Modern people Cro-Magnons appearance. Cremation of pets. Revised the time and place of the appearance of a reasonable person
Archaeological finds suggest that the weapons and methods of their manufacture were much more perfect among Cro-Magnons than among Neanderthals; this was of great importance for increasing food resources and population growth. Spear throwers gave the human hand a gain in strength, doubling the distance that the hunter could throw his spear. Now he was able to hit prey at a great distance even before she had time to get scared and run away. Among the serrated tips was invented harpoon, with which it was possible to get salmon coming from the sea to spawn a river. Fish became an important food product for the first time.
Cro-Magnons caught birds in snares; they came up with deadly traps for birds, wolves, foxes and much larger animals. Some experts believe that the hundred mammoths whose remains were found near Pavlov in Czechoslovakia fell into such a trap.
A distinctive feature of Cro-Magnons was hunting for large herds of large animals. They learned to drive such herds to those areas where animals were easier to slaughter, and organized a mass slaughter. Cro-Magnons also moved after the seasonal migrations of large mammals. This is evidenced by their seasonal residence in selected areas. Late Stone Age Europe was teeming with large wild mammals, from which it was possible to get a lot of meat and furs. After that, their number and variety have never been so great.
The main sources of nutrition for Cro-Magnons were such animals: reindeer and red deer, tour, horse and stone goat.
In construction, the Cro-Magnons mainly followed the old traditions of the Neanderthals. They lived in caves, they built tents out of hides, built dwellings out of stones, or pulled out in the ground.New steel light summer huts, which were built by nomadic hunters (Fig. 2.18, Fig. 2.19).
Fig. 2.18. Reconstruction of a hut, Terra Amata Fig. 2.19. Reconstruction of dwellings, Mezin
The opportunity to live in conditions of the ice age in addition to dwellings was provided by new types of clothes. Bone needles and images of people dressed in fur indicate that they wore close-fitting trousers, jackets with hoods, shoes and mittens with well-stitched seams.
In the era from 35 to 10 thousand years ago, Europe survived the great period of his prehistoric art.
The range of works was wide: engravings of animals and people made on small pieces of stone, bones, ivory and deer horns; clay and stone sculptures and reliefs; drawings with ocher, manganese and charcoal, as well as images laid out on the walls of caves with moss or applied with paint blown through a straw (Fig. 2.20).
The study of skeletons from burials suggests that two-thirds of Cro-Magnons were at least 20 years old, while their predecessors, Neanderthals, did not make up even half of them; one in ten Cro-Magnons lived up to 40 years, compared with one in twenty Neanderthals. I.e, cro-Magnon life expectancy has increased.
From the burials of Cro-Magnons, one can also judge their symbolic rituals and the growth of wealth and social status.
Fig. 2.20. Figure of a bison, Nio, France Figure. 2.21. Arctic Fox Necklace, Moravia
Buryers often sprinkled the dead with red ocher, which is believed to symbolize blood and life, which perhaps indicates that Cro-Magnons have faith in the afterlife. Some corpses were buried with rich ornaments (Fig. 2.21); these are early signs that in hunter-gatherer communities rich and respected people began to appear.
Perhaps the most amazing things were found in the burial place of hunters, made 23 thousand years ago in Sungiri east of Moscow. Here lay an old man in fur robes artfully decorated with beads.
Nearby, two boys were buried, dressed in beaded furs, with rings and ivory bracelets; beside them lay long spears from mammoth tusks and two strange rods carved from bone and similar to scepters of the type that is called the “commander's rod” (Fig. 2.22).
10 thousand years ago, the cold Pleistocene era gave way to the Holocene, or “completely new” era. This is the time of the mild climate in which we live now. As the climate of Europe became warmer, the territory occupied by forests expanded. Forests were advancing, occupying vast areas of the former tundra, and the sea, whose level was rising, flooded the low coasts and river valleys.
Fig. 2.22. Burial of a man, Sungir 1, Russia
Climatic changes and increased hunting led to the disappearance of huge wild herds, due to which the Cro-Magnons were fed. But on land there were plenty of forest mammals, and in the water - fish and waterfowl.
All these food sources were allowed to be used by northern Europeans in their tools and weapons. These specific groups of hunters and gatherers and created mesolithic culture, or " middle stone age" It was so named because it followed the ancient Stone Age, which was characterized by hunting for huge herds of animals. Mesolithic culture laid the foundation for the emergence of agriculture in Northern Europe, characteristic of the new Stone Age. Continued only from 10 to 5 thousand years ago, the Mesolithic was only a brief moment of the prehistoric period. From the bones found in the Mesolithic sites, it can be seen that the prey of the Mesolithic hunters was red deer, roe deer, wild boar, wild bulls, beavers, foxes, ducks, geese and pikes. Huge piles of mollusk shells indicate that they ate on the coast of the Atlantic and the North Sea. Mesolithic people also collected roots, fruits and nuts. Groups of people apparently migrated from place to place, following seasonal changes in food sources.
Archaeologists believe that people of the Mesolithic lived in smaller groupsthan their possible ancestors are Cro-Magnons. But food production was now at a more stable level throughout the year, with the result that the number of sites and, consequently, the population increased. Life expectancy also seems to have increased.
New stone tools and weapons helped the Mesolithic people develop forests and seas that occupied part of Northwest Europe after the melting of the northern ice sheet.
One of the main types of hunting weapons were bow and arrowsthat were probably invented in the Late Paleolithic. A skilled shooter could hit a stone goat at a distance of 32 m, and if his first arrow did not hit the target, he had time to send another after her.
Arrows were usually jagged or had tips in the form of small pieces of flint called microliths. The microlites were glued with resin to a deer bone pole.
New samples of large stone tools helped people of the Mesolithic era to produce shuttles, oars, skis and sledges. All this taken together made it possible to master huge water areas for fishing and facilitated movement in the snow and wetlands.
Hominid triad
Since the only modern representative of the family is a man, three most important systems that are considered truly hominid have historically been distinguished from his characteristics.
These systems were called the hominid triad:
- upright posture (bipedia);
- a brush adapted to the manufacture of tools;
- highly developed brain.
1. Forwardness.A lot of hypotheses have been put forward regarding its origin. The two most important are the Miocene cooling and the labor concept.
Miocene cooling: in the middle and end of the Miocene, as a result of global cooling of the climate, there was a significant reduction in the area of \u200b\u200btropical forests and an increase in the area of \u200b\u200bsavannahs. This could cause the transition of some hominoids to a terrestrial way of life. However, it is known that the oldest known bipedal primates lived in tropical forests.
