Savva Mamontov: biography, personal life, philanthropic activities, interesting facts. Woolly mammoth Mammoth places and times of habitat

Mammoths still exist today. They live in remote places, and people periodically meet them. The main mystery: why doesn’t “supreme” science want everyone to know about it? What are they hiding from us? Maybe mammoths died out incorrectly?...

On the issue of mammoths, I, like most people, have been in an illusion for a long time. I took my word for it that they died out during the last ice age. I knew that their remains were found in permafrost, and I thought about the possibilities of cloning this amazing ancient animal. But recently I happened to re-read Turgenev’s story “Khor and Kalinich” from the series “Notes of a Hunter.” There is an interesting phrase there:

“...Yes, here I am a man, and you see...” At this word, Khor raised his foot and showed a boot, probably cut from mammoth skin...”

In order to write this phrase, Turgenev needed to know several things that were quite strange for the mid-19th century in our current understanding. He should have known that there was such a mammoth beast, and he should have known. what kind of skin he had. He must have known about the availability of this leather. After all, judging by the text, the fact that a simple man living in the middle of a swamp wears boots made of mammoth skin was not something out of the ordinary for Turgenev. However, this thing is still shown as somewhat unusual, unusual.

It should be recalled that Turgenev wrote his notes almost as if they were documentary, without fiction. That's what they're notes for. He simply conveyed his impressions of meeting interesting people. And this happened in the Oryol province, and not at all in Yakutia, where mammoth cemeteries are found. There is an opinion that Turgenev expressed himself allegorically, referring to the thickness and quality of the boot. But why then not from “elephant skin”? Elephants were well known in the 19th century. But mammoths...

According to the official version, which we have to debunk, awareness of them at that time was negligible. One of the first “academic” mammoth skeletons with preserved remains of soft tissue was found by hunter O. Shumakov in the Lena River delta, on the Bykovsky Peninsula in 1799. And this was a great rarity for science. In 1806, botanist of the Academy M.N. Adams organized the excavation of the skeleton and brought it to the capital. The exhibit was collected and exhibited in the Kunstkamera, and later transferred to the Zoological Museum of the Academy of Sciences. Only these bones could be seen by Turgenev. Another half century (1900) would pass before the discovery of the Berezovsky mammoth and the creation of the first stuffed animal. How did he find out what kind of skin a mammoth has, and even determine it offhand?

So, whatever one may say, the phrase dropped by Turgenev is puzzling. I'm not even talking about the fact that the skin of an “ever-frozen” mammoth is not at all suitable for furriery. She is losing her qualities.

Did you know that Turgenev was not the only writer of the 19th century who let slip about the “extinct beast”? None other than Jack London, in his story “A Splinter of the Tertiary Era,” conveyed the story of a hunter who encountered a living mammoth in the vastness of northern Canada. In gratitude for the treat, the narrator gave the author his mukluks (moccasins), sewn from the skin of an unprecedented trophy. At the end of the story, Jack London writes:

“...and I advise all those of little faith to visit the Smithsonian Institution. If they submit appropriate recommendations and arrive on time, Professor Dolvidson will undoubtedly receive them. The mukluks are now kept by him, and he will confirm, if not how they were obtained, then, in any case, what material was used for them. He authoritatively claims that they are made from mammoth skin, and the entire scientific world agrees with him. What else do you need?..”

However, the Tobolsk Museum of Local Lore also kept a 19th-century harness made specifically from mammoth skin. Come on, why waste time when there is enough information about living mammoths. A lot of scattered evidence was collected by Candidate of Technical Sciences Anatoly Kartashov in his work “Siberian mammoths - is there any hope of seeing them alive.” He was waiting for a reaction to his texts, from the scientific world and in general, but he seemed to be ignored. Let's get acquainted with these facts. Let's start from the early times:

“Probably the first person to tell the world about Siberian mammoths was the Chinese historian and geographer Sima Qian (2nd century BC). In his “Historical Notes”, reporting on the north of Siberia, he writes about representatives of the distant ice age as... living animals! “The animals include... huge wild boars, northern elephants with bristles and northern rhinoceroses.” Here you have, in addition to mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses! The Chinese scientist is not talking about their fossil state at all - we are talking about living creatures living in Siberia back in the 3rd-2nd centuries BC.”

I myself have not read these “Historical Notes”; such a serious researcher as M.G. refers to them. Bykova, N. Nepomnyashchiy is copying it for her, and I am copying it for both of them.

As for the 2nd century BC, one can hardly trust this dating, since Chinese history has been artificially extended into the past ad infinitum. However, in our case this does not change the essence at all. Sim Qian’s “historical notes” are clearly not 13 thousand years old, that is, it was obviously after the Ice Age. And here is evidence from the 16th century:

“...The Ambassador of the Austrian Emperor, the Croatian Sigismund Herberstein, who visited Muscovy in the middle of the 16th century, wrote in 1549 in his “Notes on Muscovy”: in Siberia “... there is a great variety of birds and various animals, such as, for example, sables, martens, beavers, stoats, squirrels and the animal walrus in the ocean... In addition, Ves, just like polar bears, wolves, hares...” Please note: on the same level as very real beavers, squirrels and walruses stands a certain, if not fabulous, then certainly mysterious and unknown, Ves.

