Eneolithic general characteristics. Chalcolithic period

Historical periodization distinguishes several stages in the development of man and human society. More recently, historians have suggested that stone Age with the Bronze Age followed one after another. But not so long ago it was established that there was a time gap between them, which was classified as the "copper age". What was the change in the opinion of historians about the gradual transition of mankind from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age? What distinguished this time period from others and what features are inherent in this period in the development of mankind? Read about all this below.

Timeframe of the Copper Age

The Copper Stone Age, also known as the Eneolithic, originates in the 6th millennium BC and lasts for almost 2,000 years. The time frame for this period was different meaning depending on the region: in the east and in America, it began somewhat earlier than in Europe. It is worth noting that the first acquaintance with copper began about 3 thousand years before the beginning of the period in question. It happened in the territory of the Ancient East. Initially, nuggets were taken for a soft stone, amenable to the action of harder rocks, that is, cold forging. And only many centuries later, man learned to melt copper and cast many useful items from it: needles, jewelry, spearheads and arrows.

Further development of the metal marked the beginning of such a period as the copper-bronze age, when methods and technologies for the manufacture of alloys became known to man, which, in their characteristics, were better than pure copper. In a word, this period is very significant in historical development humanity and civilization in general.

Why "copper"?

copper age in archaeological and historical periodization is characterized by the beginning of the use primitive man tools made of metal, namely copper. This led to the gradual replacement of stone and bone tools with softer, but at the same time easy-to-use axes, knives, and scrapers made from it. In addition, the development of methods for processing this metal allowed a person to make, albeit simple, but at the same time more original and sophisticated jewelry and figurines. The Copper Age marked the beginning of a new round of stratification in terms of well-being: the more copper a person had, the higher the status in society he had.

Household in the copper age

Awareness of the value of copper as a means of exchange between tribes and as the main material for the manufacture of many devices contributed to the active development of early handicraft industries. It was the Copper Age that laid the foundation for the emergence of such crafts as ore mining, metalworking and metallurgy. At the same time, such a phenomenon as specialized agriculture and animal husbandry spread. Pottery production during this period also acquired new features.

Trade also flourished during this period. At the same time, the tribes that mined copper and produced various products from it could exchange with those who were far beyond the borders of their settlement. This is evidenced by the fact that items made of copper mined in the Near East region and the Middle East were found on the territory of Europe.

Archaeological finds from the Copper Age

The most characteristic and striking finds that date back to the Copper Age are figurines of women. This is due primarily to the worldview of the people who lived in the Eneolithic. The greatest value for them was the harvest and fertility, which just symbolized such products. At the same time, a large number of them are made of clay, and not of metal.

Paintings on pottery also depicted women and the world. According to the ideas of people who lived in the copper age, the world was divided into three components: the Earth with plants, animals and people, the Middle Sky, radiating the sun's rays, and the Upper Sky, filled with rain, filling the rivers and nourishing the earth.

In addition to products endowed with a sacred meaning of being, archaeologists find knives made of pure copper or bone, tips, needles and much more.

Art of the Neolithic (7-4 thousand BC) and Eneolithic (Copper-Stone Age-4-3 thousand BC)

During the Neolithic period, ceramics appeared - the main factor determining the peculiarity of a particular culture. Ceramic products - carriers of information about the past archaeological cultures. During the Neolithic and Eneolithic periods, the real flourishing of ornamental art begins, and all the basic laws of ornamentation are used: the exact rhythmic placement of the pattern, the alternation of ornamental zones, the symmetry in the outline of equilateral triangles and rhombuses. Another unique phenomenon of the eras we are considering are petroglyphs, which are known in all human habitats. In the Neolithic era, the lag of different regions from each other is outlined and consolidated, due to climatic conditions and the nature of tribal occupations. During this period, different ways of human development clearly stand out, depending on the geographical conditions of the habitat of a given culture: or is it the formation of statehood in ancient regions agriculture, or many centuries of nomadic life and life among the wild, uncultivated nature.

