The oldest human settlements in the valleys of the Middle Yenisei, Abakan and Chulym
According to the latest data, the early ancestors of humans settled in the vast expanses of Southern Siberia over 300 thousand years ago (site on the Ulalinka River in Gorno-Altaisk). Extensive materials (including skeletal remains) have recently been found during excavations of cave dwellings of Neanderthals, or paleoanthropes. Such caves were discovered in the Altai Mountains (Ust-Kanskaya) and in its foothills (Okladnikov Cave and Denisova Cave). Neanderthal camps were also opened in the Khakass-Minusinsk basin, in the basins of the Yenisei (Dvuglazka Grotto) and Chulym (Proskuryakov Grotto) rivers.
Neanderthal man occupies an intermediate position in the evolution of humanity between ape-man and modern man. He had a large brain capacity, a mobile arm and a stable, upright gait. Neanderthal man made a variety of stone and bone tools with which he hunted animals and birds. He built his dwellings in caves and grottoes and heated them with fire, and sewed clothes from the skins of killed animals. Judging by the remains of skeletons, Neanderthals had an average height, but a very strong physique. They were extremely mobile and lived in small groups - ancestral communities. The Neanderthals had a way of thinking, had primitive speech, and probably formed religious ideas; they buried their dead according to a certain ritual.
In the Dvuglazka Grotto, stone tools made mainly of basalt were found: pointed points, side scrapers, flakes and jagged tools.
Rice. 1. Neanderthal stone tools found in the Two-Eye Grotto. Over 40 thousand years ago
This is a complete set of the main tools of the Neanderthals, with which they hunted a variety of animals, butchered and processed carcasses and skins. These same tools were also used for domestic needs. Fragments of processed bone tools were also found. The remains of animal bones preserved in the grotto make it possible to find out what animals the people who lived here hunted. These are mainly rhinoceroses, horses and donkeys. There are also bones of bison, argali, hare, antelope and cave hyena. The remains of mostly heat-loving animals found together allow us to conclude that 40-100 thousand years ago the climate in Khakassia was warm and dry, the landscape was dominated by steppe and treeless mountain formations. The settlement of Neanderthals, who came to Southern Siberia from the south, occurred during the interglacial period, when a significant warming of the climate occurred.
The appearance of the first tribal communities of Homo sapiens (“reasonable man”) in the Khakass-Minusinsk basin dates, according to scientists, to the final stage of the Ice Age, which is called the Sartan glaciation. The southern border of the continuous ice desert passed north of the mouth of the Podkamennaya Tunguska. Southern Siberia was free of ice. Consequently, it was part of a huge area of Neanderthal settlement, i.e., it was part of the ancestral homeland on which a person of the modern physical type was formed. Most scientists believe that the formation of “Homo sapiens” is a natural result of the development of Neanderthals.
The most ancient settlement of “homo sapiens” is the Upper Paleolithic site of Malaya Syya on the banks of the river. White Iyus. The time of habitation of this Stone Age “village”, consisting of rounded earthen dwellings with domed roofs, was determined thanks to radiocarbon dating of charcoal remaining in the hearths - 34 thousand years ago. Each dwelling with an area of up to 50 sq. m lived several small families. Judging by the animal bones found, the inhabitants of the settlement were mainly engaged in round-up hunting of reindeer, mountain sheep, ibex, saigas, bison, as well as small fur-bearing animals. On the site of a settlement of ancient Siberians, bones of a mammoth and a woolly rhinoceros were found. Stone, bone and horn tools and weapons for hunting (spear and dart tips) were found in the dwellings.
Residents of the settlement in Malaya Syya were the first to mine ores in the mountains (hematite, magnetite and malachite), but used them only to make paints - the powdered ore was mixed with melted fat. Among other items at the site, a musical instrument was found: a pipe and pebbles with various images carved on them. All this well characterizes the high culture of Siberians in the era of the ancient Stone Age. The physical type of the Paleolithic inhabitants of the Middle Yenisei was paleomongoloid.
Along the middle reaches of the Yenisei and in the Abakan valley, archaeologists have discovered over 100 later settlements of people who lived during the Ice Age about 10-20 thousand years ago. These were camps of small matriarchal clan communities. The area where modern Krasnoyarsk is now located was at that time in the tundra zone. In the Chulym-Yenisei basin there was a zone of dry, cold steppes, and in the Khakass-Minusinsk steppes there was a semi-desert.
The Yenisei, which did not have time to cut into its valley then, was much wider than it is now. It was a powerful and swift stream. Its shores attracted large herds of various animals and flocks of birds. Mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, herds of reindeer, musk oxen roamed the cold expanses; there were plenty of arctic foxes and northern rodents - lemmings. To the south, horses, saigas, bison and deer lived in the steppes.
The higher up the Yenisei, the more thermophilic the flora and fauna became. About 30 camps of reindeer hunters were found in the area from the village of Novoselovo to the mouth of the Tuba. The age of the sites (according to the radiocarbon method) is 12-16 thousand years. People lived in light above-ground dwellings such as tents. Their pit hearths were lined with flagstone, which retained heat for a long time. The remains of Upper Paleolithic man's camps were discovered in the valleys of the Tuba and Abakan rivers and on the banks of the Yenisei in the Sayan Mountains. Thus, at that time the Khakass-Minusinsk basin was populated by tribal communities quite densely.
Due to the gradual warming of the climate and the complete disappearance of mammoths and rhinoceroses, Upper Paleolithic man began to hunt reindeer in winter, bulls and wild horses in summer. Gathering edible tubers, berries and plant stems was a great help in nutrition. Late steppe sites were inhabited seasonally. Wandering hunters following herds of large herbivores acquired their first domestic animal - a dog.
The formation of “homo sapiens” is associated with a leap in the development of productive activity. The establishment of truly human rules of behavior ensured the best use of labor skills to create differentiated and diverse tools from stone, horn and bone (Fig. 2).
Rice. 2. Stone and bone tools of modern humans who lived on the Yenisei and Abakan in the Upper Paleolithic era. About 16-12 thousand years ago
These are, first of all, tools characteristic of the Siberian Upper Paleolithic, made from river pebbles split in half: wide side scrapers and “axes”, pointed points, scraper cores, stocks, drills, burins, piercings, adze-shaped and chisel-shaped tools. Spear throwers, darts with horn tips, bone spears with two blades made of sharp stone inserts embedded in threaded grooves, and horn harpoons appeared.
Special techniques for hunting large animals were developed. People learned that if an animal was wounded in the shoulder blade with a spear, then when running the wounded animal began to bleed more and it quickly died. In the parking lot near the village. Kokoreva discovered a bison shoulder blade with a bone tip of a throwing dart stuck in it.
The cohesion of the clan allowed people to organize mass round-ups of large animals, prepare food for the long winter period, protect camps from predators and defend against enemies. The clan community had common property and joint consumption. People learned to sew warm clothes and shoes, and they had relatively comfortable homes. Monuments of high art are becoming more and more common. At one of the parking lots near the village. Maina, at the exit of the Yenisei from the Sayan Mountains, the oldest known unique figurine of a man made of baked clay was discovered on the territory of the former USSR (Fig. 3).
Rice. 3. The oldest sculpture of a person made of baked clay. Made about 16 thousand years ago. Main site
This is the first discovery of ancient ceramics in North Asia. It was created about 16 thousand years ago.
Mesolithic (IX - VI millennium BC) and Neolithic (V - IV millennium BC) periods
With the end of the Sartan glaciation, General climate warming began in Siberia. The tundra retreated to the Arctic Ocean, the taiga moved north, and forest-steppes and steppes with their special flora and fauna spread in the south. Modern landscapes gradually took shape.
The life and culture of Stone Age people and stone processing techniques changed, tools that were new in form and purpose were invented, but ancient crude tools made from large river pebbles were preserved. It is obvious that the South Siberian Mesolithic culture arose in the depths of the culture of the Upper Paleolithic people and on its basis. Yenisei hunters, back in the Paleolithic era, tamed the wolf and acquired their first domestic animal - a dog. During the Mesolithic period, the bow and arrow were invented.
The important advantages of the bow and arrows, which became widespread in the Mesolithic, were:
1) the speed of flight of an arrow is three times higher than the speed of flight of a spear;
2) an increase in the flight distance by three to four times compared to the flight range of the spear, and hence the suddenness of the blow;
3) the appearance of an aiming quality previously unknown in any type of throwing weapon;
4) high rate of fire of the bow, i.e. the possibility of frequent aimed shooting.
Finally, the creation of the bow led to the invention of the bow drill (which existed from the Neolithic to feudalism) and the bow method of making fire by drilling.
In addition to regular hunting, people in the Mesolithic era were engaged in fishing. In the Khakass steppes, camps for hunters and fishermen appeared on the shores of lakes. They already used bone harpoons, hooks and nets woven from plant fibers. Weaving was born. People learned to polish stone. This made it possible to create perfect stone axes and adzes, chisels and knives. Tools with polished blades were much more productive than the previous ones. People learned to make dugout boats, rafts, traps and hunting gear from processed wood. They began to sculpt and bake clay dishes and cook food in them. The latter happened already in the Neolithic period.
It is believed that the climate of Southern Siberia during the Neolithic period was much warmer than today. Forests, forests and groves have grown widely. The steppes had an abundance of shrub vegetation and meadow grasses. This contributed to an increase in the number of forest animals and the appearance of a lot of waterfowl on rivers and lakes. The main objects of hunting were forest animals: elk, red deer and roe deer. This is confirmed by materials from the Neolithic site on the river. Malaya Syya in Kuznetsk Alatau. In the steppe part of the valleys of the Middle Yenisei, Abakan and Chulym, Neolithic sites are almost absent. This may be due to the disappearance of herd herbivores (reindeer, bison, wild horses, etc.).
During the Neolithic era, people's lives changed, their culture was significantly enriched by many new and important achievements in farming methods, and new branches of home production. In different places of the Khakass-Minusinsk basin, individual objects of the Neolithic period were found, for example, polished axes and adzes. Undoubtedly, the stone sculptures of fish discovered on the river are Neolithic. Sisim and near the villages of Lepeshkina and Korelova (Fig. 4).
Rice. 4. Stone sculpture-bait in the form of a Janus-shaped image of a fish. Used for ice fishing. About 7 thousand years ago
Probably, the Bogurtak site on the river belongs to the Neolithic. Tube and the lower layer of the settlement near the village of Bateni, which contained stone tools, bones of wild animals and smooth dishes with marks from rubbing with a bunch of grass. Settlements with Neolithic ceramics were discovered on the right bank of the Yenisei near the village. Unyuk and on the left - near villages
B. Kopeny and Abakan-Perevoz, as well as in the Oglakhtakh mountains - 50 km below the city of Abakan. The Unyuk long-term settlement is located on a floodplain terrace, its layers lie at a depth of about 1.5 m. A significant number of fragments of molded Neolithic vessels, close to ovoid in shape, were discovered here.