However, this Ves could be unknown only to Europeans, and for local residents this possibly rare and endangered species did not represent anything mysterious, not only in the 16th century, but also more than three centuries later. In 1911, Tobolsk resident P. Gorodkov wrote the essay “A Trip to the Salym Territory.” It was published in the XXI issue of the “Yearbook of the Tobolsk Provincial Museum” for 1911, and among other interesting things that we will talk about below, there are the following lines: “...among the Salym Khanty, the “mammoth pike” is called “all.” “This monster was covered with thick long hair and had large horns, sometimes the “entire” would start such a fuss among themselves that the ice on the lakes would break with a terrible roar.”

It turns out that mammoths walked here in the 16th century. Almost everyone knew about them, since even the Austrian ambassador received information. And again the 16th century, this time the legend:

“Another legend is known that in 1581 the warriors of the famous conqueror of Siberia Ermak saw huge hairy elephants in the dense taiga. Experts are still at a loss: who did the glorious warriors see? Ordinary elephants were already well known in those days: they were found in the courts of governors, in zoological gardens and in the royal menagerie.”

And immediately after this we smoothly move on to evidence from the 19th century:

“The New York Herald newspaper wrote that US President Jefferson (1801-1809), interested in reports from Alaska about mammoths, sent an envoy to the Eskimos. President Jefferson's envoy, upon returning, claimed absolutely fantastic things: according to the Eskimos, mammoths can still be found in remote areas in the northeast of the peninsula. The envoy, however, did not see live mammoths with his own eyes, but he brought special Eskimo weapons to hunt them. And this is not the only case known to history. There are lines about Eskimo weapons for hunting mammoths in an article published by a certain traveler in Alaska in San Francisco in 1899. The question arises: why would the Eskimos make and store weapons for hunting animals that became extinct at least 10 thousand years ago? The material evidence, however... True, it is indirect.”

Of course, mammoths have not disappeared in 300 years. And now it’s the end of the 19th century. They were seen again:

“In McClure's Magazine (October 1899), in a story by H. Tukeman entitled “The Killing of the Mammoth,” it is stated: “The last mammoth was killed in the Yukon in the summer of 1891.” Of course, now it is difficult to say what is truth in this story and what is literary fiction, but at that time the story was considered true...”

Already known to us, Gorodkov writes in his essay “A Trip to the Salym Territory” (1911):

“According to the Ostyaks, in the Kintusovsky sacred forest, as in other forests, mammoths live, they visit the river and in the river itself... Often in winter you can see wide cracks in the ice of the river, and sometimes you can see that the ice is split and fragmented into many small ice floes - all these are visible signs and results of the mammoth’s activity: the wild and diverging animal breaks the ice with its horns and back. Recently, about 15-26 years ago, there was such a case on Lake Bachkul. The mammoth is a meek and peace-loving animal by nature, and affectionate towards people; When meeting a person, the mammoth not only does not attack him, but even clings and caresses him. In Siberia, you often have to listen to the stories of local peasants and come across the opinion that mammoths still exist, but it’s just very difficult to see them... there are now only a few mammoths left, they, like most large animals, are now becoming rare.”

“Albert Moskvin from Krasnodar, who lived for a long time in the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, talked with people who themselves saw woolly elephants. Here is a quote from the letter: “Obda (the Mari name for mammoth), according to Mari eyewitnesses, used to be seen more often than now, in a herd of 4-5 heads (the Mari call this phenomenon obda-sauns - mammoth wedding).” The Mari told him in detail about the way of life of mammoths, about their appearance, about relationships with cubs, people, and even about the funeral of a dead animal. According to them, the kind and affectionate obda, offended by people, at night turned out the corners of barns, bathhouses, and broke fences, making a dull trumpet sound. According to the stories of local residents, even before the revolution, mammoths forced residents of the villages of Nizhnie Shapy and Azakovo, which were located in the area now called Medvedevsky, to move to a new place. The stories contain many interesting and surprising details, but there is a strong conviction that there is no fantasy or even just implausibility in them.”

It’s not for nothing that foreigners think that we have bears walking around Red Square. At least mammoths were seen here a hundred years ago and were well known.

This is not Yakutia or the north at all. This is the Volga region, the European part of Russia, the middle zone. And now Siberia:

“In 1920, two Russian hunters between the Ob and Yenisei rivers at the edge of the forest discovered traces of a giant beast. It was between the rivers Pur and Taz. The oval-shaped tracks were about 70 cm long and about 40 cm wide. The distance between the tracks of the front and hind legs was about four meters. The enormous size of the beast could be judged by the large piles of dung that appeared from time to time. Would a normal person miss such a unique opportunity - to catch up with and see an animal of unprecedented size? Of course not. So the hunters followed the tracks and a few days later they caught up with two monsters. From a distance of about three hundred meters, they watched the giants for some time. The animals were covered with long, dark brown hair and had steeply curved white tusks. They moved slowly and gave the general impression of elephants dressed in fur coats.”

