Forensic reconstruction by Hew Morrison of 'Ava' a Bronze-Age Bell-Beaker woman
Recent DNA testing tells us that, after Britain and Ireland became colonised by the Neolithic Atlantic Façade people, the Mesolithic DNA of these islands was replaced almost totally. Then later Bronze-Age colonists once more replaced the Atlantic Façade DNA of the British and Irish, and this new DNA included genes from north-western Anatolian farmers and Yamnaya pastoralists from the Siberian steppe.
The period between 4,500 and 4,000 in Britain and Ireland has been called the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age due to difficulties in establishing a clear changeover date, but by 4,400 years ago bronze had replaced stone almost completely for tools and weapons, and rich ornamental silver- and gold-working became commonplace within a new elite class. Previously abandoned open chalk uplands were taken over by herders to became grazing lands, and new defended enclosures adjacent to small fields appeared in Cornwall. But the boundaries of these new settlement areas seem to have little reference to the ancient burial sites, cutting across them or avoiding them completely, suggesting a break between the people of the old burial sites and new inhabitants.
The Bell Beaker people
Genetic evidence published in Nature last year tells us that the earliest Bronze Age colonists in Britain and Ireland had a mixture of ancestry that included Western Hunter-Gatherers, Neolithic Anatolians, and Yamnaya Pastoralists from the Siberian Steppe. Although these so-called Bell-Beaker people are thought to have originated in northern Europe, they inherited their Yamnaya genes when they spread into the Corded-Ware territory of eastern Europe and interbred with the pastoral horse-riders and herders who lived there. Their Yamnaya DNA is thought to have introduced reduced skin and eye pigmentation in contrast to the dark skinned, brown-eyed Neolithic farmers of the Atlantic Façade.
The people of the Atlantic Façade apparently adopted some aspects of Bell-Beaker culture, but genetic evidence tells us that they did not interbreed with the Bell-Beaker people, and it seems clear that it was the pots not the people that spread the Bell-beaker culture along the Atlantic Façade. Furthermore, when the Beaker people themselves colonised Britain and Ireland, it was their genetic heritage that was passed down rather than that of the Atlantic Façade people.
So what was this culture, that so effectively took over much of Europe? It gets its name from the distinctive drinking vessels that were found throughout its society. The Corded-Ware pottery of north-eastern Europe, which is believed to have been the inspiration for Bell-Beakers, was decorated with impressed hemp cording and associated with the ritual drinking of cannabis-laced alcohol by its pastoralist makers, and this practice is thought to be the reason the drinking vessel, found in countless Beaker burials, became such an important part of Bell Beaker culture.
Bell Beaker vessel (Museo Arqueológico Nacional)
Welsh sheet-gold 'cape' (British Museum)
We now know from modern genetic studies that Bronze Age colonists continued to use the megalithic monuments that had previously been created by the people of the Atlantic Façade, as ceremonial centres . The West Kennet Long Barrow, for example, shows evidence of both Neolithic and Bronze-Age ceremonials in the form of objects deposited in its interior. Like many others of its kind, this passage grave has been described as an early church or cathedral in terms of its usage, and it continued in this usage for over a thousand years.
West Kennet Long Barrow (www.celticnz.org)
By 4,400 years ago the huge sandstone sarsens that are so evocative of modern Stonehenge were erected, and the henge was then linked by a processional avenue to another site at Durrington Walls. By this time Stonehenge was used by people from all over Britain, hosting thousands of people at midwinter and midsummer festivals who consumed animals brought from as far away as the Scottish highlands.
Stonehenge (Steve Raubenstine)
When the Bell Beaker people moved into Britain and Ireland they brought with them new genes, domesticated horses, a rise in pastoralism, and what has been called the Bell Beaker ‘status kit’ which the growing elite increasingly amassed, taking advantage of the islands’ rich resources of tin and gold. The Bell-Beaker culture disappeared between 4,200 – 3, 800 years ago, but migration from continental Europe eventually replaced 90% of the British Neolithic gene-pool.
References:
Wilde, S; et al. Direct evidence for positive selection of skin, hair, and eye pigmentation in Europeans during the last 5,000 years. Proc Natl Acad USA 2014. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1316513111
Olalde, I. et al. The Beaker Phenomenon And The Genomic Transformation Of Northwest Europe. Nature 555, 190–196 (2018).
See also:
The disappearing genes of Britain and Ireland
Mesolithic Britain and Ireland
The Atlantic Façade comes to Britain and Ireland