Labor concept: according to the well-known labor concept of F. Engels and its later versions, the occurrence of upright posture is closely related to the specialization of the monkey's hand for labor - transferring objects, cubs, manipulating food and making tools. Further labor led to the emergence of language and society. However, according to modern data, upright posture arose much earlier than the manufacture of tools. Homo erectus arose at least 6 million years ago at Orrorin tugenensis, and the oldest guns from the Ghana in Ethiopia are dated only 2.7 million years ago.
Fig. 2.23. Human skeleton and gorilla
There are other versions of the occurrence of upright posture. It could arise for orientation in the savannah, when it was necessary to look over the tall grass. Also, human ancestors could stand on their hind legs to cross water barriers or graze in swampy meadows, as modern gorillas in the Congo do.
According to the concept of C. Owen Lovejoy, bipedalism arose in connection with a special breeding strategy, since hominids have been raising one or two cubs for a very long time. In this case, the care of the offspring reaches such complexity that there is a need to release the forelimbs. Moving helpless cubs and food to a distance becomes a vital element in behavior. According to Lovejoy, bipedalism arose even in the rainforest, and bipedal hominids moved to the savannahs.
In addition, it has been experimentally and mathematically proved that moving over long distances with an average speed on two legs is energetically more beneficial than on four.
Most likely, not one reason, but their whole complex acted in evolution. To determine the upright posture of fossil primates, scientists use the following main features:
· The position of the occipital foramen - in erectus, it is in the center of the length of the base of the skull, opens downward. Such a structure is already known about 4-7 million years ago. In tetrapods - in the back of the base of the skull, turned back (Fig. 2.23).
· The structure of the pelvis - in upright pelvis, wide and low (such a structure is known since Australopithecus afarensis 3.2 million years ago), in tetrapods the pelvis is narrow, high and long (Fig. 2.25);
· The structure of the long bones of the legs - in upright legs, the long, knee and ankle joints have a characteristic structure. Such a structure is known since 6 million years ago. Four-legged primates have arms longer than legs.
· Foot structure - in erect legs, the arch (rise) of the foot is pronounced, the fingers are straight, short, the thumb is not set aside, is inactive (the arch is already expressed in Australopithecus afarensis, but the fingers are long and curved in all Australopithecus, in Homo habilis the foot is flattened, but toes straight, short), in four-legged feet flat, toes are long, curved, mobile. In the foot of Australopithecus anamensis, the thumb was inactive. In the foot of Australopithecus afarensis, the thumb was opposed to others, but much weaker than that of modern monkeys, the arches of the foot are well developed, the footprint was almost like that of a modern person. In the foot of Australopithecus africanus and Australopithecus robustus, the thumb was strongly moved away from the others, the fingers were very mobile, the structure was intermediate between monkeys and humans. In the foot of Homo habilis, the thumb is fully brought to the rest.
· The structure of the hands - in fully erect hominids, the arms are short, not adapted for walking on the ground or climbing trees, the phalanges of the fingers are straight. Australopithecus has the features of adaptation for walking on the ground or climbing trees: Australopithecus afarensis, Australopithecus africanus, Australopithecus robustus, and even Homo habilis.
Thus, bipedalism arose more than 6 million years ago, but for a long time differed from the modern version. Some Australopithecus and Homo habilis also used other types of movement - climbing trees and walking with the support of the phalanx of the fingers.
The upright posture became only about 1.6-1.8 million years ago.
2. The origin of the hand, adapted to the manufacture of tools. A hand capable of manufacturing tools is different from the hand of a monkey. Although the morphological characteristics of the working hand are not quite reliable, however, the following labor complex can be distinguished:
Strong wrist. In Australopithecus, starting with Australopithecus afarensis, the structure of the wrist is intermediate between monkeys and humans. A practically modern structure is observed in Homo habilis 1.8 million years ago.
Contrast the thumb of the hand. The trait is already known 3.2 million years ago in Australopithecus afarensis and Australopithecus africanus. It was fully developed in Australopithecus robustus and Homo habilis 1.8 million years ago. Finally, it was peculiar or limited among the Neanderthals of Europe about 40-100 thousand years ago.
Wide terminal phalanges of the fingers. Very wide phalanges were in Australopithecus robustus, Homo habilis, and all later hominids.
The attachment of muscles that move fingers of an almost modern type is noted in Australopithecus robustus and Homo habilis, but they also have primitive features.
The bones of the brush in the most ancient erect hominoids (Australopithecus anamensis and Australopithecus afarensis) have a mixture of traits of anthropoids and humans. Most likely, these species could use objects as tools, but not make them. The first manufacturers of real guns were Homo habilis. The guns were probably also made by the massive South Australopithecus Australopithecus (Paranthropus) robustus.
So, the labor brush as a whole formed about 1.8 million years ago.
3. Highly developed brain. The brain of modern man is very different from the brain of anthropoid apes (Fig. 2.24) in size, shape, structure and function, however, among the fossil forms, you can find many transitional options. Typical signs of the human brain are as follows:
Large overall brain sizes. Australopithecus had a brain size similar to that of modern chimpanzees. Rapid growth in size occurred in Homo habilis about 2.5-1.8 million years ago, and in later hominids a gradual increase to modern values \u200b\u200bis observed.
Specific brain fields - the Broca and Wernicke zones and other fields began to develop in Homo habilis and archanthropes, but apparently they reached a completely modern look only in modern man.
The structure of the lobes of the brain. The person has significantly developed lower parietal and frontal lobes, an acute angle of convergence of the temporal and frontal lobes, the temporal lobe is wide and rounded in front, the occipital lobe is relatively small, hanging over the cerebellum. In Australopithecus, the structure and size of the brain were the same as in anthropoid apes.
Fig. 2.24. The brain of primates: a - tarsier, b - lemur, Fig. 2.25. Chimpanzee pelvis (a);
Cro-Magnons are considered to be the ancestors of modern man who lived on our planet in the era of the Late (or Upper) Paleolithic (40-12 thousand years ago). The name of this species of primitive people came from the Cros-Magnon Cave, located in the southwestern part of France. It was there that in 1868, archaeologist Louis Larthe, during excavations, came across the remains of ancient people, which in their appearance differed from previously discovered skeletons of Neanderthals and resembled a reasonable person (Homo sapiens). The find, whose age was about 30 thousand years, immediately attracted the attention of scientists who studied the history of that period, because then nothing was known about the Cro-Magnon lifestyle. In subsequent years, their remains, along with tools, were also found in other territories (Mladeč and Dolni Vestonice in the Czech Republic, Peyvilend in England, Pestera-ku-Oasa in Romania, Murzak-Koba in Crimea, Sungir in Russia, Mezhirech in Ukraine, Fish Hook, Cape Flats in Africa, etc.).
