There have always been many historical mysteries in the world. Fortunately, the answers to many questions were almost under our very noses, or rather under our feet. Archeology has opened the way for us to know our origins with the help of found artifacts, documents and much more. Until now, archaeologists tirelessly unearth more and more traces of the past, revealing the truth to us.

Some archaeological discoveries have simply shocked the world. For example, the Rosetta stone, thanks to which scientists were able to translate many ancient texts. The discovered Dead Sea Scrolls turned out to be extremely important for world religion, allowing to confirm the texts of the Jewish canon. Equally significant finds include the tomb of King Tut and the discovery of Troy. Finding traces of ancient Roman Pompeii gave historians access to knowledge of ancient civilization.

Even today, when it would seem that almost all science is looking forward, archaeologists still find ancient artifacts that can change our understanding of the past of the planet. Here are ten of the most influential discoveries in the history of the world.

10. Mound Hisarlyk (1800s)

Hisarlik is located in Turkey. In fact, the discovery of this hill is evidence of the existence of Troy. For centuries, Homer's Iliad was nothing more than a myth. In the 50-70s of the XIX century, trial excavations were crowned with success, and it was decided to continue research. Thus, confirmation of the existence of Troy was found. Excavations continued in the 20th century with a new team of archaeologists.

9. Megalosaurus (1824)

The Megalosaurus was the first dinosaur to be studied. Of course, fossil skeletons of dinosaurs were found before, but then science could not explain what kind of creatures they were. The exploration of the Megalosaurus is believed by some to be the beginning of many sci-fi dragon stories. However, not only this was the result of such a find, there was a whole boom in the popularity of archeology and the fascination of mankind with dinosaurs, everyone wanted to find their remains. Found skeletons began to be classified and exhibited in museums for public viewing.

8. Treasures of Sutton Hoo (1939)

Sutton Hoo is considered Britain's most valuable treasure. Sutton Hoo is the burial chamber of the King who lived in the 7th century. Various treasures, a lyre, wine goblets, swords, helmets, masks and much more were buried with him. The burial chamber is surrounded by 19 hills, which are also graves, excavations at Sutton Hoo continue to this day.

7. Dmanisi (2005)

Ancient man and the creatures that evolved into the modern homosapiens have been studied for many years. It would seem that today there are no blank spots in the history of our evolution, but a skull of 1.8 million years old, found in the Georgian city of Dmanisi, made archaeologists and historians think. It represents the remains of the homoerectus species that migrated from Africa, and confirms the hypothesis that this species stands apart in the evolutionary chain.

6. Göbekli Tepe (2008)

For a long time, Stonehenge was considered the most ancient religious building in the world. In the 60s of the XX century, this hill in southeastern Turkey was potentially called more ancient than Stonehenge, but very soon it was recognized as a medieval cemetery. However, in 2008, Klaus Schmidt discovered there stones that are 11 thousand years old, which were uniquely processed by a prehistoric man who did not yet have either clay or metal devices for this.

5. The headless Vikings of Dorset (2009)

In 2009, road workers accidentally stumbled upon human remains. It turned out that they had unearthed a mass grave in which more than 50 people with severed heads were buried. Historians immediately looked into the books and realized that once there was a massacre of the Vikings, it happened somewhere between 960 and 1016. The skeletons belong to young people of about twenty, history shows that they tried to attack the Anglo-Saxons, but they resisted very zealously, which led to mass murder. The Vikings are said to have been stripped and tortured before being beheaded and thrown into a pit. This discovery sheds some light on the historical battle.

4. Petrified Man (2011)

Finds of fossilized human remains are far from news, but this does not make them less terrible and, at the same time, attractive. These beautifully mummified bodies tell a lot about the past. Recently, a petrified body was found in Ireland, its age is about four thousand years, scientists suggest that this person died a very cruel death. All bones are broken and his posture is very strange. It is the oldest fossilized person ever found by archaeologists.

3. Richard III (2013)

In August 2012, the University of Leicester, in conjunction with the City Council and the Community of Richard III, organized, leading to the discovery of the lost remains of one of the most famous English monarchs. The remains were found under a modern parking lot. The University of Leicester has announced that it will initiate a full DNA study of Richard III, so the English monarch could become the first historical figure whose DNA will be analyzed.

2. Jamestown (2013)

Scientists have always talked about cannibalism in the ancient settlements of Jamestown, but neither historians nor archaeologists have ever had direct confirmation of this. Of course, history tells us that in ancient times, people in search of the New World and riches often found a terrible and cruel end, especially in the cold winter time. Last year, William Kelso and his team discovered the punctured skull of a 14-year-old girl in a pit containing the remains of horses and other animals that settlers ate during times of famine. Kelso is convinced that the girl was killed to satisfy her hunger, and that her skull was punctured to get to the soft tissues and brain.

1. Stonehenge (2013-2014)

For many centuries Stonehenge remained something mystical for historians and archaeologists. The location of the stones did not allow us to determine what exactly they were used for and how they were placed in this way. Stonehenge remained a mystery over which many struggled. Recently, archaeologist David Jackies organized excavations that led to the discovery of the remains of a bison (in ancient times they were eaten and also used in agriculture). Based on these excavations, scientists were able to conclude that in the 8820s BC Stonehenge was inhabited and was not at all conceived as some kind of separately located object. Thus, pre-existing assumptions will be revised.

Archaeologist may not be the most breathtaking profession, but it certainly has its exciting moments. Of course, not every day archaeologists find valuable mummies, but from time to time you can stumble upon something truly amazing, be it ancient computers, huge underground armies or mysterious remains. Here are 25 of the most astounding archaeological finds in human history.

1. Venetian vampire

Today, every student knows that in order to kill a vampire, you need to stick an aspen stake in his heart, but hundreds of years ago this was not considered the only method. Let me introduce you to the ancient alternative - a brick in your mouth. Think for yourself. What's the best way to get a vampire not to drink blood? Of course, fill his mouth with cement to waste. The skull you are looking at in this photo was found by archaeologists on the outskirts of Venice in a mass grave.

