\\ \\ Basic principles of the analysis of cycles and waves in social development. Culture of the peoples of early civilizations
The concept of "civilization" and early agricultural civilization
The concept of "civilization", which has recently been increasingly used, is associated with the designation of a qualitative milestone in the history of mankind. To the realization of the existence of such a boundary, not to mention its designation, humanity itself also approached gradually. For mythological thinking, especially at a time at the crossroads of various socio-economic systems, when the law and order of primitive democracy, dear to the heart of a community member, was striving to present the development of mankind as a kind of descent from better to worse. The construction of Hesiod is most vivid in this respect (see topic 2), according to which the whole history of mankind is divided into five centuries - the most ancient, golden, then successively replaced by centuries of silver, copper, heroic and iron. According to Hesiod, it was a kind of evolution with reverse signwhen people gradually became morally decomposed, corrupted and became worse and worse.
Later, this pessimistic concept is replaced by systems built on the principle of direct evolution. A similar view of the natural development of mankind is already set forth by Aeschylus in Chained Prometheus. Here the path of development is traced from primitive primitivism to crafts and sciences, which Prometheus taught the human race. The same causal complex of the evolution of mankind is presented in Plato.
Through the efforts of Voltaire, first of all, the efforts of Enlightenment opened up the prospect of progressive development for mankind, where civilization follows wildness and barbarism.
By the 19th century the concept of "civilization" was used to denote a human community, intermingling in many respects with the term "culture". All human global culture was perceived as a single civilization. But with the successes of historical science, it became increasingly clear that civilization was formed only at a certain stage in the development of mankind, representing a qualitative boundary on the evolutionary path, which was reconstructed in general terms by thinkers of the ancient era.
The study of numerous tribes of America, Australia and Africa, which preserved archaic cultural complexes, played a particularly large role. As a result, the term “civilization” was used to divide the cultural and historical process, and in the scheme of L. Morgan, civilization closes the long chain of stages in the development of primitive society. The deep socio-economic preconditions for the formation of civilization were discovered by F. Engels in his work “The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State,” where he emphasizes that “civilization is a period of mastering the further processing of natural products, a period of industry in the proper sense of the word and art.” F. Engels also noted such an important sign of civilization as writing. At the same time, during the analysis of the very process of the emergence of civilization, F. Engels reveals its close connection with the development of antagonistic classes, the formation of the state, the emergence of cities and merchants.
In the field of economics, civilization is the improvement of food production, the development of industry, the strengthening of the social division of labor down to the extremes of the city and the village, the emergence of professional merchants and money. In the socio-political sphere, we are talking about the presence of antagonistic classes, the state, inheritance of land ownership and, finally, in the cultural sphere - about monumental architecture, writing and art.
The monuments of monumental architecture are not only very impressive in appearance, but also very indicative in terms of the production potential of the societies that created them. They seem to have implemented the surplus product obtained by this economic system, reflected the organized level of society, skillfully using simple cooperation. It is the amount of labor invested that separates the first temples from ordinary communal sanctuaries, for the construction of which the efforts of several, or even one small family, were sufficient. Researchers made indicative estimates of the labor expended in the construction of monumental structures of the first civilizations. So, the Olmec temple center of La Venta in Mesoamerica is located on an island whose territory could feed only 30 families under the then-slash-and-burn farming system. However, labor costs for the construction of the entire complex were estimated by American researchers at 18,000 man-days. It is quite clear that La Venta is the cult center of a whole union of communities located in a rather large surrounding area. It should be borne in mind that Olmec culture is still an early, formative period of Mesoamerican civilization. Then, labor costs for monumental buildings increase many times. For the construction of the White Temple in Sumerian Uruk, according to one estimate, the continuous work of 1,500 people for five years was necessary. According to Chinese researchers, the construction of a powerful fortress wall in Zhengzhou required labor of at least 10,000 people over 18 years. And Zhengzhou, like the Olmec complexes, is just a formative period of civilization, in this case ancient Chinese. Such were the enormous production capabilities of the first civilizations, and it is not surprising that it is monumental structures that are one of the bright, marking signs of their very existence.
Of critical importance was the emergence of writing. Its creation was by no means the result of abstract speculative combinations, but the urgent need of a society entering a new phase of its development. For the hunting or even early farming community, the amount of information to be transmitted to maintain the stability of the economy and culture was relatively small. This amount of knowledge could be communicated orally by priests or shamans when familiarizing themselves with the spiritual heritage of their ancestors or when teaching youth during initiations. The complex social and economic system, which was the first civilization, led to an abrupt increase in the most diverse information. Already the registration of products and the organization of planned agricultural work required clear regulation. Creating a semblance of a unified system of religious beliefs, replacing and incorporating local cults of various tribal centers, also needed codification and firm fixation. These factors are directly reflected in the content of the first written documents. The oldest proto-Sumerian tablets from Uruk are detailed registration cards, where literally everything is recorded: the size of land allotments, the issued tools, the composition of the herds and much more. The tablets of Knossos and Pylos palaces are close in content, where from year to year counting accounting records were kept on the number of people in working groups, and on the volume of products made by artisans. Yin fortune telling inscriptions reflect the moment of cult actions, but in the end they are often aimed at real economic, political and social events.
In social terms, the introduction of writing was an important phenomenon that went to another specific feature of the first civilizations of the era - the separation of mental labor from physical. This was the logical conclusion of production specialization, the growth of which marked the final stages of the primitive era. It was this division that allowed society, taken as a whole, to focus the efforts of individual groups on the development of art and various forms of positive knowledge. Aristotle also noted that mathematical knowledge developed primarily in the area of \u200b\u200bEgypt, because there the class of priests was given time for leisure.
The emergence of writing, which in its first manifestations was a very complex system, led to the emergence of a new profession - scribes, whose training in special schools also gave the rudiments of positive knowledge. In the course of their upbringing, the worldview and social psychology of this group were formed, in particular through all sorts of praise of the chosen profession.
Both monumental architecture and writing did not exist in airless space. Temples and palaces were usually decorated with urban centers, and educated cadres of the first civilizations were concentrated in cities. Almost all the huge number of monuments of Yin written language, for example, comes from the capital Anyang, while similar finds are rare in other ordinary settlements. Here we come to the third important sign of the first civilizations - the development of urban settlements. No wonder, as we have seen, the etymology of the concept of “civilization” itself goes back to the civil, urban community. It is in the cities that the process of accumulation of wealth and social differentiation is particularly intensive, the centers of economic and ideological leadership are located here, specialized craft industries are concentrated in the cities, the role of exchange and trade is increasing, while small villages of rural communities, as a rule, remain closed to the self-sufficiency system by forces its members, established in the bowels of the primitive era.
The city was an institution that was born in the depths of primitive society and symbolized the onset of a new era. Cities represented large populated centers that performed specific functions in the social system. The question of the quantitative parameters of urban-type settlements is closely connected with demographic indicators that have developed in various economic systems. In the conditions of irrigated agriculture Ancient East the concentration of the population was very high, however, settlements with more than 5,000 inhabitants can be considered cities. In other regions, these parameters look different. To a certain extent, this applies to such a feature of urban centers as building density. The significance of ancient cities was determined by their functions. First of all, they served as the center of the agricultural district, the center of crafts and trade, as well as the role of a kind of ideological leader. It was in the cities that the country's main temples were located, and often the presence of a cultural center was one of the important incentives for the formation of an urban-type settlement in this place. Another feature of the external appearance of ancient cities is associated with this function - the presence of high-rise buildings. Monumental temple complexes determined the architectural silhouette of the ancient cities of Mesopotamia. The palace centers of the Crete-Mycenaean society are functionally similar to the ancient Eastern cities. The dispersed buildings of many of the ancient centers of Mesoamerica cannot hide their purely urban functions.
The cultural complex of the first civilizations was a complex organism, in which all the basic elements, including ideological, actively interacted. Ideology, formed under the influence of economic and social factors, has a certain independence in relation to the basis that created it. The transition to civilization was also associated with significant changes in the field of ideology, when new ideological canons were formed, usually clothed in religious forms. It was at the time of the first civilizations that the ideological sphere, systematized and centralized, became a truly huge force. Means of ideological influence were aimed at substantiating and maintaining new law and order established on the ground. So, magnificent funeral rites, grandiose royal tombs were objectively a way of ideological influence on ordinary community members, affirmed in the minds and feelings the idea of \u200b\u200bthe greatness of power of a ruler, towering above his subjects. Corresponding changes are also taking place in traditional mythological schemes. The creation narratives insistently emphasize that people who owe their existence to creator gods must work diligently in the name of these gods who have put things in order in the world.
The first civilizations began to form about 8 thousand years ago. These include: Sumer (Mesopotamia), Ancient Egypt, Harappa (Ancient India), Yin China, Crete-Mycenaean Greece, ancient American civilizations.
Agriculture development and technical breakthrough
The so-called early farming cultures that arose from 8–7 thousand years BC became the initial layer on the basis of which the first civilizations are formed. e. At this time, for example, there are settlements Jericho (now the territory of Israel), Hajilar and Cheyyunyu and Chatal-Hyuk (Asia Minor). These cultures of farmers and pastoralists have become historically the first form of economy based on food production (in contrast to the gathering and hunting economy of primitive people).
Consider the main features of early farming cultures, which allowed them to become the basis of civilization.
1. The effectiveness of the food production system, especially agriculture, based on the cultivation of crops. The transition to agriculture and herding closely related to it represented a revolution in the creation of an effective system for supplying a person with protein food. Agriculture went through three stages of development: non-irrigated (1), semi-irrigated or single-irrigation agriculture (2) and irrigation, i.e. irrigation (3). The emergence of irrigated agriculture led to the economic development of river basins, the construction of irrigation canals, the selection of new varieties of crops. It is noteworthy that most animal breeds and plant varieties currently used by humans were bred during the formation of the first civilizations.
2. Creating a system of specialized industries aimed at improving the welfare of society. Pottery production is expanding, construction is being improved. The production of jewelry is widely spread, associated with the formation of a new phenomenon - human aesthetic needs. Thermotechnics arises - firing dishes, calcining plant seeds, smelting metals. Flint and bone tools, which for a long time remained more productive than primitive metal tools, gradually occupy a dominant position in technology. All these changes in production have led to the formation of a special layer of the population — professional masters who have reached high qualifications in their field of activity. Thanks to them, the social division of labor gradually deepened.
Intensive large-scale farming and specialized crafts formed the basis technological method production of early civilizations.
3. The restructuring of the social organization of production and the formation of a new way of life. In the course of the development of labor cooperation, family communities formed in the primitive era are united in large settlements of farmers. The population in them reaches several thousand people. The creation of such settlements - the prototype of the first cities - entailed the improvement of housing construction. Comfortable houses for several generations begin to be built. A relatively new way of life is emerging on the basis of a relatively stable food supply and lasting sedentary life. The pastime and the entire habitat of a sedentary farmer living in a solid well-maintained house surrounded by numerous household items were very different from the life of hunters from the Paleolithic era. The latter huddled in huts built in the open, or under the arches of caves. The hunter was always ready to take off, taking with him an extremely limited set of items. In the era of transition to agriculture and the sedentary way of life that is inextricably linked with it, the wealth of the world of things surrounding man in everyday life begins to accumulate. In the XX century. the world of things has grown so much that in all civilized countries the problem of a harmonious relationship between man and this world is acute. In states with a very different level of development, things are increasingly blocking other life values \u200b\u200bfrom a person, disconnecting people and thereby turning from a good that improves human life into its destroyers. The roots of these problems, reflected already in the Old Testament, go back to the era of early farming cultures.