Occurrence and migration
The origin of the Cro-Magnons has not been completely studied to this day. Historians and anthropologists used to adhere to the Marxist theory of the emergence of this type of ancient man. If you believe her, the Cro-Magnon is a direct descendant of the Neanderthal. Many modern scholars question this theory. They are inclined to the version that Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons descended from a common ancestor, after which each of them began to develop separately.
Modern scientists have not been able to reach a consensus on what part of the planet the first ancestors of modern man appeared in and when it happened. The most common version says that Cro-Magnons formed into a separate species about 200 thousand years ago, and this happened in eastern Africa. After 70 thousand years, in search of new lands for life, they began to migrate to the Middle East. From here, one part of the Cro-Magnons settled Front Asia and the coast of the Indian Ocean, while the other advanced north and reached the lands of Asia Minor and the Northern Black Sea Coast. In Europe, Homo sapiens appeared approximately 40-45 thousand years ago.
Appearance
What did the Cro-Magnons look like? An ancient person, a fossil person, differed from modern individuals in body structure and brain size. In contrast, representatives of Homo sapiens resembled modern people, but were larger. Archaeological finds made it possible to find out that the Cro-Magnon men who inhabited ancient Europe reached a height of 180 cm (women were shorter), had wide faces and deep-set eyes. The brain volume of a reasonable person was 1400-1900 cubic centimeters, which corresponds to this indicator in modern people. The lifestyle of Cro-Magnons, who had to survive in the harsh conditions of antiquity, contributed to the formation of their well-developed muscle mass.
Life
Ancient people lived in communities, the number of which reached 100 people. Their main occupations were hunting and collecting plant foods. They were the first to make tools from bones and horns. Along with this, the use of stone tools remained widespread among them. Lighter and improved products allowed them to get more food, sew clothes, invent devices aimed at facilitating their existence. Scientists are convinced that the ancient people of this era had well-developed speech.
Home
Cro-Magnons still continued to settle in caves, but new types of housing began to appear in them. They learned to build reliable tents from the skins of animals, wood and bones. Such houses could be moved, so the Cro-Magnon lifestyle was no longer sedentary. Wandering from place to place in order to develop new lands, they moved housing and households with them. Cro-Magnon became the first prehistoric people who managed to tame a dog and use it as an assistant.
The cult of hunting was widespread among the ancestors of mankind. This is evidenced by the numerous finds of animal figures pierced by arrows, found during excavations of their settlements. Ancient people decorated the walls of their housing with images of animals and hunting scenes.
Food extraction
Hunt firmly entered the life of the Cro-Magnon. The realities of the Stone Age were such that in order to feed themselves, it was necessary to kill. The ancient inhabitants of our planet were hunted by well-organized groups of 10-20 people. The objects of their pursuit were large animals (mammoths, wolves, woolly rhinos, bears, red deer, bison). Having destroyed the beast, they provided their communities with a large amount of skin and meat. The main instruments for killing animals from Cro-Magnons were spear throwers and a bow. In addition to hunting, they were engaged in catching birds and fish (for the first lesson, snares were used, and for the second, harpoons and hooks were used).
In addition to meat and fish, the descendants of modern man ate wild plants. The food of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons was very similar. They ate everything that nature gave them (bark, leaves and fruits of trees, stems, flowers and roots of plants, cereals, mushrooms, nuts, algae, etc.).
Burial places
The Cro-Magnons had interesting funeral customs. They laid the deceased relatives in the grave in a bent position. Their hair was decorated with a net, their hands with bracelets, and their faces were covered with flat stones. The bodies of the dead were sprinkled with red ocher on top. Ancient people believed in the afterlife, so they buried their relatives with household items, jewelry and food, being sure that they would need them after death.
Cultural Revolution Cro-Magnon
People who lived in the Late Paleolithic period made a number of discoveries that allowed them to significantly surpass their predecessors in the cultural development. Their main achievement is the invention of a new method for processing flint, which went down in history under the name “knife-shaped plate method”. This discovery made a real revolution in the manufacture of tools. The method consisted in the fact that separate plates were beaten or squeezed from stone nodule (nucleus), from which various products were subsequently made. Thanks to new technology, prehistoric people learned to get up to 250 cm of working edge from one kilogram of flint (for Neanderthals this figure did not exceed 220 cm, and for their predecessors it barely reached 45 cm).
No less important discovery Cro-Magnon became the production of tools from animal raw materials. Spending a lot of time on the hunt, an ancient man noticed that the bones, horns and tusks of animals are characterized by increased strength. He began to make qualitatively new products from them that made his life easier. Bone needles and sewing appeared, making it easier to sew clothes from skins. They began to use animal raw materials in the construction of new homes, as well as to make jewelry and figurines from it. The development of new materials led to the invention of more advanced hunting tools - spear throwers and onions. These devices allowed the Cro-Magnons to kill animals that were many times superior to them in strength and size.
The Cro-Magnon lifestyle was not only about survival in the wild. Prehistoric people strove for beauty. They left to their descendants many works of art. This wall painting in caves, and decorated with a unique ornament of tools, and made of flint, clay, bones and tusks figurines of bison, horses, deer and other animals. The ancient Cro-Magnon worshiped female beauty. Among the finds discovered by archaeologists, there are many figures of the fair sex. For the magnificence of forms, modern historians have called them "Venus."
Cro-Magnons are the common name of the ancient representatives of modern man, who appeared much later than Neanderthals and coexisted with them for some time (40-30,000 years ago). Their appearance and physical development were practically no different from modern man.
About 40–30,000 years ago, the third greatest event in the life of our planet took place. The first, which occurred several billion years ago, was the birth of life. The second is the beginning of humanization, the transition from a monkey to a monkey man - about 2 million years ago. The third event is the appearance of a modern type of person, Homo sapiens - a rational person.
40–30,000 years ago, he appears and very quickly (quickly in this case, when the millennium is a trifle) takes the place of Neanderthals.
