Paleolithic in Russia

Main article: History of Russia

The oldest primates

7 million hp: The beginning of the transition to straight walking due to the formation of the East African fault

Main article: East African Fault (rift valley)

About 7 million years ago, the first cases of straight-walking appear in Africa. The tectonic movements of the East African fault led to the rise of the ridges and this territory was fenced off from another part of Africa, where moist rainforests remained. Savannas and semisavannas formed in the fault zone due to a drier climate, so distant human ancestors were forced to go straight to survive. In addition, active volcanism in these territories provided the opportunity to find material for the manufacture of stone tools. Volcanic ash fertilized the soil and attracted herds of animals - the feed base of early human forms.

4 million hp - 2.5 million hp: Australopithecus Afarski is the most likely ancestor of man

Main article: History of mankind. Main dates

Australopithecus afarensis is the most likely ancestor of the human lineage of evolution. The remains were found in Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia in a variety of locations.

3.5 million hp: Thin-bodied apes parapresbitis in Buryatia weighing more than 30 kg

Monkey-like monkeys from the family of thin-bodied monkeys lived in the frame of oz. Baikal on the Khambinsky ridge (the location of Udung in Western Transbaikalia in Buryatia) more than 3.5 million years ago. The study of the morphology of the teeth and skull of monkeys from the Khambinsky ridge was the first discovery of fossils of monkeys in Russia. This made it possible to isolate a new genus of monkey-like monkeys Parapresbytis, and the re-study of the remains of a thin monkey from the late Pliocene of Northern Mongolia showed the eligibility to classify them into a new genus and species of the Colobidae family - Parapresbytis eohanuman, which has morphological similarities with the modern genus ^[1]

The locations of the Pliocene mammalian fauna framed by Lake Baikal, containing the remains of monkey-like monkeys (Parapresbytis eohanuman): 1 - Udunga (Khambinsky Ridge, Western Transbaikalia, Early Pliocene), 2 - Shamar (valley of the Orkhon River, Northern Mongolia, Late Pliocene)

Parapresbitis were large monkeys weighing more than 30 kg, comparable in size to a bear baboon. On the northern edge of Central Asia, P. eohanuman apparently occupied territories with habitable landscapes and, as a sister gulman (Presbytis entellus), lived in trees and fed on leaves, flowers and fruits. Thin-bodied monkeys (P. eohanuman) along with other mammals at the end of the early Pliocene occupied ecological niches in mountain forests with vertical zonation, this distribution confirms the composition of the flora. Range close in morphology to parapresbitis of modern Himalayan nosed thin bowls (Rhinopithecus), covering montane forests with pronounced vertical zonality, does not refute this assumption.

3 million hp: The appearance of the genus Homo

About 3 million years ago, representatives of the genus Homo appear.

The East African Fault (rift valley) is a large rift relief formation in East Africa. A number of scientists connect the initial stages of the evolution of the human branch of hominids with the Great Rift Valley.

2.6 million hp: Homo erectus migration begins outside Africa

Pitecanthropes, synanthropes, archanthropes are all, in fact, the same thing: people are upright (homo erectus), with huge faces and sloping foreheads, with hefty jaws and brows, with a brain of about a kilogram. We know all these features from finds from Africa, China, from the island of Java, but not from the territory of Russia. We found only a few teeth.

According to data for 2021, the first people, appearing in the East African fault, about 3 million years ago, quickly began to leave their ancestral homeland and settle in other regions, and very early began to populate the territories of Eurasia with a more temperate climate than African.

For example, even in China, located at a huge distance from Africa, early Paleolithic sites about 2.5 million hp were discovered. Longgupo and 2.12 million hp Shangchen. In Jordan, the Zarqa site was identified, dating from 2.48 million hp.

2.6 million hp: Khaprovsky faunal complex - giraffes, elephants, camels and saber-toothed cats in the Northern Azov region and in the Stavropol Territory

Main article: Faunistic complexes of quaternary mammals

The Haprovsky faunal complex (2.6-2.2 Ma) was formed on the basis of collections of vertebrate remains from the North-East Azov region, the North-West Black Sea region, as well as Stavropol and the North Caucasus.

The reconstructed climate of this time is quite warm, with a well-defined hot dry season and a mild winter period. Elephants, rhinos, camels, antelopes, deer, hyenas, saber-toothed cats, mastodons, giraffes, bears and elk coexisted in the region. The faunal community resembles the association of modern African savannas in its appearance. However, from ancient and recurrent African associations, the fauna of southern Eastern Europe was significantly different at the ancestral and species levels. Read more here.

2.58 million hp: Magnetic inversion Gauss - Matuyama. Beginning of Quaternary and Pleistocene

The Gauss-Matuyama magnetic inversion is a geological event that occurred about 2.58 million years ago, when the Earth's magnetic field changed direction.

2.2 million hp: Psekup faunal complex - elephants, rhinos, giraffes in the North Caucasus and in the Northern Black Sea region

Main article: Faunistic complexes of quaternary mammals

2.2-1.6 million hp: The Psekup faunal complex is formed on the basis of collections of vertebrate remains from the North Caucasus and the Northern Black Sea region. The general appearance of the Psekup fauna is similar to that of the Haprovsky. Which suggests a wide distribution of forest-steppe landscapes of the savannah-like type and a generally warm climate. Read more here.

2.05 million hp: Arrival of Homo erectus - Acheulean and Olduvian stone industries

Volcanic ash fertilises soil, attracts ungulates and homo erectus

The climate of the end of gelasia (2 million-1.8 million hp) was humid and relatively warm, which contributed to the spread of meadow-steppe and forest-steppe vegetation of the savannah type in depressions and valleys, coniferous and coniferous-deciduous forests in the mountains. The abundance of vegetation was provided by numerous rivers, lakes and underground sources, the position of which was partially controlled by the activity of the faults. In the southern part of the region and in the Small Caucasus, the abundance of vegetation was facilitated by the enrichment of soils with volcanism products. All this stimulated the emergence and widespread distribution of ungulates. Relative aridization, interrupted by a short wet episode, occurred at the beginning of calabria. It led to a wide spread of steppe and forest-steppe biocenoses, which remained favorable for ungulates. Hominins followed ungulates as the main sources of nutrition and settled in late helasia (2 million hp) - early calabria (1.7 million hp) in the territories occupied by them, where they found enough natural material for the manufacture of stone products.

2.05 million hp: Mollusk collectors at the Kermek beach site on the Taman Peninsula

Kermek is the oldest location of human tools in Western Asia, dated to the time of 2.1-2 million hp. Located on the northern shore of the Taman Peninsula in the Krasnodar Territory.

