There have always been many historical mysteries in the world. Fortunately, the answers to many questions turned out to be practically under our very nose, or rather under our feet. Archeology has opened the way for us to know our origins with the help of found artifacts, documents and much more. Until now, archaeologists tirelessly dig out more and more new imprints of the past, revealing the truth to us.

Some archaeological discoveries simply shocked the world. For example, the Rosetta stone, thanks to which scientists were able to translate many ancient texts. The discovered Dead Sea Scrolls turned out to be extremely important for the world religion, allowing to confirm the texts of the Jewish canon. The same significant finds include the tomb of King Tut and the discovery of Troy. The discovery of traces of the ancient Roman Pompeii has given historians access to the knowledge of the ancient civilization.

Even today, when it would seem that almost all science is looking forward, archaeologists are still finding ancient artifacts that can change our understanding of the planet's past. Here are ten of the most influential discoveries in world history.

10. Mound Hisarlyk (1800s)

Hisarlik is located in Turkey. In fact, the discovery of this hill is evidence of the existence of Troy. For centuries, the Iliad of Homer was nothing more than a myth. In the 50-70s of the 19th century, trial excavations were successful, and it was decided to continue the research. Thus, confirmation of the existence of Troy was found. Excavations continued into the 20th century with a new team of archaeologists.

9. Megalosaurus (1824)

Megalosaurus was the first dinosaur to be explored. Of course, fossil skeletons of dinosaurs were found before, but then science could not explain what kind of creatures they were. Some believe that it was the study of Megalosaurus that was the beginning of many science fiction stories about dragons. However, not only this was the result of such a find, there was a whole boom in the popularity of archeology and humanity's passion for dinosaurs, everyone wanted to find their remains. The found skeletons began to be classified and exhibited in museums for public viewing.

8. Treasures of Sutton Hoo (1939)

Sutton Hoo is considered Britain's most valuable treasure. Sutton Khu is the burial chamber of a King who lived in the 7th century. Various treasures, lyre, wine goblets, swords, helmets, masks and more were buried with him. Surrounding the burial chamber are 19 mounds that are also graves, and excavations at Sutton Hoo continue to this day.

7. Dmanisi (2005)

Ancient man and the creatures that evolved into modern Homo sapiens have been studied for many years. It would seem that today there are no white spots left in the history of our evolution, but a 1.8 million-year-old skull found in the Georgian city of Dmanisi made archaeologists and historians think. It represents the remains of the Homoerectus species, which migrated from Africa, and confirms the hypothesis that this species stands separately in the evolutionary chain.

6. Göbekli Tepe (2008)

For a long time, Stonehenge was considered the oldest religious building in the world. In the 60s of the XX century, this hill in southeastern Turkey was potentially older than Stonehenge, but very soon it was recognized as a medieval cemetery. However, in 2008, Klaus Schmidt discovered 11,000-year-old stones there, which were clearly processed by a prehistoric man who did not yet have either clay or metal tools for this.

5. Headless Vikings of Dorset (2009)

In 2009, road workers accidentally stumbled upon human remains. It turned out that they dug up a mass grave in which more than 50 people with severed heads were buried. Historians immediately looked into the books and realized that once there was a massacre of the Vikings, it happened somewhere between 960 and 1016. The skeletons belong to young people in their twenties, the story suggests that they tried to attack the Anglo-Saxons, but they resisted very zealously, which led to the massacre. Vikings are said to have been stripped and tortured before being beheaded and thrown into a pit. This discovery sheds some light on the historic battle.

4. Petrified Man (2011)

Findings of fossilized human remains are far from new, but this does not make them less terrible and, at the same time, attractive. These beautifully mummified bodies can tell a lot about the past. Recently, a petrified body was found in Ireland, its age is about four thousand years, scientists suggest that this person died a very cruel death. All the bones are broken and his posture is very strange. This is the oldest fossilized man ever found by archaeologists.

3. Richard III (2013)

In August 2012, the University of Leicester, together with the City Council and the Society of Richard III, organized, leading to the discovery of the lost remains of one of the most famous English monarchs. The remains were found under a modern parking lot. The University of Leicester has announced that it will be initiating a full DNA study of Richard III, so the English monarch could become the first historical figure whose DNA will be tested.

2. Jamestown (2013)

Scientists have always talked about cannibalism in the ancient settlements of Jamestown, but neither historians nor archaeologists have ever had direct evidence of this. Of course, history tells us that in ancient times, people in search of the New World and riches often found a terrible and cruel end, especially in the cold winter. Last year, William Kelso and his team discovered the punctured skull of a 14-year-old girl in a pit filled with the remains of horses and other animals that the settlers ate during the famine. Kelso is convinced that the girl was killed to satisfy her hunger, and the skull was pierced to get to the soft tissues and brain.

1. Stonehenge (2013-2014)

For many centuries, Stonehenge remained something mystical for historians and archaeologists. The location of the stones did not allow us to determine what exactly they were used for and how they were arranged in this way. Stonehenge remained a mystery that many struggled with. Recently, archaeologist David Jackis organized excavations that led to the discovery of the remains of bison (in ancient times they were eaten and also used in agriculture). Based on these excavations, scientists were able to conclude that Stonehenge was inhabited in the 8820s BC and was not at all conceived as a separate object. Thus, pre-existing assumptions will be subject to revision.

Among the main finds are a cake with raisins 100 years old, the oldest modern man, many skulls and gold, several drawings, two inscriptions, one sword and a cruiser.

The popular science journal Archeology (a publication of the Archaeological Institute of America) has published its annual list of the top finds of the year. "Science and Life" traditionally supplements this rating with the most important Russian discoveries.

I. Skulls of the Potbellied Hill.
Göbekli Tepe (“Pubby Hill”) is not only one of the most famous archaeological sites, but also one of the most mysterious. 10-12 thousand years ago, the inhabitants of Anatolia (modern Turkey) built ring structures there from large stones. In these structures they gathered for some religious or social needs.

Fragment of a skull from Göbekli Tepe. Photo: Julia Gresky/Archaeology.

Last year, researchers found that in ancient times, human skulls were hung in such structures. The fragments found during the excavations refer to the skulls of three people. They were separated after death, cut in a special way, they were engraved, they were painted. There is (sorry for the involuntary pun) some kind of ritual unknown to us. But whose skulls deserved such attention - especially revered people or, conversely, enemies, is still unclear.

II. Lost cruiser.
The sunken American heavy cruiser Indianapolis from the Second World War was discovered at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. It is infamous due to several circumstances. The cruiser was the last major US Navy ship sunk during that war. His crash went down in the history of the American Navy as the most massive loss of personnel (883 people) as a result of one flood. In addition, it was Indianapolis that delivered critical parts of the first atomic bomb (later dropped on Hiroshima) to Tinian Island, where the Air Force base was located.

Heavy cruiser Indianapolis. Photo: U.S. Navy/Archaeology.

The ship was lost shortly after completing this controversial mission. It was sunk by a Japanese submarine. For the past decades, the exact location of the remains of the cruiser has been unknown, and all attempts to find it have been in vain. By comparing the location of the other ship, whose crew last saw the Indianapolis, with the route of the latter, historians have calculated the likely crash area. Surveys using an autonomous underwater vehicle confirmed their assumptions.

III. Antarctic cake.
A cake with raisins lay in a rusty jar at the end of the world (in Antarctica) for 106 years. They found him in a hut at Cape Adare. The house was built in 1899 and apparently abandoned in 1911. The cupcake was left by one of the members of the expedition of Robert Scott. Modern researchers say that outwardly the cake looks good and even smells good. Only if you smell the cake very close, it becomes clear that it is not worth eating. Probably, it is so well preserved because of the cold and dry air.

Cake from Antarctica. A photo:Antarctic Heritage Trust/ archaeology.

IV. Aztec golden wolf
In Mexico City, during excavations at the foot of the Aztec Templo Mayor ("great temple"), a large number of gold objects and the skeleton of a young wolf sacrificed were found. Among the finds are ear and nose ornaments, as well as a breastplate. The latter is usually part of the equipment of a warrior, and in an open complex it decorated a wolf. The head of the beast looks to the west, which symbolizes its following the sun, to another world. The sacrifice was made during the reign of Ahuizotl (1486-1502), during the period of wars and the expansion of the Aztec empire. Found in 2017, the complex is the richest in 40 years of excavations of the temple.

Wolf and gold from Mexico City. Photo: Mirsa Islas/Templo Mayor Project/Archaeology.

V. The Dawn of Egyptian Writing
A large inscription, carved on a rock north of the ancient Egyptian city of El-Kab, sheds light on the formation of the writing of this civilization. Four characters appeared around 3250 BC, during the period of the so-called Zero Dynasty, when the Nile Valley was divided into several kingdoms, and writing was just emerging.

Predynastic inscription from Egypt. A photo: Alberto Urcia, Elkab Desert Survey Project / archaeology.

The researchers saw four symbols: the head of a bull on a pole, two storks and an ibis. In later inscriptions, such a sequence was associated with the solar cycle. She could also express the power of the pharaoh over the orderly cosmos. Known until 2017, the inscriptions from the period of the Zero Dynasty were exclusively of a business nature and were small in size (no more than 2.5 cm). The height of the newly discovered signs is about half a meter.

VI. "Cave" genetics
Early Homo remains, such as Neanderthals and Denisovans, have only been discovered at a limited number of sites in Europe and Asia. For a long time, this fact brought complete disappointment to archaeologists: there are much more sites without human bones than with them.

Denisova cave. Photo: Sergey Zelensky / Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences /archaeology.

In the past year, a group of researchers gave their colleagues new hope: they were able to trace the genetic markers of the presence of ancient Homo in ordinary-looking cave deposits. A team of geneticists studied soil samples from seven sites from France, Belgium, Spain, Croatia and Russia. They managed to detect the DNA of Neanderthals at three sites up to 60 thousand years old, and in the Denisova Cave - the DNA of not only Neanderthals, but also Denisovans.

The age of samples from this monument is about 100 thousand years. In most cases, genetic traces come from layers where no human remains have been found before. Interestingly, the new technique even works with soil samples that were excavated decades ago. Thus, in order to obtain new samples, it is not at all necessary to conduct new excavations.

VII. Gold of the era of "unmercenaries"
In Lickfrith (North Staffordshire, England), four torcs were found - neck hryvnias. Jewelry dates back to the time from 400 to 250 years. BC, making them the oldest early Iron Age gold objects ever found in Britain. The find is interesting not by the very fact of its antiquity, but by the fact that it is not at all typical for its time.

Golden hryvnias from Likfrit. Photo: Joe Giddens / PA Archive / PA Images /archaeology.

For people of the Bronze Age, gold jewelry was not something unusual, but with the development of iron, they (decorations, not people) for some reason disappear. Why this happened is not exactly known. Perhaps the fact is that trade ties with the places where the gold came from were interrupted. If earlier the inhabitants of Britain imported tin and copper, necessary for smelting bronze, then with the transition to ferrous metallurgy, the need for imports disappeared (the islands have their own iron).

When the trade in raw materials for bronze died out, other trade with the continent may have ceased. In addition, the social factor could also play a role: people began to pay more attention to the preservation of their communities, and not to their own status (why, it is not very clear).

Torques, most likely brought to Lickfree from the Continent, show the return of fashion for personal jewelry. Probably, the hryvnia ended up in Britain as gifts or goods. But it cannot be ruled out that the hostess brought them with her (wearing Torques from Likfrit, most likely a woman).

It should be noted that the objects were discovered by amateurs with metal detectors. Because of this, there are so many assumptions: the context of the find (in which structure they lay) remained unknown, and the date was established according to the style of the items. Science, as always in such cases, has lost a significant amount of information.