Cro-Magnon skeletons found
As soon as Larthe, an archaeologist from France, discovered 5 skeletons in a Cromagnon grotto under a thick layer of centuries-old deposits, he immediately guessed that he had met “acquaintances”. Shortly before this, the scientist became aware that, by order of the authorities of the Upper Garonne Department, 17 skeletons buried in the Pyrenees cave of Orignac were buried in the parish cemetery. Larte could easily prove that in relation to these people one can sacrifice the strict rules of the Christian burial, and not only dug them back, but also established (using stone tools and animal bones from the Orignac cave) that they were contemporaries of the same ice age, in which the classic Neanderthals lived. The tools of the Aurignacian man are in a slightly higher, that is, late, layer than the tools of the Scappel.
Two caves in which the most ancient people of the modern type were found gave them their names: the first man was called the Cro-Magnon, and the first large period of his history - the period (culture) of Orignac.
Soon, dozens of discoveries of Cro-Magnon skeletons and sites throughout Western Europe and North Africa followed, and the ancient "intelligent man" appeared in all its splendor and splendor.
Parking Sungir
Sculptural portraits of a girl and a boy from the Sungir parking lot
Sungir is the Upper Paleolithic site of the Cro-Magnons in the Vladimir region. The well-known pair burial - a boy 12-14 years old and girls 9-10 years old, lying with their heads to each other. What could their bones tell? As it turned out, the boy, despite his age, could throw a spear well with his right hand. The girl, judging by the development of the fingers and forearm, often made scrolling movements with her right hand. We know that Sungiri clothes were covered with a lot of mammoth bone beads, and there were holes in the beads. These holes, as you can see, were drilled by a young Cro-Magnon girl.
The structure of the right humerus and cervical vertebrae indicate that the girl often raised her right hand up, and her head was constantly tilted to the left. In order for such features to appear on the skeleton already in childhood, the load must be very strong! According to anthropologists, the girl regularly wore weights on her head, and held them with her right hand. Perhaps, during the transitions from parking to parking, which were carried out by nomadic groups of Cro-Magnons, the small Cro-Magnon was a carrier along with adults.
What was Cro-Magnon
The Cro-Magnons aroused admiration in their discoverers, mixed with envy: the first people — and what immediately!
These were Caucasians, of enormous growth (an average of 187 cm), with a perfect straight biped gait and a very large head (from 1600 to 1900 cm³). Such a large skull could still be considered a “remnant of neanderthalism,” but this head already had a straight forehead, a high cranial arch, and a sharply protruding chin.
The Cro-Magnon man did not know what metal was, did not suspect either farming or cattle breeding, but if we could transfer it through 400 centuries, he, apparently, could easily figure everything out and be able to draw up an equation, write a poem, work on the machine and perform in a chess tournament.
Where did the Cro-Magnon come from?
The Cro-Magnon appeared - for archaeologists and anthropologists - somehow at once: just here, in the caves of France and Italy, squat, powerful, invincible lived, and suddenly they quickly disappear sharply, and people of the modern type are already hunting in their parts. The aliens are accompanied by an incredible technical revolution: instead of 3-4 primitive stone tools of Neanderthals during the Orignac period, about 20 stone and bone “devices” are used: awls, needles, tips and so on. Immediately, as if from nothing, an amazing cave art appears.
This powerful anthropological, technical and cultural revolution defines henceforth the whole of human history. For billions of years, animals existed only according to biological laws, improving, expanding the apparatus of adaptation, but not leaving the biological framework. But here the most important event takes place: the development of the group of animals has reached such a stage that they include in the mechanism of their adaptation, in addition to their own teeth and paws, an inanimate object that does not belong to the body: a stick, a stone.
According to one version, Cro-Magnon is the ancestor of all modern people, having appeared in East Africa about 130-180 000 years ago. According to this theory, 50-60,000 years ago, they migrated from Africa to the Arabian Peninsula and appeared in Eurasia. The first group was able to quickly populate the coast of the Indian Ocean, and the second migrated to the steppes of Central Asia. The second group is the ancestors of the nomadic peoples and most of the Middle East and North African population. Migration from the Black Sea to Europe began approximately 40-50,000 years ago, presumably through the Danube corridor. 20,000 years ago, all of Europe was already inhabited.
How has everything changed?
Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon
From now on, this creature no longer belongs entirely to biology, in the "biological fence" - a gap. Oldovan pebble, chopped stone ax, steam locomotive, electronic computing device - these are phenomena of the same order: a living creature uses and combines inanimate objects. “Who” subjugates “what”.
The breakthrough of biology that occurs in a public animal is multiplied, amplified in a pack, creates new relationships in this pack. But, apparently, the biological factor, that is, the physical structure of the creature, does not immediately get used to, is consistent with new "organs" - tools: for about 2 million years, the first ape people change not only their inventory, but also their physical structure. The hand, squeezing the beaten pebbles, makes the brain think hard and grow, but, not remaining in debt, the brain sends its signals to the hand: it is also improving.
For thousands of centuries, tools have gone from rough stone, sticks or bones to Neanderthal chopping, stone scraper and spiky.
The brain during this period increases from 600–700 to 1,500 cm³.
Gait - from half-monkey to completely straight.
Hand - from a tenacious paw to the most perfect tool.
The team - from the animal flock to the first human social forms.
Some law of evolution that has not yet been deciphered to the end makes the body of a monkey-man change along with his tools.
Comparison with modern man
In the end, there comes a moment when biology and tools reach full agreement, the moment from which the brain and hand can do any work. The same brain and the same hand as the Cro-Magnon will control the bow after 20,000 years, the plow after 25,000, and after a few thousand years - a steam locomotive, machine, plane, rocket.
To move from a primitive chopped to a better one, it took from a pithecanthropus to become a Neanderthal. And in order to come to the splitting of the atom from stone unpolished tips, there was no need for “nothing,” that is, it seems that nothing fundamentally changed in the human body.
Instead of changing physically in the struggle for existence, man chose a different path. From now on, he began to improve "inanimate objects" and changed the structure of his society. Physical changes were replaced by faster and painless ones - technical, social.
And how can we, in fact, know that the biological development of man has stopped?
Discussions on this topic have been going on for a very long time. It has been noticed that there are centuries-old, millennial fluctuations in the physical structure of man: the Cro-Magnon was taller than us, now, as you know, mankind is growing quite rapidly again. A few thousand years ago, human bones were more massive, then became more elegant, tomorrow, perhaps, they will again become massive and bulky. Undoubtedly, there is a “brachycephalization”, an increase in the number of short-headed people compared to long-headed ones.
