Personalities of such magnitude as the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte always generate a lot of rumors and speculation around themselves. However, the story of his life is known quite reliably, and the path that he traveled from a Corsican village to the French throne seems even more surprising.
Facts from the life of Napoleon
- At birth, the future emperor, a native Corsican, was named Napoleone di Buonaparte, but later he “Frenchized” his first and last name.
- Since childhood, Napoleon dreamed of a military career.
- He became the first Corsican to successfully graduate from the French Military Academy.
- The young Napoleon began studying French at the age of nine. His native language was the Corsican dialect of Italian.
- During the revolution, he, already an officer French army, supported the rebel Corsicans.
- Even before seizing power, Napoleon organized the publication of two newspapers in France ().
- He received the rank of general at the age of 26.
- Napoleon spent very little time sleeping - about 4 hours a day. At the same time, he was able to fall asleep within a few minutes even in the most stressful situations.
- Contrary to popular myth, the French emperor was not short - according to surviving evidence, his height was slightly above average. The misconception about his small stature is the result of British propaganda.
- Napoleon is the author of the romantic story “Clisson and Eugenie.”
- After his famous Egyptian expedition, Napoleon Bonaparte personally helped French scientists in deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs.
- During his exile on the island of St. Helena, the disgraced emperor picked up and left a kitten, which he named Ben. The cat became his inseparable friend.
- Napoleon Bonaparte had a weakness for beautiful hats, of which he had about two hundred.
- A well-known fact from the biography of Bonaparte is that one day he saw a soldier who had fallen asleep at his post, but instead of punishing the offender, he himself took up the post and continued his duty.
- The French emperor had remarkable abilities in mathematics.
Napoleon Bonaparte was one of those people who always do everything to get what they want, and therefore he had many enemies. Around him strong personality During his life and after his death, there were many different legends, sometimes true, and sometimes simply composed by numerous people who wanted to cause him harm, political or personal. Now, almost two centuries later, the difference between truth and fiction is almost indistinguishable.
Napoleon wrote a novel
This is what Napoleon's handwriting looks like
This story is half true and half fiction. In 1795 Napoleon wrote short story(only nine pages) entitled "Clissant and Eugénie". According to most historians, this story reflected the turbulent but short-lived relationship of the future emperor with Eugenie Désiré Clary. The story was not published during Napoleon's lifetime, but numerous copies were distributed among the emperor's friends, relatives and admirers, and the original was later reconstructed from them.
Napoleon had the ability to write. He once admitted that he had begun a poem about Corsica, but it would never be finished, and he would not publish it. At the age of 17, he thought of presenting to the public a history of Corsica, written by himself, but when publishers finally became interested in the young talent, Napoleon had already become an officer...
The emperor was not only a writer, but also his own harsh critic. In his youth, Napoleon submitted an essay to the Lyon Academy competition entitled “Principles and Institutions Leading Humanity to highest level happiness". Many years later, the Academy returned to Bonaparte a copy of the work that was kept in their archives. He read a few pages and threw the paper into the fireplace without regret.
Dear Moses
The Red Sea almost destroyed Napoleon's army
Around 1798, while passing through Egypt and Syria, Napoleon and some of his cavalry took advantage of the calm afternoon and low tide of the Red Sea to cross the dry bottom on the opposite shore and visit several springs called the wells of Moses. When curiosity was satisfied and the army approached the Red Sea to return, it was already dark and the tide was beginning to rise.
In the darkness it was impossible to see the road; the water kept rising and blocked the path they had taken earlier. Napoleon ordered his men to stand around him, forming something like a wheel. Each one walked forward until he had to swim, then the ring moved in the other direction, away from the rising water. Thus, everyone managed to escape from the Red Sea: the army got wet, but no one drowned. Recalling how the Pharaoh’s army died, Napoleon remarked: “If this had happened to us, the priests would have had an excellent topic to preach against me!”
Sphinx nose
There is an opinion that it was Napoleon who made the Sphinx noseless
One story says that when Napoleon's troops were in Egypt between 1798 and 1801, his soldiers honed their cannon skills by shooting at the Sphinx and accidentally knocked off its nose. There is a significant refutation of this, since back in 1755 Frederic Louis Norden published a drawing according to which the Sphinx no longer had a nose.
