The Bronze Age in Belarus was in the period from 2500 years BC – 800 years BC.
Part 1. The history of Belarus 100,000 BC – the 9th century AD.
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| The territory of Belarus during the Ice Age. |
The Stone Age in Belarus was in the period from 100,000 years BC – 2500 years BC.
History is what it was before. It begins when a human appears. It is assumed that the first people in Belarus appeared about one hundred thousand years ago. However, scientists have found very few traces of their activity since the ice age began about 70 thousand years ago and the territory of Belarus was covered by a glacier. A glacier is a huge layer of ice coming from the north and destroying all life оn its way. In general, there are very few artifacts in Belarus related to the life of people in the Stone Age era, because in ancient times its territory was often covered by glaciers.
The first known settlements of people on the territory of Belarus belong to the 24 – 22 centuries ВС. There are two of them: the settlement found near the village of Berdyzh and the village of Yuryevichi. There are so
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| Berdyzh and Yuryevichi in the 24 – 22 centuries ВС |
few settlements because the ice age had not yet ended in the 24 – 22 centuries. The glacier has only slightly melted in the south of Belarus. And that is why people began to infiltrate the territory of our country.
Despite the fact that the glacier melted in the south of Belarus, it was a very cold time. The vacated territory was covered with tundra. Tundra is a climatic zone that consists of endless and treeless plains, where it’s cold even in summer. There are lived bears, wolves, foxes, hares, wild horses, deer, and bison in the tundra. There were grazing Herds of those animals that are already extinct for a long time – mammoths and woolly rhinos. The distant ancestors of Belarusians lived at the expense of hunting. The mammoth, the largest herbivore, was considered the best hunting trophy. He gave a lot of meat and bones needed in the household.
Ancient people settled on the banks of rivers. They lived in huts made of poles and mammoth bones, covered with skins. A fire was burning in the middle of the hut all the time. Meat was fried on it, and they warmed themselves near it and made tools for long evenings. People didn’t know how to melt iron yet. Knives, axes, spearheads were made of stone. Therefore, scientists called that time the Stone Age.
In the 10th century BC, the glacier melted, leaving behind many lakes, and dense forests grew in place of the tundra. The mammoths and woolly rhinos were gone, but there were plenty of other animals in the forest.
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| Tundra in summer |
After the disappearance of the glacier human settlements in the forests were rare, but over time there were more people, and they settled the entire territory of today’s Belarus. People learned how to make bows, fish with nets with harpoons and bone hooks. Our ancestors already knew how to weave and sew clothes not from skins, but from textile. There were craftsmen who made pots, plates and other utensils out of clay. People tamed horses, sheep, goats and began to raise cattle. The Stone Age is over.
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| Mammoth | Woolly rhino |
The Bronze Age in Belarus was in the period from 2500 years BC – 800 years BC.
In the Bronze Age, people made weapons and tools from metal: first from copper, then from a stronger alloy of copper and tin, which was called bronze.
At the beginning of the Bronze Age, the territory of Belarus began to be inhabited by alien tribes. The Finno-Ugric Peoples were the first to come here. They mixed with the local population. The Finno-Ugrians came from the east, their ancestral homeland is the Ural Mountains.
2000 years BC, the Balts appeared on the territory of Belarus. The Balts were the first Indo-European tribes that appeared on the territory of Belarus.
The importance of the Indo-Europeans for history is huge. At the beginning of the Bronze Age, they left their ancestral homeland and settled throughout the European continent. Mixing with the local peoples, the Indo-Europeans influenced their culture. Nowadays, most European peoples speak Indo-European languages. Similar, and sometimes absolutely identical words can be found in all the languages of Europe and all this is thanks to the Indo-Europeans. In general, the Bronze Age was the time of the settlement of Indo-Europeans.
Scientists still do not agree on where the Indo-Europeans originally lived. Some claim that the Indo-Europeans lived in Asia Minor; others place their ancestral homeland on the Balkan Peninsula; the third group of scientists think that the Indo-Europeans originally lived in the south of the European part of Russia; the fourth group are convinced that the ancestral homeland of the Indo-Europeans is Central Asia.
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As it was already mentioned earlier, they also reached Belarus. The first Indo-European tribes in Belarus were the Balts
The Iron Age on the territory of Belarus lasted from 800 years BC – 500 years AD. 800 years BC the residents of Belarus learned how to extract iron from marsh ore. It quickly replaced bronze and stone. Therefore, those times were called the Iron Age.
Iron tools were more convenient for working on the land, and agriculture became the main occupation of man. To prepare the plot for sowing, they cut down a section of forest, waited for the trees get dry out, and then burned them. The ash was a good fertilizer. For several years, such a field gave a good harvest. Then they abandoned the section and moved to another one. People of that time sowed rye, wheat, barley, flax, peas, beans.
For thousands of years, not only the tools have changed, but also the homes of people. They were still standing on the river bank, but they were already surrounded by a deep moat and a rampart. A high log palisade was built along the rampart. This is how the ancestors defended themselves from the frequent attacks of enemies at that time. Such an ancient settlement was called a “gorodische”.
The settlement was built up with wooden buildings, similar to the current old village houses. Several large families lived here, which were united into a clan. Neighboring clans were united into a tribe.
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