The most common is archaeological periodization, the criterion of which is differences in the material and technique of making tools. According to this scheme, the primitive era is divided into the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages . In turn, each of these eras is divided into a number of stages. We are not able to analyze these stages. All of them constitute the era of savagery of the human community. For the development of civilization, the Neolithic period (VIII-V thousand years ago) was of fundamental importance, when the formation of an economy based on agriculture and cattle breeding began. This period is an English archaeologist. Gordon Childe suggested calling it the Neolithic Revolution. The essence of the Neolithic revolution was the transition of part of the population from appropriating forms of economy(hunting, fishing, gathering) to the producing farm— agriculture and cattle breeding, the emergence of the first civilizations was preceded by the Neolithic revolution.

The associated transition to new forms of economy contributed to fundamental changes in culture, lifestyle and spiritual sphere. Now, in the endless world of hunters, fishermen and gatherers, who have mastered almost all the natural and climatic zones of the Earth, societies of farmers and pastoralists are moving to the forefront of history. It is in their environment that a significant surplus product is created and material and spiritual values ​​are accumulated accordingly.

The origins of the first civilizations go back to the period of early agricultural societies. Thanks to the construction of irrigation structures that were grandiose at that time, agricultural productivity increased sharply. In societies that have embarked on the path of civilization, crafts separated from agriculture. Cities appeared - a special type of settlement in which the inhabitants were, at least partially, freed from agriculture. Monumental structures began to be erected: temples, tombs, pyramids, etc., which had a direct economic purpose.

Began social stratification of society. Different social groups appeared in it, differing from each other in terms of professional characteristics, social status, financial situation, and the scope of rights and privileges. Formed states- systems of organs for organizing and managing the life of society, protecting the social interests of some groups and suppressing others. Was created writing, thanks to which people could record in material form the achievements of their culture: ideas, beliefs, traditions, laws and pass them on to their offspring.

History as a science, its subject, purpose and objectives.

A story is a story about an event. History should be approached from two sides: as a process of development of nature and society and as a science about these processes. The history of society is a set of specific and diverse actions and actions of both individuals and entire groups, found. in defined the relationships that make up all of humanity. The subject of study is the activities and actions of people, the entire set of relationships in society. The content of history as a separate science is the historical process. The basis of historical science is the collection, systematization and generalization of facts. The father of history is Herodotus.

Russia in the world historical process

Russia occupies a special place in world history. Although it is customary to say that it is located in Europe and Asia and has largely absorbed the characteristics of the countries of these regions, it must nevertheless be borne in mind that its history is largely independent. At the same time, one cannot deny the indisputable fact that Russia has been seriously influenced by both Europe and Asia. The political system of any society is the result of the efforts of many generations of people, the product of the national spirit and national-state consciousness of the people. This was especially evident in the formation of Russian statehood. The desire to live and act together runs through the entire history of Russia. at a time when Western Europe (this is especially characteristic of the 16th century) presented a motley picture of warring feudal principalities, when religious wars raged throughout its territory, Russia was already united into a single state, in general the formation of a nation had already taken place in it, before that Europe still had a long way to go. Attempts to draw Russia into Western civilization have been made several times in history. All of them, at best, ended with external borrowings and deceptive superficial changes. By the end of the 19th century, a new phenomenon emerged: Russia became one of the centers of world culture. The world has placed Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Turgenev, Gogol, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov on a pedestal. Russia is becoming a world cultural power. And if we keep in mind the middle of the 20th century, then Russia becomes the savior of Europe and world civilization, stopping the barbaric invasion of Hitler.

The main stages of the ancient history of mankind

The first stage in the development of mankind primitive communal system takes a huge period of time from the moment of the separation of man from the animal kingdom (about 35 million years ago) until the formation of class societies in various regions of the planet (approximately in the 4th millennium BC). Its periodization is based on differences in the material and technique of making tools (archaeological periodization). In accordance with it, three periods are distinguished in the ancient era:

Stone Age (from the emergence of man to the 3rd millennium BC),

Bronze Age (from the end of the 4th to the beginning of the 1st millennium BC),

Iron Age (from 1st millennium BC).

In turn, the Stone Age is divided into Old Stone Age (Paleolithic), Middle Stone Age (Mesolithic), New Stone Age (Neolithic) and transitional to bronze Copper-Stone Age (Chalcolithic).

A number of scientists divide the history of primitive society into five stages, each of which is distinguished by the degree of development of tools, the materials from which they were made, the quality of housing, and the appropriate organization of farming.

First stage is defined as the prehistory of economy and material culture: from the emergence of humanity to approximately 1 million years ago. This is a time when people's adaptation to the environment was not much different from the livelihood of animals. Many scientists believe that the ancestral home of humans is East Africa. It is here that during excavations they find the bones of the first people who lived more than 2 million years ago.

Second phase– a primitive appropriating economy approximately I million years ago – XI thousand BC, i.e. covers a significant part of the Stone Age - Early and Middle Paleolithic.

Third stage– developed appropriating economy. It is difficult to determine its chronological framework, since in a number of places this period ended in the 20th millennium BC. (subtropics of Europe and Africa), in others (tropics) - continues to this day. Covers the Late Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and in some areas the entire Neolithic.

Fourth stage – the emergence of a productive economy. In the most economically developed areas of the earth - IX-VIII thousand BC. (late Mesolithic – early Neolithic).

Fifth stage- the era of the productive economy. For some areas of dry and humid subtropics - VIII-V millennium BC.

In addition to the production of tools, the material culture of ancient humanity was closely connected with the creation of dwellings.

ancient eastern civilization

The most important feature of the social structure in the Ancient East is the existence of a community, which was the main social and territorial unit.

Within the framework of ancient Eastern societies, special social, political and legal structures.

The following were characteristic of Eastern society: traits:

1) patriarchy . Its preservation was facilitated by the dominance of subsistence farming, the stability of state forms of land ownership, and the extremely slow development of individual private property;

2)collectivism . Ancient Eastern civilizations can be classified as agricultural civilizations. Economic activity in these regions was possible only in the presence of complex irrigation systems that regulated the flow regime of the great rivers. Their creation and use required great collective efforts of people. We cannot discount the special role of collective mutual assistance and support in everyday life;

3) community. The originality of the social system of the ancient Eastern states was created primarily by its social base - community. With its conservatism, its alienation from the outside world and its reluctance to interfere in politics, the community contributed to the transformation of the central government into despotism. The suppression of a person, his personality, his will began within the community to which he belonged. At the same time, communities could not do without the organizing role of the central government;

4) traditionality. This confirms the fact that the foundations of the social structure, statehood and law of ancient Eastern societies have survived centuries;

5) religiosity. Religion determined a person's way of life. The person was focused on spiritual self-improvement;

6) motley social composition. It can be differentiated within three groups:

– the ruling layer (officials, court and service aristocracy, military leaders, priests, etc.);

– free small producers (peasants, artisans);

The state carries out numerous and varied functions. The government was called upon to regulate scattered communal production and organize public works (construction of an irrigation system, palace and temple complexes and military fortifications). The coordination of such work throughout the country predetermined a huge concentration of power, contributing to the transformation of the supreme ruler into an unlimited despot.

When they talk about "eastern despotism" They usually mean a form of political regime in which:

– the powers of the ruler are not limited, he was considered not only the owner of all the land in the state, but also had the right to control the life or death of each of his subjects;

– secular and ecclesiastical power were united in one person, the personality of the head of state in most countries of the Ancient East was deified;

– power was exercised by a large bureaucratic apparatus;

– man was a slave to “order,” faith, tradition.

State machine was numerous and well organized. There were three levels of management:

– central,

– regional,

– local (community).

The Ancient East became the first region in world history where written sources of law .

culture of the Ancient East was not internally and externally homogeneous. And yet, the ancient Eastern civilizations, despite their regional and national modifications, constituted a single type of culture, since they are united by common features for all of them. The Eastern type of civilization is based on an authoritarian-administrative system of power and the establishment of absolutist, despotic forms of government, while in Western civilization democratic traditions of organizing society and systems of power are developed. The Eastern type of civilization is focused on the reproduction of existing structures and relationships, as well as on traditional values, patterns of behavior, stereotypes and forms of thinking. Therefore, the Eastern type of civilization is so characterized by deep respect for elders, teachers, mentors with extensive life experience and wisdom. In the East, deepening into ancient teachings, the bulk and overwhelming majority of which are religious, philosophical and ethical, is considered a high virtue. Thinking in Eastern culture remains within the classical, “correct” views, knowledge and canons passed down from generation to generation, sanctified by tradition and time.

