“Greeks and Cretans” - New words: What does the myth indicate about the emergence of class society in Crete? Pylos. Balkan Peninsula. Ariadne. Athens. 2. How do we know about the ancient Greeks. Crete. 5th grade Lesson topic: “Greeks and Cretans.” What is the largest island that was part of Greece? Minos. Lesson Plan: 1. Nature and Location Ancient Greece and the islands of Crete.

"Ancient civilizations" - Ancient civilizations. Predecessors. View of historical Babylon. The city of Tiahuanaco is located high in the Andes (today: territory of Bolivia). China. ZIGGURAT IN UR (reconstruction). Sumerian-Akkadian civilization. Babylon The ruins of Babylon in 1932. Ishtar Gate in the Pergamon Museum Babylonian relief from the Ishtar Gate.

“The Work of Theophan the Greek” - In Theophan’s frescoes, each figure lives a separate life. Technique of work execution. Theophanes the Greek came out of the traditions of the early Palaeologian artistic culture. But the Saints of Theophan have one common feature- severity. In the 70s of the 14th century he came to Novgorod. The life and work of Theophanes the Greek. Biography.

“Lesson on the Religion of the Ancient Greeks” - Since ancient times, the Gods cast an incorruptibly stern look at people from Olympus. Genealogy of the gods. 100?300 =30,000 years ago. Three generations of gods. Olympus is a Sacred place and today I propose to enjoy the greatness of Olympus. How the Greeks imagined the gods. Hello, Our Blessed Earth. Thank you for your reverent attitude towards the records that restore pages of history from the life of the planet.

"Greeks religion" - Athena and Hades (marble). What natural phenomena were reflected in the religious beliefs of the Greeks? Religion of the ancient Greeks. IN ancient greek mythology one of the 9 muses, patroness of comedy. Terpsichore. Prometheus. Melpomene, Erato and Polhymnia. Urania. Poseidon. Frieze of the altar of Zeus at Pergamon (marble, 180 BC).

“The ancient ancestors of man” - Cro-Magnons often settled in caves. The neck is short and as if bent forward under the weight of the head. Caucasoid. And some are 15 km away! Judging by the structure of the foot, the new hominid was upright. It is the most common in the modern scientific community. He had developed articulate speech.

The ideas of the ancients about the Earth were based primarily on mythological ideas.
Some peoples believed that the Earth was flat and supported by three whales that floated across the vast ocean. Consequently, these whales were in their eyes the main foundations, the foundation of the whole world.
Increase geographical information associated primarily with travel and navigation, as well as with the development of simple astronomical observations.

Ancient Greeks imagined the Earth to be flat. This opinion was held, for example, by the ancient Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus, who lived in the 6th century BC. He considered the Earth to be a flat disk surrounded by a sea inaccessible to humans, from which the stars emerge every evening and into which they set every morning. Every morning, the sun god Helios (later identified with Apollo) rose from the eastern sea in a golden chariot and made his way across the sky.

The world in the minds of the ancient Egyptians: below is the Earth, above it is the goddess of the sky; to the left and to the right is the ship of the Sun god, showing the path of the Sun across the sky from sunrise to sunset.

The ancient Indians imagined the Earth as a hemisphere held by four elephant . The elephants are standing on a huge turtle, and the turtle is on a snake, which, curled up in a ring, closes the near-earth space.

Residents of Babylon imagined the Earth in the form of a mountain, on the western slope of which Babylonia is located. They knew that to the south of Babylon there was a sea, and to the east there were mountains that they did not dare cross. That’s why it seemed to them that Babylonia was located on the western slope of the “world” mountain. This mountain is surrounded by the sea, and on the sea, like an overturned bowl, rests the solid sky - the heavenly world, where, like on Earth, there is land, water and air. The celestial land is the belt of the 12 constellations of the Zodiac: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces. The Sun appears in each constellation for about a month each year. The Sun, Moon and five planets move along this belt of land. Under the Earth there is an abyss - hell, where the souls of the dead descend. At night, the Sun passes through this underground from the western edge of the Earth to the eastern, so that in the morning it will again begin its daily journey across the sky. Watching the Sun set over the sea horizon, people thought that it went into the sea and also rose from the sea. Thus, the ancient Babylonians’ ideas about the Earth were based on observations of natural phenomena, but limited knowledge did not allow them to be correctly explained.