The story became known only in the 20th century. Among the researchers ancient egypt a more common version is that this detail of the composition was shot by Mameluke warriors 500 years before Napoleon’s campaign.
Killing the wounded
Kill your own so that others will be afraid
On May 27, 1799, Napoleon was forced to retreat from Jaffa in Egypt and sent wounded from all over necessary security. But about 30 of them were sick bubonic plague and could not be transported with the rest, so as not to infect the entire army. Napoleon knew that if he left these people, they would be captured by the Turks and tortured to death. Then he suggested that the regimental doctor Dezhenet give the unfortunate people a large dose of opium to save them from suffering. Degenet refused. As a result, the entire rearguard of the Napoleonic army remained under the walls of Jaffa along with the wounded; later they were found and taken out by the British.
This story was a failure for Napoleon. Rumors grew and multiplied to such an extent that everyone was absolutely sure that Bonaparte had poisoned at least several hundred wounded. Even the soldiers and officers of the French army and the majority of the British believed in this. Until the end of his life, Napoleon never managed to get rid of rumors that he really killed his wounded and sick soldiers.
Cleopatra no longer lives here
Napoleon brought Cleopatra's ashes to France
As the story goes, in 1940, workers at a Paris museum, while cleaning the building, accidentally shook the remains of an ancient mummy from a casket down the drain. The cleaners did not immediately realize that the casket was used to store the ashes of Cleopatra herself, brought from Egypt by Napoleon Bonaparte. The story has been widely circulated and has only one major flaw: the tomb of the famous queen has never been found, so no museum can claim such a loss.
The myth arose on the basis that Bonaparte plundered Egypt during his campaign, although in fact he only sent about 150 scientists there to study the history and culture of this state, study monuments and artifacts. Although the political conquest was unsuccessful, Napoleon managed to start a craze for Egyptian history around the world. Ironically, it was scientific interest Bonaparte marked the beginning of that plunder in which France itself did not even participate.
Nightmares of Marengo
Prophetic dreams, is not it?
In June 1800, on the eve of the Battle of Marengo, one of the senior officers urgently asked for an audience with Napoleon. General Henri Christian Michel de Stengel entered Napoleon's tent with an unhappy look and handed him an envelope with a will, asking the emperor to personally carry out his last will. He said that at night he had a dream in which he was killed by a huge Croatian warrior who had turned into an image of death, and was deeply convinced that he would die in the upcoming battle.
The next day, Napoleon was informed that Stengel had died in an unequal battle with the Croatian giant. This incident haunted Napoleon all his life, and even when dying on the island of St. Helena, he whispered: “Stengel, attack quickly!”
However, historical facts contradict this legend. First, Stengel died at the Battle of Mondovi, four years before Marengo. Secondly, last words Bonaparte is still the subject of various controversies, and no scholar has ever claimed that Napoleon spoke as such. It is quite possible that in his death throes the defeated Emperor of France simply called on all his generals to attack an imaginary enemy. In addition, the first mention of such a case appeared in 1890, almost a century after the Battle of Marengo.
Father of his own grandson
This can only happen in Mexican TV series.
When Napoleon married Josephine Beauharnais, he also became a father to her daughter Hortense, whom he loved as his own. When Hortense reached the right age, Josephine decided to marry her to Louis, Napoleon's brother, partly because she felt the Bonaparte family disliked her. She was also sure that if Hortense had a son with Napoleon’s blood, the emperor would make him his heir.
Josephine needed all her imagination and ingenuity to get her husband to agree. And once he was convinced that it was real good idea, the feelings of Hortense and Louis ceased to matter. Almost immediately they began to say that the real father of Hortense’s child was Napoleon himself, and that Josephine herself organized and encouraged this in every possible way. Rumors were spread by the brothers and sisters of Napoleon himself, who did not want to accept Hortensia’s children.
Exiled double
For many big people have your own personal double
In 1815, Napoleon was exiled to St. Helena and, as history goes, remained there until his death. But in 1911, a man named M. Omersa declared that he had all the evidence that Bonaparte had never been to St. Helens.
Homersa claimed that a man named François Eugene Robot, known for his physical resemblance to the emperor, was sent into exile in his place, and the Corsican himself grew a beard and went to Verona, where he had small store selling glasses to British travellers. True, in 1823 Napoleon was nevertheless killed by vigilant guards while trying to enter the palace to see his son.