The first stage in the development of mankind, the primitive communal system, occupies a huge period of time from the moment of the separation of man from the animal kingdom (about 35 million years ago) until the formation of class societies in various regions of the planet (approximately in the 4th millennium BC). Its periodization is based on differences in the material and technique of making tools (archaeological periodization).

In accordance with it, three periods are distinguished in the ancient era:

• Stone Age (from the emergence of man to the 3rd millennium BC),
• Bronze Age (from the end of the 4th to the beginning of the 1st millennium BC),
• Iron Age (from 1st millennium BC).

In turn, the Stone Age is divided into the Old Stone Age (Paleolithic), the Middle Stone Age (Mesolithic), the New Stone Age (Neolithic) and the copper-stone age transitional to bronze (Chalcolithic).

A number of scientists divide the history of primitive society into five stages, each of which is distinguished by the degree of development of tools, the materials from which they were made, the quality of housing, and the appropriate organization of farming.

The first stage is defined as the prehistory of the economy and material culture: from the emergence of humanity to approximately 1 million years ago. This is a time when people's adaptation to the environment was not much different from the livelihood of animals. Many scientists believe that the ancestral home of humans is East Africa. It is here that during excavations they find the bones of the first people who lived more than 2 million years ago.

The second stage is a primitive appropriating economy approximately I million years ago - XI thousand BC, i.e. covers a significant part of the Stone Age - Early and Middle Paleolithic.

The third stage is a developed appropriating economy. It is difficult to determine its chronological framework, since in a number of places this period ended in the 20th millennium BC. (subtropics of Europe and Africa), in others (tropics) - continues to this day. Covers the Late Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and in some areas the entire Neolithic.

The fourth stage is the emergence of a producing economy. In the most economically developed areas of the earth - IX-VIII thousand BC. (late Mesolithic – early Neolithic).

The fifth stage is the era of the producing economy. For some areas of dry and humid subtropics - VIII-V millennium BC.

In addition to the production of tools, the material culture of ancient humanity was closely connected with the creation of dwellings.

The most interesting archaeological finds of ancient dwellings date back to the Early Paleolithic. The remains of 21 seasonal camps have been discovered on the territory of France. In one of them, an oval fence made of stones was discovered, which can be interpreted as the foundation of a light dwelling.

Inside the dwelling there were hearths and places where tools were made. In the cave of Le Lazare (France), the remains of a shelter were discovered, the reconstruction of which suggests the presence of supports, a roof made of skins, internal partitions and two fireplaces in a large room. The beds are made from animal skins (fox, wolf, lynx) and seaweed. These finds date back to about 150 thousand years.

On the territory of the USSR, the remains of above-ground dwellings dating back to the Early Paleolithic were discovered near the village of Molodovo on the Dniester. They were an oval arrangement of specially selected large mammoth bones. Traces of 15 fires located in different parts of the dwelling were also found here.

The primitive era of humanity is characterized by a low level of development of productive forces, their slow improvement, collective appropriation of natural resources and production results (primarily exploited territory), equal distribution, socio-economic equality, absence of private property, exploitation of man by man, classes, states.

An analysis of the development of primitive human society shows that this development was extremely uneven. The process of separation of our distant ancestors from the world of great apes was very slow.

The general scheme of human evolution is as follows:

• Australopithecus Homo;
• Homo erectus (early hominids: Pithecanthropus and Sinanthropus);
• a person of modern physical appearance (late hominids: Neanderthals and Upper Paleolithic people).

In fact, the appearance of the first australopithecus marked the emergence of material culture directly related to the production of tools. It was the latter that became a means for archaeologists to determine the main stages of the development of ancient humanity. The rich and generous nature of the period did not help to accelerate this process; Only with the advent of the harsh conditions of the Ice Age, with the intensification of the labor activity of primitive man in his difficult struggle for existence, new skills rapidly appeared, tools were improved, and new social forms were developed.

Mastery of fire, collective hunting of large animals, adaptation to the conditions of a melted glacier, invention of the bow, transition from appropriating to producing economy (cattle breeding and agriculture), discovery of metal (copper, bronze, iron) and the creation of a complex tribal organization of society - these are the most important stages , which mark the path of humanity in the conditions of the primitive communal system.

The pace of development of human culture gradually accelerated, especially with the transition to a productive economy. But another feature has emerged - the geographical unevenness of the development of society. Areas with an unfavorable, harsh geographical environment continued to develop slowly, while areas with a mild climate, ore reserves, etc., moved faster towards civilization.

A colossal glacier (about 100 thousand years ago), which covered half of the planet and created a harsh climate that affected the flora and fauna, inevitably divides the history of primitive mankind into three different periods: pre-glacial with a warm subtropical climate, glacial and post-glacial. Each of these periods corresponds to a certain physical type of person: in the pre-glacial period - archaeoanthropes (Pithecanthropus, Sinanthropus, etc.), in the glacial period - paleoanthrons (Neanderthal man), at the end of the Ice Age, in the late Paleolithic - neoanthropes, modern people.

• Paleolithic
• Mesolithic
• Neolithic
• Chalcolithic

Introduction.

History - (Greek Ιστορία, “research”) - the sphere of humanitarian knowledge that deals with the study of man (his activities, condition, worldview, social connections and organizations, etc.) in the past; in a narrower sense, it is a science that studies all kinds of sources about the past in order to establish the sequence of events, the objectivity of the described facts and draw conclusions about the causes of events.

Herodotus is considered the father of history as a science, who wrote the treatise “History”, describing the Greco-Persian wars.

Herodotus.

History tells us about the past and what role one person or group of people played in certain events. History is an interesting science because... it allows us to trace how, as a result of certain actions of people, events change, eras come to replace one another, how revolutions are made, wars begin, or truces are concluded. What could be more interesting than a person and his life? By studying history, you can try to understand why people act in a certain way in certain situations, and how to learn from the mistakes of others to make less of your own. History is one of the most voluminous sciences, because... includes not only a presentation of specific events, but also all kinds of interpretations of them. There is no way to cover the immensity within the framework of one textbook. Therefore, in classes and in the textbook only the tip of the iceberg of historical knowledge will be shown, a small part of what can be known.

History is a humanitarian science. Therefore, the human factor plays a big role in it. Consequently, history is prone to subjectivism more than any other science. Try to imagine if you had a conflict with a friend, and each of you tells someone else about it... Most likely, the stories will turn out far from the same. And this will not happen because you deliberately tried to distort events in your favor. It’s just human nature to put your personal attitude into a story. But we were looking at a situation that happened recently. What can we say about the affairs of bygone days? Therefore, the question arises about the reliability of historical knowledge and the sources that give it to us.

Reliability and sources of historical knowledge. The historical method consists of following the principles and rules of working with primary sources and other evidence found during research and then used in writing a historical work.

Historical science deals with facts that form the basis of all historical knowledge. All ideas and concepts are based on facts. The perception and explanation of historical reality, the ability to comprehend the essence of the historical process depend on the reliability of facts. In historical science fact is considered in two senses: 1) as a phenomenon that took place in history; and 2) as its reflection in historical science (fact - knowledge).

But there is a close connection between them. The second is impossible without the first. By themselves, “bare facts” as “fragments of reality” may not tell the reader anything. Only a historian gives a fact a certain meaning, which depends on his general scientific and ideological-theoretical views. Therefore, in different belief systems, the same historical fact receives different interpretations and different meanings. Thus, between a historical fact (event, phenomenon) and the corresponding scientific-historical fact there is an interpretation. It is she who turns the facts of history into facts of science.

History is the science of the past, therefore it is not possible to observe the object of its study. In most cases, the only source of information about the past for him is a historical monument, thanks to which he receives the necessary specific historical data, factual material that forms the basis of historical knowledge.

All historical sources can be divided into 6 groups:

1. Written sources (epigraphical monuments, i.e. ancient inscriptions on stone, metal, ceramics, etc.; graffiti - texts scratched by hand on the walls of buildings, dishes; birch bark letters, manuscripts on papyrus, parchment and paper, printed materials and etc.).

2. Material monuments (tools, handicrafts, household items, dishes, clothing, jewelry, coins, weapons, remains of dwellings, architectural structures, etc.).

