The ethnic history of the peoples of the world did not end with the formation of language families. Already during the period of the settlement of the speakers of the largest troupes of languages across the continents, there was an intensive interaction of various ethnic groups, their differentiation and assimilation, the disappearance of some peoples and the formation of others. So, for example, during the settlement of the Indo-Europeans in Europe, they met an older population that lived there, probably from the time of the late Paleolithic and Mesolithic, and spoke languages that have not come down to us, which can be conditionally called "Paleo-European". Many linguists believe that the Germanic languages developed in the process of assimilation by the Indo-Europeans of some kind of pre-Indo-European language substrate (Latin substratum-sublayer, base). Traces of such a substratum can also be traced in the languages of the Baltic peoples - the ancient Prussians, Lithuanians and Latvians. It is possible that the last remnants of the Paleo-Europeans were those who survived until the beginning of the 2nd millennium AD. e. the Picts of Scotland, mentioned by medieval writers and told by Scottish folk legends.
In the north of Eastern Europe, the Paleo-European tribes were assimilated, apparently, not only by the Indo-Europeans, but also by the Finno-Ugric peoples, who already in the Neolithic period (III-II millennium BC) spread from the Urals and the Volga-Kama region to the north and west, reaching the shores of the Baltic Sea. In the Baltic-Finnish languages (Estonian, Finnish, Karelian, etc.), Soviet linguists identify a substratum, possibly identical to the Paleo-European substratum of the Letto-Lithuanian languages. Later (most likely only in the 1st millennium BC), the Saami (Lapps), whose ancestors spoke some other language, possibly close to Samoyed, switched to Finnish speech. In Western Siberia, the Ugrian and Samoyed tribes moving north assimilated in the taiga and tundra an older population whose languages were probably close to those of the Yukagirs. To the east of the Yenisei, the Yukagirs were largely absorbed by the Tungus, who spread from the south, and later (at the end of the 1st millennium AD) by the Turkic-speaking Yakuts, whose ancestors lived in the Baikal region. In the extreme north-east of Siberia, the ancestors of the Chukchi and Koryaks, who adopted reindeer husbandry from the Tungus, in turn assimilated
Monuments of the most ancient civilizations of the world:
a-ziggurat in the Sumerian city of Ur (3rd millennium BC). b-ancient Egyptian sphinx and pyramid (3rd millennium BC)
more ancient Eskimo population, mainly engaged in hunting marine animals.
The processes of ethnic differentiation and assimilation in the more southern parts of the ecumene proceeded differently in antiquity. With education in the IV-II millennium BC. e. on the basis of the agricultural economy of early class societies and ancient states in the basins of the Tigris and Euphrates, Nile, Indus, Ganges and Huang He rivers, as well as in some neighboring countries, centers of solidarity of large peoples arose here, gradually incorporating various ethnic elements into their composition. Among these peoples were representatives of various language families: the Sumerians, the Semitic Akkadians and the ancient Egyptians,
Ablution pool at Mohenjo Daro
the Indo-European Hittites of Asia Minor and the Bactrians and Khorezmians of Central Asia, the Dravidian creators of the Harappan civilization and Mohenjo Daro, the ancient Chinese of the Yin Dynasty period (XVII-XI centuries BC). Later, already in the 1st millennium BC. e., Babylonia and Assyria, Elam and ancient Persia, Urartu in Transcaucasia, the states of North India in the Ganges basin, Ancient Greece (Hellas), the Hellenistic states of Western and Central Asia, which arose on the ruins of the empire of Alexander the Great, began to play a similar role as centers of ethnic consolidation. and, finally, Rome, which united under its rule, first all of Italy, and by the beginning of our era, most of the countries of the Mediterranean.
The neighbors of these states of antiquity in the strip of steppes and semi-deserts were various pastoral nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples, to which Libyan (Berber), Kushite, Jewish and ancient Arab tribes belonged in North Africa and Southwest Asia; speaking Semitic-Hamitic languages, in the south of Eastern Europe, in Central Asia and Southern Siberia - Indo-European (Iranian-speaking) Scythians, Sarmatians and Saks, and in Central Asia - Xiongnu (Huns), Xianbei and other ethnic groups who spoke Turkic and Mongolian languages. These tribes, with their raids, constantly disturbed neighboring states, often invaded 
deep into their territory, which led to deep ethnic shifts and often served as the reason for the formation of new ethnic groups. In the first centuries A.D. e. The Huns, pushed back by the Chinese from the borders of their state, begin to move west, dragging other Turkic tribes with them and gradually assimilating the steppe Iranian-speaking peoples.