The reasons for such changes are divine: food, a new way of life? The seriousness of these changes is also fortunate: are these temporary phenomena, or will they be blocked by another change tomorrow, or will people look different after a few tens or hundreds of millennia, not like now?
Guessing about the future, we have the right, however, to declare: over the past 30–40 thousand years there have been gigantic changes in technology, but during this time no fundamental “bodily” changes have occurred.
Obviously, the “Thousand Great Grandfathers” laid a good foundation!
Cro-Magnon culture
The Cro-Magnon created a rich and diverse Late Paleolithic culture. There are descriptions of more than 100 types of complex, made with great skill stone and bone tools, made by a new, more efficient processing of stone and bone. To a large extent, the Cro-Magnons and methods of hunting improved (driven hunting), hunting for deer, mammoths, woolly rhinos, cave bears, wolves and other animals. They began to make spear throwers (the spear could fly 137 m), as well as fishing gear (harpoons, hooks), and bird snares.
Cro-Magnons usually lived in caves, but at the same time, they built various dwellings from stone and dugouts, tents from animal skins, and even entire villages. Early neoanthropes could make sewn clothes, often decorated. So, in the Sungirskaya parking lot (Vladimir region), more than 1000 beads were found on the man’s fur clothes, many other jewelry were found - bracelets, rings.
The Cro-Magnon man was the creator of remarkable European primitive art, as can be seen from the multi-color painting on the walls and ceilings of the caves ((Spain), Montespan, Lasko (France), etc.), engraving on pieces of stone or bone, ornament, small stone and clay sculpture. Amazing images of horses, deer, bison, mammoths, female figurines, called “Venus” by archaeologists for their magnificent forms, various objects carved from bone, horns and tusks or molded from clay, can undoubtedly indicate a sense of beauty highly developed among Cro-Magnons. The cave art peaks reached about 19-15 000 years ago. Scientists believe that Cro-Magnon people could exist magical rites and rituals.
Probably, the Cro-Magnon life expectancy was longer than that of Neanderthals: about 10% had already lived to 40 years. In this era, a primitive communal system was formed.
Cro-Magnon Cave with Wall Pictures
In the south-west of France, near the city of Villoner, the Charente department, cavers and archaeologists discovered a cave with ancient wall paintings.
To find a unique and extraordinarily valuable for science underground hall with cave paintings, cave researchers managed as early as December 2005, but a unique cave was reported much later. Recently, scientists have increasingly maintained such strong secrecy with valuable finds to prevent the destruction of their unwanted visitors.
Work is underway on the dating of cave paintings. Experts do not exclude that they may be more ancient than in the famous Lasko cave and in the Altamira cave. According to the first impressions of experts, we are talking about the parking of Cro-Magnons, that is, a period of 30,000 years ago. According to scientists, the find in Villoner may be a revolution in science - they previously believed that in such ancient times people did not resort to painting the walls of their underground dwellings.
It is no coincidence that the Cro-Magnon man all unanimously also called "modern man." (Bearing in mind, of course, the modern Caucasoid.) The name "Cro-Magnon" is conditional: it is from the place of Cro-Magnon in France, where the first such skeleton was found. There is no biological reason not to call the Cro-Magnon the early Caucasoid — or you and me the late Cro-Magnon. If the question of the direct origin of blacks from Neanderthals is not yet posed very confidently (more confidently - about the origin of Australoids from them; we personally are convinced of both), then there is no doubt. Each representative of the European peoples and even some other (later) ones can say: the Cro-Magnon is my great-great-great-great-grandfather.
This was understood already at the dawn of anthropology. The great German anthropologist Alexander Ecker (1818-1887) in the 60s of the XIX century discovered the skulls of the "northern type" in the graves of Southern Germany and established their identity with the skulls of modern Germans. Skulls of pure “northern type” everywhere in Scandinavia and Northern Germany were also discovered by the largest Swedish anthropologist Anders Retzius (1796-1860). It was on the basis of these numerous craniological series that it was suggested that the modern "northern type" in its structure dates back to the Cro-Magnon type of Paleolithic Europe. The classic of the French anthropological school Arman de Catherine (1810-1892) even called the ancient Cro-Magnon blond in the modern sense of the word. Ideally erect, very tall (average height 187 cm) and large-headed (brain volume from 1600 to 1900 cm?), They, like us, had a straight forehead, a high cranial arch, and a sharply protruding chin. Over time, having discovered the fingerprints of ancient sculptors on clay figures of the Paleolithic era, scientists established their complete racial identity with the modern Caucasoid.
The craniological data is a very serious argument, about which a lot has been said above. Therefore, they deserve not only trust, but also special attention and reflection on the data of science on the distribution of the Cro-Magnon skull across the globe.
As Eugen Fisher wrote in his work “Race and the emergence of races in humans” (1927): “One of the most justified hypotheses is that the Nordic race originated from the Cro-Magnon race, the builders of megaliths, dolmen burials in Scandinavia, Denmark, etc. According to the mentioned hypothesis , the Nordic race arose as a result of the modification of the Late Paleolithic race in the North as the presently inhabited places were freed from ice. Here the Nordic race arose, then it acquired its typical qualities. This is the best explanation of the origin of the Nordic race. ” Let us leave in this passage the question of the place of ethnogenesis of the Cro-Magnon for further discussion (as standing outside the competence of anthropologists) and accept the main thing: the Caucasians populated the North precisely as Cro-Magnon modifiers.
Were they already then divided into racial subtypes? Did the subtypes already begin linguistic isolation? There is no doubt that sooner or later this happened. Darwin’s doctrine declares this quite reasonably: the consequence of natural selection is the divergence of signs. This means that one parent species can give rise to several new species. The waves of migrations from North to South, which were carried out by the Cro-Magnons periodically throughout the entire foreseeable historical and prehistoric retrospective, are talking about exactly the same thing. Figuratively speaking, the Cro-Magnons up to the twentieth century AD “quanta” were sprayed to the South, East and West from their northern ecological niche as it overflowed.
But of course they did not call themselves Cro-Magnons. What were the names of the expansive "quanta"? Different sources call them differently, and we will omit the names of many forgotten today. In the Middle Ages, New and Modern, these, for example, were Germans, Spaniards, English, French, Dutch, Belgians, Russians. In more distant times - Franks, Vikings, Goths, Normans, Lombards. Before them - Germans, Celts, Huns, Scythians, Slavs. Before them are the Etruscans, proto-Hellenes, proto-thaliks. The Indo-Aryans are before them, the Proto-Iranians are before them, the Hittites are before them ... They all spoke the languages \u200b\u200bof the Indo-European group, but during the time elapsed from the "quantum" to the "quantum", they managed to mutate to the utter impossibility of understanding.
