When at the beginning of summer in East Africa, where the source of the Nile is located, the mountain snows begin to melt, the water level in the river rises and the flood begins. The Nile slows down its already calm course and floods the low banks, turning them into real swamps for several months. In stagnant water, suspended particles gradually settle down, and when the river returns to its channel, the banks are covered with a new layer of fertile silt. In the southern regions of Egypt, the rise of water begins in mid-July, and above all - 8-10 m above the usual level! - the water rises in August - September and stays high until mid-November. During a flood, the water rises slowly, its level rising by several centimeters a day, so that people have time to leave, taking their property and livestock. The main difficulty in processing the most fertile flooded "lower fields" is due to the fact that after the decline in water, moisture is distributed unevenly - high-lying areas lose it too quickly, while coastal fields, on the contrary, become swampy, because water stands on them almost all year round. And the Egyptians came up with a very simple device that allowed them to adjust the amount of water in the fields at their discretion. In much the same way as children build earthen dams on streams in the spring, the Egyptians began to build walls of densely beaten earth, covered with clay, on the flood banks of the river, so that water would not seep through them. From a bird's eye view, the Nile Valley looked like a notebook sheet lined in a box. During the spill, water fell into the "cells" - pools, and people could dispose of it as needed - hold it for a long time in high places or, conversely, break through the earthen wall and drain excess water. Gradually, individual structures were linked into long chains that stretched along the Nile for tens of kilometers.
It happened 10 thousand years ago or a little earlier... A small detachment of hunters who came from the Sahara, then still a flourishing plain, approached the edge of the plateau, behind which a new, unknown country opened up. Antelope hunters, familiar only with small rivers of their native steppes that dry up in summer, have never seen such a miracle! A wide, full-flowing river majestically carried muddy waters past them; where and where - no one knew. Without breaking the silence, people looked at the river for a long time, seized with sacred awe and the desire to fall on their knees before the mighty ruler of these places. The hunters did not even dare to go down to the very water, near which venomous snakes swarmed. The banks of the river were swampy for hundreds of meters and overgrown with thick reeds. Hippos and crocodiles rested on the shallows. The hunters left, but they, and later their descendants, had to return to the tempting and frightening shores.
The life of non-settled people is modest. Nomadic hunters could not have heavy utensils, their dwellings had to be light, like yurts and huts. Before the advent of pack and draft animals, everything had to be carried on oneself. Settled farmers and pastoralists, if the land around was fertile, lived in one place for a long time - for centuries. Of course, they continued to hunt, fish, gather berries, as the peasants of all countries did many centuries later and as the villagers do now. In the conditions of a sedentary life, it is possible to build strong houses from clay bricks, dried in the sun, from wood or stone.
Women are the first members of the human race to be portrayed. Several of these drawings have been preserved in the caves. More often they were preferred to be depicted in the form of sculptures. These were small figurines made of mammoth tusk, bone, stone, and specially prepared clay mass that fit in the palm of your hand. Usually women were depicted as full and naked, mothers who had many children. But there are also figures of slender, graceful women, as if they have not yet experienced the hardships and joys of motherhood. They are young huntresses, as agile as the men, though not as strong.
In all likelihood, the figurines of women were used in rituals and worn as amulets. They were supposed to have a magical effect, to bring well-being not only to women and children, but to the entire community. After all, only with an abundance of food and a quiet life could women give birth to future strong hunters.
The process of re-feudalization and counter-reformation experienced by Italy in the second to fourth quarter of the 16th century dramatically changed the character of its architectural development. At the end of 16-18 centuries. the main customers of architecture are the church and the nobility, who demanded a brightly emotional frame for magnificent, theatrical ceremonies - religious and secular. The logical compositions of Renaissance architecture, their inherent completeness of parts are replaced by the complex systems of merging spaces characteristic of Baroque architecture, the developed plasticity of volumes, the abundant use of decorative sculpture and the illusionistic effects of painting, visually destroying the materiality of walls and ceilings. In baroque architecture, the building is closely interconnected with the surrounding space (the cathedral and the colonnaded St. Peter's Square in Rome). Along with Italy (the work of L. Bernini, F. Borromini, G. Guarini), Baroque architecture was widely spread in Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. The influence of the baroque of Spain and Portugal, combined with the traditions of the pre-colonial period, gave rise to the baroque architecture of Latin America, marked by extreme decorative richness.
France in the 17th century the triumph of absolutism, the development of industry and trade, the growth of cities created the prerequisites for the emergence of classicism architecture. The rationalistic worldview underlying it was expressed in the severity of geometric compositions; the system of architectural orders was widely used as a decorative motif. The principle of composition regularity extended to the organization of gardens, parks and city squares (creativity of L. Levo, J. Hardouin-Mansart, A. Le Nôtre). End-to-end perspectives permeated suites of premises, urban areas, parks of country residences (Vole-Vicomte, Versailles, etc. - in France). The development of classicist architecture continued in France (architects J. A. Gabriel, C. N. Ledoux) and other European countries in the second half of the 18th and early 19th centuries. after a brief flash of decorative and ornate rococo style. Classicism was supported by the growing bourgeoisie. During the period of the Napoleonic Empire, classicism came to the cold splendor of the Empire style. In England, the picturesque environment of parks that imitated natural nature was created in contrast to the classicist architecture of buildings.
