Religious ideas in the Bronze Age. Bronze Age and its features. Bronze Age in Russia and neighboring countries

Send your good work in the knowledge base is simple. Use the form below

Students, graduate students, young scientists who use the knowledge base in their studies and work will be very grateful to you.

Posted on http://www.allbest.ru/

Bronze Age and its features

§ 1. Ancient farmers and shepherds

The process of man mastering the skills of agriculture, the transition from collecting wild cereals, fruits and berries to their cultivation, lasted for many millennia. The time of breeding of cultivated cereals is determined by scientists of the 8th-7th millennium BC. e., and this happened, most likely, in the mountainous regions of Asia Minor. In the VI-V millennium BC. e. Agriculture spread in Central Asia, first in the south of Turkmenistan, in the foothills of Kopet-Dag. Agriculture came to the mountain and steppe regions of Kazakhstan during the Bronze Age at the end of the 3rd millennium AD. e.

Along with agriculture, cattle breeding also arose. Scientists have long debated which arose first - agriculture or cattle breeding. Now it is clear that a person mastered both in parallel. Agriculture developed on fertile soils with sufficient water. Cattle breeding developed in arid areas and on infertile lands. Where there was water, cattle breeding was combined with agriculture.

At the turn of the first and second quarter of the 2nd millennium BC. e. Bronze was invented in the Eurasian steppes. Ancient people were able to make metal products durable by adding tin to copper. They learned to cast socketed axes and spears from bronze.

The tribes that lived on the territory of Kazakhstan during the Bronze Age left archaeological monuments (settlements, burial grounds, mines, rock paintings) that belong to the Andronovo archaeological culture (the name is given after the site of the first excavations of the burial ground near the village of Andronovo, near the city of Achinsk in Southern Siberia ). Excavations here were carried out in 1913 by B.V. Andrianov. In 1927, archaeologist M.P. Gryaznov discovered similar burials in Western Kazakhstan and established that -monuments of the Andronovo culture are distributed over a vast territory - from Minusinsk in the east to the Urals in the west. -Later, Andronovo monuments were found in the south of Kazakhstan, in Semirechye and Central Asia:

One of the difficult issues in the study of Andronovo culture is related to chronology, the definition of a time frame. Most researchers divide the existence of the Andronovo culture into three periods: Early Bronze - XVIII-XVI centuries. BC e., middle - XV-XII centuries. BC e.; late - XII - early VIII centuries. BC e. These periods, based on the names of the first surveyed monuments, were named Fedorovsky, Alakulsky, Zamaraevsky. It was believed that they reflect different stages of the development of Andronovo culture. But it turned out that the Fedorovsky monuments date back not to the Early Bronze Age, but to the Middle Bronze Age, and the harmonious picture of the development of the Andronovo culture was disrupted. It was possible to determine that Fedorov’s monuments fall into early and late ones. The first group dates back to the XV-XIV centuries, and the second to the XIII-XII centuries. BC e. If early monuments were found in Central Kazakhstan and the Urals, then later ones were found over a very wide area: in Western Siberia, in the south and southeast of Kazakhstan, in Central Asia. The center of settlement of the Fedorov tribes was apparently Kazakhstan; they were driven out from here by the Alakul tribes, who came to Central Kazakhstan from some western center.

Thus, Alakulsk and. Fedorov era there were monuments of a mixed type. In Semirechye, monuments of the “Semirechensky type” are being formed, in the west - of the “Kozhumberdinsky type”. The Andronovo culture was not monolithic: it contains variants that reflect the nature of the culture of once-living tribes, therefore it is customary to talk about the Andronovo cultural community, uniting a number of similar cultures.

Tribes of Central Kazakhstan. One of the main regions of distribution of the tribes that were part of the Andronovo community was Central Kazakhstan. Numerous settlements, burial grounds, ancient mines, sacrificial sites and rock paintings - petroglyphs, over 30 settlements and more than 150 burial grounds were discovered and examined here." The Andronovo culture of Central Kazakhstan is characterized by the monumentality and complexity of grave structures, high construction techniques associated with stone processing .

The early stage - Nura - is characterized by the predominance of cremation (cremation) in the funeral rite. There are burials performed according to the rite of corpse deposition. The burial grounds, small in size, consist of earthen mounds around which round or rectangular fences made of stone slabs were built. Inside the fence there was a grave, which was either a rectangular ground pit, the edges of which were lined with tiles (cista), or a stone box. From above, after burial, the pits were covered with slabs.

Ceramics are represented by pots decorated with ornaments consisting of combinations of triangles and meanders, parallel depressions. Only the upper part of the vessels was decorated. Bronze round mirrors and bronze beads were found. Bones of domestic animals were found in nearby burials. At the next stage - the Atasu stage - there is widespread development of the territory, including semi-desert areas. The scale of mining operations has increased sharply, as evidenced by numerous ore developments. The most famous and studied burial grounds of this period are Bylkyldak, Karasai, Temir-Astau, Karabie, Elshibek, Belasar. A large group of burial grounds and settlements is located in the river valley. Atasu. Inside the burial enclosures there were pits, boxes, and cysts. The predominant position is in a crouched position on the side. bronze Semirechye farmer cult

The settlements have a peculiar layout: the dwellings, and there are from 10 to 80 of them, are located in a circle, in the center of which there is a cattle pen. One of the well-studied settlements of Atasu had an area of 15,000 square meters. m. and consisted of 35 dugouts and outbuildings. During excavations, a large number of bronze tools, weapons, and jewelry were found in settlements and burial grounds.

The late Bronze Age in Central Kazakhstan is marked by the formation of a new culture - Begazy-Dandybaevskaya. It is characterized, on the one hand, by the preservation of Andronovo traditions, and on the other, by the emergence of new elements: a special type of tombstone structure, a unique funeral rite, and new forms of corpses stretched out on the back. The Aksu-Ayuly II burial ground south of Karaganda belongs to the early stage of this culture. The largest mound has a height of 2 m and a diameter of 30 m. Under the earthen embankment there were three stone fences arranged in radial rings.

At this time, ground dwellings with walls made of stone spread. Six rectangular above-ground dwellings were discovered in the Tagibay-Bulak settlement. The walls of the houses are made of rows of parallel slabs dug into the ground, the space between which is filled with small stones mixed with earth. In the mountainous regions of Central Kazakhstan, wood was widely used in the construction of dwellings. The walls of the dugouts were lined with wooden blocks, and the ceiling was supported by a system of wooden posts.

Metal mining and smelting played a huge role in the development of culture. The Central Kazakhstan paleometallic center influenced the culture of neighboring regions - Altai, Siberia, Trans-Urals.

Numerous Andronovo monuments have been discovered and examined in Northern and Western Kazakhstan, including the well-known settlement of Alekseevskoye and the Tasty-Butak burial ground2.

The forest-steppe zone is characterized by burial grounds consisting of mounds with earthen embankments, round and rectangular fences. In the western regions, ring-shaped stone fences and mounds are common. In total, more than 80 settlements and about 90 burial grounds have been discovered in this area.

Ground burials with corpse burning date back to the Early Bronze Age. During excavations of the Vishnevka settlement in the region of Petropavlovsk, a rectangular above-ground dwelling with an area of 126 square meters was discovered. m, the wooden floor of which rested on wooden racks-logs. At the same time, settlements appeared that can be considered the predecessors (prototypes) of ancient cities. One of them - Arkaim - was located on the border of the Chelyabinsk and Kustanai regions.

During the Middle Bronze Age, house-building, organization of settlements, arrangement of burials, and funeral rites changed significantly. The settlements are no longer fortified; semi-dugout dwellings are elongated and rectangular in shape, with an area from 14J to 200 sq. m. m are divided into two parts; on the floor - from one to eight hearths. Such dwellings have been opened in the settlements of Yavlenka and Tasty-Butak.

In the Late Bronze Age, at the first stage, the tribes of northern Kazakhstan were strongly influenced by the timber-frame culture of the Aral region, and Western Kazakhstan - by the timber-frame culture of the Volga region. In the settlements of the Late Bronze Age, half-dugouts predominate - rectangular, oval and figure-eight in shape. Huge dugouts with an area of up to 300-400 square meters are spreading. m, in which livestock were kept in winter. The role of livestock breeding, especially horse breeding, is increasing in the economy.