VIII. ancient roman aqueduct
Metro builders have opened part of the ancient Roman aqueduct. This is most likely the site of the Aqua Appia, the oldest aqueduct known to us. It was built in 312 BC. The remains of the structure were found near the Colosseum, at a depth of 17–18 meters, which is usually unattainable for archaeologists (primarily because of the danger of collapse of the sides of the excavation).

Section of the oldest aqueduct in Rome. Photo: Bruno Fruttini /archaeology.

The aqueduct is made of blocks of gray tuff, it has been preserved to a height of about 2 meters. The length of the open area is about 30 meters. The structure most likely continues outside the construction site, but there is no way to explore it completely yet. The fact that limestone was not used in the construction of the aqueduct, according to experts, means that the structure "lived" for a short time.

It was previously believed that Avebury was built from the outer rings to the inner ones. Now it turns out that this is not the case. In the very center of the monument, according to the authors of the discovery, there was a house. When the dwelling was abandoned for some unknown reason, the place where it was was marked with a giant stone, and the shape and orientation of the house was marked with a square structure. And already around it there were rings, like circles on the water. From the moment the house was abandoned, up to 300 years could pass. And only after that people decided to turn it into a monument. Probably, it was a place of departure of some tribal cults.
Needless to say, only excavations can confirm or refute this beautiful theory.

X. Under the mask of a Neanderthal sapiens was hiding (?)
For the first time, the remains of ancient people were dug up in Jebel Irhud back in 1962. The jaw found then was considered Neanderthal, and then it was re-dated several times. The spread of dating was quite large: from 30 to 190 thousand years. Now the layers in which both the jaw and several new bones were found have been significantly older - up to 240-378 thousand years. Moreover, researchers believe that these are not Neanderthals at all, but real sapiens, that is, our ancestors.

Jaw from Jebel Irhud. Photo: Jean-Jacques Hublin / MPI EVA Leipzig /archaeology.

The authors of the discovery decided to name them, although, according to their Russian colleague, people from Jebel Irhud stand exactly in the middle between "modern us" and our ancestors and relatives. So they are more likely "proto-sapiens" than the most ancient representatives of our species.

The inhabitants of Jebel Irhud had flat and short faces, like modern humans, but larger teeth and a longer skull. That is, the facial section of the skull of the Irkhudians was much more progressive than the brain. “We see that appearance has always been more important than the mind,” S.V. wittily notes. Drobyshevsky (PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Moscow State University).

Now, when (and if) we have overcome the list of the main world finds according to the American edition, it's time to turn to the list of the most important discoveries of Russian archaeologists:

1. "Cave" camel
An image of a camel was cleared in the Kapova cave. It was part of a drawing known since the late 80s as "Horses and Signs", but has only now been cleared. The camel was painted with ocher and charcoal paint. The most probable date of the drawing is from 13 to 26 thousand years. Specialists from the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences believe that the harsh climate of that time could have contributed to the spread of camels in the South Urals.

Clearing the drawing in the Kapova Cave. Photo: press service of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Vladislav Zhitenev, head of the Moscow State University expedition, who has been working in the Kapova Cave for many years, thinks otherwise. According to him, in the Upper Paleolithic

Yet archeology is an amazing science. It is thanks to the findings of archaeologists that the veil is lifted over the most incredible mysteries that could not be unraveled for millennia. And it also happens that the found artifact, on the contrary, poses new riddles for scientists. We have collected the most incredible archaeological finds that have become a sensation in the scientific world.

1. The bodies of the Easter Island statues

There are more than a thousand moai on Easter Island - monolithic human figures carved by the Rapanui between 1250 and 1500. During recent excavations, it turned out that moai are not busts, as previously thought. These are full-fledged statues, just for the most part they are hidden underground.

2. Ancient inlay teeth

The ancient peoples inhabiting the south of North America had a tradition of carving grooves in their teeth and encrusting them with semi-precious stones. This was practiced mainly among men and was by no means a sign of belonging to a particular social class. Ancient dentists used obsidian drills and attached decorative stones to their teeth with an adhesive made from a mixture of natural resins and bone powder.

Source 3The mummy inside the 1000-year-old Buddha statue

When scanning the Buddha statue of the 11th-12th centuries, it turned out that inside it is the mummy of the Buddhist monk Liuquan. Moreover, instead of the internal organs, the mummy was stuffed with scraps of paper, covered with ancient Chinese characters.

4 Ancient Complaints

During excavations in Iraq in 1927, an ancient Babylonian complaint was unearthed from a customer who had received low-quality copper. The complaint was written on a clay tablet around 1750 BC.

5. Ancient prototypes of modern technology

Greek technology

To the surprise of scientists, an image of what looks like a laptop with USB ports was found on an ancient Greek bas-relief dating back to 100 BC.

Helicopters among hieroglyphs

Some supporters of paleocontact stubbornly argue that aliens visited the Earth thousands of years ago. At the same time, they refer to Mesopotamian artifacts, on which images of aircraft can be easily seen.

Baghdad Battery

An unusual 2000-year-old vessel was found in the vicinity of Baghdad, which may be the prototype of a modern battery. Inside a 13-cm vessel with a bitumen-filled neck through which an iron rod is passed, there is a copper cylinder, inside of which the iron rod went. If you fill the vessel with vinegar or any other electrolytic solution, then the "battery" begins to generate electricity with a voltage of about 1.1 volts.

6 Jurassic Park

Left: Fossil footprints of humans and dinosaurs that appeared to be walking side by side were discovered in the Paluxy River Valley (near Glen Rose, Texas). Kuwait.

7. Deep sea finds

Expert on lost cities at the bottom of the sea

Frenchman Franck Goddio, a pioneer of modern maritime archeology, has found traces of a lost civilization off the coast of Egypt. Surprisingly well-preserved 1,200-year-old ruins unearthed at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea have finally unraveled the mystery of Alexandria's vanished ancient eastern harbor, Portus Magnus.

Stone Age tunnels from Scotland to Turkey

Just a few years ago, archaeologists discovered a new underground network of tunnels built by Stone Age people. Some experts believe that these tunnels were built to protect people from predators, while others suggest that these separate tunnels were previously connected to each other and were used as modern travel roads.

8. Ancient Treasures

Golden treasures

While digging trenches for laying cables near one of the Black Sea resorts in Bulgaria, a huge treasure of gold objects from Mesopotamian times was found, dating back to 5000 BC.

ancient art

People from the distant past did not have high-tech inventions, but this did not prevent them from having objects familiar to them today. Archaeologists find army knives, prostheses and even letters of complaint that are more than one thousand years old. In our review, there are 9 items that can claim the title of "most ancient" of their kind.

1 Zirconium Crystal (4.4 Billion Years)

Scientists date the age of the crystal to 4.4 billion years, making it the oldest part of the planet's crust. The crystal was found in the Jack Hills (an arid region north of Perth, Australia) in 2001. A tiny translucent red crystal glows blue when bombarded with electrons. To evaluate, it is worth noting that the Earth itself, as a ball of molten rock, formed 4.5 billion years ago in the form. The age of the crystal means that the earth's crust appeared only 160 million years after the formation of the solar system.

2. Prosthetic finger (3000 years old)

A prosthetic toe that was buried with a mummy 3,000 years ago is believed to be the oldest prosthesis in history. Scientists have conducted tests to see if it can actually be used while walking. Researchers at the University of Manchester copied a wooden toe and asked a volunteer who was missing a toe to wear prosthetic sandals like those worn in ancient Egypt. It turned out that the prosthesis would really be made for comfort when walking, and not just for imitation.

3. Swiss army knife (1800 years old)

Perhaps this is the world's first army knife. If anything, it bears a striking resemblance to modern multi-tools and has at least six different functions. This is not actually a Swiss device - it comes from the Roman Empire and was made in 200 AD. The tool includes a pin for pulling clams out of shells, a beak-shaped spatula for removing sauce from a bottle, a fork, a spoon and a knife for eating, and a toothpick.

4 Cannabis Stash (2700 years old)

The world's oldest cache of cannabis was found in a 2,700-year-old grave in the Gobi desert in 2008. Nearly two pounds of still green (despite being nearly 3,000 years old) weed was found. Tests have proven that marijuana had powerful psychoactive properties, which casts doubt on the theory that ancestors grew hemp only to make clothes, ropes and other objects from it.

5. Stone tools (3.3 million years)

This nondescript stone item is actually one of the oldest stone tools ever found. It was made half a million years before the appearance of man. Scientists have discovered this stone tool in Kenya, near Lake Turkana, where ancient artifacts are often found. Scientists suggest that this tool was made 3.3 million years ago by the early human ancestors Australopithecus.

6. Dildo (28,000 years old)

In 2005, German scientists discovered one of the world's oldest artificial phalluses, a 20-centimeter polished siltstone phallus that was created 28,000 years ago. A stone toy for adults has been discovered in a cave in Höhle Fels in southwest Germany by a team of researchers from the University of Tübingen.

7DNA Sample (150,000 years old)

Altamurian man became the oldest Neanderthal whose DNA scientists were able to study. About 150,000 years ago, a Neanderthal fell into a well in southern Italy. In 1993, cavers spotted his skull in the Lamalunga cave, deep below the city of Altamura. They decided to leave the skull and bones intact, because over tens of thousands of years the bones had literally grown into the stalactites and stone walls of the cave. In 2015, researchers took a sample of material from the right shoulder blade of the skeleton and sent it to a laboratory for research.

8. Musical score (3400 years)

Clay tablets with cuneiform signs of the "Hurrian" language were found during excavations in the early 1950s in the ancient Syrian city of Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra). One of the texts on these tablets was the full score of a hymn to the wife of the moon god Nikali. It is the oldest known musical notation in the world. Her age is dated to around 1400 BC. Remarkably, the text even contains detailed instructions for a singer accompanied by a harpist, as well as instructions on how to tune the harp.

9. Complaint letter (3750 years)

The oldest complaint filed in writing is 3,750 years old. The letter on the clay tablet, dated 1750 BC, corresponds to the period of Old Babylon. A complaint was filed by a certain Nanni against Ea-Nasir due to the supply of poor quality copper ore, as well as misinformation and delays in further deliveries.

Get a more complete picture of the life of the ancients will allow.

1. Teminological troubles and their meaning. Was there liarchaeology in the Ancient East and in the ancient world? This question is not very simple, but solvable. But is it up-to-date? All this is so far from us and our interests... Don't tell me! There are aspects here that are very topical today. But let's start from afar.

Have you paid attention to the logical confusion with the names of the branches of archeology?

With the fall of Soviet power and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the word "Soviet" finally turned into the same historical term as the word "ancient" - it began to denote a fragment of historical reality that had territorial and chronological boundaries and was gone. It seems to follow from this that the phrases "Eastern archeology", "ancient (or classical) archeology" and "Soviet archeology", constructed in the same way, designate branches of science from the same semantic series. An, no. Soviet archeology is an archaeological science as it operated in Soviet society, while the objects of its study were monuments of any time and any country. But Eastern archeology and ancient archeology is quite the opposite, it is an archaeological science aimed at studying the East and the ancient world and carried out by archaeologists of any time and any country. In one case, the adjective denotes the object of study, in the other - the subject.

Why this happened is not difficult to understand. Formally, such phrases are ambiguous, perhaps this or that understanding. But Soviet archaeologists are known, and Soviet material culture was not presented as an archaeological object. By the way, it's completely wrong. Theoretically, one can imagine that in the future, dissatisfaction with Soviet written sources will prompt the subjection of our culture to archaeological study. And even now, separate acts of this kind happened. So, in Katyn, first the Germans, and then ours, dug up the mass graves of the executed Polish officers in order to find out who actually shot them - the Nazis or the executioners from Stalin's concentration camps. This, of course, was modern politics, but it can also be presented as a historical issue. One way or another, the phrase "Soviet archeology" was assigned to the activities of Soviet archaeologists.

