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Funnelbeaker culture

The Funnel(-neck-)beaker culture, in short TRB or TBK (German: Trichter(-rand-)becherkultur, Dutch: Trechterbekercultuur; Danish: Tragtbægerkultur; c. 4300–2800 BCE), was an archaeological culture in north-central Europe. It developed as a technological merger of local neolithic and mesolithic techno-complexes between the lower Elbe and middle Vistula rivers. These predecessors were the (Danubian) Lengyel-influenced Stroke-ornamented ware culture (STK) groups/Late Lengyel and Baden-Boleráz in the southeast, Rössen groups in the southwest and the Ertebølle-Ellerbek groups in the north. The TRB introduced farming and husbandry as major food sources to the pottery-using hunter-gatherers north of this line.

Funnelbeaker culture
Geographical rangeEurope
PeriodNeolithic, Chalcolithic
Datesc. 4300 BCE – 2800 BCE
Preceded by
Followed by

The TRB techno-complex is divided into a northern group including northern Germany and southern Scandinavia (TRB-N, roughly the area that previously belonged to the Ertebølle-Ellerbek complex), a western group in the Netherlands between the Zuiderzee and lower Elbe that originated in the Swifterbant culture, an eastern group centered on the Vistula catchment, roughly ranging from Oder to Bug, and south-central groups (TRB-MES, Altmark) around the middle and upper Elbe and Saale. Especially in the southern and eastern groups, local sequences of variants emerged. In the late 4th millennium BCE, the Globular Amphora culture (GAC) replaced most of the eastern and subsequently also the southern TRB groups, reducing the TRB area to modern northern Germany and southern Scandinavia.

The younger TRB in these areas was superseded by the Single Grave culture (EGK) at about 2800 BCE. The north-central European megaliths were built primarily during the TRB era.

Nomenclature

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The Funnelbeaker culture is named for its characteristic ceramics, beakers and amphorae with funnel-shaped tops, which were found in dolmen burials.

History

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Skarpsalling vessel, Denmark, 3200 BCE

The Funnelbeaker culture emerged in northern modern-day Germany c. 4100 BCE.[1] Archaeological evidence strongly suggests that it originated through a migration of colonists from the Michelsberg culture of Central Europe.[1][2] The Michelsberg culture is archaeologically and genetically strongly differentiated from the preceding post-Linear Pottery cultures of Central Europe, being distinguished by increased levels of hunter-gatherer ancestry.[3] Its people were probably descended from farmers migrating into Central Europe out of Iberia and modern-day France, who in turn were descended from farmers of the Cardial Ware cultures who had migrated westwards from the Balkans along the Mediterranean coast.[4] Connections between the Funnelbeakers and these farmers of the Atlantic coast is supported by genetic evidence.[5]

After its establishment, the Funnelbeaker culture rapidly spread into southern Scandinavia and Poland, in what appears to have been a well-organized colonizing venture.[1][6] In southern Scandinavia it replaced the Ertebølle culture, which had maintained a Mesolithic lifestyle for about 1500 years after farming arrived in Central Europe.[7] The emergence of the Neolithic British Isles through maritime colonization by Michelsberg-related groups occurred almost at the same time as the expansion of the Funnelbeaker culture into Scandinavia, suggesting that these events may be connected.[8] Although they were largely of Early European Farmer (EEF) descent, people of the Funnelbeaker culture had a relatively high amount of hunter-gatherer admixture, particularly in Scandinavia, suggesting that hunter-gatherer populations were partially incorporated into it during its expansion into this region.[7] People of the Funnelbeaker culture often had between 30% and 50% hunter-gatherer ancestry depending on the region.

During later phases of the Neolithic, the Funnelbeaker culture re-expanded out of Scandinavia southwards into Central Europe, establishing several regional varieties.[6] This expansion appears to have been accompanied by significant human migration.[9] The southward expansion of the Funnelbeaker culture was accompanied by a substantial increase in hunter-gatherer lineages in Central Europe.[7] The Funnelbeaker communities in Central Europe which emerged were probably quite genetically and ethnically mixed, and archaeological evidence suggests that they were relatively violent.[10]

 
Disc-shaped stone maceheads.[11][12]

From the middle of the 4th millennium BCE, the Funnelbeaker culture was gradually replaced by the Globular Amphora culture on its southeastern fringes, and began to decline in Scandinavia.[13]

