Beaker cultures, the term for the people in many parts of western Europe at the end of the Neolithic period (c.2600-2200 BC) who made and used a particular type of decorated pottery drinking-vessel. It was shaped like an inverted bell, with or without handles, and ornamented with zones of stamped impressions. The style of 'Beaker' pottery seems to have developed in the Lower Rhine area, though it absorbed motifs from other areas with which it was in contact by sea and river routes. These pots were valuable to their owners, and are often found as grave-goods in male burials, along with weapons such as a copper dagger or the remains of archery equipment. Their wide distribution, from the western Mediterranean to northern Germany, led earlier investigators to postulate a 'Beaker Folk' spreading up from Portugal, or perhaps from central Europe. They are now seen more simply as part of a general trend to ostentatious display of personal wealth, introduced at that time from central Europe. These included copper metallurgy and horses for riding. Such personal wealth was buried with the individual in a new form of single grave under its own mound, a custom which superseded older funerary practices based on communal burial in megalithic monuments. --------------------------------------------------------- Excerpted from The Oxford Interactive Encyclopedia Developed by The Learning Company, Inc. Copyright (c) 1997 TLC Properties Inc. All rights reserved. barrow (or tumulus), an earthen mound raised over a grave (if of stone, 'cairn' is the usual term). Grave-mounds of this type were characteristic throughout Europe and parts of central and southern Asia during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, and in places much later. They occurred less frequently in other parts of the world. Mounds could be raised over either inhumation or cremation burials, or sometimes over elaborate mortuary structures of stone or wood, houses of the dead. The best known examples include the Neolithic long barrows of Atlantic Europe, many enclosing spectacular chambers of megaliths; the round barrows of the 2nd millennium across most of the Continent; the ship burials of the Vikings and related peoples in the north; the richly furnished Scythic tombs on the Altai Mountains of central Asia; and the burial mounds of the Indians of the Mississippi valley in the USA. Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 18:37:55 -0800 From: Jane Richards Subject: Re: evidence for violence in the late Neolithic The Beaker People are thought to have had origins in Europe from aprox. 4,000 BCE. There are phases which show both corded ware, as well as 'beaker type'. They are believed to have come into Britain in the 3rd millenium or so and from the remains found in their round barrows, containing flint weapons, barbed and tanged arrow heads, copper axes, and daggers, it is thought that the males were warriors. Most male burials were accompanied by a beaker-type pot, seemingly to hold a drink for the deceased to drink on his journey. Since the long barrows have been found to contain earlier 'stone-age' remains with dolichocyphalic skull-types [long type skulls], while the later Bronze Age round barrows of the beaker culture seem to be of a brachycephalic skull-type [round faces or heads], it is thought that the Bronze Age beaker culture of Britain, which had spread across much of Europe, originated in the Iberian areas and may have come into Britain as an incursive invasion-type precipitated upon a traditional, pre-existing culture[s]. There are several seperate phases of this culture in Europe, shown by the differences in the construction of pottery found in burials. Hope this helps. Jane dolichocephalic | dlksfalk, -kefalk | a. Also -keph-. M19. [f. prec. + -CEPHALIC.] Long-headed; spec. having a cranial index of less than 75.dolichocephal a. & n. (pl. -s) [back-form. f. mod.L pl.] (a)adj. dolichocephalic; (b)n. a dolichocephalic person: L19. dolichocephali n.pl. (now rare or obs.) [mod.L] dolichocephals M19. dolichocephalism n. dolichocephalic condition M19. dolichocephalous a. dolichocephalic M19. dolichocephaly n. dolichocephalism M19. --------------------------------------------------------- Excerpted from The Oxford Interactive Encyclopedia Developed by The Learning Company, Inc. Copyright (c) 1997 TLC Properties Inc. All rights reserved. brachycephalic | braksfalk, -kefalk | a. Also -keph-. M19. [f. prec. + -CEPHALIC.] Short-headed; spec. having a cranial index between 80 and 85. brachycephal | braksef()l, braksef()l; -kef- | n. [back-form. f. mod.L brachycephales pl.] a brachycephalic person E20. brachycephales | -liz | , -cephali | -lL, -li | ns.pl. (now rare or obs.) [mod.L] brachycephals M19. brachycephalism n. brachycephalic condition M19. brachycephalous a. brachycephalic L19. brachycephaly n. brachycephalism M19 --------------------------------------------------------- Excerpted