Bronze Age - culture and art in brief

The Bronze Age was the second late period of the metal era. It covers centuries from XXV to XI BC. and conditionally divided into three stages:

• Early - XXV to XVII centuries ..
• Medium - XVII to XV centuries.
• Late - XV to IX centuries.

The Bronze Age is characterized by improvement.tools and hunting, but until now, scientists can not understand how the ancient people came to the idea of ​​melting copper ore metallurgical method.

Bronze became the first metal obtained byan alloy of tin and copper, often with the addition of antimony or arsenic, and superior in its properties to soft copper: the melting point of copper is 1000 ° C, and that of bronze is about 900 ° C. Such temperatures were achieved in small crucible furnaces with a sharp bottom and thick walls. Molds for casting tools and hunting were made of soft stone, and liquid metal was poured with clay spoons.

The development of bronze casting led toimprovement of the productive forces: some shepherd tribes switched to nomadic cattle breeding, while the sedentary continued to develop and switched to plow farming, which was the beginning of social changes within the tribes.

In addition, the culture of the Bronze Age beginschange: patriarchal relations are established in the family - the power of the older generation is strengthened, the role and position of the husband in the family is strengthened. Witnesses are paired burials of a husband and wife with signs of the violent death of a woman.

Начинается расслоение общества, социальные и property differences between the well-to-do and the poor are becoming more and more: large multi-room houses with a clear layout appear, rich settlements are growing, concentrating smaller ones around them. Gradually expanding, they form the first cities in which trade and crafts are actively developed, writing began in the Bronze Age. This was a very important point.

The art of the Bronze Age developed along withby improving the tools of labor: the rock art acquired clear, strict outlines, and the geometrical schemes replaced the colorful drawings of animals. During this period, sculpture, ornaments (in the decoration of tools and household items), and plastic appeared. It was in the ornaments that the symbolic pictorial language appeared, which each clan had its own. Ornamental painting was in the nature of charms: they protected vessels for food from evil spirits, attracted an abundance, gave health to the family.

Interesting famous paintings Karakol,portraying strange creatures, in whose figures animal and human traits intertwined. The combination of full face and profile in one human image brings these figures closer to ancient Egyptian art - all these pictures reflected the cosmogonic ideas of the ancients about the origin of man, about the interactions of people and gods during the transition to the world of the dead. Such drawings were made with black, white and red paint on the walls of the burial boxes, and traces of drawings made with red paint were found on the skulls of the dead.

In addition to the necessary tools, the ancient people learned to make cast and forged bronze, gold copper ornaments, which were decorated with coinage, stones, bone, leather and shells.

The Bronze Age was the forerunner of the Iron Age, which raised civilization to a higher level of development.