Genome studies provide information about Eurasian Bronze Age migrations, culture, language
Scholars want to understand the origins of modern Indo-European languages. Ancient DNA may help.
It's
tricky studying the history of a time when no one wrote things down.
Archaeology pieces together how people lived in the past by studying
artifacts they left behind; linguistics by analyzing newer languages to
reconstruct the old
This
week, another branch of science -- genetics -- gave the exercise a try,
as two separate teams of scientists published reports detailing how
they used DNA to map out human migrations that took place thousands of
years ago. Their discoveries helped shed light on decades-old questions
about the origins of European languages.
At
issue is anthropologists' understanding of the huge cultural changes
that swept through during the Bronze Age in Europe and Central Asia,
around 3000 B.C. to 1,000 B.C. Some scholars have argued that the spread
of new cultures at the time was the result of people staying in place
and spreading their ideas. Others believe that populations relocated,
migrating and carrying their way of life -- and perhaps, the rudiments
of the languages we speak today -- with them.
In the two new studies, both published by the journal
Nature, genetics researchers bolstered one side of the argument: that it was people, not ideas, who did the moving.
"Our
findings show that these transformations involved migrations," wrote
University of Copenhagen evolutionary biologist Eske Willerslev and his
coauthors, in
one of the reports.
Combined, Willerslev's study and
a separate effort
led by Harvard Medical School geneticist David Reich looked at DNA from
the remains of 170 individuals who lived across Europe and Central Asia
between about 6,000 B.C. to 900 B.C.
Because the DNA samples were
very old, their quality was relatively poor. But they were good enough,
wrote University of Chicago geneticist John Novembre in
an editorial accompanying the studies, to "discern broad brushstrokes of human migration."
Significantly,
both teams noticed strong genetic similarities between members of the
early Bronze Age Yamnaya culture, of the Russian steppes, and members of
the later Corded Ware culture, of central Europe -- suggesting that
Yamnaya people had migrated north and west.
That supports the
so-called steppe hypothesis, which argues that the precursor of today's
Indo-European languages (such as Hindi, Germanic, Romance and Slavic
tongues) originated from the steppes and was spread through Europe by
members of the Corded Ware culture.
"Ancient DNA cannot prove how
language spread, of course ... but expansions of Yamnaya-related peoples
add weight to the steppe hypothesis. If genes were moving en masse, it
is likely that words were, too," Novembre wrote. "It will be exciting to
see what the careful use of ancient DNA will reveal about the history
of other language families and their speakers."
Corded Ware culture
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chalcolithic
Eneolithic, Aeneolithic
or Copper Age
|
↑ Stone Age
↑ Neolithic |
- Naqada culture Uruk period, Halaf culture
- Pit Grave culture, Corded Ware
- Cernavodă culture, Decea MureÅŸului culture, GorneÅŸti culture, GumelniÅ£a–Karanovo culture, PetreÅŸti culture, Usatovo culture
- Remedello culture, Gaudo culture
- Ahar-Banas culture, Jorwe
|
Metallurgy, Wheel,
Domestication of the horse,
|
| ↓ Bronze Age |
Boat-shaped battle axe from
Närke
The
Corded Ware culture (
German:
Schnurkeramik;
French:
ceramique cordée;
Dutch:
touwbekercultuur;
[1] in Middle Europe c. 2900–2450/2350 cal. BC),
[2] alternatively characterized as the
Battle Axe culture or
Single Grave culture, is an enormous European
archaeological horizon that begins in the late
Neolithic (
Stone Age), flourishes through the
Copper Age and culminates in the early
Bronze Age. Other terms are
corded pottery and
corded ceramic, the latter being a calque in translations.
The Corded Ware culture is the major north and central European cultural grouping of the Copper Age, stretching from the
Netherlands and
Switzerland in the west, across southern
Scandinavia and
Central Europe as far east as the upper
Volga (
Fatyanovo–Balanovo culture) and middle
Dnieper (
Middle Dnieper culture). The culture is reflected primarily by its burials, which consisted of
inhumation under
tumulus with various artifacts (notably battle-axes). Corded Ware coincides considerably with the earlier north-central European
Funnelbeaker culture
(TRB), with which it shares a similar physical type and several
cultural characteristics, suggesting that the Corded Ware originated
with the TRB at least in some regions.