The Eneolithic period is the beginning of the Paleometallic era, that is, the Copper - Stone and Bronze Ages. During the Eneolithic period, humanity first learned to smelt tools from the first metal known to it - copper, bronze is spreading. At the same time, along with the ancient method of producing economy - agriculture, a new one is finally taking shape - cattle breeding, which makes it possible to master the vast steppes and foothill zones. In the beginning, let us briefly characterize the art of the Neolithic and Eneolithic in the cultures of the most ancient centers of agriculture that preceded the period of the appearance of early forms statehood.

• 1) The Jordanian-Palestinian region (Jericho - 8-7 thousand years BC). Funeral masks, adobe houses, as well as the oldest city walls in the history of mankind have survived.
• 2) Asia Minor region (Chatal-Guyuk). The huge number of statuettes of naked women, symbolizing the cult of fertility, is noteworthy. The surviving sanctuaries are often decorated with the image of a bull. The god in the form of a bull played the same role in the Cretan - Mycenaean civilization and Ancient Egypt the period of the Early Kingdom (mastaba in Saqqara with bull heads, 4 thousand BC).
• 3) Mesopotamian region (Jarmo culture, 7-6 thousand BC). This region is characterized by unusually decorative ceramics, molded first by hand and then on potter's wheel. Pottery from Samarra dates back to the 5th millennium BC. e. Religious vessels, bowls, dishes are characterized by a special thoroughness of work. Among the numerous ornaments appear so-called. "primitive swastikas" - a symbol of the cycle of natural elements and the solar course. People, animals, plants - everything spins in a rapid whirlwind of movement, turning into abstract geometric shapes.
• 4) Egyptian center. Neolithic cultures - Tasa and Merimde Beni Salame. Pottery is molded by hand and is devoid of decoration. In clay products, craftsmen strive to reproduce the texture of stone vessels. The favorite material for making vessels among the ancient Egyptians was stone. Vases and dishes were polished to a shine, dematerializing its heaviness and inertness. People and animals are imprinted on the surface of the vessels, as if viewed from different points vision. As a dwelling, small round huts made of reed, plastered with clay, are used.
• 5) Huanghe and Yangtze region.

Center of Neolithic culture Ancient China became the settlement of Yangshao. Archaeologists have discovered here masterpieces of Neolithic ceramics dating back to 4-3 millennia. They amaze with the brightness of their paintings, painted in red, black and white.

6) The region of the Indus and Ganges valleys.

Neolithic vessels of the Indian civilization from Changhu-Daro are distinguished by a carpet arrangement of predominantly floral ornament. The end of the 4th millennium dates back to small clay figurines of the mother goddess and a bull, typical of the fertility cult. Unlike the Mesopotamian region, the seals were not cylindrical, but rectangular.

8) Geoksyursky oasis region (Turkmenistan). Complexes Kara-depe, Geoksyur I, Altyn-depe.

The dishes are decorated with bright geometric ornament, consisting of triangles, rhombuses, squares, wavy lines. In earlier dishes, stylized images of humans and animals were recognizable. During the late Eneolithic period, ceramics become even brighter and more multicolored. As elsewhere in agricultural crops there are small statuettes of a female deity.

9) Region of Right-bank Ukraine, Moldova, Carpatho - Danube zone of Romania and Bulgaria. Culture Tripoli - Cucuteni (6-3 thousand BC)

Ground houses, adobe, forming an elongated rectangle in plan, were divided into two halves. The complexes of buildings were located in a ring-shaped manner and were oriented towards the center of the circle. Trypillya ceramics are characterized by a "vortex-like" ornament

10) Iranian region. Zagros culture (7-4 thousand BC).

The Tepe culture - Sialk III has the most colorful, elegant and varied ceramics. Vessels were made on a potter's wheel. Images of snow leopards on vessels are unique. Button-shaped seals played a role magical amulets and were also reliable protectors of property.

