Battle traumas in the study of anthropological materials from cemeteries of the 5th - 4th centuries b. c. in the middle reaches of the Don

It is well-known that the number of traumas on human skeletal remains reflects the overall level of aggressive behaviour in a group and that the nature of such traumas and wounds is bound up with the particular features of military clashes. Anthropological materials provide an independent source for archaeological reconstructions undertaken in the course of multi-disciplinary archaeological investigations. The author discusses the results of the investigation of anthropological materials collected in the course of the Don (Potudan) Archaeological Expedition of the Institute of Archaeology, the Russian Academy of Sciences. This work provided the basis for the study of the nature of trauma suffered by the population of the middle reaches of the Don in the 5 th - 4 th centuries BC. The paper assembles systematically trauma data found in the osteological materials from four kurgan burial-grounds in the middle reaches of the Don. The level of traumas in the group studied can be classified as moderately high. Local fluctuations in trauma levels make it possible to conclude that levels of aggression were higher in the period when nomads of the Early Iron Age were settling the region.