Mammoth House

Mammoth House
         
          The camp was located on the high bank of the River, ending with a steep rocky cliff. On the contrary, through a narrow channel, there was a large wooded island, followed by another, and even further the mouth of a river tributary. And further down to the horizon, loess hills and boulders left by the glacier stretched along the left bank.
         The camp consisted of several groups of huts resembling Chukchi yarangs, in which walrus skins were stretched on the skeleton of whale ribs, with the difference that there were bones of a mammoth and a woolly rhinoceros. Excavations show that the vertebrae and pelvic bones of these animals were laid out in a circle with a diameter of 3-4 m, so that the ribs from the vertebrae closed at the top, forming a cone under the roof. The two-meter-long mammoth tusks probably formed the entrance to the dwelling. The yarangs were arranged in groups close to each other, and, perhaps, were connected to maintain heat from bonfires that were kindled in the central depression lined with stones.
Above, apparently, was a hole for the exit of smoke. The skeleton of bones was covered with animal skins with fur inside. On the floor, too, lay the skins with their fur up.
             Women from men dressed in the same skins could only be distinguished by the absence of beards. On the occasion of the return of deer hunters, the entire population of the camp gathered at the site of a large bonfire, and with guttural shouts greeted the Father with his sons. A headdress of white foxes stood out a woman - the leader of the tribe or Mistress.
      . The mother of the tribe was the old female mammoth (living totem), living in a corral of large stones. Chains of smaller stones went far into the steppe - the tundra, forming pens for deer and musk ox. The gaps between the boulders were closed by thorny branches and deadwood. These were titanic structures created by the first people. In addition to Mom, the tribe had four more tamed mammoths for her daughter, who grazed freely and even brought Mom bunches of branches and grass.
           In addition to the leader, the father's father led the tribe, who was the guardian of the totem - the shaman. Under the rock behind the camp there were ledges and depressions, painted with ocher with images of hunting scenes and the domestication of animals. Here on the ledges were workshops for the production of stone tools: axes, arrowheads and spears, scrapers for cleaning hides, knives and others. This is where the Father and sons came after hunting deer to tell or draw about this to the grandfather-shaman.
        The speech of the first people was poor in sounds and included many gestures. All women were addressed with the sound "I", with different intonations depending on age and rank, since they stood at the head of families, clans and the whole tribe.
       Yarangi were also built in groups by birth and each family had a family: a woman, her children, her kind of husband, who was in the same rank as children. Mothers prepared sons for other families and gave them cattle and other property.
        Father and his sons ate long fried meat, smoked and dried fish with steamed blueberries and blueberries and baked calamus tubers. And, climbing under the skins, they fell asleep under the howl of a spring blizzard, and could sleep for several days in a row, because they were very tired of deer.
        The tribe collected fish at the rapids of the river. Ice hummocks exploded there all winter, and threw fish on coastal stones and on the island, and froze them. This was used by foxes and other animals. In the summer, when the river opened, fish were caught in wicker baskets and buried in pits with permafrost.
        Several woolly rhinos (the first heralds of the spring migration of animals) appeared on the island and ate gnats. Along with mammoths, cave bears and lions, a contemporary of an ancient man in the last ice age was a rhino overgrown with wool - elmasater.  In size, it was more than an African rhino weighed up to four tons. But since he lived in a harsh climate, his body was covered with thick dark brown hair.
         Either they, or the sun, woke up big black bears wintering in the spruce windbreak. The bears viciously snarled at the rhinos, which prevented them from going ashore. The tribe did not hunt rhino, because this two-ton monster in anger rushed even at the mammoth, and the wolves crushed like kittens.
        Constantly on the island there lived people of an ancient kind of fishermen, from whom the Amazon tribe came. At the top of the mountainous part of the island was a cave - the tomb of the Father of the Amazons.
         The sun woke up large black bears wintering in the thicket of spruce windbreak. The bears viciously snarled at the rhinos, which prevented them from going ashore. The tribe did not hunt rhino, because this two-ton monster in anger rushed even at the mammoth, and the wolves crushed like kittens.
        Constantly on the island there lived people of an ancient kind of fishermen, from whom the Amazon tribe came. At the top of the mountainous part of the island was a cave - the tomb of the Father of the Amazons. Since that time, the climate has changed dramatically due to the onset of glaciers, in the direction of cooling. Northern conifers grew on the island: spruce, cedar, crooked pines and dwarf birch, willow on sandbanks has been preserved.
       The ice drift passed, and a pair of woolly rhinos could not leave the island to the displeasure of bears and people. People did not have a connection with the coast for a month or two due to the strong current before the threshold. After the decline of water along the crest of the threshold, it was possible to run ashore at the camp, possessing courage and dexterity. Rhinos prevented the gathering and catching of fish at the edge of the water, infuriating from each rustle. Apparently, the female was expecting childbirth, and the island seemed to her a suitable place. It is even more difficult to kill a rhino with an arrow or spear than a mammoth, because under the long red hair he had tiles of keratinized skin up to 3 cm thick.
        The shaman conveyed a message to the island on how to set up a trap hole on the path along which rhinos walk.