In the early 3rd millennium BCE, the Corded Ware culture appeared in Northern Europe. Its peoples were of marked steppe-related ancestry and traced their origins in cultures further east. This period is distinguished by the construction of numerous defensive palisades in Funnelbeaker territory, which may be a sign of violent conflict between the Funnelbeakers, Corded Ware, and Pitted Ware.[13] By 2650 BCE, the Funnelbeaker culture had been replaced by the Corded Ware culture.[6] Genetic studies suggest that Funnelbeaker women were incorporated into the Corded Ware culture through intermixing with incoming Corded Ware males, and that people of the Corded Ware culture continued to use Funnelbeaker megaliths as burial grounds.[14] Subsequent cultures of Late Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Iron Age Central Europe display strong maternal genetic affinity with the Funnelbeaker culture.[15]

Distribution

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The TRB ranges from the Elbe catchment in Germany and Bohemia with a western extension into the Netherlands, to southern Scandinavia (Denmark up to Uppland in Sweden and the Oslofjord in Norway) in the north, and to the Vistula catchment in Poland and the area between Dnister and Western Bug headwaters in Ukraine in the east.

Variants of the Funnelbeaker culture in or near the Elbe catchment area include the Tiefstich pottery group in northern Germany as well as the cultures of the Baalberge group (TRB-MES II and III; MES = Mittelelbe-Saale), the Salzmünde and Walternienburg and Bernburg (all TRB-MES IV) whose centres were in Saxony-Anhalt.

Characteristics

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Settlements

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Reconstruction of a Funnelbeaker culture house

With the exception of some inland settlements such as the Alvastra pile-dwelling, the settlements are located near those of the previous Ertebølle culture on the coast. It was characterized by single-family daubed houses c. 12 m x 6 m.

Economy

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The Funnelbeaker culture was dominated by animal husbandry of sheep, cattle, pigs and goats, but there was also hunting and fishing. Primitive wheat and barley was grown on small patches that were fast depleted, due to which the population frequently moved small distances. There was also mining (in the Malmö region) and collection of flintstone (Świętokrzyskie Mountains), which was traded into regions lacking the stone, such as the Scandinavian hinterland. The culture used copper from Silesia, especially daggers and axes.

Technology

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See also: Bullock cart, Wagon, and Wheel

The Funnelbeaker Culture preserves the oldest dated evidence of wheeled vehicles in middle Europe.[16] One example is the engraving on a ceramic tureen from Bronocice in Poland on the northern edge of the Beskidy Mountains (northern Carpathian ring), which is indirectly dated to the time span from 3636 to 3373 BCE and is the oldest evidence for covered carriages in Central Europe.[17] They were drawn by cattle, presumably oxen whose remains were found with the pot. Today it is housed in the Archaeological Museum of Cracow (Muzeum Archeologiczne w Krakowie), Poland.

At Flintbek in northern Germany cart tracks dating from c. 3400 BCE were discovered underneath a megalithic long barrow. This is the earliest known direct evidence for wheeled vehicles in the world (i.e. not models or images).[18][19][20][21]

Graves

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Klekkende Høj barrow, Denmark, c. 3500-2800 BCE

Houses were centered on a monumental grave, a symbol of social cohesion. Burial practices were varied depending on region and changed over time. Inhumation seems to have been the rule.

The oldest graves consisted of wooden chambered cairns inside long barrows, but were later made in the form of passage graves and dolmens. Originally, the structures were probably covered with a mound of earth and the entrance was blocked by a stone.

The Funnelbeaker culture marks the appearance of megalithic tombs at the coasts of the Baltic and of the North sea, an example of which are the Sieben Steinhäuser in northern Germany. The megalithic structures of Ireland, France and Portugal are somewhat older and have been connected to earlier archeological cultures of those areas. At graves, the people sacrificed ceramic vessels that contained food along with amber jewelry and flint-axes.

Genetic analysis of several dozen individuals found in the Funnelbeaker passage grave Frälsegården in Sweden suggest that these burials were based on a patrilineal social organisation, with the vast majority of males being ultimately descended from a single male ancestor while the women were mostly unrelated who presumably married into the family.[24]

Religion

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Flint-axes and vessels were also deposited in streams and lakes near the farmlands, and virtually all of Sweden's 10,000 flint axes that have been found from this culture were probably sacrificed in water. They also constructed large cult centres surrounded by pales, earthworks and moats. The largest one is found at Sarup on Fyn. It comprises 85,000 m2 and is estimated to have taken 8000 workdays. Another cult centre at Stävie near Lund comprises 30,000 m2.

