The « Giant Beaker of Pavenstädt », 40 centimetres (16 in) high, c. 1500 BC (
Gütersloh town museum, Germany)
In their large-scale study on radiocarbon dating of the Bell Beakers, J. Müller and S. Willingen established that the Bell Beaker Culture in Central Europe started after 2500 BC. Two great coexisting and separate Central European cultures – the Corded Ware with its regional groups and the Eastern Group of the Bell Beaker Culture – form the background to the Late Copper Age and Early Bronze Age. Their development, diffusion and long range changes are determined by the great river systems. As a third component counts the indigenous Carpathian Makó/Kosihy-Caka culture.[38]
The Bell Beaker settlements are still little known, and have proved remarkably difficult for archaeologists to identify. This allows a modern view of Bell Beakers to contradict results of anthropologic research.[39] The modern view is that the Bell Beaker people, far from being the « warlike invaders » as once described by Gordon Childe (1940), added rather than replaced local late Neolithic traditions into a cultural package and as such did not always and evenly abandon all local traditions.[40] More recent extensive DNA evidence, however, suggests a significant replacement of earlier populations.[41]
Bell Beaker domestic ware has no predecessors in Bohemia and Southern Germany, shows no genetic relation to the local Late Copper Age Corded Ware, nor to other cultures in the area, and is considered something completely new. The Bell Beaker domestic ware of Southern Germany are not as closely related to the Corded Ware as would be indicated by their burial rites. Settlements link the Southern German Bell Beaker culture to the seven regional provinces of the Eastern Group, represented by many settlement traces, especially from Moravia and the Hungarian Bell Beaker-Csepel group being the most important. In 2002 one of the largest Bell Beaker cemeteries in Central Europe was discovered at Hoštice za Hanou (Moravia, Czech Republic).[42]
The relationship to the western Bell Beakers groups, and the contemporary cultures of the Carpathian basin to the south east, is much less.[43] Research in Northern Poland shifted the north-eastern frontier of this complex to the western parts of the Baltic with the adjacent Northern European plain. Typical Bell Beaker fragments from the site of Ostrikovac-Djura at the Serbian river Morava were presented at the Riva del Garda conference in 1998, some hundred kilometers south-east of the Hungarian Csepel-group. Bell Beaker related material has now been uncovered in a line from the Baltic Sea down to the Adriatic and the Ionian Sea, including countries such as Bielo-Russia, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Croatia, Albania, Macedonia and even Greece.[44]
The Bell Beaker culture settlements in Southern Germany and in the East-Group show evidence of mixed farming and animal husbandry, and indicators such as millstones and spindle whorls prove the sedentary character of the Bell Beaker people, and the durability of their settlements.[43] Especially some well-equipped child-burials seem to indicate sense of predestined social position, indicating a socially complex society. However, analysis of grave furnishing, size and deepness of grave pits, position within the cemetery, did not lead to any strong conclusions on the social divisions.
The Late Copper Age is regarded as a continuous culture system connecting the Upper Rhine valley to the western edge of the Carpathian Basin. Late Copper Age 1 was defined in Southern Germany by the connection of the late Cham Culture, Globular Amphora culture and the older Corded Ware Culture of « beaker group 1 » that is also referred to as Horizon A or Step A. Early Bell Beaker Culture intruded[14]into the region at the end of the Late Copper Age 1, at about 2600–2550 BC. Middle Bell Beaker corresponds to Late Copper Age 2 and here an east–west Bell Beaker cultural gradient became visible through the difference in the distribution of the groups of beakers with and without handles, cups and bowls, in the three regions Austria–Western Hungary, the Danube catchment area of Southern Germany, and the Upper Rhine/lake Constance/Eastern Switzerland area for all subsequent Bell Beaker periods.[45] This middle Bell Beaker Culture is the main period when almost all the cemeteries in Southern Germany begin. Younger Bell Beaker Culture of Early Bronze Age shows analogies to the Proto-Únětice Culture in Moravia and the Early Nagyrév Culture of the Carpathian Basin.
Giacobbe Giusti, Bell Beaker culture
During the Bell Beaker period, a border ran through southern Germany, which culturally-divided a northern from a southern area. The northern area was oriented around the Rhine and the Bell Beaker West Group, while the southern area occupied much of the Danube river system and was mainly settled by the homogeneous Bell Beaker East Group. This latter group overlapped with the Corded Ware Culture and other groups of the Late Neolithic and early Bronze Age. Nevertheless, southern Germany shows some independent developments of itself.[14] Although a broadly parallel evolution with early, middle, and younger Bell Beaker Culture was detected, the Southern Germany middle Bell Beaker development of metope decorations and stamp and furrow engraving techniques do not appear on beakers in Austria-Western Hungary, and handled beakers are completely absent. It is contemporary to Corded Ware in the vicinity, that has been attested by associated finds of middle Corded Ware (chronologically referred to as « beaker group 2 » or Step B) and younger Geiselgasteig Corded Ware beakers (« beaker group 3 » or Step C). Bell Beaker Culture in Bavaria used a specific type of copper, which is characterised by combinations of trace elements. This same type of copper was spread over the area of the Bell Beaker East Group.
Previously some archeologist considered the Bell-beaker people to have lived only within a limited territory of the Carpathian Basin and for a short time, without mixing with the local population. Although there are very few evaluable anthropological finds, the appearance of the characteristic planoccipital (flattened back) Taurid type in the populations of some later cultures (e.g. Kisapostag and Gáta–Wieselburg cultures) suggested a mixture with the local population contradicting such archaeological theories. According to archaeology, the populational groups of the Bell-beakers also took part in the formation of the Gáta-Wieselburg culture on the western fringes of the Carpathian Basin, which could be confirmed with the anthropological Bell Beaker series in Moravia and Germany.[39] In accordance with anthropological evidence, it has been concluded the Bell Beakers intruded in an already established form the southern part of Germany as much as the East Group area.[14]
Ireland
A modern reconstruction of the halberd from Carn,
County Mayo, which was found with its oak handle intact. The shaft is just over one metre long.
Beakers arrived in Ireland around 2500 BC and fell out of use around 1700 BC (Needham 1996). The beaker pottery of Ireland was rarely used as a grave good, but is often found in domestic assemblages from the period. This stands in contrast to the rest of Europe where it frequently found in both roles. The inhabitants of Ireland used food vessels as a grave good instead. The large, communal passage tombs of the Irish Neolithic were no longer being constructed during the Early Bronze Age (although some, such as Newgrange were re-used (O’Kelly 1982)). The preferred method of burial seems to have been singular graves and cists in the east, or in small wedge tombs in the west. Cremation was also common.
