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According to the archaeological data, first people appeared on the territory of modern Primorye in the Upper Palaeolithic period (ancient stone age) 10-30 thousand years ago.
The number of ancient people sites here is not large. The most ancient site is considered the one near Osinovka village near Ussuriysk, where A.P. Okladnikov, a famous archaeologist, found human stone tools, which were made of river pebbles.
The finds from the Geograficheskogo Obshchestva (Geographic Society) Cave (Partizansky Region) were very useful in understanding life and economy of the ancient people. This was the only cave where archaeologists had found the bones of animals that had been eaten by people (mammoth's, bison's, rhinoceros', deer's, cave tiger's, etc).
The sites at the Zerkalnaya (Mirror) River Valley near Ustinovka and Suvorovo villages (Kavalerovsky Region) date from later times. The stone tools from these sites are different from the finds near Osinovka village; they were made in a different way, and the lamellar technique of stone processing was used. The similarity of all stone tools from the Zerkalnaya (Mirror) River Valley let the researchers put them into one Ustinovsky archaeological culture. It is interesting that the materials of the Ustinovsky archaeological culture are somewhat similar to the finds from the territories which have boundaries with Primorye, especially in Japan.
In the Palaeolithic period people led nomad's life. Small groups of several dozens people were moving within their territories. Men were occupied with hunting and fishing, women - with collecting and housekeeping, elder people - with children's education. The most wise and able of them were put at the head of a group.
In the Palaeolithic period the main occupation of the ancient people was hunting. People were skilful hunters; they were using spears, darts, and different kinds of traps. The climate conditions allowed to actively collect edible plants.
The New Stone Age in Primorye started in the VIIth-VIth millennium B.C. In the New Stone Age the activities of ancient people changed drastically. In many regions the economies became production-based, not appropriation-based as before. This process is called the Neolithic revolution. In Primorye it was accompanied with the appearance of earthenware (ceramics), the wide spreading of polishing techniques, sawing, and new kinds of tools.
One of the typical Neolithic monuments of in Primorye is the site in Chyortovy Vorota (Devil's Gates) cave (Dalnegorsky Region). In this cave the traces of wooden dwelling, which burnt in the middle of the Vth millennium B.C., were discovered. The site contained a lot of unharmed archaeological materials, which included hundreds of stone- and bone-made wares, ceramic vessels, and the fragments of five human skeletons. Among the stone- and bone-made wares there were polished and retouched arrow, dart, and spear tips, axes, chisels of schist, various decorations. Flat-bottomed ceramic utensils were decorated with geometrical pattern.
During transition from the Stone Age to the New Stone Age the population of Primorye started fishing. Fishing became dominant in the New Stone Age. Excavations held a lot of pebble-made sinkers; in the Chyortovy Vorota (Devil's Gates) cave remains of fishing nets were found. The cartiloginous fish caught during spawning was stored for winter. People knew and were using fire since the Stone Age already. It is possible that fish was not only dried and jerked, but also smoked.
One of the Neolithic monuments of Primorye, which is not similar to the others, is Valentin-Peresheyek (Valentin-Isthmus) settlement (Lazovsky Region). This was a specialized settlement for iron ore mining and mineral paint making. For this purpose the ancient people were using stone mattocks, pestles, grating slabs. Special researches determined the purpose of many different tools such as scrapers, piercers, adzes, drills, etc. It was found that handicrafts, such as pelt, bone, and horn processing, etc, were very important for the life of settlement's ancient dwellers. The settlement subsisted in the first half of the IIIrd millennium B.C.
The Neolithic monuments are also common in the south and south-west of Primorye. Some of them form Zaysanovsky archeological culture. Many of them were excavated. In Boysman Bay (Chernigovsky Region) the first in Primorye Neolithic burial ground was discovered.
In Siny (Blue) Gay settlement (Chernigovsky Region) the remains of 30 Neolithic dwellings were found. The remains included various tools, ceramics with vertical zigzag ornaments, works of applied art.