It's about here.

But the 30s. Everyday everyday memory of a mammoth:

“In the thirties, the Khanty hunter Semyon Egorovich Kachalov, while still a child, heard loud snoring, noise and splashes of water at night near Lake Syrkovoe. Anastasia Petrovna Lukina, the mistress of the house, calmed the boy down and said that it was a mammoth making noise. Mammoths live nearby in a swamp in the taiga, they often come to this lake, and she has seen them more than once. Kachalov told this story to Nikolai Pavlovich Avdeev, a biologist from Chelyabinsk, when he was in the village of Salym during his independent expedition to the Tobolsk region.”

It was here.

Here is evidence from the 50s:

“The story of the senior ranger of the district, Valentin Mikhailovich D.: “... when I was in my first year at the institute, during the holidays, the fish collector Ya. told me personally an exciting story. By the way, you need to know that when two forests almost converge at capes, dispersing the fog (shallow lake) into two parts, the narrowest place on the water is called a gate. So, according to Ya., he drove through the gate through our fog and noticed an unusual splash. I thought I should see what kind of fish this is? And he stopped. Suddenly, as if a haystack rises from the depths. I looked closely - the fur was dark brown, like a wet fur seal. He quietly moved about five meters into the reeds, and looked at it himself. Whether it was a muzzle or a face, I couldn’t tell for sure. It made a hissing sound: “Fo-o” - like hitting an empty bowl. And then it sank into the water...” This incident happened in 1954. This story made such an impression on Valentin Mikhailovich that he went all the way to the bottom in the shallow place to which the narrator referred. I found a deep hole where crucian carp usually lies for the winter, measured it...

In the 50s, I once staged a network with my son. The weather was very calm. A persistent fog spread over the lake. Suddenly I hear a splash of water, as if someone is walking on it. Usually, in this place, moose crossed to Cape P. in shallow water. That’s what I decided – an elk, prepared to kill. I turned the boat towards the sound and took the gun. Right in front of the boat, a large round and black muzzle of an unknown beast appeared from the water. Round and meaningful eyes looked at me point-blank. Having made sure that it was not an elk, he did not shoot, but quickly turned the boat around and leaned on the oars. My son, who was sitting behind me, also saw “this” and began to cry. We were rocked for a long time on the emerging waves.” Story by S., 70 years old, village T. Was it a mammoth? See eyes staring straight ahead and not notice the trunk? However, who knows what a person manages to notice in such a stressful situation...

“During the same years, my fellow villager and I crossed the fog near the cape. Suddenly, near the shore, they saw a huge dark carcass swaying on the water. The waves from it reached the boat and lifted it. They got scared and turned back." Story by P., 60 years old, village T.”

And here is evidence from the 60s:

“In September 1962, a Yakut hunter told geologist Vladimir Pushkarev that before the revolution, hunters had repeatedly seen huge hairy animals “with a large nose and fangs,” and ten years ago he himself saw unknown traces “the size of a basin.”

More evidence from the late 70s:

“It was the summer of 1978,” recalls the foreman of prospectors S.I. Belyaev, our artel was panning for gold on one of the nameless tributaries of the Indigirka River. At the height of the season, an interesting incident occurred. In the pre-dawn hour, when the sun had not yet risen, a dull stomp was suddenly heard near the parking lot. Miners sleep a little. Jumping to their feet, they stared at each other in surprise with a silent question: “What is this?” As if in response, a splash of water was heard from the river. We grabbed our guns and began to stealthily make our way in that direction. When we rounded the rocky ledge, an incredible picture was presented to our eyes. In the shallow river water stood about a dozen God knows where... mammoths came from. Huge, shaggy animals slowly drank the cold water. For about half an hour we looked at these fabulous giants, spellbound. And they, having quenched their thirst, sedately one after another went deeper into the forest..."

Of course, even after all this evidence, there will certainly be doubting readers, from the category of those who say: “until I see it, I won’t believe it.” Especially for such people, although everything is already clear, we show a live mammoth filmed on a phone and a corresponding video.

Well, that’s all – there are mammoths, and not even very far away. The fact is obvious. Everyone who has ever had the chance to meet a mammoth has seen it. These are geologists, hunters, residents of the northern regions. You can even provide a summary map of the discovered habitats of these animals.

It's time to figure out how it happened that a living and well animal was buried deep in the Ice Age.

I am far from thinking that all of the above evidence remained unknown to the scientific world. Of course not. Paleontologists (those who study fossil animals) always begin their research with a review of existing information. But even with this information in hand, they will rely on the work of authoritative predecessors, among whom neither geologists nor hunters are included.

