Kola North archaeology: an overview for 2022

Abstract

Up until now the book by N.N. Gurina released in 1997 is the only general work about the ancient history of the Kola Peninsula. This article is a brief summary of the archeology and history of the Kola North with an emphasis on research over the past 25 years. Modern scientific ideas suggest two ways of how the first humans initially populated the Kola Peninsula in the Mesolithic: "western" — along the coast of Norway from southern Scandinavia, "eastern" — from areas to the south and /or east of Kola Peninsula. The transition to the Neolithic, marked by the appearance of pottery, takes place in the second half of the 6th millennium BC. In the middle of the 3rd millennium BC the Gressbakken culture appears, which exists until the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. In the 1st millennium BC elements of the Saami culture are known, which develops up to the modern times. At the same time common archaeological cultures existed at all times on the Kola Peninsula and the North of Scandinavia and Finland. Ancient Russian culture comes to this region no later than the 12th century.