Always “from top to bottom”, always from North to South, one after one wave of mass migrations (“invasions”), represented by all new descendants of the Cro-Magnon, rolled. At the same time, the late wave often rolled over to the early one; a fratricidal war broke out, all the more terrible because the warriors no longer saw each other as brothers, because time and mestizats with counter races and peoples sometimes unrecognizably changed their appearance and language. Brother did not recognize and did not understand brother. One “quantum” spoke Hittite, the other in Sanskrit, the third in Zend and Avestan, the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh in Greek, Latin, Finnish, Slavic ... Language barriers have already become rigid, and racial subtypes are the result of crossbreeding - already developed: how was it to restore kinship? In those days, it had never occurred to anyone to measure skulls to solve this problem!
The skulls were measured in Modern times - and gasped: the descendants of the Cro-Magnon, it turns out (judging by the protonordic skulls in the graves), they reached Central Africa, India, Oceania and Polynesia, not to mention Siberia, the Urals, Altai, Kazakhstan, China, Central Asia, Pamir and the whole Mediterranean, including North Africa and Western Asia. Etc.
Today, these descendants bear a variety of names, speak different languages, do not understand each other and are not considered related. But they all came out of the Great Northern Platform, all have a common ancestor - Cro-Magnon.
WHERE did the Neanderthals go
As everyone knows, Neanderthals once inhabited all of Europe except Scandinavia and northern Russia: their remains are found in England, Germany, France, Italy, Yugoslavia, southern Russia (in Scythian barrows), etc. These are autochthons, old-timers of Europe. They were found in Central and Southeast Asia, and in Southern Siberia, in China, in the Crimea, in Palestine, in Africa (up to distant Rhodesia) and on the island of Java. We will not touch on the question of how they got there or where they came from. Different experts date the age of a Neanderthal differently: according to one source, it is 50-100 thousand years old, according to others, it is less reliable - as much as 200, 250 and even 300 thousand years. It is enough for us to take into account the thesis: “Anthropologists note the presence of three variants of fossil people in Europe during the mentioned period of anthropogenesis: 1) Neanderthals; 2) people of the modern type; 3) intermediate forms ”, specifying that by modern man we mean the Cro-Magnon, and by intermediate forms a hybrid of the first two, and by no means a“ transitional link ”.
The first Neanderthal man was found near Düsseldorf in 1856. In 1997, researchers from the University of Munich analyzed the DNA of the remains of this very first Neanderthal man. The age of the find was determined to be 50 thousand years. A study of 328 identified nucleotide chains led the paleontologist S. Paabo to the conclusion that the differences in genes between Neanderthals and modern man are too large to be considered their relatives. This idea was confirmed by the studies of M. Ponce de Leon and K. Zollikofer (University of Zurich), who compared the skulls of a two-year-old Neanderthal man and a little Cro-Magnon corresponding to the age. The conclusion was unequivocal: these skulls formed in completely different ways.
In the appearance of Neanderthals there were features very different from the Cro-Magnon ones, but still characteristic of the Negroid and Australoid race: the chin pressed back, large brow arches, very massive jaws. The Neanderthal man had a larger brain than the Cro-Magnon, but with a different configuration. The imperfection and small size of the frontal lobes of the brain was brightened by the presence of convolutions, indicating a certain development of mental abilities. In the interspecific struggle, such a brain did not become an advantage over the Cro-Magnon, but there is hardly any reason to oppose the Neanderthals to the homo sapiens as a whole, since they undoubtedly had a mind. And the structure of their palate, lower jaw, lower left frontal lobe of the brain (the speech zone of modern man) is such that Neanderthals could speak, although not too rich phonetically, due to the lack of a chin protrusion. The average height of men was 1.65 m, women were 10 cm lower. At the same time, men weighed about 90 kg due to very well-developed muscles and heavy, strong bones.
The whole corpses of Neanderthals (like the corpses of mammoths) did not survive, because they were not found in permafrost soils. There are only skeletons. Therefore, for sure we cannot judge the color of their skin today. In popular pictures and school books, Neanderthals are usually painted as white-skinned erect creatures covered with rare wool. But this coloring is not based on anything. A number of scientists today put forward a much more plausible hypothesis that Neanderthals were black. This is evidenced by the geographical localization of the Neanderthals closest to us in time, who lived mainly in Central and South Africa and Java, and the color of those modern races that are reasonably considered descendants of the Neanderthal: Negroids, Australoids, Dravids, etc. Enough " repaint ”the Neanderthal from the school table to black - and before us with all the conviction there will be a creature that is extremely similar in appearance to the named races. Not only the skin and appearance, but also much more, for example, the structure of the tibia and ankle bones (whose articular planes indicate a habit of squatting for a long time, which is not typical for Caucasians) makes the Neanderthal related to modern inhabitants of the South of the Earth. It is very characteristic that among the remains of the Cro-Magnons found in the grottoes of Grimaldi (Italy), the so-called "Grimaldis", there are two skeletons characterized by some scientists as black, and others as Neanderthal.
Neanderthals, like Cro-Magnons, were people, they were radically different from the animal world. Although people are biologically completely different, much inferior to Cro-Magnon man. But nevertheless, the Neanderthals created their own culture, called Mousterian (Selsky and Acheulean): stone and bone chopped, scrapers, pointed, although not in such a wide assortment as Cro-Magnons, who created a dozen of two stone and bone "devices". Neanderthals also knew fire, already 40 thousand years ago they buried their dead with honor in a primitive rite, honored the afterlife, practiced hunting magic. At the same time, they appeared primitive jewelry: pendants made of animal teeth. Scientists believe, however, that they could adopt the custom of decorating themselves from Cro-Magnons. In any case, this is no longer characteristic of anyone in the animal kingdom. But Neanderthals, unlike Cro-Magnons, did not leave works of art (rock paintings, sculptures made of bone and burnt clay).
The relationship between Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons was not idyllic. At the sites of Neanderthals, carefully fragmented and gnawed bones of not only big game, but also precisely processed bones of Cro-Magnons, that is, the ancestors of modern people, are found. And vice versa: in the sites of the Cro-Magnons, the fragmented bones of Neanderthals were found. The two proto-straits fought an irreconcilable war between themselves, a war of annihilation, of "destruction", as the Bible would put it. What war was accompanied, as fossil skeletons irrefutably testify, by racial confusion, most likely violent.