In East Kazakhstan, the development of Andronovo culture followed the same paths. In the grass-rich valleys of the Irtysh, Bukhtarma, Kurchum, in the mountainous regions of Altai, the steppe regions of Tarbagatai and Saur, dozens of settlements and burial grounds of the Bronze Age were found, the development and composition of which was influenced by the richest deposits of copper, tin, and gold.

Most of the burials from the Kanai burial ground and the nearby settlement date back to the Late Bronze Age. At a settlement on the right bank of the Irtysh, a rectangular semi-dugout with an area of 50 square meters was excavated. m and adjacent outbuildings. The walls of the house are lined with reeds and coated with clay.

Southern Kazakhstan and Semirechye were developed and “densely” populated already in the Bronze Age. In Semirechye there was a peculiar (Semirechensky) version of the Andronovo culture. It was in Semirechye and in the south of Kazakhstan that the largest concentrations of rock paintings were discovered in Tamgaly and Karatau.

Semirechye is characterized by a mixture of cultural elements of the Fedorov and Alakul tribes. Graves in the form of rectangular and round fences are characteristic of Fedorovsky traditions. Ground graves and boxes, and in mountainous regions, log houses, are combined with the disposition of corpses and cremation.

The Middle Bronze Age of Semirechye is represented by the burial grounds of Tamgaly and Karakuduk.

In the south of Kazakhstan, in Karatau, the Tautara burial ground was excavated.

In the lower reaches of the Syr Darya, in the Aral Sea region, unique monuments of the Bronze Age have been discovered - the Tegisken mausoleums4. The earliest mausoleums of Tegisken were built of mud brick; the basis of the layout is a circle inscribed in the square of the external walls. Inward from it, in a circle, there are 8 or 12 rectangular brick columns, preserved at a height of two meters. Further inside - again 8 or 12 of the same columns, but standing in a rectangle. Along with the brick columns, as if duplicating them, there were wooden pillars, from which holes in the floor have been preserved. Thus, a system of bypass corridors was formed inside the mausoleum. In the room located in the center and in the corridors there was ceramics, bronze weapons, and gold jewelry. The deceased, placed in the central room, was burned along with the mausoleum. It is difficult to determine the cultural affiliation of the Tagisken burial grounds. On the one hand, the tradition of Andronovo culture can be traced here (the layout of the mausoleums, close to the central Kazakhstan mausoleums of Begaza and Dandybai, Andronovo forms and decorations of molded dishes), on the other hand, there is a strong influence of southern cultures (mud brick, the standard of which is close to the southern Turkmen cultures era of Namazga VI and later monuments Tekkem-tepe and Yaz). The Tegisken mausoleums indicate the initial interaction and mutual influence of steppe and sedentary cultures 5-6.

Economy of Andronovo residents. Most Andronovo settlements were located on the banks of small steppe rivers or streams flowing from the mountains. Next to them, in the floodplains of the rivers, there were fields and vegetable gardens.

During excavations of settlements, pots with the remains of burnt millet porridge were found. In the Alekseevsky settlement, in northern Kazakhstan, stalks and grains of wheat sacrificed to the gods were found in sacrificial pits. Imprints of cereals are preserved on the blades of sickles from the settlement of Malo-Krasnoyarsk in Eastern Kazakhstan.! At all settlements, common finds were grain grinders, rectangular and round pestles for crushing and grinding grain into flour, sickles, and stone hoes.

Cattle breeding played a more significant role in the life of Andronovo residents. Animals provided food

wool, leather, bone for crafts, fuel in the form of dung. The main food of the Andronovo people was milk. Cottage cheese and cottage cheese were made from it, as evidenced by the finds of vessels with holes for straining the whey. Meat was a delicacy; it was eaten on holidays and sacrificed to the gods. The main animals were sheep, cows, and horses. Mostly young animals, at the age of two or three years, were eaten; purebred animals were left for the tribe. This system made it possible to maintain the number of livestock and its high productivity.

Research has established that in the herds grazing in the feather grass steppes and on the herbs of alpine meadows, there were three different breeds: short horses, up to 128-136 cm high at the withers, with a large head, shaggy mane, and pot-bellied. They were similar to modern Mongolian horses. The most numerous in the herds were medium and tall horses with a height at the withers of 136-152 cm and weighing up to 350 kg. And finally, an elite breed with a height at the withers of 152-160 cm, lean, with thin legs, a small head and a high neck. They were used to draw chariots - the most formidable and mobile military force of that time. Andronovo people were excellent cattle breeders. They were the first in world practice to introduce stabling of livestock in winter. In frosty times, the young animals were placed in a heated dwelling, fenced off in a special compartment. Corrals were attached to the houses.

The Andronovo people bred Bactrian camels. Their bones were found in settlements and burial grounds. Images of camels were painted on rocks; in one case, a clay figurine of a camel was found at the settlement of Ushkatty.

It can be argued that during the early and middle bronze period, that is, before the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e., the Andronovo people were sedentary; They ran a mixed economy, engaged in farming and cattle breeding. The last one was homely. With this form of livestock farming, pastures quickly became scarce. To maintain the productivity of livestock breeding and increase the herd, new forms of keeping animals were needed. Among the Andronovo people it was a yaylazh (semi-nomadic) type of cattle breeding, when women and children lived in the village, engaged in farming, and men and teenagers, along with the herd, went to distant pastures in the spring and summer, and returned home in late autumn.

The distances of seasonal migrations were different. In Semirechye and Eastern Kazakhstan they ranged from 50 to 80 km, in Western Kazakhstan the path from summer pastures stretched for hundreds of kilometers, crossing steppes and deserts. Thus, gradually, from the home-based cattle breeding, yailazh, or transhumance, cattle breeding grew, and then nomadic cattle breeding, which made it possible to use both steppe and desert pastures.

With the transition to nomadic and semi-nomadic cattle breeding, the composition of the herd changed: the number of cattle decreased and the number of rams and horses increased.

§ 2. Ancient miners, metallurgists and potters

Studying the deposits of Kazakhstan, geologists discover that their development was carried out already three thousand years BC. Mining and smelting of ore in the Bronze Age was enormous. In the Zhezkazgan region, for example, about 100 thousand tons of copper were smelted. 200 thousand tons of ore were mined at the Uspensky mine.

Ancient miners developed oxidized ores (malachite, azurite, cassetite) with a rich content of copper and tin. Ore-bearing veins were mined, loose ores were mined by “picking”, using chippers and stone hammers. In dense rocks, they used the “fire sinking” method, in which a fire was lit on the surface of the vein or in the face, and when the rock was heated, they poured water on it, causing it to crack, after which they worked with hammers and picks. The metal-containing rock was pulled to the surface in leather bags.

They also used tunnels under the ore body, after which they beat off pieces of the overhanging block of ore with hammers. When digging deep adits, wooden support was used. Near the mine near the water, the mined ore was crushed and washed, separating it from the waste rock. Finely crushed ore was taken to settlements, where they were smelted in special smelting furnaces, the remains of which were discovered during excavations of settlements on Atasu, Suuk-Bulak, and near the village of Kanai.

Remains of foundries were found in the following settlements:

Malo-Krasnoyarsk, Alekseevka, Nikolskoye, Petrovka II. In addition to casting, the Andronovo people knew the techniques of forging, chasing and stamping. Temple rings, pendants, and bracelets with spiral protrusions were made from bronze wrapped in gold foil. An excellent example of jewelry art is a gold temple pendant with an image of two horses inside, found in a burial ground near the village of Kopal in Semirechye.

If the ancient farmers of India, Iran, Afghanistan, and Central Asia, dishes in the Bronze Age were made by professionals who stood out from other artisans on the potter's wheel, then in the Kazakh steppes and foothills each family made the dishes themselves. Women made clay, made pots from it and fired it on a fire or in pits, sometimes lined with stone. In the early bronze of the 17th-16th centuries. BC e. the vessels were made using a blank (template) covered with fabric woven from horsehair or from thick woolen threads, had a jar shape, a flat bottom, and were decorated with drawn or combed geometric patterns. Some pots were decorated with molded rollers and cones.