During the New Stone Age due to the transition to the settled way of life, the possibilities for community enlargement appeared. Its typical traits were collectivism and mutual aid. The territory of Primorye was opened up from the seashore to river valleys.
By the end of the New Stone Age the population of Primorye started to show premises of agriculture. The process of transition from appropriation to production started, which always means stabilization of food supply.
Study of any archaeological monuments and cultures of a certain region will inevitably lead to the necessity of their comparison with neighboring and distant territories'. Such an analysis lets reveal general and special traits of the population development of different regions. In 1930s A.P. Okladnikov assumed the south of the Russian Far East to be a special center of Neolithic cultures. This theory was further developed in 1950-60s. It was found that the Neolithic cultures of Primorye and Priamurye had principle differences from the cultures of taiga Siberia in material culture, economy, and lifesyle. If for Neolithic Siberia the nomadic way of life was typical, in Primorye and Priamurye ancient people were settled. Excavations of the Neolithic settlements commonly discover long-term half-dug-out dwellings. For ceramic vessels in Primorye and Priamurye flat bottoms are common, while in Siberia they are bulging. Fishing was common among Neolithic tribes of the southern Far East of Russia, while in taiga Siberia hunting was more wide-spread. The art of Primorye and Priamurye had its own original traits.
The economy of Neolithic tribes of Primorye and Priamurye was well-developed. Recently it was found that they had agriculture, which means the transition of primitive economy to the higher level of development.
A new cultural and historical period - the Bronze Age - began in Primorye in the end of the IInd millenium B.C. At that time people discovered properties of a new type of raw materials for their tools. It was metal. Even now there are no reliable data if the region had its own bronze metallurgy in the IInd - Ist millenium B.C., or all of the bronze articles were imported to the region. Excavations of the bronze age monuments usually reveal not the bronze articles themselves, but their stone imitations (replicas).
One of the most famous Bronze Age monuments in Primorye is Siny (Blue) Gay settlement. Seventeen dwellings, several ritual animal burial grounds, and, most important, numerous bronze articles were excavated here. Àìôîðîâèäíûå vessels, pots, and cups (almost without ornaments) were found in this settlement. Stone articles mostly contained polished tools. The settlement dates from the last centuries of the IInd millenium B.C. till the first centuries of the Ist millenium B.C. Many Bronze Age monuments are located on the eastern coast of Primorye. Archaeologists find stone imitations of spear and knife bronze tips, "blocks" of soft light stone. The most intensive excavations were held in Lidovka (Dalnegorsky Region) and Blagodatny (Terneysky Region) settlements (a so-called Lidovsky archaeological culture). A lot of retouched and polished articles had been found there. Crockery was usually with thin-walled and without ornament, but pots with rims decorated with impressions of different forms were also common. These monuments date from the Xth-Vth centuries B.C.
The Bronze Age in Primorye was a period of the production economy development (agriculture and stock-raising). Excavations extracted the remains of burnt millet and pigs' bones. In this period small groups were being replaced with stable communities counting from tens to thousands people. Inside the communities the elders' power was strengthening. The communities united into tribes on the basis of blood, marriage, economy, culture, and other relationships. With the tribes appearance the struggle among the communities for leadership began.
In general, the Bronze Age in Primorye is viewed by the researchers as a period of spreading of bronze items imitations, of prosperity of stone tools production, and production economy development. In Primorye the transition from the Bronze to Metal Age was rather prompt.
One of the most important achievements of the archaeologists that worked in Primorye in 1950-60s was a discovery of archaeological cultures of the early Iron Age, which date from the Ist millenium B.C. This discovery changed an early belief that peoples of Primorye were living in the Stone Age until the Middle Ages. In Primorye two archaeological cultures of the early Iron Age were distinguished - Yankovskaya and Krounovskaya.
