Cro-Magnons are the common name for the ancient representatives of modern man, who appeared much later than the Neanderthals and coexisted with them for some time (40-30,000 years ago). Their appearance and physical development actually did not differ from modern humans.
Approximately 40-30,000 years ago, the third greatest event in the life of our planet took place. The first, which happened several billion years ago, was the birth of life. The second is the beginning of humanization, the transition from ape to ape-man - about 2 million years ago. The third event is the emergence of a modern type of man, Homo sapiens, a Homo sapiens.
40-30,000 years ago, it appears and very quickly (quickly in this case, when a millennium is a trifle) takes the place of the Neanderthals.
Skeletons of Cro-Magnons found
As soon as the archaeologist from France Lartet discovered 5 skeletons in the Cro-Magnon grotto under a thick layer of centuries-old deposits, he immediately guessed that he had met "acquaintances." Shortly before this, the scientist learned that by order of the authorities of the Haute-Garonne department, 17 skeletons were buried in the parish cemetery, accidentally found in the Pyrenean cave of Aurignac. Larte could easily prove that in relation to these people it is possible to compromise the strict rules of Christian burial, and not only dug them back, but also established (using stone tools and animal bones from the Aurignac cave) that they are contemporaries of the same ice age, in which the classic Neanderthals lived. The tools of the Aurignacian man are in a slightly higher, that is, later, layer than the tools of the Chapellians.
Two caves, in which the most ancient people of the modern type were found, gave them their names: the first man was called Cro-Magnon, and the first large period of his history - the period (culture) of Aurignac.
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Dozens of discoveries of Cro-Magnon skeletons and sites throughout Western Europe and North Africa soon followed, and the ancient "Homo sapiens" appeared in all its splendor and splendor.
Sungir parking lot
Sungir is an Upper Paleolithic site of Cro-Magnons on the territory of the Vladimir region. A well-known paired burial - a boy of 12-14 years old and a girl of 9-10 years old, lying with their heads to each other. What their bones could tell. As it turned out, the boy, despite his age, could throw a spear well with his right hand. The girl, judging by the development of her fingers and forearm, often performed scrolling movements with her right hand. We know that the clothes of the Sunghir people were covered with many mammoth bone beads, and there were holes in the beads. These holes, as you can see, were drilled by the young Cro-Magnon.
Sculptural portraits of a girl and a boy from the Sungir camp
The structure of the right humerus and cervical vertebrae show that the girl often raised her right arm up, and her head was constantly tilted to the left. In order for such features to appear on the skeleton already in childhood, the load must be very strong! According to anthropologists, the girl regularly carried weights on her head, and held them with her right hand. Perhaps, during the transitions from camp to camp, which were made by nomadic groups of Cro-Magnons, the little Cro-Magnon was a carrier on an equal basis with adults.
What was the Cro-Magnon
The Cro-Magnons aroused admiration mixed with envy among their discoverers: the first people - and immediately what!
They were Caucasians, of enormous height (on average 187 cm), with an ideal straight bipedal gait and a very large head (from 1600 to 1900 cm³). Such a large skull could still be considered a "relic of neandertalism", but this head already had a straight forehead, a high cranial vault, a sharply protruding chin.
Cro-Magnon man did not know what metal was, did not suspect either agriculture or cattle breeding, but if we could carry it through 400 centuries, he, apparently, would have figured out everything easily and could make an equation, write a poem, work on the bench and perform in a chess tournament.
Where did the Cro-Magnon come from?
A Cro-Magnon appeared - for archaeologists and anthropologists - somehow at once: just here, in the caves of France and Italy, squat, powerful, invincible Neanderthals lived, and suddenly they quickly, abruptly disappear, and people of the modern type are already hunting in their lands. The aliens are accompanied by an incredible technical revolution: instead of 3-4 primitive stone tools of the Neanderthals in the Aurignac period, about 20 stone and bone "instruments" are used: awls, needles, arrowheads, and so on. Immediately, as if out of nothing, amazing cave art appears.
This most powerful anthropological, technical and cultural revolution defines from now on the entire human history. For billions of years, animals have existed only according to biological laws, improving, expanding the apparatus of adaptation, but without leaving the biological framework. But then a very important event occurs: the development of a group of animals has reached such a stage that they include in the mechanism of their adaptation, in addition to their own teeth and paws, also an inanimate object that does not belong to the body: a stick, a stone.
According to one version, the Cro-Magnon is the ancestor of all modern people, appearing in East Africa about 130-180,000 years ago. According to this theory, 50-60,000 years ago, they migrated from Africa to the Arabian Peninsula and appeared in Eurasia. The first group was able to quickly populate the coast of the Indian Ocean, and the second migrated to the steppes of Central Asia. The second group is the ancestors of the nomadic peoples and most of the Middle East and North African population. Migration from the Black Sea to Europe began about 40-50,000 years ago, presumably through the Danube Corridor. 20,000 years ago all of Europe was already inhabited.
How has everything changed?
From now on, this creature no longer belongs entirely to biology, there is a gap in the “biological fence”. Oldowan pebbles, a chopper, a stone ax, a steam locomotive, an electronic computing device - these are already phenomena of the same order: a living being uses and combines inanimate objects. "Who" subordinates "what" to itself.
Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon
A breakthrough in biology that occurs in a social animal multiplies, intensifies in the flock, creates new relationships in this flock. But, apparently, the biological factor, that is, the physical structure of the creature, does not immediately get used to it, it agrees with the new "organs" - tools: about 2 million years, the first monkey-men change not only their inventory, but also their physical structure. The hand, squeezing the chipped pebble, makes the brain think hard and enlarge, but, not remaining in debt, the brain sends its signals to the hand: and it also improves.
For thousands of centuries, tools have gone from a rough stone, stick or bone to a Neanderthal chopper, stone side-scraper and a sharp point.
During this period, the brain increases from 600-700 to 1500 cm³.
Gait - from semi-monkey to completely straight.
A hand - from a tenacious paw to the most perfect instrument.
The collective - from the animal pack to the first human social forms.
A certain law of evolution that has not yet been deciphered by us to the end makes the body of the ape-man change along with his tools.
Comparison with modern man
Eventually there comes a point where biology and tools come to full agreement, a point from which the brain and hand can do any work. The same brain and the same hand as the Cro-Magnon man will control a bow 20,000 years later, a plow 25,000 years later, and a few thousand years later - a steam locomotive, a car, an airplane, a rocket.
For the transition from a primitive ax to a more perfect one, it took from Pithecanthropus to become a Neanderthal. And in order to come from unpolished stone tips to atom splitting, there was no need for "nothing", that is, it seems that nothing has fundamentally changed in the human body.
Instead of physically changing in the struggle for existence, man chose a different path. From now on, he began to improve "inanimate objects" and changed the structure of his society. Physical changes were replaced by faster and more painless - technical, social.
And how can we, in fact, know that human biological development has stopped?
Discussions on this topic have been going on for a very long time. It is noticed that there are secular, millennial fluctuations in the physical structure of a person: the Cro-Magnon was taller than us, now, as you know, humanity is growing quite rapidly again. Several thousand years ago, human bones were more massive, then they became more graceful, tomorrow, perhaps, they will again become massive and bulky. Undoubtedly, there is "brachycephalization", an increase in the number of short-headed people compared to long-headed people.
The reasons for such changes are divine: food, a new way of life? The severity of these changes is also fortuitous: are these temporary phenomena, or tomorrow they will be covered by another change, or still, after a few tens or hundreds of millennia, a person will look different, not like now?
While wondering about the future, we have, however, the right to declare: over the past 30–40 thousand years there have been gigantic changes in technology, but during this time no fundamental “bodily” changes have occurred.
Obviously, the Thousand Great-grandfathers laid a good foundation!
Cro-Magnon culture
The Cro-Magnon created a rich and varied culture of the Late Paleolithic. There are descriptions of more than 100 types of sophisticated stone and bone tools made with great skill, made by new, more efficient processing of stone and bone. The Cro-Magnons also greatly improved the methods of hunting (driven hunting), taking out deer, mammoths, woolly rhinos, cave bears, wolves and other animals. They began to make spear throwers (the spear could fly 137 m), as well as devices for catching fish (harpoons, hooks), snares for birds.
Cro-Magnons usually lived in caves, but at the same time, they built various dwellings from stone and dugouts, tents from animal skins, and even entire villages. Early neoanthropists were able to make embroidered clothes, often decorated. Thus, at the Sungir site (Vladimir region), more than 1000 beads were found on a man's fur clothes, and many other jewelry were also found - bracelets, rings.
Cro-Magnon was the creator of the remarkable European primitive art, as evidenced by the multicolored painting on the walls and ceilings of caves (Altamira (Spain), Montespan, Lascaux (France), etc.), engraving on pieces of stone or bone, ornament, small stone and clay sculpture … Amazing images of horses, deer, bison, mammoths, female figurines, called "Venus" by archaeologists for their splendor of forms, various objects carved from bone, horns and tusks, or molded from clay, can undoubtedly testify to the highly developed sense of beauty among Cro-Magnons. Cave art reached the pinnacle about 19-15,000 years ago. Scientists believe that the Cro-Magnons could have magical rites and rituals.
Probably, the life expectancy of Cro-Magnons was longer than that of Neanderthals: about 10% already lived to be 40 years old. During this era, the primitive communal system was formed.
Cro-Magnon cave with wall paintings
In the south-west of France, in the area of the city of Villoner, the department of Charente, cavers and archaeologists have discovered a cave with the oldest wall paintings.
The researchers of the caves managed to find a unique and extremely valuable for science underground room with rock paintings back in December 2005, but it was reported about a unique cave much later. Scientists have increasingly adhered to such a strong secrecy in valuable finds in order to prevent their destruction by unwanted visitors.
Work is underway on the dating of rock paintings. Experts do not exclude that they may be more ancient than in the famous Lasko cave and Altamire cave. According to the first impressions of experts, we are talking about the camp of the Cro-Magnons, that is, a period of 30,000 years ago. Scientists believe that the find in Villoners could become a revolution in science - it was previously believed that in such ancient times people did not resort to painting the walls of their underground dwellings.