The development of spiritual culture in early farming societies
In the early agricultural era, there is a leap in the development of human thinking, the accumulation and primary systematization of knowledge about nature, which formed the basis of a kind of “pre-science”. The very specificity of agricultural labor, in which the result is separated from the primary efforts of the worker by a significant time interval, contributed to the development of abstract thinking, economic and, to some extent, general scientific foresight. Cult complexes that arose in the early agricultural era as a kind of pre-religious religious organization became centers where regular observations of nature were carried out - for example, simple astronomical studies. In the early stages of the development of scientific and technical knowledge, the integrating worldview and methodological idea was the idea of \u200b\u200bthe dominance in the world of a certain principle that determines the natural course of events. These are river floods, the movement of heavenly bodies, the change of seasons. Both the technical level of development and similar pre-scientific concepts in different early farming societies were similar. The development and transfer of such representations within the framework of priestly corporations increased the prestige of knowledge and were an important step towards the formation of science itself.
Ancient Egypt - a characteristic model of early civilizations
One of the oldest centers of the origin of civilization was in the northeastern part of Africa, where from the south to the north the wide, high-water river Nile flows. Residents of the Nile Valley called their country Ta Kemeth (Black Earth) in color shiny as black lacquer in the local soil, in contrast to the surrounding desert, which was called the Red Country. The ancient Greeks from the unpronounceable name of the city of Het-ka-Ptah (one of the names of the city of Memphis) produced the usual name for us Aygiuptos Egypt. Egypt in ancient times - this is actually the Nile Valley. According to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, Egypt is the Gift of the Nile. The specifics of Egyptian civilization, its individuality are determined by a special role in its fate of this river. The civilization of Egypt is a river civilization that originated in the gigantic oasis of the Nile Valley, with a length of 6,500 km.
A characteristic feature of the Nile's water regime, which determines its enormous economic importance, is periodic spills. In the Nile Valley, there was no rain for decades, the sun withered the earth and plants, by June the width of the river was significantly reduced. But in July the spill began, the river flooded the entire valley. In August-September, the flood reached its highest point, and the water level rose by 14 meters. When by November the Nile returned to its shores, a layer of fertile silt remained on the ground. This sediment created the Egyptian soil. It is the result of thousands of years of activity of the river, the basis of the wealth and prosperity of Egyptian civilization.
The natural-geographical and ethno-demographic environment surrounding Egypt was also very favorable for the development of civilization. From the north, the country is washed by the Mediterranean Sea, which connected Egypt with mainland Greece, the islands of the Aegean Sea and the Near-Asian coast. In the northeast, the Egyptians coexisted with the Semitic tribes. In the west, the border of Egypt passed through sparsely populated desert areas occupied by Libyans. The first rapids on the Nile separated the Egyptians from Nubia, or Ethiopia.
Egyptian civilization was created by the Egyptians - the ancient Eastern people, which developed in the process of mixing the various tribes of North-East Africa. The Egyptians spoke the same language with numerous dialects, which favorably affected the pace of Egypt's unification and the formation of a single state.
One of the oldest civilizations on earth was formed in a region with a favorable geographical position, rich in its natural resources, located at the crossroads of trade, political and cultural ties. Everything necessary to create the material basis of civilization existed in Egypt itself or in the surrounding neighboring lands. Metals, mainly copper, the Egyptians brought from the so-called. Arabian Desert and Sinai Peninsula, gold came from Ethiopia. Flint was mined in the mountains bordering the Nile Valley from west and east, good limestone was obtained in the ancient quarries of Tura near Cairo, and valuable varieties of granite were found near Aswan. The Egyptians widely used sandstone, diorite, basalt, porphyry, serpentine, onyx, as well as imported turquoise, malachite, lapis lazuli. Apparently, the country was rich in wood, although it was not enough. Groves of acacia, tamarisk, sycamore, perseus and palm trees were met, imported Lebanese cedar and ebony were used. Papyrus and lotus grew in the Nile backwaters. The wildlife of Egypt is also rich - the basis of hunting and fishing, which have long retained their importance in the economic life of the Egyptians.
The first people appeared in the floodplain of the Nile in the Neolithic era. External circumstances brought them here, the climate became more arid, the Nile tributaries were drying up, the desert was advancing, and people were drawn to the fertile moisture of the Nile. At first they settled along the edges of the valley, for the Nile at that time caused fear and apprehension. He met a person with the elements of floods and a riot of predatory wildlife (crocodiles, hippos, snakes, insects, etc.). Residents of the settlements were engaged in agriculture, cattle breeding, hunting, fishing, and gathering. In general, the favorable conditions of oasis nature contributed to the development of these settlements and an increase in the standard of living of their inhabitants. An early farming world was formed, an example of which was Badarite culture. Residents of the village of Badari in Upper Egypt led a settled lifestyle, cultivated barley and sex, raised livestock, engaged in hunting and fishing. They achieved great success in the craft, making weapons, jewelry, amulets and figurines. Axes and arrowheads were made of stone, boomerangs made of wood, ivory combs, spoons and amulets, fishing hooks were made from shells, leather was made, they knew fabrics, they knew how to weave baskets, they made clay vessels. Badarians used rubbed malachite paint to decorate their faces and for hygienic purposes. They appeared and metal products from copper.
With the advent of copper and copper implements, an offensive began on the Nile Valley. In the first half of the 4th millennium BC. man created a basin irrigation system. From day to day, from year to year, from century to century, the Egyptians were doing the same thing: so that the Nile water would not destroy everything in its path during the spills, build special earthen walls, coast dams, fill transverse dams and strengthen the banks. The process of curbing the river, adapting it to the needs of people, probably took the whole IV millennium BC. In the course of taming the Nile, serious changes occurred in the life of the Egyptian. Working conditions changed, mainly tribal leaders and priests were engaged in its organization, and property stratification began. Each irrigation farm united people into a certain territorial community, a kind of neighboring community, Mr. In the era preceding the formation of the state, in Egypt there were about 40 such areas. As a result of their unification, two rival kingdoms arose: Upper and Lower Egypt.
A long struggle between them was reflected in the religious myth of the struggle between the gods Horus and Seth, who were considered the patrons of Lower and Upper Egypt. The long existence of Upper and Lower Egypt as two independent kingdoms is indicated by the titles of the pharaoh preserved over the entire history of Egyptian civilization: the ruler of two countries and the king of Upper and Lower Egypt, as well as the firmly rooted division of the state apparatus into two parts, respectively, of Northern and Southern countries. The kings of Upper Egypt wore white clothing on their heads; the kings of Lower Egypt were red. After the merger of both parts of Egypt and the formation of a single state, the united red-white crown of these kingdoms became a symbol of royal power until the end of Egyptian civilization.
Both kingdoms, waging a struggle for dominance and dominance throughout the country, at the same time, complemented each other economically. Upper Egypt was a center for the development of agriculture, Lower Egypt - cattle breeding, viticulture and horticulture.
The favorable geographical position of Egypt determined the uniqueness of Egyptian civilization, its relative isolation and protection from outside attacks, the stability of the power of the pharaohs and the social system as a whole, as well as the high standard of living of the Egyptians. Egyptian civilization was created on a very narrow strip of populated land along a huge river. There were no natural borders between the nomes, but there were sharp natural borders that separated Egypt from the nations around it. Here, much earlier than in any other place, a territorial state united for the whole valley arose. Here, a powerful bureaucratic apparatus and a standing army were formed extremely early, which gave Egyptian civilization a very special look. It was one of the most highly centralized states ever known, a bureaucratic despotism in the full sense of the word. Only in Egypt did the transition from primitive directly to a centralized state take place. All the foundations of the community organization were destroyed by the characteristic practice of employing labor groups and labor teams throughout the country. This gave rise to a special ideology and a special mentality of the Egyptians. Egyptian civilization created a very special ideology of power: here the king was a god, and at the same time the main god. It was generally accepted that the bulk of the working people belong to the state and are royal people.
All economic life was under the vigilant supervision and control of state power. The entire agricultural population, formed into working groups, with supervisors at their head, worked in the fields, in orchards and vineyards, in pastures and in craft workshops. Strict records were kept, there were huge state pantries, from which the tsar and his family, the extensive court staff, the bureaucratic apparatus (central and local), priests, as well as artisans, builders, farmers employed on the farm, permanently or temporarily attracted to the tsars (from government) work. Part of the wealth collected was used by the authorities for external exchange, which was also monopolized. This principle of managing production and distribution from the state center remained in Egypt until Roman time. In a sense, Egypt is a large community of people led by the king.
The population of those regions where Egyptian civilization was formed never exceeded 5 million people. The creators of civilization were all layers of Egyptian society, which can be represented in the form of a kind of pyramid: the pharaoh, the top of the administration, the high priesthood, the clan and military aristocracy, servants, merchants, warriors, artisans, and farmers. People built civilization, and it formed a personality. Egyptian - a special type of person the ancient world. The state for him is an integral and essential part of life. He lived and died with the hope that it was the state that would give him a happy life and ensure blissful immortality after leaving life. The choice of profession by the Egyptian was also predetermined by the state. Upon reaching full age (12-14 years), the Egyptians were rewritten and distributed at special shows by crafts and professions. Those who were appointed as artisans went to their workshops, future soldiers - to the recruiting camps left in agriculture were painted on medium and large farms. There were practically no chances to change their fate (except for leaving the army).
It would seem that with such a regulated and strictly organized way of life of the Egyptians, their spiritual world could remain meager and limited. But the paradox is that the achievements of material culture, stability and a fairly high (by the standards of the Bronze Age) standard of living created the prerequisites, and the state demanded the development of education, the foundations of scientific knowledge, and art. Throughout the history of Egyptian civilization, the process of colonization of minds, the imposition of a uniform religious culture on top of local traditions, was led by the royal court.
The religious consciousness of the Egyptians reached more complex forms than in the primitive era, although the systematization of religious beliefs was never completed. Many ancient cults have retained their importance throughout the history of Egyptian civilization: the cult of the earth, water, stone, fire, animals. Some gods were revered by the Egyptians as animals or birds. The sacred animal of the god Amon was a ram. The scarab beetle was considered the embodiment of the rising sun of Khepri, with which hopes for life and resurrection were associated. The cult of the goddess Hathor grew out of veneration of a cow. Sacred cats, monkeys, snakes were associated with various gods. The king of the gods in Egypt was considered the sun god named Ra. He was depicted with the head of a falcon or a bull.
The cult of Amon, protector and patron of ordinary people, a conqueror and a formidable lord, acquired a pan-Egyptian character. A special place was occupied by the cult of the ruling king, who was for the Egyptians the embodiment of the god Horus (son of Ra) on earth. The Egyptians associated the all-Egyptian god Osiris, the king of the underworld, with the cult of the deceased king. The Egyptians believed that man possessed several souls. One of them, the double of man - Ka - lived in the tomb.