It is interesting that I was not able to find the specific scientist who “buried” the mammoths. As if this goes without saying. It is known that Tatishchev was also interested in them. He wrote an article in Latin, “The Tale of the Mammoth Beast.” However, the information he received was the most contradictory, often mythical. Most evidence described the mammoth as a living animal. Tatishchev could hardly conclude that this animal was extinct. Moreover, the currently dominant glacial theory of the death of northern elephants could have originated no earlier than the end of the 19th century. It was then that the scientific community accepted the dogma of the great glaciation. This dogma lies at the foundation of modern paleontology. In this vein, the artificial blindness of the scientific world is understandable.

But if you think about it, the matter is not limited to this. Everything is much more interesting.

The mammoth is an animal that has practically no enemies in nature. The climate of the middle zone and taiga zone is very suitable for him. The food supply is clearly redundant. There are a lot of open spaces undeveloped by humans. Why shouldn't he enjoy life? Why not fully occupy the existing ecological niche? But he didn’t take it. Encounters between humans and this animal are too rare today.

There was clearly a catastrophe in which millions of mammoths died. They died almost simultaneously. This is evidenced by bone cemeteries covered with loess (reclaimed soil). Estimates of the number of tusks exported from Russia over the past 200 years show more than a million pairs. Millions of mammoth heads populated an ecological niche in Eurasia at a time. Why isn't it like this now?

If the disaster occurred 13 thousand years ago, and some of the northern elephants survived, then they would have had plenty of time to restore the population. That did not happen. And here there are only two options: either they did not survive at all (the version of the scientific world), or the catastrophe that decimated the mammoth population was relatively recent (Why are our forests young?). Since mammoths still exist, the latter is more likely. They simply did not have time to recover. In addition, in recent centuries, a person armed with firearms and greed could actually pose a threat to them, preventing population growth.

Childhood and youth of Arkady Mamontov

Arkady was born on May 26, 1962 in the Russian city of Novosibirsk. His father, Viktor Gavrilovich, was a cameraman, his mother, Alevtina Mikhailovna, was a director and director of the West Siberian Chronicle Film Studio, and also worked at the Central Studio of Scientific Documentary Films.

After graduating from school, Arkady really wanted to enter VGIK (All-Union State University of Cinematography), but this did not happen, as he simply failed the entrance exams. Therefore, from 1980 to 1982, the future director and journalist served in military service in units of the strategic missile forces, far in Transbaikalia.

Having not entered the University of Cinematography after serving in the army, Arkady Viktorovich decides to engage in investigative journalism - he enters the journalism department at Moscow State University without any problems the first time. In 1988, Arkady Mamontov defended his diploma with honors and became a graduate of the department of television and radio broadcasting of this university.

The beginning of Arkady Mamontov's journalistic career

After graduating from university, he began his first career as a special correspondent for the TV-Novosti television agency and the Novosti print agency.

Mamontov about freedom of speech

From 1991 to 1994, he travels to “hot spots” as a “stringer” (freelance journalist) in Tajikistan, Moldova, and also on the border of Nakhichevan and Armenia. Its result was a large number of diverse reports of extreme importance and relevance.

In 1994, Arkady Viktorovich was invited to cooperate by journalist Elena Masyuk on the NTV channel. Since this year, Arkady Mamontov has been a freelance correspondent for this channel. Although there is an opinion that he is practically one of the founders of this TV channel. In the same year, Arkady continues to work on the program “Special Correspondent,” which is broadcast by the NTV television company. The period from 1994 to 2000 is a time of serious military conflicts; Mamontov participates in covering military operations in Chechnya, Dagestan, and Ingushetia.

In April 1995, he began his work as a correspondent on the NTV channel, and in 2000 on the Rossiya TV channel. Arkady Mamontov is one of the authors of the legendary “Special Correspondent” program; he conducted desperate reports from various places of tragic events. For example, Arkady Mamontov was almost the only correspondent who was allowed to be present in the rescue zone of the Kursk nuclear submarine thanks to the personal order of Admiral V. Kuroyedov, this gave him the opportunity to film one of his most memorable works - a report from the spot sinking of the nuclear submarine Kursk. He revealed the reasons for the failure of the rescue operation of the submarine crew, allowed by the management that organized the rescue operations.

Chechnya, Abkhazia, Iraq, Beslan - everything remains behind the shoulders of this brave correspondent. For his talent and special merits in the field of journalism, in May 2000, Arkady Viktorovich became an adviser to the chairman of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "VGTRK" - Oleg Dobrodeev, and soon he also became the initiator and head of the "Author's Program of Arkady Mamontov" on the RTR TV channel. His work deserves special attention - the film “Spies” about special camouflaged devices, devices that were disguised as ordinary stones in one of the many squares in Moscow, used by American intelligence to transmit and exchange information. This film was received very ambiguously by the audience, and was even sharply criticized by the Russian media, however, the author himself stated that he fully vouches for all the words in this film.

This work was noted at the highest level and was even awarded the Order of Honor in November 2006.

