Introduction
Resource type
Book chapter
Creator (person)
Pearson, Mike Parker
Jay, Mandy
Sheridan, J A
Abstract
In Great Britain the researches of craniologists have demonstrated that the appearance of bronzeand of the beaker types of ceramic coincides with the advent of a new race characterized by a brachycephalic skull distinctly different from the dolichocephalic head of the earlier neolithic inhabitants...it is therefore necessary to direct our attention to the Continent, whwnce came the invaders, in order to learn something of the pottery which most resembles what is found in the country.' (Abercromby 1912, 9). 'The Peyote cult [in Mexico and North America] shows how an artefact assemblage could be spread over great distances among very different societies without involving such familiar mechanisms as trade and migration. In very much the sam way of hypothetical Beaker cult package could have been adopted by the various societies of Europe, these outward signs of an influential beer-drinking cult being spread from group to grouo across Europe... [T]here is little evidence to suggest that great numbers of Beaker migrants were on the move. As elsewhere, if more positive means of transmission than inter-tribal contact have to bve found, there is no need to look further than traders and prospectors, adventurers and refugees.' (Burgess & Shennan 1976, 312). '...migration had a key role in the dissmination of the Beaker complex. We document this phenomenon most clearly in Britain, where the spread of the Beaker complex introduced high levels of steppe-related ancestry and was associated with the replacement of approximately 90% of Britain's gene pool within a few hundred years, continuing the east-to-west expanison that had brought steppe-related ancestry into central and northern Europe over the previous centuries.' (olade et al. 2018).
Contributor (person)
Bukach, D
Needham, S P
Sheridan, J A
Series name
Prehistoric Society Research Papers
Book title
The Beaker people: isotopes, mobility and diet in prehistoric Britain
Editor
Pearson, Mike Parker
Sheridan, J A
Jay, Mandy
Chamberlain, A
Richards, M P
Evans, Jane
Volume
7
Publisher
Oxbow
Place of publication
Oxford