The whole life of the Egyptians was connected with religion. Worshiped not only many gods, but also believed in the afterlife. Death and condition after it was considered a continuation of earthly existence. To get into the kingdom of the dead, the Egyptians thought, you need to go through the court of Osiris, where a person’s heart will be weighed on special scales and determined what is more: good or evil. Only a good man who did not steal, did not lie, did not say bad things about the king, did not neglect the gods, will be allowed into the kingdom of the dead. Therefore, man’s earthly life is only a preparation for real eternal life in the kingdom of the dead, where everything is as on earth, only much better. The Egyptians attached great importance to preparing the deceased for eternal life in the kingdom of the dead, performing embalming, when the body of the deceased was specially dried, wrapped in bandages, i.e., they prepared a mummy. She was placed in a coffin-sarcophagus, on which they depicted gods and wrote spells, and then the sarcophagus was lowered into the tomb.
In their psychology, the Egyptians were rather optimistic. They were distinguished by an extremely positive attitude towards the world and towards life, turning life itself into a certain aspect of religion. A unique feature of the Egyptian religion is its pronounced optimism, the idea of \u200b\u200ba fair structure of the world and human society. A simple vertical reflected her: the gods - Pharaoh - subjects. The Egyptians lacked fear of the afterlife. That is, fear, of course, was, but death was perceived as a certain dangerous threshold, which everyone, as a rule, managed to overcome, after which the deceased found himself in a different world, opening up new possibilities before him, both dangerous and seductive. This left a strong imprint on the psychology of the Egyptians, contributing to the development of individualism.
Another one distinguishing feature religions of Egyptian civilization - a rather high abstractness of the idea of \u200b\u200ba deity. For the Egyptians, God is at the same time air, water (Nile flood), light (sun and moon), as well as a person who can be requested and who compensates everyone for his righteous or wicked deeds.
The religion of the ancient Egyptians had a significant impact on the ancient Egyptian culture. Egyptian civilization has created an original, interesting and rich culture, many of whose values \u200b\u200bare included in the treasury of world culture. This is ancient Egyptian writing, and the world's first material for writing papyrus, and myths, tales, teachings, magnificent pyramids and temples that have been preserved to this day, paintings in the tombs of pharaohs and nobles. The Egyptians used three types of writing, most often - hieroglyphic, sacred, which was used for monumental, carved in stone inscriptions. On papyrus they wrote in cursive hieratic writing, the so-called priestly, since it was used mainly by priests. Literary works and scientific books are also written by this letter. At the final stage of the development of civilization, a demotic letter arose, which was used as a special cursory handwriting of the Egyptian bureaucracy.
Education as a component of the civilizational structure comes to the fore already in early civilizations, being an important indicator of its dynamics and development trends. Egyptian civilization highly appreciated literacy and literate people. One hieroglyph designated the concepts of writing, God, master. Despite the complexity of the letter (more than 700 characters, hieroglyphs), which were very difficult to master, not only priests, knowledgeable and skilled artisans were literate. If the Egyptian mastered the letter, then he became a literate scribe, an official who no longer was in poverty and enjoyed real respect. The Egyptians said: there is no post where there would be no chief, except for the post of scribe, for he is his own boss.
Egyptian civilization has accumulated great knowledge, but it was transmitted in a narrow circle, primarily of priests, and the majority of the population was inaccessible. The schools created at the temples taught not only literacy. The priests were not only representatives of the cult, but also scientists. For hundreds of years they have been observing the sky and made many discoveries in astronomy. Without even the simplest tools, they knew the laws of motion of the Sun, Moon, planets, stars, they could predict solar and lunar eclipses, draw up fairly accurate calendars.
There was a kind of higher educational institution The house of life, to the development of which all the nomes contributed. The development of mathematics and medicine became especially demanded. Mathematical knowledge was used in construction, agriculture, in calculating taxes, compiling maps and drawings. Special characters for numbers (up to a million) were adopted. Egyptian mathematicians discovered the number pi, knew how to calculate the area of \u200b\u200ba rectangle, circle, the volume of a pyramid and a ball, knew how to solve an equation with one unknown. Egyptian doctors treated many diseases, had an idea of \u200b\u200bthe laws of blood circulation, performed surgical operations with anesthesia, introduced new medicines of plant and animal origin, such as ginseng, camphor, and liver.
The daily life of the Egyptians, their system of values \u200b\u200band aesthetic orientations reflects the ancient Egyptian art. The pyramids became symbols of Egyptian civilization, and the emergence of cities (around III millennium BC) was the boundary of barbarism and civilization. The appearance of the Egyptian city reflects not so much the aesthetics of the Egyptians' life as the growing stratification of society. The neighborhoods of the poor and rich were clearly distinguished, but the latter were also deprived of any decorations. However, cities such as Memphis or Thebes became major cultural centers, giving rise to not only a rich material, but also a universal spiritual culture of an Egyptian civilized society. Famous Theban temples in Luxor and Karnak, representing the power, strength and wisdom of Egyptian civilization, have survived to our time. The Egyptians were the first to create stone monumental architecture. In Giza, the only one of the seven wonders of the world that has come down to us is preserved - the Cheops pyramid, and only slightly inferior to it in the grandeur of the pyramids of Chefren and Mikerin (III millennium BC).
In Egypt, we discover the oldest examples of monumental sculpture. Such, for example, is the statue of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II, full of grandeur and at the same time constraint. Such are the sculptural images of Nefertiti, the wife of Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten), full of life. Egyptian gods, kings, warriors, people from the common people still watch the spectators from gigantic reliefs. The majestic sphinx - a lion with a human head - guards the pyramids of the Egyptian pharaohs. The names of many creators of these amazing works of art are carved in stone on the monuments they created. The very purpose of the monuments seemed to raise their creators in the eyes of the Egyptians.
However, they loved not only the clear and majestic simplicity of monumental creations, but also the sophisticated pun. Words for the Egyptian had a special meaning, because it was believed that there was a close relationship between the word and the subject. With the advent of syllabic writing, it became possible to record texts of myths, tales, tales, hymns to the gods. And these texts were recorded. They reached us and made up an important part of the artistic culture of the first civilizations. Such are the adventure stories "The Tale of Sinuheth", "The Tale of the Shipwrecked." Especially popular was the genre of teachings, which were also used as exercises and corresponded from century to century in Egyptian schools. The teachings are a kind of transmission of experience and information accumulated by entire generations of Egyptians for future descendants. And even today’s words, for example, from Akhtoy’s Doctrine: “If a scribe has a post in the capital, he will not be a beggar” at all, they sound not an anachronism.
The uniqueness of Egyptian civilization is determined not only by the fact that it was one of the first created by man. The Egyptian mentality was formed by a special way of their everyday life, their amazingly optimistic religion, the majestic monumentality of a powerful centralized state. Egyptian civilization was directed towards the future. The Egyptians made history, especially not caring that they should leave a record of it in the annals.
In general, we can conclude that the early farming era became the time of the formation of a new economic structure, the formation of a new positive creative background, new ideas and images that laid the foundation of the first civilizations.
Questions
- What was a technological breakthrough in early agricultural civilizations?
- What is the basis for the emergence of ancient Egyptian culture?
- What role did priests play in ancient Egypt?
Early civilizations are culturally united by a specific set of features.
Firstly, these are working and living conditions. Most of the great civilizations of antiquity originated in the valleys of large full-flowing rivers, the coasts of which contain a layer of fertile silt remaining after seasonal floods of the river: Ancient Egypt - the Nile River, Mesopotamia - the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, Ancient India - the Indus and Ganges rivers, Ancient China - the Yellow River and the Yangtze. An exception is the Aegean civilization, which arose on the islands and coast of the Aegean Sea, with which a number of its specific features are associated.
The decisive significance of such a natural geographical factor as rivers, vital for ancient peoples, led to the designation of ancient Eastern civilizations as "River", or civilizations of the basin and irrigation type. (It is appropriate to recall the statement of Herodotus that "Egypt is the gift of the Nile").
In river civilizations, earlier than in other regions of the Earth, agrarian revolutions took place, i.e. the transition to settled and agrarian (agricultural) labor took place. We can say that by type, all early civilizations are agrarian (agricultural). Their whole culture was formed around occupations related to agricultural labor: cultivating land, building irrigation facilities, sowing and harvesting, raising and raising livestock.
Other the most important typological characteristic of early civilizations is specific mental value core in its most important categories - “model of the world” and “model of man”. First of all, it should be noted that the archaic mentality was formed under the conditions of the “river” nature of civilization, under the influence of agricultural activities, when the main task was to combine the rhythms of natural and public life. Thus, in the culture of archaic the role of natural-climatic and geographical factors is extremely significant. Human life is subordinate to nature, guided by the desire to live in unison with it. That is why the culture of this historical type is dominated by the attitude towards observation and non-interference, conservation of existing assets.
World model in ancient culturesah was a primitive anthropology with a cosmocentric worldview. It is from cosmological representations oldest man drew his knowledge of the world and of himself. Traditional cultural requirements returned man to the eternal cycle of cosmic existence.
Nature gave man a fertile region three constantly repeating time cycles, within which flows, the whole range of economic activity. The cyclicity and cycle that exist in nature and primarily in the behavior of the river (seasonal spills) were of particular importance for the most ancient cultures. The causes of this cyclical nature were unknown to man for a very long time. He created mythological explanations for this, despite the fact that the cyclical nature was noted by him and taken into account for calculating time. Natural cycles caused by the rotation of the Earth around its axis, the movement of the moon around the earth and the movement of the earth around the sun, were identified on the basis of observations, which over time served as the basis for creating the first calendars.
Natural cycles, determining the cyclical nature of agricultural occupations and the entire lifestyle, formed the corresponding "Cyclical worldview." The “cycling” of worldview means that the ancient peoples did not yet know historicism (as ideas about the ongoing historical process) and thought of being as an endless cycle of events, the essence of which is unchanged.
Time it is understood not as an irreversible process, but as the implementation of a certain cycle, an endless cycle of events, and this universality reflects the universality of the laws of being that exist "from the century". The life of each person, as well as the life of a whole generation, was considered as a way of manifesting, reproducing once and for all the established, initially “programmed” order of things. Hence the “cyclic” concept of time, which is thought of as a circle, a cycle (Greek kyklos - circle). The cultural consciousness of ancient agricultural peoples reflected human life isomorphic to natural life.
There are other characteristics of time: its concreteness, “binding” to significant events, connection with space, heterogeneity. So, according to the observations of I.S. Klochkova, in the ancient languages \u200b\u200bof Babylonia there is no designation of time as an abstract concept. Instead, it refers to sunrise or sunset, other luminaries, an event or chain of events: ši˛hit šamši “rising of the sun”, maşşartu bararītu “morning guard”, eburu “harvest”, umšu - “heat”. The 30th year of the reign of Hammurabi was designated as mu ugnim NIMKI, i.e. “The year (in which) the army of Elam (he struck with a weapon). Indications of indefinite duration are widely used: "in the old days," "before the flood," "under my ancestral kings."
The cyclicity of time is the main, but not the only representation that existed in ancient civilizations. It is known that in Babylonia, quite early, time began to be presented as an irreversible linear process, which was clearly reflected in the mythology of the Babylonians.