The advent of the Bronze Age Beaker culture in Ireland is accompanied by the destruction of smaller satellite tombs at Knowth and collapses of the great cairn at Newgrange, marking an end to the Neolithic culture of megalithic passage tombs.
Beakers are found in large numbers in Ireland, and the technical innovation of ring-built pottery indicates that the makers were also present. Classification of pottery in Ireland and Britain has distinguished a total of seven intrusive beaker groups originating from the continent and three groups of purely insular character having evolved from them. Five out of seven of the intrusive Beaker groups also appear in Ireland: the European bell group, the All-over cord beakers, the Northern British/North Rhine beakers, the Northern British/Middle Rhine beakers and the Wessex/Middle Rhine beakers. However, many of the features or innovations of Beaker society in Britain never reached Ireland. Instead, quite different customs predominated in the Irish record that were apparently influenced by the traditions of the earlier inhabitants. Some features that are found elsewhere in association to later types of Earlier Bronze Age Beaker pottery, indeed spread to Ireland, however, without being incorporated into the same close and specific association of Irish Beaker context. The Wessex/Middle Rhine gold discs bearing « wheel and cross » motifs that were probably sewn to garments, presumably to indicate status and reminiscent of racquet headed pins found in Eastern Europe, enjoy a general distribution throughout the country, however, never in direct association with beakers.
In 1984, a Beaker period copper dagger blade was recovered from the Sillees River near Ross Lough, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.[55] The flat, triangular-shaped copper blade was 171 mm (6.73 in) long, with bevelled edges and a pointed tip, and featured an integral tang that accepted a riveted handle.[55] Flint arrow-heads and copper-blade daggers with handle tangs, found in association with Beaker pottery in many other parts of Europe, have a date later than the initial phase of Beaker People activity in Ireland. Also the typical Beaker wristguards seem to have entered Ireland by cultural diffusion only, after the first intrusions, and unlike English and Continental Beaker burials never made it to the graves. The same lack of typical Beaker association applies to the about thirty found stone battle axes. A gold ornament found in County Down that closely resembles a pair of ear-rings from Ermegeira, Portugal, has a composition that suggests it was imported. Incidental finds suggest links to non-British Beaker territories, like a fragment of a bronze blade in County Londonderry that has been likened to the « palmella » points of Iberia,even though the relative scarcity of beakers, and Beaker-compatible material of any kind, in the south-west are regarded as an obstacle to any colonisation directly from Iberia, or even from France. Their greater concentration in the northern part of the country, which traditionally is regarded as the part of Ireland least blessed with sources of copper,[citation needed] has led many authorities to question the role of Beaker People in the introduction of metallurgy to Ireland. However, indications of their use of stream sediment copper, low in traces of lead and arsenic, and Beaker finds connected to mining and metalworking at Ross Island, County Kerry, provide an escape to such doubts.
The featured « food vessels » and cinerary urns (encrusted, collared and cordoned) of the Irish Earlier Bronze Age have strong roots in the western European Beaker tradition. Recently, the concept of these food vessels was discarded and replaced by a concept of two different traditions that rely on typology: the bowl tradition and the vase tradition, the bowl tradition being the oldest as it has been found inserted in existing Neolithic (pre-beaker) tombs, both court tombs and passage tombs. The bowl tradition occurs over the whole country except the south-west and feature a majority of pit graves, both in flat cemeteries and mounds, and a high incidence of uncremated skeletons, often in crouched position. The vase tradition has a general distribution and feature almost exclusively cremation. The flexed skeleton of a man 1.88 tall in a cist in a slightly oval round cairn with « food vessel » at Cornaclery, County Londonderry, was described in the 1942 excavation report as « typifying the race of Beaker Folk« ,[60] although the differences between Irish finds and e.g. the British combination of « round barrows with crouched, unburnt burials » make it difficult to establishes the exact nature of the Beaker People’s colonization of Ireland.
In general, the early Irish Beaker intrusions don’t attest the overall « Beaker package » of innovations that, once fully developed, swept Europe elsewhere, leaving Ireland behind. The Irish Beaker period is characterised by the earliness of Beaker intrusions, by isolation and by influences and surviving traditions of autochthons.
Beaker culture introduces the practice of burial in single graves, suggesting an Earlier Bronze Age social organisation of family groups. Towards the Later Bronze Age the sites move to potentially fortifiable hilltops, suggesting a more « clan »-type structure. Although the typical Bell Beaker practice of crouched burial has been observed, cremation was readily adopted in accordance with the previous tradition of the autochthons. In a tumulus the find of the extended skeleton of a woman accompanied by the remains of a red deer and a small seven-year-old stallion is noteworthy, including the hint to a Diana-like religion. A few burials seem to indicate social status, though in other contexts an emphasis to special skills is more likely.
Ireland has the greatest concentration of gold lunulae and stone wrist-guards in Europe. However, neither of these items were deposited in graves and they tend to be found isolated and at random, making it difficult to draw conclusions about their use or role in society at the time.
One of the most important sites in Ireland during this period is Ross Island. A series of copper mines from here are the earliest known in Ireland, starting from around 2500 BC (O’Brien 2004). A comparison of chemical traces and lead isotope analysis from these mines with copper artifacts strongly suggests that Ross Island was the sole source of copper in Ireland between the dates 2500–2200 BC. In addition, two thirds of copper artifacts from Britain also display the same chemical and isotopic signature, strongly suggesting that Irish copper was a major export to Britain (Northover et al. 2001). Traces of Ross Island copper can be found even further afield; in the Netherlands it makes up 12% of analysed copper artifacts, and Brittany 6% of analysed copper artifacts[70] After 2200 BC there is greater chemical variation in British and Irish copper artifacts, which tallies well with the appearance of other mines in southern Ireland and north Wales. After 2000 BC, other copper sources supersede Ross Island. The latest workings from the Ross Island mines is dated to around 1700 BC.