Another form of art has become rock painting, petroglyphs, stelae and large stone sculptures characteristic of the culture of hunter-gatherers and pastoralists. Images on the rocks were either knocked out with a solid tool from a stone, or painted with red ocher. The petroglyphs depict accurate observations of the natural world, and, at the same time, myths about the origin of this tribe and the arrangement of the Universe are "recorded". still have hunting scenes. Another series of scenes is connected with the world of animals, on the reproduction and well-being of which the well-being of the human collective also depended. Scenes depicting moose during the mating game are known from Norway, and in the Russian north there are small sculptural images of them. important place in rock art, as in ceramics, is occupied by solar and lunar symbolism. Elks are identified with the first in northern paintings. Since the Eneolithic era, the theme of the Tree of Life has been spreading in art, where the ideas that have been formed over thousands of years about the natural cycle, about the hidden mysterious forces of nature, about life and death, have been embodied.

During the Neolithic and Eneolithic, the process of folding vast complexes of natural and historical sanctuaries was going on. In the Bronze Age, several types of structures were formed, which are not only natural monuments, but also the result of large-scale (for the first time!) Human construction activity. Menhirs - stand-alone or groups of vertically placed stones. The "Stone Army" in Armenia and the Alignans in France are known - extended fields of stone pillars. Dolmens are a type of structure in which several stones are covered with a roof stone. Cromlechs are the oldest architectural complexes with a complex composition and are not only places of worship, but also acting as an astronomical instrument or calendar. Stonehenge is the largest building of primitive architecture, where an attempt to organize earthly chaos and cosmic harmony is carried out on such a powerful scale.

At the end of the 4th millennium BC. Neolithic civilization gradually exhausted its potential and the first crisis era in the history of mankind began - the era of the Eneolithic (copper - stone age). Eneolithic is characterized by the following parameters:

1. Eneolithic is the transition from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age
2. Metal becomes the predominant material (copper and its alloy with tin - bronze)
3. Eneolithic - a time of chaos, disorder in society, a crisis in technology - the transition to irrigated agriculture, to new materials
4. Crisis social life: the destruction of the leveling system, the early agricultural societies are formed, from which civilizations subsequently grew.

The Copper Age approximately covers the period of 4-3 millennium BC, but in some areas it exists longer, and in some it does not exist at all. Most often, the Eneolithic is included in the Bronze Age, but sometimes it is also considered a separate period. During the Eneolithic, copper tools were common, but stone tools still prevailed.

The first acquaintance of a person with copper occurred through nuggets, which were taken for stones and tried to be processed in the usual way by hitting them with other stones. Pieces did not break off from nuggets, but were deformed and they could be given the necessary shape (cold forging). They did not know how to fuse copper with other metals to obtain bronze. In some cultures, nuggets were heated after forging, which led to the destruction of intercrystalline bonds that make the metal brittle. The low distribution of copper in the Eneolithic is connected, first of all, with the insufficient number of nuggets, and not with the softness of the metal - in regions where there was a lot of copper, it quickly began to displace the stone. Despite its softness, copper had an important advantage - copper tool could be repaired, but the stone had to be done again.

The oldest metal objects in the world were found during excavations in Anatolia. The inhabitants of the Neolithic village of Chayonyu were among the first to begin experiments with native copper, and in Chatal-Guyuk ca. 6000 BC learned how to smelt copper from ore and began to use it to make jewelry.

In the Mesopotamia, metal was recognized in the 6th millennium (Samarr culture), at the same time jewelry made of native copper appeared in the Indus Valley (Mergarh).

In Egypt and on the Balkan Peninsula they were made in the 5th millennium (Rudna Glava).

By the beginning of the IV millennium BC. copper products came into use in the Samara, Khvalyn, Srednestog and other cultures of Eastern Europe.

From the IV millennium BC. copper and bronze tools began to replace stone ones.

On Far East copper products appeared in the 5th - 4th millennium BC. (Hongshan culture).

The first finds of copper objects in South America belong to the II - I millennium BC (Ilam culture, Chavin). Later, the Andean peoples achieved great skill in copper metallurgy, especially the Mochica culture. Subsequently, this culture began to smelt arsenic, and the Tiwanaku and Huari cultures - tin bronze.

The Inca state of Tahuantinsuyu can already be considered an advanced Bronze Age civilization.

The first era of metal is called the Eneolithic (Greek enus - "copper", lithos - "stone"). During this period, copper things appear, but stone ones predominate.

Two theories about the distribution of copper:

1) arose in the region from Anatolia to Khuzistan (8-7 thousand BC) and spread to neighboring territories;

2) arose at once in several centers.