Fig. 1. The oldest locations of the Early Paleolithic in the Arabian-Caucasian segment of the Alpine-Himalayan belt and the adjacent part of the Arabian Peninsula (according to [Trifonov et al., 2019]). Archaeological sites: KE - Kermek; MU - Mukhkai-2; UB - Ubeidiya; OR - average flow of the Oront river; HZ - Halabiye-Zalabiye district; AF - Ain al Phil (Aïn al Fil); SB - Shambayat (Şambayat); BO - Bostanjik (Bostancık); ES - Esquimalatya; KO - Kovanchylar; KA - Karakhach quarry; MR - Muradovo; AG - Agvorik; JR - Jradzor; DM-Dmanisi; AZ - Azykh Cave. Other symbols: 1 - Chechnya; 2 - El Gab basin; 3 - Hula Basin; 4 - Jebel Arab volcanic highlands (Har-rat Ash Shaam); 5 - Nahr El-Kabir; 6 - Rioni Depression; 7 - Absheron deposits to SE from Mount Shahdag

Kermek is a settlement-type site - a beach repeatedly visited habitat for hunters and gatherers on the banks of the Pozdnekuyalnik sea basin (its bay or estuary of the river that flowed into this basin). Many fragmented shells of freshwater and brackish-water mollusk species have been found, which probably indicates their use as food.

The shells of relatively large mollusks from the order Unionoide of the genera Margaritifera and Bogatschevia sp are especially noteworthy. The conditions of their occurrence in the culture-containing layer are interesting. They are almost not found together with shells of small mollusks, which in places form small concentrations washed by surf water flows, but are constantly present, albeit in a discharged form (2-3 shells per 1 m2), among cultural remains. Obviously, these clams were deliberately collected and delivered to the parking lot.

Elasmotherium

It is noteworthy that in the culture-containing layer of the site, single bone remains of dolphins and fish were also found: roaches, catfish and pike. These facts of the presence of edible molluscs and bone remains of other aquatic animals together with stone products and bone fragments of large terrestrial mammals in the culture-containing layer of the anchorage (elephant Archidiskodon meridionalis meridionalis, elasmotherium rhinoceros elasmotherium sp, Equus horses) may indicate that aquatic food products collected on river and sea beaches were of great importance in the diet of the inhabitants of ^[2]

Water and climate barriers to northward migration

The main ranges of upright people were limited by barriers impassable for them: large water basins, mountain systems (Caucasus), arid zones (deserts), forests such as Eurasian forests of the temperate zone. Water barriers include seas, large lakes and connecting straits that have undergone a complex geological history. In the Eopleistocene (the first part of the Pleistocene, which lasted from 2.58 million years ago to about 760 thousand years ago, when Neopleistocene began), the Black Sea basin was occupied by the Gurian isolated semi-freshwater basin with a level 100-150 m lower than modern and an area much smaller. Archanthropic migrations from south to north in the strip between the sea and the Caucasus Range^[3] Europe" could take place along^[3] eastern coast^[3]

The Caspian depression in the Pliocene was occupied by a semi-isolated Akchagyl semi-freshwater basin, and in the Eopleistocene - a closed Absheron brackish-water basin with a water level and a water area significantly higher than the modern Caspian. Its length reached 1600-1800 km, and the width of 400-600 km, thus, the basin was an effective barrier for the migration of archanthropes to the east and northeast to Central Asia.

Ponto-Caspian region in the Absheron Age (the maximum size of the Absheron basin)

On the path of migration to the north at different times, not wide, up to 50-100 km, but long, up to 1000 km and more straits between large sea basins arose and disappeared: Euphrates, Manych, Bosphorus, Babelmandeb, Hormuz, etc. The time of their functioning is known, as well as their influence on migration (Chepalyga, Leonova, 2005). For example, the Euphrates Strait (Chepalyga, 1980) arose between the Mediterranean Sea (Piacenza Basin) and the Caspian Sea (Akchagyl Basin) and functioned bilaterally in the range of 3.6-1.8 million years. This strait could block migrations to the north up to 1.8 million years. Later, at the very beginning of the Eopleistocene (1.8-1.7 million years), this strait transformed into a one-sided spilway (drain hole) of fresh waters of the early Apsheron basin and could affect the migration of archanthropes from Transcaucasia to the north.

Similar to these straits, the route to the west through Anatolia to the Balkans could be blocked, especially since connecting basins had already formed between the Aegean and Black Seas and the through land passage became problematic. When draining the straits, land bridges for migration arose at the site of the barriers.

As for the migrations of archanthropes through the Caucasus, at the beginning of the Absheron century (about 1.8-1.6 million years) the Euphrates Strait was still functioning, however, with a unilateral discharge of fresh water into the Mediterranean Sea. In this case, the West Ciscaucasia and the Northeast Caucasus could be blocked at the beginning of the upsheron by the Euphrates Strait from African migrations. Similarly, this barrier could be an obstacle to migration to the west through Anatolia to the Balkans. Moreover, extensive basins have already formed between the Aegean and Black Seas and a through land passage from Anatolia to the Balkans has become problematic. These migrations occurred in favorable conditions: in the absence of barriers and in more or less homogeneous natural-climatic conditions similar to African ones. By this time, water barriers in the form of straits had disappeared: Babelmandeb, Euphrates. Land bridges arose in their place. There were no barriers on the continent in the form of high mountain ranges, deserts, continuous forest zones.

On the path of migration, landscapes similar to the savannas of Africa dominated with alternation of open steppe and small forest areas. The fauna was also close to African: elephants, rhinos, bison, gazelles, horses, deer, pigs, as well as hyenas, jackals, foxes and other predators dominated. Reaching 45 ° -46 ° N (modern Tikhoretsk) the direction of archanthrope migrations changed sharply from submeridional to sublatitudinal and turned west towards Western Europe, where the studied Olduvai sites on the Dniester River are located.

The reason for the sharp change in the direction of migration is explained by the fact that at that time a water barrier appeared: the Manych Strait and the Azov-Kuban Gulf of the Absheron Sea. Secondly, north of 45 ° -48 ° degrees N. There was probably another barrier (landscape) - continuous forest areas of a sub-latitudinal orientation, similar to the modern forest zone of Northern Eurasia (taiga, mixed and broad-leaved forests).

Reconstructions performed showed that the relief of the region during the era of its initial settlement by human ancestors was significantly lower than modern. The height of mountains and highlands usually did not exceed 1000 m and rarely reached 1500 m. Only some volcanoes and, possibly, the axial zones of the Central and Eastern Caucasus reached 2000 m. The height of the surface of the intermountain and foothill depressions and valleys along which the oldest hominins were migrated did not exceed several hundred meters and was often close to modern sea level. The river network was loosely incised and less winding than it is now.

About 2 million years ago, homo erectus could not move north of the Caucasus for several reasons. First, the climate: they settled in the tropical zone, where there were tropics with zebras, ostriches and tigers. But to the north it was already cool, and they had no fire yet, the guns were very simple, and they also had no clothes. It was part of the fauna, in fact. Therefore, they just froze and did not go north, there they had nothing to do.

