Regulus
Regular Member
The Beaker folk have come up a few times recently. After seeing input from Maciamo, Taranis, Sparkey, and particularly Brennus, I realized that I had probably taken too much for granted through the years and consequently thought that we should look into the topic more deeply. Plus, I couldn’t locate a source that I needed.
In most publications that were made well over twenty years ago, the trend seems to have been to hold that identity of the Beaker Folk should be tied in with the movements of the earliest proto-Celts (or proto Italo-Celts/Celto Ligurians, depending one’s preference) into Western Europe. The movements were often described as being consistent with either the early Bronze Age or at least starting within the late Chalcolithic, which refers to the use of both copper and stone. The movements were believed by these to have gone from east to West.
Some historians and archaeologists, though, held that the movements should be seen as going from West to East and therefore the Bell Beaker culture should be seen as a cultural phenomenon only. This position may be supported by some of those that believe that Celtic culture began in certain parts of Western Europe. The consequence of this was to disassociate the Beaker Folk from IE peoples and to begin treating the term "Celtic" as purely a linguistic or cultural one.
The second position seems to have gained the ascendancy in later years.
Concerning the Beaker folk, I had been inclined myself to the latter version in recent years but the recent discussions sparked a realization that in doing so I was potentially being in a contradictory position with myself. I have for a long time strongly held that proto-IE peoples speaking the centum isogloss moved into Western Europe in a number of waves. Some of these were a steady dribble, others consisted of larger groups. I decided to look at the topic again. I came across the article that can be located by cutting and pasting the link. It gives a fairly thorough treatment of both the Beaker culture and the corresponding groups of people that we know from history such as Celts, Ligurians, and Italics. Since joining the forum, I have tried to avoid clogging up threads with posts of maps and long citations, but I thought that the ones I am including today will be of help and may stimulate discussion.
http://www.buildinghistory.org/distantpast/bellbeaker.shtml
I could not bring the maps up to a size that I wanted, but they do zoom if they are clicked on.
One or course provides a possible look at the Italo-Celt distribution. An interesting aspect of the map is that it marks where the difference between Italic and Celt is not so clear thereby indicating the Ligurian zone, along with similar cultures.
The Stelae map was one that I had never seen. If the movements indicated on the map are correct, we could see an explanation of how the belief that the Beaker folk moved east came to be. It appears to show a westward movement that later turns north from two places in Iberia. Dating derived from finds such as these could easily have led archaeologists to determine that the movement went west.
Aside from the short treatment of the Basques in the article, which would not be part of the topic (Also I was not sure enough to say that I agreed or disagreed with it), the article itself appears to be very thorough yet short enough to be digestible. A pretty strong case for the older position tying the Beaker Folk identity more tightly with the first proto Celtic/Ligurian/Italics is made, thus making them likely carriers of the IE language into Western Europe
In most publications that were made well over twenty years ago, the trend seems to have been to hold that identity of the Beaker Folk should be tied in with the movements of the earliest proto-Celts (or proto Italo-Celts/Celto Ligurians, depending one’s preference) into Western Europe. The movements were often described as being consistent with either the early Bronze Age or at least starting within the late Chalcolithic, which refers to the use of both copper and stone. The movements were believed by these to have gone from east to West.
Some historians and archaeologists, though, held that the movements should be seen as going from West to East and therefore the Bell Beaker culture should be seen as a cultural phenomenon only. This position may be supported by some of those that believe that Celtic culture began in certain parts of Western Europe. The consequence of this was to disassociate the Beaker Folk from IE peoples and to begin treating the term "Celtic" as purely a linguistic or cultural one.
The second position seems to have gained the ascendancy in later years.
Concerning the Beaker folk, I had been inclined myself to the latter version in recent years but the recent discussions sparked a realization that in doing so I was potentially being in a contradictory position with myself. I have for a long time strongly held that proto-IE peoples speaking the centum isogloss moved into Western Europe in a number of waves. Some of these were a steady dribble, others consisted of larger groups. I decided to look at the topic again. I came across the article that can be located by cutting and pasting the link. It gives a fairly thorough treatment of both the Beaker culture and the corresponding groups of people that we know from history such as Celts, Ligurians, and Italics. Since joining the forum, I have tried to avoid clogging up threads with posts of maps and long citations, but I thought that the ones I am including today will be of help and may stimulate discussion.
http://www.buildinghistory.org/distantpast/bellbeaker.shtml
I could not bring the maps up to a size that I wanted, but they do zoom if they are clicked on.
One or course provides a possible look at the Italo-Celt distribution. An interesting aspect of the map is that it marks where the difference between Italic and Celt is not so clear thereby indicating the Ligurian zone, along with similar cultures.
The Stelae map was one that I had never seen. If the movements indicated on the map are correct, we could see an explanation of how the belief that the Beaker folk moved east came to be. It appears to show a westward movement that later turns north from two places in Iberia. Dating derived from finds such as these could easily have led archaeologists to determine that the movement went west.
Aside from the short treatment of the Basques in the article, which would not be part of the topic (Also I was not sure enough to say that I agreed or disagreed with it), the article itself appears to be very thorough yet short enough to be digestible. A pretty strong case for the older position tying the Beaker Folk identity more tightly with the first proto Celtic/Ligurian/Italics is made, thus making them likely carriers of the IE language into Western Europe