We know relatively little about the ethnic history of the ancient peoples of the tropical and subtropical regions of Africa and Asia, as well as Australia, Oceania and America. The centers of early class societies, and at the same time the consolidation of large ethnic groups in these parts of the ecumene, arose later, and in many countries did not take shape at all before the start of European colonization. However, in North Africa back in the 1st millennium BC. e. there were several independent states: Carthage, founded by immigrants from Phoenicia, who spoke a Semitic language close to Hebrew, Mauritania and Numidia, created by the Libyans. Following the conquest of Carthage by the Romans in 146 BC. e. these states, after a stubborn struggle, became Roman possessions. A few centuries before the new ara, the development of a class society began on the territory of modern Ethiopia. One of the states that developed here - Aksum - reached its peak in the 4th century. n. e., when his possessions in the west reached the country of Meroe in the Nile Valley, and in the east - "Happy Arabia" (modern Yemen). In the II millennium AD. e. strong states have developed in Western Sudan (Ghana, Mali, Songhai and Bornu); Later, states were formed on the Guinean coast (Ashanti, Dahomey, Congo, etc.), west of Lake Chad (states of the Hausa peoples) and in many other areas of the African continent. The founders of these states were peoples belonging to different linguistic families and groups, but in all cases there was an ethnic consolidation, as a result of which many large peoples of Africa that still exist today began to take shape.
In India, during the 1st millennium BC. e. and the first centuries of the new era, intensive mixing and interaction took place between the Dravidians, Munda and Indo-Aryans. As they moved south, these peoples assimilated, apparently, the more ancient aboriginal population, who spoke languages \u200b\u200bthat are unknown to us, according to the grammatical structure, possibly close to the languages \u200b\u200bof the Andamans of the North Halmachers and Papuans. The last remnants of these natives are probably the Veddas of Sri Lanka, who switched to the language of neighboring Sinhalese, of North Indian origin, as well as some tribes of South India (Chenchu, Mudugars, etc.), who currently speak various Dravidian dialects.
Invasion of India from the northwest by different peoples continued throughout almost all of its history. In IV-II centuries. to p. e. after the Indian campaign of Alexander the Great, connections were established between India and the countries of the Hellenistic world, accompanied by the penetration of Greek and Parthian (Persian) elements. Later, at the end of the II century. BC e., the migration to India of the Iranian-speaking Saks (Shaks) began, the state of which included Gujarat, Sindh and part of Rajasthan. In the middle of the 1st c. n. e. there was a new invasion of the Kushans related to the Shakas. The Kushan state covered most of the interfluve of the Ganges and Jamna, Punjab, Kashmir, as well as Afghanistan, many regions of Central Asia, including East Turkestan (Xinjiang).
Thus, many new ethnic elements have joined the population of India; as a result of their interaction with the local population, new ethnic groups were formed, such as, for example, Gujars, Jats, Rajputs, possibly also Toda, etc. It is very important to emphasize that in the creation of the ancient and medieval states of India, as well as in the development of its bright and rich culture, A wide variety of peoples who spoke the languages of different families took part.
We have already spoken about the main stages of the ancient ethnic history of East and Southeast Asia. In I millennium BC. e. here the early class ancient Chinese state continued to develop, in the economic, political and cultural history of which not only the Chinese, but also other peoples took an active part,
Tomb of the Yin King (excavations in Anyang in northern China)"
who spoke Turkic, Mongolian and Manchu in the north, and Tibeto-Burma, Thai, Miao-Yao, Mon-Khmer and Indonesian languages in the south and west. The territory of modern China south of the Qinling Range to the middle of the 1st millennium AD. e. was not ethnically Chinese. Similarly, in the ethnic history of Korea, where a class society also developed in the first centuries BC, the southern Yue (Indonesian), northern Paleo-Asian and western ancient Altai tribes took part; the language of the latter became the basis for the development of the Korean language. In Japan, the first states arose even later (already in the 1st millennium AD), their population included the Ainu, Indonesians, and the ancient Japanese tribes themselves who migrated from Korea.