Their surface is completely covered with an ornament of pitted impressions, herringbone patterns (applied with a jagged stamp), carved lines, etc. Flint knives, scrapers, hammers, spear and arrowheads, inserts, sandstone tiles and a jade pick were found. Among the stone tools, axes and adzes made of green Sayan jade stand out (Fig. 5).
Rice. 5. An ax made of green jade from the Neolithic era, found on Verkhnyaya Tyoya. Made over 6 thousand years ago
Trampled floors and hearths lined with pebbles have been preserved from above-ground dwellings.
Short-term camps of Neolithic hunters, discovered on the tops of the hills of the Oglakhta Mountains, in a waterless area 9 km from the shore of the Yenisei, are of a different nature. Under the turf on the rocky outcrop lay fragments of convex-bottomed vessels, animal bones, arrowheads, knives, scrapers, cores and chips. Most objects made from flint are small in size. Prismatic cores, chips and flakes indicate the production of stone objects on site. The raw materials were pebbles and nodules of siliceous and quartzite rocks brought from afar. Phalanges of a domestic horse and a shoulder blade of a sheep were also found here. On the Oglakhtinsky hills there were temporary camps of people who came here to hunt roe deer, foxes, hares, as well as to shoot eagles and hawks, the plumage of which was fixed on arrow shafts.
Two Neolithic burials are known near the village. Baikalova and in the village of Bateni on the Yenisei. In Cheryomushny Log near Baikalova, on the right bank of the Yenisei, the grave of a man about thirty years old of the paleo-Mongoloid type was found. There were many objects in the hole near the skeleton. An awl, two needles, a knife for skinning animals, and a handle of a liner knife with a long groove decorated with cuts were made from deer bones. Here also lay two polished axes made of slate and dark green jade, two slate adzes and a chisel, a pestle, a sandstone block, a shell bead and a crane's beak.
The burial in the village of Bateni was discovered by chance, and therefore the position of the skeleton was disturbed and remained unclear. It was not possible to determine the gender and exact identity of the person from the skull. Anthropologists suggest that this was a person either with mixed Caucasoid and Mongoloid characteristics, or close to representatives of the southern Melanesian race. The burial preserved dagger-shaped tools made from elk bones, an antler figured rod, three bone plates with traces of processing, and a flake from a boulder. In addition, the game accessories were found here: four roe deer astragals and eight ram astragals. Finds of artifacts made from the bones of deer, elk, and roe deer astragalus indicate that hunting in the early Neolithic was still the main branch of the economy, since these items were made from the bones of wild animals.
In Late Neolithic sites, along with the bones of wild animals, bones of domestic animals are found (horses and sheep in the Oglakhta site and astragalus of rams in the Batenevsky burial).
Cattle breeding was brought to Southern Siberia by newcomer groups of people. They came from the southwest, most likely from the Caspian region, through the Southern Urals. This happened back in the Neolithic, at the end of the 4th millennium BC. e., when tribes of hunters and fishermen lived in the surrounding forest zone. Thus, already at the end of the Stone Age, the transition from the ancient form of appropriating economy (hunting, fishing and gathering) to a more productive producing economy began in Khakassia. Probably, by that time the need of the South Siberian steppe tribes to create a productive economy had already matured.
If the ancient Neolithic population of Southern Siberia received domestic horses, large and small livestock from the outside, then the development of forms of cattle breeding in the harsh Siberian climate and landscape followed the accumulation of their own experience, and this process cannot be explained only by the borrowing of livestock from the outside. There is no data yet on the penetration of agriculture into the Khakass-Minusinsk basin during the Late Neolithic period. Probably, at this time, a hunting-pastoral type of production economy with additional trades in the form of fishing and gathering was taking shape here. Thus began the first major social division of labor - the separation of the pastoral tribes of Southern Siberia from the mass of hunters and fishermen of forest-steppe and taiga Siberia.
According to anthropologists, in the late Neolithic on the Middle Yenisei, in the vicinity of the ancient Mongoloid population, people of the Caucasian type appeared for the first time, coming from the south or west. In the resulting contact zone, where different ethnic groups of people interacted, one can assume a greater complexity of ideology and beliefs.
In the late Neolithic, in the Middle Yenisei basin, the vibrant Tazma culture arose (beginning of the 3rd millennium BC) - a culture of the most ancient stone sculptures of Asia, menhirs and faces. It owes its name to the Tazmin ulus on the river. Bure, where sanctuaries with statues were first excavated. It includes not only statues and menhirs in the shape of animal phalluses, but also the most ancient sanctuaries, as well as spirit masks, figures of elk and bulls painted in ocher on the rocks. Sanctuaries, sculptural and pictorial images of deities and spirits are associated with the cult of productive nature, with cosmogonic ideas about the vertical universe and its three worlds (upper, middle and lower) and with the cult of deities of the earth and water elements.
Some steles and rocks depict ancient four-wheeled carts, sometimes drawn by bulls. All of them are brought down with the cult of the sun and thunder. On other sculptures there are carved drawings of solar ships. These sacred images resemble real prototypes that arose in Mesopotamia in the 4th - early 3rd millennium BC. e. The Tazma culture is a unique phenomenon in the history of the ancient tribes of Siberia and Central Asia at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. In North Asia, a unique center of production economy has emerged. On its basis, the vibrant cultures of the South Siberian Bronze Age were formed.
The Paleolithic is the first historical period of the Stone Age from the beginning of the use of stone tools by hominids (genus Homo) (about 2.5 million years ago) until the advent of agriculture by humans around the 10th millennium BC. e. . Isolated in 1865 by John Lubbock. The Paleolithic is the era of the existence of fossil humans, as well as fossil, now extinct animal species. It occupies most (about 99%) of the time of human existence and coincides with two large geological epochs of the Cenozoic era - the Pliocene and Pleistocene.
In the Paleolithic era, the Earth's climate, its flora and fauna were significantly different from modern ones. People of the Paleolithic era lived in small primitive communities and used only chipped stone tools, not yet knowing how to polish them and make pottery - ceramics. However, in addition to stone tools, tools were also made from bone, leather, wood and other materials of plant origin. They hunted and gathered plant foods. Fishing was just beginning to emerge, and agriculture and cattle breeding were unknown.
The beginning of the Paleolithic (2.5 million years ago) coincides with the appearance on Earth of the most ancient ape-like people, archanthropes such as Olduvai Homo habilis. At the end of the Paleolithic, the evolution of hominids ends with the appearance of the modern species of people ( Homo sapiens). At the very end of the Paleolithic, people began to create ancient works of art, and signs of the existence of religious cults appeared, such as rituals and burials. The Paleolithic climate changed several times from glacial to interglacial periods, becoming warmer and colder.
The end of the Paleolithic dates back to approximately 12-10 thousand years ago. This is the time of transition to the Mesolithic - an intermediate era between the Paleolithic and Neolithic.
The Paleolithic is conventionally divided into Lower and Upper, although many researchers also distinguish the Middle Paleolithic from the Lower Paleolithic. More detailed divisions of the Upper or Late Paleolithic are only local in nature, since the various archaeological cultures of this period are not represented everywhere. The time boundaries between divisions in different regions may also differ, since archaeological cultures did not succeed each other at the same time.
Lower Paleolithic
Lower Paleolithic
1) Olduvai culture(2.6 million - 900 thousand years ago). The main monuments are located on the territory East Africa. Sites that were deliberately cleared were discovered, apparently for the construction of housing. The oldest of the sites of the Olduvai era, where the remains of Homo habilis were found - West Gona in Ethiopia (2.8 - 2.4 million years ago), as well as a site Koobi-Fora in Kenya (2 million years ago). The imperfection of the tools of that period is explained by the imperfection of processing technology and the imperfection of the physical structure of people.
Olduvai is characterized by 3 types of weapons:
a) Polyhedra (spheroids)- roughly hewn round stones with many edges, which served mainly as a striking tool for processing plant and animal food.
b) Made using retouching techniques. Stone flakes were first made, the working edge of which was corrected with small blows. They did not have stable forms and among them there were many small ones. They were used for cutting up carcasses.
V) Choppers - tools for cutting and chopping functions, then these were the most common tools that were made from pebbles, the top or edge of which has been cut off by several successive blows. Chopping- the same tools, but processed on both sides. Used to make tools cores.
2) Abbeville(1.5 million - 300 thousand years ago). The emergence of universal tools, such as hand chopped(double-sided tool). The hand ax was used for both chopping and cutting. Pebble tools are actively used.
3) Ashel(1.6 million - 150 thousand years ago). There is a change in stone processing technology. Techniques appear klekton», « Levallois" Additional splitting tools appear, made from bone and horn. The appearance of stone knives and scrapers. Beginning to use fire.
Middle Paleolithic
Homo erectus remained master of the Earth for about one and a half million years. Taking into account its unusually wide distribution in Old World, this is quite a sufficient period for any biological species for individual populations to continue to evolve in different directions. The greatest diversity of Homo erectus subspecies lived in Africa and adjacent parts of Asia and Europe. Here, about 200-300 thousand years ago, new species of people appeared , whose brain volume was not inferior to modern ones. First of all it was Neanderthals, which some experts consider an early subspecies of modern humans (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis), while others consider them a special species (Homo neanderthalensis).
Unlike Homo erectus and modern humans, Neanderthals were unable or did not have time to spread throughout the Old World. For some time they were, if not the only, then the predominant species hominid only in Europe, Central Asia, on Middle East and in North Africa. Neanderthals created a new material culture, which, after the place of the first finds, is called Mousterian. Improvement in stone processing technology occurred primarily due to the preliminary preparation of specially shaped cores from flint, from which thin and sharp flakes were pressed and chipped . Such tools were smaller than the Acheulian ones and more varied in appearance.
Modern humans (Homo sapiens), who appeared somewhat later (about 100 thousand years ago) in North Africa, used wooden handles to fasten flint flakes of the Mousterian type. This is how another archaeological culture appeared - aterian, the creators of which were the first or one of the first to use spear And harpoon with stone tip , and later - and onion, the arrows for which also had a stone tip. The use of composite (wood and stone) tools and weapons later made it possible to switch to the use of very small flint flakes - microliths. The creation of more powerful weapons led to a transition to hunting larger animals that cannot be killed with wooden lances without a tip, up to mammoths caught in ingenious traps from which it is impossible to escape . This, in turn, changed the social organization of human communities, which became more numerous, since they could feed more people in the same territory and to hunt large animals required the efforts of more hunters, several dozen people . A large body of evidence shows that in the Middle Paleolithic people began to exchange goods among themselves, such as ocher or flint for making tools , no later than 120 thousand years ago . AND Neanderthals, And Homo sapiens Middle Paleolithic cared for elderly members of society .