Directed by Arkady Mamontov

Since 2009, Arkady Mamontov has been trying himself as a director. His first work in this field is a film called “Base,” in which he talks about the American Manas base, which is located in Kyrgyzstan.

The famous works of this correspondent were also “The Other Side. Children", "Paradise Lost", "Maidan", "Yugoslavia. Period of Decay" (from the "Big Report" series), and many others.

In January 2012, another documentary film “Putin, Russia and the West” was released. It continues the theme of “spy stones”.

Arkady Mamontov about the velvet revolutions

Arkady Viktorovich Mamontov has a large number of awards, including for services to the country. For covering the events of Abkhazia, he was awarded the Order “For Personal Courage”, the Order “For Merit to the Fatherland”, II degree - for a series of reports from Chechnya, the Order of Honor, as well as the medal “For Strengthening the Military Commonwealth”. All of Arkady Viktorovich’s films are a sharp and immediate reaction to painful topics that worry people. Films, when released, immediately become discussed and cause a storm of emotions. They draw attention to the problem, make you think and rethink a lot, and look at many things from an observer’s perspective.

Arkady Viktorovich's subordinates consider him a kind and hardworking person, and there is no doubt about this, because there is no one who could say anything bad about him. In response to this, our humble hero says that he is actually scary and evil. However, personal acquaintance completely refutes his self-criticism and shows him from a completely different side. Arkady Mamontov is a very cheerful, cheerful, kind and quite serious person in life; he is madly in love with his profession, and he can truly be called a true master of his craft.

He can safely be considered an honest and consistent, fearless and decent professional, of which there are only a few left not only in the journalistic field, but in life in general.

We continue to delve into the history of the origin of mammoths. It turns out that the mammoth fauna included about 80 species of mammals. They managed to adapt to living in the cold continental climate of periglacial forest-steppe and tundra-steppe regions with permafrost, harsh winters with little snow and strong summer insolation. About 11 thousand years ago, due to sharp warming and humidification of the climate, the mammoth fauna disintegrated. Some species, such as the mammoth itself, the woolly rhinoceros, the giant deer, the cave lion and others, have completely disappeared from the face of the earth. The reasons for the extinction of the mammoth fauna are not fully known. Over the long history of its existence, it has already experienced warm interglacial periods, and was then able to survive. Perhaps the latest warming has caused a more significant restructuring of the natural environment, or perhaps the species themselves have exhausted their evolutionary capabilities.

Mammoths, woolly and Columbian, lived over a vast territory: from Southern and Central Europe to Chukotka, Northern China and Japan (Hokkaido Island), as well as in North America. The existence of the Colombian mammoth was 250 - 10, woolly 300 - 4 thousand years ago. There is an opinion that mammoths were not the ancestors of modern elephants: they appeared on earth later and died out, without leaving even distant descendants. But this issue remains controversial.

Mammoths roamed in small herds, sticking to river valleys and feeding on grass, branches of trees and bushes. Such herds were very mobile - collecting the required amount of food in the tundra-steppe was not easy. The size of the mammoths was quite impressive: large males could reach a height of 3.5 meters, and their tusks were up to 4 m long and weighed about 100 kilograms. A thick coat, 70–80 cm long, protected mammoths from the cold.

WHAT DID MAMMOTHES EAT?

The structural features of the limbs and trunk, the proportions of the body, the shape and size of the mammoth’s tusks indicate that it, like modern elephants, ate various plant foods. Using their tusks, the animals dug out food from under the snow, tore off the bark of trees, and extracted vein ice, which was used instead of water in winter. For grinding food, the mammoth had only one, very large tooth on each side of the upper and lower jaws at the same time. The chewing surface of these teeth was a wide, long plate covered with transverse enamel ridges. Apparently, in the warm season the animals fed mainly on herbaceous vegetation. In the intestines and oral cavity of the mammoths that died in the summer, cereals and sedges predominated; there were lingonberry bushes, green mosses and thin shoots of willow, birch, and alder. The weight of an adult mammoth's stomach filled with food could reach 240 kg.

BUILD: HOW YOU LOOKED

Adult mammoths were massive animals, with long legs and a short body. Their height at the withers reached 3.5 m in males and 3 m in females. The main difference between their external feature is the pronounced cervical interception between the “hump” and the head. In mammoth calves, these features were softened, and the upper head-back line was a single, weakly curved upward arc. Such an arch is present in adult mammoths, as well as in modern elephants, and is connected, purely mechanically, with maintaining the enormous weight of the internal organs. The mammoth's head was larger than that of modern elephants. The ears are small, oval elongated, 5–6 times smaller than those of the Asian elephant, and 15–16 times smaller than those of the African elephant. The rostral part of the skull was quite narrow, the alveoli of the tusks were located very close to each other, and the base of the trunk rested on them. The tusks are more powerful than those of African and Asian elephants: their length in old males reached 4 m with a base diameter of 16–18 cm, in addition, they were twisted up and inward. The tusks of females were smaller (2–2.2 m, diameter at the base 8–10 cm) and almost straight. The ends of the tusks, due to the peculiarities of foraging, were usually worn away only from the outside. The mammoths' legs were massive, five-toed, with 3 small hooves on the front legs and 4 on the hind legs; the feet are rounded, their diameter in adults was 40–45 cm.