Ethnicity

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In the context of the Kurgan hypothesis (or steppe hypothesis), the culture is seen as non-Indo-European, representing a culture of Neolithic origin, as opposed to the Indo-European-language-speaking peoples (see Yamna culture) who later intruded from the east.[25]

Marija Gimbutas postulated that the political relationship between the aboriginal and intrusive cultures resulted in quick and smooth cultural morphosis into the Corded Ware culture.[26]

In the past, a number of other archaeologists proposed that the Corded Ware culture was a purely local development of the Funnelbeaker culture,[27] but genetic evidence has since demonstrated that this was not the case.[28]

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  • Pottery, Denmark 
    Pottery, Denmark
  • Pottery, Germany 
    Pottery, Germany
  • Pottery, Germany 
    Pottery, Germany
  • Pottery, stone axe, copper necklace 
    Pottery, stone axe, copper necklace
  •  
    Gold armring, Germany, c.3500 BCE
  • Copper lunula from Lüstringen, Germany, c. 4000 BCE 
    Copper lunula from Lüstringen, Germany, c. 4000 BCE
  • Neuenkirchen Hoard copper artefacts, Germany, c. 3800 BCE 
    Neuenkirchen Hoard copper artefacts, Germany, c. 3800 BCE
  • Amber necklaces, Denmark.[29] 
    Amber necklaces, Denmark.[29]
  • Pottery, Netherlands 
    Pottery, Netherlands
  • Various artefacts, Germany 
    Various artefacts, Germany
  • Ceramic cup, Germany 
    Ceramic cup, Germany
  • Stone double-axe, Germany 
    Stone double-axe, Germany
  • Double-axe made from porphyry, Sweden 
    Double-axe made from porphyry, Sweden
  • Pottery, Poland 
    Pottery, Poland
  • Burial with poppies, Poland. Reconstruction. 
    Burial with poppies, Poland. Reconstruction.
  •  
    Excavated long barrow, Poland
  • Dolmen in Harhoog 
    Dolmen in Harhoog
  • Round dolmen in Gribskov 
    Round dolmen in Gribskov
  • Dolmen in North Zealand 
    Dolmen in North Zealand
  • Oval or Long dolmen near Korsør 
    Oval or Long dolmen near Korsør
  • Passage grave at Hulehøj, Bogø 
    Passage grave at Hulehøj, Bogø
  • Klekkende Høj, interior 
    Klekkende Høj, interior
  • Dolmen in Mols, Denmark 
    Dolmen in Mols, Denmark
  • Dolmen at Borger in Netherlands 
    Dolmen at Borger in Netherlands
  • Tustrup jaettestue passage grave in Denmark 
    Tustrup jaettestue passage grave in Denmark
  • Model of the Denghoog passage grave in northern Germany 
    Model of the Denghoog passage grave in northern Germany
  • Denghoog passage grave interior 
    Denghoog passage grave interior
  • Long barrow grave model 
    Long barrow grave model
  • Model of a Funnelbeaker culture house, Germany. Bomann-Museum 
    Model of a Funnelbeaker culture house, Germany. Bomann-Museum
  • House reconstruction, Poland 
    House reconstruction, Poland
  • House model, Poland, c. 3500 BCE 
    House model, Poland, c. 3500 BCE

Genetics

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Further information: Early European Farmers
See also: Pitted Ware culture § Genetics, Battle Axe culture § Genetics, and Single Grave culture § Genetics

Ancient DNA analysis has found the people who produced the Funnelbeaker culture to be genetically different from earlier hunter-gather inhabitants of the region, and are instead closely related to other European Neolithic farmers, who ultimately traced most of their ancestry from early farmers in Anatolia, with some admixture from European hunter-gatherer groups.[30][31][24] Genetic analysis suggests that there was some minor gene flow between the producers of the Funnelbeaker culture and those of the hunter-gatherer Pitted Ware culture (which descended from earlier Scandinavian hunter-gather groups) to the north.[30]

A total of 62 males from sites attributed to the Funnelbeaker culture in Scandinavia and Germany have been sequenced for ancient DNA. Most belonged to haplogroup I2 while a smaller number belonged to R1b-V88, Q-FTF30 and G2a. MtDNA haplogroups included U, H, T, R and K.[32][33][34]


See also

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Diachronic map of Neolithic migrations c. 5000–4000 BCE