As well as exporting raw copper/bronze, there were some technical and cultural developments in Ireland that had an important impact on other areas of Europe. Irish food vessels were adopted in northern Britain around 2200 BC and this roughly coincides with a decline in the use of beakers in Britain (Needham 1996). The ‘bronze halberd’ (not to be confused with the medieval halberd) was a weapon in use in Ireland from around 2400–2000 BC[71] They are essentially broad blades that were mounted horizontally on a meter long handle, giving greater reach and impact than any known contemporary weapon (O’Flaherty 2007). They were subsequently widely adopted in other parts of Europe (Schuhmacher 2002), possibly showing a change in the technology of warfare.[72]
Britain
Beakers arrived in Britain around 2500 BC, declined in use around 2200–2100 BC with the emergence of food vessels and cinerary urns and finally fell out of use around 1700 BC (Needham 1996). The earliest British beakers were similar to those from the Rhine (Needham 2005), but later styles are most similar to those from Ireland (Case 1993). In Britain, domestic assemblages from this period are very rare, making it hard to draw conclusions about many aspects of society. Most British beakers come from funerary contexts.
Britain’s only unique export in this period is thought to be tin. It was probably gathered in streams in Cornwall and Devon as cassiterite pebbles and traded in this raw, unrefined state.[73] It was used to turn copper into bronze from around 2200 BC and widely traded throughout Britain and into Ireland. Other possible European sources of tin are located in Brittany and Iberia, but it is not thought they were exploited so early as these areas did not have Bronze until after it was well established in Britain and Ireland.[74]
The most famous site in Britain from this period is Stonehenge, which had its Neolithic form elaborated extensively. Many barrows surround it and an unusual number of ‘rich’ burials can be found nearby, such as the Amesbury Archer. Another site of particular interest is Ferriby on the Humber Estuary, where western Europe’s oldest plank built boat was recovered.
Italian Peninsula
Bell Beaker sites in Italy
The Italian Peninsula‘s most affected areas are the Po Valley, in particular the area of Lake Garda, and Tuscany. The bell-shaped vases appear in these areas of central and northern Italy as « foreign elements » integrated in the pre-existing Remedello and Rinaldone cultures.[75]
Graves with Beaker artifacts have been discovered in the Brescia area, like that of Ca’ di Marco (Fiesse), while in central Italy, bell-shaped glasses were found in the tomb of Fosso Conicchio (Viterbo).[76]
Sardinia
Sardinia has been in contact with extra-insular communities in Corsica, Tuscany, Liguria and Provence since the Stone Age. From the late third millennium BC on, comb-impressed Beaker ware, as well as other Beaker material in Monte Clarocontexts, has been found (mostly in burials, suchs as Domus de Janas), demonstrating continuing relationships with the western Mediterranean. Elsewhere, Beaker material has been found stratigraphically above Monte Claro and at the end of the Chalcolithic period in association with the related Bronze Age Bonnanaro culture (1800–1600 BC), for which C-14 dates calibrate to c. 2250 BC. There is virtually no evidence in Sardinia of external contacts in the early second millennia, apart from late Beakers and close parallels between Bonnannaro pottery and that of the North Italian Polada culture.
Like elsewhere in Europe and in the Mediterranean area, the Bell Beaker culture in Sardinia (2100–1800 BC) is characterised by the typical ceramics decorated with overlaid horizontal bands and associated finds: brassards, V-pierced buttons etc.; for the first time gold items appeared on the island (collier of the Tomb of Bingia ‘e Monti, Gonnostramatza). The different styles and decorations of the ceramics which succeed through the time allow to split the Beaker culture in Sardinia into three chronological phases: A1 (2100–2000 BC), A2 (2000–1900 BC), B (1900–1800 BC).[77] In these various phases is observable the succession of two components of different geographical origin: the first « Franco-Iberian » and the second « Central European ».[78]
It appears likely that Sardinia was the intermediary that brought Beaker materials to Sicily.[79]
Sicily
The Beaker was introduced in Sicily from Sardinia and spread mainly in the north-west and south-west of the island. In the northwest and in the Palermo kept almost intact its cultural and social characteristics, while in the south-west there was a strong integration with local cultures.[80] The only known single bell-shaped glass in eastern Sicily was found in Syracuse.[81]
Jutland
In Denmark, large areas of forested land were cleared to be used for pasture and the growing of cereals during the Single Grave culture and in the Late Neolithic Period. Faint traces of Bell Beaker influence can be recognised already in the pottery of the Upper Grave phase of the Single Grave period, and even of the late Ground Grave phase, such as occasional use of AOO-like or zoned decoration and other typical ornamentation, while Bell Beaker associated objects such as wristguards and small copper trinkets, also found their way into this northern territories of the Corded Ware Culture. Domestic sites with Beakers only appear 200–300 years after the first appearance of Bell Beakers in Europe, at the early part of the Danish Late Neolithic Period (LN I) starting at 2350 BC. These sites are concentrated in northern Jutland around the Limfjord and on the Djursland peninsula, largely contemporary to the local Upper Grave Period. In east central Sweden and western Sweden, barbed wire decoration characterised the period 2460–1990 BC, linked to another Beaker derivation of northwestern Europe.
- Stone and copper arms trade
Northern Jutland has abundant sources of high quality flint, which had previously attracted industrious mining, large-scale production, and the comprehensive exchange of flint objects: notably axes and chisels. The Danish Beaker period, however, was characterised by the manufacture of lanceolate flint daggers, described as a completely new material form without local antecedents in flint and clearly related to the style of daggers circulating elsewhere in Beaker dominated Europe. Presumably Beaker culture spread from here to the remainder of Denmark, and to other regions in Scandinavia and northern Germany as well. Central and eastern Denmark adopted this dagger fashion and, to a limited degree, also archer’s equipment characteristic to Beaker culture, although here Beaker pottery remained less common.
Also, the spread of metallurgy in Denmark is intimately related to the Beaker representation in northern Jutland. The LN I metalwork is distributed throughout most of Denmark, but a concentration of early copper and gold coincides with this core region, hence suggesting a connection between Beakers and the introduction of metallurgy. Most LN I metal objects are distinctly influenced by the western European Beaker metal industry, gold sheet ornaments and copper flat axes being the predominant metal objects. The LN I copper flat axes divide into As-Sb-Ni copper, recalling so-called Dutch Bell Beaker copper and the As-Ni copper found occasionally in British and Irish Beaker contexts, the mining region of Dutch Bell Beaker copper being perhaps Brittany; and the Early Bronze Age Singen (As-Sb-Ag-Ni) and Ösenring (As-Sb-Ag) coppers having a central European – probably Alpine – origin.