In Indochina and Indonesia, a class society began to take shape at the turn and in the first centuries of the new era among the ancient Viet (in Chinese "Yue") - the ancestors of the modern Vietnamese, who lived south of them Indonesian Chams, Austroasiatic Khmers and Mons, some Malay peoples of Sumatra and Javanese. In the formation of the first states of Southeast Asia, a significant role was played by immigrants from India, and partly (in Vietnam) from South China. Later, already at the end of the 1st millennium AD. e., the states of the Burmese and Thai are formed, which advanced into Indochina from the north, crowding and assimilating the more ancient Mon-Khmers and Indonesians. The ethnic composition of the mainland of Southeast Asia has remained extremely variegated throughout history, while in its insular part (in Indonesia and the Philippines), most peoples spoke the languages of one Austro-Nesian family. From the Philippines and from Indonesia in the 1st millennium AD. e. Austronesians settled all of Oceania, forming here three language groups: Melanesian, Micronesian and Polynesian. In Eastern Indonesia, New Guinea and some other islands of Melanesia, they assimilated the older Papuan tribes. In the settlement of the eastern islands of Polynesia (especially Easter Island), according to some researchers (for example, the Norwegian ethnographer and traveler Thor Heyerdahl), separate groups of immigrants from America could take part.
The ancient ethnic history of America is known to us very little. The original population penetrated into this part of the world, as we know, at the end of the Paleolithic from Northeast Asia, 30-25 thousand years before our time. There were probably several successive waves of settlement in America; one of the last was the resettlement of the Eskimos in the 1st millennium BC. e., gradually spreading eastward to Greenland. As for the ancestors of the American Indians, they, settling in a vast area from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego for 12-15 millennia, broke up into a large number of language families and isolated groups, the relationship between which is still insufficiently studied. In science, a lot of controversy was caused by the question of the possible connections of America with other parts of the world before the voyages of Columbus and the beginning of European colonization.
Thor Heyerdahl, who committed in 1969 and 1970. two experimental voyages from the coast of Africa to the islands of the Caribbean Sea on papyrus boats "Rz-1" and "Ra-2", suggests that even the ancient Egyptians could use such vessels for transatlantic voyages to the shores of America.
To this day, the problem of Atlantis is being discussed - the legendary country, located, according to the Greek philosopher Plato (V-IV centuries BC), to the west of Gibraltar on a large island, which in ancient times as a result of some grandiose catastrophe was swallowed up by the ocean. Proponents of the hypothesis of the existence of Atlantis believe that long before Columbus, economic and cultural contacts between the peoples of Europe and Africa, on the one hand, and America, on the other, could be carried out through it. However, the data of archeology, ethnography and other sciences do not yet confirm this legend.
Opinions have been repeatedly expressed about the ancient voyages to the shores of America by the Chinese, the Japanese, and especially the Austronesians, as well as about the return voyages to Oceania by the American Indians. So, for example, the French linguist Paul Rive, comparing Austronesian and Australian languages with South American, put forward a hypothesis according to which the Polynesians reached the western coast of South America, having Melanesians and even Australians as slaves on their ships. Of great scientific interest are the finds in 1956 during excavations of Neolithic sites in the town of Valdivia on the southern coast of Ecuador of clay vessels with an ornament characteristic of the pottery of the Jomon culture in southern Japan (4th-3rd millennium BC). It is possible that the carriers of this culture, who most likely spoke Ainu or Austronesian languages, were brought in ancient times by sea drift to the shores of South America. According to Thor Heyerdahl, the ancestors of the Polynesians were brought by sea currents from the coast of Japan to the western coast of North America; they lived there for about a thousand years, and then moved to the Hawaiian Islands, from where they gradually mastered the whole of Polynesia. On Easter Island, the Polynesians met an older population of South American origin, partly exterminated, partly assimilated it.
Most Soviet and foreign ethnographers treat these hypotheses with caution, although they do not deny that there may be a certain amount of truth in them. But in the light of the latest historical and archaeological discoveries, it must be considered completely proven that in the XI- 
12th century n. e. Norwegian navigators (Vikings) from Iceland and Greenland sailed to the shores of North America and even founded settlements in the country they called Vinland (apparently, in the region of modern Newfoundland). they didn't provide.
The centers of early class society and statehood in America developed much later than in Asia, Africa and Europe; this is largely due to the fact that the ancestors of the Indians, originally very few in number, spent a lot of time and effort on the development of this part of the world. The latest archaeological materials suggest that many groups of Indians, especially in Central and South America (in the Andes region), who were well acquainted with agriculture five to four thousand years ago, reached a high level of socio-economic and cultural development by the turn of the new era. In the first centuries of the new era, the states of the Maya and Olmecs are formed in Mesoamsric; architectural monuments and written sources preserved from them speak of a rich and complex civilization. Somewhat later, from about the II-III centuries. n. e., on the territory of modern Mexico, the states of the peoples of the Nahua group begin to develop, first the Toltecs, and then the Aztecs. In the area of the South American Andes, high cultures in the 1st and early 2nd millennium AD. e. were created by the Chibcha peoples in what is now Colombia and the Quechua peoples in what is now Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. In the XIII-XV centuries. led by the Inca tribe (from the Quechua group), a strong early class state developed, subjugating a number of neighboring tribes. All the listed states of pre-Columbian America were barbarously destroyed by the Spanish colonizers in the 16th century.