As in modern hunter-gatherer societies, such as pygmies, their members were subordinate to society as a whole . However, it is believed that in most communities its members were still relatively equal, and decisions were made by majority vote . Such communities rarely or never became involved in organized violence between groups, i.e. wars . This was not an indicator of civilization, since even some monkeys, for example pygmy chimpanzee, capable of organizing similar communities .
Appearance in the Middle Paleolithic throwing weapons, at first, pikes and spears with tips, and ambush hunting increased both the likelihood of a fatal mistake and the emergence of a reason for clashes, and the danger of a voluntary or involuntary invasion of someone else's territory. The defenders had the advantage of more reliable shelters and organization of ambushes, so even the predominant number of attackers was not always the decisive factor for victory in clashes. Under such conditions, aggression was more likely to result in the depletion of the enemy's forces than in the territorial acquisitions necessary to support a large community. Therefore, peaceful relations between neighbors, cooperation and trade exchange became more profitable . At the same time, in some communities, by the end of the Middle Paleolithic, relatively complex hierarchically organized social structures had already arisen, for example, such as among the inhabitants Sungiri who lived in conditions that allowed them to feed relatively many people .
In the Middle Paleolithic, burials appeared, such as graves Neanderthals V Krapine (Croatia), whose age is about 130 thousand years. This indicates the emergence of ideas about the afterlife and magical rituals . The bones of the buried show traces of post-mortem cleansing of muscle tissue, possibly for ritual purposes. There is evidence that Neanderthals had a cult bear, that is totemism. About 70 thousand years ago in Africa there was a cult python, similar to the one now known Bushmen. No less than 30 thousand years ago the first shamans, and they were women . This is how it was born matriarchy.
Along with rituals and burials, art also appeared, in particular images of women, now called Venuses (for example, Venus from Tan-Tan, created more than 300 thousand years ago), man-beasts or jewelry in the form of mother-of-pearl beads from caves South Africa, whose age is more than 75 thousand years . Widely used ocher, mineral paint used for magical body painting and creating rock paintings .
Significant social and technological progress determined the evolutionary advantages of Homo sapiens, which turned out to be relatively more susceptible to it. It was this species that quickly spread both in the Old and New World(see article Early human migrations). Back to top Upper Paleolithic modern people have completely supplanted or assimilated Neanderthals, erectus and other related species, finding themselves in the sense of biological evolution without competition and remaining the only species of the genus Homo on the entire planet. The further development of Homo sapiens was associated with the unevenness of social and technological progress in different populations of this species, which created not one or two, like previous species of people, but many different material cultures, the number of which, starting from the Upper Paleolithic, increased at an ever-increasing speed. Separate archaeological cultures conditionally correspond to different ethnic groups of people.
Paleolithic
Paleolithic monuments of the West Siberian Plain. To date, more than thirty Paleolithic sites are known in this territory. This is significantly less than in the areas adjacent to the plain.
Most of the sites date back to the Late Paleolithic. Based on currently available radiocarbon dates, the Late Paleolithic localities of the West Siberian Plain can be divided into three conditional groups.
First of all - in 1896 - the Tomsk site was opened on the territory of Tomsk. She was accidentally discovered by zoologist N.F. Kashchenko thanks to the finds of large mammoth bones. N.F. Kashchenko drew attention to the presence of coals and traces of fire in the soil. He realized that an ancient human site had been discovered, and began excavating it, which he carried out so thoroughly that it is still considered exemplary. Excavation plans were drawn up, the depth of the finds was recorded, all samples of interest to the researcher were taken for analysis and stored. Based on the coals, the age of the site was determined to be 18.3 ± 1 thousand years. N.F. Kashchenko collected 200 small flint tools and the bones of one mammoth on an area of 40 m2. The researcher came to the following conclusions: 1) the stay was short-term (several days); 2) one mammoth was killed, part of which was eaten on the spot; 3) the hunters left, taking with them separate parts of the carcass; 4) the main part of the mammoth remained uncut (it lay on its left side).
The Wolf Mane monument is located in the Kargatsky district of the Novosibirsk region. It was discovered in 1957 by local residents and studied by paleontologists and geologists. Archaeological excavations were carried out in 1967 and 1968. under the leadership of A.P. Okladnikova. In 1975, the monument was examined by V.I. Molodin, and since 1991 - V.N. Zenin. The monument is multi-temporal: from 17,800 ± 100 to 11,090 ± 120 years. During excavations, large accumulations of animal bones were found. They belonged to about fifty individuals of mammoths and one wild horse; Single bones of bison and wolf were found. Some of the bones show traces of human activity; many fragments could serve as tools.
In the first year of excavations, no flint tools were found, so A.P. Okladnikov even spoke of a “bone Paleolithic” specific to this territory. In the second year of research, two small flint flakes were discovered among the bones. This indicated that the population knew flint, but flint tools, apparently, were in great short supply and were very much valued. Now the collection consists of 37 stone items, half of which are tools. A.P. Okladnikov believed that here archaeologists were dealing with a large settlement of Paleolithic man. Further excavations of the monument are complicated by the fact that a modern village is located above it.
At the Chernoozerye II settlement, excavations were carried out in 1968 - 1971. V.F. Gening and V.T. Petrin. The monument is located on the banks of the Irtysh in the Sargat district of the Omsk region. The cultural layer of the site is divided by sterile layers into three horizons, which indicates the repeated cessation and resumption of life in the settlement. During the research, stone tools were discovered, and the remains of dwellings with large round hearths were identified. One rectangular dwelling had an area of 10 m. In its center there was an oval pit-hearth. In total, 11 hearths were discovered at the site, many of which were heated by bones. Tools made from quartz pebbles were found. Stone tools of all horizons are extremely close to each other and are represented by scrapers and blades. Particularly noteworthy are the sites where the tools were made. Fragments of bones of various animals (elk, bull, horse, fox, hare) and fish were discovered. No mammoth bones were found here. The settlement, according to geologist S.M. Tseitlin, dates back to 10.8 - 12 thousand years ago. There is also a radiocarbon date for this site - 14,500 ± 500 years.
The settlement of Chernoozerye II yielded extremely interesting finds. Objects of art have been discovered here - so far the only ones for the Paleolithic of Western Siberia. These are the remains of two bone tiaras with a polished front surface. They have through holes drilled for attachment to a headdress. The edges of the tiaras are decorated with a zigzag line. An excellent example of bone-carving art is the dagger. On its edges there are grooves for flint inserts. In the central part there is a longitudinal line made of closely adjacent holes and three diamonds.
The Vengerovo-5 monument in the Novosibirsk region on the bank of the river is extremely interesting. Tartas. Research here was carried out under the leadership of V.I. Molodin. During excavations of a later ground burial ground, a hole about 2 m deep was discovered. It was filled with bones and skulls of bison, interspersed with stone tools. At the very bottom, bones and fish scales were found. The filling of the pit was separated by sterile layers. Apparently the pit was used periodically. V.I. Molodin suggested that the pit had no economic purpose and, most likely, is the remains of an ancient sanctuary. The monument is synchronous with the Chernoozerye II and Volchya Griva sites.
Cultural and economic characteristics of the Paleolithic of the West Siberian Plain.
Materials obtained in recent years suggest that the settlement of the West Siberian Plain began in the southern and southeastern regions 100 - 120 thousand years ago, and possibly even earlier. It came from Altai, Kazakhstan and, probably, from Central Asia. The Paleolithic period ended 10-11 thousand years ago.
The youngest site of this era is Chernoozerye II. It can be considered transitional to the Mesolithic period.
The Upper Paleolithic period is the time of human penetration into the central and southwestern part of the West Siberian Plain. People who were engaged in hunting came here after the animals that moved from the areas of the mountain frame. These animals were mammoth, bison, wild horse, etc. Obviously, initially people came here for a short time. It was difficult to live permanently in Western Siberia due to the lack of good-quality stone raw materials for making tools, and it was still impossible to make expeditions for it from permanent habitats. Therefore, the hunters chose a convenient site for themselves and repeatedly settled for a certain period, building dwellings with fireplaces here. An example of this is the Chernoozerye II monument, the cultural layer of which was interrupted by sterile layers. It is possible that we had to leave due to spring floods. That is why all found Paleolithic sites are divided into two groups: 1) short-term sites, where people lived for only a few days; 2) places where people periodically engaged in economic activities, at times completely leaving the site and then returning.
The population was engaged in hunting, mainly large animals. But, judging by the bone remains, they also ate hares, saigas, etc. At the end of the Upper Paleolithic, people also engaged in fishing (fish bones and scales appeared among the remains). Of course, the ancient population of Western Siberia could also have been involved in gathering, but there is no archaeological evidence for this yet.
On the territory of Russia, Upper Paleolithic burials have been discovered at a number of sites, but they are still unknown on the territory of the West Siberian Plain. The absence of burials does not give us the opportunity to judge the anthropological characteristics of the population of Western Siberia in the Paleolithic era.
MESOLITHIC
There is no unambiguous relationship to the use of the term Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) in archeology. Some scientists consider it unlawful to single out this stage in the development of the ancient cultures of Siberia and the Far East, therefore, in their periodizations, the final stage of the Late Paleolithic is immediately followed by the Neolithic. Other researchers (L.P. Khlobystan) believe that Pleistocene (Paleolithic) cultures replaced the Holocene, so-called. Epipaleolithic cultures. The Epipaleolithic is no longer the Paleolithic, but what immediately followed it, preserving the features of Paleolithic cultures.
Without going into a discussion on this matter, let us explain that, highlighting the Mesolithic as a separate period in the archeology of the West Siberian Plain, we relied precisely on a complex of features, including archaeological ones (for example, the nature of the stone industry). By the Mesolithic of the West Siberian Plain we understand the phase of human development and the forms of its socio-economic and environmental relations. This phase was limited, on the one hand, by the change of geological epochs (Pleistocene to Holocene), when the landscape and climatic environment of humans radically changed, which entailed a qualitative change in the forms of adaptation to new conditions, and on the other hand, by the appearance of ceramics and polished stone tools, already characteristic of the Neolithic era.
