Knowledge of nature developed observation skills ancient man. This allowed him to make many wonderful discoveries. People gradually learned to understand the plant world around them. They learned to distinguish beneficial plants from those that could cause harm. They began to eat many plants and learned medicinal properties some of them. Infusions, ointments, and decoctions were made from medicinal plants. Poisons were used to put fish to sleep, but they were mainly used to coat arrowheads.
Already in such a distant past, people were able to identify certain diseases and apply appropriate treatment methods. If necessary, they stopped the bleeding and even performed surgical operations, such as opening an abscess or removing a diseased tooth. In exceptional cases, diseased limbs could be amputated.
Hunting allowed us to learn a lot about the life of wild animals. People were well versed in the habits of animals; by their tracks they could determine their routes of movement. While hunting or gathering, people navigated the terrain. He learned this by observing the position of the Sun and stars in the sky.
The man knew how to measure distances. Long distances were measured in days of travel. In this case, a day was considered the period from sunrise to sunset. Smaller distances were measured by the flight of an arrow or spear. Very small - using various parts of the human body: foot, elbow, finger, nail.
Ideas about the world around us
Ancient man felt himself to be a part of nature. He was convinced of the existence of his connection with the animal and flora. Therefore, the worship of certain species of animals and plants arose. The animal, which was considered the patron saint of the clan, was forbidden to kill and eat, and it could not be harmed in any way. The image of the patron of the clan was applied to weapons, household items, and the home was decorated with it.
Thunderstorms, the change of day and night, the rising and setting of the sun and moon, and other natural phenomena were considered by primitive people as the activity of spirits. In their minds, spirits often had a humanoid appearance.
f Remember folk tales, in which things, tools, plants are endowed human qualities.

Primitive man believed that there were evil and good spirits in the world. The patronage of good spirits helps to cope with a serious illness and promotes successful hunting. Evil spirits can cause terrible disasters - fire, death and other misfortunes. You can summon the help of good spirits and avoid evil ones with the help of a gift, that is, making a sacrifice in their honor. The victim could be a killed animal, and sometimes even a person.

Buffalo. Bone carving. 13th millennium Stonehenge. England BC e. La Madeleine. France
Ancient people had their own explanation for death. In the Cro-Magnon burials found by archaeologists, the dead were laid in the position of a sleeping person. Their heads rested on a stone “pillow” or a bed of grass. Nearby were clothes, food, and jewelry. If the deceased was a hunter during his lifetime, hunting tools were located nearby. Excavations of burials indicate that the Cro-Magnons believed in an afterlife.
Primitive people believed in the powerful power of magic. It was believed that certain actions and words have magical power, and the magical effect can be enhanced with the help of an amulet. An amulet, or amulet, is an object that protects a person from harm. For the hunt to be successful, a magical ritual was performed. At the same time, in their spells they turned to good spirits for help.
Only the shamans or sorcerers of the tribe knew mysterious, magical techniques. These were, as a rule, elderly people. They had more life experience than their relatives. They knew how to observe nature, knew signs, and used the medicinal properties of plants. Sorcerers, performing magical acts, gave practical advice to hunters and could provide assistance in case of illness. In the clan community and tribe, sorcerers were treated with great respect. Kindred thought that sorcerers were endowed with a special gift that allowed them to communicate with and influence spirits. Shamans were trusted to educate young people.
Primitive people did not have writing, so their understanding of the surrounding nature was passed on from generation to generation in the form of oral stories. This is how myths appeared - tales about heroes, gods, natural phenomena. For example, one of them said that the sun is a person who has two houses: on earth and in heaven. He makes a daily journey from one house to another.
Another myth spoke of a huge bird with giant wings. When it flies across the sky, terrible thunder is heard from the flapping of its wings, and when it blinks, lightning flashes. Through fantastic explanations of natural phenomena, primitive man sought to comprehend the world around him and understand his place in it.

