On armed clashes of mesolithic population in the North of Eastern Europe

In the North of European Russia at the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene, distinct Western and Eastern regions are singled out exhibiting characteristic features determined by the natural environment and differences in the material culture. The Western region was settled by a Caucasoid population. At the end of the Mesolithic large cemeteries emerged (Olenij Ostrov at the Onega Lake). In the Eastern region in the Urals foothills burial-grounds have not been recorded so far. It is possible that armed clashes, albeit rare ones, took place in the course of migrations. Direct evidence of such clashes has been noted in traces of wounds suffered by the deceased in burials found in cemeteries of the East Onega region. Finds of good-quality items of weaponry in settlements and in burials of the Western region, particularly in the contact zone, can be regarded as direct evidence of such clashes. At the end of the Mesolithic, at the transition from the Borealis to the Atlantic period, several population groups moved westwards. At the same time in the late burials in the Olenij Ostrov cemetery individual representatives of Mongoloid and mixed anthropological types appeared, which indicates that contacts were taking place between groups of different origin.