You can not only read books and watch movies about the Ancient World. It can be approached very close and even touched. We offer a guide to the most ancient artifacts on the planet.
Oldowan tools
The most primitive tools of human labor are called Oldowan (Oldowan) because they were first found in the Olduvai gorge in Tanzania. The oldest tools were found in Ethiopia. During excavations in the Afar Desert (central Ethiopia) in the Khadar area, tools were found 2.5 million years old. During excavations in the Omo Valley in South Ethiopia, archaeologists have found tools that are about 2.4 - 2.5 million years old. The sites of ancient people were also found here. Archaeologists consider the characteristic features of processing as proof of the non-randomness of the chips on the tools: the upholstery of the stone from one or two edges, the presence of a shock tubercle, as well as the concentration of tools in places where they could not have formed naturally. By the way, here, in Ethiopia, American archaeologists found a spearhead,whose age was determined not much, not a little - at 280,000 years. The tip is made of volcanic glass and is still very sharp today.
Spanish petroglyphs
The oldest cave paintings are petroglyphs found in Spain in the El Castillo and Altamira caves. Among the most ancient images are handprints, animal figurines and dots. They are made with coal, hematite and ocher. Scientists managed to establish the exact age of one of the handprints, and it turned out that the drawing was 37,300 years old. The age of the large red dot near this figure is even older - 40,800 years. To determine the age of the drawings, scientists used calcite, which covers the images. The fact is that during the deposition of calcite, radioactive uranium atoms got into the mineral in the drawings, which form thorium during decay. Scientists used the ratio of elements as a clock of time, and calculated the time of the beginning of calcite formation. True, archaeologists still argueWho exactly left the drawings - Homo Sapiens, or they belong to the Neanderthals.
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Germanic ancient figurine
The oldest image of a human was found in Germany by the archaeologist Nicholas Conard. This tiny female figurine, carved from the tusk of a mammoth, was discovered in the Hole-Fels karst cave in the Swabian Alb, just a kilometer from the town of Scheelklingen. Figurine dimensions: 59.7mm X 31.3mm X 34.6mm. Weight - 33.3 grams. The statuette was originally split into six pieces and still lacks an arm and shoulder. The age of the figurine was determined using radiocarbon analysis, which underwent fragments of the remains of the animals next to which it was found. The scatter of the data turned out to be quite large. The statuette is estimated to be 44,000 years old. The author of the find, Konrad, believes that the figurine of a woman belongs to the Aurignacian culture and determines its age as 40,000 years.
Stater Gyges
The oldest coin in the world is the Lydian stater. The coin was gold and weighed 14 grams. Even the historian Herodotus wrote about the Lydians: "They were the first of the people who began to mint coins and were engaged in petty trade." Stater was minted from 685 to 652 under the Lydian king Gyges, the founder of the Mermnad dynasty. The reverse of the coin depicts a lion representing the capital of Lydia Sarda, and the obverse depicts incomprehensible rectangular symbols. Later, staters spread throughout the Mediterranean and spread to Persia. On the staters, an image of a running fox appeared, which has a sacred meaning.
Donetsk sundial
Sundial dating from the 13th-12th centuries BC were found in 2011 in the burial ground "Popov Yar II", which is located north-west of Donetsk and belongs to the so-called Srubna culture, whose representatives were the ancestors of the Scythians. The watch is a carved slab measuring 100 by 70 centimeters, weighing 130 kilograms, with lines and circles on both sides. Unlike ordinary sundials, which use a fixed vertical gnomon, the Donetsk clock was supposed to use a movable gnomon, which took into account the angle of the Earth's axis. Moreover, the watch was made for use at the exact latitude at which it was found. Most likely, they belonged to a young man who was buried in a mound.
Antikythera mechanism
The Antikythera mechanism was found in 1900 by the Greek diver Lycopantis among the wreckage of a Greek shipwreck in the Aegean Sea. The artifact consists of several bronze gears fixed inside the pieces of limestone. Scientists with the help of X-rays, and then a tomograph, managed to find out that this is a unique mechanical calculator, with the help of which the ancient Greeks determined the day of the week, year, time, and also calculated the paths of motion of the Sun, Moon, Mars, Venus, Mercury, Saturn and Jupiter … The reverse side of the mechanism has been used to predict solar and lunar eclipses. Most likely, the ancient ship came from the island of Rhodes, where the Greek astronomer and mathematician Hipparchus of Nicaea once lived. Coins found at the wreck of the ship by Jacques Cousteau indicate that the mechanism was created around 85 BC. It is believed that the mechanism was invented by Archimedes himself.
Antediluvian Shigir Idol
The oldest wooden artifact was found in 1890 on the territory of the Shigir bog in the Urals in Russia. At the second Kuryinsky mine, prospectors from under a four-meter layer of peat extracted fragments of a mysterious artifact that went down in history as the Big Shigir idol. Besides him, more than 3,000 other finds were found - from arrowheads to wooden spoons and even the burial of a woman. The larch idol is well preserved thanks to the peat. Unfortunately, the lower part of it was later lost. The artifact is covered with geometric patterns that signified the elements of nature, faces are carved on wide surfaces. It is crowned with a three-dimensional image of the head. Now the idol is kept in the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore. In 1997, it began to deteriorate, and urgent conservation was required. Scientists decided to conduct a carbon analysis of wood. The analysis was carried out at the Institute for the History of Material Culture in St. Petersburg. He showed that the artifact is 9,500 years old. That is, in accordance with the ideas of Christians, it can be created even before the Flood.