More on the topic Knowledge of primitive people:

1. VI. Private logical perfection of knowledge A. Logical perfection of knowledge in quantity.- quantity.- Axmentive and intensive quantity.- breadth and thoroughness or importance and fruitfulness of knowledge.- Definition of the horizon of our knowledge

The most ancient man, also known as primitive man, has been studied relatively well in our time thanks to the works of archaeologists. It was modern archeology that was able to more or less show the history of the most ancient period of humanity - primitive era and primitive society, it (archeology) is the only source of knowledge about those distant times (after all, primitive people, alas, did not leave us any written evidence). What was the history of primitive society, what was the culture and way of life primitive people, read about all this in our article.

History of primitive people

Most of the skeletons of primitive people were found by archaeologists on the African continent, which gives scientists reason to believe that Africa was the birthplace of humanity. It was also here that the first stone tools were found, which are approximately 2-2.5 million years old. It is this time, 2-2.5 million years ago, that is considered the conditional date of the appearance of man.

If you believe the theory of evolution of Charles Darwin, then the appearance of modern man, the so-called “Homo sapience”, was preceded by australopithecus, and then “Homo habilis” - a skilled man. Australopithecines and “Homo habilis” were a kind of intermediate link between modern man and his closest relative, the ape (again, if you believe the theory of Charles Darwin). They already confidently moved on two legs, had developed hands, capable of not only holding a stone or a stick, but also confidently using them, as well as other primitive tools. But unlike modern people they did not yet know how to speak, but communicated with each other with the help of shouts, exclamations and gestures, and their bodies were still covered with fur.

Australopithecus might have looked something like this.

It is worth noting that Charles Darwin's hypothesis has many dark spots, and some scientists believe that the found australopithecine skeletons are a skillful fake.

Be that as it may, the first traces of “homo sapiens” date back to 250 thousand. years ago. Primitive intelligent man, aka Neanderthal, finally found speech, for the first time, began to use caves as shelters and housing (hence the name “cave era”, “cave people”). During this period in the history of primitive people, religion, culture and its eternal attribute - art - appeared. The amazing cave paintings in many caves around the world are an excellent example of the art of primitive people, and this is without a doubt the first manifestation of art in history.

Neanderthals, unlike Australopithecines, buried their dead relatives, surrounded their graves with stones and flowers, and had various religious and magical rites and rituals, as evidenced by animal shards found by archaeologists, arranged in a strictly defined order.

Neanderthals also developed medicine for the first time: some skeletons found suggest that primitive people tried to cure their sick or injured relatives. So some skeletons have traces of surgical operations.

And finally, about 40 thousand. years ago, the Neanderthal was replaced by modern man - “Homo sapience”, who was essentially the same person as you and me (only he did not sit at the computer on the Internet, but warmed himself by the fire in some cave). The first skeletons of modern humans were found in the Cro-Magnon cave in southern France, and sometimes the first “Homo sapiens” were also called Cro-Magnons.

Some scientists believe that for some time Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons coexisted with each other, but at a certain period the more intelligent Cro-Magnons supplanted and completely exterminated the Neanderthals, who could either evolve or die.

Cro-Magnons versus Neanderthals.

But it is also worth noting that the probable confrontation between Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals is nothing more than a hypothesis.

Inventions of primitive people

Clever Cro-Magnons made many important inventions, for example, they learned the secrets of metals, and stone tools were replaced by metal ones (first bronze, then iron), invented (the importance of its appearance can hardly be overestimated), learned to cultivate the land and grow crops (wheat, rice, corn), invented money as the basis of economic relations between tribes, and over time, members of the community. Finally, they invented writing and many other useful things, from the advent of which human civilization grew.

Prehistoric culture

People primitive world, like the people of our time, were different, among them there were, like the conventionally “narrow-minded gopniks,” and cultural, creative people. There were definitely singers and possibly poets among them, but traces of their work, unfortunately, have not reached us, but the work of primitive artists has been perfectly preserved.

Rock paintings in caves are not just a striking example of the creativity of primitive man, sometimes they also represent real encyclopedias ancient world, they contain information about geography, nature, various animals hunted by ancient hunters, sketches from the life of ancient man, his religious beliefs and much more. Nameless artists of antiquity painted their paintings using various improvised means: these were sticks and chisels, with the help of which they knocked out patterns on the wall, and hard rocks and iron fragments and other materials that could leave a mark.