The ornament on the vessels was not only decoration - it had a magical character, protecting the contents of the vessels from the “evil eye”, “spoilage”, and also symbolized the wealth and abundance of the contents of the pot.

During the Middle Bronze Age (XV-XIII centuries BC), vessels are distinguished by a greater degree of standardization and perfection: they are thinner-walled and more elegant. The dishes were made using a blank or the ring molding method, when the bottom was first made, and then a body ring, a shoulder ring and a rim ring were attached to it. With this technique, a rib-ledge is formed at the junction of the body and the neck, which is a characteristic feature of the Andronovo culture of the Middle Bronze Age. The ornament, as before, is drawn or stamped (triangles filled with strokes, meanders). Unlike early pots, the ornament is arranged in three stripes or zones. Researchers note another technique for making vessels, in which a pot was first molded, and then a flat bottom was attached to it from below.

The vessels of the Late Bronze Age were distinguished by their swollen bodies and rounded outlines. They were decorated with molded rollers, bulges - “pearls”, molded bumps.

The ornament that decorated Andronovo vessels was preserved for many hundreds of years; some of its elements can also be seen in the ornament of Kazakh applied art.

Home crafts. The Andronovo family did everything necessary for life: they spun, weaved, tanned leather, sewed clothes, shoes, embroidered with patterns from colored threads, decorated with appliqué and beads. Threads for fabric were spun from animal wool and fluff. Hemp, wild flax, and nettle were used. A loom and a spindle were already known/"Judging by the finds in the burials, the Andronovo people wore leather" shoes without heels, which were sewn together with animal tendons. Both men and women wore woolen and leather caps with earmuffs on their heads. Clothes were made from woolen fabrics, fastened with bone buttons. The woman's clothing consisted of a long, below-the-knee, woolen dress with long sleeves. The cuffs of the sleeves were decorated with rows of bronze beads. The front of the skirt was embroidered with stripes of white paste beads. The opening of the clothing around the neck was decorated with glass beads, and round plaques were sewn onto the chest. The fabrics were dyed bright red and purple.

In their ears, women wore bronze earrings and earrings in the form of rings, covered with sheet gold; their necks were decorated with bronze hryvnias, sometimes with round gold rings on them. They wore bracelets and rings on their hands. Both women and men wore fangs of wild animals and shells brought from the shores of distant seas as amulets against evil forces.

The men were armed with bows and arrows with leaf-shaped bronze tips. In close combat they used spears with bronze tips, bronze axes, daggers, and stone maces.

Village, city, home. Archaeologists have discovered dozens of Bronze Age settlements; many have carried out excavations that give an idea of the nature of Bronze Age settlements and dwellings.

In the XVII-XVI centuries. in the steppe, forest-steppe zone from the Urals to the Irtysh there were settlements, rectangular and round in plan, surrounded by defensive structures - walls with a wooden palisade and ditches, towers and complex preliminary buildings. Fortified settlements have an area of 6 to 30 thousand square meters. m. The settlement of Arkaim, which can be considered an ancient city,7 looked like a rounded area, fenced with two concentric rings of defensive structures. Between them there was a residential part, and the inner circle occupied the area. The outer circle had a diameter of 160 m, the outer wall, about 4 m wide at the base, was made of soil mixed with lime, and the outer side was lined with clay blocks, which were laid starting from the base of the ditch encircling the wall from the outside. The depth of the ditch was 1.5-2 m, the height of the wall was 2.5-3 m. Along the crest of the wall there were two parallel rows of palisades made of logs, the gap between which was filled with turf layers.

From the inside, the ends of the dwellings were adjacent to the wall, tightly attached to each other. The exits from the dwellings led to a ring street that ran around the internal walls and moat. The ditch was lined with wood, the inner wall had the same design as the outer one. From the inside, radially located dwellings were also adjacent to the second wall, with exit from each to the central square. The four gates of the city led to the west, northwest, east and southeast. The western entrance was central; in modern topography it represents a gap in the wall, and the complex design of additional fortifications makes the exit to the central street “knee-shaped”. Each entrance corresponds to radial streets that cross the village and converge on the central square, which has a sub-square shape, measuring 25 x 25 m. The rectangular dwellings of Arkaim had an area of 190 to 300 square meters. m. Their walls are complex structures of two rows of pillars covered with blocks, the space between which is filled with earth. Four or six rows of partitions divided the area of the dwelling into living rooms and utility compartments with cellars and wells.

In general, the character of the settlement of the Arkaim type, as well as the rectangular settlements of Petrovka and Nikolskoye, have features characteristic of an early city: a developed system of fortifications (fortifications); the presence of a strict plan or even a model according to which the settlement was built; dividing the territory into several zones - residential, industrial, public (each of them contains housing, production, religious rites, or holding public meetings).

The fact that the settlements served as urban centers is also evidenced by the fact that they supplied the settlement itself and nearby villages with metal products and ceramics. A large layer of artisans lived here, as evidenced by the burials of blacksmiths and metallurgists, hammers, anvils and other tools. In a number of burials, maces were found - signs of power - and the remains of war chariots, things that emphasize the high position in society of their owners.

Temple complexes arose near cities. It was at this time that the spread of stone sculpture depicting the ancient gods dates back to this time. They were kept in hiding places and brought to temples only during religious festivals.

Clay circles with signs imprinted on them were found in settlements. The latter, apparently, date back to the very beginning of their transformation into writing and characterize a high level of development of society.

The flourishing of culture in the Early Bronze Age became possible thanks to cultural and economic contacts with the cultures of the Mediterranean and Asia Minor, and, apparently, already at that time the beginnings of the Great Silk Road began to take shape.

In the Middle Bronze Age, Andronovo settlements were no longer fortified with walls and ditches. Apparently, the situation in the steppe has become calm. The topography of settlements is changing. It is a cluster of several (from 10 to 20) detached houses, usually located in one or two lines along the river. The house itself has changed. Now it has become a semi-dugout with an area of up to 200-300 square meters. m. The pits for the dwellings were dug with stone, horn, or bronze hoes and picks, traces of which were preserved on the walls of dwellings excavated by archaeologists. The depth of the pits ranged from 0.6 to 1.5 m. The excavated soil was laid along the edge, thus protecting the home from moisture and strong steppe winds, which usually “blowed” the heat out of the house. Wood was widely used in structures to strengthen walls, support beams and floor rafters. The roof was made gable. In the steppe and mountainous areas, flagstone was used in the construction, which served as cladding for walls.

In Central Kazakhstan in the XII-IX centuries. BC e. In the Late Bronze Age, multi-room houses were built strictly according to plan, built from massive stone blocks. Such houses with an area of 500 sq. m and more were excavated at the settlements of Buguly and Akbaur. These are the largest dwellings on the Eurasian steppes during the Bronze Age.

One of the lower parts of the dwelling was apparently used for keeping livestock in winter. Sometimes two dwellings were connected by corridors and formed a single residential complex. The type of Andronovo house developed over many centuries was ideally adapted to the conditions of the steppe and mountainous regions.

People, society, customs. Studying the settlements and burial grounds of the Bronze Age, observing the life of peoples who were at approximately the same development, as well as comparing the Andronovo people with a specific people, ethnic group, make it possible to restore their life customs.

As already noted, Andronovo residents lived in large houses as a large family community, when several generations of relatives lived together and ran a common household. From the materials of the settlements, no noticeable social and property inequality is visible, however, studies of cemeteries made it possible to establish the difference in the degree of wealth and a person’s position in society. Already in the Early Bronze Age, burials with larger graves and deeper graves, complex wooden structures, and a large number of pots with food placed in the grave stood out among the total mass of burials. In the same graves the remains of chariots and horse burials were found, and with the buried people - bronze knives, bronze and stone arrowheads, and stone maces.