The version itself is interesting, but it assumes some kind of conspiracy with the participation of Napoleon himself, which is unlikely. It is also doubtful that a soldier who bore only a superficial resemblance to the emperor could play the role of the emperor so convincingly for six years.
Poisoned Chocolate
A woman's revenge is a terrible thing
During Napoleon's reign, many stories were made up by English propagandists in an attempt to convert public opinion against the emperor. Most of them have long been forgotten, but some are still alive. According to one of them, Napoleon drank a cup of chocolate every morning and one day received an anonymous note asking him not to drink chocolate that day. When the chamberlain brought chocolate to the emperor, Napoleon ordered to call the woman who had prepared this drink for him, and forced her to drink the entire cup. In her death throes, the woman confessed that she wanted to take revenge on the emperor for seducing her in her youth and then completely forgetting about her existence. The cook noticed how this woman put something into the chocolate and conveyed the warning to Napoleon. The Emperor awarded him a lifelong pension and membership in the Legion of Honor.
Of course, nothing like that happened, but this fictional story is still considered one of the classic examples revenge of a rejected woman.
Timely haircut
A watch with the hair of Napoleon himself, what do you think?
Surprisingly, Napoleon survived the death a large number of his hair. Four of the emperor's locks were given to the Balcombe family, with whom Napoleon had befriended on St. Helena. In addition, Napoleon bequeathed gold bracelets containing locks of his hair to his family and friends.
This led to very unexpected consequences. First, the strands kept by the Balcombe family were used to test the theory that the emperor was poisoned with arsenic. Secondly, the popularity of Napoleon's hair provoked the spread of numerous fakes for almost two hundred years.
But the most unexpected thing was the recent statement Swiss brand De Witt is about to release a new line of watches, each model of which will contain a hair from Napoleon Bonaparte himself. So, two centuries later, Napoleon's strands will again be woven into bracelets for the richest fans of the French emperor.
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), commander, conqueror, emperor - one of the most famous people in the history of mankind. He made a dizzying career, in 15 years turning from an almost penniless junior officer from a seedy noble family into the ruler of France and the threat of all of Europe. In his own opinion, he made only one serious mistake in his life, but this mistake outweighed all his victories. Many people hated him, but still large quantity people admired him. 
Entire libraries have been written about Napoleon, but some interesting facts about his life have been forgotten over time. Others, on the contrary, became known quite recently. Many of them are not considered epoch-making events, but they help to understand a person whose personality shaped an entire era.
Little Corsican
Let's start with the fact that the most famous Frenchman of the modern era was not French. Napoleon was born in the city of Ajaccio in Corsica; by the time of his birth, the island had only become French for a year. While studying at military school, Napoleon was often teased for his Corsican accent, and he himself gave up the idea of fighting for the independence of Corsica only after the start of the revolution. Later, opponents contemptuously called Napoleon “Little Corsican,” hinting at his alienation from France. And for short stature too.
Pugnacious boy
Even during his childhood in Ajaccio, Napoleon showed the makings of a future conqueror. By his own admission, he was a very pugnacious child. Brother Joseph suffered the most (even though he was the eldest, he was awkward). The most interesting thing is that Joseph was also punished for fighting - Napoleon was always the first to tell his mother lies. 
Toulon: start to the heights
The Bonaparte family was poor, and it is unlikely that anyone would have known about Napoleon if it had not begun in 1789 Great Revolution. At that time, Napoleon was a lieutenant, and he immediately realized that the revolution was a chance for people like him. And he took advantage of this chance. In the summer of 1793, Captain Bonaparte carried out an operation to suppress the rebellion of monarchists in Toulon so successfully that the French Republic immediately gave him the rank of general. This was the beginning of his dizzying career and military glory. It must be said that he was not the only one who so successfully moved up the career ladder during the wars of the Republic with the coalition of European monarchs. Most future Napoleonic marshals started out the same way.
Wedding scam
Despite the discreet appearance, Women liked Napoleon. This was greatly facilitated by his military glory. He never allowed women to influence his military and political decisions, but in privacy some of them meant quite a lot to him. This is exactly what his first wife, Josephine Beauharnais, was like. But here’s what’s strange: the marriage certificate of Napoleon and Josephine incorrectly indicated the dates of birth of the bride and groom.In fact, everything is explained very simply. Josephine was six years older than Napoleon, and at that time such marriages caused ridicule. Therefore, when drawing up the document, Napoleon added two years to himself, Josephine lost four years, and the difference disappeared. Now the marriage of the young general should not cause misunderstandings. 
