"Kostenki" is an archaeological museum-reserve. It is known to the whole world for its complex of ancient sites of the Stone Age. Over 130 years of research has been conducted here.
"Kostenki" is a museum-reserve. Location
The ancient village, located 40 kilometers south from Voronezh, is called Kostenki. In the territory of this settlement alone, at different times, more than 26 sites of the most ancient primitive people of the Stone Age were discovered and explored.
The museum reserve received its name from the name of the village. It is located in the territories with. Kostenki and with. Borschevo.
25 protection zones with monuments of the Stone Age, the total area of which is about 9 hectares, combines the Kostenki Museum-Reserve . Voronezh region has an amazing and unique historical attraction, which is known throughout the world. This place has a beautiful unofficial name - "The Pearl of the World Paleolithic".
Museum Creation
The idea of creating such a wonderful museum belongs to A.N. Rogachev - a famous Soviet archaeologist. They built it at the expense of the local Voronezh authorities. The excavations and conservation of the monument themselves were carried out by the expedition of the regional Leningrad branch of the archaeological institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences under the direction of A. Rogacheva.
Then they created this temporary exhibition. In 1983 a museum was opened, then still a branch of the Voronezh Museum of Local Lore.
And in 1991, this branch separated from the main museum of local lore and received the status of a museum reserve. Moreover, it included not only the main museum above one of the sites (Kostenki-11), but also all existing monuments (Upper Paleolithic) of the Kostenkovsky-Borschevsky region, as well as the Slavic settlement - Borschevsky. So the state archaeological museum-reserve "Kostenki" was formed. The main purpose of its creation is the protection, study and popularization of the Upper Paleolithic sites.
Finds in the ancient sites
All parking lots have their own rooms. In the course of recent work on the study of the most ancient sites (Kostenki-14, 12), sensational finds were discovered that definitely change our views on primitive history.
In the parking lot "Kostenki-14" in 2000, the most ancient ornaments in Europe (Eastern) were found - piercings with ornaments made of tubular bird bones, pendants made of shells. They were discovered in a layer of volcanic ash brought to the Russian Plain from Italy over 38 thousand years ago.
These ancient finds (jewelry and the remains of settlements), precisely in the ashes, suggest that this settlement ceased to exist during the global catastrophe that occurred on the territory of Europe in that era.
In 2001, almost the whole skeleton of a still very young mammoth and even the skull of this animal was found there (usually it is poorly preserved). For Siberian territories this is a normal phenomenon. However, everything happened in Kostenki. Here earlier, archaeologists usually found only individual mammoth bones. In ancient times, people brought them to their parking lots for household needs.
It turns out that the mammoth found here either fell into the karst funnel, or was dragged into a swamp. In the same year, a head from a figurine from a human figure, made of a mammoth tusk (age - 37 thousand years) was still found. This became a world sensation, since today this find is the oldest sculptural work (human statue) in the Paleolithic of Europe.
Age
Prior to this discovery, the age of sculptural images was determined at about 32 thousand years. It turns out that they are older than 10 thousand years.
Also, according to an analysis in 2002 by an American laboratory, the age of Kostenok-12 (the oldest lower cultural layer) is up to 50 thousand years (instead of 40 thousand) for the Upper Paleolithic.
The Kostenki (museum-reserve) will be replenished for a long time with the most ancient historical facts of the life of people of that curious era. Most of the history of these places is still resting under water and waiting for its researchers.
How did it all start?
In 1979, the first parking lot was opened. It represents the dwelling of a man from the Stone Age. It was built about 20,000 years ago from the bones of a mammoth. This oldest house consists of 570 mammoth bones. The size of the dwelling is 9 meters in diameter. It is surrounded by pantries in the form of pits. It was first discovered by a local resident I.I. Protopov (built the cellar) in 1949.
Now this unique house is located right inside the museum itself in the same place and in almost the same condition as it was when the local resident first saw it. The Kostenki Museum Reserve can present a lot of surprises to its visitors.
Many amazing legends were born due to the fact that people found huge, unimaginable sizes of mammoth bones (they never saw such animals).
One of them says that there is a huge beast underground that does not appear on people. And from the words "ma" - "earth", "mut" - "mole" people began to call him "mamut".
Today, over 60 settlements have been discovered in this territory, the age of which is between 45 and 15 thousand years.
"Kostenki" (museum reserve) has a huge number of various ancient exhibits. It exhibits the oldest tools, statuettes of women ("Paleolithic Venus"), various household items. And the figures for some reason, for the most part, were cut out in the form of pregnant women. They had a symbol - a continuation of life.
All this is invaluable and the only evidence of the longest era in the cultural development of mankind on Earth.