3. Ethnographic monuments - remains that have survived to this day, remnants of the ancient life of various peoples.

4. Folklore materials - monuments of oral folk art, i.e. legends, songs, fairy tales, proverbs, sayings, anecdotes, etc.

5. Linguistic monuments - geographical names, personal names, etc.

6. Film and photo documents.

Studying the maximum number of all types of sources allows us to recreate a fairly complete and reliable picture of the historical process.

The following 4 sciences can be named as sciences that provide most of the information:

Archeology is the science of antiquities, the study of the life and culture of ancient peoples based on the material monuments that have come down to us.

Ethnography is a science that studies the life of backward (relict) tribes and remnants of the past in modern societies.

Anthropology is a science that studies the skeletal remains of primitive people.

Linguistics is a science that studies language and reveals the most ancient layers in it that were formed in the distant past.

Civilizations. Variants of their typology.

Civilization - integral sociocultural systems with their own patterns, which include :

Religion

Economic organization

Social organization

Political organization

System of education and upbringing

Signs of civilization

High level of development of the production economy

Availability of political structures

Use of writing

Monumental structures

Natural community. historical communities living within the natural cycle.

For civilization, the natural community is characteristic deification of nature, traditionalism in culture and collectivism in social life, power is based on tradition or blood relationship

Eastern civilization. Traditionalism, n low mobility and weak diversity of all forms of human life, the idea of ​​complete unfreedom of man, an attitude of contemplation, political organization - despotism, collectivism

Western civilization. Signs of Western civilization can be considered: dynamism, orientation towards novelty, importance of the human person, individualism, rationality, freedom, equality, tolerance, respect for private property, democracy. A subtype of Western civilization is a technogenic civilization that began to take shape at the beginning of the 15th century and spread throughout the entire territory of the Earth.

Modern (global) civilization. In the modern world, a new global type of civilization has emerged, in which it is impossible for one civilization to exist in isolation from another. Peoples and cultures constantly influence each other and exchange the latest achievements in all areas of life.

Factors of historical development

Natural-climatic – determines the type of management in a given territory, the activity that people will primarily engage in. Nature determines not only the type of activity that people will engage in in a given area, but also their relationships with each other, as well as the form of government. If the climate conditions are harsh, the greater the likelihood of the emergence of collective forms of management, and the easier the living conditions, the more people will be prone to individualism. In softer living conditions, government will be more democratic. The harsh climate also requires a fairly authoritarian leadership capable of collecting taxes in conditions of scarcity of resources.

Geographic - Different geographic areas provide different opportunities for this. Some of them are so well suited to human life that they do not create prerequisites for changes in the environment, and therefore for an increase in needs and, ultimately, development. Others are so unfavorable that they prevent any transformation.
The most rapidly developing territories are those located at the crossroads of geographical routes connecting different peoples, near the centers of civilizations. Progress is facilitated by proximity to more developed countries. This creates a sustained desire for improvement.

Economic factor.The idea that economics plays a vital role in history came to light in the second half of the 19th century. many historians. This direction, which is usually called historical-economic, or simply economic (“economism”), has become most widespread in the historical science of Germany, France, Great Britain, and Russia. Moreover, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries it became the leading one, which was recognized by both its advocates and its opponents.

Ethnic factor . Ethnic community (ethnos) - historically an emerging type of stable social grouping of people, represented by a tribe, nationality, nation, group of peoples (Slavic ethnic community, etc.). The ethical factor can be clearly seen in the history of Russia, located at the intersection of Western and European civilizations. Russia borders on many peoples, interacts with them, adopts customs and traditions. Many words in the Russian language that we now perceive as native are actually borrowed. In the process of cultural exchange, peoples develop noticeably. Ethnic interaction occurs in the process of human economic activity and military campaigns.

Periodization of world history.

1. Paleolithic (2 million years - 8 thousand years BC) - the era of the existence of fossil humans, as well as fossil, now extinct animal species. In the Paleolithic era, the Earth's climate, its flora and fauna were quite different from modern ones. People of the Paleolithic era used only chipped stone tools, not yet knowing how to polish them and make pottery - ceramics. They hunted and collected plant foods. Fishing was just beginning to emerge, and agriculture and cattle breeding were unknown. The beginning of the Paleolithic coincides with the appearance on Earth of the most ancient apes

2. Mesolithic (8 thousand years ago - 5 thousand years BC) is the Stone Age era, transitional between the Paleolithic and Neolithic. Mesolithic cultures of many territories are characterized by miniature stone tools - microliths. Beaten chopping tools made of stone were used - axes, adzes, picks, as well as tools made of bone and horn - spearheads, harpoons, fishhooks, points, picks, etc. Bows and arrows, various devices for fishing and hunting sea animals became widespread ( dugout canoes, nets). Pottery appeared mainly during the transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic. The dog, which was probably domesticated in the Late Paleolithic, was widely used in the Mesolithic; The domestication of some other animal species (pig, etc.) also began. The basis of the economy was hunting, fishing and gathering (including the collection of edible shellfish). Prerequisites arose for the transition (already at the Neolithic stage) to productive forms of economy - agriculture and cattle breeding.

3. Neolithic (5 thousand years ago - 3 thousand years BC) - the era of the later Stone Age, characterized by the use exclusively of flint, bone and stone tools (including those made using sawing, drilling and grinding techniques) and, as a rule, a wide distribution of pottery. The tools of the Neolithic era represent the final stage of the development of stone tools, which were then replaced by metal products appearing in increasing quantities. According to cultural and economic characteristics, Neolithic cultures fall into two groups: 1) farmers and cattle breeders and 2) developed hunters and fishermen. Neolithic cultures of the first group reflect the consequences of the transition to fundamentally new forms of obtaining products through their production (the so-called producing economy).

4. Chalcolithic (3 thousand years ago - 2 thousand years BC) Copper-Stone Age, the era of transition from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age.

5. Bronze Age (2 thousand years ago - 1 thousand years BC) - a historical and cultural period characterized by the spread of bronze metallurgy in the advanced cultural centers and its transformation into the leading material for the production of tools and weapons.

6. Iron Age

The oldest stage of human history.

Separation of man from the animal world. Anthropogenesis.

Anthropogenesis commonly referred to as the part of biological evolution that led to the emergence of a species Homo sapiens, separated from apes and placental mammals. It is believed that the closest common ancestor of humans and anthropomorphic apes was the group Dryopithecus (tree monkeys), lived 25-30 million years ago. About 25 million years ago, Dryopithecus split into two branches, which later led to the emergence of two families: pongid, or anthropomorphic monkeys(gibbon, gorilla, orangutan, chimpanzee), and hominid (humans).

Table 1.1. The main stages of human evolution.

Temporal boundaries

Stages of anthropogenesis

Characteristic features of development

40 thousand years ago

Stage neoanthropa (Cro-Magnon). Homo sapiens

Formation of the appearance of modern man. The emergence of society. Domestication of plants and animals

200-500 thousand years ago

Stage paleoanthropa (Neanderthal). Neanderthal man

Brain volume is 1200-1400 cm3. High culture of manufacturing tools. Improving speech and tribal relations

1-1.3 million . years ago

Stage archanthrope (pithecanthropa). Homo erectus (Pithecanthropus - Java; Sinanthropus - China, Atlantropus - Africa, Heidelberg Man - Europe)

Brain volume 800-1200 cm3. Formation of speech. Mastering Fire

2-2.5 million years ago

A skilled man

Transitional stage to the formation of the type of modern person. Brain volume 500-800 cm 5 . Making the first tools (pebble culture)

9 million years ago

Stage protanthropus. Australopithecus - the predecessors of humans

Transitional form of ape to man. Erectus. Use of primitive “tools” (sticks, stones, bones). Further development of herding

25 million years ago

Common ancestors of apes and humans - Dryopithecus

Arboreal lifestyle, gregariousness

Our ancient ancestors grouped themselves into human herds(ancestral communities) numbering from 20 to 40 people. This number of individuals in a herd is most beneficial for the survival of humans as a biological species. Fewer members of the herd would not be able to cope with the harsh conditions of the surrounding life. The main occupations at that time were hunting or gathering, i.e. assigning type of management. While the men were in search of food, the women took care of the children, whose survival was also necessary for the continued existence of the herd; Women's duties also included maintaining the fire. A larger number of individuals in a herd is also impractical, because As the herd size increases, it becomes more difficult to manage. People lived as one big family, earning food together and caring for their common children. Relations between men and women were most likely disordered - promiscuity. If the size of the herd increased, it was divided into two.