Rival in love and war
It should be noted that, for all his ambitions as a conqueror, Napoleon was a fairly tolerant person. He did not organize “purges” of his opponents, and did not even pursue the gentlemen of his wife Josephine (and she was a flighty woman). But there was a man whom Napoleon could not forgive Josephine until his break with her. Moreover, there are reasons to suspect the future emperor of murdering his rival. 
A special case - the opponent was Lazar Gauche, an even more prominent figure in the revolutionary wars than Napoleon himself. He became a general at the age of 24 (like Bonaparte), while at 17 he was still just a groom. No one could say who fought better: Gauche or Bonaparte. Gauche met Josephine in 1794 in prison, where both were imprisoned during the Jacobin Terror. The connection was short-lived.
Lazar Ghosh died suddenly in 1797 at the age of 29. Poisoning was suspected. It is unlikely that it will be possible to investigate the connection between Bonaparte and this death.
Emperor of the French
Having seized virtually dictatorial power in 1799, Napoleon was proclaimed emperor in 1804. But his title was not “Emperor of France,” but “Emperor of the French.” Why?
It was a very clever move, the idea of which Napoleon borrowed from the Roman emperor Octavian Augustus. The title “Emperor of the French” was intended to show that Napoleon was not a monarch of a state, but a leader of a nation, as was the case in Republican Rome (initially, commanders-in-chief there were called emperors during the war). The trick was a success - Napoleon did not encounter any serious opposition from the Republicans. 
The only mistake
Napoleon had to lose battles, but this was not reflected on the map until 1812. general development his plans. The attack on Russia put an end to all his ambitions as a conqueror. It was the decision to start a war with Russia that the emperor later called his only, but fatal mistake.
Was there a murder?
Napoleon died in 1821 on the island of Saint Helena. His fans immediately started talking about murder. The solution to this question was delayed, but after more than a hundred years the answer was given.
Analysis of Napoleon's hair, preserved by several loyal officers who were imprisoned with him, showed a huge amount of arsenic. The poison was contained in the paint that was used to paint the walls of his bedroom. It was the most common paint; it was made this way everywhere at that time. But the humid and hot tropical climate contributed to the release of poison, which was not the case in France. The poisoning turned out to be chronic. It was completely random and did not give characteristic symptoms.
You can continue ad infinitum, because the majestic and controversial person of Napoleon is worth it. It has not yet been fully studied; new facts regularly emerge. Eg:
- A.V. Suvorov was a big fan of Napoleon, and it was he who noted that he should under no circumstances become a monarch.
- Napoleon was not interested in overseas possessions; It was he who sold Louisiana to the United States.
- The richest Napoleon museum was created not in France, but in Cuba.
Finally, in France there is still a law prohibiting naming... pigs after Napoleon!
Napoleon Bonaparte - great commander, outstanding statesman and Emperor of France. In the biography of Napoleon Bonaparte interesting facts A lot has been collected from life. For the curious - a selection of little-known and sometimes controversial historical facts from the biography of a man who changed the history of France, Europe, and the whole world.
- The father of the future great commander, Carlo Buonaparte, always dreamed of a military career for his son. Fortunately, young Napoleon was only happy about this. The teachers of the Paris Military School admired the abilities of the wild and independent Corsican, and at the same time were shocked by the young man’s hostility towards France and the French who occupied his homeland - the island of Corsica.
- After the sudden death of his father, an enormous burden of caring for a large family fell on the shoulders of Lieutenant Napoleon - his mother, four brothers and three sisters. He worked hard, lived from hand to mouth and tried to visit his family often. At that difficult time he looked least like a man who was destined to change the course of history throughout Europe.
- Amazing facts from the biography of Napoleon are not uncommon. For example, one day nineteen-year-old Lieutenant Bonaparte, having decided to radically change his life, submitted a request to enlist in the Russian army. The answer was positive, but with one condition - a reduction in rank. The proud Corsican considered this proposal unacceptable.