The early Holocene is a great time of fundamental discoveries in human history. The population of many regions of the Earth has switched to a sedentary lifestyle. Along with the further improvement of stone processing techniques, the bow and arrow became widespread. In the Near and Middle East, as well as in certain regions of Central Asia, during this period the first human experiments in the domestication of many species of plants and animals were carried out. In Siberia this was not yet possible due to too harsh conditions, so only the dog was domesticated here. Tools for mass fishing - nets - appeared. Sleighs and boats with oars became widespread.
So, in Western Siberia, the Paleolithic era in the X - VIII millennium BC. replaced by the Mesolithic. The absolute dates given here are quite arbitrary, since the formation of new traditions was associated with global climate changes, which entailed a radical change in landscapes and forms of their development by man. These climatic changes occurred over vast areas of Western Siberia, firstly, gradually, and secondly, unevenly.
However, the Ice Age ended, and climatic conditions became similar to modern ones. Mammoths and other representatives of the “mammoth fauna” disappeared.
Several Mesolithic monuments are known on the territory of the West Siberian Plain. They were found on the Yamal Peninsula, in the Ishim-Tobolsk region, in the Barabinsk forest-steppe, on the Middle Irtysh and in the Kuznetsk Basin. These monuments are brought together by the fact that the nature of the stone tools changed. Relatively large forms were replaced by miniature tools. The smallest knife-like plates served as inserts in bone and stone foundations. It can be assumed that for the forest-steppe of Western Siberia, with its developed technology of combined tools, such a turn of events facilitated human adaptation to new conditions. However, the shortage of stone raw materials remained very acute.
During the Mesolithic era, a new stage of economic development of the West Siberian Plain began. Man widely used bows and arrows, with which he hunted fast-moving animals. Its main prey was deer and elk. The importance of fishing has increased. A new technique for making tools, the insert tool, became widespread. All these cultural elements were laid down at the very end of the Paleolithic, but became widespread precisely in the Mesolithic.
A new wave of settlement of the West Siberian Plain came from the south, from Kazakhstan and the Urals.
The man moved far to the north. The peculiarities of the region's settlement are clearly visible when compared with the neighboring Trans-Urals. In the Trans-Urals, which was sparsely populated during the Paleolithic era, a large number of Mesolithic sites have been discovered. A significant number of stone tools made from local material were found here. On the territory of the West Siberian Plain, few sites that can be attributed to the Mesolithic era have been found. The parking lots are unevenly distributed: closer to the Trans-Urals there are much more of them. Thus, the main flow of population from the south was directed to the Urals and much less towards Western Siberia.
Sites sometimes began to be located in groups on the terraces of rivers and lakes. The number of settlements in the group could be significant. An example is the Yuryinsky Lakes, located in the Tyumen region on the border with the Trans-Urals. More than 30 settlements have been discovered here at close distances from each other.
In Yamal, L.P. Khlobystin explored the location of Korchagi 16 (the right bank of the Ob River below the city of Salekhard). A complex of tools was found here, including several cores, a large scraper and scrapers. Near this accumulation, a carbonaceous layer was discovered, which in the section lies higher than the deposits containing Mesolithic finds (i.e., it can be either synchronous with them or younger). The absolute age of the coal selected from this layer is 7,260 (± 80) years ago.
A group of sites was discovered in the taiga zone - on the river. Conde. Half-dugouts and above-ground dwellings have been excavated here. One of them is two-chamber, with a corridor and a fireplace. The cultural layer of the settlements was powerful and contained several thousand small stone tools.
Paleolithic era
Paleolithic (ancient Stone Age) got its name from the Greek words "paleo" - ancient and "lithos" - stone. This is the first and longest period of human history, beginning about two million years ago.
Human settlement of Siberia. The process of settlement of Siberia by Early Paleotic man was very long and complex. It was carried out from the regions of Middle, Central and East Asia neighboring Siberia and, possibly, through the Southern Urals from Eastern Europe.
Finds made by archaeologists give us the opportunity to judge what tools ancient people used. These were crude, primitive, chopping tools, almost unworked, made from flakes of large stones by beating. At the same time, ancient man already knew how to make fire by friction, drilling, carving Rozin V.M. Culturology. 2nd ed., revised. and additional - M.: Gardariki, 2003 - 189 p.. This happens in the second half of the Early Paleolithic, when sharp climate fluctuations begin and cooling occurs.
Mastery of stone and fire allowed man to move on to the use of bone and wood, to acquire some independence and sedentarism. Ancient people used natural shelters as their homes: grottoes, rock overhangs, gorges. And at sites where there were no such shelters, huts and canopies were probably built from tree branches.
The penetration of the first people into the southern and middle Urals is evidenced by the Elniki II site (near the Sylva River), whose age is about 250-350 thousand years. culture siberia people
To date, no sites of the Paleolithic period have been discovered on the territory of the Tyumen region. One can assume: either they were not found, or the person came here much later. But using the example of the location of archaeological sites in Kazakhstan, Central Asia and Eastern Siberia, we can recreate the picture of the settlement of primitive man in the east of our country.
Tools of labor of ancient man. If earlier a person used his first tools by simply grabbing them with his hand, then later these tools were attached to wooden handles. Currently, archaeologists use a special method for studying the tools of ancient people, called traceology. It lies in the fact that scientists, based on the wear of the working surface of the tool, draw a conclusion about what it was intended for. Belik A.A. Culturology. Anthropological theories of cultures. - M.: Russian state. humanist univ., 2009 - 145 p.
Middle Paleolithic. At the same time, in addition to stone products, people began to widely use materials such as bone and wood, making awls, arrowheads, and points from them. People no longer go far from their places of residence, but instead develop nearby territories. Archaeologists have discovered cultural layers reaching a depth of up to 4 meters in places where people lived at that time. This indicates a long stay of people in these places. During this period, man began to advance to the middle and northern Urals.
The first human burials date back to the Middle Paleolithic era. The fact that the dead were buried near their homes indicates the emergence of the first animistic ideas. (Animism - from the Latin anima - soul, a pre-scientific concept of primitive peoples, according to which every thing has a soul. Animism underlies religious beliefs).
Late Paleolithic. Neanderthal man in the late Paleolithic era turns into a person of a modern physical type, almost no different from us.
The Late Paleolithic era lasted from 40 to 10 thousand years BC. This is the time of formation of the main human races.
Man is improving the forms of hunting: in addition to the old collective driven form, individual ones also appear, this is evidenced by the throwing weapons they use: darts, harpoons, spears. House construction is improving, and long-term dwellings are appearing, buried in the ground.
Rock paintings. Ideological ideas become more complex - the first rock paintings appear in caves. These are images of animals: mammoth, horse, bull, camel; female figures, abstract drawings.
In the late Paleolithic, forms of primitive religion arose: animism, totemism and magic.
Accumulated archaeological, ethnographic, folklore materials and written sources make it possible to connect the origin of the term “Siberia” with the self-name of one of the ethnic groups that inhabited from the end of the 1st millennium BC. e. part of the territory of the forest-steppe Irtysh region. Such an ethnic group, called “Siberia,” were the ancestors of the ancient Ugrians, who entered into long-term interaction with other ethnic communities of Western Siberia and Kazakhstan (including Turkic-speaking ones).
Siberia: general information
The word “Siberia”, which initially meant only an ethnonym, was then assigned to the fortified settlement of the Sipyrs on the banks of the Irtysh. In the first half of the 13th century. Mongol military leaders knew the “forest people Shibir”. From the second half of the 13th century. and in the 14th century Siberia is already widely found as the name of a certain territory to the north of the possessions Golden Horde rulers. In the 15th century in Russian chronicles the “Siberian land” is known and its location is quite clearly characterized - the region along the lower reaches of the Tobol and the middle reaches of the Irtysh, where, obviously, the descendants of the ancient Sipyrs lived, largely assimilated by Turkic elements, and therefore differed from other groups of Ugrians of the lower Irtysh and Priobye. With the emergence at the end of the 15th century. statehood of the Tobolsk Tatars and Turkified Sipyr Ugrians, “Siberia” began to be called the state - the Siberian Khanate. Along with the Siberian Khanate in the territory east of the Urals in the 16th century. The Tyumen Khanate, Yugra and Mangazeya were known.
After the Russian conquest of the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates on the Volga, the time came to advance into Siberia, which began with the campaign of Ermak Timofeevich in 1582. The arrival of the Russians was ahead of the Europeans' exploration of the continental parts of the New World. In the 17th-18th centuries, Russian pioneers and settlers walked east through Siberia to the Pacific Ocean. First, Central Siberia, covered with forests (taiga), was settled, and then, with the construction of fortresses and the subjugation of nomadic tribes, steppe Southern Siberia.
In the Russian Empire, Siberia was an agricultural province and a place of exile and hard labor. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Trans-Siberian Railway was built, which gave a significant impetus to the economic development of Siberia and made it possible to resettle more than 3 million people here. During Soviet times, there was a decline in agricultural production and an increase in the role of Siberia as a source of minerals and hydropower.
Stone Age
In the Pleistocene of Northern Asia, the development of five glaciations was noted:
Shaitan (500-400 thousand years from now),
Samarovsky (280-200 thousand years),
Tazovsky 160-130 thousand years),
Zyryansky (100-55 thousand years),
Sartan (5-10 thousand years).
The first glaciation (Lower Pleistocene) is compared on the classical Alpine scale with the Mindel glaciation of Western Europe, the two subsequent (Middle Pleistocene) - with the Rissky and the last two (Upper Pleistocene) - with the Wurm. Between glaciations, warm interglacial stages are distinguished: Tobolsk (300 thousand years), Shirta (200-160 thousand years), Kazantsevsky (130-100 thousand years) and Karginsky (55-25 thousand years).
During the Ice Age, the climate of Siberia was cold and dry. The lack of humidity prevented the accumulation of thick snow and ice layers. Therefore, the glaciers here were not as huge as in Europe. Along the outskirts of the glacier, vast tundra-steppes stretched for hundreds of kilometers, turning into forest-steppe to the south. During interglacial times, the climate became significantly warmer and humidified. Glaciers melted, the tundra moved north. The dominant position in the vegetation cover was occupied by dark coniferous and broad-leaved forests. Numerous herds of herbivores grazed in the vast Siberian expanses: mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, reindeer, bison, and wild horses. In such natural conditions, the exploration of Siberia by primitive man began. But nature is not just the background against which the ancient history of the Siberian tribes unfolded, but the necessary material basis for their existence, from which man drew all the necessary life resources - food, clothing, shelter, warmth, light.
The time of the initial settlement of the southern regions of Siberia, according to the latest data, is determined by the second half of the Middle Pleistocene (Taz and Kazantsev times). In archaeological terms, it corresponds to the end of the Acheulian - the beginning of the Mousterian within the Early (Lower) Paleolithic.