- Connections with other parts of Beaker culture
The Beaker group in northern Jutland forms an integrated part of the western European Beaker Culture, while western Jutland provided a link between the Lower Rhine area and northern Jutland. The local fine-ware pottery of Beaker derivation reveal links with other Beaker regions in western Europe, most specifically the Veluwe group at the Lower Rhine. Concurrent introduction of metallurgy shows that some people must have crossed cultural boundaries. Danish Beakers are contemporary with the earliest Early Bronze Age (EBA) of the East Group of Bell Beakers in central Europe, and with the floruit of Beaker cultures of the West Group in western Europe. The latter comprise Veluwe and Epi-Maritime in Continental northwestern Europe and the Middle Style Beakers (Style 2) in insular western Europe.
The interaction between the Beaker groups on the Veluwe Plain and in Jutland must, at least initially, have been quite intensive. All-over ornamented (AOO) and All-over-corded (AOC), and particularly Maritime style beakers are featured, although from a fairly late context and possibly rather of Epi-maritime style, equivalent to the situation in the north of the Netherlands, where Maritime ornamentation continued after it ceased in the central region of Veluwe and were succeeded c. 2300 BC by beakers of the Veluwe and Epi-Maritime style.[82]
Clusters of Late Neolithic Beaker presence similar to northern Jutland appear as pockets or « islands » of Beaker Culture in northern Europe, such as Mecklenburg, Schleswig-Holstein, and southern Norway.[83][84][85][86][87] In northern central Poland Beaker-like representations even occur in a contemporary EBA setting. The frequent occurrence of Beaker pottery in settlements points at a large-scaled form of social identity or cultural identity, or perhaps an ethnic identity.
- Burial practices
In eastern Denmark and Scania one-person graves occur primarily in flat grave cemeteries. This is a continuation of the burial custom characterising the Scanian Battle-axe Culture, often to continue into the early Late Neolithic. Also in northern Jutland, the body of the deceased was normally arranged lying on its back in an extended position, but a typical Bell Beaker contracted position occurs occasionally. Typical to northern Jutland, however, cremations have been reported, also outside the Beaker core area, once within the context of an almost full Bell Beaker equipment.
- Social tranistion
The introductory phase of the manufacture and use of flint daggers, around 2350 BC, must all in all be characterised as a period of social change. Apel argued that an institutionalised apprenticeship system must have existed.[88] Craftsmanship was transmitted by inheritance in certain families living in the vicinity of abundant resources of high-quality flint. Debbie Olausson’s (1997) examinations indicate that flint knapping activities, particularly the manufacture of daggers, reflect a relatively low degree of craft specialisation, probably in the form of a division of labour between households.
Noteworthy was the adoption of European-style woven wool clothes kept together by pins and buttons in contrast to the earlier usage of clothing made of leather and plant fibres.[89][90] Two-aisled timber houses in Late Neolithic Denmark correspond to similar houses in southern Scandinavia and at least parts of central Scandinavia and lowland northern Germany. In Denmark, this mode of building houses is clearly rooted in a Middle Neolithic tradition. In general, Late Neolithic house building styles were shared over large areas of northern and central Europe.[91] Towards the transition to LN II some farm houses became extraordinarily large.
- End of a distinctive Beaker culture
The cultural concepts originally adopted from Beaker groups at the lower Rhine blended or integrated with local Late Neolithic Culture. For a while the region was set apart from central and eastern Denmark, that evidently related more closely to the early Únětice culture across the Baltic Sea. Before the turn of the millennium the typical Beaker features had gone, their total duration being 200–300 years at the most.
A similar picture of cultural integration is featured among Bell Beakers in central Europe, thus challenging previous theories of Bell Beakers as an elitist or purely super-structural phenomenon.[92][93][94][95][96] The connection with the East Group Beakers of Únětice had intensified considerably in LN II, thus triggering a new social transformation and innovations in metallurgy that would announce the actual beginning of the Northern Bronze Age.[97]
Postulated linguistic connections
As the Beaker culture left no written records, all theories regarding the language or languages they spoke is highly conjectural. It has been suggested as a candidate for an early Indo-European culture; more specifically, an ancestral proto-Celtic,[98]although this is generally not an accepted theory for the development of Celtic languages.[99] Mallory has more recently suggested that the Beaker culture was possibly associated with a European branch of Indo-European dialects, termed « North-west Indo-European », ancestral to not only Celtic but equally Italic, Germanic and Balto-Slavic.[100]
Physical and genetic anthropology
Skeletal studies
Historical craniometric studies found that the Beaker people appeared to be of a different physical type than those earlier populations in the same geographic areas. They were described as tall, heavy boned and brachycephalic. The early studies on the Beakers which were based on the analysis of their skeletal remains, were craniometric. This apparent evidence of migration was in line with archaeological discoveries linking Beaker culture to new farming techniques, mortuary practices, copper-working skills, and other cultural innovations. However, such evidence from skeletal remains was brushed aside as a new movement developed in archaeology from the 1960s, which stressed cultural continuity. Anti-migrationist authors either paid little attention to skeletal evidence or argued that differences could be explained by environmental and cultural influences. Margaret Cox and Simon Mays sum up the position: « Although it can hardly be said that craniometric data provide an unequivocal answer to the problem of the Beaker folk, the balance of the evidence would at present seem to favour a migration hypothesis. »[101]
Non-metrical research concerning the Beaker people in Britain also cautiously pointed in the direction of immigration.[102] Subsequent studies, such as one concerning the Carpathian Basin,[39] and a non-metrical analysis of skeletons in central-southern Germany,[103] have also identified marked typological differences with the pre-Beaker inhabitants.
Jocelyne Desideri examined the teeth in skeletons from Bell Beaker sites in Northern Spain, Southern France, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. Examining dental characteristics that have been independently shown to correlate with genetic relatedness, she found that only in Northern Spain and the Czech Republic were there demonstrable links between immediately previous populations and Bell Beaker populations. Elsewhere there was a discontinuity.[104]
Genetic studies
Early papers publishing results on European-wide Y-DNA marker frequencies, such as those of Semino (2000) and Rosser (2000), correlated haplogroup R1b-M269 with the earliest episodes of European colonization by anatomically modern humans(AMH). The peak frequencies of M269 in Iberia (especially the Basque region) and the Atlantic façade were postulated to represent signatures of re-colonization of the European West following the Last Glacial Maximum.[105][106] However, even prior to recent criticisms and refinements, the idea that Iberian R1b carrying males repopulated most of western Europe was not consistent with findings which revealed that Italian M269 lineages are not derivative of Iberian ones.[107]
More recently, data and calculations from Myres et al. (2011),[108] Cruciani et al. (2011)[109] Arredi et al. (2007),[110] and Balaresque et al. (2010)[111] suggest a Late Neolithic entry of M269 into Europe.
