In order to understand which epoch will be discussed here, let us briefly recall the history of human development.
В каменном веке возникло первобытное общество, existed BC almost 36 thousand years. This time covers the following periods: Late Paleolithic (40-10 thousand years BC); Mesolithic epoch - (10-5 thousand years BC); Neolithic (5-5 thousand years BC).
It should be noted that while some elementscultures emerged before the formation of primitive society. These are the beginnings of language, religious ideas, a tool in the form, for example, of a manual hack.
The development of culture begins at the same time with the completion of the formation of a rational man, called the term homo sapiens.
Mesolithic, as noted above, was betweenPaleolithic and Neolithic. Its beginning is connected with the end of the European Ice Age (geological epoch - Holocene). At this time, the climate familiar to today's people was established, and flora and fauna appeared.
What is mesolithic? What general changes in people's lives are characteristic of this period?
The invention of the first guns (bow and arrow),The domestication of certain animals is the most important achievement of the Mesolithic. People began to make flint tools, and dogs were used to protect shelter and hunting. The fishing nets that have remained since those times and wooden objects similar to rafts and canoes indicate the beginning of the development of fishing. Harpoons in one and even in two rows of spaced teeth demonstrate that people of those times have the skills to hunt different animals. The tools, as in the Paleolithic, were small points and plates of geometric shapes, used as tips for arrows or for composite tools.
During this period, the production of variouswooden and wicker utensils. For example, all sorts of bags, baskets of reeds and bast were found. The Mesolithic period is characterized by the resettlement of people far to the north, with the development of the territories of part of the coast of the Arctic Ocean, the Baltic States and Scotland.
A marked advancement and art markedMesolithic. The man began to draw. Many paintings have been found, depicting not only people, but also animals. Moreover, a certain schematism appears, transmitting precisely the movement, the meaning of events and the state of the soul. An important place among the drawings is occupied by scenes of struggle and battles, as well as hunting. Evidence of this clearly, for example, paintings on the rocks Walltorta in Spain.
Music and dancing arose in the Mesolithic.They were used in rituals and on holidays. Religious beliefs will be improved and complicated. For example, the ancestor cult and faith in the afterlife is strengthened. The ritual of the dead person’s burial itself is performed with the burial of things necessary for the afterlife, more complex burial grounds are built.
There has been progress in the development and improvement of social factors: the formation of speech, the emergence of rules and norms of behavior, the emergence of regulations and prohibitions, etc.
Immediately there are also forms of violence associated withviolation of social norms, which led to various forms of punishment, including physical violence. There is an accumulation of more and more new knowledge about the world around us, skills are being improved that contribute to survival (knowledge of the habits of animals, various properties of plants, minerals). The first experiments of treatment with herbs appear, the first surgical operations (amputation of the limbs, extraction of teeth, etc.).
What is the Mesolithic in relation to the life of the tribes?
If the Paleolithic way of life was nomadic, then in the Mesolithic intensively mastered the territory of residence, that is, there is a so-called sedentary.
This era has made a transformation in the life of man of that time. Not only light structures (deep, oval-shaped), but also rocky plumb lines and caves were used as dwellings.
While there is no evidence of the existence in the Mesolithic weaving. The clothing of the Mesolithic European tribes differed depending on the seasons and areas of human habitation.
There are small signs that weapons were used for military purposes.
So what is the Mesolithic?
Modern people should remember that in cultureprimitive societies laid the very foundations for the further development of all mankind. And, it is important that people should not forget to whom they owe what they are now.