The same picture can be seen in the Middle and Late Bronze Age. In the burial grounds, several grandiose mounds with a diameter of up to 4 m and a height of up to 2.5 m or structures surrounded by a double or even triple ring of a fence made of monumental slabs stand out among ordinary burials. Under such mounds there were graves measuring 3.2 x 2.5, with a depth of up to 2.3 m. Their walls were lined with log frames and covered on top with a ramp of logs, sometimes double. Most of the graves were robbed in ancient times, but from the surviving remains it is clear that a large number of specially slaughtered animals, gold jewelry, bronze knives, maces, horse harnesses, and sets of arrowheads were placed in the grave with the deceased.

Judging by the large difference in the structure of the mounds and graves, and the things placed there, Andronovo society was not homogeneous. Noble and rich people occupied a privileged position. After their death, for services to society, relatives erected a special, different from others, burial structure, regardless of costs and labor. The presence of remains of chariots in a number of such burials allows us to conclude that they belonged to warriors who separated into a separate group.

It is safe to say that warriors who at that time stood out as a special group in society were buried in the rich Andronovo burials. Consequently, the Andronovo people already at an early stage of their history experienced a stratification of society - from the mass of its ordinary members, “kings” emerged - rulers and warriors - kshatriyas. Their wives and family members also occupied a privileged position in society; apparently, they owned rich burials with gold items.

The sources speak of another class - priests. Their distinctive feature was a wooden bowl and a special hat. They were stewards not only of religious rites, but also guardians of ancient traditions and knowledge.

§ 3. Religion and art

The meaning and many details of the Andronovo religious beliefs, cult rites, and various rituals are explained by comparing archaeological data and information gleaned from ancient Indian and ancient Iranian religious writings.

All those buried in the graves were oriented with their heads to the west or southwest. This is no coincidence. In the ideas of the Indo-Iranians, the earth was square or round. Therefore, a round mound with a grave in the center was a semblance of the world. Each side of the world was ruled by its own god, therefore, orientation towards

the West was oriented towards God, who is in charge of communication with the other world.

Andronovites placed the corpse in the grave in a crouched position. Previously, this position was explained by the fact that, in fear of the deceased, he was tied with ropes in a sleeping position. However, in ancient literature it is said that the earth rests the deceased, like the mother of a son, and that in the future he will be reborn to a new life." Therefore, it can be assumed that the crouched pose of the deceased in the grave is the pose of a baby in the womb of mother earth. And to give This pose was given to the dead, he was tied up. The god of death, Yama, was called “the binder of the dead” and was depicted holding a rope.

Along with the burial of the dead, the Andronovo people used cremation - the burning of corpses associated with the cult of fire. However, the remains of bones, ash and coals in the graves differ in their purpose. In the early period, ash and coals are the remains of fire rituals of burning a corpse. Ashes and bones in the late hours - burnt wooden floors - traces of cleansing fires.

Sometimes during excavations archaeologists encounter the remains of paired burials of men and women who once lay in each other’s arms. It was believed that the women were killed and placed in the grave with the men. But this is not so; from ancient texts it became known that a woman, usually a wife, herself chose to remain alive, or to go to the next world with her deceased husband. But this custom was not widespread and was carried out symbolically - the wife lay down next to her deceased husband in the grave for a moment, and then came out of there, or instead threw a cut braid into the grave.

Numerous ceremonies and rituals accompanied the daily life of the Andronovo people, filling the real world of their lives with gods, ancestors, and heroes.

The construction of a house also began with a sacrifice. Vessels of milk, a bull or a ram were sacrificed. They ate the meat, drank the milk, and buried the pots and bones at the site of the future home - near the hearth, under a support pillar or under a threshold. There are known cases where children were sacrificed and buried under the floor of the house. When constructing the roof, the top beam was sprinkled with the sacrificial blood of an animal and a feast was held. The main support pillar symbolized the connection of people with the sky. On holidays it was decorated with flowers, and during weddings the bride and groom sat at the pillar, and on ordinary days an elder sat in this place of honor. The hearth, which was considered a family shrine, was especially revered. Destroying the hearth was the most terrible act. Sacrifices were made to the hearth, the bride who came to the house was circled around it, and the deceased was carried around it before the funeral. It was forbidden to throw ash from the fireplace into the wind, so special ash pits were installed near the home. All these rituals with fire and ash were performed specifically in order to earn health, prosperity and wealth for the family from the gods8.

Drawings on stones. Religion largely determined the development of art. Thus, stone figurines of gods were made with great realism and artistic taste.

The rock paintings of the Bronze Age are unique: on the smooth surfaces of rocks covered with a black clay crust, ancient people carved out images of animals, sun-faced people, chariots, and battle scenes with pieces of hard stone. This is a most valuable source of information about a person’s spiritual culture and worldview. Kazakhstan is one of the richest places in terms of the number and variety of rock paintings - petroglyphs. The drawings of Tamgaly, Eshkiolmes, Karatau, Maimak, Tarbagatai, and Bukentau, remarkable in their richness, were studied by archaeologists and became the property of world culture.

Bronze Age people were in the mythological stage of thinking. For the ancients, life represented a change in the repeating cycles of nature - the spring equinox, plowing, autumn harvest, lambing, winter and then again spring plowing, the spring arrival of the warm sun. In order not to disturb the harmony, each of these events should have been accompanied by sacrifices to the gods, prayers and special rituals. The latter were performed in special sanctuaries, in secluded places: in mountain gorges, near sacred springs and rivers. In the Bronze Age and later, such sanctuaries were located near rocks, and the drawings on them reflected the Andronovo people’s ideas about the world around them. Typically, sanctuaries were used for many centuries. Not only people of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages knocked out and carved drawings on the rocks, but later - right up to the 19th century. Therefore, in clusters of drawings, scientists, using certain techniques, identify groups or layers that differ in time.

Scientists have attributed a number of drawings, scenes and compositions to the Bronze Age. One of the most frequently encountered images in the Andronovo rock art is a wild bull aurochs with curved horns extended forward, often with an accentuated hump at the shoulder blades, with a powerful body and strong legs. The first images of them appeared in the Neolithic era.

In addition to the tour, there is an image of a domestic bull. He is depicted in harness in plowing scenes or shown harnessed to a cart. Based on the fact that the Andronovo people are Indo-Iranians, it is possible, based on the myths and religious literature of ancient India and Iran, to decipher the contents of some petroglyphs. Creation myths say that the world was created from parts of the primordial bull, sacrificed by the sun god Mithras. Mithras is compared and identified with a bull. In one of the drawings in the Eshkiolmes mountains, Mithra, in the form of an anthropomorphic creature with his head surrounded by the sun's rays, is shown standing on a bull. At a number of sanctuaries, the ancients depicted scenes of the worship of the sun-headed Mithra. In the Tamgaly tract, a sun-headed man is depicted, around whom there is a round dance of dancing men, as well as single and pair dancers. All together they perform a ritual dance. By the way, the round dance itself is a symbol of the sun, and the movement of the participants is an imitation of the rotation of the luminary in the sky. The image of a bull is associated with the idea of fertility, power and strength. A favorite subject in rock art is the Bactrian Bactrian camel. In the Bronze Age, he was depicted in a static form and often occupied a ritual place in many scenes. Among the ancient Iranians, he was the incarnation of the thunder god Verethragna, and among the Hindus - Indra. In the Avesta, the sacred book of the Iranians, the powerful and formidable Verethragna is glorified, who in the form of a camel “possesses the greatest strength, the greatest power.”

Among the petroglyphs of the Bronze Age, the image of chariots is common. Karatau rock paintings include 49 engravings of chariots; they are found in Tamgaly and the Eshkiolmes Mountains. Most of them show light two-wheeled hunting and war chariots. All of them are depicted in the same manner, as if in plan, resembling a cart with wheels disassembled and placed on the sides of the body. Draft animals are horses, less often camels. The Iranians associated the myth of the heavenly solar chariot with the horse and chariot. They believed that all the highest gods rode across the sky on horse-drawn chariots.

Posted on Allbest.ru

...

Etymology of the term

The word "religion" comes from the Latin religio, which means holiness, worship or conscientiousness. There are other versions of the origin. For example, in Latin there are the concepts religare and reeligere, which mean connection or reunion. Such a brief description of the term cannot fully convey the essence and concept of religion. Over hundreds of years, the word has acquired the greatest meaning, which is passed on from generation to generation.