However, gradually people begin to notice that fewer and fewer healthy offspring are being born in their society, and therefore the herd is becoming less viable. This was associated with close relatives having sexual contact. Therefore, a ban gradually appears on members of the same herd entering into relationships - exogamy. With the advent of exogamy there appears tribal community. Every clan community had to maintain friendly relations with other clan communities with which it exchanged spouses. There have always been two or more communities nearby. The women of the community had the right to men from the neighboring community, but not to their own. Likewise, men had the right to the women of the neighboring community only. At that time, the social structure was based on the power of women, i.e. matriarchy reigned. Children born from group marriages of spouses from friendly communities lived in the maternal community, because It was not always possible to identify the father. But in this case, there is a danger of a relationship between father and daughter, which can again lead to the birth of unhealthy offspring. Then the division into age groups was adopted. Gradually, more and more restrictions were introduced into marriage until it became monogamous and produced the largest number of healthy children. By that time, the main occupation of people became cattle breeding, and a little later, agriculture, i.e. The type of economy evolves from an appropriating one into a producing one. People stayed together as a large clan community until they had perfect tools for cultivating the land, and while this activity required joint efforts.

With the advent of a plow with an iron plowshare, an iron axe, a shovel, and a bow and arrows, the clan community is replaced neighbor's People live in smaller groups, but some physically demanding activities (clearing arable land) are carried out jointly by several neighboring communities.

Since, when earning a living, people become more and more independent and need their neighbors less, then what they earn remains within the same family. Thus, private property begins to emerge, which must be protected. In this regard, those who are physically stronger become stronger economically. They can afford to hire labor to meet their needs. In connection with the growth of incomes, there is a need to protect them, that is, to hire an army. Thus, the first states begin to form. We will look at this process in more detail in the following chapters.

Early civilizations

Ancient world- a period in human history between the prehistoric period and the beginning of the Middle Ages in Europe. The period began with the advent of writing. The duration of the written period of history is approximately 5-5.5 thousand years, starting from the appearance of cuneiform writing among the Sumerians. The end of the Ancient Period is the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 under the blows of barbarian troops and the subsequent sharp decline in the culture and standard of living of the people.

Let's look at some of the oldest known civilizations. While people were still weak and wild, they settled in the most favorable climatic conditions. This explains the appearance of the first civilizations in river valleys in the warm climate of the East. The river provided food to the human herd at the beginning of evolution (and then to the community and proto-states). The warm climate facilitated human settlement and survival. However, the same river also required significant effort, both physical and intellectual. The man had to solve difficult problems. How to escape from the annual floods? How to protect yourself from the attacks of neighbors who came along the same river? How can a river be made to irrigate a large soil? How to pass on your knowledge to descendants? Solving these issues, people created calendars, built protective structures and an irrigation system, and created writing.

Life required the efforts of each member of society, therefore collectivism is characteristic of Eastern civilization. The team could not afford for anyone to shirk their duties, so the punishment system was cruel, the authorities were despotistic. The hot climate made it impossible to work all day, and the darkness made it impossible to work at night. The short period when it was possible to do something was replaced by a period of forced inaction. Therefore, an Eastern person is characterized by contemplation and a mood for reflection. As a result of these thoughts, scientific discoveries were born that could make work easier in the short hours of coolness.

The Ancient East is a fairly broad concept. From the point of view of a medieval European, the East is everything except Europe. Thus, the East includes such diverse countries and cultures as Islamic, China, India, Indochina, as well as the northern tip of Africa.

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia, Greek: Μεσοποταμία) is the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, on the territory of modern Iraq, one of the cradles of Eurasian civilization.

Mesopotamia

In the territory between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, several states were located at different times. The largest and most famous are Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, Babylonia.

Sumer

The Sumerians are a people who inhabited the Southern Mesopotamia (the area between the Euphrates and the Tigris in the south of advanced Iraq) at the very beginning of the historical period. The Sumerians probably discovered the discovery of wheels, baked bricks, irrigation systems and beer.

The oldest known writing system is considered to be Sumerian writing, which later developed into cuneiform. Cuneiform is a system of messaging in which symbols are pressed with a reed stick (stylus) onto a tablet of wet clay.

Sumerian cuneiform

It is not known for certain where the Sumerians came from, but when they appeared in Mesopotamia, people were already living there. The tribes that inhabited Mesopotamia in ancient times lived on islands rising among the swamps. They built their settlements on artificial earthen embankments. By draining the surrounding swamps, they created an ancient artificial irrigation system.

The disunity of city-states created a problem with the exact dating of events in Ancient Sumer. The fact is that each city-state had its own chronicles. The history of Sumer can be roughly dated as follows:

2900 - 2316 BC - the heyday of the Sumerian city-states
2316 - 2200 BC - unification of Sumer under the rule of the Akkadian dynasty (Semitic tribes of the northern part of Southern Mesopotamia who adopted Sumerian culture)
2200 - 2112 BC - Interregnum. The period of fragmentation and invasions of the nomadic Kutians
2112 - 2003 BC - Sumerian Renaissance, the heyday of culture
2003 BC - the fall of Sumer and Akkad under the onslaught of the Amorites (Elamites). Anarchy
1792 - rise of Babylon under Hammurabi (Old Babylonian Kingdom)

Assyria

The Assyrian Empire lasted for over a thousand years, starting in the 17th century BC. e. and until its destruction in the 7th century BC. e. (about 609 BC) Media and Babylonia.

Assyria, an ancient state on the territory of modern Iraq. Ashur was the core of Assyria. The ethnic composition of its primary population is unknown, by 2000 BC. e. the bulk of the inhabitants were Semites-Akkadians.

Ancient Assyria was characterized by a self-governing rural and urban community (alu), which owned a periodically redistributed land fund, which was directly owned by household communities (bitu). The nobility, who were part of trading companies, profited from the caravan trade. The cities that later formed the core of the Assyrian state (Nineveh, Ashur, Arbela, etc.) until the 15th century. BC, apparently, did not represent a single political or even ethnic whole. One of the most important items of intermediary trade in the 2nd millennium BC. were textiles and ores, and its central points were Ashur, Nineveh and Arbela. Gradually the communal system is disintegrating, the population is stratified. Some fall into bondage and are forced to perform duties in favor of richer fellow tribesmen.

In the 18th century Ashur and adjacent cities were subject to the Babylonian king Hammurabi, and in the 16-15 centuries. - to the kings of Mitanni. The ruler of Ashur, Ashuruballit I [late 15th - early 14th centuries] managed to create a strong power and subjugate Babylonia to his influence. His descendants took the title "kings of Assyria". In the 14th-13th centuries. they managed to conquer Northern Mesopotamia and seize supply routes to Babylonia. The Assyrian rulers were very educated people. Libraries were created in their palaces. The most famous of them is the library of King Ashurbanipal. It was discovered during excavations of Nineveh.

From the end of the 9th century. In Assyria, a crisis began due to the devastation of agricultural areas during wars, as well as civil wars between the party of the priesthood and the privileged trading and serving nobility and the military party.

The military-technical achievements of Assyria ceased to be its monopoly. At the end of the 7th century. The coalition of Babylonia and Media defeated Assyria, destroyed its main cities and destroyed (626-605) the Assyrian state. The Assyrian nobility were slaughtered during the war, and the rest of the population mixed with the Arameans of Mesopotamia.

A very interesting cultural, historical and everyday monument of the era are the so-called “Middle Assyrian laws”.

The laws are grouped in accordance with the subject of regulation into very large “blocks”, each of which is dedicated to a special tablet, for the “subject” is understood in Central Assyrian laws extremely broadly. So, Table. A (fifty-nine paragraphs) is devoted to various aspects of the legal status of a free woman - “daughter of a man,” “wife of a man,” widow, etc., as well as harlots and slaves. This also includes various offenses committed by or against a woman, marriage, property relations between spouses, rights to children, etc. In other words, the woman appears here both as a subject of law and as its object, and as a criminal, and as a victim. “At the same time” this also includes actions committed by “a woman or a man” (murder in someone else’s house; witchcraft), as well as cases of sodomy. Such a grouping, of course, is much more convenient, but its disadvantages are also obvious: theft, for example, appears in two different tablets, false accusations and false denunciations also appear in different tablets; the same fate befalls the rules regarding inheritance. However, these shortcomings are obvious only from our modern point of view. New, in comparison with the Laws of Hammurabi, is also the extremely widespread use of public punishment - flogging and “royal work”, i.e. a kind of hard labor (in addition to monetary compensation to the victim). This phenomenon is unique for such early antiquity and can be explained both by the unusually high development of legal thought and by the preservation of community solidarity, which considered many offenses, especially in the field of land relations or against the honor and dignity of free citizens, as affecting the interests of the entire community. On the other hand, Central Assyrian laws, as already noted, also contain archaic features. These include laws according to which the murderer is handed over to the “master of the house,” i.e. the head of the victim's family. The “master of the house” can do with him at his own discretion: kill him or release him, taking a ransom from him (in more developed legal systems, ransom for murder is not allowed). This mixture of archaic features with features of relatively high development is also characteristic of Middle Assyrian society itself, as it is reflected in the Middle Assyrian laws.