Earth according to the ancient Babylonians.

Famous ancient Greek scientist Aristotle(IV century BC)e.) was the first to use observations of the Earth to prove the sphericity of the Earth. lunar eclipses. Here are three facts:

1. Earth's shadow falling on full moon, always round. During eclipses the Earth is turned towards the Moon different sides. But only the ball always casts a round shadow.
2. Ships, moving away from the observer into the sea, are not gradually lost from sight due to the long distance, but almost instantly seem to “sink”, disappearing beyond the horizon.
3. Some stars can only be seen from certain parts of the Earth, while to other observers they are never visible.

The universe according to Ptolemy: the planets rotate in empty space.

Finally, an outstanding astronomer ancient world Aristarchus of Samos(end of the 4th - first half of the 3rd century BC) expressed the idea that it is not the Sun together with the planets that moves around the Earth, but the Earth and all the planets revolve around the Sun. However, he had very little evidence at his disposal.
And about 1,700 years passed before the Polish scientist managed to prove this Copernicus.

Since ancient times, learning environment and expanding his living space, a person thought about how the world where he lives works. Trying to explain the Universe, he used categories that were close and understandable to him, first of all, drawing parallels with familiar nature and the area in which he himself lived. How did people used to imagine the Earth? What did they think about its shape and place in the Universe? How have their ideas changed over time? All this can be found out from historical sources that have survived to this day.

How did ancient people imagine the Earth?

First prototypes geographical maps known to us in the form of images left by our ancestors on the walls of caves, incisions on stones and animal bones. Researchers find such sketches in different parts of the world. Such drawings depict hunting grounds, places where game hunters set traps, as well as roads.

Schematically depicting rivers, caves, mountains, forests on available material, man sought to convey information about them to subsequent generations. To distinguish terrain objects already familiar to them from new ones that had just been discovered, people gave them names. Thus, humanity gradually accumulated geographical experience. And even then our ancestors began to wonder what the Earth was.

The way ancient people imagined the Earth largely depended on the nature, topography and climate of the places where they lived. Therefore, peoples from different parts of the planet saw it in their own way. the world, and these views differed significantly.

Babylon

Valuable historical information about how ancient people imagined the Earth was left to us by civilizations that lived in the lands between and the Euphrates, inhabiting the Nile Delta and the shores of Mediterranean Sea (modern territories Asia Minor and southern Europe). This information is over six thousand years old.

Thus, the ancient Babylonians considered the Earth to be a “world mountain”, on the western slope of which Babylonia, their country, was located. This idea was facilitated by the fact that the eastern part of the lands they knew abutted high mountains which no one dared to cross.

To the south of Babylonia there was a sea. This allowed people to believe that " world mountain"is actually round, and is washed by the sea on all sides. On the sea, like an inverted bowl, rests the solid heavenly world, which is in many ways similar to the earthly one. It also had its own “land,” “air,” and “water.” The role of the land was played by the belt of the Zodiacal constellations, blocking the celestial “sea" like a dam. It was believed that the Moon, the Sun and several planets moved along this firmament. The Babylonians believed that the sky was the place of residence of the gods.

The souls of dead people, on the contrary, lived in an underground “abyss”. At night, the Sun, plunging into the sea, had to pass through this underground from the western edge of the Earth to the eastern, and in the morning, rising from the sea to the firmament, again begin its daily journey along it.

The way people imagined the Earth in Babylon was based on observations of natural phenomena. However, the Babylonians could not interpret them correctly.

Palestine

As for the inhabitants of this country, other ideas different from Babylonian ones reigned in these lands. The ancient Jews lived in flat areas. Therefore, the Earth in their vision also looked like a plain, intersected in places by mountains.

