In: Yamnaya Interactions. Proceedings of the International Workshop held in Helsinki, 25-26 April 2019, edited by V. Heyd, G. Kulcsár & B. Preda-Bălănică. The Yamnaya Impact of Prehistoric Europe 2 (Budapest: Archaeolingua), 383-414. , 2021
Mobility and migrations are key factors for understanding cultural change. Since the advent of mo... more Mobility and migrations are key factors for understanding cultural change. Since the advent of mobility isotopes and especially ancient DNA studies, this fact is in no prehistoric periods so obvious as in the Early Neolithic of the 7th/6th millennium BC and the Copper Age/Early Bronze Age transition of the 4th/3rd millennium BC. However, especially for the 3rd millennium BC, there is no consensus on the scale, size, extent, directions, and speed of events. We likewise lack good conceptualisations and explanations for the mechanisms behind people moving. Here, an attempt is being made to describe essentials of four events in which archaeology and genetic studies regard recognisable quantities of peoples moving westwards: 1) Yamnaya; 2) Early Corded Ware; 3) Later Corded Ware; and 4) ‘steppe’ Bell Beaker. Emphasised is the importance of the geography in the understanding of regional transmissions. Particularly discussed are the roles of versatile/volatile boundaries of the Eastern European forest-steppe region between the Dnieper and Dniester rivers for the formation of Corded Ware, and of the Central European Upper Rhine river region in the border triangle of France, Germany and Switzerland for ‘steppe’ Bell Beaker users. Highlighted are also possible origins of the typical gender-differentiated burial custom of Corded Ware and Bell Beaker cultures in the north-Pontic Zhivotilovka-Volchansk group; the importance of Bohemia and the Elbe river in the earliest spread and first consolidation of Corded Ware users; and the ‘Beakerisation’ of central and southern France rather happening from the east than from the Iberian peninsula.
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Following the successful first ‘The Transformation of Europe in the Third Millennium BC’ conference in October 25–28, 2023 in Riva del Garda, Trento, Italy, 25 years after the International Conference “Bell Beakers Today” (see also: www.TransformEurope1Riva2023.com), we are now preparing for the second ‘Transformation’ event. As anticipated, this second conference --under the local guidance of Gabriella Kulcsár, the Institute of Archaeology HUN-REN RCH, and funding by the ERC YMPACT project and National Cultural Fund of Hungary-- will be held in Budapest in April 24–27, 2024, in the Research Centre for Human Sciences of Hungarian Academy of Sciences. It will cover the late Fourth and first half of the Third Millennium BC, and here particularly Yamnaya, Globular Amphoras and Corded Wares in the east, center and north of the Continent. There will be the following six thematic sessions:
1) Early Steppe interactions from the mid to the end of Fourth Millennium BC between Caucasus and Carpathians;
2) Yamnaya divided? Yamnaya East – Yamnaya West;
3) In the Carpathian Basin and around at the end of Fourth and in the first half of the Third Millennium BC;
4) Globular Amphoras in changing worlds; and
5) Corded Wares and parallel societies in the Third Millennium BC.
6) A special session at the end of the conference will be devoted to the ‘Big Picture’ of Eurasia, bringing also both conferences together, while altogether emphasizing migrations, interactions/admixture and cultural change.
We are looking forward to seeing you in Budapest, either in person or via our remote streaming option. For both, please register at: www.TransformEurope2Budapest2024.com
Volker Heyd (University of Helsinki, Finland)
Franco Nicolis (Archaeological Heritage Office, Trento, Italy)
Gabriella Kulcsár (Hungarian Research Network, Budapest, Hungary)
Exactly 25 years after the ‘Bell Beakers Today’ international conference in Riva del Garda / Italy, scholars from across Europe have committed themselves to participating in a momentous scientific event. Under the umbrella title of 'The Transformation of Europe in the Third Millennium BC', two distinct conferences, however mirroring each other, will be held in two different parts of Europe six months apart.