Babylonia

There are many people who have not heard about the Pandemonium of Babylon or one of the wonders of the world, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Both of these grandiose buildings were located in Babylonia.

According to biblical legend, the inhabitants of Ancient Babylon set out to reach heaven and for this purpose began to build a high tower. Then, according to the Bible, “all people on earth had the same language and the same words.” An angry God confused their language so that they could no longer understand each other, and chaos ensued. This legend gives us the opportunity to draw conclusions about the life of the ancient Babylonians. If there are legends about such monumental buildings, then the inhabitants of this area were excellent architects and builders. If we are talking about the division of languages, we can draw a conclusion about the multinational composition of the state, as well as the fact that these diverse peoples did not find a common language with each other.

Tower of Babel

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The correct name of this structure is the Hanging Gardens of Amytis: this was the name of the wife of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, for whose sake the gardens were created.

According to legend, at the beginning of the 6th century BC. King Nebuchadnezzar II ordered the creation of hanging gardens for one of his wives, Amyits, who was yearning in lowland Babylonia for her homeland in the mountainous part of Iran. Then where does the name Semiramis come from? There is a Greek legend, transmitted by Herodotus and Ctesias, about the creation of the “Hanging Gardens” in Babylon in honor of Semiramis. According to legend, the king of Babylon Shamshiadat V fell in love with the Assyrian Amazon queen Semiramis. In her honor, he built a huge structure consisting of an arcade - a series of arches stacked on top of each other. On each floor of such an arcade, earth was poured and a garden was laid out with many rare trees. Fountains gurgled among the amazingly beautiful plants and bright birds sang. The Gardens of Babylon were cross-cutting and multi-story. This gave them lightness and a fabulous look.

Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Babylonia, or the Babylonian kingdom, is an ancient kingdom in the south of Mesopotamia (the territory of modern Iraq), which arose at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. and lost its independence in 539 BC. e.. The capital of the kingdom was the city of Babylon, from which it received its name. The Semitic people of the Amorites, the founders of Babylonia, inherited the culture of the previous kingdoms of Mesopotamia - Sumer and Akkad. The official language of Babylonia was the written Semitic Akkadian language, and the unrelated Sumerian language, which fell out of use, was preserved for a long time as a cult language.

The rise of Babylonia is associated with the name of King Hammurabi.

King Hammurabi receives laws from the sun god Shamash (relief of the upper part of the pillar of the Code of Laws)

The basis of the well-being of the inhabitants of Babylonia was agriculture. Taking care of the harvest, they restored old and laid new irrigation systems. However, due to land salinization, typical of irrigation in climates with low rainfall, yields gradually fell. Agriculture remained largely communal. Having been deprived of land for debts, a person was deprived of the entire complex of civil rights; moreover, he could no longer practice the most important cult of his ancestors. During the reign of Hammurabi, the disintegration of the rural community and enslavement for debt had already become significant. From the laws of Hammurabi it is clear that slavery has lost its former patriarchal character.

The rise of Babylon led to its transformation into the largest religious center: the local god occupied the place of the head of the Sumerian-Akkadian pantheon. The New Year celebrations held here, during which the king touched the hands of Marduk, became the culmination of the cult and recognition of the divinity of royal power.

In the 7th century. BC e. The Assyrians destroyed Babylon twice (689 and 648 BC), but, taking advantage of the weakening of Assyria, the governor of Babylon, a Chaldean by origin, in 626 proclaimed the separation of Babylonia from Assyria and, together with the king of Media, divided the territory of the Assyrian kingdom. Nabopolassar became the founder of the Neo-Babylonian kingdom, the first of the Chaldean dynasty. His son, whose forty-year reign was a time of great territorial acquisitions, is the last significant ruler on the Babylonian throne.

Our story about Babylon began with a legend about the most notable architectural structures, and it will end with the legend about the fall of a powerful state.

Belshazzar was the last Chaldean ruler of Babylon, the son of Nebuchadnezzar. According to the Bible, on the night of the capture of Babylon by the Persians, at the last feast organized by Belshazzar, he sacrilegiously used sacred vessels taken by his father from the Temple of Jerusalem for food and drinks. In the midst of the fun, the words inscribed by a mysterious hand appeared on the wall: “mene, mene, tekel, upharsin.” The Prophet Daniel interpreted the inscription, translated from Aramaic, meaning: “Numbered, numbered, weighed, divided” - and deciphered them as a message from God to Belshazzar, predicting the imminent destruction of him and his kingdom. That same night Belshazzar died.

Persian kingdom

Persia is the ancient name of a country in South-West Asia, which since 1935 has been officially called Iran.

In ancient times, Persia became the center of one of the greatest empires in history, stretching from Egypt to the river. Ind. It included all previous empires - the Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians and Hittites. The later empire of Alexander the Great included almost no territories that had not previously belonged to the Persians, and it was smaller than Persia under King Darius.

Since its inception in the 6th century. BC. before the conquest by Alexander the Great in the 4th century. BC. for two and a half centuries, Persia occupied a dominant position in the Ancient World.

In 553 BC Cyrus II the Great, the Achaemenid ruler of Parsa, led a rebellion against the Median king Astyages, son of Cyaxares, which resulted in the creation of a powerful alliance of Medes and Persians. In 539 BC Cyrus occupied Babylonia, and by the end of his reign expanded the borders of the state from the Mediterranean Sea to the eastern outskirts of the Iranian plateau, making Pasargadae, a city in southwestern Iran, the capital.

Darius (reigned from 522 to 485 BC) is the greatest of the Persian kings, he combined the talents of a ruler, builder and commander. Under him, the northwestern part of India up to the Indus River and Armenia up to the Caucasus Mountains came under Persian rule. Darius divided the country into regions - satrapies, which were ruled by officials - satraps.

Eastern Mediterranean.

In the east of the Mediterranean Sea, different climatic conditions developed, and therefore the civilizations that developed in this region differed significantly from the river ones. The opportunity to engage in arable farming was limited due to the lack of good lands, but those that were available could still be used quite intensively, since the sea winds brought heavy rains. Gardening prevailed here; olives, dates, and grapes were cultivated.

Phoenicia

As some researchers suggest, the first inhabitants of Phenicia spoke a non-Semitic language. However, already in the 3rd millennium BC, according to Egyptian sources, Semitic tribes lived here.

The ancient Phoenicians were also involved in fishing, which is natural for a sea people. It is no coincidence that the name of one of the Phoenician cities is Sidon, which means “place of fishing.” The forests of Mount Lebanon, which abounded in cedar and other valuable species, represented great wealth for the country.

The name “Phoenician” is found already in Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions of the mid-3rd millennium BC. in the form of “fenech”. Later, the ancient Greeks used the word “foinikes”, which meant “reddish”, “swarthy”. This is where the name of the country comes from.

Another version interprets the name of the state from the Greek. φοινως - “purple”, possibly associated with the production of purple dye from a special type of mollusk that lived off the coast of Phenicia, which was one of the main industries of the local residents.

One of the most significant achievements of the Phoenicians was the invention of alphabetic writing. The Phoenician scribes actually brought the discovery of the Egyptians to its logical conclusion. As you know, the Egyptians created 24 consonant signs, but also retained hundreds of syllabic signs and signs denoting entire concepts.

Ancient Palestine - a historical region in Western Asia, located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea between Egypt and Syria.

Here in ancient times agriculture received significant development. A large trade route from Egypt to Syria passed through this area. The Saron Lowland was especially notable for its fertility, which was sometimes called the “Garden of Eden.” Some of the interior regions of Western Palestine are no less fertile. Such is the plain of Jericho, beautifully watered by the Wadi Kelt.

Archaeological excavations indicate that man lived in Palestine already in the Old Stone Age.

Biblical traditions have preserved distant and vague information about those tribes that in ancient times inhabited the territory of Palestine.