Winds, bringing with them either drought or rain, occupied a special place in Palestinian beliefs. Living in the “lower zone” of the sky, they separated the “heavenly waters” from the surface of the Earth. Water, in addition, was also under the Earth, feeding from there all the seas and rivers on its surface.

India, Japan, China

Probably the most famous legend today, telling how ancient people imagined the Earth, was composed by the ancient Indians. These people believed that the Earth was actually shaped like a hemisphere, which rested on the backs of four elephants. These elephants stood on the back of a giant turtle swimming in an endless sea of ​​milk. All these creatures were wrapped in many rings by the black cobra Sheshu, which had several thousand heads. These heads, according to Indian beliefs, supported the Universe.

The earth in the minds of the ancient Japanese was limited to the territory of the islands known to them. It was attributed to a cubic shape, and the frequent earthquakes occurring in their homeland were explained by the violence of a fire-breathing dragon living deep in its depths.

About five hundred years ago, the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, observing the stars, established that the center of the Universe is the Sun, and not the Earth. Almost 40 years after Copernicus's death, his ideas were developed by the Italian Galileo Galilei. This scientist was able to prove that all planets solar system, including the Earth, actually revolve around the Sun. Galileo was accused of heresy and forced to renounce his teachings.

However, the Englishman Isaac Newton, born a year after Galileo's death, subsequently managed to discover the law of universal gravitation. On its basis, he explained why the Moon revolves around the Earth, and why planets with satellites and numerous revolve around the Sun.

For thousands of years, people have been observing the movement of celestial bodies and natural phenomena. And we always wondered: how does the Universe work? In ancient times, the picture of the structure of the universe was greatly simplified. People simply divided the world into two parts - Heaven and Earth. Each nation has its own ideas about how the firmament works.

In contact with

The earth, in the minds of the peoples of antiquity, was a large flat disk, the surface of which was inhabited by people and everything that surrounded them. The Sun, Moon and 5 planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn), according to ancient people, are small luminous celestial bodies attached to a sphere, which continuously rotate around the disk, making a full revolution during the day.

It was believed that the earth's firmament is motionless and is located in the center of the Universe, that is, everyone ancient people One way or another, I came to the idea: our planet is the center of the world.

Such a geocentric (from the Greek word Geo - earth) view was present among almost all peoples of the ancient world - Greeks, Egyptians, Slavs, Hindus…

Almost all theories about the world order, the origin of heaven and earth that appeared at that time were idealistic, since they had a divine origin.

But there were differences in the presentation of the structure of the universe, since they were based on myths, traditions and legends inherent in different civilizations.

There were four main theories: different, but somewhat similar ideas about the structure of the universe by ancient peoples.

Legends of India

The ancient peoples of India imagined the earth as a hemisphere resting on the backs of four huge elephants, standing, in turn, on a turtle, and the entire near-earth space was enclosed black snake Sheshu.

Idea about the structure of the world in Greece

The ancient Greeks claimed that the Earth has the shape of a convex disk, reminiscent of a warrior’s shield in shape. The land was surrounded by an endless sea, from which the stars emerged every night. Every morning they drowned in its depths. The sun, represented by the god Helios on a golden chariot, rose early in the morning from the eastern sea, circled the sky and returned to its place again in the late evening. And the mighty Atlas held the firmament on his shoulders.

The ancient Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus imagined the Universe as a liquid mass, inside of which there is a large hemisphere. The curved surface of the hemisphere is the vault of heaven, and the lower, flat surface, freely floating in the sea, is the Earth.

However, this outdated hypothesis was refuted by ancient Greek materialists, who provided convincing evidence about the roundness of the land. Aristotle was convinced of this by observing nature, how the stars change height over the horizon, and ships disappear behind the bulge of the earth.

Earth through the eyes of the ancient Egyptians

The people of Egypt imagined our planet completely differently. The planet seemed flat to the Egyptians, and the sky in the form of a huge dome rested on four high mountains located at the four corners of the world. Egypt was located in the center of the Earth.