But still, the most unique feature of the mammoth’s external appearance is its thick coat, which consisted of three types of hair: undercoat, intermediate and covering, or guard hair. The color of the coat was relatively the same in males and females: on the forehead and on the crown of the head there was a cap of black, forward-directed coarse hair, 15–20 cm long, and the trunk and ears were covered with undercoat and a brown or brown color. The entire body of the mammoth was also covered with long, 80–90 cm guard hairs, under which a thick yellowish undercoat was hidden. The color of the skin of the body was light yellow or brown; dark pigment spots were observed in areas free from fur. During the winter, mammoths moulted; The winter coat was thicker and lighter than the summer coat.

WHAT THE MAMMOTH FINDS TELL US ABOUT

Mammoth remains at early Paleolithic human sites were rare and belonged mainly to young individuals. The importance of mammoths in the life of primitive people is evidenced by the fact that 20–30 thousand years ago, artists of the Cro-Magnon era depicted mammoths on stone and bone. Flat images were painted on cave walls, on slate and graphite plates, and on fragments of tusks; sculptural - created from bone, marl or slate using flint burins. It is very possible that such figurines were used as talismans, family totems, or played another ritual role.

From the 18th to the 19th centuries in Siberia, it is known that more than twenty reliable finds of mammoth remains were found in the form of frozen carcasses, their parts, skeletons with remains of soft tissue and skin. It can also be assumed that some of the finds remained unknown to science; many were discovered too late and could not be examined. Using the example of the Adams mammoth, discovered in 1799 on the Bykovsky Peninsula, it is clear that the results of the study about the animals found were received only several years after they were discovered. This is understandable: getting to the far corners of Siberia, even in the second half of the 20th century, was not easy. And the excavations themselves were carried out with difficulty: the greatest difficulty was extracting the corpse from the frozen ground and transporting it. The work of excavating and delivering the mammoth, discovered in the Berezovka River valley in 1900, can be called heroic, considering the transportation.

Now the number of finds of mammoth remains has doubled. This is due to the widespread development of the North, the development of transport and communications. The first complex expedition using modern technology was a trip for the Taimyr mammoth, found in 1948 on an unnamed river, later called the Mammoth River. Removing the remains of animals “sealed” into the permafrost has become much easier these days thanks to the use of motor pumps that defrost and erode the soil with water. The “cemetery” of mammoths, discovered by N.F., should be considered a remarkable natural monument. Grigoriev in 1947 on the Berelekh River in Yakutia. For 200 meters, the river bank here is covered with a scattering of mammoth bones washed out of the bank slope.

By studying the Magadan (1977) and Yamal (1988) mammoth calves, scientists were able to clarify not only many issues of the anatomy and morphology of mammoths, but also draw a number of important conclusions about their habitat and the causes of extinction. The last few years have brought new remarkable discoveries: special mention should be made of the Yukagir mammoth (2002), which represents unique, from a scientific point of view, material. The head of an adult mammoth with remains of soft tissue and hair and a baby mammoth, found in 2007 in the Yuribey River basin in Yamal, were discovered. Outside Russia, one can note the finds of mammoth remains made by American scientists in Alaska, as well as a unique “trap cemetery” with the remains of more than 100 mammoths, discovered by L. Agenbrod in the town of Hot Springs (South Dakota, USA) in 1974.

Volchya Griva is an 11-meter high hill in the Kargatsky district of the Novosibirsk region, about 8 kilometers long and 1 kilometer wide. During excavations in 1957, the bones of a mammoth, bison and horse were first found here, and further research made it possible to establish that the last Siberian mammoths lived in this area 14-11 thousand years ago. In those days, Wolf Mane was a long and narrow peninsula among swamps and lakes, which ended in a steep cliff. Today it is a paleontological natural monument of regional significance.