- In 1789, fate presented Napoleon with the main gift - French Revolution. That time thirsted for new leaders - smart, courageous, decisive, charismatic, capable of leading a crowd, and most importantly - of low origin, offended and unable to advance under the “old regime”. Napoleon Bonaparte could not have been more suitable for this role - the favorite of the French people, and he became it.
- In 1804, the rebel and revolutionary, who hated France with all his heart and despised the monarchy, put on the crown. The coronation ceremony was supposed to eclipse all previous ones. And she eclipsed. France has never known so much glitz and luxury before. On the eve of such a grandiose event, another, no less important event took place - the wedding of Napoleon and Josephine Beauharnais.
- The arrival of the pontiff was always a prerequisite for the coronation of the emperor. Pope Pius VII arrived to place the crown on the head of the new emperor. But he failed to complete old rite: the commander impatiently snatched the crown from the hands of the shocked and confused pope and quickly placed it on his own head, and then on the head of the future empress.
- Many revolutionary figures went through a great test - the “temptation of the crown.” Simon Bolivar, George Washington, Oliver Cromwell all refused. Only Napoleon Bonaparte could not resist, and this ultimately destroyed him: his supporters became disillusioned and turned away, and European monarchs never accepted the poor Corsican from large family into their ranks.
- During the reign of Napoleon I there were many positive things. For example, a series of reforms that influenced all areas of French life - from education to taxation, and which are still the basis of modern France.
- The cause of death of the French emperor is not known for certain. There is a version that he was not just poisoned, but small doses of poison were added to him over many years.
- The favorite horse of the great commander was the Arabian stallion Marengo. However, the owner was not always accompanied by him true friend. Throughout his military career, Napoleon changed 130 horses. The skeleton of the emperor's favorite horse is still kept within the walls National Museum army in London.
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What specific properties of nature did our distant ancestors need to change so that their descendants, hundreds of thousands of generations later, would read this article? We decided, taking into account latest achievements science, compile your list of factors that contributed to the development of ancestors.
It should be noted that our list does not imply a comparison of the importance of the details listed in it. We do not claim that the ape would have become a man without something or, on the contrary, that its development would have been impossible without it. We are only stating the facts known to us.
You also need to understand that the division into monkeys and people is arbitrary, since both people and modern monkeys, and their common ancestors belong to the order of primates, that is, monkeys. So man, as a species of the genus Homo, from the point of view of a biologist, is also a monkey, only more developed. And the term “man”, which is familiar to us, is a philosophical concept, a defining being that is integrated into a certain cultural environment and is inextricably linked with it.
The habit of moving on two hind limbs, holding the body upright, is traditionally considered one of the characteristic signs of Homo sapiens. In fact, she is quite older. Bipedalism was characteristic of all species of the genus Homo, and apparently arose even before its appearance.
All known australopithecines walked on two legs, former predecessors genus Homo, and before them - Ardipithecus. Even the most ancient of our supposed ancestors known today - Sahelanthropus, who lived in the vicinity of Lake Chad about 6-7 million years ago - is also suspected of bipedality.
True, in his case (and in some others), the discussion is complicated by the fact that scientists do not yet have leg bones at their disposal. The discussion is based on the location and structure of the occipital foramen, which in the found skull occupies a median position, like in erectus. Opponents point to the flattening of the occipital bones, to which the neck muscles were attached. Therefore, our hero walked on four legs. Proponents of upright walking respond by arguing that the back of the head was posthumously deformed.
Obviously, the dispute will not be finally resolved until new, more complete remains are found. It is noteworthy, however, that such a discussion is even possible, because we're talking about about a creature from ancient times.
It should be noted that apes are generally characterized by methods of movement in which the front and hind limbs play different roles, which leads to differences in their structure. Let us remember the gibbon, which clearly does not claim to be our ancestor, but is also a relative. It actually moves through trees using only its arms, and can run on the ground on its hind legs. It is very likely that the rudiments of bipedality were formed there - in our common ancestor with the gibbon.