And, secondly, the geographical problem is that the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea were periodically connected by the strait, so they reached the level of modern Taman of the Krasnodar Territory, got up on the beach, looked at the sea, turned and went back. But, nevertheless, they reached there.

1.97 million hp: Notches of a man on the bone of a camel in the Liventsov career in Rostov-on-Don

Sometimes the strait disappeared. Maybe they could swim across it, and maybe from time to time they crossed this line. Indeed, in the vicinity of Rostov, in the Liventsov quarry in 1954, a bone of the rear right metapody of a camel was found with incisions that were clearly made with tools.

Paracamelus alutensis is a typical representative of the Eastern European fauna of the late Pliocene

This was checked by specialists for what was done by ^[4]

Incisions were made with a chopper made of sintered limestone on fresh and dry bone

This was done by some ancient people.

But in fact, this camel bone is the only find outside this strait, but there is also dating under 2 million years.

This suggests that erectuses may have been moving a little further north.

The northernmost sites of the Olduvai culture of Bayraki and Kretsesti were found in Moldova in the floodplain deposits of ^{[5] [6]}

1.96 million hp: Mukhai - oldovana sites in Dagestan

In Russia, Olduvai-type guns were identified in the sites of Dagestan (Ainikab-1, Mukhkai II, etc.) ^{[7] [8]}

Oldovan, the industry of stone tools of the nucleus-cleft type, includes stone industries of a number of multi-layer sites located on the northern slope of the East Caucasus in the Akushin basin in Dagestan (Ainikab 1, Mukhkai 1 and 2, etc.) [Amirkhanov, 2007; 2016;]. Some of these sites have biostratigraphic and paleomagnetic dating. For example, the sites of Mukhkai 2, layer 80 and Mukhkai 2A, layers 2013-1, 2013-2 and 2013-3 in time, are assumed to precede the paleomagnetic episode of Olduvey, that is, the ancient 1.95 million hp. [Amirkhanov et al., 2017].

Oldovan guns in Crimea

In Crimea, the Oldovan includes the sites of Koz, Echki-1 and ^[9]

1.6 million hp

Taman Faunal Complex: Elephants, Rhinos, Hyenas and Leopards in Taman Peninsula and Lower Don

Main article: Faunistic complexes of quaternary mammals

1.6-0.8 million years ago - Taman (Absheron) faunal complex. As a result of a number of factors, the death and burial of skeletons of large, mainly thick-skinned animals - elephants and rhinos - took place in the caldera of one of the large mud volcanoes (Blue Balka/Bogatyri). Animals died in this place, bogged down in a furnace of mud, unable to get out of the basin with steep banks, became easy prey for predators or died from poisonous gases periodically emitted by the volcano. The accumulation of carcasses did not occur simultaneously, but over a relatively long time. Read more here.

Ashel culture in Dagestan, Taman, Bashkiria

The 2nd stage of human migration: Settlement of the North Caucasus to the barrier - the Manych Strait and the Don Valley. From 1.5 to 1.2 million years. Meridional migration from 43 to 47 ° N 600 km for 300 thousand years. Speed ​ ​ 2 km in thousand years. The second stage of movement north to 47-48 N is marked by a slowdown in the rate of migration and stopping at the turn of the Manych Strait and the forest zone of Eurasia. The deceleration of the migration rate can be attributed to both the presence of barriers and the achievement of the limits of adaptation to the changing natural conditions to the north.

• H. A. Amirkhanov. Study of the monuments of Oldovan in the North-East Caucasus, 2007, (Monuments of Dagestan 1.5 million years old) PDF

An ashel appears on the territory of Russia in the Caucasus. The distribution time of Acheulean culture is 1.76 million - 150/120 thousand years ago. This is the same Dagestan, where, in principle, quite a lot of ashels were found. Kudaro Cave in South Ossetia, for example. And in some places there are even finds of teeth. There are few of them, but there are a couple of teeth whose owners say they are rather archanthropes.

In Russia, the ashel was also identified at the Taman sites of Rodniki 1-4, Bashkir monuments of the Kyzyl-Yarovsky type (parking lot-workshop Kyzyl-Yar-2, the location of Ulek-Khazy 6, Utyulgan 7,^[10].

• Kulakov S.A. "Early and Middle Paleolithic of the North-West Caucasus," abstract, PDF

Relatively rare are finds on the territory of the former USSR of bone remains and objects of material culture of representatives of the species Homo erectus. In connection with them, the question of the number of species of fossil hominids that can describe the known variety of domestic paleoanthropological finds is important. It seems to us that three, starting from the level of the oldest Homo, reflect the'early sapientization'. Under this angle of view, all early finds in Russia and the CIS countries are of undoubted importance for research.

According to Professor A.A. Zubov, a fossil tooth found in 1959 in the Acheulean layer 5b of the Kudaro 1 cave belongs to a synanthrope-type hominid, or, less likely, to the Neanderthal^[11]

1.3 million hp: Place of slaughter of elephants and elasmotheria Bogatyri/Blue Beam in the Krasnodar Territory

The Bogatyri/Blue Beam site dates from 1.4-1.2 million years ago. According to V.E. Shchelinsky, numerous bones of animals (elephants, elasmotheria) are the result of hunting activities of the oldest people. It seems very likely that the site of the inhabitants of the 1st culture-containing layer Bogatyrey/Blue Balki was originally located on the shore of a fresh lake, apparently formed in a large caldera of a mud volcano. It was a place of active specialized hunting of the oldest people for mammals, primarily for Taman elephants and Caucasian elasmotheria, who came to the lake for a watering hole and for "mud baths" in liquid hill clay. People hunted animals immobilized in the furnace of mud, killed them, pulled them ashore and cut them with guns partially made in situ from dolomite debris. If the crater depression, filled with fresh water and volcanic mud, had along the periphery of the side, and the passage to it was narrow enough, animal hunting could be of a corral nature.

Judging by the huge number of bones of elephants and elasmotheria accumulated on the shore of the lake, this place was visited by early Acheulean hunters many times over a long time.

1.2 million hp: Migration to the Northern Black Sea region

Stage 3: North Caucasus - Northern Black Sea Region (Dniester Valley), skirting Crimea from the south and the Azov Bay of the Absheron Sea. 1.2 to 1.0 million years. Change of migration direction by 90 ° from meridional to sub-latitudinal along 45-47 ° N 800 km in 200 thousand years. Speed ​ ​ 4 km in 1000 years.

730 thousand hp: The common ancestor of Denisovans and Neanderthals separated from Homo sapiens

The common ancestor of Denisovans and Neanderthals separated from Homo sapiens 700-765 thousand years ago.

The ancestors of the Neanderthals and Denisovans separated from the line leading to anatomically modern people, left Africa and spread throughout Eurasia at the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene, survived the bottleneck in a decline in population, crossed with the Eurasians from the "superarchaic" population of hominin (which separated from other Homos approximately 2 Ma ago (the confidence interval is 1.9-2.5 million liters) and the first to leave Africa were 1.7-1.9 million liters), largely replaced them and divided into eastern and western populations - Denisovans (Denisovans) and Neanderthals (Neanderthals).