Footnotes

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  1. ^ a b c Price 2015, p. 114.
  2. ^ Shennan 2018, pp. 160–163.
  3. ^ Beau et al. 2017, p. 10.
  4. ^ Beau et al. 2017.
  5. ^ Sánchez-Quinto et al. 2019, pp. 2–4.
  6. ^ a b c Brandt et al. 2013, pp. 3–4, Supplementary Data, p. 3.
  7. ^ a b c Brandt et al. 2013, pp. 3–4.
  8. ^ Shennan 2018, pp. 183–184.
  9. ^ Beau et al. 2017, p. 10. "The H-G legacy resurgence observed in the Bernburg context has been linked to the important admixture demonstrated between H-G and farmers in Scandinavia (in the North European Plain), one millennium earlier, in the context of the emergence of the Funnel Beaker Culture... The Bernburg groups, a late representative of the TRB groups in Central Europe, must have inherited their important frequencies of H-G haplogroups from their northern ancestors.
  10. ^ Alt et al. 2020, Supplementary Materials, p. 13. "The hunter-gatherer groups of central Europe apparently largely retreated to northern Europe when the early farmers arrived. From a genetic perspective, there was hardly any admixture between indigenous groups and migrant opopulations in the Early Neolithic, and the same can be said for the Carpatian Basin. It was not until the 4th millennium BCE that there was a population reflux of hunter-gatherer lineages by way of the Funnel Beaker Cultures from southern Scandinavia into central Europe. The encounter of these two worlds that in some ways were ethnically and culturally quite diverse, was characterized by an increase in violent events throughout Europe. However, this general development notwithstanding, certain parallel communities of hunter-gatherers and farmers were also established in some places. The introgression of the Funnel Beaker Culture in the 4th millennium BCE, appears to have marked the beginning of a heterogenous multi-ethnic society at least from a genetic point of view."
  11. ^ Childe, Vere Gordon (1925). The Dawn of European Civilization. Kegan Paul. p. 100. The Danubians were a peaceful folk. The only weapons found in their settlements are disc-shaped mace-heads, such as had been used by the predynastic Egyptians, and occasional flint arrow-heads.
  12. ^ "A Nordic Porphyry Macehead, Neolithic period". Christies.com.
  13. ^ a b Shennan 2018, pp. 179–181.
  14. ^ Malmström et al. 2019, p. 1.
  15. ^ Stolarek et al. 2019, pp. 5–8.
  16. ^ Compare Anthony, David A. (2007). The horse, the wheel, and language: how Bronze-Age riders from the Eurasian steppes shaped the modern world. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 67. ISBN 978-0691058870.
  17. ^ Holm, Hans J. J. G. (2019): The Earliest Wheel Finds, their Archeology and Indo-European Terminology in Time and Space, and Early Migrations around the Caucasus. Series Minor 43. Budapest: Archaeolingua Alapítvány. ISBN 978-615-5766-30-5, with a representative chronological and geographical information.
  18. ^ "3400 BCE: The oldest evidence for the use of the wheel and wagon originates from Northern Germany". Kiel University. 2022.
  19. ^ Mischka, Doris (2011). "The Neolithic burial sequence at Flintbek LA 3, north Germany, and its cart tracks: a precise chronology". Antiquity. 85 (329): 742–758. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00068289. S2CID 140571057.
  20. ^ Bockmeyer, Sarah (2016). "The earliest evidence of wheels and wagons in Neolithic Central Europe and the Early Bronze Age of the northern Pontic areas (3500–2200 BCE)".
  21. ^ Anthony, David A. (2007). The horse, the wheel, and language: how Bronze-Age riders from the Eurasian steppes shaped the modern world. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. p. 66. ISBN 978-0-691-05887-0.
  22. ^ Anthony, David (2007). The Horse, the Wheel, and Language. Princeton University Press. p. 67. ISBN 9780691148182.
  23. ^ Hansen, Svend (2014). "Gold and silver in the Maikop Culture". Tagungen des Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle. 11 (2): 389–410. Bovine figurines that can be dated to the second half of the 4th millennium BCE are found in another, completely different cultural milieu. One well known example is the yoked team of oxen (Fig. 21) found in Bytýn, woj. wielkopolskie, Poland; it is made of arsenical bronze. The figurines were found together with six flat axes near a large stone. The objects can be dated to the second half of the 4th millennium BCE. They thus belong to a time during which a series of hoards containing metal objects are known in the southern and western Baltic sphere (...) These animal figurines were all made using lost-wax casting.
