Human mobility has been vigorously debated as a key factor for the spread of bronze technology and profound changes in burial practices as well as material culture in central Europe at the transition ...from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. However, the relevance of individual residential changes and their importance among specific age and sex groups are still poorly understood. Here, we present ancient DNA analysis, stable isotope data of oxygen, and radiogenic isotope ratios of strontium for 84 radiocarbon-dated skeletons from seven archaeological sites of the Late Neolithic Bell Beaker Complex and the Early Bronze Age from the Lech River valley in southern Bavaria, Germany. Complete mitochondrial genomes documented a diversification of maternal lineages over time. The isotope ratios disclosed the majority of the females to be nonlocal, while this is the case for only a few males and subadults. Most nonlocal females arrived in the study area as adults, but we do not detect their offspring among the sampled individuals. The striking patterns of patrilocality and female exogamy prevailed over at least 800 y between about 2500 and 1700 BC. The persisting residential rules and even a direct kinship relation across the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age add to the archaeological evidence of continuing traditions from the Bell Beaker Complex to the Early Bronze Age. The results also attest to female mobility as a driving force for regional and supraregional communication and exchange at the dawn of the European metal ages.
We present a high-resolution cross-disciplinary analysis of kinship structure and social institutions in two Late Copper Age Bell Beaker culture cemeteries of South Germany containing 24 and 18 ...burials, of which 34 provided genetic information. By combining archaeological, anthropological, genetic and isotopic evidence we are able to document the internal kinship and residency structure of the cemeteries and the socially organizing principles of these local communities. The buried individuals represent four to six generations of two family groups, one nuclear family at the Alburg cemetery, and one seemingly more extended at Irlbach. While likely monogamous, they practiced exogamy, as six out of eight non-locals are women. Maternal genetic diversity is high with 23 different mitochondrial haplotypes from 34 individuals, whereas all males belong to one single Y-chromosome haplogroup without any detectable contribution from Y-chromosomes typical of the farmers who had been the sole inhabitants of the region hundreds of years before. This provides evidence for the society being patrilocal, perhaps as a way of protecting property among the male line, while in-marriage from many different places secured social and political networks and prevented inbreeding. We also find evidence that the communities practiced selection for which of their children (aged 0-14 years) received a proper burial, as buried juveniles were in all but one case boys, suggesting the priority of young males in the cemeteries. This is plausibly linked to the exchange of foster children as part of an expansionist kinship system which is well attested from later Indo-European-speaking cultural groups.
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Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Covering vast swathes of Europe, the Bell Beaker Phenomenon has enjoyed a privileged status in the history of archaeology and is often referred to as a key period in the transition from the Neolithic ...to the Bronze Age partly due to the emergence of social élites. After a brief presentation of the historiography of the Bell Beaker phenomenon, this Element offers a synthetic account of the available evidence structured on a regional basis. Following the renewed interest in human mobility generated by stable isotopes and ancient DNA studies, the central thesis developed here is that the Bell Beaker Phenomenon can adequately be described as a metapopulation, a concept borrowed from population ecology. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Статья посвящена анализу механизмов формирования средневолжской абашевской культуры. Она сформировалась в условиях резкой аридизации периода 2200 CalBC. Ее возникновение имело взрывной и скоротечный ...характер. Большинство стандартов обрядово-инвентарного комплекса культуры не имеют местных прототипов, а появляются в регионе в уже сложившимся виде. Это касается как погребального обряда, так и материальной культуры, где новации ярче всего прослеживаются в керамике и гарнитуре украшений, которые, как известно, могут выступать в качестве этнографических индикаторов. Структурные аналогии всему комплексу средневолжских абашевских новшеств можно найти в культуре колоколовидных кубков и раннебронзовых культурах периода Bz A1, по П. Рейнеке, в Центральной Европе и карпато-дунайском регионе. На основании этого можно сделать вывод, что формирование абашевской культуры связано с дальнедистанционной миграцией отдельных групп европейского населения из указанных регионов в Среднее Поволжье. Их контакт с местными фатьяновско-балановскими социумами привел к возникновению такой яркой и самобытной культуры как средневолжская абашевская.