So what is religious belief? This is spiritual enlightenment, recognition of the existence of the supernatural, beyond the scope of human perception. This is a culture that regularly evolves. Scientifically speaking, religion is a set of rules and established norms that are based on the sacred scriptures. Such laws establish moral boundaries for behavior in society. Violation of these rules is punishable, but not by society, but by higher powers, which are idols. Religions and beliefs belong to a single system that can unite people around the world, form the largest communities and inspire them. As a rule, the center of organized worship is temples: churches, mosques, altars.

History of religion: the beginning of the sacred path

Religious studies is a science that studies the formation of ancient culture. She seeks out the origins, comparing all the facts, theories, fictions and various treatises. Science is closely connected with philosophy and theology, because, first of all, the history of religion began with the eternal questions: “Who am I?”, “Where did I come from?”, “What is my purpose?” In search of the meaning of life in society, theories began to emerge that eventually acquired form and description.

The sacred path began with spirituality: man began to believe in the existence of the soul and its manifestations - spirits. A theory that claims that animism was the primary source in the origins of the history of religious beliefs was proposed by E. Taylor. Having chosen the scientist’s hypothesis and relying on it, he was followed by L. Sternberg, J. Fraser, and L. Levy-Bruhl. Together they suggested that the emergence of religious belief can be attributed to the impotence of our consciousness. Scientists have proposed that the acceptance of the existence of the supernatural is due only to the fact that man was not able to withstand either the human or the natural world.

Science suggests that the history of religion began not only with animism, but also with mysticism. Belief in the unusual, divine, and supernatural appeared more than two million years ago. This is evidenced by archaeological finds: rock paintings, household items of peoples and primitive people.

The Age of Animatism

The assumption that the religious belief of primitive people was animism was put forward by G. Stahl. Like Taylor in the future, he suggested that belief in souls and spirits was the beginning of the development of the entire doctrine of theology. Undoubtedly, animism is the most ancient religion, because the peoples were sure that our eyes were unaware of the secret and mystical world where the highest deities with power lived. The era of animatism also shows the origin of the concept of heaven and hell, but only in a completely different interpretation.

The reason is simple: if there is a secret world with immortal entities, and a person has a soul, then after the death of the body this energy breaks free and goes to the rest of the spirits. These thoughts gave rise to beliefs in the immaterial world and life after death.

An interesting fact, but initially the ancient peoples believed that the natural world around them was alive, had feelings and memory. The manifestation of the elements was equated with the voice of God, blessing or punishment. Everything that happened around: the change of seasons, rains and snows, floods and droughts - this was not just a biological process, but precisely the voice of immortal spirits. And with the development of society, in the process of evolution, people began to pass on these beliefs. Over time, the religious beliefs of primitive people became so strong that today it is an integral part of human culture.

Totemism

Totemism is an ancient religious belief where people were sure that there was some kind of spiritual connection between all living and nonliving beings. A striking example would be the ancient Indians who inhabited the northern part of America. They believed that the soul of a person could settle in a tree, stone or animal, and therefore their way of life began to change dramatically. Each tribe had its own totem - a deity who could be either a plant or a living creature. As a rule, the Indians worshiped their totem, praying for protection and mercy. Therefore, the tribes performed rituals, made sacrifices, and performed rituals. If you plunge into the depths of history, you will notice how some peoples sang to their deity, others gave them dances, and still others slaughtered livestock.

Totemism marked the beginning of the emergence of a set of rules and norms. There were laws that could not be broken. For Indians it is taboo, but for Muslims it is haram. It's simple: in the oldest religious belief there is a deity who lives in a totem. Accordingly, it is prohibited to kill, eat, or desecrate it. Among many peoples, it was forbidden to copulate or show aggression in front of the totem, because it was sacred to them. We observe this behavior in modern religious movements. For example, in church you cannot make noise, use foul language, or fight.

Shamanism and mysticism

During the emergence of religious beliefs, two similar trends appeared - mysticism and shamanism. These movements combine both philosophical teaching and theology. Today, such religions are considered irrational, because they are primarily based on internal sensations and perception of the world.

Mysticism and shamanism began their development with a belief in the supernatural, as well as in the fact that man is capable of cognizing this mysterious side of life. The teachings prove that we are capable of comprehending other realities. Thus, a new movement emerged from mysticism - magic, where tribes came into contact with an unknown force, adopted it and manifested it in the real world. The magical proto-religion involved the performance of mysterious rituals and ceremonies, which often remind us of another movement - shamanism.

Shamanism is an ancient religion that also believes in spirits and deities. According to their ideas, our world is divided into two parts: spiritual (mystical) and real (material). Shamans in the religious movement are guides, so they are able to simultaneously be in the world of souls and among us. They perform magical rituals, make sacrifices, using tools and other mysterious equipment.

Fetishism as a mysterious religious movement

Another branch of the ancient religion. In fetishism, people believe that objects around them are endowed with mysterious powers. To prove this, peoples and tribes looked for things with a special mark. For example, a crescent-shaped stone. Often in fetishism, talismans were created by human hand to symbolize the elements, desires, and spirituality.

Religious fetishism should not be confused with sexual fetishism. The name comes from the French fétichisme, which means idolism. This trend suggests that people worshiped inanimate objects, which were often simply called a fetish. They were totems and talismans, looking like small amulets. The tribes believed that such things, even if it was an ordinary stone, could help people survive in a cruel world, reward them with food and warmth.

The main feature of all religious beliefs is their vitality. The same shamanism is still present in our world, but in a completely different form. People still worship idols and totems and believe in the spiritual world and life after death. Now you know how religious beliefs appeared among primitive people, so let's look at how their development occurred and in what form they appear before us today.

Paganism as a trend of the pre-Christian era

The religious beliefs of the Eastern Slavs are similar to the movements and beliefs of other ancient peoples. Like many tribes, the Slavs survived only with the help of agriculture, hunting and fishing. Their harvest, production, and feeding of domestic animals depended entirely on nature, which people could not influence on their own. In order for their lives to have an abundance of everything necessary for successful activities, they began to turn to spirits. The ancient Slavs believed that the gods protected them, and it was for this reason that they needed to be protected, pleased and thanked.

The East Slavic tribes were pagans, and they adhered to a simple truth: a person’s religious belief means an inner conviction that they are surrounded by entities that are superior to earthly inhabitants in strength and intelligence. This is how deities began to be born in paganism. For example, Veles was asked to protect cattle from predators, Yarilo was asked to give sunlight and warmth, Perun was asked to have mercy on them and not punish them with lightning. The Slavic peoples believed that everything around was inhabited by spirits who could become angry. Therefore, they began to develop traditions: in the spring to greet Rod and ask him to give life to all living things, and when entering the forest, people needed to receive a blessing from the devil.

One can note the amazing trend of paganism. Gradually, people switched to monotheism, believing that people cannot have several patrons. Today, paganism is not the main religious belief, but the worldview and attitude that our ancestors worshiped has reached our generation. We still celebrate pagan holidays, such as Maslenitsa or Ivan Kupala Day.

Eastern beliefs: Buddhism, Hinduism

These two practices are closely intertwined with each other, despite the fact that they developed among different peoples. Let's start with Hinduism - a modern religious belief that originated more than 4,000 years ago. Its essence is simple: there is a physical world where a person lives, and there is an eternal world that is beyond the scope of perception. The latter is called the Universe, where gods, spirits, and souls live. People are part of it, and our energy is imprisoned in the physical body. When a person dies, the soul is freed, and it can choose its path: either start a new life in any physical body, or leave our planet. The ability to move is given only to those who have lived their physical lives correctly. At the same time, all bad deeds leave a mark on karma, and ultimately it will show whether a person deserves rebirth or whether the gods should punish him. Hinduism has deities such as Vishnu and his incarnations (Krishna and Rama), Shiva and Brahma.

Buddhism, like Hinduism, is a world religious movement. Both religions began to be practiced in ancient India. The development of Buddhism began with the fact that one young man decided to find the truth and meaning of existence. He wandered the earth, talked with the sages and asked them a single question. He not only traveled, but also actively meditated and was contemplative, practiced yoga and sought enlightenment. As the scriptures say, he comprehended it and began to preach the truth to people. Buddhism says that if a person can renounce worldly goods and reflect on existence, then he will learn to control his own consciousness. Meditation, yoga, reading mantras and self-absorption allow you to develop spirituality, realizing nirvana.