These hypotheses appear to be corroborated by more direct evidence from ancient DNA. R1b was detected in two male skeletons from a German Bell Beaker site dated to 2600-2500 BC at Kromsdorf, one of which tested positive for M269 but negative for its U106 subclade (note that the P312 subclade was not tested for), while for the other skeleton the M269 test was unclear.[112] A later Bell Beaker male skeleton from Quedlinburg, Germany dated to 2296–2206 BC tested positive for R1b M269 P312 subclade.[113] Ancient Y-DNA results for the remains of Beaker people from Iberia have yet to be obtained.
Haak et al. (2015)[113] concluded that R1b was very likely spread into Europe from the Pontic-Caspian steppe after 3,000 BC by the Yamna people, putative Proto-Indo-Europeans under the Kurgan hypothesis. The authors noticed a paucity of haplogroup R1b in European population samples predating the Bronze Age, with only one of the 70 individuals from Mesolithic and Neolithic Europe belonging to haplogroup R1 or any of its branches.
The study also found, via autosomal analysis, that the majority of post-Neolithic populations in Europe, including their ancient samples taken from Beaker culture sites in central Europe, are the result of a three-way admixture between the Yamnaya; Neolithic farmers; and western European hunter gatherers who were present in Europe since at least the Mesolithic.[113]
From a mitochondrial DNA perspective, haplogroup H, which has high incidence (≈40%) throughout Europe, has received similar attention. Early studies by Richards et al (2000) suggested that it arose 28–23 kya (thousand years ago), spreading into Europe ≈20 kya, before then re-expanding from an Iberian glacial refuge ≈15 kya, calculations subsequently corroborated by Pereira et al. (2005).[114] However, a larger study by Roostalu et al. (2007), incorporating more data from the Near East, suggested that whilst Hg H did begin to expand c. 20 kya, this was limited to the Near East, Caucasus and Southeastern Europe. Rather its subsequent spread further west occurred later, in the post-glacial period from a postulated South Caucasian refugium.[115] This hypothesis has been supported by a recent ancient DNA analysis study, which links the expansion of mtDNA Hg H in Western Europe with the Bell Beaker phenomenon.[41]
Whilst such studies are insightful, even if the dates postulated by authors are correct, they do not necessarily imply that the spread of a particular genetic marker represents a distinct population, ‘tribe’ or language group. Genetic studies have often been treated with suspicion not only by archaeologists and cultural anthropologists, but even by fellow population geneticists.[41]
See also
Notes
- Jump up^ « The story about the Nordic civilization ». Cradle of Civilization. 17 March 2015. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
- ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h Cunliffe, Barry (2010). Celtic from the West Chapter 1: Celticization from the West: The Contribution of Archaeology. Oxbow Books, Oxford, UK. pp. 27–31. ISBN 978-1-84217-410-4.
- Jump up^ The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology
- Jump up^ Ember, Melvin; Peregrine, Peter Neal, eds. (2001). Encyclopedia of Prehistory. 4 : Europe. Springer. p. 24. ISBN 0-306-46255-9.
- Jump up^ Sherratt, A. G. (1987). « Cups that cheered: the introduction of alcohol to prehistoric Europe ». In Waldren, W.; Kennard, R. C. Bell Beakers of the Western Mediterranean: definition, interpretation, theory and new site data. The Oxford International Conference 1986. Oxford: British Archaeology Reports. pp. 81–114. ISBN 9780860544265.
- Jump up^ Doce, Elisa Guerra (2006). « Sobre la función y el significado de la cerámica campaniforme a la luz de los análisis de contenidos trabajos de prehistoria »[Function and significance of bell beaker pottery according to data from residue analyses]. Trabajos de prehistoria (in Spanish). 63 (1): 69–84. doi:10.3989/tp.2006.v63.i1.5. ISSN 0082-5638.
- Jump up^ Vander Linden, Marc (2006). Le phénomène campaniforme dans l’Europe du 3ème millénaire avant notre ère: Synthèse et nouvelles perspectives. British Archaeological Reports, international series, 1470 (in French). Oxford: Archaeopress. p. 33. ISBN 9781841719061.
- Jump up^ Case, Humphrey (2007). « Beakers and the Beaker Culture ». In Burgess, Christopher; Topping, Peter; Lynch, Frances. Beyond Stonehenge: Essays on the Bronze Age in honour of Colin Burgess. Oxford: Oxbow. pp. 237–254. ISBN 9781842172155.
- ^ Jump up to:a b c d Heyd, Volker (1998). « Die Glockenbecherkultur in Süddeutschland– Zum Stand der Forschung einer Regionalprovinzentlang der Donau » [Bell Beaker Culture in Southern Germany, State of research for a regional province along the Danube]. In Benz, M.; van Willigen, S. Some New Approaches to the Bell Beaker ‘Phenomenon’: Lost Paradise…?. British Archaeological Report S690 (in German). Oxford: Hadrian. pp. 87–106. ISBN 9780860549284.
- Jump up^ Fitzpatrick, A. P. (2013). « The arrival of the Beaker Set in Britain and Ireland ». In Koch, John T.; Cunliffe, Barry W. Celtic from the West 2 : rethinking the Bronze Age and the arrival of Indo-European in Atlantic Europe. Oxford: Oxbow. p. 44. ISBN 9781842175293.
- Jump up^ Johannes Muller, Martin Hinz and Markus Ullrich, Bell Beakers – chronology, innovation and memory: a multivariate approach, chapter 6 in The Bell Beaker Transition in Europe: Mobility and local evolution during the 3rd millennium BC, ed. Maria Pilar Prieto Martinez and Laure Salanova (2015).
- Jump up^ Joseph Maran, « Seaborne Contacts between the Aegean, the Balkans and the Central Mediterranean in the 3rd Millennium BC – The Unfolding of the Mediterranean World », Between the Aegean and Baltic Seas: Prehistory across Borders. Proceedings of the International Conference Bronze and Early Iron Age Interconnections and Contemporary Developments between the Aegean and the Regions of the Balkan Peninsula, Central and Northern Europe, University of Zagreb, 11–14 April 2005, eds. I. Galanaki, H. Tomas, Y. Galanakis and R. Laffineur, Aegaeum 27 (2007) 3–21, note 55.
- Jump up^ Piguet, M.; Besse, M. (2009). « Chronology and Bell Beaker common ware ». Radiocarbon. 51 (2): 817–830.