The bearer of the Late Acheulean and Mousterian traditions was Neanderthal man - Homo neandertalensis. The basis of his economy was hunting, which became a reliable and main source of livelihood. The relative imperfection of hunting weapons was largely compensated by both the abundance of Pleistocene fauna and collective forms of hunting. They hunted mainly mammoths, rhinoceroses, horses, and deer. Along with hunting, gathering was widespread. Plant foods occupied a significant place in the diet of ancient people.
Maintaining a collective hunting-gathering economy and living together in cave shelters required paleoanthropes to have a fairly developed social organization, the existence of a natural division of labor by gender and age, certain norms for the distribution of food, and orderly sexual intercourse. All this makes us think that in the Mousterian, as in the late Acheulean, people lived socially, in close-knit groups-communities, in which, gradually, by the end of the Early Paleolithic, tribal relations developed. Between forty and thirty thousand years ago, a new stage in the development of the Stone Age began - the late (Upper) Paleolithic. The emergence of a person of a modern physical type - the neoanthrope - is associated with its beginning.
Technical discoveries and improvements, while accelerating the overall pace of development of human society, at the same time more clearly revealed local differences in the development of primitive culture. Based on the characteristics of the stone implements (the shape of the products, technical features, methods of their design), archaeologists establish territorial and chronological groupings of Late Paleolithic monuments, distinguishing them into special archaeological cultures.
The most striking Late Paleolithic monuments of Siberia are the sites of Malta and Buret in the Angara region. These are long-term settlements connected by the unity of culture with durable semi-dugout dwellings, built using the bones of large animals, wood and stone slabs. The stone industry is characterized by prismatic cores; points, piercings, cutters, carvers and knives made from blades, as well as scrapers and chisel tools from flakes. A distinctive feature of the Malta-Buret culture is highly developed Paleolithic art: female figurines carved from mammoth tusk and bone with emphasized gender characteristics (some of them are depicted dressed in fur clothing such as overalls), figurines of flying and swimming birds, and various ornamented decorations.
Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) is a new progressive stage in human history. The beginning of the Mesolithic generally coincides with the beginning of the modern geological era - the Holocene. About 10 thousand years ago, with the final retreat of the glacier, dramatic changes in climate, landscape and wildlife occurred.
A new historical era - the Neolithic (New Stone Age), which began in Siberia 7-6 thousand years ago, coincides with the so-called Holocene climatic optimum. Over most of the territory of Siberia, forests rich in animals and birds are widespread. The deep rivers abounded in fish. The climate was much warmer and milder than today. Siberian nature in the New Stone Age was favorable to the life of primitive hunters and fishermen. And it is no coincidence that at this time people are exploring the most remote corners of Northern Asia.
The Neolithic era is usually called the time of the Neolithic revolution. In the Neolithic, only the population of the Far East, along with hunting and fishing, began to engage in agriculture. In the rest of Siberia, the economy remained appropriative throughout the Neolithic era. The remoteness from the primary centers of the production economy and less favorable natural conditions had an effect. However, the absence of “revolutionary” changes in the economy did not exclude the progress of hunting and fishing, and the technology of manufacturing tools. Effective hunting weapons - the bow and arrow - became widespread. Productive net fishing in many areas became the leading branch of the economy, which made it possible to transition to a relatively sedentary lifestyle. The population of the most remote Siberian regions is mastering new methods of stone processing: grinding, drilling, sawing.
A polished stone ax for the development of forest areas became one of the main tools, and pottery appeared. It is these economic and technological achievements that constitute the historical content of the Siberian Neolithic.
The chronological framework of the Neolithic era is different for individual regions of Siberia. Beginning 7-6 thousand years ago, the Neolithic in the III-II millennia BC. e. almost everywhere it is replaced by the era of early metal, but in Chukotka and Kamchatka it continues until the 1st millennium BC. e.
Over the course of three millennia of the Neolithic era, man completely mastered the entire territory of Northern Asia. Neolithic settlements have even been discovered on the Arctic coast. The diversity of natural conditions from the Urals to Chukotka largely predetermined the formation of various cultural and economic complexes that corresponded to the specific landscape and climatic conditions of such regions as Western, Eastern and North-Eastern Siberia, and the Far East. Within the framework of these unique historical and ethnographic areas of the New Stone Age, numerous archaeological cultures were formed, marked by the unity of territory, economy, and main types of tools and ceramics.
Within Western Siberia, archaeologists distinguish several archaeological cultures: the Eastern Ural - in the forest Trans-Urals and adjacent areas of Western Siberia, the Middle Irtysh - in the middle reaches of the Irtysh, the Upper Ob - in the forest-steppe Ob region.
The presence of long-term settlements with semi-dugouts in Western Siberia indicates the sedentism of the Neolithic population. The large number of hunting tools and processing of prey indicates its significant role in the local economy. The main object of hunting was elk, and this was reflected in fine art. The image of a moose is embodied in small plastic works from the Trans-Urals and in stone engravings of the Tomsk Pisanitsa. Apparently, these images were based on primitive hunting magic.
The natural-geographic border separating Western Siberia from Eastern Siberia has been a cultural-ethnic border at almost all times. In the Neolithic era, to the east of the Yenisei, a huge array of archaeological cultures was formed, stretching to the Pacific Ocean, similar in economic structure and, possibly, related in origin. The Neolithic monuments of the Baikal region have been most fully studied. Regional periodization of the Baikal Neolithic, developed by A.P. Okladnikov, became a support for the entire Eastern Siberia.
In the early Neolithic Isakov culture (IV millennium BC), Paleolithic traditions are still felt, but polished adzes, double-sided arrowheads and pottery give the Isakov complexes a completely Neolithic appearance. In the era of the developed Neolithic, the Isakov culture was replaced by the Serov culture. The bearers of the Kitoi culture who replaced the Serovites (second half of the 3rd millennium BC) inherited from their predecessors the techniques of making and dyeing ceramics, but somewhat reoriented their economy, which was reflected in the production equipment. The constant search for game forced the Baikal residents to lead a semi-nomadic lifestyle. They did not have long-term settlements and dwellings like Western Siberian half-dugouts. At the sites they left behind, archaeologists can only find numerous fireplaces and traces of light portable dwellings such as the plague. Tribes close to the Baikal people in culture and way of life lived in Yakutia.
During the Neolithic era, the extreme northeastern regions of Siberia remained for a long time the area of distribution of surviving Mesolithic traditions. Only in the II-I millennia BC. e. the northeastern Neolithic cultures (Tarya in Kamchatka and North Chukotka in Chukotka) acquire a fully developed appearance. The first clay vessels, polished axes and a variety of finely processed stone knives and scrapers, arrowheads and spears appear.
The economic complexes that developed in Siberia, the originality of which was largely determined by differences in the natural environment, in turn predetermined the characteristics of the social organization of ancient societies. Paleosociological analysis of settlements, dwellings and burial grounds makes it possible to establish the number and nature of production teams of the Neolithic era. Among the semi-sedentary hunters of the tundra and East Siberian taiga, these were economically independent families and associations of several families of up to 21-25 people. The fishermen and farmers of the Far East had large (up to 50 or more people) groups united by joint food production. It was in such large labor collectives that a clear clan organization developed. Connected by common origin and exogamous customs, family economic and clan groups united into tribes - the highest socio-territorial organization of the Neolithic.
Ethnocultural areas of Siberia
During the Neolithic era, not only cultural and economic communities, but also ethnocultural communities emerged in Siberia. These were areas of settlement of ancient tribes who spoke languages of the same family. Archaeological and linguistic sources make it possible to identify three main ethnocultural areas on the territory of Siberia, which mainly coincide with cultural and economic areas.
The archaeological cultures of Western Siberia are part of the Ural-Siberian ethnocultural community. It is characterized by predominantly pointed-bottomed vessels, made using the method of band molding and decorated along the entire outer surface with linear-pricked and comb-like ornaments. Linguistically, this community can be associated with the eastern or proto-Ugric-Samoyedic branch of the Ural family.
The Baikal-Lena ethnocultural area included the archaeological cultures of the Baikal region, Yakutia and the extreme northeast. The entire area is characterized by poorly ornamented round-bottomed vessels with imprints of mesh or false textile imprints. Ceramics were made using a solid mold and mesh, and later by hammering. The Baikal-Lena community is associated with the distant ancestors of Paleo-Asian peoples.
The third ethnocultural area covers the territory of the Far East and includes monuments with flat-bottomed ceramics. The Neolithic cultures of the Far Eastern area are still difficult to interpret ethnically. The unique ornamental art of the Amur Neolithic, such defining elements as the Amur wickerwork, spiral and meander, have been preserved in the ethnographic art of the modern Tungus-Manchu population of the Amur. This suggests their genetic connection with the carriers of the Neolithic cultures of the Far East.
In the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. e. In the southern regions of Siberia, the first metal products appear, marking the end of the Stone Age. The first metal from which people learned to make tools was copper. The period of distribution of tools made of copper and its alloys (various types of bronze) was called the Early Metal Age in archaeological periodization. In the development of ancient metallurgy and metalworking, researchers distinguish several stages. They formed the basis for the internal periodization of the era.
The first period is called the Chalcolithic (Copper-Stone Age). The term “Chalcolithic” indicates the transitional nature of the era and denotes the initial period of distribution of metal products, preceding the appearance of bronze, existing with a developed stone industry that has fully retained its significance. As spectral and metallographic analyzes have shown, metal objects of the Eneolithic period were made of metallurgically pure copper by forging or smelting in open molds. The absolute date of the Chalcolithic era in Siberia is the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. e.
Bronze Age in Siberia
The second period of the Early Metal Age, traditionally called the Bronze Age, is associated with the development of artificial copper-based alloys, that is, bronzes.
Bronze differs from copper in one important quality - hardness. Thanks to this, bronze tools became more widespread than copper ones. The main technical achievement of ancient metallurgists at this stage was the casting of almost all products in closed double-sided molds.
In different areas, researchers identify several stages in the Bronze Age itself. The most common is a three-member periodization, distinguishing the stages of the Early, Developed and Late Bronze Ages. In general, the Bronze Age of Siberia dates from the 2nd to the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e.
