Prenukleusa (procurement for stone tools) - the first money

Main article: A paleolith in the territory of Russia

In more detail the doctor of historical sciences, the associate professor of archeology and ethnography of NSU, the leading researcher of Institute of archeology and ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science Pavel Volkov told about this theory: Without stone tools in the Stone Age any activity of the person was impossible. Without knife it is impossible to receive meat from the killed animal, without special tools manufacture of skins, production of clothes, mass processing of fish and so on is impossible. The strongest tools were made of a stone. At the same time stone tools could not serve infinitely long. The expense of tools was always high, and not any stone was suitable for production. Thus, the wealth of collective or an individual, especially in places scanty stone raw materials, was defined by the potential of cannon production. The quality and the number of the made tools was a natural criterion of extent of prosperity of human community. Their existence allowed to master new rich with food, but poor in raw materials for production of tools of the territory. The best applicant for a role of money, as we know, the subject having inherent value, a subject necessary everything with which it is always possible to compare the value of any other product of work is. Standard prenukleus in the paleolith final just also purchases signs such "absolute value.

When studying the extensive archaeological collections of Mongolia collected by the staff of Institute of archeology and ethnography (Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science) for decades of field surveys quite unusual phenomenon was mentioned.

In collections of finds rather significant share of prenukleus which splitting, i.e. use of these "procurements" for production of tools, practically did not begin is noted. And such artifacts were detected archeologists by no means not only on site production of a stone, but also in places enough remote from raw materials sources. Bringing to a stage of readiness for regular splitting of perenukleus and unmotivated failure from their further use is represented strange. But the assumption is quite logical that deliberate preserving of a prenukleus could be also some kind of "stock" on the future. At the same time the number of the accumulations of prenukleus of the Neolithic detected by archeologists is quite high, they cannot be explained with the artifacts which are just forgotten by masters. For example, as a result of researches of an archeological site Novopetrovka-II in the Far East such "treasures" were detected almost in each house, – he explained.

Singularity of such form of money should not be surprising as during the different periods of history the role of money was executed, as we know, by different objects: sinks, skins, animals, metals, etc. Why prenukleus could become a prototype of the first money? And why stones in general can be considered money? As the scientist explained, prenukleusa had all properties of money. They were labor-consuming in production (i.e. in itself were of great value), compact, capable to be split up for small shares and physically long-lasting.

Production of a prenukleus was very labor-consuming and required high qualification of the master. While tool could almost make of the plates received from it everyone. Neolytic prenukleus it was rather compact. At commission of large deals it is possible to define easily quantity of "money", increasing number of settlement artifacts. The monetary unit of the Neolithic easily is divided into small, standard shares: from each neolytic prenukleus it is possible to receive a certain number of procurements of future tools. So the average weight of the studied prenukleus of Mongolia is 56 grams, plus or minus 10%. It is experimentally established that from a standard neolytic prenukleus it is possible to receive no more than 50 microplates. From this number of procurements 10–12 vkladyshevy knives – the main, universal type of tools of an era of the new Stone Age turn out on average. At the same time it is interesting that the majority of prenukleus of Mongolia has distinct traces of demonstration of their quality. Practically on each of the studied artifacts there are negatives of one-two removals detecting material advantage of which they are made and demonstrating potentialities of its further splitting. The durability of such money does not raise doubts too. Prenukleusa, made 20 thousand years ago, are still suitable for splitting and production of tools. Kind of incredibly it did not sound, but practically all formal qualities inherent in modern money are inherent also for the artifacts investigated by us, – Pavel Volkov says.