Der vorliegende Beitrag bietet eine kurze Übersicht diverser, den Beginn sozialer Stratifikation anzeigender Bestattungssitten in Kulturen des ausgehenden Äneolithikums in Mähren. Bestattungssitten ...werden im Beitrag als ein ritualisiertes Spiegelbild prähistorischer Realitäten verstanden, bei denen Grabbeigaben symbolische Rollen übernehmen, etwa Zugehörigkeit oder Identität. Die Grabausstattung kann gleichzeitig auch die Position des Verstorbenen in Gesellschaft und Handwerk spiegeln.
Soziale Unterschiede zeigen sich bei den untersuchten Einheiten durch Allokation in isolierten Lagen oder innerhalb kleiner Grabgruppen, anhand ausgeprägter Grabarchitekturen (innere Grabkonstruktion, die Gräber umgebende Kreisgräben, Totenhäuser) sowie durch zahlreiche und verschiedenartige Grabbeigaben (einschließlich prestigeträchtiger Objektkombinationen – „Pakete“) als Manifestation gesellschaftlicher Stellung, Macht und Identität. Am wenigsten lässt sich dies in der Protoaunjetitzer Kultur erkennen.
Eine spezielle Kategorie umfasst die Bestattungen reicher Männer, die als Metallurgen angesprochen werden und in der Glockenbecherkultur klar dominieren. In der Anfangsphase der Glockenbecherkultur können wir sogar von Bestattungen gesellschaftlicher Eliten sprechen.
The paper considers an analysis of the formation mechanisms of the Middle Volga Abashevo culture. It was formed in conditions of a sharp aridization of the period 2200 CalBC. Its occurrence was rapid ...and abrupt. Most of the standards of the ritual and inventory complex of the culture do not have local prototypes. They appeared in the region in an already established form. This applies to both the funeral rite and material culture, where innovations are most clearly seen in ceramics and jewelry sets, which, as is known, can act as ethnographic indicators. Structural analogies to the entire complex of the Middle Volga Abashevo innovations can be found in the culture of Bell Beaker Culture and Early Bronze cultures of the Bz A1 period, according to P. Reinecke, in Central Europe and the Carpathian-Danube region. Based on this, one can conclude that the formation of the Abashevo culture is associated with long-distance migration of certain groups of the European population from these regions to the Middle Volga region. Their contact with the local Fatyanovo–Balanovo communities led to the emergence of such a bright and original culture as the Middle Volga Abashevo.
Practice and Prestige: An Exploration of Neolithic Warfare, Bell Beaker Archery, and Social Stratification from an Anthropological Perspective investigates the appearance of the ‘archer’s package’ in ...select Bell Beaker burials raising questions of daily life, warfare, and social stratification during the Neolithic period. It draws on a recent study by the author that applied an anthropological methodology to assess the bone morphology of these skeletons for signs of specialised archery activity. These analyses revealed results at both a population as well as an individual level. In order to contextualise these osteological findings, the book explores the evidence for warfare and archery throughout the Neolithic period in general and the Bell Beaker period in particular. This perspective considers warfare to be a primary function of archery, thereby associating ‘archer’ burials with concepts of warfare and the warrior. A second perspective delves into prehistoric concepts of specialisation and social hierarchy in order to situate archers, archery, and warfare within potentially stratified populations. These two perspectives allow for the contextualisation of the anthropological results within a broad archaeological framework in which archers and archery were prominent parts of a complex Bell Beaker society.
En este artículo se presentan las principales aportaciones de la micromorfología al estudio del hipogeo del Carrer París (Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona), datado entre 2878-2206 cal bc. El hipogeo ...del Carrer París comienza a utilizarse antes de la adopción del complejo campaniforme localizándose un primer nivel de inhumación colectiva propio del Neolítico Final-Calcolítico. Le seguirán tres episodios de inhumaciones asociadas a vasos campaniformes de diferentes tipologías. El uso continuado del sepulcro pone de manifiesto la evolución de las prácticas funerarias propias del Neolítico hacia una progresiva tendencia a la individualización de las inhumaciones paralela a la adopción de las cerámicas campaniformes.