The situation is different with "ancient archeology". The culture of the ancient world is known and has long been an object of archaeological study, while no one knows the archaeologists of the ancient world and it can be assumed that they did not exist. Speaking about the problem of the birth of archeology, I have already mentioned Daniel's statement: "The ancient world gave historians, geographers and ethnographers, but not archaeologists. Primitive archeology is the only human science that we cannot trace back to the Greeks" (Daniel 1950: 16). I showed that Daniel applied this not only to primitive archeology, but to archeology in general. And in a collection in honor of Daniel, John Evans described everything that happened in the study of antiquities up to the 17th century under the heading "Prehistory of archeology" (Evans 1981). It has become almost a common opinion.

But still not common. Those historiographers who adhere to the concept of the successive development of archeology speak of its gradual emergence and attribute its beginning to very early times, in particular to the Ancient East and especially to ancient times. Wace bluntly titled his paper on this "Greeks and Romans as Archaeologists" (Wace 1949), and Cooke's "Thucydides as Archaeologist" (Cook 1955). Of the interest of the Homeric Greeks in Eastern antiquities, Zichterman writes: "they were engaged in archeology, but not classical." However, he claims: "And in the ancient world there were already the first steps of what we today call classical archeology." He titled a whole chapter in his book "The Cultural History of Classical Archeology": "Ancient Roots of Classical Archaeology" (Sichtermann 1996: 28). Schnapp, although he did not dare to put forward such unambiguous formulations, nevertheless made it clear that those manifestations of interest in material antiquities that were in the ancient world could qualify for inclusion in archeology, albeit with some reservations. "...Archaeology can be seen as the product of a long evolution, probably begun in pre-literate societies and continued by numerous and carefully conducted observations of antiquarians of all times and countries" (Schnapp 2002).

So was there archeology in the ancient world?

2. "Sacred archeology": archaeological knowledge in the Ancient East. Mathematics, medicine and philology appeared in the Ancient East. There was no archeology then. But excavations happened, and some knowledge of antiquity also existed - at least they were already known as antiquities. In some textbooks on the history of archeology, the chapters on the archaeological knowledge of the Ancient East are very extensive, but this is due to the fact that the narrative includes ancient Eastern ideas about time, ancient Eastern concepts of history and thoughts about the origin and fate of peoples. It's interesting for archaeologists, but it's not archeology.

To archaeological knowledge, that is, to what subsequently entered the science of archeology, it makes sense to attribute the treatment of that time with archaeological monuments and knowledge related to these objects.

The essence of the then attitude to material antiquities - religious veneration of shrines and generally speaking respect for all traditional. These, of course, are not scientific goals, but they also led to identification and accounting, study, protection, often to extraction and preservation. Of course, tombs, especially royal ones, were revered and protected; old temples were surrounded by veneration, and their ruins were studied as models for imitation; ancient treasures and ruins of settlements were linked with myths and endowed with holiness. One could conditionally speak of " sacred archeology", if it were not for the danger that this designation would lose its conventionality and be equated with archeology.

Already in the construction of the royal tombs of the XII dynasty of Egypt (1991 - 1786 BC), researchers (Edwards 1985: 210 - 217) note signs of intentional archaic, but for her it was necessary know features of ancient role models, to identify them. During the XVIII dynasty (1552 - 1305 BC), scribes left marks (graffiti) on ancient and long-abandoned monuments - therefore, they visited them. A fragmented pre-dynastic palette is inscribed with the name of Queen Tiye (1405-1367 BC) (Trigger 1989: 29).

From the 19th Dynasty, Khaemwaset (1290 - 1224 BC), the son of Ramesses II, glorified up to Greco-Roman times as a magician and sage, carefully studied the cults associated with ancient monuments in the vicinity of the capital, Memphis, in order to restore these cults. During the construction of the temple in Memphis, where he was the high priest, a statue was unearthed, which Khaemwaset identified as the image of Kawab, the son of Pharaoh Cheops, who lived 13 centuries before. This is carved on a found statue, now kept in the Cairo Museum (Fig. 1): "Khaemwaset, the son of the king, the priest of Sema and the greatest of the rulers of artisans, was happy, because the statue of Kawab, once condemned to turn into rubbish ... his father Khufu (Cheops) , preserved intact ... ". Khaemwaset is happy because he so loved these noble ancients who came before and the perfection of their works" (Gomaa 1973; Kitchen 1982: 103-109).

During the Saite period (664-525 BC), knowledge of the carved reliefs of the Old Kingdom was sufficient for attempts at stylistic revival to be undertaken (Smith 1958: 246-252).

Thus, the knowledge of ancient objects of material culture by the Egyptians of that time is obvious, and objects of material culture were extracted from the earth precisely as antiquities. Recognizing that excavation is not the whole of archeology, the French archaeologist and historian of archeology Schnapp regards excavations Khaemwaseta as archaeological in purpose and concludes: "Whether Khaemwaseta (as the French call Khaemwaseta. - L.K.) was the "first" archaeologist or not, he was undoubtedly the one whom the Romans (and after them all Western scientists) called antique dealer interested in antiquity and in the remnants of the distant past "(Schnapp 2002: 135). And the current archaeologists have grown out of antiquarians. But excavations are not only not all archaeologists, but may not be archaeological at all (for example, forensic exhumation), but the knowledge of antiquities to the Egyptians was required not for history, but for solving practical religious problems.

Even more strikingly reminiscent of archeology are the Babylonian evidence of excavations. On a clay brick from Larsa in Iraq, laid in the foundation of the temple, the following inscription of the Babylonian king of the 6th century BC was found. BC e. (Fig. 2):

"I am Nabonidus, king of Babylon, the shepherd appointed by Marduk..., he whom the king of the gods Marduk firmly proclaimed as supplying the city and restoring the shrines....

When the great lord of heaven, Shamash, shepherd of the black-headed people, ruler of mankind, […] Larsa, his city of residence, E-babbar, his house of control, which was empty for a long time and turned into ruins, under dust and rubbish, - a large heap of earth, was covered to the point that its structure was no longer recognizable, and its plan is no longer visible, […] in the reign of my predecessor king Nebukadnezzar, son of Nabopalassar, the dust was removed, and the mound of earth that covered the city and the temple opened the temenos E- babbar of the old king Burnarburiash, the predecessor, but the search for the temenos of an older king was carried out without discovery. He rebuilt E-babbar on the temenos of Burnarburiash he saw in order to accommodate the great god Shamash ...

So, in the 10th year and on the auspicious day of my reign, during my eternal greatness, beloved by Shamash, Shamash remembered his former settlement; he happily decided to restore from his chapel on the ziggurat better than before, and it is to me, King Nabonidus, who provides for him, he entrusted the task of restoring E-babbar and marking his house of dominion.

At the command of the great king Marduk, winds blew from four directions, great storms: the dust that covered the city and the temple rose; E-babbar, a mighty shrine, could be seen… From the seat of Shamash and Aya, from the towering chapel of the ziggurat, an eternal holy place, an eternal chamber appeared – temenos; their plan was now visible. I read there the inscription of the ancient king Hammurabi, who built for Shamash, seven hundred years before Burnarburiash, E-babbar on the ancient temenos, and I understood its meaning. I thought: "The wise king Burnarburiash rebuilt the temple and gave the great lord Shamash to live there. To me ... this temple and its restoration ... I swore to myself by the word of my great lord Marduk and the words of the lords of the universe Shamash and Adad; my heart rejoiced, my liver lit up, my task became clear, and I busied myself gathering workers for Shamash and Marduk, holding a hoe, and clutching a shovel, and carrying a basket. temenos to understand the decoration.

On an auspicious day... I placed bricks on the temenos of the ancient king Hammurabi. I rebuilt this temple in the ancient style and decorated its structure..." (Schnapp 1996: 13-17).

So, the Babylonian king Nabonidus (556 - 539) dug up the temple in Lars in order to establish its plan and decoration for the reconstruction of the shrine in its former form. While digging, he discovered that his predecessor Nebukadnetsar (Nebuchadnezzar II), who ruled shortly before him (605 - 562), had already excavated there and unearthed a temple built 7 centuries before by King Burnarburiash (1359 - 1333). Moreover, Nabonidus found there an even more ancient (for another four centuries) inscription of King Hammurabi (1792 - 1750) and read it. His tasks were not only to find something ancient in a holy place, but also to identify And reestablish. It is also known (Daniel 1975: 16) that Nabonidus was generally fond of such activities. He excavated under the temple of Shamash in Sippar, at a depth of 18 cubits under the foundation, an inscribed stone laid by Naramsin, the son of Sargon of Akkad, - a stone "which no previous king has seen in 3200 years" (in fact, Sargon, who reigned c. 2335 - 2279 BC, separated from Nabonidus by more than 17 centuries).

Alain Schnapp sums up the Lars episode thus: “it is not so far from what we today call archeology” and calls the Nabonidus inscription “the first written evidence of the consciousness and practice of archeology” (Schnapp 1996: 17–18). The tasks of the Babylonian excavators and modern archaeologists are undoubtedly similar, and therefore the practice is similar. But these are not the tasks. The king only needed to establish where and how his predecessors had built the temple and restore it. He did not need any other antiquities, neither to establish their appearance and sequence, nor to preserve them - he added his postscript to the inscription of Hammurabi, and replaced the ancient temple with a new one according to the old plan. This is not archeology, but practical theology. If you can spot an element of archeology here, it is focused not on history, but on church architecture. There is little more archeology here than in exhumation.

In addition to excavations, the Babylonians sometimes performed another operation in which one can discern a feature of archeology - graphic fixation of antiquities. In the reign of Nabonidus, a scribe named Nabuzerlishir copied an inscription dating from the time of Kurigalzu II (1332-1308) in Akkad. This is almost a contemporary of Burnarburias. The same scribe found an inscription on a stone belonging to Sharkalisharri (2140 - 2124), the king of Akkad, and not only copied the inscription, but also noted where he found it (Fig. 3). By the time of the scribe, this inscription was already fifteen hundred years old. Another scribe, whose name we do not know, copied an inscription from the base of a statue that a certain merchant from Mari dedicated to the god Shamash in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. e. In Nippur, in the time layer of Nebuchadnezzar, a vessel was found, inside which were objects of an older time: a tablet with a city plan, bricks and tablets of the Sumerian period, treaties of the end of the 2nd millennium BC. e.

But these, firstly, are not quite archaeological objects - rather epigraphic ones, and secondly, scribes collected and copied them not for study, but solely for practical needs - as documents of the royal archive and as religious texts.

Another feature characteristic of archeology can be noted among the Babylonians - this gathering And storage antiquities. The gods of another people are still gods. The cult statues of the enemy people could not be destroyed; the conqueror usually took them away to erect in his temple. In the palace of Nebuchadnos in Babylon, German archaeologists discovered in one room a cluster of statues and tablets of different times - from the 3rd millennium to the 7th century BC. e. Eckard Unger was ready to believe that before him was the first museum of antiquities (Unger 1931). The daughter of Nabonidus, Princess Bel-Shalti-Nannar, collected in the 6th century. BC e. a large collection of ancient Babylonian artefacts, including inscriptions, and this is described as the first museum of antiquities known to us (Woolley 1950: 152–154). It was not a museum: things were not collected for admiring or showing to the public - it was a repository of sacred objects.

Trigger gives a more archeological interpretation: "This growing interest in the physical remains of the past was part of the educated classes' increased attention to earlier times. This interest had a strong religious component" (Trigger 1989: 29). With such an interpretation, the difference is blurred. Like, there was a religious component (strong), there were others (scientific? educational?). But there weren't really any others.