ABOUT rock paintings primitive people there is a separate section on our website.

Life of primitive people

What was the life of primitive people like, where did they live, what did they eat, what kind of clothes did they wear? Let's answer these questions.

Where did primitive people live?

As we wrote above, at first caves were the typical dwelling place of our very distant ancestors. But there weren’t that many caves suitable for living, and the number of primitive people increased over time, and at some point there were no longer enough caves for everyone. And so, for the first time, the “housing question” arose before primitive man - where to live (as you can see, this question is relevant in all historical eras, and ours in particular).

Cave of a primitive man.

To solve the “housing problem,” primitive people learned to build the first dwellings, which were made, among other things, from the bones of dead animals. It happened that it was possible to kill some large mammoth and create a cozy home in its remains. Powerful mammoth bones were dug into the ground, and animal skins were stretched over them, creating an improvised hut in which it was quite possible to hide from the weather and live one’s primitive life.

What did primitive people eat?

What we managed to catch or collect. Men went hunting or fishing, while women collected various berries and fruits. Hunting by primitive man was a very dangerous activity; often the hunters themselves died or became prey to other predators (if a primitive hunter went, for example, to hunt a bear, then there was still the question of who would dine on whom as a result, a man with a bear or a bear with a man).

But if it was possible to catch large prey, kill the same mammoth, then its meat would last for a longer period.

Hunting of primitive people.

The caught game was cooked on a fire, which primitive people learned to light with sticks and stones.

Clothes of primitive people

In warm places, primitive people often walked in “the costume of Adam and Eve,” that is, naked. However, even in our time, some tribes of equatorial Africa and South America who, in fact, remained at the primitive level, walk without clothes.

And the inhabitants of Eurasia or North America do not look very naked in the cold season, so the clothing of primitive people had mainly a purely practical meaning - it was supposed to warm a person and protect his “private places.” To do this, ancient people sewed clothes from the skins of killed animals.

Tools of labor of primitive man

Both for hunting and for building housing, primitive people, as well as modern people, needed certain tools. Primitive people made them from scrap materials, usually stones, animal bones, and wooden sticks. From primitive man, such popular tools as a hammer, an ax, and a chisel came to our world today. In a word, when you pick up a hammer to nail a nail, remember that you are holding in your hands an ancient tool that was used by Neanderthals.

Lifespan of primitive man

Alas, it was small. Thus, a Neanderthal who reached the age of forty was already a very old man by their standards. Rarely did any of the primitive people live more than forty years; many died even earlier, at 30-35 years old. This is due to the fact that their life was full of dangers and difficulties. Primitive women gave birth to children as early as 14-15 years of age. Their life was fleeting, but perhaps bright and full of adventures, who knows...

When writing the article, I tried to make it as interesting, useful and high-quality as possible. I would be grateful for any feedback and constructive criticism in the form of comments on the article. You can also write your wish/question/suggestion to my email. [email protected] or on Facebook, sincerely the author.

As soon as a person acquired intelligence, he began to be interested in how everything works. Why doesn't the water overflow over the edge of the world? Does the Sun revolve around the Earth? What's inside black holes?

Socrates' "I know that I know nothing" means that we are aware of the amount of still unknown in this world. We have come from myths to quantum physics, but there are still more questions than answers, and they are only becoming more complex.

Cosmogonic myths

Myth is the first way with which people explained the origin and structure of everything around them and their own existence. Cosmogonic myths tell how the world emerged from chaos or nothingness. In myth, the creation of the universe is carried out by deities. Depending on the specific culture, the resulting cosmology (idea about the structure of the world) varies. For example, the firmament could seem like a lid, the shell of a world egg, the flap of a giant shell, or the skull of a giant.

As a rule, in all these stories there is a division of the original chaos into heaven and earth (up and down), the creation of an axis (the core of the universe), the creation of natural objects and living beings. Basic concepts common to different peoples are called archetypes.

Physicist Alexander Ivanchik talks about the early stages of the evolution of the Universe and the origin of chemical elements in his lecture “Postscience”.

The world is like a body

Ancient man explored the world with the help of his body, measured distances with steps and elbows, and worked a lot with his hands. This is reflected in the personification of nature (thunder is the result of the blows of God's hammer, wind is the deity blowing). The world was also associated with a large body.