Yankovskaya archaeological culture is the most studied. Over 70 monuments of this culture are known, mostly on the sea coastline. A typical sign of many settlements was the presence of shell heaps. During the excavations of the monuments such as Peschany (Sandy) (near Vladivostok), Oleny (Deer) (near Artyom), Malaya Podushechka (Small Pillow) (Shkotovsky Region), Slavyanka (Khasansky Region), Chapayevo (Nadezhdinsky Region), clear evidence of the facts that ancient population knew iron was found. Those were iron axes and nozzles for digging tools. In Chapayevo and Malaya Podushechka (Small Pillow) burial grounds were found.
People only started to use iron in their economic activities, there was very little of it, and that is why most of the tools were made of stone and bone. In Yankovsky archaeological culture settlements the finds of polished stone tips (imitations of bronze) for spears and daggers were common. These archaeological monuments are original due to the abundance of bone-made items, presence of finely polished stone axes (with rectangular sections), and large cylindrical beads and necklaces.
The ceramics were carefully processed and sometimes dyed in crimson. Among the vessels bowls on high and low ïîääîíàõ are noteworthy. Yankovsky archaeological culture is one of the most interesting in Primorye. It is dated from the IXth-Vth centuries B.C.
The first stage of the early Iron Age is represented with the monuments of Krounovsky archaeological culture, which are spread from the Khanka Lake to the south-eastern coast of Primorye. Widespread excavations were held on the Semipyatnaya (Seven Heels) (Khasansky Region), Krounovka-1 (near Ussuriysk), and Kiyevka-1 (Lazovsky Region) monuments. Among the ceramics the vessels of truncated conical form with massive handles are noteworthy. Unlike Yankovskaya's, the ceramics are rude, thick-walled, usually without ornaments. Among the iron items knives with âûäåëåííîé ðóêîÿòüþ and adzes with rounded blades appear. Ïëå÷èêîâûå stone axes and rectangular ceramic plates with holes in the corners are typical only for Krounovskaya archaeological culture. A new heating system, kan (a stove-bench heated with hot air from the hearth), was used in the dwellings. A single burial ground in a stone box (on Izvestkovaya Hill, the Artyomovka river valley) is known, where bronze daggers, a mirror, a spear tip, and a chisel were found. Krounovskaya archaeological culture is dated from the second half of the first millenium B.C. till the first century B.C. Archaeologists still argue about the place of the Krounovskaya archaeological culture appearance. Some of them think that this culture was of local roots and was related to Yankovskaya archaeological culture, some believe that it was brought to Primorye from the outside world, the others - that it appeared in the region of the Khanka Lake.
The role of agriculture and stock-raising drastically improved in the period of the Iron Age. The proof for that are sets of agricultural tools (sickles, çåðíîò¸ðêè, etc) and seeds of cereals and bones of domestic animals. During the Iron Age producing forms of economies gradually become dominant, but people still were occupied with hunting, fishing, and, in Yankovsky times, with collecting of sea products.
The Ist millenium A.D. is the beginning of the developed Iron Age in Primorye. Iron almost fully substituted stone and bone in tools manufacturing.
The most typical for Primorye's developed Iron Age is the Osinovka archaeological culture (some archaeologists call it Toltsevskaya). Nearly 30 of its monuments are known. The largest and the most studied of them is Siniye Skaly (Blue Rocks) settlement in Olginsky Region. The settlements were often paired, and one of them was located in a well-protected place. At that time first roads appeared. During the excavation traces of dwellings and ïðîèçâîäñòâåííûõ ïîìåùåíèé were clearly seen. In Siniye Skaly (Blue Rocks) settlement the remains of pottery furnaces, bronze casting and blacksmith shops were found. The ceramic materials of the archaeological culture include the moulded and ñòàíêîâûå (made with potter's wheel vessels. The vessels with a wide áëþäîâèäíûì rim are very distinctive. For decoration fingernail or fingerprint ornaments, øàøå÷íûå and diamond-like patterns were often used. Tools were mostly made of metal: different types of arrow tips, iron axes, and so on.