On the Mediterranean coast, south of Tire, lived the Aegean tribe of the Philistines (Pelishtim in Hebrew), who gave the name to the country Palestine (Peleshet in Hebrew, Peleset in Ancient Egyptian).

About three and a half thousand years ago, nomadic tribes of Semites came to the land of Canaan, who had previously lived beyond the Euphrates River, then crossed it and roamed the Arabian Desert. These tribes called themselves “the people of Israel.” Other peoples called them "Ibrim", or "Jews", which probably meant "those who crossed the river" or "who came from beyond the river." There is every reason to believe that the name of the Khabiri tribe is identical with the biblical name of the Hebrew tribe (Ibrim), as well as with the ancient Egyptian word “aperu”, which the Egyptians during the New Kingdom used to designate prisoners captured in Palestine during their conquests in Syria

Let us remember the biblical lines about how Moses led his people out of the land of Egypt and led them to the Promised Land. The 40-year wandering through the desert was also not accidental. Firstly, during the long wanderings, the people’s faith in this strengthened. That only God can help them in difficult life situations. Secondly, the people became one. During this period, 2 generations of people were born. Communicated only within the circle of their national group. Thirdly, a free generation appeared that did not know slavery, and therefore, it will be able to live in new conditions and not allow itself to be conquered by any other tribe.

From the point of view of considering the formation of statehood among the ancient Jews, the legends about David and Goliath and Solomon are interesting.

Goliath was a Philistine warrior, distinguished by his extraordinary strength and enormous height - 6 cubits and a span or 2 meters 89 centimeters (1 cubit = 42.5 cm, 1 span = 22.2 cm). The Philistine giant was dressed in scale armor weighing approximately 57 kilograms (5000 shekels of copper, 1 shekel = 11.4 g) and copper knee pads, on his head was a copper helmet, and in his hands was a copper shield. Goliath carried a heavy spear, the tip of which alone weighed 600 shekels of iron (6.84 kg), and a large sword.

David had no armor at all, and his only weapon was a sling. The Philistine giant considered it an insult that a young man, just a boy, came out to fight him. Goliath and David were chosen by their fellow tribesmen for single combat, which was supposed to decide the outcome of the battle: the winner in the duel won victory for his side. During the battle, David kills the giant Goliath. For this, his fellow tribesmen elect him as their king.

No less interesting is the life story of David’s son, the legendary King Solomon. Solomon is the tenth son of King David. When the time came for his father to die, he bequeathed the throne to Solomon, as the most capable, the most intelligent among his many children. “And the trumpets sounded, and all the people cried, Long live King Solomon.”

During the reign of Solomon, the Jerusalem Temple, the main shrine of Judaism, was built in Jerusalem.

After Solomon became king, he made a great sacrifice to the Lord, and the Lord appeared to him at night and asked: “What shall I give you?” The young king did not want anything for himself, he did not need either fame or wealth, he asked only for one thing - to give him a reasonable, kind heart in order to fairly judge and govern the numerous people of Israel. The Lord promised.

However, at the end of his life, Solomon renounced God and began building pagan temples. For this, God was angry with him and promised many hardships to the people of Israel, but after the end of Solomon’s reign. Thus, the entire reign of Solomon passed quite calmly.

Ancient Egypt

The history of Ancient Egypt is divided into five periods, during which 30 dynasties of pharaohs ruled: Early, Ancient, Middle, New and Late Kingdoms (III-I millennium BC). Pharaohs were considered the embodiment of the supreme god Horus on earth. The first pharaoh was Menes, who united Upper and Lower Egypt.

During the Old Kingdom, the deification of the pharaohs, who bore the title “Son of the Sun,” reached its apogee. The symbol of their greatness was the construction of giant pyramids - the tombs of the pharaohs.

The Egyptian pyramids are the greatest architectural monuments of Ancient Egypt, among which one of the “seven wonders of the world” is the pyramid of Cheops (Khufu).

Pyramids are huge pyramid-shaped stone structures that were used as tombs for the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt. The word "pyramid" is Greek. According to some researchers, a large pile of wheat became the prototype of the pyramid. According to other scientists, this word comes from the name of a pyramid-shaped funeral cake. A total of 118 pyramids have been discovered in Egypt.

After the period of construction of the pyramids, a time of unrest began, the weakening of the power of the pharaohs, the collapse of Egypt into warring semi-independent principalities (nomes). During the Middle Kingdom, the country reunited, but was rocked by uprisings of slaves and the urban poor. Egypt, weakened by uprisings, was captured by wild Asian tribes - the Hyksos. Having damaged civilization, they simultaneously introduced the Egyptians to their military equipment: bronze weapons and chariots with horses. The pharaohs of the 18th dynasty managed to expel the Hyksos and create a grandiose power that, in addition to Egypt itself, covered the entire modern Middle East, part of Libya, and Namibia.

During the reign of Ramses II, Egypt expanded even more, and the successful conqueror built new cities, canals and giant temples. The successors of Ramses II fought a lot, but unsuccessfully and weakened the country, which at the end of the kingdom became the prey of foreign conquerors.

The Libyans were the first to invade Egypt, then the Ethiopians and Assyrians. Egypt's last period of independence ended in the 6th century BC. its capture by the powerful Persian kingdom. In the 4th century BC. Persia itself fell into decline and, together with Egypt, fell under the blows of the troops of Alexander the Great. Alexander's commander Ptolemy received Egypt after the collapse of the Macedonian Empire. A new period began for Egypt - Hellenism, closely connected with the history of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.

In Ancient Egypt, family was considered a great value. Women were respected in society. They had the right to property and could go to court. There were even female rulers, which is not typical for Eastern countries. One of the most famous female pharaohs was Hatshepsut.

Hatshepsut, granddaughter of the dynasty's progenitor, Queen Ahmose-Nofretari, was the daughter and chosen successor of Thutmose I, the pharaoh who restored Egyptian influence in Palestine and Syria. Hatshepsut's reign began after the death of her father (c. 1525 BC), although her sickly half-brother and husband Thutmose II was considered pharaoh. About seven years later, Thutmose II died, and Hatshepsut appropriated the regalia of the pharaoh - a beard and crown. Her young stepson Thutmose III married the queen's young daughter, Hatshepsut II, and became her junior co-ruler.

Sources consider Hatshepsut’s most important act to be a grand journey by sea and land to a rich and exquisite country called “Punt,” or “God’s Land” (its biblical parallel is the story of Solomon’s visit to the Queen of Sheba, who in the story of Joseph is called the ruler of Egypt and Ethiopia) . The mortuary temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri, in which she left a description of her campaign at Punt, is perhaps the greatest masterpiece of Egyptian architecture. Its builder, Senmut, was the queen's closest adviser and mentor to her youngest daughter Nefrura. After 22 years on the pharaonic throne, Hatshepsut was overthrown by Thutmose III. It is not known whether she was killed or (as Ethiopian tradition says) expelled. Her tomb does not contain a burial, nor does the nearby tomb of Senmut. On the instructions of Thutmose III, the front part of the statues of Hatshepsut was chipped off, and some of the inscriptions with her biography were also destroyed.

Queen Hatshepsut as a Sphinx.

In Ancient Egypt there was no one general religion, but a wide variety of local cults dedicated to specific deities. Most of them were henotheistic in nature (focusing on the worship of one deity while recognizing others), so the Egyptian religion is considered polytheistic.

The religion of Egypt has gone through a long development path over 3000 years from fetishism and totemism to polytheism and monotheistic thinking. In Egypt, the concept of monotheism was first formulated - Pharaoh Akhenaten attempted religious reform, the purpose of which was to centralize Egyptian cults around the sun god Aten.

At different periods, the most revered deities were Ra and later identified with him Amon, Osiris, Isis, Set, Ptah, Anubis.

- Sumer

- Sumer

- Assyria

- Assyria

– Babylonia

- Babylonia

- Babylonia

- Persian kingdom

- Persia

- Phenicia

- Palestine

– Legends

- Legends

- Egypt

- Egypt

- Egypt

Ancient civilization

Ancient civilization is an ancient civilization belonging to the Western type.

According to legend, the ancestor of the Greeks was King Hellenes, so the Greeks themselves called themselves Hellenes and the country Hellas.

Ancient civilization begins to form on the forks of the Cretan-Mycenaean civilization, which perished as a result of natural disasters.