Wikipedia

In 2015, more than 600 remains of mammoths of the species Mammuthus primigenius were discovered on the hill, which is the largest local concentration for this species in Asia. The 2016 season brought a new discovery: scientists and students of Tomsk State University (TSU) discovered a deep bone-bearing level, the existence of which no one suspected. At a depth of approximately 1.7 to 2.1 meters lay the bones of baby and adult mammoths, which were significantly larger than their younger (geologically speaking) relatives. This alone could be called a success of the expedition, however, as the head of the laboratory of Mesozoic and Cenozoic ecosystems Sergei Leshchinsky explained, there is an unspoken rule “of the need to check the underlying sediments with at least two shovels.” A random test showed that subsequent excavations would take at least another ten days. As a result, paleontologists discovered vertebrae, ribs, limb bones and other bone deposits with the highest degree of concentration: there were more than 100 fragments per square meter. Such a high number of remains of prehistoric animals is not found either on Volchaya Griva or in any other mammoth locality in Russia. The remains of woolly mammoths, which lay at such a deep level for Volchya Mane, are well preserved: not only individual fragments were found, but also anatomical joints, which will allow paleontologists to obtain more information about the place and causes of death of animals, determine their age, size and other parameters . This was the result of the peculiarities of the burial: layers of clay and sand preserved the remains of animals in a small ravine several years after their death. Among the largest fragments found is a femur almost 1 meter 15 centimeters long. It probably belonged to a male mammoth, 45–50 years old, whose weight was 5–6 tons or even more, and whose height, including soft tissues, exceeded three meters. Its remains lay in the rocks for 25-30 thousand years. Scientists note a large difference in size between mammoths from the lower and higher levels. This is explained by the fact that in the final period of its existence this species of animal experienced powerful pressure from unfavorable environmental factors. Judging by the fact that many remains of late mammoths show signs of osteodystrophy, the animals suffered from mineral starvation. This is what brought them to animal salt licks like Volchya Mane. In total, the 2016 expedition discovered 785 fragments. In addition to mammoths, several bones were found that belonged to bison, horses, predators (probably fox or arctic fox) and rodents. Check out one of the versions

Savva Mamontov is a famous Russian entrepreneur and philanthropist of the 19th century. very interesting and rich. Contemporaries knew him as an excellent singer, talented sculptor and artist. It was his estate that at one time became the center of artistic life.

Brief biography of Savva Mamontov

Savva Ivanovich Mamontov was born into a merchant family on October 15, 1841. His father was involved in railroad construction. The family lived richly, and receptions and balls were often held in their house. After completing his studies at the Faculty of Law, the son continued his father’s business and made a fortune from it. The name of Savva Mamontov is associated with the construction of the largest railway lines. However, he gained wide fame and memory from his descendants (the biography of Savva Mamontov is known to more than one generation) thanks to his selfless service to art. “Moscow Medici”, “Savva the Magnificent” - this is how grateful contemporaries spoke of him, it was under these nicknames that he entered the history of Russian culture.

Education

There were four sons in the Mamontov family. Their education was handled by a tutor specially hired for this purpose. He taught children European manners and foreign languages. The biography of Savva Mamontov might have been completely different, but everything changed after the death of his mother in 1852. The father and children had to move to a more modest estate than they had previously occupied. The father of the family was grieving the death of his wife. It was at this time that he decided to abandon home education and send his children to the Moscow gymnasium, and two years later he transported them to St. Petersburg and enrolled them in the Institute of Civil Engineers. However, Savva was unable to study here and returned to Moscow, to his native gymnasium. One of the reasons for his return was scarlet fever, which he contracted. Studying was not easy for him. In educational institutions of that time there were strict rules: students who were behind in academic subjects had to sit at the last desks. But Savva Mamontov, a biography whose personal life has been discussed for centuries, was already a favorite of those around him, and at the request of his classmates he was always seated at the first desk. He carried this unique ability to unite people around him throughout his life. However, the recognition of his classmates could not affect Savva’s academic performance, and after failing the final exams he was forced to leave the gymnasium.

Introduction to art

The father got his son into St. Petersburg University. During the entrance exams, Savva Mamontov had to cheat - another young man went to the Latin exam instead of him. Savva was enrolled at the University of St. Petersburg, and soon transferred to the Faculty of Law in Moscow. However, even at the university, Savva Ivanovich Mamontov, whose biography depicts us as a highly educated person, was not too interested in studies and devoted all his free time to classes in the drama club, the leader of which was the famous playwright A. N. Ostrovsky. In 1862, he played the role of Curly in the play “The Thunderstorm”. This was his debut, by the way, quite successful.

Mamontov - entrepreneur

During these years, Ivan Fedorovich Mamontov just founded and began to develop a new trading partnership that specialized in the sale of silk. The father decided to involve his youngest son Savva in the family business and sent him to study trade in the branch of his company in Baku. Having started working as a simple employee, Savva Mamontov showed himself to be an excellent businessman. After a business trip to Persia, he returned as an experienced businessman. The biography of Savva Ivanovich Mamontov says that from that moment his life changed dramatically. From a truant and a loafer, he turns into an excellent entrepreneur.

Family of Savva Ivanovich Mamontov

The biography of Savva Mamontov and his family are of interest to many people of the current generation. In 1864, the youngest son went to Italy to receive medical treatment and study the situation in local markets. Here he meets his future wife, Elizaveta Grigorievna Sapozhnikova. The 17-year-old girl was not particularly beautiful. But this is not what attracted Savva Mamontov to her. She was interested in art, sang beautifully, read a lot and studied music. A year later, a magnificent wedding took place, after which the newlyweds settled in Moscow. It was at this time that the Mamontovs moved away from trading and began working on railway construction. Being involved in the family business, Savva Mamontov, whose brief biography is outlined in the article, never stopped serving art and invested huge amounts of money in it.