In the developed Iron Age in Primorye the population grew further, and the metallurgical industry was developing. Finds of numerous armament, remains of fortifications (banks, ditches) certify that conflicts and wars arose. Inequality raised, rich and poor handicraftsmen, civil and war leaders, priests and warriors appeared. Large unions of tribes appeared, as well as rudimentary government and authority organs. In this period real grounds for appearance of early states in Primorye show up.
Ancient people of Primorye had their own culture and created many original works of art.
The artistic perception of the world of ancient Primorye was embodied mostly in the items of small plastic arts (animal and people figurines, masks, etc). Different decorations were also an embodiment of the aesthetical, religion, and social conceptions of ancient people. Numerous ceramic vessels (often ingenious and complex in composition) can be considered works of art. The Neolithic ceramics are rich in composition. For Yankovskaya ceramics an original style of crockery decoration, based on strict rectangular geometrical patterns, is typical. In Valentin-Peresheyek (Valentine Isthmus) monument a fragment of a vessel's wall with a sculptural picture of a man was found. One of the most ancient items of small plastic arts, a fish figurine, was discovered on Ustinovka-3 site. Its age is approximately 8-9 thousand years. The largest collection of small plastic arts items was gathered in Siny (Blue) Gay settlement. It consisted of masks, people and animal figurines. Series of wonderful art pieces belongs to the Chyortovy Vorota (Devil's Gates) collection. Among them a necklace in form of a narwhal whale's head deserves special mentioning.
Burial grounds and religious places also give us an idea about the ancients' world outlook. There are very few of such finds. More often single items, which could be interpreted as religious ones, are found. Undoubtedly that the ancient population of Primorye confessed animism - a system of fabulous views that people, animals, plants, and items have souls. Shamanism appeared at that time. There are data about existence of a cult of certain animals. In Siny (Blue) Gay settlement's Bronze Age layer a ritual burial ground of a pig was found. The pig's breast was covered with an armor of bone plates without an ornament. A pig cult also had place in Primorye in later times of the Iron age.
The ancient population of Primorye had hunting magic.
A burial ground in Malaya Podushechka (Small Pillow) settlement gives us an idea about ancients' spiritual views. The deceased were laid on their backs with heads pointing south. Such an orientation was probably related with the belief that the land of dead was situated in the north, and also with the cult of Sun. Decorations, tools, and crockery were laid with the deceased.
All of the data to this point were based on the archaeological materials. Later data were supplemented with the materials of Chinese chronicles. Not always the miserly records of ancient annalists can be correlated with the materials of specific archaeological culture; it is still one of the most important tasks the archaeologists still have to resolve.
Starting from the IInd millenium B.C. the population of Primorye and bordering territories of China and Korea was called "ancient Chinese äóíúè" ("eastern foreigners"). Together with the ancestors of Tungus-Manchurian peoples (Manchurians, Nanaians, Udeges, îðî÷åé, etc). Annalists included into äóíúè group the ancestors of other peoples, and the Japanese and Koreans as well.
Traditionally the history of the peoples populated the North-Eastern China and the South of the Russian Far East is considered to start from sushengs. According to Chinese chronicles, the sushengs from time to time were coming to the Chinese rulers' court, starting since the XXIIIrd century B.C. till the edge of the new age, when the name "èëîó" started to be used along with the old name. In the Ist millenium B.C. the ancient Chinese principalities bordered with the sushengs "across the sea", i.e. across the P'o-hai Bay, which is located in the western part of the Yellow Sea. According to the modern historians, the territory of their inhabitation adjoined to the largest ×àíáàéøàíü mountain massif on the modern Korea and China boundary and was spread further north and north-east. The chronicles kept very little data about ancient sushengs. It is reported that as gifts they were presenting the Chinese rulers with the "arrows of blackthorn with stone tips", and that among the gifts there were also "big chzhu" - animals similar to deer but larger.
In the Ist-Vth centuries A.D. the population of former susheng lands was called in different chronicles as either the sushengs or ilows.