640,000 hp: Evolutionary divergence between Denisovans and Neanderthals

Denisovans are a sister group of Neanderthals and their evolutionary divergence occurred about 640 thousand liters. n

600 thousand hp: The beginning of the Günz glaciation

Stadials - cold periods and warmer interglacials - interstadials.

Stadial Gunz: 600-550 thousand years ago.

550 thousand hp: The beginning of interglacial

Interstadial Gunz - Oka glaciation (or Mindel): 550-470 thousand years ago.

470 thousand hp: Oka glaciation

Oka glaciation or Mindel: 470-430 thousand years ago.

430 thousand hp: Likhvinsky interglacial

430-230 thousand years ago: Likhvinsky interglacial (interstadial) between the Oksky glaciation (almond) and the Dnieper glaciation (riss).

There are finds in Central Asia, where people also settled, and on the other hand - from the territory of China. When they reached China along the Indian Ocean, they also settled north. The closest find of ancient times to our limits is Salhit in Mongolia. There, a cranial lid was found in a gold-bearing mine: it is without dating, but the morphology shows that this is also a very ancient thing, and the dating there should be at least 400 thousand years old.

Neanderthal men

Main article: Neanderthals

At a later time, Neanderthals appear on our territory. And there are quite a few parking lots.

250 thousand hp: Tools of Neanderthals in the Akhshtyr cave

In layers 6/2 and 6/1 of the Akhshtyr cave near Adler, tools were found that indicate its first visit by Neanderthals about 250 thousand years ago.

Neanderthals in the Polar Urals, Caucasus and the "tooth from Rozhka"

Separate groups of Neanderthals probably even reached the Polar Urals. There is a village of Byzovaya (Komi), however, there are not very intelligible tools (rather, Mousterian culture), but still it is already the Arctic. True, we have very few finds from Neanderthal times. There is a certain number in the Caucasus, for example, the lower jaw of a child from the Barakaev cave is in Siberia, and there have recently been many finds.

In the European part, except for the Caucasus, the only find of the Neanderthal is a tooth from Rozhka. There is such a place in the Azov region, Rozhok, a tooth was found there a long time ago. They say that DNA was recently isolated from it, but the results have not yet been published, and everything is in intrigue. We're waiting. It can be Neanderthal and Sapiens, since in culture it can be both and dating there intermediate.

230 thousand hp: Dnieper glaciation

Dnieper glaciation (Riess): 230-180 thousand years ago.

180 thousand hp: Mikulinsky interglacial

180-70 thousand years ago - the Mikulinsky interglacial region lasted between the Dnieper glaciation (riss) and the Valdai glaciation (wurm).

160 thousand hp: Denisovtsy in Altai

Main article: Denisovites

The most famous find is probably from Denisova Cave, where, in addition to Neanderthals, Denisovans were also found. Three teeth and one phalanx were found there, from which DNA was isolated, which turned out to be neither human nor Neanderthal, but Denisov. But there are Neanderthals in the same place, in Denisova Cave, and they are in other points of Altai. There are several places: the Okladnikov cave, where they coexisted with the Sapiens in some way, and several others, but mainly some stings were found there. That is, so far no one has found a skull in Siberia. There are teeth, a piece of ulna and something else from this series. There is also a humerus in Okladnikov's cave and a heel bone, but this is some kind of fragment from the snaps. But the fact itself suggests that they were there and, in principle, lived. Another thing is that it was a glacial zone, and there could not be a large population density there, so there were few of them.

147 thousand hp: Muster site of bison hunters Zaikino ashes near Volgograd

Zaikino Pepelishche is an archaeological site, a site of the Middle Paleolithic era. One of the earliest Mousterian monuments of the Russian Plain in the Mikulinsky interglacial region. It is located in the Dubovsky district of the Volgograd region near the Chelyuskinets farm.

The layered sand-clay sequence, which includes the cultural layer, dates from the thermoluminescent method to the age of 130±13,5 thousand years, gray-brown clay from the cultural layer to the age of 147±20,5 thousand years.

The antiquity of the site is also confirmed by the discovery of an elasmotherium tooth. This animal is almost unknown in the layers of archaeological sites of the Russian Plain and it is believed that it is synchronous with the Khazar faunal complex of the Middle Pleistocene, which precedes the Upper Paleolithic (mammoth) faunal ^[12].

In the lower layer, which was assigned to the Middle Paleolithic, archaeologists found about 1000 bones of various animals and 551 objects made of stone. In addition to them, 88 guns were in the layer, in most made of flint - scrapers, spikelets and flakes.

127 thousand hp: Muster site of bison hunters Chelyuskinets II near Volgograd

L.V. Kuznetsova in the article "Initial settlement of the Volga region" in the collection "History of the Samara Volga region" is inclined to date the cultural layer of the Chelyuskinets II parking lot in the upper limit of 145±18 thousand years, i.e. 127 thousand years ago.

Bison - the most preferred hunting object in the Chelyuskinets II parking lot

124 thousand hp: Mitochondrial Eva and Y chromosomal Adam in Africa

Mitochondrial DNA is transmitted only through the female line, and the Y chromosome is transmitted through the male. Today it is proven that all living people come from one woman who lived in East Africa about 124 000 - 200 000 years ago.

She passed on both men and women her mitochondrial DNA, and therefore she is called mitochondrial Eve. Of course, she had contemporaries, but the lines of their descendants were interrupted in ancient times.

There was also a Y-chromosomal Adam, who transmitted the Y-chromosome to all modern men. He lived in Africa about 120 000 - 156 000 years ago.

120 thousand hp: The first small wave of Homo Sapiens migration from Africa

The work of Axel Timmermann and Tobias Friedrich (2016) provides the results of modeling the climate and its impact on the resettlement of mankind, which allows you to establish the time windows in which it could occur. The authors proceed from the assumption that people moved only in territories where they could find food, which means that it was possible to leave Africa only at that time and in that way, when and where flora and fauna were represented in sufficient quantities.

According to scientists, the Sapiens had only three windows suitable for resettlement: 130-118, 106-94, 89-73 thousand years ago^[13]. The last of them best fits the "main event," when the resettlement became massive. But the first and second windows could also be suitable for migration. And, judging by the results of other teams, ancient people really took advantage of them.

So, judging by the genetic analysis of the natives of Australia and the inhabitants of New Guinea, the first people in this region appeared 120 thousand years ago, long before the ancestors of most non-Africans came out. But the genetic contribution of these early migrants is no more than two percent in the gene pool of New Guineans themselves, who, in a place with Aboriginal Australians, separated from the main population of Eurasia 51-72 thousand years ago.

112 thousand hp: Long-term habitation of Neanderthals in the Akhshtyr cave

Layers 5/2 and 5/1 of the Akhshtyr cave near Adler are associated with the first long-term habitation of Neanderthals in it 112 thousand hp.