2. Junkyard for children

At the end of this post, you will probably understand that over a long history, people (at least in the past) have been supporters of cannibalism, sacrifice and torture. For example, not so long ago, several archaeologists were excavating the sewers under a Roman / Byzantine bath in Israel and came across something really terrifying ... the bones of children. And there were a lot of them. For some reason, someone upstairs decided to dispose of many of the children's remains by simply throwing them down the drain.

3. Aztec sacrifices

Although historians have long known that the Aztecs held many bloody festivals with sacrifices, in 2004 an eerie thing was found near the modern city of Mexico City - many dismembered and mutilated bodies of both people and animals, shedding light on the terrible rituals that several hundreds of years ago.

4. Terracotta army

This huge terracotta army was buried along with the body of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. Apparently, the soldiers were supposed to protect their earthly ruler in the afterlife.

5. Screaming mummies

Sometimes the Egyptians did not take into account the fact that if you do not tie the jaw to the skull, then in the end it will open as if a person was screaming before death. Although this phenomenon is observed in many mummies, it does not become less creepy from this. At times, archaeologists find mummies that seemed to really scream before dying for some (most likely not the most pleasant) reasons. In the photo there is a mummy, which was named "Unknown person E". It was discovered by Gaston Masparo in 1886.

6. The first leper

Leprosy (leprosy), also called Hansen's disease, is not contagious, but people who suffered from it often lived outside of society because of their outward deformity. Since, according to Hindu tradition, corpses are cremated, the skeleton in the photo, which is called the first leper, was buried outside the city.

7. Ancient chemical weapons

In 1933, archaeologist Robert do Mesnil do Beusson was excavating under the remains of an ancient Roman-Persian battlefield when he came across some sort of siege tunnels dug under the city. In the tunnels, he found the bodies of 19 Roman soldiers who had died desperately trying to escape from something, as well as one Persian soldier clinging to his chest. Most likely, when the Romans heard that the Persians were digging a tunnel under their city, they decided to dig their own in order to counterattack them. The problem was that the Persians found out about this and set a trap. As soon as the Roman soldiers descended into the tunnel, they were met by burning sulfur and bitumen, and this infernal mixture is known to turn into poison in human lungs.

8. Rosetta stone

Discovered in 1799 by a French soldier digging in Egyptian sand, the Rosetta Stone has become one of the greatest archaeological finds to date and a major source of modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs. The stone is a fragment of a larger stone on which the decree of King Ptolemy V (about 200 BC) is written, translated into three languages ​​- Egyptian hieroglyphs, demotic writing and ancient Greek.

9. Balls Diquis

They are also called Costa Rican stone balls. Scientists believe these petrospheres, the near-perfect balls that now sit at the mouth of the Dikvis River, were carved around the turn of the millennium. But no one can say for sure what they were used for and for what purpose they were created. It can be assumed that these were symbols of heavenly bodies or designations of borders between the lands of different tribes. Parascientific authors often argue that these "ideal" spheres could not have been made by the hands of ancient people, and associate them with the activities of space aliens.

10. The Man from Groboll

Mummified bodies found in swamps are not uncommon in archeology, but this body, dubbed the Man of Groboll, is unique. Not only was he perfectly preserved with his hair and nails intact, scientists were also able to determine the cause of his death from finds collected on and around the body. Judging by the large wound on the neck from ear to ear, it looks like he was sacrificed to ask the gods for a good harvest.

11. Desert snakes

At the turn of the 20th century, pilots discovered a series of low stone walls in Israel's Negev desert, which have baffled scientists ever since. The walls could be over 64 km in length, and they were nicknamed "kites" as they look very much like reptiles from the air. But recently, scientists have come to the conclusion that the walls were used by hunters to corral large animals in enclosures or throw them off the rocks, where they could easily be killed several at a time.

12. Ancient Troy

Troy is a city well known for its history and legends (as well as valuable archaeological finds). It was located in the northwest of Anatolia in the territory of modern Turkey. In 1865, English archaeologist Frank Calvert found a trench in a field he bought from a local farmer in Hisarlik, and in 1868 wealthy German businessman and archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann also began excavating in the area after meeting Calvert at Canakkale. As a result, they found the ruins of this ancient city, the existence of which was considered a legend for many centuries.

13. Figures of Acambaro

This is a collection of over 33,000 miniature clay figurines that were discovered in 1945 in the ground near Acambaro, Mexico. The find includes many small figures that resemble both humans and dinosaurs. While most of the scientific community now agrees that these figurines were part of a sophisticated scam, their discovery made a splash at first.

Found in the wreckage of a ship off the Greek island of Antikythera at the turn of the 20th century. This 2000-year-old device is considered the world's first scientific calculator. Using dozens of gears, it can pinpoint the position of the sun, moon and planets by simply entering data. While controversy continues over its precise application, it definitely proves that even 2,000 years ago, civilization was already making huge strides towards mechanical engineering.

15. Rapa Nui

Known as Easter Island, this place is one of the most isolated places in the world. It is located thousands of kilometers from the Chilean coast. But the most amazing thing about this place is not even that people managed to get to it and live in it, but the fact that they managed to erect huge stone heads all over the island.

16. Tomb of the sunken skulls

While excavating a dry lake bed in Motal, Swedish archaeologists came across several skulls with sticks sticking out of them. But this, apparently, was not enough: in one skull, scientists found pieces of other skulls. Whatever happened to these people 8000 years ago, it was terrifying.

17. Map of Piri Reis

This map dates from the early 1500s. It shows the outlines of South America, Europe and Africa with amazing accuracy. Apparently, it was compiled by the general and cartographer Piri Reis (hence the name of the map) from fragments of dozens of other maps.

18. Geoglyphs of Nazca

For hundreds of years, these lines were practically under the feet of archaeologists, but they were only discovered in the early 1900s for the simple reason that they were impossible to see unless viewed from a bird's eye view. There were many explanations - from UFOs to a technically advanced civilization. The most plausible explanation is that the Nazcs were terrific surveyors, although the reason why they painted such huge geoglyphs is still unknown.

19. The Dead Sea Scrolls

Like the Rosetta Stone, the Dead Sea Scrolls are one of the most important archaeological finds of the last century. They contain the earliest copies of biblical texts (150 BC).