The ancient Egyptians used images of their gods to personify spaces, surfaces and elements. The earth - the goddess Hebe - lay below, above her, bending, stood the goddess Nut (starry sky), and the god of air Shu, who was between them, did not allow her to fall to the Earth. It was believed that the goddess Nut swallowed the stars every day and gave birth to them again. The sun passed its way across the sky every day on a golden boat, ruled by the god Ra.

The ancient Slavs also had their own idea of ​​the structure of the world. The light, in their opinion, was divided into three parts:

All three worlds are connected to each other, like an axis, by the World Tree. The stars, the Sun and the Moon live in the branches of the sacred tree, and the Serpent lives at the roots. sacred tree It was considered a support, without which the world would collapse if it were destroyed.

The answer to the question of how ancient people imagined our planet can be found in ancient artifacts that have survived to this day.

Scientists find the first prototypes of geographical maps in different countries, they are known to us in the form of images on the walls of temples, frescoes, drawings in the first astronomical books. In ancient times, people sought to convey information about the structure of the world to subsequent generations. A person’s idea of ​​the Earth largely depended on the topography, nature and climate of the places where he lived.

Correct information about the Earth and its shape did not appear immediately, not at one time and not in one place. However, it is difficult to find out exactly where, when, and among which people they were most correct. Very few reliable ancient documents and material monuments have been preserved about this.

One of the oldest cultural countries on Earth is China. Several thousand years BC. e. The ancient Chinese had a written language, knew how to depict the area on a map, and compiled geographical descriptions. But, unfortunately, ancient Chinese “drawings” (maps) and descriptions of lands have not yet been studied. Studying them is a matter for the future, and it will undoubtedly open up many new and interesting things.

Indian culture is also very ancient. According to legend, Indians imagined the Earth as a plane lying on the backs of elephants.

The Babylonians' view of the Earth

Valuable historical materials have also reached us from the ancient peoples who lived in the Middle East, in the pp. basin. Tigris and Euphrates, in the Nile Delta and along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea in Asia Minor and Southern Europe.

Written documents from ancient Babylonia have reached our time. They date back about 6,000 years. The Babylonians, in turn, inherited knowledge from even more ancient peoples.

The Babylonians imagined the Earth as a mountain, on the western slope of which Babylonia was located. They noticed that to the south of Babylon there was a sea, and to the east there were mountains that they did not dare cross. That’s why it seemed to them that Babylonia was located on the western slope of the “world” mountain. This mountain is round, and it is surrounded by the sea, and on the sea, like an overturned bowl, rests the solid sky of the heavenly world. In the sky, as on Earth, there is land, water and air. The celestial land is the belt of the Zodiac constellation, like a dam stretching among the celestial sea. The Sun, Moon and five planets move along this belt of land.

Under the Earth there is an abyss - hell, where the souls of the dead descend; At night, the Sun passes through this underground from the western edge of the Earth to the eastern, so that in the morning it will again begin its daily journey across the sky.

Watching the sun set over the sea horizon, people thought that it was going into the sea and that it should also rise from the sea.

The ancient Babylonians' understanding of the Earth was thus based on observations of natural phenomena. However, limited knowledge did not allow them to correctly explain these phenomena.

The peoples who lived in Palestine imagined the Earth differently than the Babylonians. The ancient Jews lived on a plain and imagined the Earth as a plain with mountains rising here and there. Jews assigned a special place in the universe to the winds, which bring with them either rain or drought. The abode of the winds, in their opinion, is located in the lower zone of the sky and separates the Earth from the celestial waters: snow, rain and hail. Under the Earth there are waters, from which canals run up, feeding seas and rivers. The ancient Jews apparently had no idea about the shape of the entire Earth.

It is known that the Phoenicians, Egyptians and ancient Greeks were good sailors: even on small ships, they boldly embarked on long voyages and discovered new lands.

Geography owes a lot to the Hellenes, or ancient Greeks. This small people, who lived in the south of the Balkan and Apennine peninsulas of Europe, created a high culture.