Only in ancient China did the veneration of antiquities, while remaining religious, have a more prominent philosophical component. Confucian scholars, who zealously defended respect for ancestors and traditions, regarded the systematic study of the past as a path to moral perfection. This may have been reflected in the collection of ancient bronze vessels, jade carvings, and other items of ancient art as family heirlooms (Wang 1985). The first use of archaeological materials for historical purposes took place in China. The great Chinese historian Sima Qian visited the ancient ruins and examined the remains of the past along with the texts. But this was already in the II century. BC e., i.e., simultaneously with the same actions of historians in the Western ancient world.

3. Ancient ideas about primitiveness. If we turn to the views of ancient authors on the origin of human culture (and historiographers turn to these views - see Helmich 1931; Cook 1955; Phillips 1964; Mustifli 1965; Müller 1968; Blundell 1986, etc.), then the picture is indeed impressive. : among the Greeks and Romans, and even among the ancient Chinese, we find the first arguments (historiographers call them "theories") about the progress of mankind from the animal state, about three centuries and other concepts that are now of interest to archaeologists. There are three main concepts:

A. The concept of degradation (Dekadenztheorie by Helmich). It is called the concept of the "golden age" and is traced back to Hesiod (Baldry 1952, 1956), but Homer already has indications that people used to live better than they do now (Helmich 1931: 32–36), and ideas can be traced back to the Eastern mythology (Griffiths 1956, 1958).

Homer (VIII - VII centuries BC), an Asia Minor Ionian, depicts the perfection of the state of the human race in heroic century. But oh gold century, he is speechless, although Helmich suggests that Homer was familiar with the tradition of the golden age - that he "was not in naive ignorance of the old tradition of mankind about the golden age" (Helmich 1931: 33). Helmich deduces this assumption from the fact that Homer draws his old men of the heroic age (Nestor and Phoenix) praising the old even more blessed time, when the heroes were even more powerful (Il., I, 260; V, 302 - 305, 447 - 451) . But this may simply be a psychological characteristic of the usual senile boasting and praising the days of his youth. Homer reports that far from the disasters of the Trojan War remained the blessed hippo-molgians, eating milk, and the Abies, the fairest people of the earth, and the later ancient authors associated the golden age with the rule of the goddess of justice, and it was these peoples who were credited with longevity (more than a thousand years) - a sign of a golden age. century. The reflection of the golden age also lies on the Homeric cyclops from the Odyssey (Od., IX, 106-111): they do not plow, they do not sow, but the earth itself feeds them (Helmig 1931: 34). A blissful and carefree existence is described in Libya (Od., IV, 85 - 89) and in Elysia (Od., VII, 561 - 568). But, anyway, Homer (or the Homeric singers, if the Homeric epic had more than one author) does not directly mention the golden age.

The concept of five ages - golden, silver, copper, heroic and iron - is set out in the great poem "Works and Days" (108 - 201) by Hesiod, who wrote in the 7th century. BC Hey. in Argolis among farmers. The "golden generation" lived carefree under the rule of the god Chronos, not knowing illness and pain, and the earth bore fruit without cultivation. The golden age is followed by the silver age, when indifference to the gods appeared and worries began. In the copper age, giants grew up on earth, Ares, the god of war, reigned. Then came the age of heroes who fought at Thebes and Troy and were nobler and more just than before. When they all died in battle, the Iron Age began. Evil, dishonor reigned, and poverty and disease spread among the people, and they began to die at a younger age.

It is easy to see that the heroic age is included here from the side - it falls out of the metal periodization, and the curve that goes down three centuries, soars up again on the fourth, to finally descend on the fifth (Helmig 1931: 39; Phillips 1964: 171) - apparently , the heroic age appeared as a reaction to the Homeric and other epic. The sequence of metals more or less coincides with the real historical sequence and the availability of smelting and processing: from soft to harder.

Echoes of the concept of five centuries - the concept of degradation - are found in Empedocles, Dicaearchus, Plato. The latter has only that the primordial life of people in the ideal state of the past, headed by God, was portrayed as a blissful kingdom close to mythical: no wild animals, no wars, no doublethink, no marriages, no agriculture (“Stateman”, 15 - 16), pious existence in peace and abundance, without gold and silver ("Laws", III, 2).

Of the Romans, Ovid, exiled to the far north, to the Black Sea, was also prone to pessimism and in the Metamorphoses he continued the tradition of Hesiod, drawing five centuries. With him, the people of the golden age lived in eternal spring, eating only milk, honey and fruits. In the Silver Age, when Saturn gave power over the world to Jupiter, the four seasons of the year were established, and people took up agriculture and moved to the caves. In the copper age, people acquired weapons and waged wars, and in the iron age, with technical progress, a moral decline occurred, and the goddess of justice left the earth. He does not have a heroic age, and the age of giants falls out of the general presentation and is depicted separately.

Helmich notes three common places of the golden age, which are repeated in all representatives of this concept: 1) the earth, which itself gives food to people; 2) the longevity of the then people; and 3) their fairness. They are based on the proximity of the first people to the gods. Eingof finds a similar concept among other peoples - Indo-Aryans and Germans, Jews

B. The concept of progress (Evolutionstheorie in Helmich) from an animal-like state to the current well-organized society in connection with discoveries and inventions goes back to the materialistic ideas of Democritus and to the desire of Epicurus to free humanity from fear of the gods. An important basis for this concept was the myth of Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and gave it to people, introduced agriculture and cattle breeding, and taught how to build ships. This concept introduced the idea of primitiveness primitive, primitive people (Lovejoy and Boas 1935).

Ionian thinkers of the 6th century. BC e. Democritus, Xenophanes of Colophon and Protagoras of Abdera doubted the existence of mythical gods, they had to think about how people gained their superiority over animals, being neither the strongest nor the most protected. Democritus believed that they learned everything by watching animals - they learned weaving from a spider, building from birds. Xenophanes believed that humans were elevated above animals by the possession of hands. Protagoras, in his lost work "On the Initial Conditions," credited the cultural hero Prometheus. It is believed that the presentation of the primitive life of the first people by Diodorus, a historian who lived in the 1st century BC, goes back to Democritus and Protagoras. n. e. - simple food gatherers, they lived in small groups; under the threat of attacks by wild animals, they learned to help each other, talk, dress, and first settled in caves, then began to build huts, mastered the fire.

Dicaearchus (4th century BC) was the first to build a three-stage scheme for the development of the economy. According to Porfiry (De abstinent., IV, I, 2), Dicaearchus began with a golden age, in which people simply fed on what nature gave (modern scholars would call this gathering), then shepherding, and then agriculture.

The Epicureans recognized that the gods exist, but do not interfere in people's lives. To fear them and rely on them is prejudice, superstition. Following the Epicurean doctrine of the liberation of man from fear and worries from which the world suffers, Lucretius Carus, who lived in the 1st century. BC e., turned the scheme of Hesiod, moving the age of bliss and prosperity into the future, and depicting the past as meager and miserable. In his poem "On the Nature of Things" (V, 911 - 1226) he constructed the concept of progress (Mahoudeau 1920). At the beginning of history, he puts a primitive animal-like existence. People were healthy and roughly knocked together, so they lived a long time, but death was not painless and often came from hunger. They did not know agriculture, fire, did not have any laws, lived naked in forests and mountain caves, hunted animals with stones and clubs and had sexual intercourse randomly. In the second period, as a result of the mastery of fire (from lightning and natural fires), people moved from caves to huts, dressed, invented a language and established rules for marriage. In the third period, the kings built cities and fortresses, divided the land between people, and agriculture and cattle breeding began, gold appeared. But in the fourth period, the kings were killed and democracy was introduced, the best people received divine honor. Looking into the nature of things, people believed in the gods. In the fifth period, metals were mastered - copper, iron and silver.

Primitive tools were, according to Lucretius, crude and primitive, made without the use of metals, and from metals bronze came into use earlier than iron (V, 1270), because there are more copper ores and copper is easier to process. On this basis, some archaeologists (Gernes, Jakob-Friesen, and others) said that Lucretius had already formed an idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe system of three centuries. In fact, Lucretius does not have three centuries, but there are five completely different periods, and there is an idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe sequence of the introduction of metals into everyday life, from which the system of three centuries can be deduced if the sequence of metals is taken as the basis of periodization.

B. The concept of apogee (Kompromißtheorie in Helmich). Greek thinker, 1st century BC e. Posidonius from Apamea, very popular with the Romans (Cicero went to Rhodes to study with him), wrote under the influence of the teachings of the Stoics the essay Protreptikos, the content of which has come down to us only in a letter to Seneca (letter 90), where he criticizes this essay. Posidonius combined the doctrine of progress (from the animal-like state) with the doctrine of degradation (from the golden age). He placed the bestial state at the beginning of human existence, and the golden age at the middle of history. It was the apogee, from it began the degradation to the current state.

The influence of Posidonius' interpretation is seen in Virgil's Aeneid.

These concepts of ancient thinkers are still closely connected with mythology and are purely speculative, they are not developed on the basis of factual material and are not supported by it. Helmich calls these semi-mythical concepts "theories". He was prompted to choose this word by "a huge mass of prehistoric material proposed by ancient writers." He notes that he "attracted only such ancient writers who displayed the prehistory of man in a complete independent theory" (Helmich 1931: 31). This, of course, is no reason to call the systems of views of ancient authors theories. As E. D. Phillips notes, "the great difference from modern prehistory lies in the complete absence of factual evidence for theories, which seems to have only sometimes been felt as an obstacle" (Phillips 1964: 176). But a theory is such a system of views, which is developed on the basis of factual material and is verified by independent facts, which the ancient authors did not have one iota.

And the main thing for our consideration is that all these arguments about primitiveness, about primitivism primitive people, although interesting to archaeologists, do not constitute the subject of archeology. Even if we ignore their purely philosophical nature, in terms of subject matter they are the subject not of archeology, but of prehistory, the history of primitive society. It is modern English-speaking and German-speaking scientists who have merged two different sciences under one designation - prehistory And primitive archeology. Retreating from material archeology and in pursuit of the relevance of their science, they likened it to history and lost even the terminological distinction. For the British and Americans, it's all prehistory, for the Germans it's all Vorgeschichte or Urgeschicte. But these disciplines—prehistory and primitive archeology—are as different as ancient history and classical archeology (see Klein 1991, 1992; Klejn 1994).

Archeology developed from the study of material antiquities. How was this in the ancient world?

4. Antiquities in the Homeric epic. The first thing that comes to mind is to turn to the Homeric epic, since it deals with what was antiquities even for the ancient Greeks and for the Aeds and Rhapsodists themselves. Moreover, many of these antiquities were quite material - fortifications, cities that disappeared later, ancient weapons, armor, burials of heroes. All these are archaeological sites for posterity. And we know that modern archeology constantly refers to the Homeric epic when it analyzes the Cretan-Mycenaean culture and archaic Greece. But modern archeology addresses both written sources and language. We are not interested in the ability of the Homeric epic to serve as a comparative material for modern archeology, but in those of its components that themselves could claim the status of archaeological messages or reasoning.

The entire action of the epic takes place half a thousand years before Homer in Asia Minor under the walls of Ilion (archaeologically it is Troy VIIb), which by the time of Homer or the Homeric singers was already a Greek city (Troy VIII). Homer unfolds the action among the fortress walls, which he describes in detail (towers, Dardanian gates, Skeian gates) - these are, of course, the architectural details of Troy VIII. These names show that the information is not taken from the mental reconstruction of the ruins, but from folklore - local names, stories of local residents, songs and legends.