Another major characteristic of being is space. It is considered in early civilizations as hierarchically organized vertically. In the cultural consciousness of the ancients, being seems to be divided in space into three main "tiers" ("levels"): the upper, the highest - the world of the gods, the middle - the world of people, the lower - the world of death, the underworld inhabited by demons. The structure that united all the spatial hypostases of being - the spheres of heaven, earth and the underground - was firmly entrenched in the cultural consciousness of people of the most ancient civilizations and “settled” in archetypal ideas about the “world tree”, “world mountain”, “tower”.
Human model.
The process of individuation in the archaic era has not yet taken place, i.e. the human individual has not yet fully stood out as an independent unit of the human community. Significant subjects of being are gods and people (the latter appear as a single community, "collective personality"), with the latter being in relation to subordination to the former.
The cultural consciousness of ancient civilizations alien to the concept of personality, developed much later by other types of cultures.
In the structure of the prepersonal, clan consciousness, the individual principle recedes before the collective, the main value is the collective clan, and not the individual-personal one. The individual is perceived as part of a community and is itself devoid of value. The fate of the individual is not in the spotlight. It is important to preserve the whole: as long as it exists, the existence of its members is ensured, because the dead return again, incarnating in newborns. The problem of the individual’s finiteness in this context receives a solution quite acceptable to the community: the posthumous fate of a person is seen as a continuation of his existence in another - afterlife - world. In ancient Egypt, it was believed that the soul is preserved, like a body protected by mummification, the tomb serves as a "home" - and, as a result, the very reality of death is called into question.
The personality identified itself with the whole team and therefore was not able to express itself in purely individual characteristics. “Instead of events - categories, instead of faces - archetypes” - this is the essence of the attitude of a person of an archaic type. Such an understanding of man and his place in the structure of being influenced the specifics of the cultural development of early civilizations (rituals, ceremonies, norms of behavior, etc.).
Despite this, the archaic individual, though occasionally, but still felt like an independent unit with a set of unique, inherent characteristics. In this regard, the problem of death and the subsequent fate of the individual was of paramount importance. So, in the eyes of a resident of the ancient Mesopotamia, death was a final separation from life and a transition to a “terrible” being, as can be seen from the funeral song of a certain Lidingirra (about 1700 BC) to the death of his father and wife:
Oh father, you who died in the attack (?)
O Nanna (father of Lidingirra), you,
Who by malice was carried away to the afterlife!
Your wife - before (?) She was a wife, (a) now she is a widow
It is because of this living forever apart, gripped by sorrow and grief!
TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 3 pp. Egyptian civilization. 4 pp. Sumerian civilization. 9 pp. Indian civilization. 12 pp. Chinese civilization. 18 pp. Phoenician civilization. 20 pp. Ancient Greek civilization. 23 pp. Summary 28 pp. INTRODUCTION Scientists have long noticed the fact that all ancient civilizations arose in special climatic conditions, their zone covered territories with a tropical, subtropical and somewhat temperate climate. This means that the average annual temperature in such areas was about 20 0С i.e. it was quite warm there.
Another condition in those ancient times was the presence of water. In this regard, many civilizations of the Old World were born in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates, Nile, Indus, Yangtze and others. These rivers played a huge role in people's lives. Because the fertile soil in their deltas contributed to the development of agriculture, the rivers also connected different regions of the country and made it possible to trade inland and with their neighbors. Also, the rivers made it possible to build irrigation facilities, but this could not be done by one person or even family, this required the efforts of all, so many tribes united to build these structures.
Of course, not all ancient civilizations were river, but each of them faced difficulties, depending on the characteristics of the landscape and climate. Thus, in a special geographical situation, Phenicia, Greece and Rome developed coastal civilizations. Agriculture here did not require irrigation, but the peninsular position was yet another challenge to nature.
And the answer to it was the emergence of navigation, which played a huge role in the life of these sea powers. So, we will try to consider the influence of the natural factor on the development of civilizations. When considering this question, the theory of challenge and answer formulated by the famous English historian A. Toynbee 1889-1975 is very interesting that the natural environment sends a challenge to people who must create an artificial environment struggling with nature and adapting to it. Consider the examples of the origin and development of some ancient civilizations, paying attention to the challenges that nature made and the answers to them. The first challenges that can be recorded in human history were made by the deltas of the rivers Nile, Jordan, Tigris and Euphrates, Indus with its once existing parallel channel.
These rivers cross low-water steppes, such as the arid Afrasian steppe. In the Nile Valley, the answer was the birth and development of Egyptian civilization, in the Tigris and Euphrates Valley - Sumerian, in the Indus Valley and its former tributary - the so-called Indian culture.
At the end of the ice age, the Afrasian territory began to experience strong climatic changes, which led to the drainage of land. And at that time, where primitive societies used to be, two or more civilizations arose. The studies of archaeologists make it possible to consider the process of desiccation as a challenge, the answer to which was the emergence of civilizations.
The communities of hunters and gatherers of the African savannah, without changing either their location or their lifestyle in response to the challenge, paid for it with complete extinction. But those who changed their way of life, having turned from hunters to shepherds, skillfully leading their herds along the seasonal migration route, became nomads of the Afrasian steppe. Those same communities that did not change their lifestyle, but following the cyclone belt moving north , besides their will, they faced another challenge to the challenge of the northern cold and managed to give an answer, meanwhile, the communities that had gone from the drought south to the monsoon belt fell under the lulling effect of the tropical climate.
Finally, there were communities that responded to the drought challenge with a change in their homeland and way of life, and this rare double reaction meant a dynamic act that, from the disappearing primitive societies of the Afrasian steppe, gave rise to the ancient Egyptian and Sumerian civilizations. A change in lifestyle stimulated a creative act of converting collectors into farmers.
The change of homeland was not so territorially significant, but huge in terms of changing the very nature of the environment - they left the old pastures and stepped into the swamps of the new homeland. When the pastures of the Nile Valley became the Libyan desert, and the pastures of the Tigris and Euphrates valleys deserts Rub al-Hali and Deshti Loot, heroic pioneers inspired by courage or despair, moved to these ruined places. With their dynamic act, they turned them into the fertile lands of Egypt and Sennaar Sennaar - the biblical name for the Middle Interfluve.
The obstinacy of Nature was subdued by the labor of Man. The swamps were drained, fenced by dams and turned into fields. Egyptian and Sumerian civilizations appeared. EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION The first settlements discovered by archaeologists on the banks of the Nile date back to 6-4 thousand BC they were located in high sections of the river valley, far from the water people were afraid of floods. They still did not know how to process the fertile soil of the lower fields, although they already knew the simplest methods of caring for cultivated plants.
The peculiarity of the history of ancient Egypt was that here, due to the natural conditions of the country, even with the then level of technological development, a huge increase in agricultural productivity was possible. The dark earth in the Nile Valley was so different from the stony and clay soil of the neighboring plateaus that the Egyptians called their country Kemet - Chernaya. The river itself brought unusually fertile land, laying millimeter by millimeter fertile layer on the stone base of the shores.
The water in the Nile is muddy, because it contains many tiny particles of different origin, it contains grains of rocks, picked up by the river where it flows along a rocky bed, the remains of plants brought by tributaries from coastal tropical forests. When mountain snows begin to melt at the beginning of summer in East Africa, where the source of the Nile is located, the water level in the river rises and the spill begins.
When the river returns to the channel, the banks are covered with a new layer of fertile silt. In the southern regions of Egypt, the rise of water begins in mid-July, and is only 8-10 m above the usual level, the water rises in August-September and holds high until mid-November. During the spill, water arrives slowly, its level rises by several centimeters a day, so people have time to leave, grabbing property and livestock. The Egyptians adequately answered the challenge of the river. They needed fertile land for large yields and development of the economy. The main difficulty in processing the most fertile flooded lower fields is due to the fact that after the decline of water the moisture is distributed unevenly located areas lose it too quickly, coastal fields, on the contrary, become swamped, because that water stands on them almost all year round. The Egyptians came up with a very simple device, which allowed to regulate the amount of water in the fields at their discretion.
They, with the help of simple hoes and a basket for carrying the earth, began to erect walls on the banks of the river from densely knocked down earth, coated with clay so that water would not leak through them. From the bird's-eye view, the Nile Valley became like a notebook sheet drawn into a cell. During the spill, water fell into the cells - pools, and people could dispose of it for a long time, if necessary, in high places or, conversely, having broken through the earthen wall, to drain excess water. Gradually, individual structures tied into long chains stretching along the Nile for tens of kilometers.
To maintain this complex system, people created the first Egyptian cities to control the chain of dams.
Each city united around itself a small area, which the Greeks, who later conquered Egypt, called nom, and its ruler nomarch. By the time of the formation of the united Egyptian kingdom around 3000 BC There were about forty such nomes. The king of Egypt was called Pharaoh.
The Egyptians tame the great river with their industriousness. They received the highest yields in the ancient world on their rich lands, although the tools they worked almost did not differ from those used by other peoples of the Ancient East. The abundance of grain in the country made it possible to free some of the people from work on the land and use them as builders or soldiers. All this allowed the successful development of ancient Egyptian civilization. Ancient Egyptian history is conditionally divided into periods of the Early Kingdom of the II Dynasty 3000 2778 BC. The ancient kingdom of III VI dynasty 2778 2263 BC The first transitional period of the VII X dynasty 2263 2070 BC Middle Kingdom of the XI and XII Dynasty 2160 1785 BC The second transitional period of the XIII XVII dynasty 1785 1580 BC The new kingdom of the XVIII XX dynasty 1580 1085 BC the late period of the XXI XXX dynasty 1085 332 BC which ended with the conquest of the country by Alexander the Great.
The dates given should be considered approximate, and the later of them are more accurate, while the earliest may have an error within a few centuries.
According to the contemporaries of the 1st dynasty, any area of \u200b\u200btheir country was, first of all, irrigated land, the word oblast itself at that time was written with a sign depicting the land divided by an irrigation network into quadrangles. Crossed by irrigation facilities, Egypt already during the 1st dynasty became a country of exceptional fertility. As in subsequent times, Upper Egypt, the narrow river valley in the southern part of the country and Lower Egypt, the main part of which was the expanding to the north part of this valley, the so-called Delta, multi-arm, close to the sea and therefore overfilled with moisture and marshy, were unequally mastered.
Already during the 1st dynasty, Upper Egypt in writing was designated by a hieroglyph depicting a plant growing on a strip of land. Lower Egypt, the country of swamp thickets was designated a papyrus bush. Of course, this does not mean that Lower Egypt was completely boggy.
In the period of the Early Kingdom, there were already crowded settlements, viticulture flourished and there was arable farming during the 1st dynasty, the upper Egyptian barley was distinguished from the lower Egyptian. In the tombs of contemporaries of the same dynasty, in addition to barley, a variety of wheat Emmer bilobes was also found. The agricultural implements during the Early Kingdom were, in general, the same as later in the Ancient Kingdom, although partially at that time they were probably less perfect .
A primitive-looking plow is depicted in writing drawings from the time of the Second Dynasty. The hoe is shown on the monument to one of the pre-dynastic kings. Wooden sickles with inserted blades of pieces of silicon were found by dozens in one of the tombs of the middle of the 1st dynasty. Grain grinding, as well as later, was carried out manually by coarse grain grains, two stones, between which grain was crushed came from the time of the same dynasty. Flax cultivation during the Early Kingdom was proved by the fact that canvases and linen ropes were found in the graves.