100 thousand hp: Neanderthals in Denisova Cave

Neanderthals of the first wave, more archaic, scientists managed to find in the ancient layers of the Denisova Cave - their age is more than one hundred thousand years.

As of 2022

80 thousand hp: Mass withdrawal of Homo Sapiens from Africa

89-73 thousand years ago there was the third and most massive wave of Homo Sapiens migration from Africa The largest^[14] of^[15]first two waves, see above (120 thousand hp).

During the oldest separation of the ancestral population of people, four main haplogroups were formed: L0, L1, L2, L3. Of these, the first prevails among the Bushmen, the second among the Pygmies. The last two also exist in African peoples, but only from haplogroup L3 come macrogroups M and N, the carriers of which migrated from Africa to Eurasia.

75 thousand hp: Hunters for bison of mustier culture in Sukhoy Mechyotke near Volgograd

Theoretically, the site of Sukhaya Mechetka could be left by population groups from Zaikino Pepelishche and Chelyuskinets II, who only migrated 30 km south, moving behind herds of bison (at all these sites, bison were the most preferred hunting objects) ^[16]. The soil layer with finds of the Mustier era belongs to the thermohygrotic climatic stage of the Mikulinsky interglacial, that is, to its final stage about 75 thousand years ago.

The three studied monuments are similar both in terms of the composition of raw materials and in terms of the main technical and typological indicators, which allows us to talk about the stable cultural tradition of the Middle Paleolithic population of the Lower Volga region.

70 thousand hp: Valdai glaciation

70-10 thousand years ago - the Valdai glaciation period (wurm), which is divided into three periods:

1. Early (lower) Valdai - Kalinin glaciation: 70-50 thousand years ago.

2. Middle Valdai - Mologo-Sheksninsky interglacial: 50-24 thousand years ago.

3. Late (upper) Valdai - Ostashkov glaciation: 24-10 thousand years ago.

70 thousand hp: The second long-term stay of Neanderthals in the Akhshtyr cave

Layer 4/2 and 4/1.

60 thousand hp

Neanderthals bison hunters in Chagyr cave in Altai

The found bone remains of Neanderthals in the Chagyr cave belong to the layer about 60 thousand years ago.

As of 2022

• In fact, the Chagyr cave is a very rich, but almost one-layer monument of Neanderthal culture, a brief history of one clan nest or clan, - said in 2022 Ksenia Kolobova, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Archaeologists note that visits to the Chagyr cave by ancient people were seasonal, during the autumn bison hunt, when Neanderthal families had to migrate after their prey, which changed pastures from the already yellow and eaten plain to an even green mountain landscape. Analysis of the stone tools shows that they used a very dangerous "contact" hunt, bravely killing the bison directly with a spear with a stone tip, which was held in their hand, and not with throwing weapons.

• They had few chances for a mistake with this type of hunting, - the expert believes. And this observation can serve as one of the good reasons for the subsequent disappearance of this species of ancient people, along with the displacement of their modern physical appearance by humans.

Deni hybrid - daughter of a Neanderthal and a Denisovan

In addition to purely external differences, Neanderthals also had their own cultural characteristics - by the type of hunting, the method of making stone tools, the nature of seasonal migrations and relations within the clan. However, all these features did not prevent them from existing in almost the same territories where the Denisovans lived. Chagyr Cave is located only one hundred kilometers from Denisova Cave, where numerous fragments of bones of a new species of man - Denisovsky (Homo denisovan) were found. In 2018, scientists recorded the fact of mixing Denisovans and Neanderthals. This was reported by the discovery of a small fragment of the bone of the Deni hybrid - the daughter of a Neanderthal and a Denisovan. Previously, it was believed that these were different species of people, but then they would not be able to reproduce. Then they began to be called subspecies.

In the male line (Y chromosome), very little gene variability was observed inside the few Neanderthal clan from the Chagyr Cave. Along the female line (mitochondrial DNA), gene variability was more pronounced. So, upon reaching the age when a girl could have children, she was released into another clan, and it was not necessarily Neanderthal. Apparently, this is how the famous hybrid appeared. DNA studies have shown that the girl's mother was genetically identical to the Chagyr group of Neanderthals.

The Denisovan-Neanderthal hybrid was dedicated to a separate international symposium in Denisova Cave in 2018. There, for the first time, theories were heard about genetic and morphological differences between the early and late waves of Neanderthals, as well as about the content of 2% of Neanderthal genes in the genome of a modern European-type person.

Not always these inherited Neanderthal genes have proved useful to modern humans. Some increased immunity, while others encoded the protein responsible for lipid metabolism and increased the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Different people may have different Neanderthal genes.

50 thousand hp: Mologo-Sheksninsky interglacial and Upper Paleolithic revolution

Middle Valdai - Mologo-Sheksninsky interglacial: 50-24 thousand years ago.

The chronological framework of the Upper Paleolithic in world archaeology is determined from approximately 50,000 to 10,000 years ago. The boundary separating the Lower and Upper Paleolithic is associated with the Upper Paleolithic Revolution, during which technological changes began to take place at a rapid pace in ancient cultures.

The essence of these changes boiled down to:

• improving the process of making stone tools on prismatic plate blanks, and not on peels, as was the case before;
• changing and increasing the variety of gun shapes;
• the appearance of stone tools with pronounced preparation for attachment in a wooden or bone handle.

During this period, the widest assortment of tools from bone and horn appears, produced using techniques of cutting, planing, drilling and grinding, and, most importantly, elements of symbolism appear: drilled bead shells, engraved penetrations from bone, perfect works of art appear. In addition, the new era is characterized by much greater dynamism of development, compared to the previous era of the Lower Paleolithic^[17].

This was largely due to the fact that 50 thousand years ago the settlement of the Old World by people is completed, Australia is being developed, and even the polar regions of Europe and Asia are being populated. In Europe itself, Homo sapiens who came from Africa (the ancestral homeland) encounter the local population - Neanderthals. The prehistoric world is almost completely mastered by people, and the development of human culture "wide" is gradually being rebuilt into development "deep into," which inevitably leads to the search for "new technologies" and unused opportunities.

45 thousand hp: Homo Sapiens Sapiens in Omsk region and Taimyr

50 thousand years ago, people of our species, Homo sapiens sapiens began to disperse at a terrible speed in different directions. And in the shortest possible time they ran, in fact, to the edge of the earth. On the territory of Russia, evidence of this phenomenon is quite numerous. A femur was found in a re-deposited state in Ust-Ishim in the Omsk region on the banks of the river. It was dated and DNA was isolated, and it turned out that this is one of the most ancient sapiens, who lived about 45 thousand years ago. In general, there is very little of this in the world, only in Africa there is an ancient and, maybe, somewhere in Asia.