On the Greek mainland, the capital of the kingdom of Nestor Pylos is mentioned, but by ancient times the Greeks were already arguing where he was located - in Triphylia or Messenia. By this time, there were several cities with this name. Judging by the routes and distances described by Homer, the singer, or rather the singers, either had in mind the Triphylian Pylos, or the Messenian. Today, archaeological evidence has shown that layers and a palace of the Mycenaean period are found only in Messenian Pylos. Homer (or the Homeric singers) did not know this. The problem was solved without archeology.

Some things appear in the epic, which were no longer in the living life of the singers themselves (VIII - VII centuries BC). These were already fossil forms, extinct. For example, a helmet completely covered with boar fangs (Fig. 4). It is only on the images of the Mycenaean time. Or the tower shield of Ajax (Fig. 5) - this is a thing characteristic of the Mycenaean time, such shields were not used in the Homeric era. But the Homeric singers did not see them in reality - neither in museums nor in excavations. Descriptions of these things came to the singers in old songs, in folkloric frozen expressions - as in Russian epics, "voiced harp" and "hot arrow" have come down to us.

Canto XXIII describes the burial of Patroclus "on the banks of the Hellespont" - the cremation in an urn under the barrow. Before that, Patroclus appeared to Achilles in a dream and proclaimed (XXIII: 83-93):

My bones, Achilles, may they not be different from yours;

Let them lie down together, as together from youth we have grown ...

Let the tomb hide our bones alone,

Golden urn, Thetis mother's precious gift.

The woodcutters built a fire on the shore, "where Achilles pointed out to them, / Where he appointed a great mound for Patroclus and for himself." 12 captured young men, four horses and two dogs were sacrificed. When the log house burned down, it was extinguished with wine. The bones of Patroclus were put in a golden urn, and the place of the grave was marked around. "Having freshly filled the mound, they dispersed."

The body of Hector (XXIV, 783 - 805) was buried in the same way, but not on the shore, but near the city near the fortress wall. The urn was placed in a deep grave, covered with stones and covered with a mound.

Based on these descriptions, it can be assumed that the mound of Achilles with Patroclus should be on the shore, and the mound of Hector - near the city. On a map compiled in the 19th century by Spratt and Forchhammer, there are mounds of Achilles and Ajax to the north of Ilion, on the banks of the Hellespont, and Hector's mound is marked eight kilometers south of Ilion on Mount Balidag. But this designation of the new time, made by conjecture. Through half a thousand years of Turkish time, these local legends could not pass. None of the ancient sources, except for Homer, mention these graves there. The burial structures themselves in these burial mounds are not attributed by archaeologists to the end of the Mycenaean time. And in ancient sources, the graves of Achilles and Hector are placed in other places. Heroons of Achilles are located in different places of the Balkan Peninsula, his grave was also indicated in different places. Many sources place the tomb of Hector in Thebes, the main city of Boeotia, and some ("Peplos" of Pseudo-Aristotle) ​​even report an inscription on the grave: "Hector the great Boeotian men built a grave above the ground, a reminder to posterity", but the sources differ in the exact location of this graves in Thebes.

Thus, both heroes were transferred to the Trojan epic cycle from other legends, and the Homeric singers may have used some mounds standing there to link these heroes to the Troad and the Hellespont, but there was no archaeological reasoning here, except perhaps the usual "folk archeology "Yeah, that's questionable.

5. Interest in material antiquities as shrines ("sacred archeology") in the ancient world. To a large extent, interest in material antiquities was guided by the same motives in the ancient world as in the Ancient East - for the ancient Greeks and Romans, these were things associated with mythology, which had miraculous properties, shrines (Hansen 1967). Three episodes reported by historians and geographers of Greece are characteristic.

A. Finding the grave of Orestes. Herodotus tells the story of the war between the Lacedaemonians and the Tegeans. During the war, the Lacedaemonians turned to the Pythia for advice on how to defeat the Tegeans. She said that it was necessary to find the bones of the ancient hero Theseus and bury them at home. And you need to look for them in Tegea in a place where two winds blow, a blow meets a counterblow and evil falls on evil.

During the truce, one of the Lacedaemonians named Lich (or Likha) went on business to Tegea and went into the smithy to marvel at the blacksmith while he was working. The blacksmith shared his adventure with him:

"Lakonian friend! You are amazed at how skillfully iron is processed. But if you happened to see the same thing as me, then how much you would be surprised! I wanted to dig a well in my yard and, while digging, stumbled upon a coffin at 7 cubits in length. Not believing, however, that people would ever be larger than their current height, I opened the coffin and saw that the deceased was indeed the same size as the coffin. Having measured the coffin, I again covered it with earth. "

Likh had a brilliant idea: a tall dead man (an cubit is from 43 to 56 cm, seven cubits means from 3 to 4 meters!), in addition, bellows are two winds, and a hammer and an anvil are a blow and a counterstrike , but the iron bent during forging is evil on evil, which was mentioned in the prophecy of the Pythia. With the conviction that the burial of Orestes had been found, he hurried to Sparta, but the countrymen did not believe at first. Lichas went back to Tegea, rented a forge, then opened the grave, collected the bones and returned with them to Sparta. Since then, the Spartans have always defeated the Tegeans (Herod., I, 68).

This message of Herodotus lets us know how much one can believe the ancient legends about the graves of heroes - a coincidence with the vague prophecies of the Pythia was a sufficient signal of reliability for them. Three or four meters in length is also a fabulous detail, unless the bones of Orestes meant the bones of a mammoth.

B. Transferring the bones of Theseus. The Greek historian Plutarch, who lived already in Roman times, in the II century. n. e., conveys the legend of another prophecy of the Pythia. After the Persian war, that is, in the VI century. BC e., Pythia ordered the Athenians to transfer to Athens the bones of Theseus from the island of Syros, where the hero was buried.

“But,” he says, “it was very difficult to open these bones, as well as to find the place where they lay, due to the inhospitality and wild disposition of the barbarian people who inhabited the island. However, after Kimon took the island […] , and had a great passion to find the place where Theseus was buried, he accidentally tracked down an eagle on a hill, pecking with its beak and tearing the ground with its claws, and suddenly, as if by divine inspiration, it occurred to him to dig in that place and look for the bones of Theseus. where a coffin of a taller man was discovered, and a copper spearhead and a sword lying nearby, all this he took with him on board the galley and brought with him to Athens. as if it were Theseus himself returning alive to the city" (Plut., Thes., 36).

Here again, the backbone of a huge growth appears, and the reliability of identification relies only on the divine sign in the form of an eagle.

C. Opening of the tomb of Alcmene, mother of Hercules. And here is how the same Plutarch conveys the story of a witness (although not an eyewitness) about the discovery by Agesilaus, king of Sparta, of the tomb of Alcmene, the mother of Hercules. Agesilaus, having captured Thebes, opened the grave of Alcmene in Haliarte on the shore of Lake Copaida and took the bones to Sparta. The witness is asked:

"You have arrived very fortunately, as if on a whim," said Theocritus. when the remains were transported to Sparta on orders received from Agesilaus."

In response to this:

“I was not there,” replied Fidoniy, “and although, indignant, I expressed my strongest indignation and discontent to my fellow countrymen, they left me without support. Be that as it may, no remains were found in the grave itself, but only a stone together with a bronze bracelet of small size and two clay urns containing earth, which, due to the passage of time, turned out to be a petrified and solid mass.In front of the grave, however, lay a bronze tablet with a long inscription of such amazing antiquity that nothing could be made out, although when the bronze was washed, everything was clearly visible, but the letters had a peculiar and alien shape, very reminiscent of Egyptian writing.Accordingly, Agesilaus, it was said, sent copies to the king with an order to deliver them to the priest for possible interpretation.But about this, Simius, perhaps, could tell us anything, because at that time, for the sake of his philosophical research, he saw many priests in Egypt.In Haliart, a large crop failure and a reduction in the lake were considered and us for permission to excavate the grave" (Plut., De Socr. daemon., 5, Moral., 577-578).

Later, the Greek priest Konufis tried to read this inscription, for three days he picked up letters in old scrolls, but to no avail. Yet it was announced that the inscription conjured the Greeks to observe the world and devote themselves to the muses and philosophy. As can now be judged, these were probably Mycenaean writings, although these are not known today on bronze. The belonging of the grave to the mythical Alcmene remains, of course, just as unproven as the previous graves: the foundations are unknown, the urns are unclear, with ashes or with accompanying food, no bones were found, the inscription has not been read.

Even Alain Schnapp interprets all three episodes as "the archeology of the holy forces" (archaeology of the holy - Schnapp 1996: 52).

“Here…,” he writes, “the fabulous, symbolic and fantastic played a decisive role in the message. The discovery of the grave was not the result of observation, but only a consequence of the interpretation of the oracle. We do not have details of the hero’s weapons or clothing, only his gigantic growth distinguishes him from others in fact, in order to localize the grave, it was not necessary to interpret the landscape or soil, but only needed to decipher the message.Identification was not tied to material signs, but only to the place of symbols that had to be decoded.Lich was an archaeologist of words, not soil (Schnapp 1996: 54).

This is a very accurate assessment of all three reports from the point of view of a modern archaeologist. But Schnapp nevertheless included them in the review of the sprouts of archeology. Meanwhile, all these objects of search and excavation attracted attention because they had wonderful properties - they ensured military successes, secured victory, brought crop failures and droughts. How does this differ from the sacred archeology of the Babylonians and Egyptians? Essentially nothing. And here are episodes from the history of Rome:

D. Opening of the grave of Numa Pompilius. According to Titus Livius, in 181 BC. e. the Romans opened the grave of the Sabine king Numa Pompilius (7th century BC) and allegedly found in it the philosophical writings of this king. This is already some mixture of holiness with politics.

D. Prediction to Vespasian. When Vespasian assumed power over Rome, in the Arcadian Tegea, on the basis of a mantle (fortune-telling), excavations of a grave in a holy place were undertaken. Ancient vessels were removed from the grave, of which one was, as the current archaeologists would have determined, a front urn, and the features of the mask on it were very similar to the face of Vespasian. This was taken as an auspicious sign for his reign. The bias of the story is obvious, but the ancient vessel with the face could not have been invented (there are such vessels among the antiquities of Italy). However, his discovery was not motivated by cognitive interests (in general, opening the grave was sacrilege) and was used for sacred and political purposes (Hansen 1967: 48).

6. Taste for antiquities. Compared with the eastern despotisms, the ancient world looks more advanced in collecting antiquities and creation museums. Votives (sacrifices in the form of images of a diseased part of the body) accumulated in temples, and most importantly, donations of precious things - statues, dishes, weapons, clothes - from rulers and nobility. These donations, often associated with well-known names of legendary history, became a means of attracting pilgrims and contributed to the glory of the temples. Gradually, the antiquity of these things and their connection with famous heroes and events began to increase their value no less than the skillful craftsmanship of the manufacturers and the high cost of the material. Pausanias, describing the Parthenon, advised readers: "He who places works of art ahead of antiquities, this is what can be seen here" (Paus., I, 24).

The Romans developed a liking for everything Greek as more skillful, perfect, subtle, noble, and since Greek examples were, in general, ancient Roman imitations, in Rome the passion for collecting everything ancient took the form of philhellenicism. The rich accumulated collections of ancient, mostly Greek works of art, as if private museums. For the servants of these museums, even the term appeared: astatuis(literally "the stalker"). It is noteworthy that many masterpieces of Greek art have come down to us in Roman copies. This passion was expressed in almost archaeological manifestations. Suetonius reports that during the time of Caesar in Capua, when building houses, Roman colonists opened graves with valuable vases. On a relief from Ostia, I c. BC e. (Fig. 6) fishermen pull out a Greek bronze statue with a net, according to the nature of the image, probably Hercules around the beginning of the 5th century. BC e.