In addition to the processes of ethnic consolidation that took place in the Middle and South American states, there were many other important events in the ethnic history of the American Indians. We can mention, for example, the mass migrations of the Athabaskans, who settled vast areas in the territory of modern Canada, the USA and Mexico, while assimilating a number of tribes who spoke different languages. The process of resettlement from the northern coast of South America to the Caribbean islands of numerous Carib tribes, who exterminated or subjugated
Monuments of high cultures of ancient America:
a - Azten clay figurine of the god Quetzalquatl; b-human head, ancient Peruvian clay vessel
the Arawaks who lived here earlier. Since the victors destroyed almost all the men from among the defeated, by the time the Europeans appeared on these islands, a peculiar situation had developed in which the men spoke one language (Caribbean) and the women spoke another (Arawak). Thus, the majority of the peoples of America (as well as the whole world) long before our time were ethnically heterogeneous in origin and included the descendants of different tribes who originally spoke independent and far but always related languages.
For many centuries, scientists have been breaking spears, trying to understand the origin of the Russian people. And if the studies of the past were based on archaeological and linguistic data, today even geneticists have taken up the matter.
Of all the theories of Russian ethnogenesis, the most famous is the Danube one. We owe its appearance to the chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years", or rather the centuries-old love for this source of domestic academicians.
The chronicler Nestor determined the initial territory of the settlement of the Slavs by the territories along the lower reaches of the Danube and the Vistula. The theory of the Danube "ancestral home" of the Slavs was developed by such historians as Sergei Solovyov and Vasily Klyuchevsky.
Vasily Osipovich Klyuchevsky believed that the Slavs moved from the Danube to the Carpathian region, where an extensive military alliance of tribes arose, led by the Duleb-Volhynian tribe.
From the Carpathian region, according to Klyuchevsky, in the 7th-8th centuries, the Eastern Slavs settled in the East and Northeast to Ilmen Lake. The Danubian theory of Russian ethnogenesis is still adhered to by many historians and linguists. A great contribution to its development was made at the end of the 20th century by the Russian linguist Oleg Nikolaevich Trubachev.
One of the most fierce opponents of the Norman theory of the formation of Russian statehood, Mikhail Lomonosov, leaned towards the Scythian-Sarmatian theory of Russian ethnogenesis, which he wrote about in his Ancient Russian History. According to Lomonosov, the ethnogenesis of the Russians occurred as a result of the mixing of the Slavs and the Chudi tribe (Lomonosov's term is Finno-Ugric), and he named the interfluve of the Vistula and the Oder as the place of origin of the ethnic history of the Russians.
Supporters of the Sarmatian theory rely on ancient sources, as did Lomonosov. He compared Russian history with the history of the Roman Empire and ancient beliefs with the pagan beliefs of the Eastern Slavs, finding a large number of coincidences. The fierce struggle with the adherents of the Norman theory is quite understandable: the people-tribe Rus, according to Lomonosov, could not come from Scandinavia under the influence of the expansion of the Norman Vikings. First of all, Lomonosov opposed the thesis about the backwardness of the Slavs and their inability to independently form a state.
The hypothesis about the origin of the Russians, published this year by the Oxford scholar Garrett Hellenthal, seems interesting. Having done a lot of work on the study of the DNA of various peoples, he and a group of scientists compiled a genetic atlas of the migration of peoples.
According to the scientist, two significant milestones can be distinguished in the ethnogenesis of the Russian people. In 2054 B.C. e., according to Hellenthal, the trans-Baltic peoples and peoples from the territories of modern Germany and Poland migrated to the northwestern regions of modern Russia. The second milestone is 1306, when the migration of the Altai peoples began, which actively interbred with representatives of the Slavic branches.
Hellenthal's study is also interesting in that genetic analysis proved that the time of the Mongol-Tatar invasion had practically no effect on Russian ethnogenesis.
Another interesting migration theory was proposed at the end of the 19th century by the Russian linguist Aleksey Shakhmatov. His theory of "two ancestral homelands" is also sometimes called the Baltic one. The scientist believed that initially the Balto-Slavic community stood out from the Indo-European group, which became autochthonous on the territory of the Baltic states. After its collapse, the Slavs settled in the territory between the lower reaches of the Neman and the Western Dvina. This territory became the so-called "first ancestral home". Here, according to Shakhmatov, the Proto-Slavic language was formed, from which all Slavic languages originated.