As we can see on the map, there are no large rivers in Greece that contributed to the development of agriculture. But this area has suitable conditions for cattle breeding and winemaking. Proximity to the sea made it possible to contact with a large number of other peoples, and therefore fortified city walls appeared to protect against enemy attacks, and for trade it contributed to the development of crafts. Thus, the community among the Greeks developed not as an agricultural one, but as an urban one. However, the cities did not unite into a single state, but existed independently, only occasionally creating temporary unions. This type of independent city state is called a polis. The population of the policy was about 10 thousand people, including slaves, but there were also large policies in which up to 300 thousand inhabitants lived. Examples of such large policies include Athens and Sparta.

Only indigenous men were full residents of the polis. They had the right to property and participation in political life. The People's Assembly of Citizens of the Policy adopted laws and elected senior officials from among its members. If a person seized power in the state illegally, for example, by military means, bypassing the decision of the demos (the population of the polis), then such a person was called a tyrant. However, each city-state had its own nuances of political life. Let us take a closer look at the government structure of Athens and Sparta.

Athenian democracy.

Demos is the people, therefore democrania is the power of the people.

The inhabitants of Athens were divided into 4 unequal categories: Athenians - had all the rights; Metics - Greeks from other policies - did not have only political rights; foreigners could only trade, had no political rights and could not acquire property; slaves are completely powerless.

Power in Athens belonged to the people's assembly, which elected the council of elders, as well as 9 archons - the highest officials.

However, over time, many impoverished citizens of the polis lost their political rights, falling into long-term slavery. This caused popular discontent. It was up to Archon Solon to carry out reforms to overcome it, who abolished debt slavery by redeeming the Athenian slaves at the expense of the state. Under him, the population of the policy was divided into 4 categories according to property qualifications. The political rights of a person and his place in the army depended on the rank.

Cleisthenes' reforms are also interesting. Under him, the law on ostracism came into force - a special type of court when a person could be expelled from the city if 10,000 citizens voted for it. The names of unwanted fellow citizens had to be written on clay tablets (ostraca) - hence the name of the court.

Oligarchy in Sparta.

When it comes to Sparta, we remember the 300 Spatrans heroes. Indeed, Sparta is a state of warriors. It was considered shameful for the citizens of the city to engage in anything other than war or preparation for war. Therefore, in its entire history, Sparta has not produced a single scientist, philosopher or thinker. Therefore, while the rest of Greece was at a rather primitive level of development, Sparta flourished due to successful military campaigns.

Oligarchy is the power of a limited group of persons (this can be noble, rich people or military). The population of Sparta was divided into the indigenous Spartisiates; periekov (literally “living around”) - the population of the surrounding lands who paid tribute to Sparta for protection; and helots - slaves. According to the laws of Lycurgus, all residents of Sparta lived equally modestly; gold and silver coins were abolished.

Sparta was ruled by 2 kings, whose power was inherited. The main role in management was played by the council of elders, to which 28 geronts were elected (chosen from those who had reached 60 years of age). The People's Assembly (over 30 years old) - accepted or rejected the decisions made.

The Peloponnesian military alliance was formed around Sparta.

Greco-Persian Wars

The Greco-Persian Wars were a turning point in Greek history. Many small Greek cities, often at odds with each other, were able to unite in the face of danger and not only withstood the onslaught of the most powerful Persian power, but managed, having defended their independence, to go on a counter-offensive and put a limit to Persian aggression to the west.

In the VI century. BC. the Persians conquered many Greek cities. The reason for the war was the assistance with warships provided by Athens and Eretria (on the island of Euboea) in 500 to the Greek city-states in Asia Minor who rebelled against Persian rule. Perhaps the most famous battles of these wars are the Battle of Marathon and the Battle of Thermopylae.

Marathon, an ancient Greek settlement on the plain of the same name in Attica (40 km northeast of Athens), in the area of ​​which September 13, 490 BC. e. happened. The Greek army (11 thousand people) was formed by the commander Miltiades at the entrance to the valley into a phalanx, the reinforced flanks of which were covered by wooded spurs of the mountains and abatis placed forward, which protected them from being outflanked by the Persian cavalry. There were about 20,000 Persians.

The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC. e. and culminated in the complete victory of the Athenians and their Plataean allies. The Persians could not withstand the attack of the closed formation of heavily armed Greek soldiers, were overthrown and put to flight. Herodotus says that they left up to 6,400 corpses on the battlefield, while the Greeks lost only 192 people killed.

Immediately after the battle, a speedboat was sent to the city of Athens with the joyful news of the long-awaited victory. He ran to the agora and shouted “Victory!” fell to the ground dead. In memory of this episode, a marathon distance of 42 km 192 m was established at the Olympic Games - the distance from the battle site to the Athenian agora. However, the rest of the soldiers fled to Athens to defend the city in case of a possible attack.

Soon the Persian king Darius I dies and the attacks on Greece temporarily end.

Military operations resumed in the spring of 480. A huge fleet and land army, consisting of both the Persians themselves and detachments fielded by the conquered peoples who were part of the Achaemenid power, moved led by Xerxes himself. One cannot help but recall the heroic feat of King Leonidas and the 300 Spartans who held back the troops of Xerxes. Xerxes' troops attacked the defenders of Thermopylae many times, trying in vain to break through the defenses. But among the Greeks, there was a traitor who showed the enemies a bypass mountain path. Along this path, a detachment of Persians went to the rear of the defenders of Thermopylae. When the Spartan king Leonidas, who commanded the allied forces, became aware of this, he ordered his troops to retreat, but he himself remained in Thermopylae with a detachment of Spartan warriors of 300 people. Surrounded on all sides by enemies, the Spartans fought to the last man. Subsequently, a monument was erected at the grave of Leonid and his soldiers with the inscription:

“Traveler, go and tell our citizens in Lacedaemon that, keeping their covenants, here we died in bones.”

Having broken through Thermopylae, the Persians poured into Central Greece. Almost all the Boeotian cities, in which the Persophile-minded aristocracy was strong, hastened to submit to Xerxes. Attica was devastated, Athens was plundered.

09/28/480 BC A naval battle took place off the island of Salamis, as a result of which the Persian fleet was badly damaged and was forced to retreat.

After Salamis and Plataea, the war was not over yet, but its nature had changed radically. The threat of enemy invasion ceased to weigh heavily on Balkan Greece, and the initiative passed to the Greeks. In the cities of the western coast of Asia Minor, uprisings against the Persians began; the population overthrew the rulers installed by the Persians, and soon all of Ionia regained its independence.

The Greco-Persian wars continued until 449 BC, when the Persians recognized the independence of the Greek city-states in Asia Minor.

Alexander the Great

Greek unity was short-lived. With the outbreak of wars between the Peloponnesian and Athenian alliances, Hellas weakened. Thus, the prerequisites are formed for its conquest by a stronger state, which became Macedonia.

When Philip II became the ruler of Macedonia, where people related to the Greeks lived, Hellas fell under his rule.

After Philip's death, his 20-year-old son Alexander becomes king.

Alexander the Great

Born in 356 BC. His teacher was the Greek sage Aristotle. In the spring of 334 BC. e. Alexander led the army on a campaign against the Persian kingdom. Alexander easily captured Syria and Phenicia. In Egypt, the priests hailed Alexander as a liberator from the Persian yoke. The largest battle of antiquity took place in 331 BC. near the village of Gaugamela in Mesopotamia. Despite the 20-fold superiority of forces, the Persians were defeated.

Alexander liked many of the orders that he saw at the Persian court, and he began to demand from the freedom-loving Greeks the same obedience that the Persians showed to their king, for example, that they should be like him on their knees. This caused dissatisfaction. Conspiracies are repeatedly organized against Alexander, and attempts are made on the young king’s life.

Alexander planned new campaigns of conquest, but did not have time to carry them out. In June 323 BC. The commander dies. There are several versions of the causes of death: from sudden fever to poisoning.

After Alexander's death, his power disintegrates.

Ancient Rome

There is a legend about the founding of Rome associated with the name of the twins Romulus and Remus. When ancient Troy perished, some of the city’s defenders managed to escape. At their head was Aeneas. The exhausted fugitives landed on the shore and decided to settle here. This was the coast of Italy, and the region was called Latium. The son of the Trojan Aeneas founded a city in Latium and named it Alba Longa.

Many decades have passed. In the city of Alba Longa, Amulius seized power, overthrowing his brother Numitor. He was afraid of the revenge of his descendants - the children and grandchildren of his overthrown brother. To protect himself from this danger, the cruel Amulius ordered the death of Numitor’s son, and forced his daughter Rhea Silvia to become a priestess of the goddess Vesta - a vestal virgin, who did not have the right to marry. Soon Rhea Silvia gave birth to two twin boys. Their father, as legend tells, was the god of war, Mars.