[3] In other regions the Corded Ware appears to herald a new culture and physical type.
[3]
Because of their possession of both the
horse and
wheeled
vehicles, apparent warlike propensities, wide area of distribution and
rapid intrusive expansion at the assumed time of the dispersal of
Indo-European languages, the Corded Ware culture was originally suggested as the
Urheimat of the
Proto-Indo-Europeans.
[3] Today, a Corded Ware origin of these characteristics has lost currency in favour of an origin in the
Black Sea-
Caspian region, although this has been criticized.
[3] Corded Ware is however still generally considered ancestral to the
Celts,
Germanic peoples,
Balts and
Slavs.
[3] According to
J. P. Mallory the origins and dispersal of Corded Ware culture is one of the pivotal unresolved issues of the Indo-European Urheimat problem.
[3]
Extent
It encompassed most of continental northern Europe from the
Rhine River on the west, to the
Volga River in the east, including most of modern-day
Germany, the
Netherlands,
Denmark,
Poland,
Lithuania,
Latvia,
Estonia,
Belarus,
Czech Republic,
Slovakia, northwestern
Romania, northern
Ukraine, and the European part of
Russia, as well as coastal
Norway and the southern portions of
Sweden and
Finland.
The contemporary
Beaker culture overlapped with the western extremity of this culture, west of the
Elbe,
and may have contributed to the pan-European spread of that culture.
Although a similar social organization and settlement pattern to the
Beaker were adopted, the Corded Ware group lacked the new refinements
made possible through trade and communication by sea and rivers.
[4]
Nomenclature
It receives its name
Corded Ware from the ornamentation of its characteristic
pottery,
Single Grave from its burial custom, and
Battle Axe from its characteristic grave offering to males, a stone
battle axe.
Origins and development
Concerning the origin of the Corded Ware culture, there is broadly a
division between archaeologists who see an influence from pastoral
societies of the steppes north of the Black Sea and those who think that
Corded Ware springs from central Europe.
In places a continuity between Funnelbeaker and Corded Ware can be
demonstrated, whereas in other areas Corded Ware heralds a new culture
and physical type.
[3]
On most of the immense, continental expanse that it covered, the
culture was clearly intrusive, and therefore represents one of the most
impressive and revolutionary cultural changes attested by archeology.
[4]
The degree to which cultural change generally represents immigration is
a matter of debate, and such debate has figured strongly in discussions
of Corded Ware.
Corded Ware ceramic forms in single graves develop earlier in area
that is now Poland than in western and southern Central Europe.
[5] The earliest radiocarbon dates for Corded Ware come from
Kujavia and
Małopolska
in central and southern Poland and point to the period around 3000 BC.
(It must be noted that this study is limited to Middle Europe.)
Carbon-14 dating of the remaining central European regions shows that
Corded Ware appeared after 2880 BC
[6] It spread to the
Lüneburger Heide
and then further to the North European Plain, Rhineland, Switzerland,
Scandinavia, the Baltic region and Russia to Moscow, where the culture
met with the pastoralists considered indigenous to the steppes.
[4]
In the western regions this revolution has been proposed to be a
quick, smooth and internal change that occurred at the preceding
Funnelbeaker culture, having its origin in the direction of eastern
Germany.
[7] Whereas in the area of the present
Baltic states and Kaliningrad Oblast (former
East Prussia), it is seen as an intrusive successor to the southwestern portion of the
Narva culture.
In summary, Corded Ware does not represent a single monolithic
entity, but rather a diffusion of technological and cultural innovations
of different, contemporaneous peoples, living in close proximity to
each other and leaving different archaeological remains.
In 2015 researchers reported that, based on the DNA analysis of 98
ancient skeletons from Europe and Russia, there had been a massive
migration of
Yamna culture
people from the North Pontic steppe into Europe about 4,500 years ago.