For about ten thousand years, the fierce confrontation of the two protoras in the same territory lasted; but by the end of this period (about 40 thousand years ago), the Cro-Magnons ousted Neanderthals from Europe almost completely. Thirty thousand years ago, their remains still lived in the area of \u200b\u200bGibraltar, in the Pyrenees and mountains of Dalmatia. But in general, the "race of the vanquished" rolled further south into Western Asia and the Mediterranean, where the confrontation continued for many millennia.
As already quite reliably established, Cro-Magnons did not occur and could not come from Neanderthals. But they could mix with them (we emphasize and confirm this once again), “improving the breed”. Moreover, both on his own initiative and in addition to it, depending on the outcome of a particular interracial skirmish. If the men who were captured were in danger of being eaten, the fate of women could be completely different. A study of the Tasmanians, who were “stuck” in the Stone Age until their disappearance in the 19th century, showed that the tribal relations of the Paleolithic people, in addition to diplomacy, trade and war, certainly include the abduction of women. The breed of Neanderthals during the crossbreeding clearly improved, the breed of Cro-Magnon people equally deteriorated, but in one way or another, the process was so intense, lengthy and mutual in nature that it led, as already mentioned, to the formation of new ethnic groups and even second-order races.
In his article “The Problem of Detecting Sapient and Neanderthal Lines in the Early Stages of Evolution” (Courier of the Petrovsky Kunstkamera. Issue 8–9, St. Petersburg, 1999), a prominent Russian scientist Yu. D. Benevolenskaya writes: “The hypothesis of the evolutionary transformation of Neanderthals into a neoanthropus more and more giving way to the idea of \u200b\u200bthe crowding out of the former by a person of a modern type, which was accompanied by a crossbreeding between them.
Another outstanding domestic anthropologist A. A. Zubov in his article “Problems of intraspecific systematics of the genus homo in connection with modern ideas about the biological differentiation of mankind (Modern anthropology and genetics and the problem of races in humans. M., 1995) also indicates:“ We can talk about The “network-like" nature of the evolution of the genus homo at all stages of its evolution. It is important to note that the “network” could include various evolutionary “floors” that interacted with each other and made their genetic contribution to the common, single fund of the diversity of the evolving genus homo. ”
In other words, the representatives of the “higher” human floors entered into sexual intercourse with the representatives of the “lower”, Neanderthal, floors, as a result of which they gave birth to mestizos, then numerically isolated to the level of entire peoples and races, which gave rise to the general evolutionary diversity of the genus homo.
The famous American biologist Anthony Barnett in his book “The Human Race” (M., 1968) also testifies that “people of the modern type appeared at about the same time, if not earlier than the Neanderthal man, and developed in parallel. The intermediate types between modern people and Neanderthals could be the result of either crossing or the early phases of the divergence of Neanderthals from the line that led to modern man. "
In all likelihood, all territories, including Europe, where at one time or another both protorases — Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons lived at the same time — should be considered a mestization zone. Hybrid forms then continued to exist everywhere and give birth to offspring, crossing more and more with the dominant type - in Europe, the Cro-Magnon man became such as already 40 thousand years ago. Moreover, according to Darwin's theory, the signs of mixed forms as not provided for by natural selection (nature) in each generation were increasingly supplanted by the dominant signs of the Caucasoid, perceived over time as atavism. As a result, the Neanderthal traits among white Caucasians, although they are found to this day, are only occasionally. The closer to the south, the more often they are, and in the zone of Asia Minor and the Mediterranean, they either become dominant, or appear as hybrid ethnoses, which can be considered, for example, Semites, Ethiopians, Egyptians, Maghribines, etc. The mestizatsia is whimsically selective: if Ethiopians have black skin and Caucasoid facial features, while Semites, on the contrary, often have Negroid (Neanderthaloid) facial features with white or olive ("mulatto") skin, etc.
It is not surprising that entire hybrids arose in the named zone, because it was here that the finale of the Great Neanderthal War was played for at least ten thousand years, and the two proto-races, locked between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlas Mountains, continued to sort things out until until they completely dissolved into each other and broke up into fancifully combined, but moreover, quite homogeneous secondary races and ethnic groups. (The dominant type in this case disappeared as such and the possibility of returning to it - reversion - was generally excluded, although periodically both of the original types necessarily appear, but only singly and fragmentarily.)
This, in particular, is narrated by the finds of archaeologists D. Garrod and T. McCone, made at the beginning of the 20th century in Palestine on Mount Carmel in the caves of Kozya (Shul) and Pechnaya (Tabun). The remains of ancient people were discovered there, separated in time by about ten thousand years: 40 thousand years old ancient ash in the Oven cave, and 30 thousand years old in Kozie. During these ten thousand years, huge changes have taken place with the population inhabiting the area: the purely Neanderthal appearance gradually accumulated an increasing number of characteristic Cro-Magnon features. The closest to us in time, the inhabitants of the Schul cave have the largest number of Cro-Magnon characters (including an average height of 175 cm), while remaining, nevertheless, a hybrid.
Later, the conclusions made in the study of the Shul and Tabun caves were fully confirmed by new findings in the same geographical area and in the same temporary soil layers. Namely: in the 1930s. on Mount Cafeh near Nazareth, the remains of six Neanderthals were found with such characteristic Cro-Magnon differences as a high cranial vault, a rounded nape, etc. Similar finds were then made in the caves of Yabrud (Syria), Haua Fteah (Libya), Jebel Irhud (Morocco) , Shanidar (Iraq). In 1963, a Japanese expedition found in Israel the skeleton of a whole Neanderthal man, but ... growing from a Cro-Magnon man (170 cm). Etc.
As we already know for sure, the Cro-Magnon man did not descend from the Neanderthal man. He fought with him to death, completely cleansed Europe of him (partly mixing with the enemy, but then squeezing out his residual features from himself for tens of thousands of years), but failed to repeat this feat in Asia Minor and the Mediterranean. Here, in this region, the first “melting pot” arose in history, in which both the “south-swift” echelons of the Cro-Magnons, and the Neanderthals who fled from them, found their new life and died.
Does this mean that from the ancient Neanderthals today only hybrid, intermediate or secondary forms remain, that they all completely disappeared into a stronger race of winners, or simply died out, giving way to other races?
No, there is no reason for such pessimism.