The Early Metal Age in Siberia has several features. The metallurgy of copper and bronze could only appear in those places where there were deposits of copper ores. In Siberia, large deposits accessible to primitive miners are confined to the mountainous regions of the Urals, Rudny Altai, Sayans and Transbaikalia. In the vast territory of Western, Eastern and North-Eastern Siberia and the Far East, there are practically no reserves of copper ore. Therefore, the era of early metal did not become a universal stage in the cultural and historical development of the entire Siberian population. Eneolithic monuments are known only in areas immediately adjacent to the mining and metallurgical regions. Monuments of the Bronze Age are much more widespread, but even at that time the culture of many tribes in Northeast Asia and the Far East was at the Neolithic level. The second feature of the Early Metal Age in Siberia is its short duration. Here it fits into one and a half millennia, while in the most ancient mining and metallurgical regions of the Old World, tools made of copper and bronze dominated for three thousand years. This is due to the fact that the ancient metal penetrated into Siberia relatively late, at the final stages of the development of Eurasian copper-bronze metallurgy
The increase in labor productivity caused by the introduction of metal tools, in the presence of favorable environmental conditions, inevitably had to lead to a radical restructuring of the economic systems that had developed in Siberia in the Neolithic. Starting from the Eneolithic era, the population of the Siberian steppes and forest-steppes gradually switched to pastoral and agricultural farming. The Early Metal Age was destined to divide Siberia into two worlds: the steppe-forest-steppe, inhabited by cattle breeders and farmers, and the taiga, inhabited by hunters and fishermen. Some researchers draw such a sharp line between the areas of appropriating and producing economies that they propose to classify only cultures associated with agriculture and cattle breeding as the Chalcolithic era, and consider societies of hunters and fishermen synchronous and similar in material culture to them as Neolithic. The most ancient Siberian metal-bearing cultures (Afanasyevskaya, Shapkulskaya and Lipchinskaya) refute this point of view and prove that the same type of copper products are distributed among cattle breeders of Southern Siberia and among hunters and fishermen of the forest Trans-Urals. It is obvious that the Chalcolithic is not associated with the same economic system, but finds a peculiar refraction in different ecological zones.
Siberian Chalcolithic cultures were localized in areas adjacent to the mining and metallurgical regions. In Altai in the Minusinsk steppes in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. e. Afanasiev tribes appeared. Apparently, they migrated here from more western territories and brought the beginnings of metallurgy, agriculture and cattle breeding to Siberia. The Afanasyevites made all the leading types of tools from stone. Copper was used for jewelry, needles, awls, and small knives. Afanasiev craftsmen did not yet know casting; copper objects were processed by forging. The ceramics of the Afanasyevskaya culture are varied in size and shape. Tall, pointed-bottomed vessels with herringbone ornaments predominated. The pattern was applied with a blunt stick or comb stamp. The economy of the Afanasyevites was complex. Along with net fishing and hunting, traditional for Neolithic Siberia, cattle breeding and, to a lesser extent, agriculture developed. Findings of domestic animal bones in graves and the cultural layer of settlements indicate that the Afanasyevites bred cows, horses, and sheep. Integrated farming allowed them to live sedentary lives in permanent dwellings.
In the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. e. copper products (awls, knives) appear in the forest Trans-Urals and adjacent areas of Western Siberia in the inventory of the Lipchin and Shapkul cultures.
In the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. e. in the south of Western and Eastern Siberia, cultures of the mature Bronze Age were developing: Krotovskaya and Samusskaya in the Upper Ob region, Okunevskaya - in the Minusinsk steppes, Glazkovskaya - in the taiga Baikal region.
The largest archaeological find in Siberia among the most ancient is considered to be a 5-meter-long funeral boat discovered in the Buzan-3 burial ground (Ingalskaya Valley, south of the Tyumen region), the artifacts of which date back to the Copper Age. The burial ground dates back to 3,190 BC. e. plus or minus 60 years. Thus, it is the same age as Stonehenge (3020-2910 BC), the first cities of Mesopotamia (3500-3000 BC) and significantly older than the well-known pyramids of Cheops (2560-2540 BC) and monuments of Arkaim (2200-1600 BC).
Along the Charysh River, traces of ancient human habitation were found in several caves. In the mounds of Katun, Charysh, in the upper reaches of Alei, and the Irtysh River, various decorations and utensils were found, which indicates a relatively high culture of the inhabitants of ancient Siberia. On many cups, bronze and silver mugs, quite complex designs are visible, representing images of various animals and birds. In the same mounds there are attachments to horse harnesses, often made of solid gold. These same tribes left numerous slabs and “babas”, sometimes covered with inscriptions.
The jade tools found in Barnaul deserve special attention. In the burial mounds, horse accessories were also found, often made of massive gold. Due to the large number of bronze, gold and silver objects and numerous traces of ancient mining and smelting works in Altai, it can be judged that the mining and processing of precious and other metals began and was carried out here very early. Herodotus's instructions on the routes by which gold was delivered leave no doubt that it was about gold mining within the boundaries of present-day Altai.
The ancient inhabitants of Altai smelted ore in large clay pots, fragments of which are found near the mines along with stone and copper tools. Thus, two objects made of pure copper were found in the Zolototushensky mine. The same objects were found in the Zmenigorsk mine, along with stone hammers; the skeleton of a miner crushed by a collapse was also found with a tool and a leather bag filled with ocher ores. At the same time, there are no iron tools in the ancient Altai mines. Although, according to Chinese chronicles, iron mining took place here in the 7th century BC. e.
In the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. The cultural appearance of the Siberian steppes and forest-steppes is changing dramatically. The Andronovo culture spreads across the entire vast territory from the Urals to the Yenisei. The Andronovo tribes constituted an entire era in Siberian history. This was the time of the establishment of a developed manufacturing economy in the south and the distant penetration of bronze metallurgy. Among the archaeological sites in Siberia, finds of the Andronovo culture (2300 BC - 1000 BC) and the Cherkaskul culture that replaced it (1500 BC) are widely represented. - 1200 BC) and Sargat cultures (500 BC - 500 AD), which belong to the ancient Ugrians.
In the Siberian steppes, an economic and cultural type of shepherds, cattle breeders and farmers, common to all Andronovites, developed; the Andronovo people lived sedentarily in long-term semi-dugouts. Their villages were located in river valleys, rich in pastures and fertile lands suitable for agriculture. The herd was dominated by cattle, sheep, and horses. The Andronovo people became the first horsemen in the Asian steppes. Cattle were kept on pastures under the supervision of shepherds for most of the year, and in special pens in winter. Cereals were cultivated on easy-to-cultivate floodplain lands. The soil was tilled by hand with stone and bronze hoes. Hunting and fishing were not of great importance in economic life.
The Andronovo people were tribes of metallurgists. They owned copper and tin mines and supplied metal far to the west. Their foundries ensured the widespread production of tools (sickles, axes, celts) and weapons (daggers, socketed tips, spears with a leaf-shaped pen), including outside the Andronovo area. Having mastered the steppe and forest-steppe, the Andronovo people, in search of new fields and pastures along river valleys, penetrated into the taiga zone, where they mixed with the aboriginal population. As a result, andronoid cultures (Cherkaskul, Suzgun, Elov), combining local and alien traditions, emerged in the south of the West Siberian taiga. Under the influence of the Andronovo culture, the bearers of these cultures developed their own bronze casting centers, which played a large role in the spread of metal in the taiga zone.
At the end of the 2nd millennium BC. e. The Andronovo culture in Southern Siberia is replaced by the Karasuk culture. The Karasuk tribes had a great influence on the Siberian cultures of the final stage of the Bronze Age. It can be traced over a vast territory from the Upper Ob region to Yakutia. The steppe economy underwent some changes in the Late Bronze Age. The proportion of small ruminants in the Karasuk herd increased, which made the herd more mobile and made it possible to move to seasonal migrations. Thus, on the eve of the Iron Age, the prerequisites were created in the South Siberian steppes for the transition to nomadic cattle breeding.
During the Late Bronze Age, metal spread throughout almost the entire territory of Northern Asia. Under the influence of the Karasuk culture, its own metallurgical center was formed in the Ust-Mil culture of Yakutia (late 2nd-1st millennium BC). In the first half of the 1st millennium BC. e. single bronze items appear in the Ust-Belsk culture of Chukotka. But several imported bronze objects did not change its Neolithic character. Essentially, the population of Chukotka and Kamchatka continued to live in the Stone Age.
The economic differentiation of the north and south predetermined the characteristics of the social history of the population of the taiga and steppe. In conditions of a commercial (hunting and fishing) economy and a very low population density, the main production team in the taiga zone continued to be an individual family or group of families. The clan, deprived of its economic function, became unstable. Apparently, the amorphous clan-tribal organization, attested by ethnography among some taiga peoples of Western and Eastern Siberia, was characteristic of this territory in the Early Metal Age. More developed social relations could have developed among sedentary fishermen with their specialized productive economies, higher population densities, and strong sedentary habits. The funeral rite of the Bronze Age burial grounds records the dependent position of women and highlights the most successful hunters and cult ministers (shamans?).
Social development in the steppes proceeded much faster. Family cemeteries and the presence of tribal territories (identified in the Andronovo culture) indicate the traditions of a developed tribal system. However, in its depths a paired family was already distinguished, as evidenced by the widespread occurrence of paired burials.
In the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. e. In the steppes, rich burials and powerful mounds of individual mounds, towering above the rest, appear - eloquent evidence of the emergence of property and social inequality in the societies of pastoralists and farmers of Southern Siberia.
Iron Age in Siberia
The Iron Age brought great changes to the life of the peoples of ancient Siberia and the Far East.
Siberian tribes became acquainted with iron in the 1st millennium BC. e. The Early Iron Age of Siberia covers a significant chronological period: 7th century. BC e. - IV century n. e.
The historical and archaeological features of the development of the steppe regions of Eurasia make it possible to distinguish two long periods in the Early Iron Age: Scythian or Scythian-Saka and Hunnic or Hunno-Sarmatian). On the basis of developed nomadic cattle breeding, societies with a military-democratic structure developed here and the first tribal unions took shape.
The “Scythian” time in the history of the peoples of the Eurasian steppes dates back to the 8th-3rd centuries. BC e. and is characterized by a transition from pastoral-agricultural forms of economy to nomadic cattle breeding.
In the IV-III centuries. BC e. The barbarian periphery attracted the close attention of the government of the Celestial Empire: at this time the warlike alliance of the Xiongnu was formed, and the fight against this enemy required the search for allies. Chinese diplomacy is vigorously collecting information about the western and northern lands. The Wusun, Yuezhi and Dingling fall into their field of vision. According to written sources, at one time they created strong political alliances that successfully resisted the Huns for a long time.