The further migration of the Slavs was associated with the great migration of peoples, during which, at the end of the second century AD, the Germans went south, freeing the Vistula River basin, where the Slavs came. Here, in the lower basin of the Vistula, Shakhmatov defines the second ancestral home of the Slavs. Already from here, according to the scientist, the division of the Slavs into branches began. The western one went to the Elbe region, the southern one was divided into two groups, one of which settled the Balkans and the Danube, the other - the Dnieper and the Dniester. The latter became the basis of the East Slavic peoples, which include the Russians.
Finally, another theory that is different from migration is the autochthonous theory. According to it, the Slavs were an indigenous people inhabiting eastern, central and even part of southern Europe. According to the theory of Slavic autochthonism, the Slavic tribes were the indigenous ethnic group of a vast territory - from the Urals to the Atlantic Ocean. This theory has rather ancient roots and many supporters and opponents. The Soviet linguist Nikolai Marr adhered to this theory. He believed that the Slavs did not come from anywhere, but were formed from tribal communities that lived in vast territories from the Middle Dnieper to Laba in the West and from the Baltic to the Carpathians in the south.
Polish scientists also adhered to the autochthonous theory - Klechevsky, Pototsky and Sestrentsevich. They even led the genealogy of the Slavs from the Vandals, basing their hypothesis, among other things, on the similarity of the words "Vendals" and "Vandals". Of the Russians, the origin of the Slavs Rybakov, Mavrodin and Grekov was explained by autochthonous theory.
In the process of historical development, entire states and peoples appeared and disappeared. Some of them still exist, others have disappeared from the face of the Earth forever. One of the most controversial issues is which of the peoples is the most ancient in the world. Many nationalities claim this title, but none of the sciences can give an exact answer.
There are a number of assumptions that allow us to consider some peoples of the world as the most ancient of those living on our planet today. Opinions on this matter vary depending on what sources historians rely on, what territory they explore and what their origins are. This gives rise to many versions. Some of the scientists believe that the Russians are the most ancient people on earth, whose origins go back to the Iron Age.
The African inhabitants, called the Khoisan people, are considered the most ancient race in the world. They were recognized as such after a genetic study.
Scientists have found that the DNA of the San people, as they are also called, is the most abundant of any other group.
The people who lived as hunter-gatherers for millennia are the direct ancestors of the early modern inhabitants who migrated from the continent. In this way they spread their DNA outside of South Africa, they are believed to be the most ancient people in the world.
A study by the University of Pennsylvania found that all populations were descended from 14 ancient African lineages.
The first humans appeared in southern Africa, probably near the border between South Africa and Namibia, and there are more genetic changes on the continent today than anywhere else on Earth.
The researchers found that these nationalities, as independent ones, began to form 100 thousand years before the beginning of a new era, before humanity began its journey from Africa around the world.
If such information can be trusted, then about 43,000 years ago the Khoisan people were divided into southern and northern groups, some of them retained their national identity, others mixed with neighboring tribes and lost their genetic identity. "Relic" genes have been found in Khoisan DNA that provide increased physical strength and endurance, as well as a high degree of vulnerability to ultraviolet radiation.
Initially, the differences between early pastoralists, farmers, and hunter-gatherers were not overwhelming, and different groups coexisted in many areas. The first evidence of the emergence of pastoralism is found in the more arid west of the continent. There were found bones of sheep and goats, stone tools and pottery. It is with the origins of these communities, and their evolution into modern societies in South Africa, that the history of the continent is connected.
The Khoisan languages originated from one of the hunter-gatherer languages of northern Botswana.
According to data obtained during archaeological excavations, pastures and ceramics in this culture appeared at the end of the first millennium BC. appeared somewhat later. The iron farmers lived in western Zimbabwe or northeastern South Africa. The loosely organized shepherds expanded rapidly, driven by their need for new pastures. Along with pastoralism and pottery, there were other signs of change: domestic dogs, advances in stone-working tools, new settlement patterns, some finds pointing to the development of long-distance trade.
Most of South Africa's early agricultural communities share a common culture that has spread significantly throughout the region since the 2nd century CE. e. Around the middle of the 1st millennium A.D. e. rural communities lived in relatively large, semi-populated villages. They grew sorghum, millet, and legumes, and raised sheep, goats, and cattle. Made pottery and made iron tools.