20. Mount Owen Moa

In 1986, the expedition was deepening deeper into the Mount Owen cave system in New Zealand when they suddenly stumbled upon the huge part of the paw that you are now looking at. It is so well preserved that it seemed as if its owner had died quite recently. But later it turned out that the paw belonged to a moa - a huge prehistoric bird with an eerie set of sharp claws.

21. Voynich manuscript

It is called the most mysterious manuscript in the world. The manuscript was created in the early 15th century in Italy. Most of the pages are occupied by recipes for herbal infusions, but none of the plants presented coincides with those currently known, and the language in which the manuscript is written is generally impossible to decipher.

22. Göbekli Tepe

At first it seems that these are just stones, but in fact it is an ancient settlement discovered in 1994. It was created about 9000 years ago, and now it is one of the oldest examples of complex and monumental architecture in the world, which appeared much earlier than the pyramids.

23. Sacsayhuaman

This walled complex outside the city of Cuzco in Peru is part of the so-called capital of the Inca empire. The most incredible thing is in the details of the construction of this wall. The stone slabs lie so tightly to each other that it is impossible to stick even a hair between them. This speaks to how accurate the architecture of the ancient Incas was.

24. Baghdad Battery

In the mid-1930s. Several simple-looking jugs were found near Baghdad, Iraq. No one attached much importance to them until the curator of the German museum published a document in which he stated that these jugs were used as galvanic cells, or, in simple terms, batteries. Although this opinion was criticized, even the Mythbusters got involved and soon concluded that such a possibility existed.

25. Headless Vikings of Dorset

Laying a railroad to the English city of Dorset, workers stumbled upon a small group of Vikings buried in the ground. They were all without heads. At first, archaeologists thought that perhaps some of the villagers had survived the Viking raids and decided to take revenge, but after careful analysis, everything became even more foggy and confusing. The decapitation looked too clear and neat, which means it was only done from behind. But scientists still cannot say with certainty what actually happened.


The Old Testament prophet Ezekiel unwittingly gave a definition of the work of a zoological archaeologist: “And I uttered a prophecy, as He commanded me, and the spirit entered into them - and they came to life and stood on their feet - a very, very great horde” (Book of the Prophet Ezekiel 37:10 ). Zooarchaeologists literally clothe flesh of long-dead animals, reconstructing the environment and activities of ancient people to the extent that research on animal remains allows. Zooarcheology is a field of knowledge that requires knowledge of paleontology and zoology.

Zooarcheology is studying animal bones found in archaeological material. Its purpose is to reconstruct the environment and activities of ancient people to the extent that research on animal remains allows it (Klein and Cruz-Uribe, 1984). Although some zoologists specialize in the study of animal bones from archaeological sites, most zoarchaeologists are educated and experienced in paleontology or in the study of prehistoric fauna.

Taphonomy

The word taphonomy (from the Greek taphnos - grave; nomos - law) is used to describe the processes that occur with organic remains during the formation of fossil sediments (Lyman, 1994; Shipman, Shipman, 1981). Simply put, this is the study of the transition of animal remains from the biosphere to the lithosphere.


DISCOVERIES
GIRHAM BINGHAM IN MACCHU PICCHU, PERU, 1911

The Lost City of the Incas was one of the archaeological mysteries of the late 19th century, the legend of the last stronghold of the Incas, where their rulers hid from the insatiable Spanish conquistadors after Francisco Pizarro overthrew their empire in 1534. A young Yale graduate named Geram Bingham fell under the influence of this mystery and infiltrated the Wilcabamba monument high in the Andes, but realized that this was the wrong settlement. He persuaded his wealthy university friends to fund a second expedition to the Andes.

Stubborn and extremely curious, Bingham was an accomplished climber with good historical training. He left Cusco in 1911 with a caravan of mules and moved along the Urubamba River, admiring the wonderful views of the snow-capped mountains, mountain streams and tropical vegetation. A chance meeting with a local peasant Melkor Artega gave him a story about some ruins in the mountains beyond the river. On July 24, 1911, Bingham, along with this peasant and a Peruvian sergeant, crossed Urubamba on a wooden bridge. There could be no mistake. He climbed on all fours along a narrow path and climbed to a height of 600 meters in the forest on the opposite side of the river. After a short rest in the Indian settlement, he continued his way up. Behind a spur of the mountain, he saw recently cleared stone terraces that rose 300 meters. Above the terraces that the Indians had cleared, he found himself in a dense forest and found himself between buildings, among which was a three-sided temple with the same wonderful masonry as in Cusco or Ollantayatambo. He stood before the walls of ruined houses built with the greatest skill of the Incas. Giram forced his way through the undergrowth and entered a semicircular building, the outer side of which, slightly sloping and slightly curved, remarkably resembled the Temple of the Sun in Cuzco. Bingham entered the most famous of all Inca ruins, Machu Picchu (Figure 13.1).

Fossil fauna passes through several stages until it falls from the biosphere into the hands of archaeologists. Bones originally come from what scientists call biocenosis, that is, the totality of living animals in their natural proportions. Killed animals or those who die of natural causes form necrocenosis- carcasses or parts of carcasses on the monument. Fossil complexes - taphocenosis - consist of animal parts that were preserved at the site before the excavations. A set of samples is what has reached the laboratory, that part of the complex of fossil remains that is collected or included in the collection (Klein and Cruz-Uribe, 1984). Any person involved in the analysis of fauna must solve two problems: the statistical problem of assessing the characteristics of a complex of fossil remains according to a sample and a taphonomic problem - to draw a conclusion about the nature of a necrocenosis based on a complex of fossil remains.

There are two related lines of research in taphonomy. The first is the actual observation of recently deceased organic remains and how they are gradually converted into fossils; another direction is the study of fossil remains in the light of this information. This area of ​​research became relevant in the 1960s and 1970s, when archaeologists began to wonder about the significance of animal bone deposits at ancient sites such as Olduvai Gorge in East Africa, and especially in the famous Australopithecus caves in South Africa (Brain, 1981).