When Amulius found out about this, he became angry and frightened and ordered Rhea Silvia to be executed and her children thrown into the Tiber. The slave put the children in a basket and carried them to the river. At this time, the Tiber overflowed and the water continued to rise. The slave was afraid to enter the water. He put the basket on the shore, near the water, and left.

Soon the flood ended. The water subsided, and the twins fell out of the basket onto the ground and began to scream. This cry was heard by a she-wolf who came to the river to drink.

She fed the children with her milk. Then the royal shepherd saw the twins, picked them up and raised them. He named one of the twins Romulus and the other Remus.

Each of the brothers formed a small detachment for themselves. In one of the skirmishes with the shepherds of Numitor, Remus was captured. He was brought to Numitor. He was struck by the young man’s courageous appearance and became interested in his origins. To Numitor’s questions, Remus answered: “Before, we twins considered ourselves the sons of the royal shepherd, but now, when the question of our life and death is being decided, I can tell you something very important. Our birth is shrouded in mystery. I heard incredible things about our upbringing and early childhood: we were fed by animals and birds, to which we were thrown to be devoured - a she-wolf gave us her milk, woodpeckers brought us food when we lay on the bank of a big river.”

Numitor began to guess that this was his grandson, one of the children of Rhea Silvia. Soon his guess turned into certainty. The shepherd who raised the twins, having learned that Remus was captured by Numitor, revealed to Romulus the secret of their birth. Romulus hastened to help his brother. He moved with his detachment to Alba Longa. Along the way, many residents of the city began to come running to him, hating the cruel, treacherous Amulius. An uprising broke out in Alba Longa, led by Romulus and Remus. The rebels killed Amulius. The brothers returned power to their grandfather Numitor. They themselves did not want to stay in Alba Longa. Together with many people gathered around them, the brothers decided to found a new city.

However, soon a quarrel arose between the brothers. The dispute arose over whose name the new city should be named, where to start building it and which of them would rule in it. Romulus killed his brother. The city was named after its founder, and Romulus became its first ruler - Rex...

This is the ancient legend telling about the founding of the city of Rome.
Later, Roman scientists claimed that they were able to accurately calculate and determine the date of the founding of the city of Rome. This event, according to them, took place on April 21, 753 BC. e. The ancient Romans celebrated this day every year.

The history of ancient Rome is divided into three periods: royal, republican and imperial.

Tsarist period

Romulus became the first king of Rome. The population of Rome consisted of 300 of his companions and their wives. That is why the Romans consider family to be of particular value. The woman mother enjoyed great respect and rights.

The descendants of Rome's first 300 families were called patricians (from the Latin for "father"). This was the Roman nobility. The people who later moved to Rome were called plebeians. Since Rome was built according to the laws of the Greek polis, only patricians were considered full residents; plebeians had no right to political life or property. The royal period ends in 510 BC, when the seventh Roman king, Tarquin the Proud, was overthrown.

Republican period

After the overthrow of the royal government, democracy was established in Rome following the example of the Greek one. The people's assembly was considered the highest governing body, but all decisions were finally made by the Senate. The Senate included one representative from each patrician family. The People's Assembly elected 2 senior officials - consuls - for a period of 2 years. In case of emergency, it was possible to appoint a dictator for six months who had emergency powers.

Over time, patrician clans became fewer, and the number of plebeians in Rome increased. Therefore, a new position appeared in the Senate - the tribune of the plebeians - the defender of the rights of the plebeians. The tribune had the right to veto - to suspend or prohibit the decision of the people's assembly or the Senate. Gradually, the number of plebeians in the Senate begins to grow, they become full citizens. The power of origin is replaced by the power of money.

The centuriate reform contributed a lot to this. According to this reform, the entire population of Rome (both patricians and plebeians) was divided into 5 classes, or categories, according to property qualifications, each class fielded a certain number of military units - centuries (hundreds) and received the same number of votes in the centuriate comitia. There were 193 centuries in total, of which the 1st class (property qualification of at least 100 thousand asses) exhibited 98 centuries, the 2nd class (qualification of 75 thousand asses) - 22 centuries, the 3rd (qualification of 50 thousand asses) - 20 centuries, 4th (qualification 25 thousand asses) - 22 centuries, 5th class (qualification 11 thousand asses) - 30 centuries, Proletarians (landless population) nominated 1 century and, accordingly, had 1 vote in the national assembly. The reform was carried out on the initiative of Servius Tulius.

In the 6th – 5th centuries BC. Rome begins its conquest. The Romans turned the conquered lands into provinces - dependent lands of the Roman people. The provinces were headed by governors - officials of Rome. Conquests expanded the territory of Rome, but at the same time, ties within the republic were weakened. Rome, organized on the principle of a Greek polis, is experiencing numerous civil wars and slave uprisings.

An important event was the uprising led by Spatrak.

In 74-73 BC. e. Spartacus and about 70 of his followers rebelled. Seizing knives from the kitchen of the gladiator school and weapons from its arsenals, the rebels fled to the Vesuvius caldera near Naples. There they were joined by slaves from the plantations. Over time, the number of rebels was replenished with new fugitive slaves, until, according to some statements, the size of the army reached 90,000 (according to other estimates, only 10,000). Spartacus defeated several Roman legions and almost crossed the Alps, but then changed the direction of his movement. According to one of the literary sources, Spartacus was killed by a soldier from Pompeii named Felix, who, after the war, put a mosaic image of his battle with Spartacus on the wall of his house in Pompeii.

After the battle, the Romans found 3,000 unharmed captured legionnaires in the vanquished camp. Spartak's body, however, was never found.

Approximately 6,000 captured slaves were crucified along the Appian Way from Capua to Rome.

In the Second Civil War, three prominent Romans clashed in the struggle for power: Gnaeus Pompey, Marcus Crassus and Julius Caesar. In 60 BC. e. they managed to conclude an alliance with each other - a triumvirate (union of three husbands). The Senate was pushed out of power by the triumviate. In 53 BC Crassus died. Pompey entered into an agreement with the Senate and opposed Caesar. A new civil war begins, in which Caesar defeats Pompey and becomes the sole ruler.

Julius Caesar

The Roman Empire

Caesar did not become the first emperor, because... in 44 BC was killed on the way to a Senate meeting. After his death, a struggle for power begins, in which Caesar's distant relative Gaius Octavian wins. In 29 BC. he receives from the Senate and the People's Assembly the title of emperor and the title "Augustus" - exalted.

Octavian Augustus

Although officially all the rulers of this time were titled emperors (imperatores), in history it is customary to divide the imperial period into and, when a number of emperors also demanded the title dominus - “lord”.

The period of the Principate lasted until 193. Actual power belonged to the emperor, although formally there was both a Senate and a People's Assembly. Many emperors (Nero, Caligula) became famous for their cruelty and abuse of power. As a result, Rome increasingly began to suffer defeats in wars, and the internal political situation in the country worsened. Periods of crisis alternate with periods of relative stability.

In the 3rd century, Rome begins to fall apart. The last stage of Rome begins in 284 and is called the Dominata. When the republican bodies turned into bureaucratic authorities, completely subordinate to the emperor. During this same period, relations close to feudal ones began to emerge. The lands are concentrated in the hands of the richest people - tycoons. Dependent peasants and slaves worked on these lands and became colons - tenants of a plot of land who gave part of the harvest to the magnates for the opportunity to work on their land. Colon is much more interested in the results of his labor than a slave.

In 330, the Roman Emperor Constantine moved the capital to the ancient city of Byzantium, renaming it Constantinople. Konstantin converts to Christianity. It was during his reign that persecution of Christians ceased in Rome. In 395, the Roman Empire splits into the Western Empire, with its capital in Rome, and the Eastern Empire (Byzantium), with its capital in Constantinople. The Western Roman Empire ceased to exist in 476, the year the German ruler Odoacer overthrew the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, and sent the imperial regalia to Constantinople. This date is considered the end of Antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages. The Eastern Roman Empire would last for almost another thousand years and would be destroyed in 1453.

- Ancient Greece

- Ancient Rome

- Ancient Rome

- Ancient Rome

The reference table contains the main stages of human development from primitive society to modern history, indicating the chronological framework, the duration of each stage and a brief description. This material will be useful for schoolchildren and students when doing homework, exams and the Unified State Exam.