*To be continued !

The last hunt of the Father
         
          When the water fell a little, Father with hunters and Amazons along the crest of the threshold crossed to the island to kill the rhinos, which did not give anyone life, but did not want to swim or were afraid to swim ashore. It was difficult to dig hunting pits on the beaches. I had to work only at night, escaping from rhinos.
        Father sat at the tomb on the island and looked at the hunting scenes, painted with red ocher on the walls of the cave. He was especially attracted to the scene of catching big fish with a tied bear. He thought for a long time. In the morning, hunters who watched the female rhino showed him a large pine, about which the female got into itching, apparently shedding. The tree was old, thick branches started at a height of four, people and were bare. The senior hunter ordered the preparation of large stones. They were wrapped in skins and tied with reindeer cords. At night, they dragged the stones under the tree and dragged them up until the morning, throwing the ropes through the branches, and fastened there. In the morning, all traces of work were carefully masked. The rhino came and itched one side or the other. Finally, the stones were tied, and the day of the great hunt came. At night, Father hid on the branches with a sharp ax.
Rhinos were poorly seen, but they had good sense of smell and hearing. Therefore, the father smeared all the clay and tar naked. Hunters with heavy spears and Amazons with large bows hid in a spruce tree behind a tree.   There were several stones on the tree. At least one of them had, having cut the rope, be dropped so that he fell on the rhino and knocked him down. After that, spears and arrows would be used, hitting the rhino in the stomach and other places that were not protected by thick skin.
  The sun rose, and the female rhino came under a large pine tree. She sniffed for a long time and spun her ears, suspecting something, but then she began to rub against the trunk sideways, so that the tree trembled. Father tried on and chopped the rope. A meter stone from a height of 6 meters collapsed on the back of a rhino, the female crouched, but did not fall. Then the Father reached for the bitch and chopped off the second packet. He stone hit tangentially on the female’s big belly, and she fell on her side, Father, unable to resist, flew down. The rest of the hunters ran up and drove the spears into the female’s stomach, large arrows pierced her jaw and tail. But the female rose all in blood and trampled the Father and two more people before falling forever. A few minutes later, a male rhinoceros rushed to the roar of a wounded female, and, drunk from puddles of blood, began to throw himself on a tree, butting him with a horn. As a result, the largest stone tied to the trunk broke and inflicted a fatal injury on him. There has never been such a quantity of meat on the island, and it went to people and bears and small animals.
       The death of the Father, who was supposed to succeed his shaman father, was a very big loss for the northerners. The eldest son left with a caravan, and they wanted to return him. But he still did not know all the shamanistic rites. When the sad news came to the shore, the youngest went to the island to bury his father, and then to his grandfather urgently study for a shaman. The remains of the father were laid next to the tomb of the Father of the Amazons on the top of the island.
      