The chronicles describe ilows as brave warriors and skilful hunters: "They are good archers and can hit a man's eye". They had "bows 4 chi (approx. 1.3 m - 4.3 feet) long with a power of crossbow, arrows of blackthorn ... tips of black stone". "They are covering arrow tips with poison; if a man is hit with such an arrow, he dies immediately". Sables obtained by ilow tribes were in great demand in China. Stock-raising was of great significance for ilows' economy; they were breeding cows, horses, as well as pigs: "They like to breed pigs, eat their meat, wear their pelts". From pigs' bristle they spinned threads and made fabrics. There were families which owned heards of several hundred pigs. Some tribes were agricultural and used iron tools.
Tribes that lived on the sea-coast could build ships and sail the seas.
Chronicles report: "They dwell in mountains and woods. Climate is very cold. Usually they live in pits (i.e. dug-outs), rich houses are up to nine steps deep. It is considered the deeper the more respectful".
Ilows were on the final stage of primitive society. They had no single ruler, every settlement had their own leader. There are data that leader's position was inherited from fathers to sons. Ilows' society already had rich and poor people. This could be observed in burial ceremony during which "pigs were killed and stacked onto a sarcophagus; rich people stacked several hundreds, and poor people - several dozens. Horses were also an indication of richness: "They are not riding horses they have, but rather keep them as treasure". Predatory raids to the neighboring peoples became one of the ilows' constant occupations: "They are inclined to raids and robbery. The neighboring domains suffer from them and cannot subjugate."
Until the 20s of the IIIrd century A.D. ilows were dependent on Ôóþé state (the most ancient state on the territory on North-Eastern China), to which contribution was paid. In later times ilows had got free from Ôóþé's dominion.
The archaeological monuments of the early Iron Age on the territory of North-Eastern China are considered to be related with ilows. To the opinion of some scientists the archaeological monuments of Poltsevskaya (Olginskaya) archaeological culture in the Amur river valley and in the northern part of Primorye could belong to them.
Âîöçþé were living in the south of Primorye in the IIIrd-IVth centuries A.D. at the same time with ilows. According to the Chinese chronicles, the territory of âîöçþé bordered the territories of ilows and Ôóþé state in the north, âýéìî's in the south, and in the east their territories adjoined the sea. The area of âîöçþé's dwellings stretched from ×àíáàéøàíü mountains in the west to the Sea of Japan in the east, from Khanka Lake in the north to the Korean province of Southern Õàìã¸í in the south. Âîöçþés' language and customs were similar to ôóþés'.
The main occupation of âîöçþé was agriculture. As contribution to the ancient Korean state of Êîãóð¸ the âîöçþés supplied fish, salt, sea products, linen, sables. It is an evidence of the fact that among âîöçþés' occupations were also hunting, fishing, sea fishery, and handicrafts. The chronicles characterize âîöçþé as unmounted warriors, skilful with spears.
Âîöçþés' society never developed beyond primitivity. They had neither single ruler, nor tribe union. Every settlement had its own leader. For centuries âîöçþé were under neighboring countries' rule (ancient ×îñîí (IInd century B.C.), Chinese Empire of Õàíü (IInd century B.C. - Ist century A.D.), Êîãóð¸ (Ist -IIIrd centuries A.D.)). This dependence was applied only to southern âîöçþé, who lived in the north-east of modern Korea. Northern âîöçþé, otherwise called ìàéãîóëîó, were independent. The main danger for them was northern ilow neighbors: "Ilow like to raid using ships, and northern âîöçþé are afraid of them. Every summer they hide in mountain caves, and in winter when waterways become impassable they go down to their settlements".
Âîöçþé's burial ceremony is of much interest, because it shows us family's great significance to their society. For buring they were making a large wooden coffin about 30 m (98 feet) long.
| "There is an opening in one end. The deceased are first buried in order for body to decay, then they collect bones and put them into the coffin. Every family has only one coffin. With every deceased they put a carved mask of him, to keep count." |
Krounovskaya archaeological culture monuments are related to âîöçþé.
Since the IVth-Vth
centuries A.D.
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