Many questions about the processes that transform living organisms into "archaeological" bones remain unanswered, despite some research into how bones could have been transported and dissociated by both carnivores and natural agents such as water. For example, experiments with captive hyenas have shown that they first select the bones of the spine and pelvic bones, which they usually destroy completely. The ends of the long bones of the limbs are often gnawed completely, while their bodies (diaphysis) are often left intact. These experiments are very important because they show that the stock of bones made by ancient hominids in the Olduvai Gorge was taken away by hyenas after people left. This process led to the destruction of many body parts, and therefore it is impossible to tell whether hominids selectively carried off parts of the predators' prey or not (Marian and others - Marean and others, 1992). Humans dismembered animals with tools before carcasses destroyed carnivorous or natural processes, so systematic human actions are considered at least a major factor in the study of archaeological bone damage. Interpretation of prehistoric habitats and killing sites must be carried out with great care, since the assemblages of bones and artifacts in such places speak not only of human activity, but also of complex and little understood natural processes.

Many zooarchaeologists believe that it is impossible to reconstruct the actual human habitat based on the assemblages of bones from archaeological sites. However, Klein and Cruz-Uribe (1984) believe that viable paleologic reconstructions can be made by comparing multiple fossil assemblies using statistical methods, provided the bone quality and depositional conditions are similar. Each situation must be judged with great care.

Sorting and identification

Remains of animals are usually fragmentary, being parts of carcasses cut at an archaeological site or in a hunting area. What part of the carcass was transferred to the site depended to some extent on the size of the animal. A small deer could be brought on the shoulder in its entirety. Hunter-gatherers sometimes camped at the site of the killing of a large animal, where they ate part of the carcass, and some dried it up. However, almost always the bones found on the inhabited monuments were smashed to pieces. Any edible meat was scraped off the bones, belts were made from tendons, clothes, bags were made from leather, and sometimes they were used for dwellings. They even ate the insides. The limbs were smashed to extract the bone marrow. Some of the bones were used to make tools - spearheads and arrowheads, hoes (Fig. 13.2).

It would be a mistake to assume that the exact number of animals killed by its inhabitants can be calculated from the fragments of bones in the archaeological layer, or to get a picture of the environment during the settlement of the site (Grayson, 1984). These bones have undergone different processes from the moment they entered the archaeological layer. Taphonomic processes significantly alter the buried bones, the bones of small animals can be destroyed altogether, although this cannot be said about the bones of large ones. In addition, there are human factors: people could bring game from afar or kill all their goats right at the settlement. We do not have the opportunity to learn anything about the ritual role of some animals in ancient communities, which taboos were imposed on hunting some animals, and which were not. As already indicated, we also have no way of knowing exactly the comparative ratio of different species of animals in prehistoric times. Of course, researchers cannot use animal bones from archaeological sites to answer such questions. It is always unknown the difference between what could be called proper "animal" and "archaeological animal" identified by scientists (S. Davis - S. J. M. Davis, 1987; Grayson - Grayson, 1981). The archaeological animal is a placer of bones broken by man, which were then subjected to the destructive action of the soil for hundreds and thousands of years.

In most cases, identification is carried out by direct comparison with known species. It is relatively easy, and it is not difficult for anyone with a sharp eye to learn it (S. Davis - S. J. M. Davis, 1987). But only a small proportion of the bones in the collection are complete enough for this purpose. Drawing of the dog in fig. 13.3 illustrates a typical mammalian skeleton. Small fragments of the skull, spine, ribs, shoulder blades, and pelvic bones are usually of little use to distinguish a domestic animal from a wild animal, or one species of antelope from another. It is easy to identify the upper and lower jaws, the location of the teeth in them and individual teeth, the bony core of the horn and sometimes the articular surfaces of the long bones. The teeth are identified by comparing the sharp protrusions on their surface with teeth from comparative collections carefully collected in the site of the site (Fig. 13.4).

In some parts of the world, the articular ends of long bones can also be used, especially in Southwest Asia or in parts of North America, where the local mammalian fauna is quite small in number of species. In southwestern Asia, it is even possible to distinguish between domestic and wild animals of the same weight by fragments of long bones, provided that the collections are large enough and the comparative material is sufficiently complete and it contains all the ages of individuals and variations in the size of females and males. But in other regions, for example in sub-Saharan Africa, the local fauna is so rich and varied and the variations in skeletal anatomy are so great that only the core of the horn or teeth can help distinguish between antelope species or wild and domesticated forms of the animal. Even the teeth are sometimes misleading, because the sharp protrusions on the teeth of, for example, buffalo and livestock are very similar and often the only difference is the smaller size of the latter. Experts often disagree on the question of what the definition of a bone is, so it is better to operate with concepts of different levels of identification than simply reject the possibility of identifying many fragments. For example, it is sometimes possible to identify a piece of bone as belonging to a medium-sized carnivore, although it cannot be said to belong to a wolf. The identification stage in bone analysis is the most important, as it involves answering fundamental questions: are they domesticated or wild? What is the ratio of each of the groups? What kind of livestock did the inhabitants of the monument keep? Did they have any hunting preferences that would be reflected in the proportion of game found in the layers of the settlement? Do all the wild species typical of the fauna of the past exist in this region today?

Comparison of Bone Complexes

Zooarchaeologists Richard Klein and Catherine Cruz-Uribe (1984) describe criteria for calculating taxonomic abundance to distinguish between real bone assemblies and displaced ones, that is, obtained as a result of biased collection or other factors. They use the same criteria to estimate the relative abundance of different species. Number of specimens identified (NER)- the value of the number of bones or bone fragments from each species in the sample of bones. This criterion has obvious drawbacks, especially because it can exaggerate the importance of some species, which have more bones than others, only because the carcasses of those species were cut more carefully than others. NER can be influenced by both human actions, such as butchering, and natural processes such as weathering. However, the CRO has a certain importance, especially when used to estimate the minimum number of individuals from which the identified bones were obtained. Minimum number of individuals (MCHO)- the value of the number of individuals required in order to obtain such and such a number of all identified bones. This value is less than the NER and is often based on careful counting of individual body parts such as the calcaneus. Many of the NER restrictions do not apply to MCH, because this value is a more accurate estimate of the actual number of animals. However, the accuracy depends on the use of the same method of calculating the MPR by specialists, which is often violated (Grayson, 1984).