The Atlas Mountains stopped the weary pursuers who found their cherished ideal, bequeathed by genes and tribal traditions, in the blessed climate of the Mediterranean: they had nowhere and no reason to strive further. But the persecuted who saved their lives seeped through the mountain barrier and gradually populated all of Africa, and not only it. As a result, each protorace was entrenched in its range: the Cro-Magnons, who became Caucasians, were hosted, mainly in Europe; Neanderthals who became Negroids and Australoids, mostly in Africa, then in the south of India (where the descendants of the Cro-Magnons, the so-called “Andronovites” - future “Indo-Arians”, forced them out in the II millennium BC), in Australia, Tasmania etc.; and the world's first mixed race - at home, in Asia Minor and the Mediterranean. This happened about 30 thousand years ago.
cro-Magnon - was a man in the modern sense of the word, of course, more primitive, but still human. The era in which Cro-Magnon man lived was in the period from the 40th to the 10th millennium BC. The first finds of the skeleton of a Cro-Magnon man were made in 1868 in the south-west of France in the Cro-Magnon cave. So, about 40 thousand years ago, in various areas of the globe, a number of cultural shifts took place in completely new directions. Events of a person’s life begin to develop in a different way and at a different, accelerated pace, and now the man himself becomes the main driving force.
The number of achievements, changes in the social organization of Cro-Magnon life was so great that it was several times greater than the number of achievements of Australopithecus, Pithecanthropus and Neanderthal combined. Cro-Magnons inherited from their ancestors a large active brain and fairly practical technology, so that in a relatively short period of time they took an unprecedented step forward. This was manifested in aesthetics, the development of communication and systems of symbols, the technology of manufacturing tools and active adaptation to external conditions, as well as in new forms of organization of society and a more complex approach to their own kind.
All Cro-Magnons used some kind of stone tools and were engaged in hunting and gathering. They achieved many amazing achievements, settled in all geographical areas suitable for habitation. Cro-Magnons created the first primitive forms of firing pottery, built stoves for this, and even burned coal. In the skill of processing stone tools, they surpassed their ancestors, learned how to make all kinds of tools, weapons and accessories from bone, tusks, deer horns and from wood.
All areas of activity of Cro-Magnons were improved in comparison with their ancestors. They made better clothes, made hotter bonfires, built larger dwellings, and ate much more varied food than their predecessors.
Among other things, scientists have established that the Cro-Magnons had another important innovation - art. Cro-Magnon man was a caveman, but with one difference: his well-groomed appearance hid his developed intellect and complex spiritual life. The walls of his caves were covered with painted, carved and scratched masterpieces, very expressive and full of immediate charm.
The Cro-Magnon man differed from its predecessors in physiological characteristics. First, his bones are lighter than the bones of his ancestors. Secondly, the Cro-Magnon skull is similar in everything to the skull of modern people: a pronounced chin protrusion, a high forehead, small teeth, and the volume of the brain cavity correspond to the modern one. Finally, he is characterized by physical features necessary for the formation of complex speech. The location of the nasal and oral cavities, the elongated pharynx (the throat section located directly above the vocal cords) and the flexibility of the tongue enabled him to design and make clear sounds, much more diverse than those that were available to early people. However, the modern man had to pay a dear price for his speechlessness - of all living creatures, only he can suffocate, choking on food, as his elongated throat also serves as the vestibule of the esophagus.
Straight walk was destined to become the rule first, and then the necessity. In the meantime, more and more different kinds of activities fell on the hands. Already in monkeys, there is a well-known division of functions between arms and legs. The hand serves primarily to collect and hold food, as some lower mammals do with their forepaws. With the help of hands, some monkeys build their nests on trees or, like a chimpanzee, canopies between branches to protect them from bad weather. With their hand, they grab sticks to protect themselves from enemies or throw fruits and stones at them. And although the number and the general arrangement of bones and muscles are the same for a monkey and a person, the hand of even a primitive savage was able to perform hundreds of operations inaccessible to the monkey. Not a single monkey hand ever made even the coarsest stone tool.
In the processing of stone, wood, hides, and in the production of fire, people's hands developed. Particularly important was the development of the thumb, which helped hold both the heavy spear and the thin needle firmly. Gradually, the actions of the hands became more and more confident and complex. In collective labor, the mind and speech of people developed.
The beginning domination of nature broadened the horizons of man. On the other hand, the development of labor, by necessity, contributed to a closer unity of members of society. As a result, the emerging people have a need to say something to each other. Need created an organ for itself: the undeveloped larynx of the monkey slowly but steadily transformed, and the organs of the mouth gradually learned to utter one articulate sound after another.
When did the type of modern man come to be called Homo sapiens? All the oldest finds in the Upper Paleolithic strata are dated in absolute numbers 25–28 thousand years ago. The formation of Homo sapiens led to the coexistence of late progressive forms of Neanderthals and the nascent, so far small groups of modern people over several millennia. The process of crowding out an old species with a new one was quite lengthy and complicated.
The growth of the frontal lobes of the brain was the main morphological feature that distinguished the forming people of the modern species from the late Neanderthals. The frontal lobes of the brain are the focus of not only higher mental, but also social functions. The growth of the frontal lobes expanded the scope of higher associative thinking, and with it contributed to the complication of social life, the diversity of labor activity, caused a further evolution of the body structure, physiological functions, and motor skills.
The brain volume of a "reasonable person" is twice as large as that of a "skilled person." He is taller, he has a straight figure. "Homo sapiens" have a coherent speech.
In their appearance, “intelligent people” who lived in different countries differed from each other. Such natural conditions as the abundance or lack of sunny days, harsh winds, carrying clouds of sand, severe frosts, left their mark on the appearance of people. Their division into three main races began: white (Caucasoid), black (Negroid) and yellow (Mongoloid). Subsequently, the races were divided into subraces (for example, yellow - into the Mongoloid and Americanoid), on the borders between the races, regions with a population of transitional races formed (for example, on the border between the Caucasoid and Negroid race, the transitional Ethiopian race appeared). However, physiological differences between different races are not significant; From a biological point of view, all modern mankind belongs to the same subspecies of the species Homo sapiens. This is confirmed, for example, by genetic research: the discrepancy in DNA between races is only 0.1%, and the genetic diversity within races is greater than interracial differences.
Thus, the process of evolution explains the similarities in the external and internal structure of humans and mammals. We list them briefly: the presence of a head, trunk, limbs, hair, nails. The skeletons of both humans and mammals are made up of the same bones. The location and function of internal organs are similar. Like mammals, humans feed their babies milk. But a person has significant differences, which will be discussed further.