The Yuezhi lived in the mountains and valleys of Altai and Sayan. In modern Scythology, the Pazyryk and Uyuk cultures of Altai and Tuva are associated with the Yuezhi. The question of the Yuezhi's linguistic affiliation is unclear. Most often they are classified as eastern Iranian-speaking Massagetae. According to another opinion, the Yuezhi were multilingual, and, in particular, some ethnonyms go back to the Turkic languages. Excavations of the Pazyryk mounds testified to the mixed Mongoloid-Caucasian type of Yuezhi.
To the northeast of the Yuezhi, the Tagar culture of the Dinlins was widespread in the Yenisei steppes. The Dinlings, according to the Chinese, were related to the Huns, but were always hostile to them. Unlike their neighbors the Yuezhi, the Dinling Tagars led a sedentary lifestyle.
The tribes of the Tagar culture achieved high development in metal production and metalworking. Most of the ancient copper mines of Southern Siberia belonged to the Tagars. They significantly improved the composition of various bronze alloys. The famous Tagar golden bronze in the form of ingots, and more often products, was exported to other areas, especially to the taiga and forest-steppe of Western and Central Siberia.
The “Scythian time” in the Eurasian steppes gives way to the “Hunno-Sarmatian time” in the 3rd century. BC e.-IV century n. e. The Sarmatians in the west and the Huns in the east began to dominate the Great Steppe. This period was characterized by the complete victory of iron over bronze and stone in material culture, the further development of nomadism and the unprecedented scale of migration processes.
In the first centuries A.D. e. on the vast barbarian periphery of the slave world, almost simultaneously in the societies of the Germans, Slavs, Huns, and Sarmatians, the transition to a class society began. These peoples form powerful military-political alliances, they become mobile and aggressive. Decrepit slave-owning civilizations, reaching an economic impasse, torn apart by internal contradictions, were unable to repel the barbarians. The world was on the eve of the “great migration of peoples,” the impetus for which was given in the east. Siberia played a significant role in the life of the Eurasian steppe Middle Ages.
Ugra (XI-XVI centuries)
The name of Siberia does not appear in Russian historical monuments until 1407, when the chronicler, speaking about the murder of Khan Tokhtamysh, indicates that it took place in the Siberian land near Tyumen. However, relations between Russians and the country, which later received the name Siberia, go back to ancient times. In 1032, the Novgorodians reached the “iron gates” of the Ural Mountains - according to Solovyov’s interpretation) and here they were defeated by the Yugras. Since that time, the chronicles quite often mention the Novgorod campaigns in Ugra.
From the middle of the 13th century, Ugra was already colonized as a Novgorod volost; however, this dependence was fragile, since disturbances from the Ugra were not uncommon. As the Novgorod “Karamzin Chronicle” testifies, in 1364 the Novgorodians made a big trip to the Ob River: “the Novgorodians, boyar children and young people, arrived from Ugra and fought along the Ob River to the sea.” When Novgorod fell, relations with the eastern countries did not die out. On the one hand, the Novgorod residents, sent to eastern cities, continued the policy of their fathers. On the other hand, the tasks of old Novgorod were inherited by Moscow.
In 1472, after the campaign of the Moscow governors Fyodor Motley and Gavrila Nelidov, the Perm land was colonized. On May 9, 1483, by order of Ivan III, a large campaign was launched by the governors Fyodor Kurbsky-Cherny and Ivan Saltyk-Travina to Western Siberia against the Vogul prince Asyka. Having defeated the Voguls at Pelym, the Moscow army moved along the Tavda, then along the Tura and along the Irtysh until it flows into the Ob River. Here the Ugra prince Moldan was captured. After this campaign, Ivan III began to be called the Grand Duke of Yugra, Prince of Kondinsky and Obdorsky. In 1499, another campaign of the Moscow army took place beyond the Urals.
Siberian Khanate (XIII-XVI centuries)
At the beginning of the 13th century, the peoples of southern Siberia were subjugated by the eldest son of Genghis Khan named Jochi. With the collapse of the Mongol Empire, southwestern Siberia became part of the Ulus Jochi or Golden Horde. Presumably in the 13th century, the Tyumen Khanate of Tatars and Kereits was founded in the south of Western Siberia. It was a vassal of the Golden Horde. Around 1500, the ruler of the Tyumen Khanate united most of Western Siberia by creating Khanate of Siberia with its capital in the city of Kashlyk, also known as Siberia and Isker. The Siberian Khanate bordered on the Perm land, the Kazan Khanate, the Nogai Horde, the Kazakh Khanate and the Irtysh Teleuts. In the north it reached the lower reaches of the Ob, and in the east it was adjacent to the “Pied Horde”.
Conquest of Siberia by Ermak (late 16th century)
In 1555, the Siberian Khan Ediger recognized vassal dependence on the Russian Kingdom and promised to pay tribute to Moscow - yasak (however, tribute was never paid in the promised amount). In 1563, power in the Siberian Khanate was seized by the Shibanid Kuchum, who was the grandson of Ibak. He executed Khan Ediger and his brother Bek-Bulat.
The new Siberian Khan made considerable efforts to strengthen the role of Islam in Siberia. Khan Kuchum stopped paying tribute to Moscow, but in 1571 he sent a full yasak of 1000 sables. In 1572, after the Crimean Khan Devlet I Giray ravaged Moscow, the Siberian Khan Kuchum completely broke off tributary relations with Moscow. In 1573, Kuchum sent his nephew Mahmut Kuli with a squad for reconnaissance purposes outside the Khanate. Mahmut Kuli reached Perm, disturbing the possessions of the Ural merchants the Stroganovs. In 1579, the Stroganovs invited a squad of Cossacks (more than 500 people), under the command of atamans Ermak Timofeevich, Ivan Koltso, Yakov Mikhailov, Nikita Pan and Matvey Meshcheryak, to protect against regular attacks from Kuchum.
On September 1, 1581, a squad of Cossacks, under the main command of Ermak, set out on a campaign beyond the Stone Belt (Ural), marking the beginning of the colonization of Siberia by the Russian state. The initiative of this campaign, according to the Esipovskaya and Remizovskaya chronicles, belonged to Ermak himself; the Stroganovs’ participation was limited to the forced supply of supplies and weapons to the Cossacks.
In 1582, on October 26, Ermak captured Kashlyk and began the annexation of the Siberian Khanate to Russia. Having been defeated by the Cossacks, Kuchum migrated south and continued to resist the Russian conquerors until 1598. On April 20, 1598, it was defeated by the Tara governor Andrei Voeikov on the bank of the river. Ob and fled to the Nogai Horde, where he was killed. Ermak was killed in 1584. The last khan was Ali, son of Kuchum.
At the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, on the territory of the Siberian Khanate, settlers from Russia founded the cities of Tyumen, Tobolsk, Berezov, Surgut, Tara, Obdorsk (Salekhard). In 1601, the city of Mangazeya was founded on the Taz River, which flows into the Gulf of Ob. This opened the sea route to Western Siberia (Mangazeya Sea Route).
With the founding of the Narym fort, the Piebald Horde in the east of the Siberian Khanate was conquered.
17th century
During the reign of Mikhail Fedorovich, the first tsar of the Romanov dynasty, Siberian Cossacks and settlers developed Eastern Siberia. During the first 18 years of the 17th century, the Russians crossed the Yenisei River. The cities of Tomsk (1604), Krasnoyarsk (1628) and others were founded.
In 1623, the explorer Pyanda penetrated the Lena River, where later (1630s) Yakutsk and other towns were founded. In 1637-1640, a route was opened from Yakutsk to the Sea of Okhotsk up the Aldan, May and Yudoma. While moving along the Yenisei and the Arctic Ocean, industrialists penetrated the mouths of the Yana, Indigirka, Kolyma and Anadyr rivers. The assignment of the Lena (Yakut) region to the Russians was secured by the construction of the Olekminsky fort (1635), Nizhne-Kolymsk (1644) and Okhotsk (1648). In 1661 the Irkutsk fort was founded, in 1665 the Selenginsky fort, in 1666 the Udinsky fort.
In 1649-1650, the Cossack ataman Erofey Khabarov reached the Amur. By the middle of the 17th century, Russian settlements appeared in the Amur region, on the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk, and in Chukotka.
In 1645, Cossack Vasily Poyarkov discovered the northern coast of Sakhalin.
In 1648, Semyon Dezhnev passes from the mouth of the Kolyma River to the mouth of the Anadyr River and opens the strait between Asia and America.
In 1686, the first smelting of silver from Argun or Nerchinsk silver ores was carried out in Nerchinsk. Subsequently, the Nerchinsk mountain district appeared here.
In 1689, the Treaty of Nerchinsk was concluded, and border trade with China began.
XVIII century
In 1703, Buryatia became part of the Moscow state.
On December 29, 1708, during the Regional Reform of Peter I, the Siberian Governorate was created with its center in Tobolsk. Prince M.P. Gagarin became the first governor.
In 1721, the first governor of Siberia, Prince Matvey Gagarin, was hanged in St. Petersburg in the presence of Peter I. As a warning to others, his body was left hanging in the square in front of the Exchange for seven months. Official court documents indicate that the cause of the sovereign's anger was embezzlement and related protectionism. Another version was presented by the Swedish geographer Philip Stralenberg, who lived in Tobolsk for 13 years, and after him by the Russian historian Pyotr Slovtsov in the book “Historical Review of Siberia” (1838): supposedly “Gagarin intended to secede from Russia, because he had faithfully installed those summoned in Tobolsk gunsmiths and the making of gunpowder began.” After many days of torture, some of the governor’s associates allegedly confessed that back in 1719, Prince Matvey secretly announced the impending separation of Siberia from Russia.
In the 18th century, Russian settlement of the steppe part of Southern Siberia took place, which had previously been restrained by the Yenisei Kyrgyz and other nomadic peoples.
Construction began in 1730.
By 1747, a series of fortifications grew up, known as the Irtysh Line. In 1754, another new line of fortifications was built - Ishimskaya. In the 30s of the 18th century, the Orenburg Line appeared, one end resting on the Caspian Sea, and the other on the Ural Range. Thus, strongholds appear between Orenburg and Omsk. The final consolidation of Russians in Southern Siberia took place already in the 19th century with the annexation of Central Asia.
On December 15, 1763, the Siberian Order was finally abolished, and yasak began to be available to the Cabinet of His Imperial Majesty.
In 1766, four regiments were formed from the Buryats to maintain guards along the Selenga border: 1st Ashebagat, 2nd Tsongol, 3rd Atagan and 4th Sartol.
During the reign of Peter I, scientific exploration of Siberia began and the Great Northern Expedition was organized. At the beginning of the 18th century, the first large industrial enterprises appeared in Siberia - the Altai Mining Plants of Akinfiy Demidov, on the basis of which the Altai Mining District was created. Distilleries and salt works were founded in Siberia. In the 18th century in Siberia, 32 factories, together with the mines that served them, employed about 7 thousand workers. A feature of Siberian industry was the use of labor of exiles and convicts.
