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| Reconstruction of a Beaker Burial (National Archaeological Museum of Spain, Madrid) |
The Beaker People
Archaeologists have charted the spread of an ancient culture known as the
Beaker people characterised by their bell-shaped pottery. This culture first
spread between Iberia and central Europe beginning about 4,700 years
ago. It was thought initially that only the ideas and not the people
migrated. This was because the genes of the Iberian population remain distinct
from those of the central Europeans who adopted the characteristic pots and
other artefacts.
However, when the Beaker culture extended to Britain and Ireland 4,500
years ago, it was brought by migrants who almost completely replaced the
existing inhabitants within a few hundred years. The
assumption that people today are directly descended from the people who always
lived in that same area no longer stands. Human populations have been moving
and mixing throughout history.
About 5,300 years ago, local hunter-gatherer cultures were replaced in
many places by nomadic herders who were able to expand quickly by exploiting
horses and the invention of the cart. These highly mobile people left behind
big, rich burial sites.
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| Nature (c) Bell Beaker Map - 18th May 2017 |
Beaker Burials
The study analysed 285 Beaker-period burials from England, Scotland and
Wales for strontium, oxygen, sulphur, carbon, and nitrogen isotopes to
investigate their dietary and mobility histories. The results of the study
suggest that Beaker invaders largely replaced Britain’s Neolithic farmers.
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| Beaker Burial |
In 1987, the remains of an 18-22-year-old woman, now known as Ava, were
discovered at Achavanich in Caithness in the north of Scotland. The burial was
later dated to the Middle Bronze Age – 3,700 years ago. Most burials from the
location and period were underneath a cairn or in a pit dug into soil. Most
Beaker burials are inhumations, sometimes under round barrows, accompanied by a
few grave goods.
Ava’s remains were accompanied by a unique short-necked beaker. The
report on this excavation states that the beaker contained “prepared cereal
grain, honey, added flowers and fruit (including meadowsweet, bramble & wood sage), and the sap of birch and alder trees.”
Danish archaeologists working on the proposed Femern Belt link tunnel,
discovered a 5,500-year-old ceramic vessel imprinted with the fingerprint of
the craftsman who made it. The vessel is called a ‘funnel beaker’ because it
has a neck shaped like a funnel and a flat bottom. The Funnel Beaker Culture existed
in the area between 4000 and 2800 BC and was related to the more well-known
Beaker culture (or ‘Beaker People’).
Ancient DNA Analysis
To date, the ancient DNA of 1,336 individuals has been analysed and
published compared with just 10 in 2014. DNA analysis shows that people moved
all the way from the steppes of Central Asia, north of the Black and Caspian
seas, to the Atlantic coast of Europe in the west, to Mongolia in the east and
India in the south.
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| Decorated Beaker from Achavanch Beaker Burial Caithness, Northern Scotland |
Researchers studied more than 1,000 samples from Britain to measure the
replacement of the island’s existing gene pool by the steppe-related DNA from
the Bell Beaker people more accurately. Some researchers calculate that Britain
saw a greater than 90% shift in its genetic make-up. However, this view
has been challenged by other scientists who do not see such a huge shift in the
archaeological record. The rise of cremation in Bronze Age Britain may have
biased the finding.
The analysis of ancient DNA enables scientists to study not only the
movements of our distant ancestors, but also the evolution of traits and
predispositions to diseases. In one example, scientists at the University of
Copenhagen found DNA from plague in the steppe populations. If the groups that
migrated to Britain and Ireland after 4,500 years ago brought the disease with
them, that could help explain why the existing population shrank so quickly.
Conclusion
The Beaker culture is the name of a cultural phenomenon which occurred in
large parts of Western Europe during the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age
period. The Beaker People introduced ceramics and metalwork into our culture
as well as the earliest form of the Celtic language. Their arrival marked
the end of the Neolithic tradition of megalithic passage tombs such as
Newgrange and Knowth in the east and Carrowmore in the west.
Advances in DNA techniques, including cost reduction and speed, have
added greatly to recent developments in tracing the movement of ancient peoples.
Human populations have been moving and mixing throughout history. The Beaker
culture extended to Britain and Ireland 4,500 years ago, brought by migrants
who almost completely replaced the existing inhabitants within a few hundred
years.
http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/90-neolithic-british-gene-pool-was-replaced-beaker-immigrants-009636http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/moon-rituals-head-binding-and-ground-bones-highlighting-mysterious-beaker-021157
http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/finger-print-found-ceramic-bowl-over-5000-years-old-003348
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOA6CD0QX1Y
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