The Roman commander Lucius Mammius, having captured Corinth, undertook a mass export of Corinthian works of art. Strabo describes how Caesar founded a Roman colony on the site of ancient Greek Corinth in the second half of the 1st century BC. BC e.:

“Now, after Corinth had been abandoned for a long time, it was, because of its advantageous position, restored again by the divine Caesar, who colonized it with a people who belonged mostly to freedmen. And when they removed the ruins and at the same time dug up the graves, they found a large number of terracotta reliefs, and also many bronze vessels, and because they admired the work, they did not leave a single grave unplundered, so that they were well supplied with such things and disposed of them at a great price, they filled Rome with Corinthian "escheat" things (νεκροκορίνθια ), for that is what they called things taken from the graves, and especially ceramics. At first, ceramics were highly valued, as were bronzes of Corinthian work, but then they stopped caring too much about them, since the supply of ceramic vessels deceived expectations, and some of them did not were even well executed" (Strab., Geogr., VIII, 6, 23).

Suetonius tells that the colonists settled by Caesar in Capua also looked for urns for sale in the old graves opened during the construction, and at the same time they allegedly found a bronze tablet predicting the death of Caesar (Sueton., Divus Iulius, 81). Later, Caligula and Nero robbed all of Greece. Five hundred bronze statues were taken from Delphi alone. A great lover of everything Greek was the famous orator and politician Cicero (106 - 43 BC). With obvious pleasure, Tacitus talks about Nero's greed for ancient treasures and his fiasco.

“Following that, fate made fun of Nero, which was facilitated by his frivolity and the promises of Caesellius Bassus, a Punian by birth, who, having a vain disposition, believed that what he had dreamed of at night in a dream undoubtedly corresponds to reality; having gone to Rome and achieved bribery, in order to be admitted to the princeps, he informs him that in his field he discovered a cave of immense depth, melting a great amount of gold, not in the form of money, but in rough old ingots... There lie golden bricks of enormous weight, and on the other side golden columns rise: all this was hidden for so many centuries to enrich their generation, while he suggested that these treasures were […]

Without thinking about whether the narrator deserves faith and how plausible his story is, without sending any of his own to verify the message he received, Nero deliberately spreads rumors about hidden riches and sends people with orders to deliver them, as if he already possessed them. Triremes are equipped with selected rowers to speed up the voyage. In those days, that was all they talked about, the people - with their characteristic gullibility, reasonable people - discussing the doubts that overwhelmed them. It so happened that at this very time, for the second time after their establishment, the five-year games were being held, and the orators, in extolling the princeps, turned mainly to the same subject. For now the earth not only brings forth its usual fruits and gold mixed with other metals, but it bestows its bounties as never before, and the gods send riches lying in readiness. They added other servile inventions to this, excelling equally in eloquence and flattery, convinced that their listener would believe everything.

Based on these absurd hopes, Nero became more wasteful day by day; the funds accumulated by the treasury were depleted, as if such treasures were already in his hands, which would be enough for many years of unbridled spending. Based on the same treasures, he began to distribute gifts widely, and the expectation of untold riches became one of the reasons for the impoverishment of the state. For Bass, who was followed not only by warriors, but also by villagers driven to work, constantly moving from place to place and each time asserting that it was here that the promised cave was located, dug up his land and the vast space around it, and, finally, being amazed why only in this case the dream for the first time deceived him, although all the previous ones invariably came true, left senseless stubbornness and voluntary death avoided reproach and fear of retribution. However, some writers report that he was thrown into prison and then released, and his property was confiscated in compensation for the royal treasury" (Tacit., Annal., XVI, 1-3).

This episode is very reminiscent of stories with "pantry paintings", with the only difference being that it is more dramatic, since the Carthaginian Caselius Bass plays the role of peasants like Protsyuk or Nikifor Milin, and in place of the seduced landowner Likhman is the lord of the semi-world Nero. The result is, of course, the same, and the nature of the adventure is the same. As for collecting and forming museums, there is something new here in comparison with the Ancient East: not only temples and rulers, but also rich officials and nobles, collected antiquities, and the purpose of collecting them was no longer the accumulation of relics and shrines, but the desire to luxury, admiration and boasting of the craftsmanship and antiquity of rare treasures.

But this is not an argument in favor of recognizing the occupations of ancient collectors by archeology. Although archeology, in the words of Alain Schnapp, is the "illegal sister of collecting", he himself admits that "an archaeologist, as everyone knows, is not a collector" or "a collector, but of a special kind - more meticulous than others, and accountable to various institutions of the state and the public" (Schnap 1996: 12–13). No, of course, archeology is involved in certain types of collecting, has connections with them, but collecting is in no way included in the signs of archeology as a science. They have a completely different nature (cf. Klein 1977).

Emperor Augustus, decorating his country villa, preferred ancient things and weapons of heroes (Suetonius LXXII, 3). He created a whole museum in which antiquities prevailed over natural curiosities (Reinach 1889).

The passion for ancient culture gained a special scope under the emperor Hadrian, and this was Greek culture. Hadrian was born in the last quarter of the 1st century AD. e. - in 76. At the age of sixteen he went to Athens to complete his education - he knew Greek well, which was then the language of philosophy and culture for the Romans (something like Latin in later Europe). In Athens, he studied for three years with the famous philosopher and sophist Isaius. The Greek city-states had long since succumbed to the Roman Empire, but their higher and more ancient culture increasingly influenced the victors. Adrian from a young age was not close to Rome and the Romans, bowed to Greek culture and then earned the nickname "Greek" (Graeculus).

When Hadrian set out on a four-year journey through the northeastern provinces of the empire, he was stuck for a long time in his beloved Greece. In Athens, he carried out great work on the improvement and expansion of the city, led sports games, laid the huge temple of Olympian Zeus and was initiated into the mysteries of the Eleusinian mysteries. Adrian was not the first admirer of everything Greek. If Tiberius disliked the Greek spirit, then Claudius and Nero were philhellenes. The Romans generally treated the Greeks differently than the rest of the conquered countries. They did not put Roman garrisons in the Greek cities (Roman detachments stood only on the borders), they did not destroy the Greek way of life, replacing it with the Roman one, they preserved everything Greek in the Greek part of the empire - their policies, and in each policy the agora, I stand, temples, theaters, baths, gymnasiums. Moreover, they borrowed a lot from Greek culture, art and science. In the Roman Senate, not only did the proportion of provincials increase, but in particular the proportion of Greeks. Among the provincials in the Senate, the Greeks accounted for 16.8% under Vespasian, 34% under Trajan, 36% under Hadrian, and immediately after him, under Antoninus, already 46.5%, and under Commodus all 60.8%. This was the result of the Hellenization of the Roman Empire by Hadrian. In Rome, Hadrian introduced the cult of the goddess Roma - like the Greek Athena.

From September 128 to March 129 he built a lot in Athens, in particular, he built in the pantheon of Olympian Zeus an altar no longer to Zeus, but to himself - he joined God, became partly a god, the embodiment of Zeus on earth. His beloved Antinous, as the favorite of the god, was clearly associated with Ganymede. The connection of Hadrian with Antinous for both of them had a sacred meaning - it repeated the Greek myth.

Since March 127, the emperor fell seriously ill, then recovered, although not completely. Together with Antinous, Adrian again took part in the Eleusinian mysteries, and Adrian felt renewed - now he minted the word "reborn" on the coins. But he became very interested in graves, especially in the graves of his beloved. In Greece, Adrian erected a stele on the grave of Epaminondas of Theban, the commander who broke the power of Sparta, who was buried next to his beloved youth Kathisodor (Pavsan. 8.8 - 12, 8. 11. 8; Plutarch, On Love). When Antinous, beloved of Hadrian, drowned in the Nile, the emperor, in accordance with the Egyptian belief about the sanctity of such drowned, declared him a god and transferred to Rome a number of elements of the ancient Egyptian funerary cult. At his villa in Tivoli, archaeologists have found copies of Egyptian canopic vessels - vessels for body parts of the deceased.

So an even more ancient Egyptian culture joined the ancient Greek culture. We can say that Hadrian was the most archaic of the Roman emperors. Russia is familiar with this passion for the ancient and Greek - let us recall the cultural admiration of Russia for Byzantium. On the basis of such a powerful passion for a more ancient culture, archeology could arise. But Adrian did not dig up anything; he was attracted not by material antiquities, but by the myths and cults of ancient culture, its art and spirituality, its living continuation.

7. Veneration of antiquities in ancient East Asia. In ancient times, the interest of the Chinese people in the material remnants of the past was apparently the most stable. In Confucian China, the veneration of antiquities was a natural element of the worldview based on the observance of tradition. Under 133 BC. e. he talks about Li Shaozhong, a sage and magician who made himself immortal:

"When Li Shao-chung appeared before the emperor, the latter asked him about the ancient bronze vessel, which was in the possession of the emperor. "This vessel", replied Li Shao-chung, "was presented in the Cedar Room in the tenth year of the reign of Prince Huang Ziyisky". When the inscription on the vessel was deciphered, it turned out that it actually belonged to Prince Huang Ziyi. Everyone in the palace was full of admiration and decided that Li Shao-zhong must be a spirit that lived for hundreds of years" (Sima Qian 1971, 2: 39).

Quoting this quotation, Alain Schnapp assesses it as follows: "Everything in this story is archaeological: an ancient vase belonging to the emperor, a date confirmed by an inscription, admiration of the court by a magician whose age is confirmed epigraphically" (Schnap 1996: 76). The veneration of antiquities is evident here, but there is nothing archaeological in this story: the ancient vase itself may or may not be an object of archeology, depending on what is done with it; the dating from the inscription is epigraphic, not archaeological.

But the Chinese contemporaries of the ancient world were engaged in material antiquities and were closer to archaeological research. The same Sima Qian devoted a significant part of his "Messages of Great Historians on China" to the discoveries of ancient tripods. He tried to read the inscriptions on them. He himself traveled a lot in China, trying to verify information about ancient cities by personal observations. He was the first to note the ruins of the Shan capital at Anyang, which later became China's most famous archaeological site of the Bronze Age.

In the 1st century BC e. (this is close to the time of Lucretius) the Chinese author Yuan Tian sketched out a periodization of tools and weapons, very reminiscent of the later "three-age system" and based on the factual material of ancient artifacts (Cheng 1959: XVII; Chang 1968: 2; Evans 1981: 13). Philosopher Feng Huji reports:

“During Jianyuan, Shennon and Hezu, tools were made of stone to cut trees and build houses, and these tools were buried with the dead… During Huangdi, tools were made of jade to cut trees, build houses, and dig the earth…and were buried with the dead. During the Yu, tools were made of bronze to build canals ... and houses. In modern times, tools are made of iron" (Chang 1986: 4-5).

As you can see, the ancient author mentions that all these tools ended up in burials (obviously, the opening of the burials gave rise to these observations), and between the stone and copper (or bronze) periods he inserted a jade period, and the latest data from Chinese archeology seem to confirm his conclusions. This is, of course, a significant breakthrough into the future.

However, these episodes, partly anticipating the current archaeological research, were still exceptions. As John Evans writes about the China of this time,

"this early tradition of interest in antiquities petrified and did not develop at the end those promises which seem to have been traced in its first stages. made in different material, including architecture), these studies became a kind of systematic antiquarianism with a relatively limited perspective and goals ... Interest was focused on the objects themselves, in particular on any inscriptions inscribed on them, and both the objects themselves and the inscriptions were interpreted according to the norms the then standard Confucian model of Chinese history. Origin and context were given little consideration, even when information about them was available, which was not very common, and for the most part there was no concept of independent historical information that these material remains could provide" (Evans 1981: 13).