from The Oxford Interactive Encyclopedia Developed by The Learning Company, Inc. Copyright (c) 1997 TLC Properties Inc. All rights reserved. Date: Thu, 1 Nov 2001 13:19:09 -0000 From: Jill Walmsley Subject: Re: evidence for violence in the late Neolithic Hi You didn't specify whether you just wanted British examples, or European, so apologies if the European stuff is irrelevant. Good first place to start would be "Ancient Warfare", eds. John Carman and Anthony Harding 1999. Relevant chapters: "Stone Age Warfare" Slavomil Vencl "War and Peace in prehistoric Eastern Europe" P.M. Dolukhanov ""Neolithic enclosures in Greek Macedonia: violent and non-violent aspects of territorial demarcation" Dimitra Kokkinidou and Marianna Nikolaidou "The origins of warfare in the prehistory of Central and Eastern Europe" John Chapman "The origins of warfare in the Birtish isles" R.J. Mercer This book is generally good, but tends to be short on specific details. Nevertheless, a good place to get further reading references. Try also: "European societies in the Bronze Age" A. F. Harding 2000 and "Europe in the Neolithic - the creation of new worlds" Alasdair Whittle 1996. A quick glance through the index of these two will get you plenty of scattered examples, although you might be interested specifically in the example of a rock cut tomb in S. France with over a hundred skeletons, some with arrows lodged in them (this is mentioned in the Whittle book, along with a discussion on fortified enclosures in the later Neolithic). Again, though, these are probably better used as jumping off points for getting more references to specific site reports. If you want any more specific chapter or page references feel free to e mail off list. Hope this is useful Jill Walmsley Date: Thu, 1 Nov 2001 14:42:35 -0000 From: "N.Thorpe" Subject: Re: evidence for violence in the late Neolithic Dear C.H.McGovern, I'm pleased that Jill Walmsley read your message more carefully than others on the list. Crickley Hill and Carn Brea are, as I'm sure you know, not Later Neolithic sites. So please, nobody suggest Mr/Ms McGovern looks at Hambledon Hill. In terms of Later Neolithic evidence,the Carman and Harding book is a reasonable point to start for the European evidence, although unfortunately none of the papers in the volume, including those cited by Jill Walmsley, deal with Beaker material. They are either considering areas outside the Beaker distribution or, like Roger Mercer, only dealing with the Early Neolithic. A better bet would be the Richard Osgood book 'Bronze Age Warfare', which does go back into the Later Neolithic. As far as web resources go you ought to look at the War and Society Project page, especially the article by Helle Vandkilde http://www.hum.au.dk/fark/warfare/vandkilde_paper_1.htm and the reading list http://www.hum.au.dk/fark/warfare/readinglist.htm. Presumably you are examining this topic because of the influence of nineteenth century and early twentieth racial theories by people such as Warne and Abercromby, which promulgated the notion of a Beaker people who conquered large parts of Europe (a view neatly summarised by Jane Richards). For information for others on the list, this 'Beaker Folk' interpretation has not been the majority view in British archaeology for at least 20 years, partly because physical anthropologists reject the notion of long-headed and round-headed peoples as meaningful in terms of group identification, although Neil Brodie did reconsider it in his BAR volume 'The Neolithic-Bronze Age Transition' in Britain. Apart from anything else, it is clear that several hundred years separates the two populations being compared and dramatic changes in cranial anatomy related to diet can take place in a far shorter time (e.g. Japan in the last century). In terms of the British evidence I'll send you separately the text of a talk I gave to the War and Society Project last year which considers the Stonehenge, Barrow Hills and Sarn-y-Bryn Caled arrowshot cases and the Mount Pleasant and Meldon bridge enclosures along with some thoughts on the symbolism of violence in Beaker material culture. Nick Thorpe Date: Thu, 1 Nov 2001 07:54:37 -0800 From: Jane Richards Subject: Re: evidence for violence in the late Neolithic Nick, Thankyou for bringing up the newer theories concerning the importance of the questions associated with the skull-types found. These 'differences' regarding dolichocephalic and brachyciphalic skull-types has come to the fore in the U.S concerning the discovery of 'Kennewick Man' here in the Pacific N. W. which has resulted in many differences of opinion. It has also come up associated with several cultures in the East and Pacific Islands. I feel that there is some importance connected with the skull-type forms, insofar as differing bone structures could be used [to some point] in showing differences in gene pools, tribal movements, migrations, etc. Jane