The established relationship between hunters, herders and farmers during more than 2,000 years of socio-economic change has varied from general resistance to assimilation. For the indigenous peoples of South Africa, the boundaries between different livelihoods presented new dangers and opportunities. As the new culture spread, larger, more successful farming communities were created. In many areas, the new way of life was adopted by hunter-gatherers.
Trying to answer the question of which people are the most ancient, scientists have been studying the Basque people. The origin of the tribes of northern Spain and southwestern France is one of the strangest anthropological mysteries. Their language is unrelated to any other in the world, and their DNA has a unique genetic makeup.
This is a territory in northern Spain, bordering the Bay of Biscay in the north, with the French Basque regions in the northeast and the regions of Navarre, La Rioja, Castile, Leon and Cantabria.
Now they are part of Spain, but at one time the inhabitants of the Basque Country (as we know it today) were part of an independent nation known as the Kingdom of Navarre, which existed from the 9th to the 16th century.
Research has shown that Basque genetic features differ from those of their neighbors. For example, Spaniards have been shown to have North African DNA while Basques do not.
Another example is their language - Euskera. Both French and Spanish (and virtually every other European language) are Indo-European, descendants of the same prehistoric dialect once spoken during the Neolithic. However, the Basque language is not one of them. In fact, Euskera is one of the oldest known dialects and is not related to any other language spoken in the world today.
The Basque Country is surrounded by the sea and a wild rocky coastline on one side and high mountains on the other. Because of this landscape, the Basque territory remained isolated for millennia, it was very difficult to conquer, and therefore it was not affected by migration.
New research shows that the Basques descended from early hunter-gatherers from the Middle East who lived about 7,000 years ago and mixed with the local population before becoming completely isolated.
All this suggests that the Basques are one of the earliest human inhabitants of Europe. They arrived before the Celts and before the spread of Indo-European languages and Iron Age migrations. Some believe that they may indeed be related to Paleolithic Europeans during the Early Stone Age.
The Han people belong to the largest ethnic group in China, with about 90% of the people in the mainland being Han people. Today they make up 19% of the world's population. This is the most Asian. The emergence of this nation occurred during the development of Neolithic cultures, the formation of which took place in the V-III millennium BC. e.
The Han people flourished in China for a long time, and more and more people gradually settled around the world. Now they can be found in Macau, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Japan, Laos, India, Cambodia, Malaysia, Russia, USA, Canada, Peru, France and England. Almost one in five people on our planet is ethnically Han Chinese, although most of them live in the People's Republic of China.
Previously, the Han people ruled and influenced China during the Han Dynasty starting from 206 BC. Art and science flourished during this time, often referred to as the Golden Age of the country. The period in which Buddhism emerged saw the spread of Confucianism and Taoism, and also gave impetus to the development of Chinese characters in writing. In addition, this was the beginning of the creation of the Silk Road, an era in which trade was established between China and many countries far to the west. The first state emperor Huangdi, also called the Yellow Emperor, who unified the country, is considered the ancestor of the Han. Huangdi ruled the Hua Xia tribe that lived on the Yellow River, thus he received the corresponding title. This area and the waters flowing here are considered by the Han Dynasty as the cradle of their civilization, from where the Han culture began and then spread everywhere.
Hanyu was the language of this people, later it turned into an early version of Mandarin Chinese. It was also used as a link between many local languages. Folk religion played a significant role in the life of the Han people. Worship of the images of Chinese mythology and the ancestors of the clan was closely associated with Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism.
China's golden age in times brought a revival of national literature, philosophy and art. Fireworks, rockets, gunpowder, crossbows, cannons, and matches are the main inventions of the early Han Chinese, which spread throughout the world. Paper, printing, paper money, porcelain, silk, lacquer, compass and earthquake detectors were also developed by them. The Ming Dynasty, ruled by the Han, contributed to the construction of the Great Wall of China, which was started by the first Emperor Huang Di. The terracotta army of the ruler is one of the most famous masterpieces of the culture of this people.
Egypt is located in North Africa. One of the most ancient civilizations appeared on this earth. The origin of the name of the state is connected with the word Aegyptos, which was the Greek version of the ancient Egyptian name Hwt-Ka-Ptah ("Mansion of the Spirit of Ptah"), the original name of the city of Memphis, the first capital of Egypt, a major religious and commercial center.
The ancient Egyptians themselves knew their country as Kemet, or the Black Land. This name comes from the fertile, dark soil on the banks of the Nile, where the first settlements were formed. Then the state became known as Misr, which means "country", it is still used by the Egyptians today.