At the same time, some of the canvases are of very high quality, which indicates the skillful use of the loom, a lot of experience in the weaving business, and therefore about the developed flax cultivation. The flowering state of viticulture during the I and II dynasties is indicated by countless wine vessels found intact or in fragments. Judging by the seals on the clay corks of the vessels, the place of flourishing of viticulture, as in later times, was Lower Egypt. Almost all types of livestock common in the Ancient Kingdom were already known during the Early Kingdom.
The existence of a bull, a donkey, a ram with spreading horns, goats is evidenced by fine art, writing, as well as finds of bones of these animals during excavations. There were a lot of cattle around the beginning of the 1st dynasty. One of the kings boasted of capturing 400 thousand heads of cattle and 1,422 thousand heads of small cattle. This king fought against Lower Egypt, it is possible that his production came from there.
One of the features of the natural conditions of Egypt was that almost all the raw materials needed for production could be found either in the country itself or in the nearby desert. Egyptian deposits of copper were insignificant, but it was mined nearby, on the Sinai Peninsula. The presence of the Egyptians there is attested by the monuments of the 1st dynasty. Gold was in the desert between the Nile and the Red Sea, as well as south of Egypt, in Ethiopia, but from here the gold apparently began to arrive much later.
The river valley and desert east of it were rich in diverse stones. According to the rocks of the stone used during the first dynasty, we can conclude that even then many of its deposits were known. For example, semi-precious stones used for jewelry were found in the desert east of the river, others on the Sinai Peninsula were turquoise, malachite, and only a rare stone, lapis lazuli, was delivered through exchange with Asian tribes. As a tree, as already mentioned, the country then Apparently, it was located, although its lack was a weak spot in ancient Egyptian economy.
Ebony, already used during the 1st dynasty for all kinds of crafts, from parts of home furnishings to arrowheads, was undoubtedly imported. Thus, the natural wealth of the country and the surrounding deserts made it possible to dispense with our own and nearby raw materials during the Early Kingdom, which, of course, did not exclude Egypt's trade relations with countries that were even quite distant.
So, the dishes brought, as it is believed, from the islands of the Aegean Sea, were known in Egypt at the beginning of the 1st dynasty. SUMERIAN CIVILIZATION The country of Sumer got its name from the people who settled around 3000 BC. in the lower reaches of the Euphrates River, not far from its confluence with the Persian Gulf. The Euphrates here is divided into numerous branches of the branch, which merge, then diverge again. The banks of the river are low, so the Euphrates often changes its path to the sea. At the same time, the old channel gradually turns into a swamp. Clay hills located far from the river are heavily scorched by the sun.
Heat, heavy evaporation from swamps, clouds of midges made people stay away from these places. The lower reaches of the Euphrates have long attracted the attention of farmers and pastoralists of the Near East. Small villages were located quite far from the water, since the Euphrates spills in the summer very rapidly and unexpectedly, and floods have always been very dangerous here. People tried not to enter the endless reed beds, although very fertile lands hid under them.
They were formed from the silt that settled during the floods. But in those days, the cultivation of these lands was still beyond the reach of people. They knew how to take crops only from small open areas, reminiscent of their size rather gardens, rather than fields. Everything changed when new, energetic Sumerians appeared in the country of rivers and swamps. In addition to fertile, but not yet developed land, the new homeland of the Sumerians could boast a large amount of clay and reed.
There were neither tall trees, nor stone suitable for building, nor ores from which metals could be smelted. The Sumerians learned to build houses of clay bricks. The roofs of these houses were laid with reeds. Such a house had to be fixed every year, covering the walls with clay so that it would not fall apart. Abandoned houses gradually turned into shapeless hills, as bricks were made of unburnt clay. The Sumerians often left their homes when the Euphrates changed its course, and the settlement turned out to be far from the coast.
There was a lot of clay everywhere, and in a couple of years the Sumerians managed to mold a new village on the banks of the river that fed them. For fishing and river trips, the Sumerians used small round boats woven from reeds, coating them with resin on the outside. Possessing fertile land, the Sumerians eventually realized what high yields can be obtained if the marshes are drained and water is brought to dry areas. The plant life of the Mesopotamia is not rich, while the Sumerians acclimatized cereals, barley and wheat. Irrigation of fields in Mesopotamia was a difficult task.
When too much water came through the canals, it seeped underground and connected to underground groundwater, and they were salty in Mesopotamia. As a result, salt and water were again brought to the surface of the fields, and they quickly deteriorated. Wheat on such lands did not grow at all, yes and rye with barley gave low yields. The Sumerians did not immediately learn how to determine how much water was needed to properly irrigate the fields, or the lack of moisture was equally bad.
Therefore, the task of the first communities formed in the southern part of Mesopotamia was to create a network of artificial irrigation. F. Engels wrote The first condition for agriculture here is artificial irrigation, and it is the business of either communities, or provinces, or the central government. The organization of large irrigation works, the development of ancient exchange trade with neighboring countries and constant wars demanded the centralization of state administration.
The documents of the existence of the Sumerian and Akkadian states mention a wide variety of irrigation works, such as, for example, regulating floods of rivers and canals, correcting damage caused by flooding, strengthening banks, filling water bodies, regulating field irrigation and various earthworks related to field irrigation. the ancient canals of the Sumerian era have been stored to this day in some areas of southern Mesopotamia, for example, in the area of \u200b\u200bthe ancient Ummah, modern Joh. Judging by the inscriptions, these canals were so large that large boats, even ships loaded with grain, could walk along them.
All these major works were organized by state authorities. Already in the fourth millennium BC. e. on the territory of Sumer and Akkad, the most ancient cities appear, which are the economic, political and cultural centers of individual small states. In the southernmost part of the country was the city of Eris, located on the shores of the Persian Gulf.
Of great political importance was the city of Ur, which, judging by recent excavations, was the center of a strong state. The religious and cultural center of all Sumer was the city of Nippur with its pan-Shrine sanctuary, the temple of the god Enlil. Among other cities in Sumer, Lagash Shirpurla, who was a constant struggle with the neighboring Ummah, and the city of Uruk, in which, according to legend, the ancient Sumerian once ruled, were of great political importance. hero Gilgamesh.
A variety of luxurious objects found in the ruins of Ur indicate a significant increase in technology, mainly metallurgy, at the beginning of the third millennium BC. e. In this era, they already knew how to make bronze by alloying copper with tin, learned how to use meteorite iron and achieved remarkable results in jewelry. The periodic spills of the Tigris and Euphrates, caused by melting snow in the mountains of Armenia, were of definite importance for the development of agriculture based on artificial irrigation .
Sumer, located in the south of Mesopotamia, and Akkad, which occupied the middle part of the country, were somewhat different from each other in climatic terms. In Sumer, the winter was relatively mild; a date palm could grow in the wild here. According to climatic conditions, Akkad is closer to Assyria, where snow falls in winter, and the date palm does not grow wild in the wild. The natural riches of southern and central Mesopotamia are not great.
The greasy and viscous clay of alluvial soil was an excellent raw material in the hands of primitive potter. By mixing clay with asphalt, the inhabitants of ancient Mesopotamia made a special durable material that was replaced by stone, which is rarely found in the southern part of Mesopotamia. The rich and plant world of Mesopotamia is not rich. The ancient population of this country acclimatized cereals, barley and wheat. Of great importance in the economic life of the country were the date palm and reed, which grew in the southern part of the Mesopotamia in the wild. Obviously, sesame sesame, which was used to make butter, and tamarisk, from which sweet resin was extracted, belonged to the local plants.
The oldest inscriptions and images indicate that various breeds of wild and domestic animals were known to the inhabitants of Mesopotamia. In the eastern mountains, there were mouflon sheep and goats, and in the swampy thickets of the south there were wild pigs that were tamed already in ancient times. The rivers were rich in fish and birds. Various species of poultry were known both in Sumer and in Akkad.
The natural conditions of southern and central Mesopotamia were favorable for the development of cattle breeding and agriculture, they required the organization of economic life, and the use of considerable labor for a long time. The drought of Africa caused the fathers of the Sumerian civilization to move to the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and transform the marshy lowlands into the fertile land of the Middle Mesopotamia. The Sumerian legend survived the test through which the fathers of the Sumerian civilization passed.
The slaughter of the dragon Tiamat by the god Marduk and the creation of the world from his remains is an allegorical rethinking of the conquest of the pristine desert and the creation of the land of Sennaar. The story of the Flood symbolizes the rebellion of Nature, which rebelled against human intervention. The swamps that formed on the territory of Lower Iraq between Amara on the Tigris, En-Nasiriya on the Euphrates and Basra on the Shatt al-Arab remain intact from the moment they arose to the present, because on the historical not a single society appeared on the stage that would like and was able to master them.
Swamp people who frequent these places passively adapted to them, but they never had the potential to repeat the feat of the Sumerian civilization fathers who lived in their immediate vicinity some five or six thousand years ago. They did not even try to transform the swamps into a network of channels and fields. The monuments of the Sumerian civilization keep silent, but accurate evidence of those dynamic acts that, if we turn to Sumerian mythology, were committed by the god Marduk, who killed Tiamat.
INDIAN CIVILIZATION The oldest civilization in South Asia is called the Indian, by the name of the river, in the valley of which it now originated mainly in Pakistan. It can be considered the third in time ancient eastern civilization. Like the first two - in Mesopotamia and Egypt, it is located in the basin of the great river, and, obviously, its formation was associated with the organization of high-yielding irrigation agriculture.
India is located on the Deccan Peninsula of the Hindustan Peninsula and parts of the mainland. In the north, this country is limited by the system of the world's largest mountains of the Himalayas. In the east of the Indochina countries of the Indochina Peninsula, India is separated by low, but impassable mountains. In the west, the borders of India are defined by the spurs of the Himalayas and other mountain ranges. To the west of these spurs are desert or semi-desert regions, mainly with mountainous terrain.
The Hindustan Peninsula extends deep into the Indian Ocean, forming the Arabian Sea in the west and the Bay of Bengal in the east. The coast of India is indented little, there are also few islands nearby, and the ocean remains stormy for most of the year. Of course, these circumstances did not contribute to the early development of navigation. India's geographic isolation also made it difficult for its peoples to communicate with the outside world. Nevertheless, the peoples of this country, especially the inhabitants of the northwestern part, have for many millennia made multilateral ties with their neighbors. Geographically, India is clearly divided into two main parts, the southern peninsular and northern mainland.
The border between them is the mountains, consisting of the latitudinal ranges of Vindhya, the largest of them, covered in ancient times by dense forests. The mentioned mountainous region was a significant obstacle to communications between the north and south of the country, which caused some historical isolation of them from each other. The western part of North India is the Punjab Pyatirechye Valley of the Indus River and five large rivers that merge and flow into the Indus with a common stream. Since the climate is arid, there was a need for irrigation.
The areas lying in the river basins flowing into the Indus could be irrigated by river floods. The East was the birthplace of agriculture, and from here farmers settled in all parts of the world, spreading their culture with precious seeds. Having felt the lack of land, new generations went to explore far fields beyond the horizon, went west and east - because there were also lands east of the East , rivers and mountains There, on the other side of the world, other worlds were located, almost unknown to the people of the West, the mysterious worlds of India and China. Legends circulated about these worlds, where the fabulous intertwined with the real. Legends said that India has eternal summer, that huge trees grow there with leaves in the warrior’s shield, that giant elephants tear these trees up with the root, that they can stand with their front legs on the fortress wall and swing the towers with their trunk.
