The first traces of human life in the Desna River basin date back to the period of the Middle Stone Age, but the most favorable conditions for populating of this area appeared in the period of the Late Stone Age (40-8 thousand years ago). The site of a primitive tribal community consisted of some dwellings of a dugout type. People lived there for a long time, hunting the mammoth, the wooly rhinoceros, the reindeer, the bison, the bear and other animals, picking vegetable food. The monument of that age, which has no equal to itself in the world, is the Mezin site, which existed about 20 thousand years ago. This was a good lived-in settlement, the frameworks of the buildings were made of wooden poles, and they were covered with skins of big animals and encircled with the mammoth's bones and reindeer horns. On the site they founded many instruments of labor made of local chalk flint: different chisels, scrapers, awls, etc. Interesting enough are the items of primitive art: a decorated with geometrical ornament bracelet of the mammoth's tusk, figures of women, pendants, fastenings for clothes… But (still) the most curious are the "noise bracelet" (an analog of castanets) and six bones of the mammoth, decorated with ornaments painted with ochre. They were kept in a special, uninhibited building. The experts, who studied them - archeologists, paleontologists, paleotraceologists, medics, photo analysts, art critics - unanimously arrived to a conclusion: this complex is the most unique orchestra known in the world. And what is more, having studied the traces of strikes on the animals' bones, the scientists managed to recreate the melody, which was created thousands years ago. You can download the music samples here Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! hope we'll have smday history forums over herePlease Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