Taken together, NER and MCH allow us to estimate the number of animals present in the bone sample. But they are very imperfect methods of measuring the abundance of animals in an archaeological collection, not to mention the possibility of correlating bone materials with the population of living animals in the past. Klein and Cruz-Uribe, among others, developed sophisticated computer programs in order to overcome some of the limitations of NER and MCH, programs that provide basic information vital for comparing samples among themselves.

Species structure and cultural change

During the Ice Age, most of the long-term changes in the species structure of animals were caused by climatic changes, not cultural ones. But some changes in it should also reflect human activities, the way in which people used animals (Klein and Cruz-Uribe - Klein and Cruz-Uribe, 1984). These changes, however, are very difficult to distinguish from those caused by changes in the environment. One such place where it has become possible to document such changes is in South Africa.

Game

While the game list and description of animal habits provide insight into hunting practices, in many cases the contents of this list take on special meaning, especially when we want to understand why hunters have focused on some species and clearly ignored others.

Taboo... The dominance of one species of game could be the result of economic necessity or convenience, or simply a matter of cultural preference. Many communities restrict the hunting of certain animals or the consumption of game meat based on gender. The modern Kung Sen tribe in the Dobe region of Botswana has complex personal taboos on the consumption of mammalian meat, depending on age and sex (Lee - Lee, 1979). No one can eat the meat of all 29 types of animals, and each person has his own unique taboos. Some mammals can be eaten by all members of the tribe, but not all parts of the animal. Ritual overseers may also impose other restrictions: primates and certain carnivores cannot be eaten. Such complex taboos are repeated with many variations in other hunter-gatherer and tillering communities, and this is undoubtedly reflected in the proportion of game remains found at archaeological sites.

Examples of specialized hunting have often been encountered since ancient times, although the reasons for a particular preference can rarely be explained. Big game farming is well known among the Prairie Indians (Frison 1978). Another factor that determines specialized hunting is overhunting or the gradual extinction of favorite species. A well-known example is the European tur or wild bull Bos primigenius (Figure 13.5), which was the main prey of Upper Paleolithic hunters in Western Europe and was hunted in post-glacial times and even after food production began (Kurten, 1968) ... The last tours died in Poland in 1627. From the descriptions and pictures, we know what this animal looked like. They were large, up to two meters at the withers, often with long horns. The males were black with a white stripe on the back and light long hair between the horns. German and Polish biologists have successfully recreated this animal through long-term selection work. In the wild, the recreated tours are very temperamental, ferocious and mobile. These experiments yielded a much more convincing reconstruction of one of the most feared mammals in the Pleistocene than any number of skeletal or artist-based reconstructions could have.


PRACTICE OF ARCHEOLOGY
CHANGES IN HUNTING PRACTICE IN ANCIENT SOUTH AFRICA

Zooarchaeologist Richard Klein has addressed the problem of correlating species structure and cultural change by studying large samples of fauna from two coastal caves in the Cape, South Africa. The Clasis Cave (hereinafter Clasis Cave) was inhabited by Middle Stone Age hunter-gatherers between 130,000 and 95,000 years ago, during a warming period, and then until about 70,000 years ago, when the climate became much colder. In warmer times, the sea came close to the cave. Numerous mollusks, seal bones, the remains of penguins told us a lot about the food of people in this cave in the Middle Stone Age. The remains of fish and seabirds are rare. The remains of the eland antelope are found more often than the remains of other mammals, for example, more than 2 times more often than the remains of a buffalo. Remains of other land mammals belong to species common in modern historical times. In contrast, the nearby Nelson's Bay Cave (hereinafter referred to as Nelson's Cave) contains traces of human habitation in the Late Stone Age, approximately 20,000 years ago. During that period of the last glaciation, the sea was already several kilometers from the cave. In this cave, there were many remains of flying seabirds and fish, and the remains of the eland antelope - only a third, the same as the buffalo.

Klein also points out that the sets of tools were quite different in these caves. The Middle Stone Age people from the Clasis River cave used large flake tools and spears, while the Nelson Cave hunters had bows and arrows and a large selection of small stone tools and bone artifacts, some of which were made for special purposes such as fishing birds and fishing. These innovations allowed late Stone Age hunters to kill more dangerous and cautious animals with greater frequency. Thus, the reason that eland antelopes were more common among people of the Middle Stone Age is not that it was more common, but that more complex game was killed less often. All indications are that the Clasis tribes were behaviorally less advanced than the people of Nelson's Cave (Klein and Cruz-Uribe, 1984).

Klein combines some other information about the fauna with climatic data. The Klasis River Monument contains the remains of turtles and mollusks of saucers that are much larger than in later times, as if these creatures were allowed to grow much longer. These facts indicate less pressure on the turtles and shellfish populations from the small human population before more technologically advanced tribes appeared.

Changes to the hunt... Hunting has changed a lot lately. Richard Lee (1979) recorded the old Seng tales of hunting in earlier times. At that time, there were more game and more hunters in the central part of Botswana. Their ancestors hunted in large groups for buffaloes, giraffes and elephants. Today, the tribe's predominant type of economy is gathering, in addition to eating the meat of 29 species of mammals, mainly those from which one can get relatively more meat from one carcass. Hunting is carried out by the pursuit method, the main source of meat is the African warthog pig and small game. These changes in hunting are a direct result of the importation of shotguns and the first hunting safaris, which wiped out Africa's remarkable fauna in three generations.

Seasonal activities... Many prehistoric hunter-gatherers and farmers, like their modern counterparts, led a life based on the changing seasons, and their life support activities varied from season to season. On the northwestern coast of the Pacific Ocean, when salmon began to move upstream of rivers in summer, Indians gathered around them, caught thousands of fish and dried them for the winter. During the early dry season, Central Africa had an abundance of wild fruits that formed an important part of the diet of ancient farmers 1,500 years ago. How do archaeologists study seasonal activities and reconstruct the "economic seasons"?