Indirect evidence was found on Taimyr - a mammoth skeleton with traces of cutting. The people themselves are not there, as are the tools, but nevertheless there is a mammoth who was probably even killed. There is much debate about this, but even the one who found, Pitulko, believes that this is evidence of a mammoth hunt. And in particular, the Ust-Korg parking lot is already the Arctic, Taimyr. There and now it is not very cozy, except for the locals. This is 45 thousand years ago. And people left Africa about 50 thousand years ago, maybe early, that is, in 5 thousand years they managed to reach the Arctic and adapt to life there. This is a record state. And then they settled all the more or less suitable territories.

45 thousand hp: Kostenkov-Streletsky archaeological culture

Kostyonkovsky-Streletsky archaeological culture is the oldest culture of a complex of paleolithic sites near the village of Kostyonki (Kostyonki XII - IA layer, Kostyonki XI - 5th layer). It was allocated in 1957 by A.N. Rogachev in the Kostenkovsky-Borshchevsky district.

The name of the site Streletskaya 2 (Kostenki 6) and its stone inventory served as the basis for highlighting the Streletsky archaeological culture of the early pore of the Upper Paleolithic. The stone industry of the Streletskaya 2 parking lot, opened in 1952 by A.N. Rogachev, is characterized by a developed two-sided secondary processing of dart tips and arrows - triangular with a concave (more often fit into an equilateral triangle), straightened or rounded base, in the form of a "poplar leaf."

Most monuments of Streletsky culture date back to the age of 32-23 thousand liters. n (Kostenki-12/1a, Garchi-1 , Sungir).

The first chronological group of monuments of Streletsky culture: Kostenki VI (5th layer) and Kostenki XII (3rd layer), Streletskaya II. One of the transitional cultures between the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, along with similar cultures of Eastern and Central Europe. Most researchers, as sources of genesis of the Streletsky culture, to which a number of researchers attribute the Sungir site, call the Middle Paleolithic industries of the eastern Mikok of Crimea. However, the available data on the chronology, ecology, technology and typology of the Mycoca, Levallois-Mousterian and plate-shaped Mousterian technocomplexes of Eastern Europe do not allow to assume their participation in the composition of the Upper Paleolithic industries.

Streletskaya culture is represented at five parking lots in Kostenki (K1-V, K6, K11-V, K12-III, Borshchevo 5-IV) and in the parking lots Sungir, Garchi 1, Nepryakhino and Vysh outside Kostenok.

In the south, Streletsky culture is represented by the Biryuchya Balka II site on the Seversky Donets. Dating of Streletsky culture falls between 45 thousand liters. n for the cultural layer of V Kostenka-1 and 34 thousand liters. n on Sungiri, Visi and Garchi 1.

The Kostenkov-Streletsky culture is characterized by ground dwellings up to 35 m long and up to 9 m wide, the manufacture of Paleolithic Venus, hoe, etc.

As noted by P. M. Dolukhanov, at a late stage, Streletsky culture coexisted with a more developed Spitsyn culture, which had all typical Upper Paleolithic features.

Mammoth hunters in Kostenki

From the time of sapiens on our territory there are already many finds. In the European part, finds are presented in Kostenki, in the Khokholsky district of the Voronezh region. Many skeletons and a huge number of parking lots were found there, and it is not very clear why, but there, as people say, "honey is smeared."

In the case of Kostenki, we know that man came to this territory about 45 thousand years ago. Groups of people who fell into Kostenki, apparently, moved from Western Asia, then from the territory of modern Kostenok they went to explore Central and Western Europe. However, this place turned out to be an important point for ancient hunters in the endless routes of their migrations: their settlements in Kostenki have been recorded for almost 30 millennia.

The bones are recognized as the richest place in Russia for concentrating the sites of the Upper Paleolithic era - people of the modern type. Here, on the territory of about 10 km of ², over 60 sites have been opened (on a number of several dwellings, sometimes very large), dating from 45 to 15 thousand years^[18]). In connection with the huge area (although of different times) of settlement, researchers are looking for arguments in favor of recognizing Kostenok as one of the oldest proto-cities on the planet (with a population of 200-300 people at the same time). Kostyonkovsky ancient sites contain dwellings made of mammoth bones, above one of which a pavilion-museum was built.

By 2018, more than 60 ancient layers on 26 Upper Paleolithic monuments were discovered in Kostenki and Borshchevo. And the finds found on these partially studied monuments have compiled archaeological collections that are stored in different museums in Russia.

Neanderthals in Kostenki did not live, and the Sapiens both settled and lived, and now live. And the settlement of Kostenki, a village, is called for a reason, but because there are whole placers in every ravine of bones. And many skeletons were found there.

The most beautiful are Kostenki-2 and Kostenki-14, in which one of the oldest sapiens, 36 thousand years or so.

There are separate sites in Kostenki, during the study of which we can "read" the life story of our ancestors for their entire stay in Kostenki. For example, the parking lots Kostenki 12, Kostenki 14, Kostenki 17. These parking lots are called multi-layered. Some sites of Kostenok have 7-9 cultural layers.

44 thousand hp: Neanderthals in the cave of Okladnikov

Fragments of the Neanderthal skeleton from the Okladnikov cave are dated to about 44 thousand years ago. Morphologically and genetically, they belong to Neanderthals of the second wave of migration. With a more detailed study, geneticists discovered very distant family ties of Neanderthals from the caves of Chagyrskaya and Okladnikov at about the level of the 80-100th generation.

40 thousand hp: The first Cro-Magnons in the Akhshtyr cave

Stone tools of the Cro-Magnons from layer No. 3 in the Akhshtyr cave near Adler.

39,280 hp: Mega-eruption of the Phlegrean fields and extinction of part of the Neanderthals

The earliest activity of the Flegrei Fields supervolcano in southern Italy began about 39,280 years ago and was accompanied by a powerful volcanic eruption and the release into the atmosphere of about 200 km³^[19] volcanic material].

The mega-eruption coincided in time with the eruptions of the volcanoes Kazbek in the Caucasus and St. Anna in the Southern Carpathians. According to seismologists and paleoclimatologists, it became one of the reasons for the "volcanic winter."

Sulfur has increased over Europe, absorbing and scattering sunlight. In the year following the eruption, temperatures across the planet dropped by 2 degrees Celsius, with a 5-degree decline in Western Europe.

Volcanic emissions, gradually settling, left behind a trail of rock that, in the shape of a wedge, stretched from southern Italy northeast to the Southern Urals.

2016 Study Data

The rock covered more than 1.1 million square meters with an ash layer. The affected were, among other things, the Black Sea region and the Caspian Sea. Ash eruptions were discovered, including during excavations in Kostenki. Voronezh region Russia From southern Italy to Romania the ash layer reached 1 meter. According to the volcanic activity scale, the eruption of the Phlegrean fields had 7 points out of 8 possible.

The ash, coupled with a drop in temperature, caused vegetation to be oppressed. Years followed when there was not even a moderate summer warming. Plants stopped growing completely; without sunlight in sufficient amounts, photosynthesis stopped. Animals that were able to survive the eruption migrated en masse from vast spaces from Italy to the Urals. This eruption was the strongest in Europe for a period of 200 thousand years.