After the death of his father in 1869, management of the family business passed completely into the hands of his youngest son. A young family decides to buy their own home. Famous Russian artists, writers and musicians constantly gathered at the Abramtsevo estate, owned by the Mamontov family since 1870. Thanks to the assistance of Savva Ivanovich, opera began to develop at that time. Such names as Chaliapin, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov began to sound and become famous. The patron paid great attention to the decorations painted by famous artists. Mamontov Savva Ivanovich himself, whose short biography, of course, cannot reveal all his talents, together with historians and art critics, painstakingly selected all the scenery, stage details and costumes.

Patronage

Savva Ivanovich devoted his entire life to supporting a wide variety of creative activities. He organized evenings, exhibitions, made new acquaintances, encouraged and promoted talented people. Mamontov spent enormous amounts of money on this “hobby,” despite the dissatisfaction of some members of his family. He had a special gift to see and recognize talent in a person for one or another type of art. Young artists constantly lived and worked in the Mamontovs’ house, and the owners tried to create the most favorable conditions for their creativity. where the Mamontovs lived was constantly rebuilt and repaired in order to be able to accommodate as many people as possible. After another visit to Italy, Savva Ivanovich, together with his wife, invited young artists, graduates of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts who were finishing their studies abroad, to his estate. Thanks to Savva Mamontov, such names as V. D. Polenov, E. I. Repin, V. M. Vasnetsov and others became known to the world.

At the beginning of 1885, Savva Ivanovich opened the Moscow Private Opera, which marked the beginning of a great transformation of the stage. It was here that the talent of the now world-famous F.I. Chaliapin was revealed. It was here that famous composers and major artists performed.

Support from wife Elizaveta Grigorievna

Savva Ivanovich’s wife supported her husband in everything. It was she who opened a school for peasant children, and a little later a carpentry workshop. Graduates of this workshop received a set of tools as a reward, which allowed them to continue working.

There was a wonderful library in the Mamontov house. Elizaveta Grigorievna always provided assistance in selecting the necessary historical information and documents if one of the artists undertook to paint a canvas on a historical theme. Often, while the artists were working, she read them classical literature, developing a sense of beauty in young talents.

Trial

Unfortunately, everything was not always smooth and serene in the fate of Savva Mamontov. At the beginning of the 1900s, a major trial related to the illegal embezzlement of funds took place. An entrepreneur comes up with the idea of ​​merging large industrial and transport enterprises. The implementation of this grandiose plan required a large amount of money. Savva Ivanovich sells shares of the Northern Road that he owns. At the same time, he receives a loan by pledging shares and bills that belonged to his family as collateral. Having put his entire fortune on the line, the entrepreneur hoped to increase it, but everything went wrong. Savva Ivanovich Mamontov was arrested. He even had to spend several months in a prison cell. Fortunately, the case ended in an acquittal. During the court hearings, many witnesses spoke. Not one of them said a single bad word to the defendant. After the court read out the verdict, the entire room applauded. Despite the favorable outcome of the case, the debts had to be repaid. The entire family fortune was auctioned off.

Life after trial

Since the end of the long trial and the announcement of the verdict, Savva Mamontov’s life has changed dramatically. He began to lead a secluded life and rarely appeared in society. However, faithful and devoted friends did not forget their patron. Such famous people as V. A. Serov, V. M. Vasnetsov, V. I. Surikov, F. I. Chaliapin often visited him.

Savva Mamontov: biography, children

Savva Ivanovich very successfully combined service to culture and art with entrepreneurial activity. Both took a lot of energy, but for him it was the work of his whole life. As the entrepreneur himself admitted, he would never give up doing either art or business. In his entrepreneurial activity, by the way, he saw not only monetary profit, but also service to people, service for the benefit of people.

The biography of Savva Mamontov would be incomplete without mentioning the children, heirs of the great philanthropist and industrialist. The family had five children. It is noteworthy that Savva named all his offspring in such a way that his own name was formed from the first letters of their names. Vsevolod, Vera, Alexandra - SAVVA. One of the sons, Sergei, to some extent continued his father’s work. His name did not become as famous, but he was both a playwright and a poet, quite famous in his circles.

Life after death

The years of revolution were difficult for all of Russia at that time. Dramatic changes in the country found Savva Mamontov seriously ill. In early March 1918, he contracted pneumonia. On March 24, the great entrepreneur and philanthropist passed away. The next decades after his death, power in the country belonged to the Bolsheviks, and the name of Savva Mamontov was spat upon and forgotten. But such people do not leave without a trace. And now, almost a hundred years after his death, we remember the immeasurable contribution of Savva Ivanovich Mamontov to the development of Russian culture. Today, monuments have been erected in honor of the famous philanthropist and patron of art in Sergiev Posad and Yaroslavl. Not far from Moscow, in the Yaroslavl direction, a platform is named after him.