Despite the fact that our distant ancestors sometimes seem to us little different from animals, they possessed some secrets that modern people with all their knowledge cannot always solve. So, complex riddles were presented to scientists by people of the Stone Age who lived on the territory of the present Vladimir region.
In June 1955, at a clay quarry near Vladimir, on the Sungir stream, archaeologists of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, headed by Professor Otto Nikolaevich Bader, discovered one of the northernmost sites in Europe of the Upper Paleolithic (Ancient Stone Age). During the excavations, a huge collection of artifacts was discovered.
Hardworking ancestor
Several thousand stone tools of ancient people were found - various arrowheads, punctures, flint knives, cutters and scrapers. Spears, darts, clubs and knives indicate that the Sungir people lived by hunting animals. The site was literally littered with the bones of mammoths, wild horses, bison, panthers, reindeer, arctic foxes and lemmings. The locals were also very fond of jewelry, as evidenced by beads, rings and bracelets made from mammoth ivory.
Researchers estimate that it took an average of 45 minutes to make one bead. And in the parking lot more than 6 thousand of them were found! This means 4.5 thousand hours spent on work! An example of excellent hard work. The Sungir people lived in the era of the so-called Wyrm glaciation. 25 thousand years ago, the forest-tundra stretched in their habitats. But people adapted and arranged their lives, hunted, built small villages from semi-dugouts.
Two graves were found in the parking lot. The first contained the skeleton of a man about 60 years old. His ashes were covered with bright red ocher. On the skeleton, in a certain order, lay 3.5 thousand beads, carved from mammoth tusks. By their location, scientists for the first time were able to restore the costume of our distant ancestor. The Sungiri man wore a comfortable, even elegant fur suit: a jacket with a hood (without a seam in the front), one-piece trousers-boots and a hat.
When Mikhail Gerasimov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, recreated a sculptural portrait of a Sungir resident from the skull, everyone saw the face of a strong, intelligent and absolutely modern person. Anthropologist Georgy Debets added about this reconstruction: “The Sungirets were no different from us either in intelligence or in emotional wealth. And he knew as much as we did. Only his knowledge was different."
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Tusk spears
In the second grave were two children, head to head. They wore fur suits embroidered with thousands of beads. Nearby lay huge spears made from mammoth tusks. And also amulets made of mammoth bones, the pattern on which testified that even at that time a person knew the count.
The length of the spears reached almost 2.5 meters. How did the ancient hunters manage to make them? After all, the mammoth tusk was twisted into a spiral. It reached a length of 3 meters and a thickness of 15-20 centimeters. To make such a spear, it was necessary to split and straighten the tusk. It is known that ivory softens well in lactic acid. But where could the Sungir people get acid?
The experience of the inhabitants of the north of Siberia helped the researchers solve the riddle. When they found strong mammoth tusks in the permafrost, they dipped them into the river before processing and soaked them for a long time. Then, wrapping wet skins with wool inside, they steamed them over the fire. After these operations, the tusk became relatively soft, and it could be split into plates.
At the feet of one of the buried children, archaeologists found a remnant of a human femur, which has traces of processing in order to give it the appearance of a hollow cylinder. The bone probably served as an amulet or as an object of worship. It was all smeared with red ocher clay. It turned out to be surprising that this bone did not belong to Homo sapiens. She had to do with the Neanderthals! Therefore, on the Vladimir land 25 thousand years ago, two representatives of the human race lived simultaneously.
Mikhail EFIMOV