According to one version put forward by anthropologists, the eruption could become either the main or one of the main reasons for the extinction of Neanderthals in a significant part of their range from Central Europe to the Caucasus.

The remains of two Neanderthals, discovered in the Mezmay Cave (Caucasus, Russia), gave a number of valuable information. They hunted four species of bison. After the second cycle of eruptions, the content of harmful substances in the soil and atmosphere increased, bone tests show that the norm was exceeded several times. No plant pollen is present in sediment analyses during this period^[19]?.

The authors of this study believe that the environmental crisis also prevented the first wave of settlement of Europe by Sapiens. However, people of modern anatomy were lucky in the sense that during this period they lived in more southern latitudes, mainly in Africa, and avoided the direct consequences of the disaster. Only when the climate stabilized in the northern latitudes, did modern man begin to develop new territories partially freed from Neanderthals^[20]

36,400 hp: The earliest cave paintings in the Cape Cave in Bashkiria

Main article: Kapova Cave (Shulgan-Tash)

Uranium-thorium dating showed that the oldest drawings in the Cape Cave in Bashkiria were made 36,400 years ago.

30 thousand hp: Sungir

Main article: Sungir

There are also finds in Sungir, where three full-fledged skeletons and other remains from other skeletons were found. There is quite a decent dating - under 30 thousand years. This is, of course, not the oldest sapiens, but the most spectacular, since the burials in Sungir are the richest and most gorgeous burials of the entire Upper Paleolithic on the planet.

There are also finds in Siberia, for example, Afontov Mountain on the outskirts of Krasnoyarsk, Malta near Irkutsk. Bones were also found there, and there are even more parking lots there. There is a brown nearby. And according to them, in particular, DNA is isolated, which shows that some people, very related to both Afontovians and Maltese, were among the settlers in the New World. These were people who joined those who went to discover America, and then became the basis, including the Americans, although most came from the tropics from what is now China.

And even later, in the Mesolithic, there are already a lot of such finds. Huge burial grounds are already appearing in the Mesolithic, and in fact our entire country has been completely populated. But the latest finds, in particular, in Ust-Ishim, in Korg, indicate that not everything has been found. There is also something that can be found, and for sure new research will show many more interesting things. "

27 thousand hp: The last Neanderthals in the Bryansk region

The lifetime of Neanderthals is the time of the ice ages, which changed with interglacials. When there were glaciers, they reached the territory of the modern Tver region, for example. And it was almost impossible to live on the territory of the modern Moscow region, but, nevertheless, the Neanderthals reached the territory of the modern Bryansk region and, moreover, lasted there longer than anywhere else.

The oldest early Paleolithic products on the territory of the Bryansk region were found in 1938 by the expedition of Professor M.V. Voevodsky near the village of Negotino (Zhukovsky district). Research in Negotino continues intermittently for many years and led to the discovery of several Paleolithic locations on the banks of the Desna and its tributary Rudnyanka. The stone tools found here are particularly primitive.

One of the most important events in European archeology of the Stone Age of the 1960s was the discovery and excavation near Bryansk by archaeologist F.M. Zavarnyaev of the location of Khotylevo 1. Traces of Neanderthals stretch for more than a kilometer along the Desna Valley. Cultural remains are washed in places by an ancient river and lie in pebbles formed at its bottom more than 40 millennia ago. In some areas, finds are also found in the primary occurrence - where things were abandoned in antiquity. Several Neanderthal sites^[21] are known in Khotylevo^[22]

Another group of sites, discovered by archaeologist L.M. Tarasov west of Khotylevo, is located in the village of Betovo. The Betovo parking lot itself lies on a large cape facing the Desna. Near it are the parking lots Korshevo 1, 2, 3 and Lebedevka. Analysis of the distribution of the finds of the Betovskaya site allowed archaeologist L.M. Tarasov to come to the conclusion that there was a rounded ground dwelling and a workshop for processing flint on the excavated area.

Although Neanderthals almost did not use treated bone in everyday life, rare finds are known such as a drilled bone fragment (amulet) from Khotylevo 1 and a rhino bone product found in Betovo, resembling a bowl.

For the cultural layer of the Middle Paleolithic Monument Betovo in the Bryansk Region, a group led by a researcher at the Paleolithic Department of the Institute of the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Pryudnin obtained a series of very late dates from 25 thousand to 32 thousand years^[23]. At that time, two worlds crossed the Russian Plain - the late Middle Paleolithic and the developed Upper Paleolithic associated with Sapiens. For example, in Kostenki near Voronezh, researchers found Upper Paleolithic industries, whose age exceeds 40 thousand years. Middle Paleolithic monuments in the Bryansk region are about 35-40 thousand and 27-32 thousand years old. It turns out that on the Russian Plain, Neanderthals, or, strictly speaking, carriers of Middle Paleolithic traditions, chronologically intersect with carriers of Upper Paleolithic traditions, apparently, they somehow interacted with each other.

25 thousand hp: Prenuclei - the first money in the Far East

• Prenuclei - blanks for stone tools - first money

24 thousand hp: Ostashkovsky glaciation

Late (upper) Valdai - Ostashkov glaciation: 24-10 thousand years ago.

The average temperature on Earth over the past 60 thousand years

24 thousand hp: Boy of the tribe of mammoth hunters from Malta in Altai

Haplogroup R appears in North Asia right before the last glacial maximum (25-19 thousand years ago). It was this haplogroup that was determined from the remains of a one-year-old boy found in Altai, whose age is 24 thousand years. The child belonged to a tribe of mammoth hunters who probably moved around Siberia and parts of Europe in the Paleolithic^[24]

Reconstruction of the boy's burial in the Malta parking lot. Hermitage, St. Petersburg. Source: Nature.com

These individuals contributed most to the formation of modern Europeans and southern Asians, inhabitants of two regions in which haplogroup R dominates today: R1a in Eastern Europe, R1b in Western Europe, and R2 in South Asia^[24]

For details, see: Subclade R1b1a2a1a2b (S28/U152)

20 thousand hp: The heyday of the Upper Paleolithic in Kostenki

The final stage of human existence in Kostenki (22-18 thousand years ago) was marked by the heyday of the Upper Paleolithic culture, despite the fact that during this period of time people lived in incredibly harsh conditions of the glacial zone. However, the feed base was so large that people did not need long-distance migrations, and they lived for quite a long time on the Don shores, building warm dwellings from mammoth bones, hunting animals of glacial pore: mammoth, reindeer, arctic fox, polar partridges. The mammoth was the main commercial animal on the Don shores in those distant times.

The manufacture of tools from stone and bone reached perfection and was characterized by an extraordinary variety compared to the previous era. But the main achievement of that era in Kostenki was the rise of ancient art, expressed in images of animals and women in the form of small sculptures. A small figure of a pregnant woman, made by a primitive master about 22 millennia ago, stands first in a long series of epoch-making female images that have become the personification of their time^[17].