This human ability is unlucky - it leaves almost no discernible traces. It is impossible to determine from the skeleton how talkative its owner was during his lifetime. Of course, experts are trying to use the crumbs that they have: genetic material and skulls. It doesn't turn out too well. It is more or less known which parts of the brain are responsible for speech activity in humans. And by the structure of the skulls one can judge how developed they were in our relatives. Alas, this in itself does not prove anything. Broca's area, for example, is present in both humans and chimpanzees. But among the first, he participates in speech activity, and for the second - in the mimic. How it was involved in ancestral forms is a big mystery. Based on the totality of available data, one can reasonably suspect the presence of Neanderthal speech. They had the necessary brain centers, the necessary genes (for example, regulatory FOXP2), and simply their everyday life, according to the latest data, was too much like the life of our direct ancestors. As for all the other heroes, there is no reliable clarity here.
RAM
When hammering a nail, a person deals with two objects - a hammer and a nail. Scrolling the minced meat in a manual meat grinder - with three: meat, handle and minced meat, which must be laid out on a plate or board. When proving a theorem at the blackboard at school, the number of objects increases to 5–6.
According to anthropologists, the limit of reason Homo sapiens- simultaneous operation of seven objects, information about which is stored in special areas of the brain.
In faraway hot Africa, some chimpanzees can crack nuts with stones. For chimpanzees, the result of this activity is tasty and healthy. This skill is not inherited; primates learn it in childhood, and not everyone is gifted with this tricky science.
Depending on local traditions, when cracking a nut, the monkey either holds it only, or holds the nut together with the anvil. In the first case, the intellect of our relative is addressed to two objects - a stone and a nut. In the second - by three. In the first case, almost all members of the population master the art of cleverly obtaining food. In the second - about three quarters. Based on this (there are other observations that we will omit now), scientists believe that the limit of the intellectual capabilities of chimpanzees is 2-3 objects.
There is no reason to believe that our ancient ancestors were much more capable. Scientists conclude that the gradual increase in their ability to make stone tools is also associated with the emerging ability to keep a larger number of objects in their heads. The time frame for this process is not yet clear to us.
Mind-friendly hormones
Activity nervous system animals, like many other things, are regulated by hormones. In primates, including humans, the regulation of some emotions and cognitive functions, such as remembering information, is entrusted to endorphins. The precursor (that is, the raw material for the synthesis) of several of them is the protein prodynorphin.
The gene encoding this protein is different in chimpanzees and humans. The mutation inherent in humans affected the regulatory part of the gene responsible for its activation. In other words, the protein itself remained exactly the same, but the conditions for its synthesis changed.
According to scientists, this led to the fact that human body produces approximately 20% more prodynorphin than monkey. This in itself is interesting, but what is even more interesting is that protein production occurs as a reaction to some stimuli. Alas, we can judge them only in the most general outline, since the techniques modern science do not allow more: the colony of cells on which the study was carried out, of course, does not have emotional status and does not change it in any way. For a full-fledged study, you need to grow a genetically modified person with a monkey gene and look at his behavior. It is clear that such an experiment is impossible today.
Gene changes that make it different from apes are inherent in all living Homo sapiens. This makes us think that the mutation had some evolutionary significance. It is impossible to say now when it happened.
Fire
The oldest human fire known in this moment probably no more than 800 thousand years. On this honorary title claim to be the remains of two fires: discovered in 2009 at the Gesher Benot Yaakov site in Israel (690–790 thousand years old) and found in the Spanish Cueva Negra cave in 2011 (600–800 thousand years old).
The then Homo erectus or Homo ergaster could have warmed themselves by the fire of these fires - it is still difficult to say more precisely. It is noteworthy that the age of both finds, despite the obvious geographical distance, is approximately the same. This suggests that about 700 thousand years ago (let's be careful with numerical estimates) the use of fire was already popular among people. Did they know how to light a fire or just store a flame they got somewhere, as has been repeatedly described in fiction, is a big question.
About half a dozen sites have been found in Africa possible breeding fire that is older - a million or more years old. It cannot yet be considered firmly proven that in these cases we are dealing with fire started by people or at least under their control. Perhaps we are talking about natural fires or, in some cases, manifestations of volcanism.
There are no doubts only regarding sapiens and Neanderthals. These, of course, knew how to handle fire - a fireplace was almost obligatory at their sites.
Mastery of fire smoothly leads us to the next steps.
Majority modern monkeys will not give up the role of a situational predator. Ruin bird's Nest- the cutest monkey business. And chimpanzees even organize group hunts for lower apes. But the basis of nutrition is still plant foods. Moreover, there is serious research linking the level of intelligence of primates with their love of fruit. It's logical. The sweeter the fruit and the more difficult it is to get to, the smarter must be the one who manages to eat it.