The most ancient ideas of the Greeks about the Earth known to us are found in Homer’s poems - “Odyssey” and “Iliad” (XII-VIII century BC). From these works it is clear that the Greeks imagined the Earth in the form of a slightly convex disk, reminiscent of a warrior’s shield. The Ocean River flows around the land on all sides. Above the Earth there is a copper firmament along which the Sun moves, rising daily from the waters of the Ocean in the east and plunging into them in the west.

One of the Greek philosophers, named Thales (VI century BC), imagined the Universe in the form of a liquid mass, inside of which there is a large bubble shaped like a hemisphere. The concave surface of this bubble is the sky, and on the lower flat surface, like a cork, floats flat earth. It is not difficult to guess that Thales based the idea of ​​the Earth as a floating island on the fact that he knew that Greece is located on numerous islands.

The Greek Anaximander (6th century BC) imagined the Earth as a segment of a column or cylinder, on one of the two bases of which we live. The middle of the Earth is occupied by land in the form of a large round island - “Ecumene” (i.e., the populated Earth). She is surrounded by the ocean. Inside the Ecumene there is a sea basin, dividing it into two approximately equal parts: Europe and Asia. Greece is located in the center of the land, and the city of Delphi is in the center of Greece (“the navel of the Earth”).

The picture of the world according to the ideas of the ancient Egyptians: below is the Earth, above it is the goddess of the sky; to the left and to the right is the ship of the Sun god, showing the path of the Sun across the sky (from sunrise to sunset).

Anaxnmander explained the rise of the Sun and other luminaries on the eastern side of the sky, after they disappeared behind the horizon in the west, by their movement under the Earth in a circle. The firmament we see is thus half a sphere; the other hemisphere is under our feet. Anaximander believed that the Earth was the center of the Universe.

The followers of another ancient scientist, Pythagoras, went further: they recognized that the Earth was a sphere. They attributed the spherical shape not only to the Earth, but also to other planets.

The famous ancient scientist Aristotle (IV century BC) not only accepted the doctrine of the sphericity of the Earth, but was also the first to scientifically prove it. Aristotle pointed out that if the Earth did not have the shape of a sphere, then the shadow that it casts on the Moon during its eclipses would not be limited by an arc of a circle.

A new stage in the development of science of the ancient Greeks was the teaching of the outstanding astronomer of the ancient world, Aristarchus of Samos (late 4th century - first half of the 3rd century BC). He expressed the idea that it is not the Sun together with the planets that moves around the Earth, but the Earth and all the planets revolve around the Sun.

However, he could not scientifically substantiate his idea; About 1700 years passed when the brilliant Polish scientist Copernicus managed to do this.

The ancient Greeks even tried to determine the size of the Earth. The famous ancient writer Aristophanes (second half of the 5th - beginning of the 4th century BC) in his comedy “Clouds” spoke about attempts to determine the size of the Earth. The first one is quite precise measurement The size of the globe, which served as the basis for mathematical geography, was made by Eratosthenes of Cyrene (2nd century BC), an ancient Greek mathematician, astronomer and geographer. He, like Aristotle, believed that the Earth is spherical.

Thus, gradually ideas about the Earth became more and more correct.

Geographers of the ancient world tried to compile maps of the spaces known to them - the Ecumene and even the Earth and the whole. These maps were imperfect and far from the truth. More accurate maps appeared only in the last two centuries BC. e.

More than two and a half thousand years ago, the Babylonian priests already knew that the Earth was a sphere. They even calculated the circumference of the earth. According to their calculations, it was 24,000 miles. To verify the correctness of this figure, modern scientists tried to find out the length of the then mile. They were able to find an ancient Babylonian record that said a mile was equal to 4,000 camel steps. If we take the step length of a loaded camel as 80 cm, then the length of the earth’s circumference, according to the calculations of the Babylonians, was equal to 76,800 km, i.e., it turned out to be almost twice as large as in reality.