and the size of the brain. In contrast, representatives of Homo sapiens resembled the current people, but they were larger. Archaeological finds made it possible to find out that Cro-Magnon men, who inhabited ancient Europe, reached 180 cm in height (women were lower), had broad faces and deeply set eyes. The brain of a reasonable person was 1400-1900 centimeters of cubic, which corresponds to this indicator in modern people. The life of the Cro-Magnon people, who had to survive in the harsh conditions of antiquity, contributed to the formation of a well-developed muscle mass among them.

Life

Ancient people lived in communities, the number of which reached 100 people. Their main occupations were hunting and picking up plant foods. They were the first to start making tools from bones and horns. Along with this, they still had widespread use of stone tools. The lighter and more refined products allowed them to get more food, sew clothes, invent devices designed to facilitate their existence. Scientists are convinced that the ancient people of this era had a well-developed speech.

Dwelling place

Cro-Magnon people still continued to settle in caves, but new types of housing began to appear. They have learned to build reliable tents from animal skins, wood and bones. Such houses could be moved, thanks to which the way of life of the Cro-Magnon people ceased to be sedentary. Wandering from place to place in order to develop new lands, they carried their homes and households with them. Cro-Magnon became the first prehistoric people who managed to tame the dog and use it as an assistant.

In the ancestors of mankind, the cult of hunting was widespread. This is evidenced by numerous finds of animal figures, pierced by arrows, found during the excavation of their settlements. The walls of their homes were decorated by ancient people with images of animals and hunting scenes.

Extraction of food

Hunting firmly entered into the life of Cro-Magnon. Realities of the Stone Age were such that in order to feed, it was necessary to kill. The ancient inhabitants of our planet hunted well organized groups of 10-20 people. The objects of their persecution were large animals (mammoths, wolves, woolly rhinoceroses, bears, noble deer, bison). Destroying the beast, they provided their communities with more skins and meat. The main tools for killing animals in the Cro-Magnon were spear and onions. In addition to hunting, they engaged in catching birds and fish (for the first lesson, snares were used, and for the second, harpoons and hooks).

In addition to meat and fish, the descendants of modern humans used wild plants for food. The food of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon people was very similar. They ate everything that nature gave them (bark, leaves and fruits of trees, stems, flowers and plant roots, cereals, mushrooms, nuts, algae, etc.).

Burial places

The Cro-Magnon people had interesting funeral customs. They laid deceased relatives in a grave in a half-bent position. Their hair was decorated with a net, arms - bracelets, and faces covered with flat stones. The corpses of the dead were covered with red ocher. Ancient people believed in the afterlife, that's why they buried their relatives together with household items, ornaments and food, being sure that after death they will need them.

Cultural Revolution Cro-Magnon

People who lived during the late Paleolithic made a number of discoveries that allowed them to significantly exceed their predecessors in the cultural development. Their main achievement is the invention of a new method for processing flint, which went down in history as the "knife-blade method". This discovery produced a real revolution in the manufacture of tools. The method consisted in that individual plates were beaten or squeezed from the stone nodule (nucleus), from which later various products were manufactured. Thanks to the new technology, prehistoric people learned to get from one kg of flint to 250 cm of working edge (in Neanderthals this figure did not exceed 220 cm, and their predecessors barely reached 45 cm).

An equally important discovery of the Cro-Magnon people was the production of tools from animal raw materials. Spending a lot of time hunting, the ancient man noticed that the bones, horns and tusks of animals differ in their increased strength. He began to make from them qualitatively new products that made life easier for him. Bone needles appeared and sewed, making it easier to sew clothes from skins. Animal raw materials began to be used in the construction of new homes, as well as making jewelry and figurines from it. The development of new materials led to the invention of more sophisticated hunting tools - spear and onion. These adaptations allowed the Cro-Magnon people to kill animals that many times exceeded their strength and size.

The Cro-Magnon people's way of life consisted not only in survival among wild nature. Prehistoric people strove for beauty. They left to their descendants many works of art. This is wall painting in caves, and decorated with unique ornament tools, and made of flint, clay, bones and tusks statuettes of buffalo, horses, deer and other animals. Ancient Cro-Magnon worshiped feminine beauty. Among the findings found by archaeologists, there are many figures of women. For the splendor of forms, modern historians called them "Venus".