- Jump up^ Harrison, R.; Heyd, V. (2007). « The Transformation of Europe in the Third Millennium BC: the example of ‘Le Petit-Chasseur I + III’ (Sion, Valais, Switzerland) ». Praehistorische Zeitschrift. 82 (2): 129–214. doi:10.1515/pz.2007.010.
- Jump up^ Jeunesse, C. 2014. « Pratiques funéraires campaniformes en Europe – Faut-il remettre en cause la dichotomie Nord-Sud ? La question de la réutilisation des sépultures monumentales dans l’Europe du 3e millénaire », in Données récentes sur les pratiques funéraires néolithiques de la Plaine du Rhin supérieur, P. Lefranc, A. Denaire and C. Jeunesse (eds.), BAR International Series 2633, 211. Oxford: Archaeopress.
- Jump up^ Salinova, Laure (2000). « La question du campaniforme en France et dans les Iles Anglo-Normandes ». Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française (in French). 94 (2): 259–264.
- Jump up^ Lanting, J. N.; van der Waals, J. D. (1976). « Beaker culture relations in the Lower Rhine Basin ». Glockenbechersimposion Oberried 1974. Bussum-Haarlem: Fibula-Van Dishoeck. pp. 1–80. ISBN 9789022836194.
- Jump up^ Needham, S. (2009). « Encompassing the Sea: « Maritories » and Bronze Age Maritime Interactions ». In Clark, Peter. Bronze Age Connections: Cultural Contact in Prehistoric Europe. Oxford: Oxbow. pp. 12–37. ISBN 9781842173480.
- Jump up^ O’Brien, William (2004). Ross Island: Mining, Metal and Society in Early Ireland. Galway: Department of Archaeology, National University of Ireland. ISBN 9780953562039.
- Jump up^ Ambert, P. (2001). « La place de la métallurgie campaniforme dans la première métallurgie française ». In Nicolis, Franco. Bell Beakers Today : pottery, people, culture, symbols in prehistoric Europe : proceedings of the International Colloquium Riva del Garda (Trento, Italy) 11–16 May 1998 (in French). Trento, Italy: Provincia Autonoma di Trento. pp. 577–588. ISBN 9788886602433.
- Jump up^ Burgess, C.; Shennan, S. (1976). « The Beaker Phenomenon: some suggestions ». In Burgess, C.; Miket, R. Settlement and economy in the third and second millennia BC : papers delivered at a conference organised by the Department of Adult Education, University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports 33. pp. 309–331. ISBN 9780904531527.
- Jump up^ Lemercier, Olivier (2004). « Historical model of settling and spread of Bell Beakers Culture in the mediterranean France ». In Czebreszuk, J. Similar but Different: Bell Beakers in Europe, Poznań Symposium, Poland, 26-29 May 2002. Poznań, Poland: Adam Mickiewicz University. pp. 193–203. ISBN 9788385215257. Available from the author’s web site.
- Jump up^ Price, T. Douglas; Grupe, Gisela; Schröter, Peter (1998). « Migration in the Bell Beaker period of central Europe ». Antiquity. 72 (276): 405–411.
- Jump up^ The Oxford Illustrated Prehistory of Europe – Barry Cunliffe, Oxford University Press (1994), pp. 250–254.
- Jump up^ F. Jordá Cerdá et al., Historia de España 1: Prehistoria, 1986. ISBN 84-249-1015-X.
- Jump up^ Jorge, Susana Oliveira (2002). « An all-over corded Bell Beaker in northern Portugal: Castelo Velho de Freixo de Numão (Vila Nova de Foz Côa): some remarks » (PDF). Journal of Iberian Archaeology. 4: 107–123. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-11-06.
- Jump up^ Prieto Martínez, M. P. (2013). « Unity and Circulation: what underlies the homogeneity of Galician bell beaker ceramic style? ». In Prieto Martínez, M. Pilar; Salanova, Laure. Current researches on bell beakers : proceedings of 15th International Bell Beaker: From Atlantic to Ural, 5th-9th May 2011, Poio (Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain). Santiago de Compostela: Copynino. ISBN 978-84-941537-0-9. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
- Jump up^ Trias, Manuel Calvo; Ayuso, Víctor M. Guerrero; Simonet, Bartomeu Salvà (2002). « Los orígenes del poblamiento balear: una discusión no acabada ». Complutum (in Spanish). 13: 159–191. ISSN 1131-6993.
- Jump up^ Waldren, William H. (2003). « Evidence of Iberian Bronze Age ‘Boquique’ Pottery in the Balearic Islands: Trade, Marriage or Culture? ». Oxford Journal of Archaeology. 22(4): 357–374. doi:10.1046/j.1468-0092.2003.00193.x. Available from the author’s web site.
- Jump up^ Bertemes, François; Heyd, Volker (2002). « Der Übergang Kupferzeit / Frühbronzezeit am Nordwestrand des Karpatenbeckens – Kulturgeschichtliche und paläometallurgische Betrachtungen » [The transition from the Copper Age to the Early Bronze Age at the north-western edge of the Carpathian basin culture historical and palaeometallurgical considerations]. In Bartelheim, Martin; Pernicka, Ernst; Krause, Rüdiger. Die Anfänge der Metallurgie in der alten Welt [The beginnings of metallurgy in the old world] (in German). Rahden: Verlag Marie Leidorf. pp. 185–228. ISBN 978-3-89646-871-0.
- ^ Jump up to:a b c Zoffmann, Zsuzsanna K. (2000). « Anthropological sketch of the prehistoric population of the Carpathian Basin » (PDF). Acta Biologica Szegediensis. 44 (1–4): 75–79.
- Jump up^ [1] The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology – Timothy Darvill, 2002, Beaker culture, p.42, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-211649-5
- ^ Jump up to:a b c Brotherton, Paul; et al. (2013). « Neolithic mitochondrial haplogroup H genomes and the genetic origins of Europeans ». Nature Communications. 4: 1764. doi:10.1038/ncomms2656. PMC 3978205
. PMID 23612305.
- Jump up^ Anthropology of skeletal remains of Bell – Beaker people from Moravia (Czech Republic)
- ^ Jump up to:a b Heyd, V.; Husty, L.; Kreiner, L. (2004). Siedlungen der Glockenbecherkultur in Süddeutschland und Mitteleuropa [Bell Beaker settlements in South Germany and Central Europe] (in German). Büchenbach: Faustus. ISBN 3-933474-27-2.