Every aspect of the life of the ancient hunter-gatherers was associated with the changing seasons. In the long winter months, the tribes of the Northwest Indians engaged in elaborate rituals. The life of the ho-ho livestock breeders in the Cape of Good Hope region changed dramatically during dry or rainy seasons (Elphick, 1977). During the dry months, they gathered at several permanent water sources and near non-drying rivers. When rains came, they drove their livestock to nearby lands, saturating their flocks with moisture from the stagnant waters left after the downpours. How do archaeologists study seasonality? Many methods have been successful (Monks, 1981). In the simplest of them, with the help of bones and plant remains, it is determined when people were on the monument. For example, people visited a 1,000-year-old monument in San Francisco Bay every year around June 28, when the cormorants were still young (Howard, 1929) (see discussion of birds later in this chapter). The presence of cod bones in ancient Norse sites suggests that they were inhabited during the winter and early spring, the optimal time for drying fish. This type of analysis is good, provided that the habits of the animals or the availability of plants considered in the given situation are well known and have not changed over time. Many plants are available for most of the year, but are edible for only a few weeks.

Knowledge of the ecology of both animals and plants is necessary, since the “schedule” of resource use, although it may not be accurate, was undoubtedly the most important factor in the life of ancient communities (see the box “The Practice of Archeology”). Some animals, such as the deer, are relatively indifferent to seasonal changes, but people have used them differently at different times of the year. For example, the Salish Indians from the northwestern coast of the Pacific Ocean took males in the spring and females in the fall (Monks, 1981).

In addition, there are physiological phenomena in the life of an animal, by which archaeologists can determine the season of meeting with it. During the 15th century A.D. e. a group of Great Plains hunters regularly hunted bison near a water source off Garnsey, New Mexico (Speth, 1983). John Speth analyzed body parts at the slaughterhouse and found that hunters in the spring, hunting season, clearly preferred males. Those who butchered the carcasses left on the monument such parts of the body that gave little meat - the head and the upper parts of the neck, and those parts that gave a lot of meat, fat and bone marrow were few. Also, more bones were taken from males than from females for later use. Speth believes that the hunters preferred the males because after the winter they were in better condition and their meat was fatter.

Sometimes the age of the animals can indicate seasonal activities. As the animal matures, the epiphyses at the end of the limb bones slowly connect to the main body of the bone, and these places completely ossify. When studying them, it is possible to determine the general age of animals, say, at a hunter's camp, but factors such as nutrition, even castration of domesticated animals, can affect the speed of this process. Some species, ducks for example, mature much faster than deer. It is clear that this approach requires knowledge about age-related changes in the joints.
Everyone knows that when growing up, baby teeth fall out, people often have problems with wisdom teeth. The teeth are so strong animal remains that many archaeologists have tried to use them to determine the age of wild and domestic animals. It is easy enough to study tooth loss from whole and even fragmentary jaws, and this has been done on the example of domestic sheep, goats and wild deer. Again, nutritional factors, domestication can affect the rate of tooth loss, and the rate of tooth wear can vary greatly between populations (Monks, 1981).

PRACTICE OF ARCHEOLOGY
ENVIRONMENT AND SEASONALITY AT STAR CARR MONUMENT, ENGLAND

The Star Carr Monument in northwest England was inhabited by a small group of Stone Age hunter-gatherers around 8500 BC. e. This tiny settlement, in which well-preserved rare artifacts of bone and wood were found half a century ago, is known throughout the world for providing a remarkably complete picture of life in Northern Europe in the immediate aftermath of the last Ice Age. Between 1949 and 1951, archaeologist Grahame Clark (1954) of the University of Cambridge discovered a small platform of birch wood there, strewn with fragments of stone tools, artifacts of bone and wood, and many food debris. Using carefully recorded artifact counts, animal bones, pollen analysis and sophisticated identification techniques of all sorts, as well as a generous dose of traditional European folklore, Clarke reconstructed a small reed hunting site by the lake. Pollen analysis showed that Star Carr existed at a time when birch forests first spread across northern Britain, and much of the southern North Sea was still dry land. Clarke and his colleagues argued that the monument was inhabited in winter, as evidenced by the horns of the maral. Clark analyzed the methods of making spearheads from bone, related the technology of making stone tools with those made in Scandinavia at the same time, and described a remarkable series of tools made of bone and wood, including elk antler hoes (one of which was with the remains of a wooden handles), a solid wooden canoe paddle, an awl, and even bits of bark and moss to light a fire (Figure 13.6).

For half a century, Star Carr has become an important testing ground for new ideas for hunter-gatherer communities. Archaeologists Paul Mellars and Petra Dark (1999) recently completed 12 years of highly selective paleoecological and archaeological research at the site, using all the resources of modern science to reinterpret the site. When Clarke initially excavated Star Carr, he focused on a small wetland in a ravine. After three seasons, he interpreted the monument as a small settlement, possibly used irregularly by four or five families. New, expanded excavations expanded to drier areas and revealed that the site was much larger than Clarke had anticipated. With the help of field surveys and careful digging of test pits, archaeologists discovered a placer of silicon artifacts at a distance of 12 meters from the shore of the ancient lake. By carefully studying the site's original topography, Mellars and Dark and their colleagues discovered a clay-filled canal that once ran through the center of the site, separating the wetland Clarke was exploring from drier areas.

Clarke argued that Star Carr's inhabitants had little impact on the habitat. Dark was able to use higher-resolution microscopes to study the distribution of coal particles associated with a new array of radiocarbon dates obtained using accelerating mass spectrometry. It showed that there was an initial period of intense coal deposition that lasted for about 80 years. This was followed by 100 years of low activity, followed by a fairly long deposition for another 130 years. Botanist Jon Haeter identified the coals as dry-burnt riparian reeds between autumn and spring when new growth begins. Mellars and Dark believe that humans have repeatedly burned reeds, mainly because coal samples show that the fires were localized at the monument, as if the fire was under control. Such fires could provide a better view of the lake and the surrounding area, as well as a convenient mooring place for canoes, and new vegetation would attract feeding animals.