For example, in Scandinavian mythology, the world was created from the body of the giant Ymir, whose eyes became ponds and his hair became forests. In Hindu mythology, this function was assumed by Purusha, in Chinese mythology by Pangu. In all cases, the structure of the visible world is associated with the body of an anthropomorphic creature, a great ancestor or deity, sacrificing himself so that the world appears. Man himself is a microcosm, a miniature universe.

Great Tree

Another archetypal plot that often appears among different nations is the axis mundi, the world mountain or the world tree. For example, the Yggdrasil ash tree among the Scandinavians. Images of a tree with a human figurine in the center were also found among the Mayans and Aztecs. In the Hindu Vedas, the sacred tree was called Ashwattha, in Turkic mythology - Baiterek. The world tree connects the lower, middle and upper worlds, its roots are in the underground regions, and the crown goes to the heavens.

Take me for a ride, big turtle!

The mythology of the world turtle floating in the vast ocean, on whose back the Earth rests, is found among the peoples of Ancient India and Ancient China, in the legends of the indigenous people of North America. Variations of the myth of giant "support animals" include an elephant, a snake, and a whale.

Cosmological ideas of the Greeks

Greek philosophers laid down the astronomical concepts that we still use today. Different philosophers of their school had their own point of view on the model of the universe. For the most part, they adhered to the geocentric system of the world.

The concept assumed that at the center of the world there was a stationary Earth, around which the Sun, Moon and stars revolved. In this case, the planets revolve around the Earth, forming the “Earth system”. Tycho Brahe also denied the daily rotation of the Earth.

Scientific Revolution of the Enlightenment

Geographical discoveries, sea voyages, and the development of mechanics and optics made the picture of the world more complex and complete. Since the 17th century, the “telescopic era” began: observation of celestial bodies at a new level became available to man and the path to a deeper study of space opened up. From a philosophical point of view, the world was thought of as objectively knowable and mechanistic.

Johannes Kepler and the orbits of celestial bodies

Tycho Brahe's student Johannes Kepler, who adhered to the Copernican theory, discovered the laws of motion of celestial bodies. The Universe, according to his theory, is a ball within which the Solar system is located. Having formulated three laws, which are now called “Kepler’s laws,” he described the movement of planets around the Sun in orbits and replaced circular orbits with ellipses.

Discoveries of Galileo Galilei

Galileo defended Copernicanism, adhering to the heliocentric system of the world, and also insisted that the Earth has a diurnal rotation (spinning around its axis). This led him to famous disagreements with the Roman Church, which did not support Copernicus' theory.

Galileo built his own telescope, discovered the moons of Jupiter and explained the glow of the Moon by sunlight reflected by the Earth.

All this was evidence that the Earth has the same nature as other celestial bodies, which also have “moons” and move. Even the Sun turned out to be not ideal, which refuted the Greek ideas about the perfection of the heavenly world - Galileo saw spots on it.

Newton's model of the universe

Isaac Newton discovered the law of universal gravitation, developed a unified system of terrestrial and celestial mechanics and formulated the laws of dynamics - these discoveries formed the basis of classical physics. Newton proved Kepler's laws from the position of gravity, declared that the Universe is infinite and formulated his ideas about matter and density.

His work “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy” in 1687 summarized the results of the research of his predecessors and laid down a method for creating a model of the Universe using mathematical analysis.

20th century: everything is relative

A qualitative breakthrough in man’s understanding of the world in the twentieth century was the following: general theory of relativity (GTR), which were developed in 1916 by Albert Einstein. According to Einstein's theory, space is not immutable, time has a beginning and an end and can flow differently in different conditions.

General Relativity is still the most influential theory of space, time, motion and gravity - that is, everything that constitutes physical reality and the principles of the world. The theory of relativity states that space must either expand or contract. It turned out that the Universe is dynamic, not stationary.

American astronomer Edwin Hubble proved that our Milky Way galaxy, in which the Solar System is located, is only one of hundreds of billions of other galaxies in the Universe. While studying distant galaxies, he concluded that they were scattering, moving away from each other, and suggested that the Universe was expanding.