Christianity, Islam and Catholicism

Christianity began to develop in the Roman Empire, and later spread to Greece, Palestine and Israel. There is still debate among scientists about the origin of religious belief. At the same time, Christianity is currently a world religion and adheres to monotheism, which appears to us in three guises: in the form of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This movement talks about the Messiah, who was the son of God. He traveled around the world and preached the truth. In Christianity there is the concept of hell and heaven, God and the Devil. Those who follow a religious belief must follow a set of rules and laws, such as “thou shalt not sin,” “thou shalt not kill,” “thou shalt not steal,” and others. God's commandments bring good nature, simplicity, love and light to our society. Christianity, like many other faiths, strives to eradicate evil.

Catholicism is one of the directions of Christianity that adheres to the same rules and foundations. In this movement there is also Jesus Christ, and the place of worship is also the church. The reason why people in the world believe in one God and keep his commandments, but belong to different religions, is simple: at the beginning of the 11th century, a split in the church occurred. The peoples who once lived in Eastern Europe profess Orthodoxy. Catholicism spread in Western Europe, from which Protestantism subsequently separated.

Islam is in some ways similar to Christianity, because in this movement they also worship a single deity - Allah. However, Muslims have their own idea of God. The preacher of this religion was the Prophet Muhammad, who once heard the voice of Allah. Muslims worship in their own spiritual center - the mosque. According to the canons, they must read prayer, make pilgrimages, and help those in need. As with many faiths, Muslims are required to keep the commandments and not break them.

Newest religious movements

What is religious belief? This is a trend that is in constant development. Old religions are being replaced by new concepts that are completely different from the old directions. Today there are more than 10 neo-religions. As a rule, they are created on the basis of old movements, but with changes in canons, commandments and names. Occult groups, mystical, phenomenal, and psychological, began to appear. For example, one young man believes in the Spaghetti Monster, he carries a colander and worships him. Over the past few years, his religion has attracted thousands of people around the world, and analogues of the Bible and other sacred scriptures have begun to be produced.

Now you know what religious belief is. The history of each movement began with a simple step: belief in the soul and spirits. Then all directions went their own way and were distorted, modified, supplemented along with the development of the people.

Religion is a reflection of human nature. For the most part, it is necessary in order to maintain the foundations and norms of our society. In the modern world, there is debate about the importance of religion: some argue that it is an excellent way to control people, uniting them with a common goal; others believe that deities exist, and we only learn about this on our deathbed.

It doesn’t matter which god you worship, because all movements are called upon to unite peoples, get rid of hatred and wars, and make our race happy, friendly and good-natured.

Andronovites placed the corpse in the grave in a crouched position. Previously, this position was explained by the fact that, in fear of the deceased, he was tied with ropes in a sleeping position. However, in ancient literature it is said that the earth rests the deceased, like the mother of a son, and that in the future he will be reborn to a new life. Therefore, it can be assumed that the crouched pose of the deceased in the grave is the pose of a baby in the womb of mother earth. And to give the deceased this pose, he was tied up. The god of death, Yama, was called “the binder of the dead” and was depicted holding a rope.

Sometimes during excavations archaeologists encounter the remains of paired burials of men and women who once lay in each other’s arms. It was believed that the women were killed and placed in the grave with the men. But this is not so; from ancient texts it became known that a woman, usually a wife, herself chose to remain alive, or to go to the next world with her deceased husband. But this custom was not widespread and was carried out symbolically - the wife lay down for a moment next to her deceased husband in the grave, and then came out of there, or instead threw a cut off braid into the grave.

Numerous ceremonies and rituals accompanied the daily life of the Andronovo people, filling the real world of their lives with gods, ancestors, and heroes.

Drawings on stones. Religion largely determined the development of art. Thus, stone figurines of gods were made with great realism and artistic taste.

Bronze Age people were in the mythological stage of thinking. For the ancients, life represented a change in the repeating cycles of nature - the spring equinox, plowing, autumn harvest, lambing, winter and then again spring plowing, the spring arrival of the warm sun. In order not to disturb the harmony, each of these events should have been accompanied by sacrifices to the gods, prayers and special rituals. The latter took place in special sanctuaries, in secluded places: in mountain gorges, near sacred springs and rivers. In the Bronze Age and later, such sanctuaries were located near rocks, and the drawings on them reflected the Andronovo people’s ideas about the world around them. Typically, sanctuaries were used for many centuries. Not only people of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages knocked out and carved drawings on the rocks, but later - right up to the 19th century. Therefore, in clusters of drawings, scientists, using certain techniques, identify groups or layers that differ in time.

Scientists have attributed a number of drawings, scenes and compositions to the Bronze Age. One of the most frequently encountered images in the rock art of the Andronovo people is a wild bull aurochs with curved horns extended forward, often with an emphasized hump at the shoulder blades, with a powerful body and strong legs. The first images of them appeared in the Neolithic era.

The image of a bull is associated with the idea of fertility, power and strength.

A favorite subject in rock art is the Bactrian Bactrian camel. In the Bronze Age, it was depicted in a static form, and often occupied a ritual place in many scenes. Among the ancient Iranians, he was the incarnation of the god of thunder, Verethragna, and among the Hindus, he was Indra. In the Avesta, the sacred book of the Iranians, the powerful and formidable Verethragna is glorified, who in the form of a camel “possesses the greatest strength, the greatest power.”

Among the drawings there are scenes of plowing, which depict oxen, horses and goats harnessed to a plow. A man is following the plow. Apparently, these scenes are associated with the celebration of the New Year, the spring solstice, the holiday of the renewal of nature, and fertility. An important part of the holiday was making the first furrow. This act was supposed to guarantee a rich harvest. The right to make the first furrow was given to the king, therefore the Avesta says that the supreme god Ahura Mazda gave the first king of the Iranians, Yima, the “Golden Plow” so that he could plow the land. The idea of the golden plow and the first furrow is typical for many peoples 9 . It should be noted that echoes of ancient ideas, often in modified form, have been preserved among the Kazakhs and others inhabiting Kazakhstan peoples

1. Margulan A. X., Akishev K. A., Kadyrbaev M., Orazbaev M. A. Ancient cultures of Central Kazakhstan. Alma-Ata, 1966. Margulan A. X. Begazy-Dandybaevskaya culture of Central Kazakhstan. Alma-Ata, 1979; Kadyrbaev M.K., Kurmankulov Zh. Culture of ancient cattle breeders and metallurgists of Sary-Arka. Alma-Ata, 1992.

2. Krivtsova-Grakova O. A. Alekseevskoe settlement and burial ground // Tr. State history Museum M. T. XVII. 1948; Sorokin V.S. Bronze Age burial ground Tasty-Butak I in Western Kazakhstan // Materials and research in archeology. 1962. No. 120.

3. Maksimova A. G. Bronze Age burial ground Karakuduk // Proceedings of the Institute of Atomic Energy of the Academy of Sciences of the KazSSR. 1961. T. 12. P. 62-71.

4.Central Asia in the Stone and Bronze Age. L., 1966. S. 233-238.

5. Kuzmina E. E. The most ancient cattle breeders from the Urals to the Tien Shan. Frunze, 1986; Itina M.A. Ancient Khorezm farmers // History, archeology and ethnography of Central Asia. M., 1988. pp. 72-86.

7. Zdanovich G. B. The phenomenon of proto-civilization of the Bronze Age of the Ural-Kazakh steppes. Interaction of nomadic cultures and ancient civilizations. Alma-Ata, 1989. pp. 171-178.

8. Kuzmina E. E. The most ancient cattle breeders from the Urals to the Tien Shan. Frunze, 1986. pp. 24-26.

9. Samashev 3. S. Rock art of the upper Irtysh region. Alma-Ata, 1992; Kadyrbaev M.K., Maryashev A.N. Rock paintings of the Karatau ridge. Alma-Ata, 1992.