The peak of Egypt's prosperity occurred in the middle of the dynastic period (from 3000 to 1000 BC). Its inhabitants have reached great heights in art, science, technology and religion.
Egyptian culture, which celebrates the greatness of the human experience, is one of the most popular. Their great tombs, temples and works of art exalt life and constantly remind of the past.
For the Egyptians, existence on earth was just one aspect of the eternal journey. The soul was immortal and only temporarily occupied the body. After the interruption of life on earth, you can get to the court in the Hall of Truth and, possibly, to paradise, which was considered a mirror reflection of being on our planet.
The first evidence of mass grazing on the land of Egypt dates back to the 3rd millennium BC. e. This, as well as the discovered artifacts, indicates a civilization that flourished in the region at that time.
The development of agriculture began in the 5th millennium BC. e. Communities belonging to the Badarian culture arose along the banks of the river. The development of industry took place at about the same time, as evidenced by the faience trade at Abydos. Badarian was followed by the Amratian, Hercerian, and Naqada cultures (also known as Naqada I, Naqada II, and Naqada III), all of which greatly influenced the development of what would become Egyptian civilization. Written history begins between 3400 and 3200 BC. during the Nakada III culture era. In 3500 B.C. e. mummification of the dead began to be practiced.
The territory of the Caucasus includes the lands that are part of some modern states: Russia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Turkey.
Armenians are considered one of the most ancient peoples of the Caucasus. For a long time it was believed that from the legendary king Hayk, who came from Mesopotamia in 2492 BC. e. to the territory of Van. It was he who defined the borders of the new state around Mount Ararat, he is considered the founder of the Armenian kingdom. According to scientists, the very name of the Armenians “hai” comes from the name of this ruler. One of the researchers believed that the ruins of the Uratru state were an early Armenian settlement. However, according to the current official version, the Mushki and Urumeans, who appeared in the second quarter of the 12th century BC, are the proto-Armenian tribes. e., before the state of Urartu was formed. Here there was a mixture with the Hurrians, Urartians and Luvians. Most likely, the Armenian statehood was formed during the period of the Hurrian kingdom of Arme-Shubria, which arose in 1200 BC. e.
History holds many secrets and mysteries, and even the most modern research methods cannot find an exact answer to the question - which peoples of the living are the most ancient?
For many centuries, scientists have wanted to know the origin of the Russian people. And if the studies of the past were based on archaeological and linguistic data, today even geneticists have taken up the matter.
Of all the theories of Russian ethnogenesis, the most famous is the Danube one. We owe its appearance to the chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years", or rather the centuries-old love for this source of domestic academicians.
The chronicler Nestor determined the initial territory of the settlement of the Slavs by the territories along the lower reaches of the Danube and the Vistula. The theory of the Danube "ancestral home" of the Slavs was developed by such historians as Sergei Solovyov and Vasily Klyuchevsky.
Vasily Osipovich Klyuchevsky believed that the Slavs moved from the Danube to the Carpathian region, where an extensive military alliance of tribes arose, led by the Duleb-Volhynian tribe.
From the Carpathian region, according to Klyuchevsky, in the 7th-8th centuries, the Eastern Slavs settled in the East and Northeast to Ilmen Lake. The Danubian theory of Russian ethnogenesis is still adhered to by many historians and linguists. A great contribution to its development was made at the end of the 20th century by the Russian linguist Oleg Nikolaevich Trubachev.
One of the most fierce opponents of the Norman theory of the formation of Russian statehood, Mikhail Lomonosov, leaned towards the Scythian-Sarmatian theory of Russian ethnogenesis, which he wrote about in his Ancient Russian History. According to Lomonosov, the ethnogenesis of the Russians occurred as a result of the mixing of the Slavs and the Chudi tribe (Lomonosov's term applied to the Finno-Ugric peoples), and he named the interfluve of the Vistula and the Oder as the place of origin of the ethnic history of the Russians.
Supporters of the Sarmatian theory rely on ancient sources, as did Lomonosov. He compared Russian history with the history of the Roman Empire and ancient beliefs with the pagan beliefs of the Eastern Slavs, finding a large number of coincidences. The fierce struggle with the adherents of the Norman theory is quite understandable: the people-tribe Rus, according to Lomonosov, could not come from Scandinavia under the influence of the expansion of the Norman Vikings. First of all, Lomonosov opposed the thesis about the backwardness of the Slavs and their inability to independently form a state.