Many generations of people changed, until the glacier finally receded to the north. The boundary of the eternal ice became what it is now, which meant that warming had come. Animals adapted to cold climates died out, as happened with the mammoth or the woolly rhinoceros. Probably, people who increasingly successfully hunted them also played some role in the disappearance of these animals.
With the retreat of the glacier (this happened at the end of the 10th - 9th millennium BC), as geologists say, the modern era began. The movement of the glacier to the north occurred gradually, and the southern regions of Europe and Asia, earlier than others, became favorable for a new leap in the development of human culture. People realized that it is not necessary to look for a large piece of good stone to make a dagger or a spearhead. It is much more economical to break off small plates from small nuclei or to divide large knife-like plates into small ones. The resulting small pieces can be inserted into a bone or wooden base by making a groove in it. So from small plates, reinforced with resin in bone or a wooden stick, you can get a large tool - a spearhead, a knife, a saw; these plates were easily fixed in the shaft of the arrow. This method of making tools made it possible to save time and use small pieces of such minerals as, for example, semi-precious chalcedony or agate.
When the first cave images of animals were found, almost no one believed that people who lived in caves and used stone tools could draw like this. And yet it is so. Amazing in perfection, accuracy of observations, images of animals - bison, horses, mammoths - were applied to the walls and low ceilings of caves in Spain, in the south of France, in the Urals. Parts of the caves with paintings are often located in the depths, in complete darkness. In order to draw these figures here with multi-colored mineral paints, it was necessary to illuminate the walls with torches and stone "lamps" in the form of ladles filled with fat.
Until now, scientists are trying to understand why they painted these animals, with what rituals and myths they are associated. It is safe to say that at that time people became the creators of the "second nature", a world that is similar to the visible, but differs from it because a person sees not only with his eyes, but also with his head, i.e. makes sense of what he sees. The creation of the "second nature" began, of course, even earlier, from the moment when a person did not just take a stick or a stone in his hand, but processed them for his own needs. However, the appearance of fine arts is the most important sign of the progress of mankind.
The invention of earthenware refractory dishes made it possible to cook dishes known to us such as cereals, soups, stews, fry food using oil. Meat and vegetables were not only baked and fried over an open fire, but also boiled.
https://search.yahoo.co.jp/image/search?p=https%3A%2F%2Fall-andorra.com%2Fcategory%2Fblog%2Finteresting-places-in-the-pyrenees-must-see%2F&ei=UTF-8&fr=sfp&aq=-1&oq=&n=20&vm=i&cr=AhSrOWIA4b5GwNDjTRMJLOqJaDVCMk34_sreyKo3Mg2G1ac-zUYHosW5JIzVEpdqlGnsWhie9K-gqAHgFYBSjC9kmL-M9QIgaASk716L95P8XYKbRJqt7Lp_UMqSCyLqZeUE01Mh&se=1&ue=1The dishes were made by women. They made not only comfortable, but also beautiful things. The rough surface of the prepared vessel was covered with liquid colored clay and painted with mineral paints. Some preferred not to draw, but to scratch patterns or apply them with special stamps. Everyone who has ever been to historical museums remembers these bowls, dishes, pots, huge vessels for storing grain and other supplies.
Ornaments on vessels and other things were very diverse, especially in the areas of ancient agriculture, in the East. These are geometric shapes, and flower rosettes, and figurines of animals, and dancing people. The ornaments are so perfect that they can be mistaken for the creation of specially trained artists. However, they were made by women who adopted the skill from their ancestors. They owe their art to a long tradition, searches and mistakes of many generations.
They painted not only vessels, but also the walls of dwellings. These were simple ornaments that varied among different communities, as well as images of animals and people. Simple patterns were made by ordinary women, and complex, multi-figured patterns intended for ceremonies were made by women and men with special knowledge of customs and traditions. In houses with such images, as is known from the excavations of the settlement in Turkey, amazing in terms of the wealth of finds, Catal Huyuk, rituals were periodically performed, and each time the wall painting was updated for them.
Another important device was molded from clay - stoves and hearths. Depending on the purpose, they had a different form. There were ovens for baking bread. In the southern regions they were low, round, with a wide opening at the top. First, a fire was lit in them, and then, when it died down, and the walls became hot enough, cakes of dough were stuck on them from the inside.
Game in the drying steppes of the Sahara became less and less, skirmishes between hunting tribes became more and more fierce and bloody. Defeated, pushed back from the familiar steppe, the tribes settled on the banks of the big river, unfamiliar to them. The population of the Nile Valley gradually developed from small groups that “leaked” here, among which were people with different skin colors - olive-yellow, brownish or completely dark. The first settlements discovered by archaeologists on the banks of the Nile date back to a rather late time - VI-IV millennium BC. They were located on high sections of the river valley, far from the water - people were afraid of floods. They still did not know how to properly cultivate the fertile soil of the "lower fields", although they already knew the simplest methods of caring for cultivated plants.
The dark land in the Nile Valley was so different from the rocky and clay soil of the neighboring plateaus that the Egyptians called their country "Kemet" - "Black". The river itself brought extraordinary land, millimeter by millimeter laying a fertile layer on the stone foundation of the banks. The water in the Nile is muddy because it contains many tiny particles of various origins - there are also grains of rocks picked up by the river where it flows along a rocky bed, and plant remains brought by tributaries from coastal tropical forests.