- Jump up^ The Eastern Border of the Bell Beaker-Phenomenon – Volker Heyd, 2004
- Jump up^ Heyd, Volker (2000). Die Spätkupferzeit in Süddeutschland [The Late Copper age in Southern Germany] (in German). Bonn: Habelt. ISBN 3-7749-3048-1.
- ^ Jump up to:a b Sheridan, Alison; Northover, Peter (1993). « A Beaker Period copper dagger blade from the Sillees River near Ross Lough, Co. Fermanagh ». Ulster Journal of Archaeology. 3rd series. 56: 61–69. JSTOR 20568187.
- Jump up^ Male sizes range between 157 and 191 cm (62 and 75 in), to average 174 cm (69 in), comparable to the current male population: Flanagan 1998, p.116
- Jump up^ Northover 1999, p.214
- Jump up^ Needham 1996, p.124
- Jump up^ James, Simon (1993). Exploring the World of the Celts. London: Thames & Hudson. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-500-27998-4.
- Jump up^ Charles, J. A. (1975). « Where is the Tin? ». Antiquity. 49 (193): 19–24.
- Jump up^ Bradley 2007, p.146
- Jump up^ Le grandi avventure dell’archeologia VOL. 5: Europa e Italia protostorica – Curcio editore, pp. 1585-1586
- Jump up^ Il complesso culturale di « Fosso Conicchio » (Viterbo) Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine.
- Jump up^ Giovanni Ugas-L’alba dei Nuraghi (2005) pg.12
- Jump up^ Ceramiche. Storia, linguaggio e prospettive in Sardegna, Maria Rosaria Manunza – p.26
- Jump up^ Salvatore Piccolo, Ancient Stones: The Prehistoric Dolmens of Sicily. Abingdon: Brazen Head Publishing, 2013, ISBN 9780956510624, p. 32.
- Jump up^ Tusa 1999, p. 310
- Jump up^ Tusa 1999, p. 311, fig. 52
- Jump up^ Lanting/van der Waals 1976 a, p.
- Jump up^ Struve 1955, pl. 22
- Jump up^ Kühn 1979, pl. 11; 18
- Jump up^ Myhre 1978-1979
- Jump up^ Jacobs 1991
- Jump up^ Prescott & Walderhaug 1995
- Jump up^ Apel 2001, 42, p. 323 ff
- Jump up^ Bender Jørgensen 1992, p.114
- Jump up^ Ebbesen 1995; 2004
- Jump up^ Nielsen 2000, p. 161 ff.
- Jump up^ cf. Shennan 1976; 1977
- Jump up^ Harrison 1980
- Jump up^ Thorpe & Richards 1984
- Jump up^ Lohof 1994
- Jump up^ Strahm 1998
- Jump up^ Vandkilde, Helle (2005). « A Review of the Early Late Neolithic Period in Denmark: Practice, Identity and Connectivity » (PDF). http://www.jungstein.SITE.de. Retrieved 12 August 2014.
- Jump up^ « Almagro-Gorbea – La lengua de los Celtas y otros pueblos indoeuropeos de la península ibérica », 2001 p.95. In Almagro-Gorbea, M., Mariné, M. and Álvarez-Sanchís, J. R. (eds) Celtas y Vettones, pp. 115–121. Ávila: Diputación Provincial de Ávila.
- Jump up^ Chadwick with Corcoran, Nora with J.X.W.P. (1970). The Celts. Penguin Books. pp. 28–33.
- Jump up^ J.P. Mallory, ‘The Indo-Europeanization of Atlantic Europe’, in Celtic From the West 2: Rethinking the Bronze Age and the Arrival of Indo–European in Atlantic Europe, eds J. T. Koch and B. Cunliffe (Oxford, 2013), p.17–40
- Jump up^ Cox, Margaret; Mays, Simon (2000). Human Osteology in Archaeology and Forensic Science. London: Greenwich Medical Media. pp. 281–283. ISBN 9781841100463.
- Jump up^ A Test of Non-metrical Analysis as Applied to the ‘Beaker Problem’ – Natasha Grace Bartels, University of Albeda, Department of Anthropology, 1998 [2]
- Jump up^ Gallagher, A.; Gunther, M. M.; Bruchhaus, H. (2009). « Population continuity, demic diffusion and Neolithic origins in central-southern Germany: The evidence from body proportions ». Homo. 60 (2): 95–126. doi:10.1016/j.jchb.2008.05.006. PMID 19264304.
- Jump up^ Jocelyne Desideri, Europe during the Third Millennium BC and Bell Beaker Culture Phenomenon: peopling history through dental non-metric traits study (2008)Archived July 26, 2011, at the Wayback Machine..
- Jump up^ Semino, O.; Passarino, G.; Oefner, P. J.; Lin, A. A.; Arbuzova, S.; Beckman, L. E.; De Benedictis, G.; Francalacci, P.; Kouvatsi, A.; Limborska, S.; Marcikiae, M.; Mika, A.; Mika, B.; Primorac, D.; Santachiara-Benerecetti, A. S.; Cavalli-Sforza, L. L.; Underhill, P. A. (2000). « The genetic legacy of Paleolithic Homo sapiens sapiens in extant Europeans: a Y chromosome perspective ». Science. 290 (5494): 1155–9. doi:10.1126/science.290.5494.1155. PMID 11073453.
- Jump up^ Rosser, Zoë H.; Zerjal, Tatiana; Hurles, Matthew E.; Adojaan, Maarja; Alavantic, Dragan; Amorim, António; Amos, William; Armenteros, Manuel; Arroyo, Eduardo; Barbujani, Guido; Beckman, G; Beckman, L.; Bertranpetit, J.; Bosch, E; Bradley, DG; Brede, G; Cooper, G.; Côrte-Real, H. B.; De Knijff, P; Decorte, R.; Dubrova, Y. E.; Evgrafov, O.; Gilissen, A.; Glisic, S.; Gölge, M.; Hill, E. W.; Jeziorowska, A.; Kalaydjieva, L.; Kayser, M.; Kivisild, T (2000). « Y-chromosomal diversity in Europe is clinal and influenced primarily by geography, rather than by language ». American Journal of Human Genetics. 67 (6): 1526–1543. doi:10.1086/316890. PMC 1287948 . PMID 11078479.
- Jump up^ Capelli, Cristian; et al. (2007). « Y chromosome genetic variation in the Italian peninsula is clinal and supports an admixture model for the Mesolithic–Neolithic encounter ». Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 44 (1): 228–239. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2006.11.030. PMID 17275346.
