Archaeology of the Indo-European Fatherland. A. G. Vinogradov
Mediterranean-Black Sea strip at some points in winter temperatures were 1—2° lower than in our time. «The warm Arctic of the Mikulinsk interglacial, when January temperatures were 4—8° C higher than modern, suggests that the flow of warm waters of the Gulf Stream at that time was much more powerful than now (with a higher temperature),» – the authors of the atlas – monographs «Paleography of Europe for the last hundred thousand years.»
They note that for the White Sea region (within the eastern part of the North European archipelago), interglacial forests were characterized by pine forests, then mixed birch forests with spruce and broad-leaved species, and at the end of the interglacial period, birch forests prevailed. During the Mikulinsk interglacial period, up to approximately 60° N, and up to 57° N in the basin of the upper reaches of the Northern Dvina and Vyatka, birch and spruce forests were widespread with a greater or lesser participation of oak, hornbeam, and elm.
Vegetation of the Mikulinsk interglacial
Therefore, there is nothing unrealistic in the development by the ancient human collectives of the north of Eastern Europe already in Mousterian time.
Archaeologists believe that people lived on the Pechora River (the Krutaya Gora site) 70 millennia ago.
Moreover, «primitive archeology now has massive and indisputable materials proving a long history of agriculture, which began at least from the end of the Middle Paleolithic era,» i.e. archaeologists determine the time of the birth of primitive agriculture, which is three or four tens of millennia away from us. For its occurrence in the rate of gathering, the necessary condition was the presence of mixed grasses and grass steppes. And those were not only in the traditional zone —
in the south of the Russian Plain, but also in the north, where for the time it was 45210 +1430 BP pine-birch forests with grassy meadow cover in the Vychegda and Pechora rivers basin. 44 the millennium BC is the time of new, compared with the very warm Mikulinsk interglacial, climatic conditions – the Mologo-Shekshninsk interglacial.
Grain mills
Ice sheet cliff
About 70 thousand years ago, the Mikulinsk or Rice-Wurm interglacial, which lasted about 60 thousand years, ended. The next ice age began, which was called Valdai in Eastern Europe.
Valdai glaciation – the name is very conditional, because this entire period is divided into two unequal parts: 70—24 thousand years ago – the iceless Valdai and 24—9.4 thousand years ago – the glacial Valdai. During the Ice-free Valdai, a slower increase in cooling alternated with periods of warming.
One of such warmings, very long, was the Mologo-Sheksna interglacial period, which continued with short cooling periods from 50 thousand to 24 thousand to the present day, and the time from 32 to 24 thousand years ago was the warmest. So, broad-leaved forests spread to the Don, the so-called Kostenko-Streletsk Paleolithic culture develops here, part of the population of which during the Milk-Sheksna interglacial period moved along the Russian plain to the Oka basin. A number of archaeologists suggest that the tribes of Streletsk culture at this time inhabit the banks of the Pechery.
Researchers note that: «In the northeast of Europe, which includes the vast expanses of the Volga and Ural regions, outstanding monuments of the early Paleolithic period have been found in recent years, and there has already been a turning point in the direction of intensifying work to study them. Some areas of the Russian Plain (north-west) in the Sheksninsk time may not have been populated. It should be emphasized that from the south to the north of the Russian Plain, at the time of the formation and development of the Upper Paleolithic, not nomadic nomadic hunters moved, but tribes leading a settled lifestyle, building long-term dwellings of various types, conducting complex household chores based on hunting and gathering. Hunting herds of horses and reindeer required the improvement of throwing weapons and, probably, led at such an early time to the invention of bows and arrows. In the same period, a spiritual culture develops and develops.»
Archaeological sites of the Paleolithic spiritual culture have been preserved in places of prolonged residence of people. Apparently, in the near future on the territory of the Russian Plain and, in particular, the Russian North, first-class monuments dating to the time of the Mologo-Sheksna Interstadial, the warmest time of the Valdai glacier, will be opened. In Poland and Germany, all the monuments of the ancient Stone Age are concentrated south of the 52nd parallel in the basin of the upper Vistula and in the Silesian Mountains. In Eastern Europe, they are distributed unevenly. In the western part, such monuments can be traced only to 52 parallel. In the central part of the Russian Plain, Mousterian monuments are known up to 54 parallels, and the Upper Paleolithic Buzovaya site (in the middle reaches of the Pechora River) is located north of 64° N, about 175 km.
from the Arctic Circle. Her age is 25450+380 years ago, the Sungir site on the Klyazma River is just north of 56° N. – her age is 25500 +200 years ago. In addition, by the 24th millennium BC such sites of the northeast of the Russian Plain include the Bear Cave in the upper reaches of the Pechora River, Ostrovskaya Station, Smirnovskaya and Buranovskaya Caves. In the northwest, monuments of this time are unknown.
Bear Cave
Cultural traditions prevailing among the population of the northern part of the Russian Plain of that distant time, very well represented by the graves of the Sungir site near the city of Vladimir, dating to the end of the Molozhsko-Sheksninsk time. Here, observing a long-established ritual, people who lived in the 24th millennium BC, before burying their dead, sprinkled the bottom of the grave with hot coals, cleansing it, possibly with the remnants of trizny. Then chalk or another white substance, similar to lime, was strewn to the bottom, and already over a white layer, densely sprinkled with red ocher. White and red – the symbols of purity and blood, snow and fire were already at that distant time, escorting a person to another world. The deceased were put into the grave in richly decorated clothes, with numerous stone and bone tools and weapons; they were covered with fur cloaks and plentifully covered with red ocher. So in Sungir in one of the graves was buried a tall, broad-shouldered man 55—56 years old, lying on his back with his hands folded on his stomach, his head was turned to the northeast. He was wearing a suede or fur shirt, leather pants and leather shoes such as moccasins. All the clothes of this man are 24 millennia BC. It was embroidered with 3,500 beads carved from mammoth tusks. On his hands he wore more than 20 bracelets from thin, cut from mammoth tusks, plates, as well as bracelets from strung beads. The entire headdress was embroidered with beads and ended at the back of the head with arctic fangs. On the man’s shoulders lay a short fur cloak embroidered with larger beads. A girl of 7—8 years old and a boy of 12—13 years old were buried next to the man. Their burials were also accompanied by a huge number of mammoth bone products. Of particular interest are spears made from split and straightened tusks: 2 m. 42 cm in the boy and 1 m. 66 cm in the girl. Today it is not yet clear how our distant ancestors straightened and split the three-meter tusks, how long, straight; hard and sharp spears were trimmed. Children’s clothes were embroidered with beads even richer than the clothes of men. A total of about 7,500 beads were sewn on it, children wore bracelets, and mammoth bone rings. In addition, the clothes were decorated with elegant ornamented slotted discs, hair clips, fasteners.
Archaeologists suggest that the burial of children does not occur simultaneously with the funeral of an adult and was done much earlier. This indicates that this is not a random rich burial, but a stable tradition that has developed for a long time and has been preserved for millennia.
Bone products. Sungir
Abstract