Clark's initial account described Star Carr as a winter settlement. Now, X-ray analysis of the teeth that did not fall out of the jaws of a deer and comparison with modern samples have made it possible to identify many 10- and 11-month-old animals that would have been slaughtered in March or April (R. Carter - R. Carter, 1998). These new seasonality data are consistent with the finding of tightly twisted reed stalks burnt early in growth between March and April, and aspen bud scales that date from the same season. Star Carr is not a winter settlement; people lived there from March to June or early July.

The interpretation of seasonal activities is highly dependent on ethnographic analogies. Wild wheat is a classic example. Botanist Gordon Hillman studied harvesting wild wheat in southwestern Asia and showed that pickers must be very accurate in timing of harvest. This had to be done before the ears crumbled or the grains were eaten by birds or animals (Hillman and Davis, 1990). It is reasonable to assume that such precise planning was necessary in prehistoric times. This analogy has allowed archaeologists in Southwest Asia to interpret seasonal activities at sites in Syria and elsewhere.

By studying not only large mammals and large plant remains, but also the smallest molluscs and fish scales, one can refine the scope of seasonal activities to surprisingly narrow boundaries.

Pets

Almost all domesticated animals are descended from wild species, inclined to communicate with humans (Clutton-Brock, 1981, 1989). This is not to say that all domestic animals come from one part of the world, they were domesticated in their natural habitat. Scientists suggest that the domestication of wild animals occurs when a certain cultural level is reached. Everywhere, domestication seems to begin when a growing population needed a more regular food supply, when large groups of people needed to be fed. Domestication depends on this condition and is a prerequisite for continued population growth.

Wild animals lack many of the qualities that are valued in their domestic counterparts. So, wild sheep have abundant wool, but it is not of the same quality as domestic ones, which is suitable for spinning. Wild goats and buffaloes provide enough milk for their young, but not enough for humans. During domestication, people developed the properties they needed in animals, the changes that occurred often made animals unsuitable for survival in the wild.

The history of domesticated species is based on fragments of animal bones found in the layers of numerous caves, shelters and open sites (Clutton-Brock, 1989). Osteological studies of wild and domestic animals restrain both the fragmentation of bones at most sites and wider boundaries of age variability of domestic animals compared to wild ones (Zeder and Hesse, 2000; Zeder, et al., 2002). Nevertheless, data on gradual osteological changes in the direction of domestic animals were obtained at a number of sites. If we compare the bones of the wild species of some prehistoric domesticated animals with the bones of this domestic animal over time, then the range of changes in size first increases, then, in the end, the choice is made in favor of smaller animals, and the changes in size also become smaller. This transition is smooth, and therefore it is extremely difficult to identify a domestic or wild animal from individual bones or small collections.

Domestic animal bones show that wild species were highly adaptable. People found it necessary to change the size and properties of animals in accordance with their needs, which was reflected in the skeletal remains of animals. Since the beginning of the domestication of animals, various breeds of livestock, sheep and other domestic animals have been bred.

Slaughter and butchering of carcasses

Some idea of ​​the exploitation of wild and domestic animals can be obtained by studying not only the bones of animals themselves, but also their frequency and distribution in the soil.

Gender, age and slaughter... It is clear that determining the sex of an animal and the age at which it was slaughtered helps in the study of hunting or methods of keeping herds by those people who were engaged in slaughter. Archaeologists have many methods for establishing the sex and age of animals from bone fragments (S. Davis - S. J. M. Davis, 1987).

The males and females of many mammals differ significantly in size and structure. Stallions, for example, have fangs, but mares do not. In humans, the structure of the pelvis of women is different from that of men, which is associated with childbirth. We can estimate the ratio of males and females at sites such as the site of the Garnsey bison slaughter by comparing the number of parts of males and females, since the difference between them is known for this species. This analysis is much more difficult if little is known about size differences or when the bones are very fragmented. Zooarchaeologists use many bone measurements to distinguish between sexes, but this approach is fraught with statistical and practical difficulties; it only works well on whole bones. But even then, it is only possible to identify the distribution of different dimensions (sizes), which may or may not reflect differences between the sexes.

At what age were these cattle slaughtered? Did the inhabitants of the settlement give preference to the meat of immature wild sheep or adults? For many monuments, these are important questions. In order to answer them, researchers must establish the age of the animals in the sample at the time of their death. Usually, teeth and epiphyses of the ends of the extremities are used for this. In almost all mammals, the bones on which the epiphyses have not grown belong to young individuals. This fact allows us to speak of two classes: immature and adult animals. If we know the age at which the pineal glands grow together, as is sometimes the case with species such as cattle, additional classes can be introduced. Unfortunately, epiphyseal fusion is too general a method for obtaining the kind of data archaeologists need.

Fortunately, the teeth of the upper or lower jaws allow for a more accurate determination of the age of animals. Teeth are a continuous thread by which you can define life from birth to old age. Solid upper and lower jaws allow us to examine immature and mature teeth as they fall out, so we can identify not only young animals but also old ones.

Individual teeth can also be a source of information about an animal's age. Some biologists use growth rings on teeth, but this method is still experimental. Measuring crown height is a promising method. Richard Klein, a specialist in African animal bones, measured the height of the tooth crowns of Stone Age mammals found in caves along the Clasis River and Nelson's Bay in the Cape Province of South Africa. Divided into two groups, the tooth measurements provide an interesting general idea of ​​hunting during the Middle and Late Stone Age in this region (Klein, 1977). Klein compared the mortality distributions of Cape buffaloes and other large and medium-sized species with the mortality curves of their modern populations. He identified two main distributions for Stone Age bones (Klein and Cruz-Uribe, 1983). There are fewer old individuals in the catastrophic one-stage age profile. This is the normal distribution of currently living populations of ungulates (Figure 13.7, left column) and is usually found in areas of mass slaughter, when herds are driven into a swamp or ravine from a steep cliff, and when all populations die from natural causes. The sparse age profile (Figure 13.7, right-hand column) shows an insufficient proportion of animals at their best age relative to their number in living populations, but young and old individuals are overrepresented. This profile is believed to be the result of carrion or spear hunting.