- Jump up^ Myres, Natalie M.; et al. (2011). « A major Y-chromosome haplogroup R1b Holocene era founder effect in Central and Western Europe ». European Journal of Human Genetics. 19 (1): 95–101. doi:10.1038/ejhg.2010.146. PMC 3039512 . PMID 20736979.
- Jump up^ Cruciani, Fulvio; et al. (2011). « Strong intra- and inter-continental differentiation revealed by Y chromosome SNPs M269, U106 and U152 ». Forensic Science International: Genetics. 5 (3): 49–52. doi:10.1016/j.fsigen.2010.07.006. PMID 20732840.
- Jump up^ Arredi, Barbara; Poloni, Estella S.; Tyler-Smith, Chris (2007). « The peopling of Europe ». In Crawford, Michael H. Anthropological Genetics: Theory, Methods and Applications. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 380–408. ISBN 9780521546973.
- Jump up^ Balaresque, Patricia; Bowden, Georgina R.; Adams, Susan M.; Leung, Ho-Yee; King, Turi E.; et al. (2010). Penny, David, ed. « A Predominantly Neolithic Origin for European Paternal Lineages ». PLOS Biology. Public Library of Science. 8 (1): e1000285. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000285. PMC 2799514 . PMID 20087410. Retrieved August 19, 2014.
- Jump up^ Lee, E.; et al. (2012). « Emerging genetic patterns of the European neolithic: Perspectives from a late neolithic bell beaker burial site in Germany ». American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 148 (4): 571–579. doi:10.1002/ajpa.22074. PMID 22552938.
- ^ Jump up to:a b c Haak, Wolfgang; Lazaridis, Iosif (February 10, 2015). « Massive migration from the steppe is a source for Indo-European languages in Europe ». bioRxiv 013433 .
- Jump up^ Pereira, L; et al. (2005). « High-resolution mtDNA evidence for the late-glacial resettlement of Europe from an Iberian refugium ». Genome Res. 15 (1): 19–24. doi:10.1101/gr.3182305. PMC 540273 . PMID 15632086.
- Jump up^ Roostalu, U; et al. (2007). « Origin and expansion of haplogroup H, the dominant human mitochondrial DNA lineage in West Eurasia: the Near Eastern and Caucasian perspective ». Molecular Biology and Evolution. 24 (2): 436–448. doi:10.1093/molbev/msl173. PMID 17099056.
Sources
- Bradley, Richard (2007). The prehistory of Britain and Ireland. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-84811-3.
- Fokkens, Harry; Nicolis, Franco, eds. (2012). Background To Beakers: inquiries in regional cultural backgrounds of the Bell Beaker complex. Leiden: Sidestone. ISBN 978-90-8890-084-6.
- Flanagan, Laurence (1998). Ancient Ireland, Life before the Celts. Dublin: Gill & MacMillan. ISBN 0-7171-2433-9.
- Lemercier, Olivier (2012). « The Mediterranean France beakers transition ». In Fokkens, Harry; Nicolis, Franco. Background To Beakers: inquiries in regional cultural backgrounds of the Bell Beaker complex. Leiden: Sidestone. pp. 117–156. ISBN 978-90-8890-084-6.
- Müller, Johannes; van Willigen, Samuel (2001). « New radiocarbon evidence for European Bell Beakers and the consequences for the diffusion of the Bell Beaker Phenomenon ». In Nicolis, Franco. Bell Beakers today: Pottery, people, culture, symbols in prehistoric Europe: Proceedings of the international colloquium Riva del Garda (Trento, Italy), 11-16 may 1998, Volume 1. Trento: Provincia Autonoma di Trento. pp. 59–80. ISBN 9788886602433.
- Piggot, Stuart (1965). Ancient Europe from the Beginnings of Agriculture to Classical Antiquity: a Survey. Chicago: Aldine.
Further reading
- Bradley, Richard (2007). The Prehistory of Britain and Ireland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521612705.
- Case, H. (1993). « Beakers: Deconstruction and After ». Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. 59: 241–268. doi:10.1017/s0079497x00003807.
- Case, H. (2001). « The Beaker Culture in Britain and Ireland: Groups, European Contacts and Chronology ». In Nicolis, F. (ed.). Bell Beakers Today: pottery people, culture, symbols in prehistoric Europe. Servizio Beni Culturali Ufficio Beni Archeologici. 2. Torento. pp. 361–377.
- Darvill, T. (2002). Oxford Concise Dictionary of Archaeology. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-211649-5.
- Harding, Anthony; Fokkens, Harry (2013). The Oxford Handbook of European Bronze Age (Oxford Handbooks in Archaeology). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199572860.
- Harrison, R.J. (1980). The Beaker Folk. Thames and Hudson.
- Needham, S. (1996). « Chronology and periodisation in the British Bronze Age ». Acta Archaeologica. 67: 121–140.
- Needham, S. (2005). « Transforming Beaker Culture in North-West Europe: processes of fusion and fission ». Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. 71: 171–217. doi:10.1017/s0079497x00001006.
- Northover, J.P. (1999). Hauptmann, A., Pernicka, E., Rehren, T. and Yalçin, Ü. (eds.), eds. « The earliest metalworking in South Britain ». The Beginnings of Metallurgy. Bochum: Dt. Bergbau-Museum: 211–225.
- Northover, J.P.N.; O’Brien, W.; Stos, S. (2001). « Lead isotopes and metal circulation in Beaker/Early Bronze Age Ireland ». Journal of Irish Archaeology. 10: 25–47.
- O’Flaherty, R. (2007). « A weapon of choice: experiments with a replica Irish early Bronze Age halberd ». Antiquity. 81 (312): 425–434. doi:10.1017/s0003598x00095284.
- O’Kelly, M.J. (1982). Newgrange: Archaeology, Art and Legend. London: Thames & Hudson.
- Mallory J.P. (1997) « Beaker Culture ». Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, Fitzroy Dearborn.
- Piccolo, S. (2013). Ancient Stones: The Prehistoric Dolmens of Sicily. Abingdon: Brazen Head Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9565-1062-4.
- Schuhmacher, T.X. (2002). « Some remarks on the origin and chronology of halberds in Europe ». Oxford Journal of Archaeology. 21 (3): 263–288. doi:10.1111/1468-0092.00162.
- Tusa, Sebastiano (1999). La Sicilia nella Preistoria, Palermo: Sellerio Editore. ISBN88-389-1440-0.
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