3/28/2023 0 Comments Bell beaker culture![]() ![]() The DNA data suggests that over a span of several hundred years, the migrations of people from continental Europe led to an almost complete replacement of Britain's earlier inhabitants, the Neolithic communities who were responsible for huge megalithic monuments such as Stonehenge. (See How does Cheddar Man fit into this? box and Population movements into Britain maps at the bottom of this page.) This group continued to migrate west and finally arrived in Britain around 4,400 years ago. Beaker culture was taken up by a group of people living in Central Europe whose ancestors had previously migrated from the Eurasian Steppe. Skeletons from Beaker burials in Iberia are not genetically close to central European Beaker skeletons.īritain saw significant population changes, however. The study shows that the Beaker culture spread into central Europe from Iberia without a significant movement of people. The researchers compared the DNA from skeletons buried around Europe from two different periods: before the Beaker culture arrived there and afterwards. The people who were part of the Beaker culture can be identified as they were buried with distinctive artefacts such as their pottery. The study helps resolves this century-old debate, says Museum archaeologist Dr Tom Booth: 'The question of whether new things spread by the movement of people or ideas has been one of the most important and long-running questions in archaeology, and it's fascinating to see that both are the case for the Beaker culture.' Who were the Beaker people? These 'bell-beakers' quickly spread across Europe, reaching Britain fewer than 100 years later.Īrchaeologists have been unsure whether the spread of Beaker pottery - and the culture associated with it - represented a large-scale migration of people, or was simply due to the exchange of new cultures and ideas. Around 4,500 years ago, a new, bell-shaped pottery style appeared in Iberia, in present-day Spain and Portugal. ![]() Pottery is an example of how studying artefacts opens windows into past cultures. ![]()
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