About 75% of the DNA of late Neolithic Corded Ware skeletons found in
Germany were the same as the Yamnaya DNA.
[8][9]
Economy
There are very few discovered settlements, which led to the
traditional view of this culture as exclusively nomadic pastoralists.
However, this view was modified, as some evidence of sedentary farming
emerged. Traces of
Emmer wheat,
bread wheat and
barley were found at a Corded Ware site at
Bronocice in south-east
Poland. Wheeled vehicles (presumably drawn by oxen) are in evidence, a continuation from the Funnelbeaker culture era.
[3]
Cows' milk was used systematically from 3400 BC onwards in the northern
Alpine foreland.
Sheep were kept more frequently in the western part of
Switzerland
due to the stronger Mediterranean influence. Changes in slaughter age
and animal size are possibly evidence for sheep being kept for their
wool at Corded Ware sites in this region.
[10]
Graves
Inhumation occurred in
flat graves or below small
tumuli
in a flexed position; on the continent males lay on their right side,
females on the left, with the faces of both oriented to the south.
However, in Sweden and also parts of northern Poland the graves were
oriented north-south, men lay on their left side and women on the right
side - both facing east. Originally, there was probably a wooden
construction, since the graves are often positioned in a line. This is
in contrast with practices in Denmark where the dead were buried below
small mounds with a vertical stratigraphy: the oldest below the ground,
the second above this grave, and occasionally even a third burial above
those. Other types of burials are the niche-graves of Poland.
Grave goods for men typically included a stone
battle-axe.
Pottery in the shape of beakers and other types are the most common
burial gifts, generally speaking. These were often decorated with cord,
sometimes with incisions and other types of impressions.
The approximately contemporary
Beaker culture
had similar burial traditions, and together they covered most of
Western and Central Europe. While broadly related to the Corded Ware
culture, the origins of the
Bell-Beaker folk are considerably more obscure, and represent one of the mysteries of European pre-history.
In April 2011, it was reported that a deviant Corded Ware burial had been discovered in a suburb of
Prague.
[11]
The remains, believed to be male, were orientated in the same way as
women's burials and were not accompanied by any gender-specific grave
goods. The excavators suggested the grave may have been that of a
"member of a so-called third gender, which were people either with
different sexual orientation or transsexuals or just people who
identified themselves differently from the rest of the society",
[11] while media reports heralded the discovery of the world's first "gay caveman".
[12][13]
Archaeologists and biological anthropologists criticised media coverage
as sensationalist. "If this burial represents a transgendered
individual (as well it could), that doesn't necessarily mean the person
had a 'different sexual orientation' and certainly doesn't mean that he
would have considered himself (or that his culture would have considered
him) 'homosexual,'" anthropologist Kristina Killgrove commented. Other
items of criticism were that someone buried in the Copper Age was not a "
caveman" and that identifying the sex of skeletal remains is difficult and inexact.
[14] A detailed account of the burial has not yet appeared in the scientific literature.
Diffusion of metallurgy in
Europe and
Asia Minor. The darkest areas are the oldest.
Subgroups
Corded Ware culture
The prototypal
Corded Ware culture, German
Schnurkeramikkultur,
is found in Central Europe, mainly Germany and Poland, and refers to
the characteristic pottery of the era: twisted cord was impressed into
the wet clay to create various decorative patterns and motifs. It is
known mostly from its burials, and both sexes received the
characteristic cord-decorated pottery. Whether made of flax or hemp,
they had
rope.
Single Grave culture
General term used to refer to a series of late Neolithic communities
of the 3rd millennium BC living in Scandinavia, northern Germany, and
the Low Countries that share the practice of single burial under
barrows, the deceased usually being accompanied by a battle-axe, amber
beads, and pottery vessels. The cultural emphasis on drinking equipment
already characteristic of the early Funnelbeaker culture, reappeared
with the spread of Corded Ware traditions. Especially in the west
(Scandinavia and northern Germany), the drinking vessels have a
protruding foot and define the Protruding-Foot Beaker culture (PFB) as a
subset of the Single Grave culture.