  24. ^ a b Seersholm, Frederik Valeur; Sjögren, Karl-Göran; Koelman, Julia; Blank, Malou; Svensson, Emma M.; Staring, Jacqueline; Fraser, Magdalena; Pinotti, Thomaz; McColl, Hugh; Gaunitz, Charleen; Ruiz-Bedoya, Tatiana; Granehäll, Lena; Villegas-Ramirez, Berenice; Fischer, Anders; Price, T. Douglas (August 2024). "Repeated plague infections across six generations of Neolithic Farmers". Nature. 632 (8023): 114–121. doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07651-2. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 11291285.
  25. ^ Iversen, R. & Kroonen, G. 2017. Talking Neolithic: Linguistic and Archaeological Perspectives on how Indo-European was Implemented in Southern Scandinavia. American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 121, no. 4, p. 511–525.
  26. ^ Gimbutas, Marija (1997). The Kurgan Culture and the Indo-Europeanization of Europe: Selected Articles From 1952 to 1993 (Journal of Indo-European studies monograph). Institute for the Study of Man. p. 316. ISBN 9780941694568.
  27. ^ For example Pre- & protohistorie van de lage landen, onder redactie van J.H.F. Bloemers & T. van Dorp 1991. De Haan/Open Universiteit. ISBN 90-269-4448-9, NUGI 644.
  28. ^ * Haak, Wolfgang (June 11, 2015). "Massive migration from the steppe was a source for Indo-European languages in Europe". Nature. 522 (7555): 207–211. arXiv:1502.02783. Bibcode:2015Natur.522..207H. doi:10.1038/nature14317. PMC 5048219. PMID 25731166.
  29. ^ "Neolithic Amber". National Museum of Denmark.
  30. ^ a b Malmström et al. 2020, pp. 8–9.
  31. ^ Allentoft, Morten E.; Sikora, Martin; Fischer, Anders; Sjögren, Karl-Göran; Ingason, Andrés; Macleod, Ruairidh; Rosengren, Anders; Schulz Paulsson, Bettina; Jørkov, Marie Louise Schjellerup; Novosolov, Maria; Stenderup, Jesper; Price, T. Douglas; Fischer Mortensen, Morten; Nielsen, Anne Birgitte; Ulfeldt Hede, Mikkel (January 10, 2024). "100 ancient genomes show repeated population turnovers in Neolithic Denmark". Nature. 625 (7994): 329–337. doi:10.1038/s41586-023-06862-3. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 10781617. PMID 38200294. Although the Neolithic transition was delayed by more than a millennium relative to Central Europe, it was very abrupt and resulted in a population turnover with limited genetic contribution from local hunter-gatherers. The succeeding Neolithic population, associated with the Funnel Beaker culture, persisted for only about 1,000 years before immigrants with eastern Steppe-derived ancestry arrived.
  32. ^ Seersholm, Frederik Valeur; Sjögren, Karl-Göran; Koelman, Julia; Blank, Malou; Svensson, Emma M.; Staring, Jacqueline; Fraser, Magdalena; Pinotti, Thomaz; McColl, Hugh; Gaunitz, Charleen; Ruiz-Bedoya, Tatiana; Granehäll, Lena; Villegas-Ramirez, Berenice; Fischer, Anders; Price, T. Douglas (August 2024). "Repeated plague infections across six generations of Neolithic Farmers". Nature. 632 (8023): 114–121. doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07651-2. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 11291285.
  33. ^ Lipson, Mark; Szécsényi-Nagy, Anna; Mallick, Swapan; Pósa, Annamária; Stégmár, Balázs; Keerl, Victoria; Rohland, Nadin; Stewardson, Kristin; Ferry, Matthew; Michel, Megan; Oppenheimer, Jonas; Broomandkhoshbacht, Nasreen; Harney, Eadaoin; Nordenfelt, Susanne; Llamas, Bastien (November 2017). "Parallel palaeogenomic transects reveal complex genetic history of early European farmers". Nature. 551 (7680): 368–372. doi:10.1038/nature24476. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 5973800.
  34. ^ Allentoft, Morten E.; Sikora, Martin; Fischer, Anders; Sjögren, Karl-Göran; Ingason, Andrés; Macleod, Ruairidh; Rosengren, Anders; Schulz Paulsson, Bettina; Jørkov, Marie Louise Schjellerup; Novosolov, Maria; Stenderup, Jesper; Price, T. Douglas; Fischer Mortensen, Morten; Nielsen, Anne Birgitte; Ulfeldt Hede, Mikkel (January 2024). "100 ancient genomes show repeated population turnovers in Neolithic Denmark". Nature. 625 (7994): 329–337. doi:10.1038/s41586-023-06862-3. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 10781617.

Sources

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