It was said that two summer months there were showers and thunderstorms, streams of water flooding the country, and, fleeing the flood, dozens of snakes crawl into houses - so people have to leave their homes.
It was said that it is so warm there that people can walk naked and live under the trees - as in the days of paradise life, that fragrant herbs grow everywhere, the air is filled with aroma and, probably, somewhere nearby, there is a paradise. It must have been that the first farmers really mistook this country for paradise; they came from the scorched steppes of Central Asia, overcame the mountains covered with snow, and in the VI millennium they entered the fertile shores of the Indus. The semi-desert areas of the northwest in ancient times may have been covered with forests. The soils of the alluvial valleys of the Indus and its tributaries were particularly fertile, as these soils formed from river silt. Here the first settlements of farmers arose, and in the 3rd millennium BC the oldest urban civilization in South Asia.
From the north and northeast, India is separated from the rest of Asia by the ridges of the Himalayan mountains, so it was the northwest that was the area through which migrants and conquerors penetrated, trade caravans traveled, and foreign cultural influences spread.
Further to the southeast, the country of the jungle began, rare hunting tribes roamed there and reigned even the Stone Age, there were no large settlements and only small villages of colonists gradually advanced into the depths of the rainforest. Harnessing the jungle was difficult, only a strong tribal community could clear a patch of damp thicket interwoven with vines. Such communities cultivated the land together and divided the crops equally among the congeners; they lived in the same way as the ancient hunters, whom need taught to equality and brotherhood.
The resistance of the jungle made it difficult for the farmers to move south and at first people crowded in the Indus Valley, cities, palaces and mighty fortresses grew here.
Only at the beginning of I millennium BC, having mastered the technique of mining and processing iron, the Indians began to cut down the jungle and drain the swamps. At the cost of enormous labor for many centuries, people developed the Ganges Valley. The discovery of the culture of the Indus Valley occurred relatively recently since the 20s of our century, and for various reasons it is less well known than the Egyptian and Akkadian states that existed at the same time. However, it can be argued that it was characterized by the use of bronze, the construction of cities, and the invention of writing .
These basic features allow us to talk about the emergence of civilization, i.e. ancient civil society and statehood. Discovery of the cities of the III millennium BC in the Indus Valley, it was so unexpected that for several decades, the prevailing belief in science was that culture was brought here from the outside, presumably from Sumer. Only recently, as a result of many years of archaeological excavations, it began to become clear ancient history this region.
On the territory west of the river. Indus already in the Neolithic era, in the VI and possibly in the VII millennium BC, the population began to engage in agriculture. By the end of the 4th millennium BC several types of agricultural crops stand out. Small villages with mud brick houses were located in valleys irrigated by spills of small rivers. Clay figures and images on ceramics testify to typical cults of fertility - the mother goddess and the bull. Separate features of material culture, the shape and ornamentation of vessels, and construction techniques make it possible to trace the similarities and continuity between the cities of Indian civilization and those settlements that partially preceded them and partially coexisted with them.
The early agricultural crops of North-West India were not isolated from the surrounding areas, and there is reason to talk about their connections even with the territory of distant Elam. It is important to emphasize, however, that, despite any possible migration of the population or the borrowing of any achievements, the emergence of urban civilization in the Indus Valley was prepared by the centuries-old development of this region itself.
The first two major urban centers were explored - Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa by the name of the latter, and the whole archaeological culture is sometimes called Harappa. Then less significant settlements were discovered - Changhu Daro, Kalibangan. In recent years, excavations have been carried out mainly in the peripheral regions. Of particular interest is Lothal, an important outpost of the southern zone of civilization, perhaps the former seaport.
This is evidenced by the excavations of the shipyard, connected by canals with a river that flows into the Gulf of Cambay. Chronologically, Harappan culture is defined within the boundaries of 2300-1700. BC but for different zones and individual centers of dating may not coincide completely. The earliest Harappan monuments are found in the western and central zones of its distribution. The southern regions were colonized during the heyday of the cities of the Indus Valley. Harappa-type urban settlements were preceded by primitive hunting sites.
Cities like Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa and Kalibangan have a characteristic two-part layout. Part of the city is built on an artificial elevation and is separated by a battlement from the rest of the settlement. This is the so-called citadel, which was intended for city buildings - administrative and religious. There is a swimming pool nearby, intended for ritual ablutions.
In the covered arcade around the pool, there were probably priests who performed religious rites. A huge granary was found in the Harappa citadel. There is a similar structure in Mohenjo-Daro. Near the brick platform for grinding grain, small rooms are located in parallel rows in which workers could live. The other part is the urban settlement itself, which occupies an area of \u200b\u200babout two square kilometers in Mohenjo-Daro. Several tens of thousands of people could live here.
Straight streets, up to ten meters wide, were used to drive wheeled carts and, possibly, for religious processions. Crossing at right angles, they divide the city into large quarters. There is no clear plan inside these quarters, and the houses are separated only by narrow, often winding alleys. Most of the city buildings erected from burnt bricks in standard sizes. The houses were often two stories high and consisted of dozens of rooms. In hot weather, residents apparently slept on flat roofs. The windows overlooked the courtyard, where food was prepared on the hearth. Most striking is the level of urban improvement.
Many houses find special bathing rooms. Dirty water was drained through gutters and brick-lined canals into special sumps. The sewage system in the cities of the Indus Valley seems to be more perfect than in other countries of the ancient world. Excavations of urban centers do not provide any complete picture of agriculture, although, undoubtedly, a significant part of the townspeople also took part in agricultural work.
The found cereal remains indicate that wheat, barley, and millet were grown. The remnants of fabrics prove that in India earlier than in other Asian countries, they began to cultivate cotton; it was recently established that it was known here even before the emergence of the Harappa culture. Bulls and buffaloes were used as draft animals. Poultry such as chickens were raised. A more complete picture can be made of urban craft.
Burnt brick was so widely used in construction that its manufacture was to become an important industry. The variety of forms is characterized by the characteristic Harappa ceramics. Spinning-horse finds indicate the development of weaving. A number of articles made of bronze, gold and silver were found. The finds of Harappan culture products, mainly seals on the sites of Mesopotamia Ur, Kish, Tell-Asmar, as well as Iran Tepe-Yahya and South, speak about the wide external relations by sea and by land of the cities of Indian civilization. Turkmenistan Altyn-Tepe. All this suggests that during their heyday, Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa maintained extensive external relations and were part of the early civilizations of the ancient East.
Certain types of raw materials, mainly for the manufacture of luxury goods, were supposed to arrive in Indian cities due to land and sea trading operations. Widely used intermediary trade.
The possibility of military expeditions, especially to more backward areas, such as the South Indian coast, is not ruled out. Findings of stone weights are usually considered evidence of the development of domestic trade, and one of the premises is considered as an indoor market. We can also assume a distribution system for products from public warehouses. It is difficult to say to what extent craft production could be market oriented. Only the most general remarks can be made about the social and political structure of Indian civilization.
The presence of the citadel and city planning, apparently, indicates the existence of state power. Findings of granaries and premises for workers cause associations with the temple-state economy of ancient Mesopotamia. The level of development of production, the presence of cities and written language make us think of social inequality, which is confirmed by differences in the sizes and types of premises. Many hypotheses have been put forward to explain why Indian civilization ceased to exist.
It can be argued with sufficient certainty that she did not die as a result of a sudden catastrophe. Extensive material accumulated to date by archaeologists shows how gradually blooming cities gradually declined over the centuries. The decline of cities was accompanied by the penetration of more backward tribes from the northwest into the Indus Valley, but these raids did not cause the death of the Harappan culture. the regions of North-West India have now turned into deserts and semi-deserts, and it is quite possible that as a result of irrational irrigation and deforestation, the natural conditions of the region become less favorable.
The huge gap between the few developed centers and the vast rural periphery contributed to the fragility of the Bronze Age civilization. Thus, the geographical location and climate change played a fatal role in the fate of Indian civilization.
CHINESE CIVILIZATION Origin and development ancient civilization China occurred in the lower Yellow River Yellow Valley. The birth of civilization here was a response to the challenge, perhaps more severe than the challenge of Mesopotamia, the Nile or the Indus. In the desert, which became the cradle of Chinese civilization, the wetland and flood test was supplemented by a cold test, because seasonal climatic changes in that area are very significant - from extreme heat in the summer to rare cold in the winter. .
Almost a third of it is occupied by the era of ancient Chinese civilization. Its beginning dates back to the turn of the 3rd - 2nd millennium BC. The end of it is considered to be the collapse of the Han Empire in 220 A.D. Based on economic and geographical features, China is divided into eastern and western. The territory of Western China includes an extensive plateau with powerful mountain systems of the Himalayas, Kunlun, Tien Shan. The highest mountain ranges in the world of the Himalayas reach more than eight kilometers above sea level and form a natural barrier between India and China.
That such a separation over the centuries has been practically insurmountable is evidenced by the racial and cultural differences of these countries. Unlike the West, East China does not have such powerful mountain ranges. Here, most of the territory is lowlands, plains of coastal areas, which are adjoined by medium-sized mountains and mountain plateaus. The east of China has more favorable natural conditions, a rather mild climate, and diverse vegetation.
These conditions contributed to the fact that it was in this part of the country that the oldest agricultural culture and the first centers of Chinese civilization appeared, as well as the state itself. China has a large network of water arteries, but the main rivers are concentrated mainly in the east of the country, they originate in the west and flow eastward. It is clear that river valleys are the most fertile and most populated areas of the country.
The ancient inhabitants of China also preferred river valleys. Harsh natural conditions often serve as a powerful incentive for the emergence and growth of civilization. For example, if we compare the Yangtze and Yellow River valleys, the former is much more suited to cyclical seasonal farming than the latter. It would seem that ancient Chinese civilization was supposed to arise in the Yangtze Valley. But it originated in the Yellow River Valley. The Yellow River is the main river of Northern China. It carries its waters over four thousand kilometers. Her pool was the center of ancient Chinese civilization.
The Yellow River, a turbulent river several times, it changed its channel, flooded vast spaces, bringing innumerable disasters to the population. However, the largest river in China is the Yangtze Yangjiang, which is more than five thousand kilometers in length. Central China this is the Yangtze basin. About two thousand kilometers stretches the main waterway of southern China Xijiang. In antiquity, almost all of China was covered with forests.
The bowels of the country abound in minerals. The seas, lakes and rivers are rich in fish. The climate of the eastern part of China is very favorable for agriculture, since summer has the most rainfall and autumn is warm and dry. Western China has short sultry summers and long cold winters. In ancient times, the main areas of Chinese settlement were the areas of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and the plain that adjoins the Zhili Bohai Bay.
Fertile alluvial soils prevailed here. In other words, alluvial soils formed from river sludge. They, and even the temperate climate of the Great Chinese Plain, contributed to the development of agriculture. Huge spaces in North and Northwest China are occupied by loess soils. Here the ancient tribes were in a less favorable position. Loess is a deposit of mineral dust that winter monsoons blow from the mountains. Traveler particles contain nutrients, such as organic residues or readily soluble alkalis.
