RUSSIA: A man buried with a trove of amber objects may have been a Mesolithic merchant who traveled to the shores of Lake Onega 5,500 years ago. The merchant’s grave contained around 150 small pieces of amber, including discs, pendants, buttons, and jewelry, and was covered with red ochre paint. Since the amber came from the eastern Baltic Sea region, researchers theorize that the man hailed from that area and ventured farther east to exchange his semiprecious stones for slate cutting tools.