The sole purpose for these two meetings will be to develop and deepen, through an interdisciplinary approach, all aspects that in recent years have contributed to outlining a new interpretative framework of the cultural and social transformation of Europe in the Third Millennium BC. Scholars will pursue such in a constructive dialogue between archaeology, anthropology, genetics/genomics, linguistics and other biological and environmental disciplines.
The first meeting, over four days with 26 lecture contributions organized in six sessions with two keynotes each, will take place in October 25-28, 2023 in the Centro Congressi of Riva del Garda, Trentino, Italy. Its focus will be on the mid and second half of the Third Millennium BC, particularly Bell Beakers in the west and south. Check out the programme on the site www.TransformEurope1Riva2023.com
The second meeting will then be held in Budapest in April 24-27, 2024 and will cover the late Fourth and first half of the Third Millennium BC, here particularly Yamnaya, Globular Amphoras and Corded Wares in the east, center and north. The conference webpage will be published later.
We are looking forward seeing you in Riva del Garda and later in Budapest, either in person or via the remote option. Access, upon registration via the website, is free of charge.
Franco Nicolis (Archaeological Heritage Office, Trento, Italy)
Volker Heyd (University of Helsinki, Finland)
Gabriella Kulcsár (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary)
Abstract
From around 2750 to 2500 BC, Bell Beaker pottery became widespread across western and central Europe, before it disappeared between 2200 and 1800 BC. The forces that propelled its expansion are a matter of long-standing debate, and there is support for both cultural diffusion and migration having a role in this process. Here we present genome-wide data from 400 Neolithic, Copper Age and Bronze Age Europeans, including 226 individuals associated with Beaker-complex artefacts. We detected limited genetic affinity between Beaker-complex-associated individuals from Iberia and central Europe, and thus exclude migration as an important mechanism of spread between these two regions. However, migration had a key role in the further dissemination 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 expansion that had brought steppe-related ancestry into central and northern Europe over the previous centuries.
Following the successful first ‘The Transformation of Europe in the Third Millennium BC’ conference in October 25–28, 2023 in Riva del Garda, Trento, Italy, 25 years after the International Conference “Bell Beakers Today” (see also: www.TransformEurope1Riva2023.com), we are now preparing for the second ‘Transformation’ event. As anticipated, this second conference --under the local guidance of Gabriella Kulcsár, the Institute of Archaeology HUN-REN RCH, and funding by the ERC YMPACT project and National Cultural Fund of Hungary-- will be held in Budapest in April 24–27, 2024, in the Research Centre for Human Sciences of Hungarian Academy of Sciences. It will cover the late Fourth and first half of the Third Millennium BC, and here particularly Yamnaya, Globular Amphoras and Corded Wares in the east, center and north of the Continent. There will be the following six thematic sessions:
1) Early Steppe interactions from the mid to the end of Fourth Millennium BC between Caucasus and Carpathians;
2) Yamnaya divided? Yamnaya East – Yamnaya West;
3) In the Carpathian Basin and around at the end of Fourth and in the first half of the Third Millennium BC;
4) Globular Amphoras in changing worlds; and
5) Corded Wares and parallel societies in the Third Millennium BC.
6) A special session at the end of the conference will be devoted to the ‘Big Picture’ of Eurasia, bringing also both conferences together, while altogether emphasizing migrations, interactions/admixture and cultural change.
We are looking forward to seeing you in Budapest, either in person or via our remote streaming option. For both, please register at: www.TransformEurope2Budapest2024.com
Volker Heyd (University of Helsinki, Finland)
Franco Nicolis (Archaeological Heritage Office, Trento, Italy)
Gabriella Kulcsár (Hungarian Research Network, Budapest, Hungary)
Exactly 25 years after the ‘Bell Beakers Today’ international conference in Riva del Garda / Italy, scholars from across Europe have committed themselves to participating in a momentous scientific event. Under the umbrella title of 'The Transformation of Europe in the Third Millennium BC', two distinct conferences, however mirroring each other, will be held in two different parts of Europe six months apart.