This allows you to do without fertilizers. Unfortunately, there is little rainfall in the areas of loess plateau, which requires artificial irrigation for successful farming. Due to the indicated climatic differences, the tribes living in the areas of the loess plateau had less developed agriculture than the tribes that lived in the lower reaches of the Yellow River. Phenician civilization Ancient Phenicia, the oldest coastal civilization, occupied the coastal strip along the northern part of the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea , bordered from the east by the Lebanese mountains, which in places approached almost close to the coast.
The originality of the natural conditions of Phenicia was reflected even in the names of the most important settlements. For example, the name of the city of Byblos in Phoenician sounds like Gebal means mountain, the city of Thira in Phoenician Tsur rock. The ability to engage in arable farming due to lack of good land was limited, but those that were available could still be used quite intensively. since the sea winds brought heavy rains.
Phenicia's agricultural land was small, but the soil was fertile. High-quality wine played an important role in trade. It is possible that the word wine itself, corresponding to the Latin vinum, Greek oinos and Hittite viyana, dates back to the Phoenician yain. Olive oil was also an important gardening product. Horticulture prevailed here, olives, dates, and grapes were cultivated.
The ancient Phoenicians were also engaged in fishing, which is natural for the sea people. It is no coincidence that the name of one of the Phoenician cities is Sidon, which means a fishing place. The forests of mountain Lebanon, which abounded in cedar and other valuable species, represented great wealth for the country. In front of the Egyptian sailors sailing here behind the fragrant cedar tree, Phenicia presented in this form. Here and there, on rocky cliffs or coastal islands, towns could be seen with harbors and fortress towers.
They were not much different from the ancient cities of Mesopotamia - as usual, a temple stood in the center of the city and the area of \u200b\u200bpublic meetings was located. But the cities of the Sumerians were located in the middle of a flat sprawling plain, and here, right at the walls of the city, the sea splashed. There was little fertile land, and the sea was replaced by arable land and pastures, most of the townspeople were fishermen, sailors or merchants. The sea fed people and opened the way to the horticultural lands when there was famine, many townspeople boarded ships and sailed west - to establish colonies and to raise virgin lands the deserted shores of Africa or Sicily.
Thanks to maritime colonization, the Phoenician culture spread throughout the Mediterranean. Traces are found even in distant England. On the other hand, emigration saved the cities from hunger and revolutions - therefore there were no autocratic kings; Phoenician kings were just elected leaders and priests - as in the ancient Mesopotamia. The sea determined the life of people who did not want to move to colonies, had to seek food on the expanses of the sea. The oldest fishing industry after fishing was piracy, robbery raids on coastal villages, kidnapping.
Then came the intermediary trade - for example, slaves bought in Asia Minor were taken to Egypt. Descriptions of the Phoenician exchange trade with African tribes were preserved. Merchants unloaded their goods on the shore and a signal fire was made. Local residents, seeing the smoke, came to the sea, took goods and left gold.
The Phoenicians kept their sea lanes and coastal maps secret - so it’s still unknown how far these brave sailors sailed. In the middle of the second millennium, they found somewhere far in the west a people rich in silver and not knowing its true value. This fabulous silver country was called Tarshish and was located on the shores of the Ocean behind the Hercules Pillars - the Strait of Gibraltar. It turned out that Tarshish is rich not only in silver, but also in tin, which in alloy with copper gave solid bronze - the metal of war from which armor and swords were made. The Phoenicians became the suppliers of tin for the warlike kings of Asia in the Phoenician ports, the bales with tin were loaded onto the backs of donkeys, and huge caravans went through the mountains along the steppe road to Ashur and further to the cities of Babylonia.
The huge profits from intermediary trade laid the foundation for the prosperity of the cities of Phenicia - but the real prosperity was yet to come. After the trade, the Phoenicians mastered export craft - if earlier they simply bought, carried and sold, now they began to buy raw materials, process it and sell handicrafts.
Bronze foundry workshops began to be created in the cities, in which many casters, blacksmiths, and chasers worked. Weaving was further developed by the Phoenicians who bought wool from pastoral tribes living in the mountains, wove it and dyed their fabrics with purple. This was an amazing and rare dye that was extracted from coastal snails, purple fabrics retained their freshness for centuries, it was clothes for kings and priests.
Finally, the Phoenicians made another amazing discovery - they invented glass Fabrics, glass and bronze brought extraordinary prosperity to the Phoenician cities. Merchants and moneylenders lived in palaces, huge temples were rising above the shore, hundreds of ships gathered in ports. The rich cities of Phenicia, Tire, Byblos, Sidon, resembled the great Babylon in their life. The emissaries of the Phoenician civilization, craftsmen and builders, spread their fame to the neighboring countries, they taught craftsmanship to shepherds and built the Great Temple in Jerusalem.
For their secret records, merchants and sailors invented an alphabet in which each sign corresponded to one sound, and combinations of signs were composed in words. This was a great invention now, in order to learn to read and write, it was no longer necessary to teach thousands of hieroglyphs for several years; very soon, the secret ceased to be a secret, and the alphabet spread throughout the Mediterranean, it was borrowed by the Greeks, Romans, and then many other peoples.
So gradually, in the eyes of people, the appearance of the first marine civilization formed the forest of masts in the roads, the crowded markets, the wealth of cities, merchants and money-lenders who consider profit in their offices, artisans who create amazing products. All this was made possible thanks to the sea, thanks to sailing ships coming from distant lands. One ship brought more goods than a caravan of camels - in those days, real trade was possible only by sea and trading cities appeared only by the sea. It was a world unlike the world of continental empires, trade prosperity, grain imports and the possibility of emigration reduced demographic pressure, and bourgeois democracy and freedom combined with the power of money remained in coastal cities.
ANCIENT GREEK CIVILIZATION The territory of mainland Greece and the islands were inhabited long before 4000 BC, sites and tools related to the Middle and Upper Paleolithic were discovered here.
By the beginning of the II millennium BC the culture of the Aegean region reached a high level of development, the focus of the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete, closely connected with the Egyptians and the peoples of Asia Minor, was particularly notable. It was in Crete, on the site of the city of Knossos, in the Neolithic stratum that archaeologists discovered the oldest trace of the material culture of human society - the archipelago. Crete is a narrow island located almost at an equal distance from Europe, Asia and Africa.
The island is 250 meters long and 12 to 57 km wide. Almost the entire island is covered with mountain ranges and their spurs, accessible only to pedestrians and pack animals. A small fertile plain is found only in the south of the central part of the island. Settling of Crete began from the Neolithic, but close ties between residents of different regions were established only at the end of the Early Minoan period. Until the middle of the II millennium, Crete did not know the invasions of foreign tribes, and the Minoan culture, as far as can be judged from the available data, lasted for about one and a half thousand years developed independently.
On the island there was even its own, strictly local origin writing. But external relations undoubtedly existed and had a certain effect on the development of the culture of ancient Crete. The main occupation of the inhabitants was fishing, cattle breeding and partly farming. Over eight centuries, covering the Early Minoan period, the use of metals, mainly copper, was gradually spreading in Crete. Locals at that time used copper daggers, axes, knives. The use of metal tools entailed an improvement in the technique of processing stone vessels and the development of other branches of the craft.
Pottery has undergone significant evolution. In the first half of the II millennium, economic and social development Crete has advanced far. A characteristic feature of this time was the spread of bronze. The widespread use of bronze opened the way to a general rise in production. The construction of large buildings is developing, sometimes over several floors.
The first palaces appear in Knossos, Festus and Mallia. The royal palace in Knossos was of grandiose proportions and a complex complex of residential and utility rooms. A significant increase in productive forces, along with an increase in property inequality of dates, suggests that it was in the Middle Minoan period that Cretan society, at least in the leading, palace, centers, became a class society. The absence of any significant number of import items indicates that the first Cretan states undoubtedly arose as a result of the gradual internal socio-economic development of Crete's society, and not as a result of any external influence.
The Minoan power was at the zenith of its power when its forces were suddenly blown up by a volcanic catastrophe, followed by an invasion of Crete around 1450 BC numerous aliens from the nearby mainland.
Crete has great social significance not only for historical reasons as the center of Minoan civilization, but also for geographical reasons. Crete was the largest island of the Aegean archipelago and lay at the intersection of the most important sea routes of the Hellenic world. Each ship sailing from Piraeus to Sicily passed between Crete and Laconia, and ships sailing from Piraeus to Egypt inevitably sailed between Crete and Rhodes. Approximately in the 19th century. BC. the invasion of Indo-European tribes from the north began in central Greece and the Peloponnese.
Aliens Achaeans, Aeolians, Ionians and, finally, approx. 1100 BC Dorians spoke different dialects of the Greek language. In the 16th century BC. Achaean civilization flourished in Greece, usually called Mycenaean, it was originally under the rule of Minoan Crete or, in any case, experienced significant influence from it. During the large-scale excavations of Mycenae, Tiryns and Pylos in Greece, Troy in Asia Minor, Knossos and other places in Crete jewelry, weapons, ceramics, clay tablets with hieroglyphs and linear writing were discovered.
The period of Achaean domination is also called heroic or Homeric, and the names of many rulers of this period, for example Agamemnon in Mycenae and Nestor in Pylos, continued to live in traditions and songs. The history of the Trojan War, which underlies the two great epic works of Homer Iliad and Odyssey, undoubtedly reflects the events of one of the many campaigns undertaken by the Achaeans and other Greek tribes during the conquest of the Aegean coast in the early 12th century. BC. Despite the fact that the Aegean region covers areas located on two continents and many islands, there are several hundred of them, geographically and historically it represents, to a certain extent, a single whole. The Aegean region in ancient times was divided into four regions southern part Balkan Peninsula mainland Greece, the island world, Crete and the narrow coastal strip of Asia Minor. Mainland Greece, in turn, is divided into three parts: Northern, Middle and Southern Peloponnese.
It is separated from the rest of the Balkan Peninsula by spurs of the Balkan Range, which also enter Greece, where mountains occupy the largest part of the surface.
The most important part of Northern Greece is the fertile Thessaly Valley, irrigated by the Penei River. Through the narrow Thermopilsky passage, the path leads to Middle Greece, which includes a number of valleys more or less significant in size, surrounded by mountains, and the Attica Peninsula.
The island of Euboea adjoins Middle Greece from the east. The Peloponnese, on all sides, with the exception of the Isthm Isthmus of Corinth, is washed by the waters of the Aegean and Ionian Seas and their bays. Here, as in Central Greece, the country consists of many areas, mostly isolated by mountains. Mountains in Greece, their height rarely exceeds 2 thousand meters were not an insurmountable obstacle for man, but in antiquity they still contributed a lot to the disunity of individual regions.
In addition, in Greece there were neither large rivers, nor the opportunity to create a ramified irrigation system, characteristic of many ancient Eastern countries. The western coast of mainland Greece is relatively indented. They are mostly steep and mountainous. But on the east coast, the sea formed a winding coastline. If the Aegean tribes divided the mountains, the islands connected them with each other. The sailors in the Aegean never lost sight of the land, even if their path lay from the shores of Europe to the coast of Asia Minor. With the usual clear and cloudless weather here, islands located, as a rule, no further than 50 km from each other, never disappeared from the field of view of sailors. This contributed to the development of navigation and all industries associated with the sea.