Caravan

        The carcass of a mammoth – male was changed by the genus of Amazons from shepherds to rolls of musk ox hair and skins. The shepherds set up a new yaranga; they needed mammoth bones.   The hunters helped them carve it in the ravine, and then large bones dragged mammoth females on the drags. But first, they approached Mom’s corral, who sniffed these bones for a long time, and took the skull to her. She already had many skulls of her relatives and in the spring, when the bones were freed from snow, she played with them, as if talking and remembering. All unoccupied adults and children watched with trepidation as She spoke to her ancestors.
       The shaman drew a circle on the edge of the camp, and according to his instructions they began to set bones for the new yaranga of the shepherds.
        Wool in rolls, skins of white and black-brown foxes, other furs and skins were loaded on deer, gathering on a long voyage to the sea to exchange goods with other tribes.
      . Two mammoths with large dragons, three dozen sled deer for a detachment of Amazons, two packs of wolf dogs walked with a caravan. One pack of black suits was also dragging drags, the other, white, played a protective role. The eldest daughter led a caravan. At first, the caravan’s path followed a large path of animal migration along the river, and from half the way, bypassing large forests to the Crimean salt lakes, where Cimmerians living in stone huts, Balkan tribes and Greek ancestors came from the Crimean mountains.
       Mammoths were left for three transitions to the lakes. But first, it was necessary to go around the edge of a large forest where militant red-headed hunters lived, swamps, where terrible animals lived and no one came back from, and many other dangers from predators and people. 
       For the first five transitions, the caravan walked along the course of animals and constantly met the remains of a feast of predators. Then, climbing the steep right bank of the river at the rapids, the caravan began to go around the Big Forest.
        Scouts: Red, Elder brother, and fifty Amazons on horseback deer led by Aunt and two dozen black and white wolves walked two transitions in front. The elder sister rode the caravan on a mammoth friend.
       Forest people watched the caravan. They were not afraid of mammoths. They were not afraid of anyone at all, constantly encountering bears, lions and big lynxes in the forest. Wolves did not like to go into this forest because of the big cats that killed them.  But the goods transported by the caravan were of little interest to the foresters. They had a lot of skins, stone axes too.
        After 15 days, the caravan approached the large Azov steppe and caught up with reconnaissance. Mammoths did not want to go further to the sea, and people did not want to show them to other nations. They were left at the edge of the forest, and the luggage had to be carried on poles and put on riding deer. The Amazons dismounted and helped carry. Now the caravan was moving slower, but five days later people felt an unfamiliar smell of the sea, although some did not People from different places of the prehistoric world gathered at the salt lakes on the Crimean Isthmus for trade: northerners on deer, Crimean Cimmerians on foot, Arians from Iran and India on camels, steppe nomads with shaggy horses and other tribes. The Cimmerian owners offered dried and dried sea fish, beads made of shells and colored pebbles and wooden combs made of sandalwood, which the northern Amazons really liked. They took wool on carpets, furs and skins.       Even the Cimmerians had a stone for the manufacture of tips and scrapers. The Arians took furs in exchange for copper and gold forged jewelry, offered burnt clay dishes. Nomads offered related people, the first slaves, as well as horses and sheep. The northerners were especially struck by the fat, full-breasted Aryan women, who were also offered for exchange. “So they were the main men," thought the Eldest son.
         The exchange took place quickly and two days later at night the northerners went to the places where the mammoths were waiting for them. The goods they took in exchange took up less space, and they moved faster. Red was especially worried.
     On the lakes, he spun among the nomads and guessed what they were conspiring with the Cimmerians. He suggested a chase and was not mistaken. Returning, the scouts walked behind the caravan on one passage and soon noticed the riders. Fortunately, the caravan managed to reunite, and took up defense on the hill and at it..
       He horse detachment, which was 2-3 times superior in number to the defenders of the caravan, was approaching the hill. The Amazons became ambushed. Hunters with long spears became on the trail. The riders, mostly men, also had long spears, but with forged copper tips. Their arrowheads were also made of copper. This was an advantage, they flew more precisely. The Amazons on the arrows had flint tips, which they were used to. In addition, deer were slower than horses, and in the open field the caravan would lose the battle. Clever Red (and, most likely, the future shaman) invented to set wolves on horses to bring down the offensive impulse of riders.    And then release mammoths on them, about which he told his wife - Elder sister. She objected that if a mammoth tramples a person, then she will trample everyone. Then she called Belogo the leader of the wolf pack, picked her up so that he could better see the riders flying at them, and shouted, “Ata, atauuu!” The wolf also repeated: “oooo!” And the whole hundred pack rushed at the horses under the riders. The riders had lashes with lead balls for hunting wolves and in the beginning they were not very scared. But it was not the steppe, wild wolves that were afraid of man.
    These were hunting dogs with a wolf article, and they skillfully threw themselves under the horses, ripping open their bellies or cutting the jugular vein in their throats. Wolves died under the whips, but the riders fell. The detachment hesitated, although many hunters had already died under copper spears. At this moment, the Amazons flew out on sled deer, who did not miss, shooting even on the move. Then the horsemen stopped and also took up the bows. They also shot accurately. A critical moment has arrived; the caravan could be killed by arrows. At this time, two mammoths popped up from behind the hill, running and blowing loudly. How the Elder Sister succeeded is incomprehensible, but the horses who have never seen such enormous monsters rushed back, taking away no less frightened riders.
     The caravan lost half of the people and wolves. The leader died, having managed to kill four horses. There was a black she-wolf and two black and white cubs of the leader. Caravan mining was better than the previous exchange. They got more than a hundred copies with copper tips and several hundred of these arrows.
         People built large funeral pyres separately for their and enemies. Men and women were put in pairs in their bonfires so that they would be together in another life.
     The caravan lost half of the people and wolves. The leader died, having managed to kill four horses. There was a black she-wolf and two black and white cubs of the leader. Caravan mining was better than the previous exchange. They got more than a hundred copies with copper tips and several hundred of these arrows.
        People built large funeral pyres separately for their and enemies. Men and women were put in pairs in their bonfires so that they would be together in another life.
         The caravan was walking along the forest for the tenth day. Forest women also liked beads and jewelry, and so, riding on fast moose, they flew out to meet the caravan. The redhead shouted something to them, offering a divide, but they wanted human meat and put forward long spears, and their men began throwing darts with flint tips. And although they were no more than the defenders of the caravan, but given their strength and bloodthirstiness, they could defeat and eat the caravan. Opponents came closer, the Amazons fired arrows with copper, which alerted the attackers, they were frightened by the smell of metal.
       The older brother grabbed a large bronze knife (sword) from his shoulder bag, which he traded with the Iranians. The sword was polished and like a flame sparkled in the sun. The older brother had tried it on deer nights at night several days before. And now, in one fell swoop, he chopped down the spear shaft and the elk’s head, raised his bloodied sword high. Forest people understood something and with horror stepped back.
      A man with a sword in his hand for millennia forward became the master of the World!