The sole purpose for these two meetings will be to develop and deepen, through an interdisciplinary approach, all aspects that in recent years have contributed to outlining a new interpretative framework of the cultural and social transformation of Europe in the Third Millennium BC. Scholars will pursue such in a constructive dialogue between archaeology, anthropology, genetics/genomics, linguistics and other biological and environmental disciplines.
The first meeting, over four days with 26 lecture contributions organized in six sessions with two keynotes each, will take place in October 25-28, 2023 in the Centro Congressi of Riva del Garda, Trentino, Italy. Its focus will be on the mid and second half of the Third Millennium BC, particularly Bell Beakers in the west and south. Check out the programme on the site www.TransformEurope1Riva2023.com
The second meeting will then be held in Budapest in April 24-27, 2024 and will cover the late Fourth and first half of the Third Millennium BC, here particularly Yamnaya, Globular Amphoras and Corded Wares in the east, center and north. The conference webpage will be published later.
We are looking forward seeing you in Riva del Garda and later in Budapest, either in person or via the remote option. Access, upon registration via the website, is free of charge.
Franco Nicolis (Archaeological Heritage Office, Trento, Italy)
Volker Heyd (University of Helsinki, Finland)
Gabriella Kulcsár (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary)
Abstract
From around 2750 to 2500 BC, Bell Beaker pottery became widespread across western and central Europe, before it disappeared between 2200 and 1800 BC. The forces that propelled its expansion are a matter of long-standing debate, and there is support for both cultural diffusion and migration having a role in this process. Here we present genome-wide data from 400 Neolithic, Copper Age and Bronze Age Europeans, including 226 individuals associated with Beaker-complex artefacts. We detected limited genetic affinity between Beaker-complex-associated individuals from Iberia and central Europe, and thus exclude migration as an important mechanism of spread between these two regions. However, migration had a key role in the further dissemination 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 expansion that had brought steppe-related ancestry into central and northern Europe over the previous centuries.
The chronology of the Early Bronze Age (EBA) in Central Europe, both relative and absolute, has witnessed some turbulent developments over the past few years. The increased amount of absolute dates (AMS 14C, some dendro), but also a new level in the quality of individual 14C dates, gave rise to a number of new regional studies. At the same time, year over year several new cemeteries, settlements and hoards are dug up, published and being discussed in scholarly circles. This also permitted to better recognize discrepancies and common ground between the various relevant regions, most of which still use a periodization and terminology based on the almost 100 years old system introduced by Paul Reinecke, albeit adjusted to the needs of the individual regions (as by Christlein, Ruckdeschel, Neugebauer, Bertemes, Moucha, Novotná).
In the first place, the state of art for the relative and absolute chronology of the EBA in Central Europe, as well as the periodization systems used, will need to be questioned. In doing so, the starting point will be the Reinecke system itself and what it still means for the individual regions today: How do we define his individual phases today? How are they to be interpreted? Do they mean the same thing in different regions? Are the individual phases really synchronous all along the Danube? Do we need to move beyond and offer new solutions? We obviously do, but should we throw out the baby with bathwater either, ie. abolishing the Reinecke system altogether?
Other questions that need to be addressed concern the meaning of the cultural diversity that one can witness in Central Europe at this period. We see a lot of diversity, but also much of overlapping elements, occurring (synchronously?) across a number of cultural groups. We will have to address the issues of continuity and change, as well as aspects of human mobility, often associated with several of the changes observed. And all of these need to be discussed in the frame of identity and perhaps ethnicity concepts: What kind of group identity do we encounter? Is the cultural concept still valid? What is the role of current and future aDNA investigations? One observes a lot of permeability and creativity particularly in terms of material culture. Nevertheless, keeping the traditional concepts is becoming increasingly difficult…