Four stages of development of non-ferrous metallurgy:

1) native copper as a kind of stone;

2) melting of native copper and mold casting;

3) smelting of copper from ores, i.e. metallurgy;

4) copper-based alloys - for example, bronze. Copper deposits were discovered according to external signs (green spots of oxides). When extracting ore, stone hammers were used. The boundaries of the Eneolithic are determined by the level of development of metallurgy (the third stage). The beginnings of agriculture and animal husbandry further development, thanks to the expansion of cultivated cereals. The horn hoe is being replaced by an arable tool that requires the use of draft animals. In different areas, the wheel appears almost simultaneously. Thus, cattle breeding develops, and pastoral tribes become isolated. Eneolithic - the beginning of the domination of patriarchal-clan relations, the dominance of men in pastoral groups. Instead of graves, mounds of burial mounds appear. The study of ceramics shows that it was made by specialists who masterfully mastered the technique of pottery production (craft). Exchange of raw materials - flint. The Eneolithic was the time of the emergence of class societies in a number of regions of the Mediterranean. The agricultural Eneolithic of the USSR had three centers - Central Asia, Caucasus and Northern Black Sea region.

Trypillia culture

Tripolskaya (end of the 5th - the third quarter of the 3rd millennium BC) is a large center of the producing economy in Moldova and Right-Bank Ukraine, including part of Romania. In the village of Trypillya near Kyiv. It was agricultural, it required uprooting of roots, stumps, which raised the role of male labor. The patriarchal system of the tribes. Early period (end 5 - middle 4 thousand). The river valleys of Moldova, the west of Ukraine, the Romanian Carpathian region. Parking lots are surrounded by a moat. Small clay houses. In the center of the house is an altar. Places were changed every 50-70 years (fall in fertility). Agriculture has been around for a long time. The earth was cultivated with hoes, furrows were made with a primitive ral. They cultivated wheat, barley, millet, legumes. The harvest was harvested with sickles, the grain was ground with grain grinders. Cattle breeding and hunting. Hot forging and welding of copper, but there was no melting yet. Treasure near the village of Karbuna (444 copper objects). Ceramics with in-depth serpentine ornament. The agricultural cult of the mother goddess. Middle period (second half of 4 thousand). The area reaches the Dnieper. Multi-room houses are growing. 2nd and 3rd floors appear. The house was occupied by a large family community. Settlements now have up to 200 or more houses. They are located high above the river, fortified with a rampart and a moat. Grapes have been added to the plants. Cattle breeding was pastoral. Painted utensils and a spiral ornament appear. There was a pouring of copper. Import of metal from the Caucasus. Stone tools predominate. Late period(beginning-third quarter 3 thousand). The largest area. Workshops of flint products. Metal casting in double-sided molds. Two types of ceramics - rough and polished. Story painting. The number of sheep is growing, the number of pigs is decreasing. The role of hunting is growing. Tools were still made of stone, bone and horn. A patriarchal clan develops.