The hypothesis about the origin of the Russians, published this year by the Oxford scholar Garrett Hellenthal, seems interesting. Having done a lot of work on the study of the DNA of various peoples, he and a group of scientists compiled a genetic atlas of the migration of peoples.
According to the scientist, two significant milestones can be distinguished in the ethnogenesis of the Russian people. In 2054 B.C. e., according to Hellenthal, the trans-Baltic peoples and peoples from the territories of modern Germany and Poland migrated to the northwestern regions of modern Russia. The second milestone is 1306, when the migration of the Altai peoples began, which actively interbred with representatives of the Slavic branches.
Hellenthal's study is also interesting in that genetic analysis proved that the time of the Mongol-Tatar invasion had practically no effect on Russian ethnogenesis.
Another interesting migration theory was proposed at the end of the 19th century by the Russian linguist Aleksey Shakhmatov. His theory of "two ancestral homelands" is also sometimes called the Baltic one. The scientist believed that initially the Balto-Slavic community stood out from the Indo-European group, which became autochthonous on the territory of the Baltic states. After its collapse, the Slavs settled in the territory between the lower reaches of the Neman and the Western Dvina. This territory became the so-called "first ancestral home". Here, according to Shakhmatov, the Proto-Slavic language was formed, from which all Slavic languages originated.
The further migration of the Slavs was associated with the great migration of peoples, during which, at the end of the second century AD, the Germans went south, freeing the Vistula River basin, where the Slavs came. Here, in the lower basin of the Vistula, Shakhmatov defines the second ancestral home of the Slavs. Already from here, according to the scientist, the division of the Slavs into branches began. The western one went to the Elbe region, the southern one was divided into two groups, one of which settled the Balkans and the Danube, the other - the Dnieper and the Dniester. The latter became the basis of the East Slavic peoples, which include the Russians.
Finally, another theory that is different from migration is the autochthonous theory. According to it, the Slavs were an indigenous people inhabiting eastern, central and even part of southern Europe. According to the theory of Slavic autochthonism, the Slavic tribes were the indigenous ethnic group of a vast territory - from the Urals to the Atlantic Ocean. This theory has rather ancient roots and many supporters and opponents.
The Soviet linguist Nikolai Marr adhered to this theory. He believed that the Slavs did not come from anywhere, but were formed from tribal communities that lived in vast territories from the Middle Dnieper to Laba in the West and from the Baltic to the Carpathians in the south.
Polish scientists also adhered to the autochthonous theory - Klechevsky, Pototsky and Sestrentsevich. They even led the genealogy of the Slavs from the Vandals, basing their hypothesis, among other things, on the similarity of the words “Vendals” and “Vandals”. Of the Russians, the origin of the Slavs Rybakov, Mavrodin and Grekov was explained by autochthonous theory.
According to biblical teaching, all people living on earth exist thanks to Noah, his wife, their children and the wives of their children. According to legend, they were entrusted with a responsible mission: to revive humanity and fill the earth with people. It is also known about the 16 grandchildren of Noah, who settled throughout the earth and gave impetus to the emergence of various nationalities. The first descendants of Noah were distinguished by the fact that they lived for a very long time, sometimes outliving even their great-grandchildren. Around such ancestors, uniting any one area, peoples were concentrated. The lands on which they existed were called by the name of this person. Such centenarians were considered not only their ancestors, but also Gods, they were worshiped. For example, there is a version and some evidence that the name of modern Turkey comes from Noah's descendant with the name Togarma.
The Bible also mentions that initially all the descendants of Noah spoke the same language and there was only one people. After they disobeyed God's will to fill the earth and resettle, starting the construction of one large city and the Tower of Babel, he mixed their languages \u200b\u200bso that they could not negotiate and act together. People could no longer exist within the same group, because they did not understand each other and became alienated. Thus began the dispersion of people on earth. And after resettlement, depending on environmental conditions, people also had external differences, for example, in skin color.
Genetic studies show that despite such a rich external difference between people, their DNA does not differ much, even when comparing two representatives living on different ends of the earth. This confirms the assumption of many evolutionists that different peoples did have the same origin. In this they agree with the creationists. That is, according to both versions, there was originally one people, and there were no strong differences within it. Subsequently, with resettlement, faced with new climatic conditions, representatives less adapted to them began to get sick more often and, consequently, fewer children were born to them.
Thus, only people adapted for this environment remained. There was the most that neither is natural selection. Moreover, he was based on the already existing genetic traits and their compliance with the climate, and did not create new ones. So, environmental conditions influenced the composition of a particular group, and could also destroy some groups entirely. That is why now fair-skinned people live mainly in the north, and dark-skinned people in the south.