8. Archaeological considerations in the ancient world: Herodotus and Thucydides. Already in Herodotus, who is called the "father of history", one can find not only simple references to material antiquities (as geographical landmarks or landmarks), but also references to such antiquities as evidence of the reality of certain historical events and persons.

So, telling about the Egyptian pharaohs Cheops and Khafre, Herodotus describes their pyramids, sets out the history of their construction, reports the costs of construction, according to Egyptian legends and according to inscriptions allegedly read to him (II, 127 - 129).

Talking about the ancient Lydian king Gyges (Gyges), Herodotus reports that, having ascended the throne, this king sent a large number of silver and gold items to Delphi as initiatory gifts, and they are still stored in Delphi. Most of the silverware in Delphi is dedicated to them. Six golden craters weighing 30 talents are in the treasury of the Corinthians. The king of Phrygia, Midas, also brought gifts to the Delphic sanctuary: his royal throne. "This remarkable throne stands in the same place as the Gigovy craters. And these gold and silver vessels, dedicated to Gigos, are called by the Delphians Gigades, after the name of the initiator" (Herod., I, 14).

The great-grandson of Giga Alyattes also brought gifts to Delphi: "a large silver bowl for mixing wine with water on an iron inlaid stand is one of the most remarkable offerings in Delphi made by Glaucus of Chios ..." (Herod., I, 25).

The son of Alyattes Croesus, from his untold riches, presented the temple with gold ingots in the form of half-bricks with a total number of 117, of which four were made of pure gold, the rest were alloyed with silver. “After this, the king ordered a statue of a lion weighing 10 talents to be cast from pure gold. Subsequently, during the fire of the sanctuary at Delphi, this lion fell from the [stand of] half-bricks on which it was installed. And to this day this lion still stands in the treasury of the Corinthians, but its weight is now only 6 1/2 talents, since 3 1/2 talents were melted down in the fire" (Herod., I, 50). He also sent gifts to Amphiaraus in Thebes - "a shield made entirely of gold and a spear, the shaft and tip of which were also made of gold. Both of these items are still in Thebes in the sanctuary of Apollo Ismenius" (Herod., I, 52).

In Egypt during the reign of Sethos, the priest of Hephaestus, there was an invasion of the Arabs. The king had a vision that God would help. At night, flocks of field mice attacked the enemy camp, gnawed quivers, bows and shield handles, so that the enemies had to flee. “To this day, even in the temple of Hephaestus, there is a stone statue of this king. He holds a mouse in his hands, and the inscription on the statue reads: “Look at me and have the fear of God” (Herod., I, 141).

Talking about the former residence of the Cimmerians before the Scythians in the Scythian land, Herodotus refers to the fact that "And now in the Scythian land there are Cimmerian fortifications and Cimmerian crossings ...". The departure of the Cimmerians from Scythia is associated with a fratricidal war. "The Cimmerians buried all those who fell in the fratricidal war near the Tiras River (the tomb of the kings can still be seen there to this day). After that, the Cimmerians left their land, and the Scythians who came took possession of the depopulated land" (Herod., IV, 11 - 12). Of course, this is a fairy tale, and the mound, which is used as proof, has nothing to do with the Cimmerians and their departure, this is a typical "folk archeology", but the logic of the proof has an archaeological sound.

However, the archaeological logic here is the most elementary - confirmation of the reality of events and persons by presenting their traces and remnants.

A more complex archaeological argument was used by the famous historian of the late 5th century BC. e. Thucydides (Cook 1955). Under him, during the war, the island of Delos was cleansed, and the old graves were excavated. Thucydides noticed that more than half of the graves contained weapons and armor that resembled those of the Carians. From this he concluded that the Carians, who inhabited the lands in Asia Minor and were engaged in piracy, once lived on this island.

"Piracy was just as prevalent in the islands among the Carians and Phoenicians, who in fact colonized many of the islands. This was proved during the present war, when Delos was officially cleansed by the Athenians and all the graves on it were opened. More than half of them turned out to be Carian, which was evident from the type of weapons buried with the bodies and from the method of burial, which was the same as that still used in Caria" (Thucyd., I, 8, 1).

This is typically archaeological reasoning (Casson 1939: 31; Cook 1955: 267-269). Even more characteristic of archaeological thinking, moreover, it must be admitted, the most modern, were the reflections of Thucydides in connection with the ruins of Mycenae - could they, so small, be the main center of the Greek world.

“Mycenae,” Thucydides reflected, “was indeed a small settlement, and many cities of that period will not seem particularly impressive to us; but this should not be a reason to reject what poets and common tradition say about the size of the campaign. Suppose, for example that the city of Sparta is abandoned and only the temples and foundations of buildings remain, I think that future generations, as time passes, will find it very difficult to believe that this settlement was in fact as powerful as it seemed. is at the head not only of the whole Peloponnese, but also of numerous allies beyond its borders.But since the city was not regularly planned and does not contain temples or monuments of great splendor, but is just a collection of villages in the ancient Hellenic spirit, its appearance does not live up to expectations. , on the other hand, the same thing would have happened to Athens, one might conclude from what is seen that the city was twice as powerful. tween than it actually was" (Thucyd., I, 10, 1-3).

As if he foresaw the temptations and illusions of archaeological interpretation. However, this is just a general logic that we, of course, can apply to excavated cities, objects of archeology, and lay the basis for internal criticism of archaeological sources, archaeological interpretation (Eggers 1959: ???; Heider 1967: 55). Thucydides simply talked about the ruins of powerful fortifications near the modest village of Mycenae, and tried to compare their size with the glory that this capital was fanned with in legendary times. Archaeological reasoning was very rare with him. Cook calculated that of his references in the first book (Thucyd., I, 1-21), five were to "old poets," three to tradition, three to modern analogies, and only two to archeological sites (Cook 1955: 269 ).

Perieget I - II centuries. n. e. Pausanias, who left a detailed "Description of Greece", noted that the blade of the alleged spear of Achilles in the temple of Athena in Phaselis was made of bronze. This he cites in support of the literary tradition that all Homeric heroes were armed with bronze weapons.

“As for the weapons in the heroic age, which were all made of bronze, I can cite as proof of Homer the lines about the ax of Peisander and the arrow of Merion; the opinion that I cited can at least be confirmed by the spear of Achilles, which is dedicated to the shrine of Athena in Phaselis , and the sword of Memnon in the temple of Asclepius in Nicomedia: the blade and the spear and the whole sword are made of bronze" (Paus., III, 3).

This is also an archaeological argument. But such arguments are "remarkable for their rarity" (Trigger 1989: 30). Describing the revered ruins of the mythical past in Tiryns and Mycenae, Pausanias does not draw any conclusions. But he connects monuments with myths and legends.

"There are still parts of the ring walls left, including a gate with lions standing on them. It is said that this is the work of the Cyclopes, who built the wall of Tiryns for Proetus. In the ruins of Mycenae there is a spring called Perseus, and the underground chambers of Atreus and his sons, where they kept the treasuries of their wealth. There are the graves of Atreus and the graves of those who returned home from Troy to be killed by Aegisthus at his evening meal "(Paus., II, 16).

Schnapp believes that these arguments of Pausanias "differ from the sacred archeology of the Babylonians and Egyptians by his attempt to interpret, the desire to place at a distance and explain "(Schnapp 1996: 46). He sees the interpretation in compiling a chronology comparable to the mythical one. But for chronology, archaeological finds do not serve, and the awareness of distance was already among the Babylonians. I see nothing here but identification with myths and legends, but it was already among the Babylonians and Egyptians.The mention of the Cyclopes who built the wall is a continuation of "folk archeology".

9. Terms and concepts. The ancient world not only provided us with a set of basic sciences and their names, but also gave us the main names used in archeology.

First of all, the term "archeology" itself was invented in Greek times - αρχαιολογια from the words αρχαιος (ancient) and λογος (word, teaching). It was first used in Plato's dialogue "Hippias the Great" (Socr., Hippias Maj., 285b - 286c). In this dialogue, Socrates discusses with the sophist Hippias, who boasted that his teaching was spread throughout Greece, even in Sparta, where foreigners are generally forbidden to teach young people. But Socrates, skillfully arguing, showed that Hippias' success among the Spartans did not extend to astronomy, or to geometry, or to other sciences, and was limited to only one science, which deals with "the genealogies of heroes and people ... and settlements (how cities were founded in ancient times), in one word with all ancient history (archaiologia)". That is, myths about the past. Hippias, in the words of Socrates, played for the Spartans the role of a grandmother, "telling fairy tales to children." "This archaiologia," writes Schnapp, "was not defined as a special discipline directed towards specific knowledge" (Schnap 1996: 61). Legends about the origin of peoples and cities, the genealogy of heroes, tales about the distant past - these were the books of Hellanic (5th century BC) and Hippias' Archeology, but they have not survived.

The term archaiologia began to be widely used in the Hellenistic period. However, the Romans preferred another term - antiquitates (antiquities).

The Italian historian Arnaldo Momigliano believes that in the 5th century BC. e. the term was used not for any discussion of antiquities, but for specific works. He divides the historical works of that time into two categories - general histories brought up to date, like in Herodotus or Thucydides, and histories of the distant past, focused on genealogy and customs, written by erudite and full of detailed descriptions, like in Hellanicus and Hippias. The first he calls histories proper, and the second archeologies or antiquitates, they are written by "antiquarians".

"1. In their description, historians emphasize chronology, while antiquarians followed a systematic plan.

2. Historians presented facts that served to illustrate or explain a certain situation; the antiquarians, on the other hand, collected all the material related to the given plot, whether there was a problem to be solved or not" (Momigliano 1983: 247).

But Momigliano himself admitted that the term soon lost its distinctive meaning in the ancient world. Already the "Roman archeology" of Dionysius of Halicarnassus and the "Jewish archeology" of Josephus were typical stories, in the first sense of the word.

Rescuing Momigliano's postulate, Alain Schnapp puts forward Terentius Varro's book Antiquitates (Antiquities) to the role of "archaeology". Like the book of Hippias, it has not come down to us, but is known to us from a brief description in the work of Augustine the Blessed. Judging by this bibliographic description, Varro's work consisted of 41 books, of which 25 were devoted to human affairs, and 16 to divine ones. The books were built according to a systematic plan and thus correspond to Momigliano's definition of "archeology". One thing follows from all this: that Momigliano's division of historical works may be just, but his linking these divisions to terms has absolutely no justification. From the very beginning there is no firm evidence that the authors used the term "archaeology" as opposed to the term "history" and limited to systematic and descriptive works.

It meant simply the general doctrine of antiquities, research into ancient history. Based on several thoughts of Thucydides, Alain Schnapp writes:

"The commentators were not mistaken when they called this part of the books of Thucydides "archaeology", not in our sense of the word, but in the true Greek sense - the study of ancient affairs ... That this form of archeology can intersect with what we today call archeology, it is easy to show, and the well-known passage on Purification at Delos provides an excellent example of this. In this sense, the knowledge of the past - archaiologia in the Greek sense of the term - is very close to that specialized branch of history, which for the last two centuries we have called archeology" (Schnapp 1996: 50).

It is difficult to agree with this. Ancient artifacts rarely served the Greeks and Romans for study and inference. As Trigger (1989: 30) writes, "scientists have not attempted to systematically discover such artifacts" and these artifacts "have not been the subject of special study."

10. Vitality of "sacred archeology". Summing up, we have to admit that the archeology of the Ancient East ("Asiatic formation", according to Marx), and in a significant part of the ancient world was "sacred", that is, far from the goals of knowledge and science. Oddly enough, this aspect of dealing with antiquities is very vividly felt in modern life. When I observe the successful struggle of the current church for the return of ancient icons from museums (not to mention the calls of politicians, recent communists, to consecrate the Duma and expel demons from it), I recognize the same mystical mentality that prompted Tsar Nabonidus to restore the ancient temple as a functioning one. shrine, and the ancient Hellenes to fulfill the instructions of the Pythia. We see this archaic spirit in the claims of the Orthodox Church for influence in the historical understanding of the past of the country and for the disposal of church buildings and sacred antiquities.