Style develops in architecture Siberian Baroque.
19th century
Administrative division
As a result of administrative reform M. M. Speransky in 1822, Asian Russia was divided into two governor generals: West Siberian with its center in Tobolsk and East Siberian with its center in. The Tobolsk, Tomsk provinces and Omsk region were assigned to Western Siberia, the Irkutsk province, the newly formed Yenisei province, the Yakutsk region, the Okhotsk and Kamchatka coastal departments and the Troitskosavsk border department were assigned to Eastern Siberia. The provinces were divided into districts, and the latter into volosts and foreign councils.
On July 22, 1822, the tsar approved 10 laws that formed a special “Siberian institution”: “Institution for the management of Siberian provinces”, “Charter on the management of foreigners”, “Charter on the management of the Kyrgyz-Kaisaks”, “Charter on exiles”, “Charter on stages”, “Charter on land communications”, “Charter on city Cossacks”, “Regulation on zemstvo duties”, “Regulation on grain reserves”, “Regulation on debt obligations between peasants and between foreigners”.
In 1833, the Siberian provinces were united under the supervision of the Siberian Gendarmerie District, since during these years the influx of exiles (Decembrists, participants in the Polish movement of 1831) increased.
Industry
Of the 86 rocks and minerals mined at the time of the peasant reform in Russia, no less than 12 were mined only in Siberia. The Siberian mining industry was concentrated in the southern, more populated and comfortable areas for living.
In the 19th century, gold mining was actively developing in Siberia, in terms of production volume at one time exceeding all other industries combined (See. Gold Rush in Siberia, Lena gold mines). In the middle of the century, Siberia began to provide 70% - 78% of all gold production in the country. The gold industry has become the largest mining industry in Siberia in terms of product value and number of workers.
At the same time, new paper, leather, soap, glass, and flour milling industries emerged.
Transport
In Siberia, at least 24 rivers were used for navigation. Of these, only eight of them carried upstream and downstream movement; on the remaining sixteen, only goods and timber were floated downstream. River navigation was limited by natural conditions: ice on rivers lasted from 5 to 8 months, while in European Russia it lasted 2-7 months. Quite frequent shoals, rapids, rifts on Siberian rivers, and the need to “drag around” significantly limited the size of vessels.
In 1844, the first voyage between Tyumen and Tomsk was made by the steamship Osnova. In 1860, 10 steamships were already sailing along the rivers of Western Siberia, in 1880 - 37, in 1894 - 105 steamships and 200 barges. First steamboat on the Yenisei appeared in 1863. In 1896, there were 172 steamships on all the rivers of Siberia.
In 1805, the construction of the Circum-Baikal Road was completed, which ensured uninterrupted communication with Transbaikalia.
In the 1890s - 1900s, the Siberian Railway (otherwise known as the Trans-Siberian Railway) was built, connecting Siberia and the Far East with European Russia. The railroad significantly changed economic conditions. There was no need for large intermediaries; there was no need to create large annual stocks of goods in trading cities, for example, Tomsk, Irkutsk, Verkhneudinsk. Goods were delivered continuously throughout the year by rail in small quantities, trade became smaller, and began to require less working capital and shorter credit terms.
Agriculture
In the middle of the 19th century in Western Siberia there were 702 thousand horses, 1113 thousand heads of cattle, 1452 thousand sheep; in all of Siberia there were 266 thousand deer. There were 56 horses per hundred people in Siberia, and only 26 in European Russia, cows were 63 and 36, respectively, sheep in Eastern Siberia 140, and in European Russia - 61.
In the middle of the 19th century, the yield in Siberia was slightly higher than in the European part of the country; after the abolition of serfdom, the yield in European Russia grew faster than in Siberia.
At the beginning of the 18th century, 55 types of crops were cultivated in European Russia, and only 14 in Siberia. In the middle of the 19th century, the number of crops increased in the European part to 113, and in Siberia to 29. In Siberia and the Far East, before the First World War, 7.6 million acres of arable land, which amounted to 0.7% of the entire territory.
Finance
Until the 1740s, there was a ban on bill transfers from Russia to Siberia and back. The government feared that voivodes and governors, hiding behind merchant bill transactions, would be able to withdraw their money from Siberia. Money was transported to Siberia in cash.
From December 5, 1763 to June 7, 1781, copper coins were minted exclusively for circulation in Siberia. Siberian coin.
Since 1769, banknotes (paper money) have appeared in circulation. After the permission of bill transfer of payments from Russia to Siberia, non-cash payments began to spread, and the formation of the banking system began. State offices for credit and bill transactions were opened in 1772 in Tobolsk, and in 1779 in Irkutsk.
In 1800, trade rules with China allowed only barter transactions. The purchase and sale of goods for money, as well as credit transactions, are prohibited.
In the 1830s - 1860s, urban public banks appeared in Siberia.
Education, science, culture
Tomsk University was founded in 1878. Before the widespread spread of university and university science, the role of scientific centers in Siberia was played by local history museums. The Irkutsk Regional Museum of Local Lore was founded in December 1782.
In 1851, the Siberian department was created in Irkutsk Russian Geographical Society(SORGHUM). After 27 years, it was divided into two departments, East Siberian and West Siberian (VSORGO and ZSORGO).
Relocation to Siberia
After the peasant reform of 1861, the flow of peasant migrants to Siberia increased.
XX century
At the beginning of the 20th century, Eastern Siberia became the rear for the Russo-Japanese War. The rapid economic development of Siberia continues, associated with the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. The urban population of Siberia from 1840 to 1913 grew 6.2 times.
During the civil war in the summer of 1918, Soviet power was overthrown in Siberia and Omsk became the center of the anti-Bolshevik government. On April 6, 1920, the buffer Far Eastern Republic was created. After the defeat of the white troops in Siberia, Soviet power is re-established (See. Eastern theater of military operations of the Russian Civil War).
In 1925, instead of the previously existing provinces, the Siberian Territory was formed with its center in Novosibirsk, in 1930 it was divided into the West Siberian Territory and the East Siberian Territory, subsequently also divided into regions.
At the end of the 1920s, the industrialization of Siberia began. In the 1920-1930s, the coal industry developed in the Kuznetsk coal basin. Construction and new factories require workers. In 1928-1937, 2706.1 thousand people arrived in the Novosibirsk region, 777.1 thousand in the Irkutsk region, and 440.1 thousand in the Chita region. By 1939, the share of Siberia's urban population had grown to 31.3%.
Even before the revolution of 1917, a railway was built from Novo-Nikolaevsk to Semipalatinsk, and in 1926-1931 the Turkestan-Siberian Railway was built from Semipalatinsk, connecting Siberia with Central Asia.
During Stalin's repressions, Siberia became a place of mass "kulak exile" and the location of Gulag camps.
During the Great Patriotic War, the population of large cities in Siberia grew sharply due to the evacuation of industry and people from the European part of the USSR. In 1941-1942, about 1 million people arrived in Siberia.
In 1957, on the initiative of academicians M.A. Lavrentieva, S.L. Sobolev and S.A. Khristianovich was formed Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
In the 1950-1970s, a number of large hydroelectric power stations were built on the rivers of Siberia (Novosibirsk hydroelectric power station on the Ob, the Yenisei cascade of hydroelectric power stations, Angarsk hydroelectric power station cascade). On July 8, 1974, the Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR “On the construction of the Baikal-Amur Railway” was adopted.
And Neolithic. The Paleolithic era covers a huge period of human history. Its beginning goes back to ancient times and is associated with the period of formation of Homo sapiens. Based on recent finds in Africa, the beginning of this era should be dated 2.5 million years ago. During the Paleolithic era, the anthropological type of modern man took shape. During this period, humanity makes the most important discoveries. The technology of stone processing is being improved: the simplest roughly beaten pebbles are being replaced by beautifully processed points, scrapers, and plates. Man masters fire and begins to build beautiful dwellings. He becomes a wonderful hunter, using seemingly simple tools to hunt such large animals as mammoth, bison, and rhinoceros. Finally, it was during this period of the Upper Paleolithic that primitive art took shape.
The art of the Paleolithic era amazes with its perfection, originality, realism and the highest artistic skill. Monuments of Paleolithic painting have also been discovered in our Urals - Kapova and Ignatievskaya caves. Ancient sculptors, working only with a stone chisel on bone, tusk, horn and stone, created magnificent works of high artistic quality. Most often, these masters depicted women, the so-called Paleolithic Venuses, and animals, primarily the mammoth. Some objects of applied art have reached us - bracelets, beads, pendants with complex patterns made by engraving and paint. Excellent examples of plastic art and ornament were discovered in Siberia at the sites of Malta, Buret, Ust-Kova, Achinskaya and Shestakovskaya.
In the Neolithic era, ancient artistic creativity flourished in a new way. Petroglyph art receives further development. Rock paintings depicting game animals – elk and deer, the “master of the taiga” – the bear, as well as hunting scenes have survived to this day. Amazing sculptural images created in the Neolithic era have been preserved. In Neolithic settlements and burial grounds, stone and bone figurines made in a realistic manner depicting animals, birds, and reptiles were found. Wood was an excellent ornamental material for making sculptures. Unfortunately, wooden objects are preserved only in peat bogs. During excavations of such settlements in the Baltic states, the European North and the Urals, a large number of wooden objects were discovered, including sculpture.
In the Neolithic era, with the advent of ceramics, the art of decorating vessels developed. It is interesting that different regions had their own tradition of decorating dishes.
Neolithic art of Siberia is bright and original. Scientists have discovered entire art galleries of this era on the Amur, Angara, in the East Siberian taiga and in Western Siberia on the Tom and Yenisei rivers. The inhabitants of Siberia, as a rule, depicted moose and bears and birds using ocher or embossing, and the population of the Far East and Sikhote-Alin also created mysterious masks. Neolithic sculpture was distinguished by its richness and diversity. Suffice it to recall the stone images of fish discovered on monuments in Eastern Siberia: bone sculptures of moose, figurines of animals and birds from Shumilikha on the Angara, etc. There is a wide range of Neolithic ornaments on dishes. In the Far East, this is a combination of spirals with intricate patterns made up of impressions of comb and figured stamps, anthropozoomorphic drawings applied with paint and moldings. The West Siberian Neolithic is characterized by a combination of traced wave-like patterns, interpenetrating figures and comb patterns.
These, in general terms, are the main trends in the development of primitive art in Siberia. What exactly can be said about the Stone Age art of the region in question?