If we proceed from the concept of constant expansion of the Universe, it turns out that it was once in a compressed state. The event that caused the transition from a very dense state of matter to expansion was called Big Bang.

XXI century: dark matter and the Multiverse

Today we know that the Universe is expanding at an accelerated rate: this is facilitated by the pressure of “dark energy”, which fights the force of gravity. “Dark energy,” the nature of which is still not clear, makes up the bulk of the Universe. Black holes are “gravitational graves” in which matter and radiation disappear, and into which dead stars presumably turn.

The age of the Universe (the time since the expansion began) is supposedly estimated at 13-15 billion years.

We realized that we are not unique - after all, there are so many stars and planets around. Therefore, modern scientists consider the question of the origin of life on Earth in the context of why the Universe arose in the first place, where this became possible.

Galaxies, stars and planets revolving around them, and even the atoms themselves, exist only because the push of dark energy at the moment of the Big Bang was sufficient to prevent the Universe from collapsing again, and at the same time so that space did not fly apart too much. The probability of this is very small, so some modern theoretical physicists suggest that there are many parallel Universes.

Theoretical physicists believe that some universes may have 17 dimensions, others may contain stars and planets like ours, and some may consist of little more than an amorphous field.

Alan Lightmanphysicist

However, it is impossible to refute this using experiment, so other scientists believe that the concept of the Multiverse should be considered rather philosophical.

Today's ideas about the Universe are largely related to unsolved problems of modern physics. Quantum mechanics, the constructions of which differ significantly from what classical mechanics says, physical paradoxes and new theories assure us that the world is much more diverse than it seems, and the results of observations largely depend on the observer.

Especially for vacationers, as well as regular travel lovers, we tell you where the legs of modern tourism come from.

1. Primitive world

The first people could not afford long-term parking. Having exhausted natural resources, they left their homes and went in search of new lands, where the mammoths were bigger and the grass was greener.

Constant migration processes stimulated intellectual development people: the rudiments of geographical knowledge appeared, botany, zoology and even elementary mechanics developed. In addition, the need to transmit accumulated information contributed to the emergence of rock art.

2. Ancient civilizations

With the advent of the first civilizations, the movement of human masses around the planet did not stop, although the motivation for movement changed.

The key to the prosperity of ancient states was international trade. Rulers Ancient Egypt regularly equipped expeditions pursuing trade and economic goals. For example, it is known for certain about the journey of a certain Hannu in 2750 BC. to the Red Sea coast for precious stones, ivory and incense.

Then, in the 27th century BC. e. Egyptian ships crossed the Mediterranean Sea for the first time - the destination of the wanderers was the Phoenician city of Byblos, from where the flotilla returned filled to the brim with cedar wood.

It should be noted that merchants often played the role of pioneers, supplying their homeland not only with rare goods, but also with valuable information about the structure of the surrounding world.

The development of trade led to the creation of the institution of embassies. Chinese, Egyptian, and Sumerian diplomats made long-term voyages to distant lands in order to become a guarantor of peaceful relations between states. Long before the start new era Religious wanderings also appeared. Groups of pilgrims making processions to the temples of the great gods, and missionaries spreading their own creed, organically fit into the cultural landscape of the ancient world.

3. Ancient Greece

The Hellenes also undertook trading voyages, made pilgrimages and traveled for knowledge (“The Father of History,” Herodotus, visited Egypt, Persia, Babylonia, the country of the Scythians and many other places, describing in detail the geography of his movements, as well as the history and culture of the peoples he saw). Moreover, it is in Ancient Greece For the first time, such phenomena as sports and health tourism appeared.

Those wishing to improve their health went to the temples of the god of healing, Asclepius. These structures, as a rule, were located far from cities in places with a favorable climate. Temple priests studied medicine and helped everyone who wanted to be cured of illnesses.

However, the treatment began even before the believer met the deity. The ritual preceding a visit to the temple included a number of important procedures: fasting, ablution, and visiting the bathhouse. In addition, the Greeks knew very well about healing properties sulfuric, saline-sulfuric and ferruginous waters. Baths were built near the springs, where wealthy citizens could relax and at the same time get rid of ailments.