Of course, church communities have the right to buildings and things of church use, but when these things become ancient and acquire the status of the most valuable evidence of the history of culture, one must understand that their daily existence in church services and the lack of proper storage (conservation, restoration) leads to their intensive wear and tear, and increases the risk of kidnapping. Instead of restoration, the church usually prefers renovation, which harms the historical monument. Laws are needed that would limit the disposal of antiquities and even remove them from church life, and the church, striving to be known as enlightened, should not interfere with this. Unfortunately, the separation of church and state in our country is much less radical than, say, in France, and the church enjoys too much influence.

11. Was archeology necessary? But even with the deduction of "sacred archeology" in the ancient world there is little in common with archeology as a science. We must admit that the arguments of archaeologists of ancient times are untenable, even if we accept that it did not exist in its modern form. As Phillips writes,

“No more than the rest of mankind, before the Europeans of the last two centuries, the Greeks practiced archeology, although they made discoveries that were archaeologically interesting, and even drew correct conclusions ... But in previous centuries these discoveries were accidental and never made in a purposeful hunt for knowledge. Even less they were collated and classified, and no chronology could be deduced from them" (Phillips 1964: 17).

There was no archeology either in the Ancient East or in the ancient world. And, actually, why? Those who try to prove the opposite proceed from the natural conviction that archeology is a necessary component of the knowledge system and that as soon as the opportunity arises to recognize antiquities, there are people who are ready to do it.

But this is what the English historian of antiquity Moses Finley, who is generally prone to paradoxical thinking and provocative posing of questions, noticed. Finlay found that the ancient Greeks, not to mention the Romans, were quite capable of systematically excavating ancient settlements if they wanted to do so. "Technically," stated Finley (1977: 22), "Schliemann and Sir Arthur Evans had little at their disposal that the Athenians in the fifth century had not." A shovel, a spade, a trowel, a knife, brushes, brushes - the Greeks possessed all this. Draw, draw. Write too. There was no photograph, but it could have been dispensed with. There was no drawing paper, but there was papyrus and there were clay tablets. There was no crafting, but it was possible to pack the finds in fabrics or boxes. The Greeks also knew how to connect the excavated things with their legendary past. Separate arguments of Herodotus and especially Thucydides, which are too rare to speak of archeology as a science, nevertheless show that archaeological thinking was also accessible to the ancient Hellenes.

"The ancient Greeks," Finlay continued, "already had the skill and personnel to excavate the shaft-tombs of Mycenae and the Palace of Knossos, and the intelligence to connect the unearthed stones (if they would have unearthed them) with the myths of Agamemnon and Minos. there was a lack, there was interest - that is the huge gulf between their civilization and ours, between their look into the past and ours.

They did not conduct systematic excavations for the purpose of knowledge because they did not need to. They dug for the purpose of robbing or obtaining shrines. But not for the purposes of knowledge.

It turns out that society does not always need all the sciences. By the way, this is a very important issue for those who are concerned about the future of archeology, in particular in our country. In England, Gordon Child thought a lot about this sacramental question. Artamonov, I remember, at the height of the excavations on the Volga-Don, when the scrapers were biting into the barrows and the dump trucks were cruising in the dust, and 400 convicts were chiselling the dried earth, he stopped and muttered to himself: "And who needs all this?"

The ancient Greeks didn't need it. Why?

Archeology, as a source science aimed at processing material sources, suggests that historians are not satisfied with the limitation to written sources. And this suited the Greeks in history, because the questions that they asked history did not need to attract material sources. History was seen as a series of actions of rulers and heroes, as well as actions under the conditions of certain laws, customs and the natural environment. For all this, written sources and oral traditions were enough. In addition, the ancient world was extremely trusting of sacred myths and literary authorities. To subject them to doubt and verification simply did not occur to me.

Society is not yet ripe for archaeology. Even as brilliant as the Greek, and as civilized as the Roman. For its emergence and existence, archeology requires a very advanced civilization and a humanity so wiser that it has learned to doubt. Doubt authority. To doubt comforting myths and divine truths. Doubt, test and prove.

Questions to think about:

Do you find convincing the arguments of supporters or opponents of deepening archeology into the ancient world and why?

Is it possible to exclude reflections on the origin of culture and civilization from archeology, as is done in the proposed interpretation?

Do you still find any messages or arguments of an archaeological nature in Homer?

Is every use of archaeological material archeology? (cf. use by Herodotus, Dionysius, Strabo).

What are the grounds for linking collecting to archeology?

To sum up, what was new in the ancient Eastern studies of objects that later became part of archeology, in comparison with primitive ones? How are they higher than "folk archaeology"?

What was the reason for this excess? What characteristics of the ancient Eastern civilization allowed the ancient Eastern rulers to rise a step higher in the development of antiquities and what kept them close to the level of "folk archeology"?

Is it possible to say that the development of material antiquities in China outpaced the development in the European antiquity, and if so, how did it outpace it?

Is the history of the discipline related to the history of its name?

Are Biblical archeology, ecclesiastical archeology, and "sacred archeology" the same thing?

Are the reasons why there was no archeology in the ancient world sufficiently fully stated? Do you find other reasons?

Can the situation with the uselessness of archeology be repeated?

Literature (3. Germs of archeology in the ancient world).

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Klein L. S. 1992. Methodological nature of archeology. - Russian Archeology (Moscow), 4: 86 - 96.

Klein, L. S. 1977. Rain Man: Collecting and Human Nature. – Museum in contemporary culture. Collection of scientific papers. St. Petersburg State. academy of culture. St. Petersburg: 10 - 21.

Baldry H. C. 1952. Who invented the Golden Age? – Classical Quarterly, n. ser., XLVI, 2: 83–92.

Baldry H. C. 1956. Hesiod's Five Ages. - Journal of the History of Ideas, 17: 553 - 554.

Blundell S. 1986. The origins of civilization in Greek and Roman thought. London, Routledge.

Brundell S. 1986. The origins of civilization in Greek and Roman thought. London, Routledge.

Chang Kwang Chih. 1968. The archeology of Ancient China. New Haven and London, Yale University Press.

Cheng Te-Kun. 1939. Archeology in China, vol. 1. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Cook R. M. 1955. Thucydides as archaeologist. Annual of the British School at Athens, L: 266 – 277.

Edwards I.E.S. 1985. The pyramids of Egypt. Revised ed. Harmondsworth, Penguin.

Eichhoff K. J. L. M. 19??. Über die Sagen und Vorstellungen von einem glücklichen Zustande der Menschheit bei den Schriftstellern des klassischen Altertums. - Jahresbücher für Philologie und Pädagogik, Bd. 120: ???????????????.

Evans J. D. 1981. Introduction: On the prehistory of archaeology. Evans J. D., Cunliffe B. and Renfrew C. (eds.). Antiquity and man. Essays in honor of Glyn Daniel. London, Thames and Hudson: 12–18.

Finley M. I. 1975. The use and abuse of history. London, Chatto & Windus (n. ed.: 1986 - London, Hogarth).

Gomaa F. 1973. Chaemwese Sohn Ramses" II und hoher Priester von Memphis. Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz.

Griffiths J. G. 1956. Archeology and Hesiod's Five Ages. - Journal of the History of Ideas, 17: 109 - 119.

Griffith J. G. 1958. Did Hesiod invent the Golden Age? - Journal of the History of Ideas, 18: 91-93.

Hansen G Chr. 1967. Ausgrabungen im Altertum. - Das Altertum, 13(1): 44-50.

Heider K. H. 1967. Archaeological assumptions and ethnographical facts: A cautionary tale from New Guinea. – Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, vol. 23:52-64.

Helmich F. 1931. Urgeschichtliche Theorien in der Antike. – Mitteilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien, Bd. 61:29-73.

Kitchen K. A. 1982. Pharaoh triumphant: The life and times of Ramses II. Mississauga, Benben Publications.

Klein L. S. 1994. Prehistory and archaeology. – Kuna M. and Venclova N. (eds.). Whatever archaeology? Papers in honor of Evžen Neustupny. Praha, Institute of Archaeology: 36–42.

Lovejoy A. O., Boas G., Albright W. F. and Dumont P. E. 1935. Primitivism and related ideas in antiquity. Baltimore, Hopkins Press.

Mahoudeau P.-G. 1920. Lucrèce transformiste et précurceur de l "anthropologie préhistorique. - Révue archaeoologique, 30 (7 - 8): 165 - 176.

McNeal R. A. 1972. The Greeks in history and prehistory. - Antiquity, XLVII: 19-28.

Momigliano A. 1983. L "histoire ancienne et l" antiquaire. - Problemes d "historiographie ancienne et moderne. Paris, Gallimard: 244 - 293.

Müller R. 1968. Antike Theorienüber Ursprung und Ebtstehung der Kultur. ß Das Altertum, 14(2): 67–79.

Mustilli D. 1965. L "originine della vita l" evolution della civiltá umana nella tradizione degli scritori classici. - Atti del VI Congres Internazional delle szienze preistorici e protostorici, 2. Firenze: 65 - 68.

Phillips E. D. 1964. The Greek vision of prehistory. - Antiquity, XXXVIII (151): 171-178.

Reinach S. 1889. Le Musee de l "Empereur Auguste. - Revue d" Anthropologie, 4: 28 - 36.

Schnapp A. 1996. The discovery of the past. The origins of archaeology. Transl. fr. French (origin. 1993).

Schnapp A. 2002. Between antiquarians and archaeologists – continuities and ruptures. - Antiquity, 76 (291): 134-140.

Sima Qian. 1961. Records of the Grand Historian of China. Transl. by Burton Watson. 2 vols. New York, Columbia University Press (n. ed. Hong Kong, Renditions - New York, Columbia University Press 1993).

Sichtermann H. 1996. Kulturgeschichte der klassischen Archaeologie. Munich, C. H. Beck.

Smith W. S. 1958. The art and architecture of Ancient Egypt. Baltimore, Pengwin.

Trigger B. G. 1989. A history of archaeological thought. Cambridge et al., Cambridge University Press.

Unger E. 1931. Babylon die heilige Stadt nach der Beschreibung der Babylonier. Berlin, De Gruyter.

Wace A. J. B. 1949. The Greeks and Romans as archaeologists. - Bulletin de la Société royale d "archéologie d" Alexandrie, 38: 21 - 35.

Wang Gungwu 1985. Loving the ancient in China. - McBryde I. (ed.). Who owns the past? Melbourne, Oxford University Press: 175-195.

Illustrations:

Statue of Kawab, son of Cheops, with an inscription of Khaemwaset, son of Ramesses II (Schnap 1996: 328).

Stele inscribed with Nabonidus of Larsa (Schnapp 1996: 17).

Tablet with an inscription from the end of the III millennium BC. e. on one side, and on the other - an inscription of the 6th c. BC e. (Schnap 1996: 32).

A warrior in a helmet trimmed with boar fangs. Bone plate from the island of Delos (late 15th - early 13th century BC). (Klein 1994: 12).

Change of shield types: figure-of-eight and tower (1 and 2) existed only in the Achaean (Mycenaean) time, dipylon (3) characterizes the Homeric time (Klein 1994: 78).

Roman relief from Ostia, 1st c. BC e. Fishermen pull a Greek bronze statue, probably Hercules, from the beginning of the 5th century with a net. BC e. Hercules is also shown in the center of the relief (Schnapp 1996: 59).