Klein found that the age distributions of Cape buffaloes at both sites are close to those observed for modern buffaloes killed by lions, and this may be because young and old males are vulnerable targets due to their isolation from large herds of mature, formidable animals. Therefore, he argued that the hunters of both Stone Age caves consistently and for a long time used the buffalo populations. The distribution of eel antelope and Bubal hybrids (smaller gregarious antelopes) looks much more like a catastrophic profile. Klein suggests that they are similar because the species were hunted in massive enclosures, like the bison on the American plateau of the Great Plains. Thus, entire populations could be killed in one go. Age distributions can reflect any other activity. There are no juvenile marals at the Star Carr Monument in North East England. Most animals were three or four years old, and inexperienced adolescents died when they left their mothers (Legge and Rowley-Conwy, 1988).
Hunting and slaughtering of animals is influenced by all sorts of small factors, many of which are described by Lewis Binford (1978, 1981b) While studying the hunting practices of the Nunamiut tribes in Alaska, he found that the slaughter of animals by hunters is part of a much broader life-support strategy. for most of the year they rely heavily on harvested meat, so they are guided by harvesting goals and many others when hunting.In the fall, they can hunt deer for skin for winter clothing, and the heads and tongues of these animals provide food for those who who handles the skins Binford emphasizes that it is difficult to interpret slaughter structures without an accurate understanding of the cultural system of which hunting is a part.

Pets are a controlled source of meat and very different selection criteria apply. In more developed agricultural communities, cattle or horses could be kept until old age as draft animals, the excess males were castrated, and the females were supported until they stopped giving milk, offspring, or were no longer useful in plowing the land. Even if no riding or working animals were kept, the problem of extra males persisted. This surplus was an abundant source of meat, and these animals were often slaughtered in early adulthood. In many traditional societies, livestock was a measure of well-being, as it is today, and livestock are slaughtered in them on special occasions - at weddings or funerals. In this way, the surplus of the herd was consumed and the needs of the herd owner were satisfied.

Slaughter... Fragments of bones at the settlement level are the end product of the slaughter, butchering and consumption of domestic or wild animals. In order to understand this process, it is necessary to study the articulation of animal bones at the levels where they were found, or the anatomical composition of the bones must be carefully studied. At the Olsen Chubbock Monument in Colorado, evidence suggests the slaughter of a herd of bison. The hunters set up a camp nearby, where they removed the skin and meat from the carcasses and, possibly, dried the surplus meat for later consumption. Cutting tools were found in a direct complex with bones, thus, the "moment" of carcass cutting has been preserved forever in these excavations (Wheat, 1972).

Interpreting cutting methods is difficult because many factors influenced how carcasses were cut. The Nunamiut tribe mainly relied on stored meat, and how they dismembered the deer depended on how much meat needed to be stored, on the meat yield from different parts of the body, on the remoteness of the main camp. At any monument-parking, the number of bones found depends on the size of the animals: the bodies of goats, chickens or small game could have been brought in whole, but the carcasses of large animals were delivered in parts. Sometimes animals with a large yield of meat were eaten where they were killed, without leaving a piece of meat or entrails. Interpretation is very difficult even in relation to the MCHO and NER indices.

Once again, the challenge is to establish the significance of archaeological distributions for understanding human activity. How difficult this is in the context of cutting meat can be judged from Binford's (1978) comments that the criteria for choosing meat by the Nunamiut Indians are the amount of usable meat, the time it takes to process it, and the quality of the meat.

About 9000 years ago, during the Neolithic period, a very humid climate prevailed in some areas of the modern Sahara Desert. For several thousand years this "Green Sahara" was home to many domestic and wild animals as well as humans. In 2000, a burial area was discovered in Niger containing hundreds of skeletons from two different archaeological cultures, each dating back thousands of years. In addition to the skeletons of people, hunting implements, fragments of ceramics, bones of animals and fish were found in the burials.

This dinosaur skeleton, found in Agadez, Niger, was donated to the country of Niger by paleontologist Paul Sereno in a ceremony marking the end of a five-year civil war. This creature with the body of a dinosaur and the head of a crocodile is about 110 million years old.


Human skeleton with a middle finger inserted into the mouth.
Average daily temperature in this part sahara desert(49 degrees) is far from the times of the “green Sahara 4-9 thousand years ago.


The men of one of the local tribes of Niger dancing and singing at the annual festival. Representatives of this tribe, perhaps, are the descendants of those who lived in these places many thousands of years ago, during the existence of the "green Sahara".


Aerial view of the camp by a small group of archaeologists excavating among huge sand dunes in a completely desert region of the Sahara. Looking at these places, it is hard to believe that thousands of years ago everything was buried in green here.


Nigerian army soldiers hired to protect archaeologists from a possible attack by bandits, are watching the excavation of an old skeleton, which is about 6 thousand years old. In this region of the Sahara, archaeologists have found many skeletons, tools, weapons, pottery shards and ornaments.


Six thousand years ago there were buried mother and two children... They lie in the grave holding hands. At the head and at their feet, someone has carefully placed flowers, traces of which have been discovered by scientists. How exactly these people died is still unclear.


Frequent sandstorms, whose speed reaches 30 miles per hour, greatly interfere with the work of archaeologists, falling asleep and destroying skeletons.


One of the best-preserved skeletons, which has lain in the sand for 6 thousand years, looks like it was buried very recently. The position of the skeleton suggests that the person was buried in the sleeping position.


Archaeologists are examining the skeleton of a woman who died at the age of twenty.


This man was buried with a pot on his head. Among the grave goods, archaeologists also found crocodile bones and wild boar tusks.


This cave painting of a giraffe, 8000 thousand years old, is considered one of the best petroglyphs in the world. The giraffe is depicted with a leash on its nose, which implies the domestication of these animals by humans. This image was discovered relatively recently on the top of Granite Hill by local Tuaregs.


These two skeletons are almost perfectly preserved and were found at the very beginning of the excavation process. The skeleton on the left was found with the middle finger in its mouth. The skeleton on the right was buried in the grave, where bones from a previous burial were pushed aside.


Interestingly, ancient sands can store information about when they last "saw" light. Exploring the original lake bed requires excavation on a moonless night. Optical luminescent studies of the sand, produced in a US laboratory, proved that the bottom of this lake was formed 15,000 years ago during the last ice age.