16 thousand hp: Rising Caspian Sea levels give rise to a water cascade to the Mediterranean Sea

According to A.L. Chepalygi, published in 2006, about 16 thousand years ago, the Caspian level (for that period it is called the Rannekhvalyn basin) rose and gave rise to a water cascade, which through the Manych-Kerch Strait reached the Black Sea (then the Novoevksa basin) and then went to the Bosphorus and the Sea of ​ ​ Marmara. A.L. Chepalyga called this period the era of extreme flooding, which left behind many "mementos"^[25].

The Khvalyn stage lasted 5-6 thousand years, during which time up to ten cycles of water level fluctuations occurred with a frequency of 500-600 years, which can be combined into three waves, each of which lasted about 2 thousand years (image from the www.sciam.ru site)

This is the era of floods with a sharp rise in water levels in the Caspian - the so-called Khvalyn transgression. A number of other scientists adhere to the same opinion, including Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Yu.G. Leonov. The chronology of those events has been studied in detail, there are dozens of radiocarbon dates (works by G.I. Ryugov (1997), A.A. Svitoch (2002), Yu.G. Leonov (2002) and others) confirming the facts of flooding. The problem of post-glacial flooding is paid special attention in the works of V.M. Kotlyakov, M.G. Groswald. The task is to identify general patterns, features of that period, the consequences of that era.

The model of the era of extreme flooding proposed by Chepalyga includes the reconstruction of the so-called cascade of Eurasian basins, which consisted of the Aralo-Sarykamysh basin, Uzboy, the Khvalyn Sea, the Manych-Kerch Strait, the Novoevksa Sea, the Bosphorus, the ancient Sea of ​ ​ Marmara. Through the Dardanelles Strait, the waters of the cascade merged into the Mediterranean Sea. The area of ​ ​ this lake-sea space reached 1.5 million km2, the volume of water was 700 thousand km3. For comparison, the world's largest modern lake system of the Great Lakes of North America is six times smaller and does not exceed 245 thousand km2, it contains thirty times less water, and its catchment area is more than three times less than that of the ancient Eurasian cascade. The Aralo-Sarykamysh Basin (modern Aral Sea), which was originally an isolated and drainage-free lake, became a flowing lake-sea. The Khvalyn Sea and other cascade basins differed from the modern Caspian Sea by a lower temperature (+ 4 ° C in the north and up to + 14 ° C in the south). The water in them was muddy, since the melting of permafrost provoked the washing of rock from the slopes and an increase in the flow of river hard soil.

According to the concept of the era of extreme flooding, the coastline of the Khvalyn basin moved hundreds and even thousands of kilometers, which, of course, influenced the terrain, geological structure, flora and fauna, and human life conditions. The first and most powerful wave of flooding (Rannekhvalynskaya) flooded 16-15 thousand years ago and lasted about 2 thousand years. The height of sea level compared to the current one is assumed to have changed three times (+ 36 m, + 50 m, + 35 m). The flow threshold in the Manych Strait was at that time at + 20 m, so Caspian water poured into the Black Sea through the Manych-Kerch Strait.

The second (Srednekhvalynskaya) wave of the era of extreme flooding in its peak indicators amounted to + 22 m, + 16 m, + 6 m, but the strait may no longer exist at that time. Water in the ancient Caspian has become too small to "overflow" through the strait into the ancient Black Sea.

During the third wave (Pozdnekhvalynskaya) the water rose slightly (-5 m, 0 m, -5 m, -12 m). Thus, the most powerful cataclysms fell on the Rannehvalyn period. It was a real invasion of the sea on land: the water level rose at a speed of up to 1-2 m/year, the coastline moved up to 10-20 km/year or 30-60 m/day.

The level of the Novoevksinsky Sea, the predecessor of the Chyorny, was lower than the modern one by 100 meters. However, according to A.L. Chepalyga, due to the appearance of a cascade and the drainage of waters from the Caspian Sea, its level rose to 50-40 m., The water area increased from 350 to 400 thousand km2. The volume of water in the Novoevksinsky basin was slightly less than in the current Black Sea. By the way, the level of the Caspian Sea is currently below the level of the Black Sea (and the World Ocean) by 27 m, but over the last quarter of the 20th century. the level of the Caspian Sea rose by 2.5 m. In general, as a result of flooding, the water level drop between the internal basins of the top of the cascade of Eurasian basins and the World Ocean reached 200 m.

Not all scientists share the point of view of A.L. Chepalygi. So, American researchers B. Ryan (Ryan) and V. Pitman (Pitman) even earlier noted that the "culprit" of extreme flooding of that period was the Black Sea.

13 thousand hp: Mammoths in the territory of the modern Magadan region

Mammoth Dima, Magadan Region, 1977.

The age of the mammoth at the time of death is estimated at 6-7 months. The period of life, according to various estimates, ranges from 13 to 40 thousand years ago.

8.3 thousand years BC: Holocene

10 thousand years ago, the Pleistocene is replaced by the modern climatic period - the Holocene, which in the European part of Russia is usually divided into five periods:

1. Preboreal - 8.3-7.7 thousand years BC. e.

2. Boreal - 7.7-5.5 thousand years BC. e.

3. Atlant - 5.5-3 thousand years BC. e.

4. Subboreal - 3-0.5 thousand years BC. e.

5. Subatlant - from 0.5 thousand years BC. e.

8213 BC: The Billingen Disaster: The Connection of the Baltic Glacial Lake and the Atlantic Ocean

According to geology, it is possible to determine the end of the Paleolithic with an accuracy of a year - 8213 BC. When in central Sweden, north of Mount Billingen, the so-called "Billingen catastrophe" or a breakthrough of the bridge separating the Baltic glacial cold lake and the warm waters of the Atlantic occurred.

Baltic glacial lake 10-12 thousand hp

This led to a sharp drop in the level of the Baltic to the level of the world ocean. All of these events happened extremely quickly; according to the calculations of Swedish geologists - within one year. The fall in the water level in the Baltic was very strong - from 20 to 30 m. The descent of the lake led to the regression of the lake and the drainage of huge areas.

The cold climate formed by the Baltic Lake was replaced by a warmer and wetter one. The climate due to the influence of the Ioldian Sea, which arose on the site of Lake Ioldian, contributed to the establishment of modern landscape zones in Europe. Moreover, the results of these changes were mainly reflected in the Eastern European ^[26].

Neolithic

Main article: Neolithic in Russia

Paleolithic researchers

• Sergey Aristarkhovich Semenov - creator of the science of trasology

Movies

• "Ladies and Gentlemen of Prehistoric Times" (Sungir and Gravett Monuments of Europe)

See also

• History of Russia
• The development of fire by ancient people
• Technological innovations in human history

Links

• Kostenki Museum-Reserve Website

Notes