Not It is allowed to use materials on other web resources without the consent of the author’s team

To copy and publish materials, written or oral permission from the editors or author is required. A hyperlink to the Qazaqstan tarihy portal is required. All rights are reserved by the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On Copyright and Related Rights”.. – 111)

Religion in the Bronze Age

Man in the Bronze Age already consciously distinguished himself from the animal and plant world. He continued to worship the forces of nature, the sun and fire, which brought him warmth, light and other benefits. At this time, people had a complex system of ideas about the afterlife. Different tribes represented it in their own way. This is evidenced by various variants of the funeral ritual.

Among the Andronovo people, the cult of the dead occupied a special place. Belief in immortality, in the existence of the other world, turned the funeral of fellow tribesmen into a complex and magnificent ritual, in which the customs and rules of the tribal community were observed.

In the early period of the Andronovo culture (XVIII - XIV centuries BC), the deceased was burned at the stake, and his ashes and personal belongings were placed in a stone box. This ritual was associated with the cult of fire. In the minds of the ancients, burning corresponded to the law of renewal of nature, the rebirth of new life.

The deceased is placed on a woodpile of firewood covered with reeds. His personal belongings, vessels with food, a bow and arrows, and a mace are laid out next to him.

Then they command the widow: “Fulfill the ancient custom! “And she ascends to the future bonfire to the right of the deceased. They raise the widow and say: “Go to the world of the living! " - and they walk around the fire three times from right to left, conjuring: “So that water flows to you in three worlds: in this world, in the air and in the sky." Then a goat is sacrificed to the god of fire Agni, who with his flame will transport the deceased to heaven with the words: “The goat is your share, Agni, they incinerated it with heat! Take back to the fathers the one who sacrificed to you.” After this, the deceased is covered with the bones of the sacrificial animal. From the fire brought from the hearth, three sacrificial fires are kindled, the fire is lit on three sides and a prayer is addressed to the god of death, Yama. The funeral pyre burns for three hours, after which it is filled with water and a cleansing pyre is erected in this place, making sacrifices to the gods and fathers. And finally, the mourning ceremony ends, and people, having washed themselves, turn to the Sun: “We have returned from darkness. It was the living who separated from the dead... We walked toward dancing and laughter.”

At the next, more developed stage of history, the custom of burning was replaced by a new one: the deceased was placed in a stone crypt on his left side in a crouched position.

The Andronovites built funeral structures with great care. They surrounded them with round or oval-shaped stone fences made of vertically dug or laid flat stone slabs.

All Andronovo burials are oriented with their heads to the west or southwest. A round mound with a grave in the center was considered a semblance of the world. Each side of the snow was ruled by its own god. The orientation towards the west was the orientation towards God, who is in charge of communication with the other world.

The deceased was placed in the grave in a crouched position. Previously, this position was explained by the fact that ancient people were afraid of the dead person, and therefore tied him with ropes in a sleeping position. However, in ancient literature it is said that the earth rests the deceased, like the mother of a son, and that in the future he will be reborn to a new life. Therefore, the crouched posture of the deceased in the grave is the posture of a baby in the womb. And to give the deceased this pose, he was tied up.

The god of death, Yama, was called “the binder of the dead” and was depicted with a rope in his hand.

In the afterlife, according to the Andronovo people, there were leaders and simple community members, wars were fought, livestock was raised and fields were cultivated. Therefore, vessels with food were placed in the grave, weapons, clothes, jewelry and other items were placed. All this was supposed to ensure the deceased a decent existence in the afterlife.

The spirits of the dead were worshiped, they believed in their protection and protection, and the graves were considered shrines. It was an ancestor cult.

Numerous ceremonies and rituals accompanied the daily life of the Andronovo people, filling their real world with gods, ancestors, and heroes.

The construction of a house began with a sacrifice.

Vessels of milk were sacrificed, and a bull or ram was slaughtered. They ate the meat, drank the milk, and buried the pots and bones at the site of the future home. When constructing the roof, the top beam was sprinkled with the blood of a sacrificial animal and a feast was held. The main support pillar symbolized the connection of people with the sky. On holidays it was decorated with flowers, during weddings the bride and groom sat at the pillar, and on ordinary days an elder sat in this place of honor.

The hearth was a family shrine.

Destroying a hearth was considered the most terrible offense. Sacrifices were made to the hearth, the bride who came to the house was circled around it, and the deceased was carried around it before the funeral. It was forbidden to throw ash from the fireplace into the wind, so special ash pits were built near the dwelling.

All these rituals with ash and fire were performed in order to earn health, prosperity and wealth for the family from the gods.

Different nations have their own types of burial. In India, for example, some of the dead are burned and their ashes are thrown into the sacred Ganges River. In Tibet, the dead are taken to special mountain valleys, where birds and animals gnaw the dead to the bones. All types of funeral rites are associated with a person’s belief in the afterlife, with the cult of the dead.

Art in the Bronze Age

Religion largely determined the development of art. Bronze Age people were in the mythological stage of thinking.

For them, life was a change of repeating cycles of nature: the spring equinox, plowing, and then the autumn harvest, lambing, winter and then the spring arrival of the warm sun again. In order not to disturb this harmony, according to their concepts, each of these events had to be accompanied by sacrifices to the gods, prayers and special rituals.

Rituals were performed in special places: sanctuaries, mountain gorges, near sacred springs and rivers.

In the Bronze Age, drawings appeared on the stones of these sanctuaries that reflected the Andronovo people’s ideas about the world around them.

Ancient people carved images on the smooth surfaces of rocks with pieces of hard stone. These were animals, sun-faced people, chariots, battle scenes. These drawings are a valuable source of information about a person’s spiritual background and his worldview. Kazakhstan is one of the richest places in terms of the number and variety of rock paintings and petroglyphs.

Archaeologists carefully studied the drawings in Tamgaly, Eshkiolmes, Karatau, Maimak, Tarbagatai, Bukentau. These drawings have become the property of world culture.

The largest rock art monument is the Semirechye (Tamgaly) region.

Tamgaly rock paintings are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The first petroglyphs appeared in the Stone Age.

The image of a wild aurochs (bull) with curved or extended horns, often with an emphasized hump at the shoulder blades, with a powerful body and strong legs is one of the most common on the rocks of Kazakhstan.

There are images of a domestic bull in a harness in scenes of plowing or pulling a cart. These designs are associated with the idea of fertility, as well as a symbol of power and strength. The myths about the creation of the Universe say that the world was created from parts of the primordial bull, sacrificed by the sun god Mithras. Mithras is compared and identified with a bull.

A drawing was found in the Eshkiolmes Mountains depicting an anthropomorphic creature. This is Mithras. He stands on a bull, his head surrounded by the rays of the sun.

In some sanctuaries, ancient artists depicted scenes of the worship of the sun-headed Mithras.

In the Tamgaly tract, for example, a sun-headed man is shown, around whom there is a round dance of dancing men, as well as single dancers and couples.

They all perform a ritual dance: the round dance is a symbol of the sun, and the movement of the participants is an imitation of the rotation of the luminaries in the sky.

These drawings indicate that even in the Bronze Age, people knew about the structure of the Universe, were interested in the origin of the world and the interaction of cosmic bodies. A favorite design of the Bronze Age was the Bactrian camel. He was depicted motionless. He takes center stage in many scenes. The two-humped camel was the embodiment of the thunder god Verethragna, and among the Hindus Indra. In the Avesta, the sacred book of the Iranians, the powerful and formidable Verethragna is glorified, who in the form of a camel “possesses the greatest strength, the greatest power.”

Among the petroglyphs of the Bronze Age, the image of chariots is common. There are 49 of them in the rock paintings of Karatau; they are found in Tamgaly, in the Eshkiolmes mountains. Basically, these are light two-wheeled hunting and fighting carts drawn by horses and camels. In ancient times there was a myth about the heavenly solar chariot. All the highest Gods ride across the sky on horse-drawn chariots.

The Bronze Age also includes battle scenes, battles between foot soldiers armed with clubs, axes, hammers, and bows. A warrior with a club is often mentioned in ancient literature. The club is a sacred and formidable weapon. Among the drawings there are scenes of infantry, which depict bulls, horses or goats harnessed to a plow. A man is following the plow. These scenes

They reflect the celebration of the New Year, associated with the spring equinox, with the holiday of the renewal of nature, with fertility.