A special area of \u200b\u200bthe Aegean was the coast of Asia Minor with numerous convenient shallow bays, bays and estuaries. Extensive plains with fertile soil adjoined the coast.
The climate of the coasts of the Aegean, with the exception of numerous mountainous areas, can be defined as subtropical only in the northern part of mainland Greece, it turns into temperate. Summer is hot and arid. Snow rarely falls even in winter and usually melts immediately. In winter, when the south and south-west winds blow from the warm Mediterranean Sea, most of the annual precipitation falls, so the vegetation period occurs in late autumn, winter and spring, when precipitation is fast, with an unstable river regime, usually dry in summer , cannot supply sufficient moisture to fields and gardens. There is little fertile land in Greece.
Rains wash away the soil from the slopes of the mountains, and only the coastal plains and valleys inside the country are covered with red-and yellow-yellow soils characteristic of the subtropical zone. Soils in alluvial rivers are alluvial, sometimes boggy soils. In ancient times, Greece was covered with vast forests and thickets of prickly shrubs. The tribes of mainland Greece were mainly engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding.
In their villages, wheat, barley, millet, onion, peas, beans, lentils and pots with acorns, probably eaten, were found. In many Minnian houses there are lamps in which olive oil served as a combustible material. Bones of bulls, sheep, goats and donkeys were also found, which indicates the development of cattle breeding. The ministries were also engaged in fishing. In Filakoni, on the island of Melos, a vase of the 18th or 17th century was found. BC e which depicts a string of people walking along a stream holding fish in each hand. For the population of mountainous islands, which had scarce field lands, the intensive development of maritime affairs was long since vital in exchange for their mineral raw materials, for example, they brought obsidian and marble from the mainland and the largest islands to their lack of food. The intensity of barter increased as the population grew and crafts developed.
In the 3rd millennium, notable achievements characterized the material culture of the Cycladic islands.
The traditional maritime crafts and barter trading among these tribes was particularly developed due to the rapid rise in shipbuilding and seafaring. This is reflected in the works of Cycladic art. Already in the years 2800-2400. the inhabitants of the islands built multi-merry ships with a high bow. Their elongated ships, sometimes having up to 17 rows of rowers, could develop high speed. Undoubtedly, the construction and management of such a large vessel implied a thorough knowledge of many navigation rules.
Findings of Cycladic articles indicate that by the XXII century. sailors from the Aegean also sailed in the Adriatic Sea, and by 2000 their ships reached the Balearic Islands and Eastern Spain. Cyclades, along with Crete, were the center of the preceding Minoan civilization. Due to the arid climate and the lack of convenient land, agriculture, as the main branch of the economy, developed only in a few areas of the country.
Bread in mainland Greece during the period of the development of slave-owning society was usually not enough, and it had already been imported from other countries. As pastures and cultivated land were gradually depleted, the people moved from animal husbandry and agriculture to growing grapes and cultivating olive plantations. This phenomenal tree is not only able to survive on bare stone, but also abundantly bear fruit. The Athenians began to exchange olive oil for Scythian grain.
Oil was transported by sea, having previously been packaged in clay jugs, which in turn stimulated pottery and developed the art of navigation. The Scythian market also influenced the silver mines of Greece, since international trade requires a monetary economy and thereby stimulates the development of minerals. The country is rich in various natural resources with beautiful marble, excellent clay from metals mined here silver, copper, lead, later iron, on the island of Fasos gold .
Gold was also mined in Thrace on the territory of modern Bulgaria. But some metals were missing or there was negligible tin, and they had to be imported. All this combined export and import, industry, merchant ships and money brought to life the development of the navy. Thus, the exposure of the soil in Greece was offset by the development of the sea. An unknown Greek writer, who lived even before Plato, described the advantages of power over the sea for the Greeks. Poor crops are the scourge of the most powerful nations, while maritime powers easily overcome them.
Crop failure is never widespread, and therefore the owners of the sea send their ships to those places where the cornfield was generous. I would add that dominance at sea allowed the Athenians to discover new sources of wealth through extensive external contacts. Delicacies of Sicily, Italy. Cyprus, Egypt, Lydia, the Black Sea, the Peloponnese or any other country become available to the owners of the sea. CONCLUSION In order to study the problem of the influence of the climatic factor on the development of civilizations, we examined the most ancient civilizations.
This choice is due to the fact that, due to the primitive nature of tools, it was on ancient civilizations, both on their origin and development and on their death, that the natural environment had the greatest influence. People were heavily dependent on the environment. If it created too much obstacles, it slowed down development, for example, the development of the Ganges valley in India. But the lack of challenges, according to the theory of A. Toynbee, means the absence of incentives for growth and development. The traditional opinion, according to which favorable climatic and geographical conditions, of course, contribute to social development, is incorrect.
On the contrary, historical examples show that too good conditions, as a rule, encourage a return to nature, the cessation of all growth. In the work we examined the origin and development of six ancient civilizations of Egyptian, Sumerian, Indian, Chinese, Phoenician and Ancient Greek.
Some of them can be called river, others are seaside. They developed in different natural conditions, but the formation of all these civilizations was accompanied by severe trials of nature, a change in the usual way of life. To give a worthy answer to the challenge that nature has given them, people had to look for new solutions, improve nature and themselves. REFERENCES 1. Encyclopedia for children. 1. World history.
M. Avanta, 1996. P.46 50, 55 61, 64 67, 90 94, 114 115. 2. Children's encyclopedia for middle and older age. T.8. From the history of human society. M. Enlightenment, 1967. S. 32 35, 56 59. 3. A.J. Toynbee. Comprehension of history. Electronic version. httpgumilevica.kulichki.netToynbeeindex. html 4. The history of Europe from ancient times to the present in eight volumes. USSR Academy of Sciences. Institute of World History. Institute of History of the USSR. Institute of Slavic Studies and Balkan Studies. Electronic version. Httpgumilevica.kulichki.netHEUind ex.html 5. S.Nefedov. Ancient world history. The electronic version of the book, published by the Vlados publishing house in 1996, httphist1.narod.ruIHFWindex.htm 6.http: //www.ancient.holm.rutopicsmapsindex.h tm 7.http: //www.ancient.holm.rutopicsdataegyptin dex.htm 8.http: //www.rubricon. en 9.http: //www.ancient.holm.rutopicsdatachin aindex.htm http://www.krugosvet.ruarticles631006305100 6305a1.htm.
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Exploring the Bronze Age, it is impossible to avoid mentioning a whole series of natural disasters, which undoubtedly seriously influenced the development of society. Nevertheless, in the text, references to this problem are reduced to dry statements of facts. Why? Does the impact mean little?
No, it doesn’t. The degree of influence of natural factors on the development of ancient civilizations is very significant. If you look at the history of the development of the Mediterranean during the Bronze Age, it turns out that almost all of it was due in one way or another to natural factors. On the one hand, the landscape features of this region favored the emergence of agriculture. And what were these features? The mountains created a microclimate conducive to precipitation, intermountain depressions and foothill plains had fertile soils on river sediments. The rivers irrigating them were relatively small, but quite full-flowing. This created not only convenient communication routes, but also allowed to divert water for irrigation of fields. The need for artificial irrigation contributed to the complexity of social life and the formation of the first proto-states.
Temperature and humidification graph of the Mediterranean
Trifonov V.G., Karakhanyan A.S. Geodynamics and the history of civilizations
On the other hand, strong earthquakes and, in some places, volcanic eruptions occurred in the described landscapes from time to time. And this also significantly influenced the development of society. For example, it is entirely possible that it was a natural catastrophe in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC that played a fatal role in the fate of the Minoan civilization. But what exactly was this role? Traces of decline began to manifest themselves in the culture of Minoan Crete long before the tragic end. In addition, a few hundred years before a possible catastrophe of the middle of the second millennium BC, the Minoan civilization successfully survived at least one no less large-scale catastrophe, which simultaneously destroyed almost all the settlements in Crete, laying the boundary to the era of the “old palaces”. Why did these two events affect the Cretan society so differently? Why, in one case, society surprisingly quickly, by historical standards, completely recovered and entered the era of its heyday, both cultural and geopolitical, that is, the period of the New Palaces began. And in another, it entered a period of decline?
The last day of Pompeii is a painting by Karl Pavlovich Bryullov, written in 1830-1833.
Perhaps the whole point is that in their scale and impact energy, individual natural phenomena are not overly catastrophic. They can only deform social development to one degree or another: accelerate, slow down or change the ratio of interacting social forces. The degree of such a deformation depends both on the scale of the natural impact and on the state of society. Therefore, as historical experience shows, individual short-term natural impacts, even grandiose by human standards, whether it is a major earthquake or volcanic eruption, floods or sudden changes in weather conditions, do not become the main cause of the death of states or large cultural and ethnic communities. The strength of the impact of natural factors significantly depends on the state of society itself. And in this sense, natural disaster is a phenomenon that is more social than natural. In an economically and politically stable system, the consequences of disasters are quickly eliminated; in the worst case, the functions of some destroyed centers pass to others.
Dynamics of changes in temperature, built on the basis of analyzes of continental ice columns in Greenland.
Lba - temperature optimum of the late Bronze Age; RWP - temperature optimum of Roman time; MWP - medieval temperature optimum.
Trifonov V.G., Karakhanyan A.S. Geodynamics and the history of civilizations
In addition, as a rule, places in which natural disasters occur more often are also places more comfortable for living and developing a producing economy. For example, floods of rivers, on the one hand, are destructive, and on the other, a source of soil fertility. Therefore, very often the positive influence of sources of natural hazard outweighs the negative impact that manifests itself only at times. And as historical experience shows, the ability to overcome negative natural factors depends entirely on society. When a society is on the “rise”, then it overcomes monstrous disasters, but if it is in a state of decline, it is experiencing political difficulties or military pressure from its neighbors, the consequences of even a small adverse natural impact can be catastrophic.
Francis Danby. The flood.
And the second important point that I want to pay special attention to. As a rule, long-term climatic changes that, due to their duration, were not perceived by the population as catastrophic, have more significant historical significance for the development of human society. We are talking about the synchronous eras of the drying and cooling spans of vast parts of East Oikumena as phases of centuries-old climatic variations. Throughout the Bronze Age in the Mediterranean, such adverse periods lasted several hundred years and repeated after about 1200, and in one case after 1800 years. Namely, they took place at the beginning of IV, mid III and the last third of the II millennium BC.
Trifonov V.G., Karakhanyan A.S. Geodynamics and the history of civilizations
The indicated epochs partly determined the synchronous major trans-regional socio-political crises, marked by economic difficulties, social tensions, mass population migration and exacerbation of armed conflicts. These crises mark milestones in the development of Bronze Age societies, designating and, possibly, triggering a transition to new technologies and forms of social life. So, the emergence of the oldest city-states of Sumer is associated with the first crisis. The second marked the collapse of the early Oikumena cultures, replaced by socially stratified societies of semi-nomadic herders. The third crisis marked the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age.
Literature
- Trifonov V.G., Karakhanyan A.S. Geodynamics and the history of civilizations. M .: Nauka, 2004.668 s. (23)