The phenomenon of sports tourism appeared in Greece around the 8th century. BC e. thanks to Olympic Games. Every four years, tens of thousands of fans flocked to Olympia to watch their idols compete.

On the occasion of the Olympics, a fair was held in the city, where, in addition to shopping, one could listen to the performances of famous philosophers, poets or speakers, and also admire the works of local painters. Cultural leisure continued in the temples, where, for a fee, it was possible to watch the work of the priests, as well as listen to a “tour guide” telling stories and legends about this place.

A network of “sacred” roads was laid near large temples, providing unhindered access for pilgrims to the sanctuary. At resorts and near temples there were hotels that provided shelter for strangers, but travelers brought food with them. These institutions were municipally owned, because running such a business was considered unworthy.

In addition, in rich houses there were usually always rooms for guests - wealthy Greeks warmly welcomed even unfamiliar travelers.

“Hospitality Unions” were created in Greek cities. Each member of such a union - xen - became a defender of the interests of the inhabitants of another policy in his state. Over time, the institution of proxenes was formed in Hellas. Proxenus played the role of consul, representing the interests of the inhabitants of the place that assigned him this status.

4. Ancient Rome

During the heyday of the empire, a network of high-quality roads was built, the total length of which, according to various estimates, ranged from 80 to 300 thousand kilometers. Along the roads, at a distance of 6-15 miles from each other, there were post stations where you could change horses, as well as satisfy other needs: dine at a tavern and stop for the night.

Most of the Roman hotels could not be called comfortable: pillows stuffed with straw and infested with insects, diluted wine, bad food. Therefore, the poor stayed at roadside hotels. Rich travelers spent the night in tents that they took with them.

Road maps with the designation of inns were in great demand among travelers. In addition to maps, at the beginning of the new era the Romans also had guidebooks at their disposal. They could be purchased at a special “tourist bureau”.

About the unprecedented blossoming of the tourism industry in Ancient Rome The fact that prominent minds of their time began to develop a philosophy of travel also speaks for itself. For example, Seneca the Younger wrote that for a productive vacation it is necessary to “choose places that are healthy not only for the body, but also for morals,” since “the area, no doubt, is not without the ability to corrupt.”

The first ideas about the Earth and its shape developed gradually. At first they were very far from modern ones. In ancient India, it was believed that the Earth lies on the backs of three elephants, and they stand on a huge turtle.

In more full description ancient Indians imagined the Earth as
hemisphere resting on elephants. The elephants stood on a huge turtle,
and the turtle is on a snake, which, curled up in a ring, closes the near-earth space.

When animals began to move, earthquakes occurred on Earth.

In the view of the ancient Egyptians: below is the Earth (god of the earth Geb), above it is the goddess of the sky (sky goddess Nut), to the left and right is the ship of the sun god (sun god Ra), showing the path of the Sun across the sky from sunrise to sunset.

To the ancient Slavs, the Earth seemed like a large egg, inside of which there was a flat Earth, and in the upper part there was a world of people,
and at the bottom there is a night country. Around the earth, like a protein, there are 9 heavens, each of which had its own purpose - one for the sun and stars, the second for the month, the third for clouds and winds.

IN Ancient Rus' believed that the Earth is flat, that it is such a flat thick pancake that lies on the backs of three huge fish or whales swimming on
the surface of the vast ocean.

The inhabitants of the Babylonian kingdom imagined the Earth in the form of a mountain. On the western slope of which is Babylonia. To the south of Babylon lies the sea, and to the east there are mountains that they did not dare cross. That’s why it seemed to them that Babylonia was located on the western slope of the “world” mountain.

The ancient Greeks imagined the Earth as a disk. The land is washed on all sides by the Ocean River. A copper firmament stretches above the Earth, along which the Sun moves.

The Vikings believed that the world began in northern ice. At the center of the world is a giant ash tree. At its roots there is a cold underground kingdom, in which giants live, the crown is inhabited by gods, and the world of people is located in the middle of the trunk. A squirrel constantly runs around this tree, bringing news to the eagle perched high in the branches, and to the snake hiding in the roots.