Carrying out the first furrow was an important part of the holiday. This was supposed to ensure a rich harvest. The right to make the first furrow was given to the king, and therefore the Avesta says that the supreme god Ahura Mazda gave the first king Yima a “golden plow” so that he could plow the vast land.

In a modified form, ancient ideas were preserved among the Kazakhs and other peoples of Kazakhstan.

During the Bronze Age, fundamental changes occurred in the development of human society: cattle breeding and agriculture, ore mining and metallurgy, the production of metal (bronze) tools, weapons and jewelry, the construction of dwellings, and natural exchange developed. This led to population growth, the emergence of large tribal unions, and the movement of tribes in search of new ones.

The cultural and economic ties of the Bronze Age tribes with the Mediterranean and Asia Minor contributed to the flourishing of culture.

The monumental necropolises of Kazakhstan, high-quality ornate ceramics, numerous treasures of bronze-casting art, mythology and petroglyphs demonstrate the pinnacle of cultural and economic achievements and, at the same time, the line beyond which the period of economic decline of the Bronze Age tribes begins.

Since the beginning of the Shang Dynasty (ca. 1751-1028), we have much more information at our disposal. In general terms, the Shang marks the transition from prehistory to the actual history of Ancient China. This era is characterized by the development of bronze production, the emergence of urban centers and capital cities, the presence of a military aristocracy, the emergence of kingdoms and the beginning of writing. The documentation concerning religious life is quite extensive. Firstly, we have a rich iconography, exemplified by the magnificent ritual bronze vases. On the other hand, royal tombs provide information about some religious rituals. But a particularly valuable source is the numerous inscriptions on oracle bones: animal shoulder blades and turtle scutes8. Finally, several later works: for example, the “Book of Songs”3, called “Free Chou texts” by Karlgren [free texts of the Zhou era]9, contain a lot of material from ancient times. Let us add, however, that these sources tell us about some aspects the religions of the Shans relate, first of all, to the beliefs and rituals of the royal house; the mythology and theology of other segments of the population, as in the Neolithic era, remains largely unknown to us. The interpretation of iconographic documents is not always indisputable. Some analogy of motives is usually recognized. Yangshaoyu ceramics with religious symbolism of later times. Henze (op. cit., pp. 215 et seq.) interprets the combination of polar symbols as an illustration of religious ideas associated with the renewal of Time and spiritual renewal. The symbolism of the cicada and the Tao-di mask are equally important. symbolism that suggests the cycle of birth and rebirth: light and life arising from darkness and death. The union of antagonistic images (feathered snake, snake and eagle, etc.) is also remarkable, in other words, the dialectic of opposites and coincidentia oppositorum, the central point. Taoist philosophy and mysticism. Bronze vases are still urn-houses11. their forms are borrowed partly from ceramics, partly from prototypes in wood12. Magnificent 8 A fairly common method of fortune telling in Northern Asia: the question was asked; animal bones or a turtle shell were fired, and the soothsayer interpreted the configuration of the resulting cracks. Next to each question and answer were written down. 9 BernardKalgren. Legends and Cults in Ancient China, p. 344. 10 Salamander, tiger, dragon, etc., still existing in Chinese iconography and native art, are cosmological symbols attested already at the end of the Neolithic. Compare: Carl Hentze. Bronzegerat.., pp. 40 sq., 55 sq., 132 sq., 165 sq. 11 Hentze. Das Haus als Wei tort der Seele, p. 14 sq. et passim. 12 Li Chi. The Beginnings of Chinese Civilization, p. 32. The animal art shown in bronze vases was very likely served as a model for wood engraving13. Fortune-telling inscriptions on bones and shells reveal the religious concept of the supremacy of the highest heavenly deity Di (Sovereign) or Shang-di (Supreme Sovereign), absent (or elusive?) in Neolithic materials. Di commands the cosmic rhythms of natural phenomena (rain, wind, drought, etc.), grants victory to the King, ensures a rich harvest, or, conversely, dooms him to defeat, sends illness and death. Two types of sacrifices are brought to him: in the sanctuary of the ancestors and in the open field. But, as happens with other heavenly gods of the archaic pantheon (see our Treatise on the History of Religions, § 14 et seq.), his cult also indicates a slight weakening of the primacy of religion. Di turns out to be more distant and less effective than the deceased ancestors of the royal families, and fewer sacrifices are made to him. However, he is the only one to whom one appeals when it comes to fertility (rain) and war - the two most important concerns of the ruler. Be that as it may, Dee's supremacy remains. All other gods, as well as the royal ancestors, are in a subordinate position in relation to him. Only the ancestors of the King can intercede for someone before Dee; on the other hand, only the King is endowed with the ability to communicate with his ancestors, for he is a “special person” 14. The authority of the Sovereign is strengthened with the help of his ancestors; faith in their magical-religious power legitimized the power of the Shang dynasty. In turn, the ancestors depend on donations of grain, as well as blood and meat of animals15. It would be a mistake to assume, following some researchers16, that the cult of ancestors passed down to the lower social strata from the ruling aristocracy, for which it meant so much. No, this cult was rooted and very popular already in the Neolithic era. As we saw above (p. 8), among the most ancient farmers it formed part of a religious system associated with the anthropocosmic cycle. Hence the supremacy of the king, whose Progenitor was believed to have descended in a direct line from Di, who gave this ancient cult a political function. 13 Ibid., p. 35. 14 The formula: “I, the only one of men” (or perhaps “I, the first of men”) is attested in oracular inscriptions; cf: DavidKeight/ey. Shang Theology and the Oenesis of Chinese political Culture, p. 213, no. 6. 15 As Keightley notes (cit. cit., pp. 214 ff.), the cult of ancestors highlighted the royal line as the source of political and religious power. The doctrine of the "Mandate of Heaven", which is generally considered an invention of the Zhou Dynasty, has its roots in the theology of the Shang era. 16 See, for example: But. The Cradle of the East, p. 320. The King makes two types of sacrifices: sacrifices to the ancestors and sacrifices to Di and other gods. Sometimes the ritual service extends over 300 or 360 days. The word "sacrifice" means "year" because the annual cycle is intended to be a completed service. This confirms the religious significance of the calendar, which guarantees the normal change of seasons. In the colossal royal tombs near Anyang, along with animal skeletons, numerous human remains are found: people were killed, obviously, in order to accompany the ruler in the afterlife. The choice of victims (warriors, servants, dogs, horses) emphasizes the importance of the institution of hunting*4 (maybe ritual?) for the military aristocracy and the royal clan17. A large number of questions preserved for us by the inscriptions on the oracle bones concern the timeliness and chances of success of a particular royal enterprise. Burials were endowed with the same cosmological symbolism and performed the same function as dwellings: they were dwellings, only for the dead. Similar attitudes can explain human sacrifices during the construction of buildings, especially temples and palaces. The souls of the victims seemed to ensure the indestructibility of the structure: the structure being erected was supposed to serve, so to speak, as a “new body”, a receptacle for the soul of the victim18. But the practice of human sacrifice had other purposes, about which we have little information; one can only assume that what was meant was the renewal of Time or the regeneration of the reigning dynasty. Despite the gaps, the main features of the religion of the Shang era can be deciphered. There is no doubt about the most important role of the God of Heaven and the cult of ancestors. The complexity of the sacrificial system (associated with the religious calendar) and the technology of predictions determined the existence of a class of professionals - “experts of the sacred,” soothsayers, priests and shamans. And finally, the iconography reveals to us symbolism that is both cosmological and soteriological, which is not yet sufficiently clarified, but, in all likelihood, anticipates the main religious concepts of classical China. 17 Li Chi. Op. with it., p. 21 sq. The author draws attention to animalistic motifs (tiger, deer, etc. ) in painting bronze vases (p. 33). Let us add that we are talking about emblematic animals that carry quite complex cosmological and initiatory symbolism. 18 Wed: Eliade. De Zalmoxis a Gengis-Khan, p. 182 sq.

Help on Tele2, tariffs, questions