Meanwhile, meat food is clearly more nutritious, and well-cooked meat even more so. In 2007, American scientists conducted an experiment on feeding the Burmese python boiled meat. It turned out that at the same time, energy costs for digesting food decreased by 12.7% compared to eating, for example, raw mice. And if the meat was also passed through a meat grinder, then the savings reached 23.4% - almost a quarter!
Laboratory mice, which were also fed cooked meat, gained almost 30% more weight over five weeks than their companions who ate raw meat. Of course, the calorie content of the food was nominally the same, but it was absorbed differently. Past heat treatment- easier.
This suggests that if hunters hundreds of thousands of years ago had happened to eat game fried over a fire (they didn’t have a pot, much less a meat grinder), the effect of eating it would have been noticeably higher than from raw food. It is likely that the size of the organism became larger even without the participation of evolutionary mechanisms, simply because during the period of growth the person ate well. And, of course, in better conditions his brain turned out to be a champion in energy intensity. U modern man In infancy, the brain “eats” about a quarter of calories. With age, this proportion becomes smaller, but still looks very impressive. Compared to monkeys, in which the brain’s share of total energy consumption is only a few percent, this is a lot.
The brains of our ancient ancestors were once about the same size as those of today great apes, - 400–450 cm3. It gradually increased in size (a larger “reason” clearly gave its carriers evolutionary advantages), but not very quickly. Then something happened, twice (!) with an interval of several hundred thousand years. The brain of Homo erectus averaged 1000 cm3, the average brain of Neanderthals and sapiens reached one and a half thousand “cubes”. The rest of the body also grew, but there the growth was less pronounced.
There is a well-reasoned belief that changes in brain size are related to diet. At the first stage, meat appeared in it, and the first increase in the brain was associated with this. And then they learned to fry the meat over a fire, which made it, if not tastier, then certainly more nutritious, since it was absorbed much better. This diet change is essentially a two-step process, so we'll look at it as two steps from ape to man.
By the way, modern chimpanzees spend about five hours a day chewing (not even obtaining!) food. And the hunters living nearby are of the most traditional way - only an hour. To be on the same level as the monkey, we need to sit in a restaurant for the whole evening.
The mode of nutrition of erectus and its immediate predecessors continues to be a subject of debate. It seems likely that they were more scavengers than hunters. Of course, such a relationship is not very aesthetically pleasing, but the animal bones found at sites speak for themselves. Scratches from stone tools are usually located on top of (that is, after) the marks left by the predators who chewed them. Neanderthals were tough guys and killed their prey themselves. They ate almost exclusively meat obtained by hunting. And they were defeated in an evolutionary competition (perhaps sometimes turning into real battles) by Homo sapiens - a generalist in nutrition, whose diet for a long time contained plants and fish.
Homo sapiens, when born, goes through several stages of growing up. One of them is adolescence. This is a difficult time when a person, in essence, can already do everything, but at the same time he knows too little, does not know enough, and at every step risks finding himself some kind of adventure. Society treats his searches quite leniently, without yet imposing full responsibility for them. As is generally accepted, this period ends somewhere between the ages of 17 and 19, when yesterday’s teenager has already accepted the norms of behavior established among adults and is ready for independent life.
Modern monkeys have a full-fledged analogue adolescence No. The cub grows, and then, as soon as it is able, it acquires its own.
It’s difficult to say how things went with this among ancient people, because you can’t ask them. Judging by the remains of Neanderthals, their children early age looked like adults. They apparently reached sexual maturity at 7–8 years of age. There is an assumption (for obvious reasons, it is difficult to argue) that this was the end of their childhood.
How things were in even more ancient primates is a mystery, but the circumstances of their lives, of course, required an early start to reproduction.
Stone tools are much better preserved than bones. Therefore, it is not surprising that anthropologists come across them much more often than the remains of their creators. In fact, they are most often used to determine who made them. With some error, of course. The stone ax of the Olduvai culture was most likely made by someone from Homo habilis or ergaster, but the author of the products of the next - Acheulean - culture is probably Homo erectus. And you can’t say what and how this master thought while knocking stones against each other. I probably wanted to eat...