[15] The
Bell Beaker culture has been proposed to derive from this specific branch of the Corded Ware culture.
Swedish-Norwegian Battle Axe culture
The Swedish-Norwegian Battle Axe culture, or the
Boat Axe culture, appeared ca. 2800 BC and is known from about 3000 graves from
Skåne to
Uppland and
Trøndelag. While Swedish writer
Herman Lindqvist
has referred to this as the "Age of crushed skulls", there is no
indication that this was an especially violent time, and most of the
"crushing" happened post-mortem in the ground.
[dubious – discuss]
The "battle-axes" were primarily a status object. There are strong
continuities in stone craft traditions, and very little evidence of any
type of full-scale migration, least of all a violent one. The old ways
were discontinued as the corresponding cultures on the continent
changed, and the farmers living in Scandinavia took part in those
changes since they belonged to the same network. Settlements on small,
separate farmsteads without any defensive protection is also a strong
argument against the people living there being aggressors. Recently also
the mixture of this culture with Barbed Wire Beaker culture elements
from the west that reached until Sweden in the Late Neolithic, probably
ultimately derived from the same Corded Ware stock, has come into the
picture.
[16]
About 3000 battle axes have been found, in sites distributed over all of Scandinavia, but they are sparse in
Norrland
and northern Norway. Less than 100 settlements are known, and their
remains are negligible as they are located on continually used farmland,
and have consequently been plowed away.
Einar Østmo reports sites inside the
Arctic Circle in the
Lofoten Islands, and as far north as the present city of
Tromsø.
The Swedish-Norwegian Battle Axe culture/Boat Axe culture was based
on the same agricultural practices as the previous Funnelbeaker culture,
but the appearance of metal changed the social system. This is marked
by the fact that the Funnelbeaker culture had collective
megalithic
graves with a great deal of sacrifices to the graves, but the Battle
Axe culture has individual graves with individual sacrifices.
A new aspect was given to the culture in 1993, when a
death house in Turinge, in
Södermanland
was excavated. Along the once heavily timbered walls were found the
remains of about twenty clay vessels, six work axes and a battle axe,
which all came from the last period of the culture. There were also the
cremated remains of at least six people. This is the earliest find of
cremation in Scandinavia and it shows close contacts with Central Europe.
In the context of the entry of Germanic into the region, Einar Østmo
emphasizes that the Atlantic and North Sea coastal regions of
Scandinavia, and the circum-Baltic areas were united by a vigorous
maritime economy, permitting a far wider geographical spread and a
closer cultural unity than interior continental cultures could attain.
He points to the widely disseminated number of rock carvings assigned to
this era, which display "thousands" of ships. To seafaring cultures
like this one, the sea is a highway and not a divider.
Finnish Battle Axe culture
The Finnish Battle Axe culture was a mixed cattle-breeder and
hunter-gatherer culture, and one of the few in this horizon to provide rich finds from settlements.
Middle Dnieper and Fatyanovo-Balanovo cultures
The eastern outposts of the Corded Ware culture are the
Middle Dnieper culture and on the upper Volga, the
Fatyanovo-Balanovo culture.
The Middle Dnieper culture has very scant remains, but occupies the
easiest route into Central and Northern Europe from the steppe. If the
association of Battle Axe cultures with Indo-European languages is
correct, then Fatyanovo would be a culture with an Indo-European
superstratum over a Uralic
substratum,
[citation needed] and may account for some of the linguistic borrowings identified in the
Indo-Uralic
thesis. However, according to Häkkinen, the Uralic–Indo-European
contacts only start in the Corded Ware period and the Uralic expansion
into the Upper Volga region postdates it. Häkkinen accepts
Fatyanovo-Balanovo as an early Indo-European culture, but maintains that
their substratum (identified with the Volosovo culture) was neither
Uralic nor Indo-European.
[17] Genetics seems to support Häkkinen.
[citation needed]
See also