In the era of the Eneolithic (Copper Stone Age, 4-3 thousand BC), people mastered the processing of copper. The development of tribes is intensifying, people live in houses built with their own hands. The people themselves appearance little different from modern people.
Neolithic cultures of East and Central Asia
South East Asia(Southern China) was in the Eneolithic era closely associated with Southeast Asia, its development at that time practically did not differ from the development of this region. In Northern China and Mongolia, the Eneolithic differed quite significantly from the corresponding epochs in other Asian regions. In northern China, early Neolithic cultures of painted pottery date back to the 7th-5th millennium BC. e. The carriers of these cultures were engaged in agriculture, growing chumiza. True, for the Early Neolithic cultures of the northeastern part of modern China (Manchuria) and Mongolia that existed at the same time, agriculture was not yet typical, and the population was engaged in gathering, hunting, and in some places fishing. Groups of the population that were mainly engaged in hunting (Mongolia) led a mobile lifestyle, while communities in which fishing played a significant role (Manchuria, some regions of Northern China) were more sedentary. Agriculture appeared in these places much later - in the III - II millennium BC. e.
“The main occupation of the population living in Northern China was hoe farming (cultivation of plague), hunting, gathering, fishing and animal husbandry (breeding pigs, dogs) played an auxiliary role. The Yangshaos lived in round or rectangular semi-dugouts with a conical roof, which was supported by pillars that stood in the center of the dwelling. At the end of the IV millennium BC. e. the Yangshaos learned how to process copper.”
In Tibet, starting from the second half of the 4th millennium BC. e., the population was engaged in agriculture (growing millet) and, possibly, cattle breeding. Around the same time, agriculture and cattle breeding penetrated into Eastern Mongolia and Korea. They cultivated millet, bred pigs and dogs. In Korea, from the middle of the III millennium BC. e. Rice, introduced from the south, was also cultivated and gradually became the main crop.
Neolithic cultures North Africa
The earliest North African cultures were found in Egypt, in the Nile Valley, and date back to the 9th - 8th millennium BC. e. The Early Neolithic settlements of Nabta Playa (end of the 8th millennium BC) located in one of the oases of the Libyan Desert have been studied quite well. Their inhabitants were engaged in agriculture (they grew barley, and later also enner, sorghum), fishing, and hunting. In the IV millennium BC. e. cattle breeding appeared (breeding of cattle, goats and sheep, and in contrast to Southwest Asia, cattle were domesticated earlier than small ones). The houses in Nabta Playa had a pillar construction. Ceramics was known. The main tools were polished stone axes and adzes.
“The cultures of North Africa were not limited to the territory of Egypt, they were found in a vast area from the Central Sahara to the Nile. The inhabitants of the early Neolithic settlement of Kadera, located near Khartoum, in the first half of the 4th millennium BC. e. they grew agricultural crops that are not found on other continents - durra, dagussu, fonio, teff (durra is a plant of the genus sorghum; dagussa, fonio, teff are millet crops), and also bred dogs. In the same region (Nubia) by the beginning of the III millennium BC. e. the African type of cotton was introduced into the culture (at first it was used as feed for livestock).

The first era of metal is called the Eneolithic (Greek enus - "copper", lithos - "stone"). During this period, copper things appear, but stone ones predominate. Two theories about the distribution of copper: 1) originated in the region from Anatolia to Khuzistan (8-7 thousand BC) and spread to neighboring territories; 2) arose at once in several centers. Four stages in the development of non-ferrous metallurgy: 1) native copper as a kind of stone; 2) melting of native copper and mold casting; 3) smelting of copper from ores, i.e. metallurgy; 4) copper-based alloys - for example, bronze. Copper deposits were discovered according to external signs (green spots of oxides). When extracting ore, stone hammers were used. The boundaries of the Eneolithic are determined by the level of development of metallurgy (the third stage). The beginnings of agriculture and animal husbandry were further developed, thanks to the expansion of cultivated cereals. The horn hoe is being replaced by an arable tool that requires the use of draft animals. In different areas, the wheel appears almost simultaneously. Thus, cattle breeding develops, and pastoral tribes become isolated.
Eneolithic - the beginning of the domination of patriarchal-clan relations, the dominance of men in pastoral groups. Instead of graves, mounds of burial mounds appear. The study of ceramics shows that it was made by specialists who masterfully mastered the technique of pottery production (craft). Exchange of raw materials - flint. The Eneolithic was the time of the emergence of class societies in a number of regions of the Mediterranean. The agricultural Eneolithic of the USSR has three centers - Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Northern Black Sea region.

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  General characteristic. The first era of metal is called Chalcolithic(Greek enus - "copper", lithos - "stone"). During this period, there copper things, but stone ones predominate.


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  Bronze century. General characteristic. Bronze century corresponds to a dry and relatively warm subboreal climate, in which
  Also in Eneolithic carts and wheels appeared.


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  General characteristic. Bronze century corresponds to a dry and relatively warm subboreal climate, in which pr. Eneolithic Central Asia.



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  General characteristic. The basis of archaeological periodization primitive history are the differences in the technique of stone processing.


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  Eneolithic. General characteristic.


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  General characteristic. The Neolithic (5.5-3 thousand BC) covers the warm and humid Atlantic climatic period.
  Eneolithic. General characteristic.