Appearance and Vestige of Beaker Folk (A Proxy)

Tabaccus Maximus

Tabaccus Maximus
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Galo-Germanic Atlantic Fringe
Y-DNA haplogroup
R1b - SRY 2627
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We have no depictions of Beaker people that I am aware of. But while studying the rock art of North African pastoralists, I realized that the dating of some of the rock art is contemporaneous with the usage of North African Beakerware and in roughly the same location, also coinciding or slightly preceding
the first appearance of Maritime Bell Beaker people in Southwestern Europe.

It should also be noted, that the maternal Haplogroups associated with European Beaker people and their descendants largely mirror those of North African Berbers today (H1 & H3). At one time, North African pastoralists associated with these rock art depictions were probably largely R1b-V88, among others, but became cutoff during the Arab expansion and limited to the valleys of Southern Algeria, Mali and Cameroon.

While the pastoralists are most likely not ancestral to European Bell Beakers, they were probably very similar to Beaker folk in both their lifestyle and appearance. So I use the word "proxy" as they most likely looked very similar.

I will comment briefly on each photo:

Tassili_ladies.jpg

Tassili d'Angier "Tassili Ladies" c. 2900 B.C.
Southern Algeria

Several things are interesting about the Tassilli Ladies. Notably they look British and of course have varied hair colors which include: A redhead, a blonde, auburn, and brown. The Blonde woman appears to be wearing a woolen twill. The artist depictions of cross lines is informative and would seem to indicate a "tartan-like" pattern. This particular style of twill weaving originates in Eastern Anatolia during the Pottery Neolithic and is found in the (Scytho)-Tocharian mummies and in Celtic Culture. The two ladies in the foreground also appear to be wearing wool, but are less distinct.
The cloaks are most likely fastened at the neck with a broach or a safety pin as was common in Western Europe.
They are sitting "side-saddle", which is of course lady-like, but on a bull, which is a little different.

The dating of this mural is to 2900 B.C., which based on the variables used to date it, including climate change, seems reasonable. 2900 B.C. is when the Maritime Bell Beakers first appear in Europe.

The most intriguing aspect of the Tassilli Ladies, is that they likely used "Beaker cook ware" in the home. While the distribution of the Morroccan/Megrebean Beaker isn't fully known, the once lush river valley conduit from the coast to Tassilli where these people roamed make the association more than a possibility IMO.
 

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I don't know the dating of this photo, but the man throwing the spear appears to be blonde. It's a little difficult to make out in this photo, but in others its definetly blonde. I'm not sure what is in his other hand. He appears to be wearing a short kilt. The other man is wearing a covering over his head similar to an Egyptian.



iheren.jpg

One other thing, you'll notice that the individuals in these pictures look "Mesocephalic". It's been claimed by Coon among others that the archetypal Beaker person was intensly Brachycephalic. However, this is only true in Central Europe in the Alpine areas were Beakers mixed with local peoples. It appears now that Beakers originated in the West, or at least came from the West, forming a cultural and racial cline going East.
 
I don't see how you can tell that the models for these paintings look "British". That said, there is a blonde strain among some of the less admixed Berbers. I know that the following pictures are of modern people, not Neolithic Berbers, but still, they would be related I would think, and they don't look at all British to me...

berber10.jpg


berbers03.jpg
 
First of all I apologize for not being able to post more pictures. A number of the Tassilli rock art photos are from personal collections and appear copy righted and I'm not sure how to navigate that. Then I got distracted doing other things.

As far as the ethnic Kabyles and other Berbers, they seem to be significantly admixed with other indigenous North Africans and sub-saharan Africans. And French, which complicates their identity and appearance.

Genetically, their maternal haplogroups (from these modern ethnic minorities) look very much like Western Europeans. A very, very good case could be made that that R1b-V88 came from these pastoralist cultures from the Near East, where it now has a significant presence in the sub-Tassilli region and in sub-Saharran Africa.

The original inhabitants of the Tassilli region, the "round-heads", were probably sub-saharan Africans. They were replaced (or reduced) it seems in the early Neolithic with the first pastoralists, indentity unknown, which morphs into the pastoral phase that the Tassilli ladies belong to, before changing again with events in the historical period.

While I mentioned that these Tassili ladies probably have a phentotype "similar" to Western Europeans such as the British, I made clear that these people were probably not ancestral given the fact that the Beaker people were mostly a Maritime expansion from the Eastern Mediterranean at least and V88 isn't found in Europe to a significant measure.

I don't know what type of pottery the Tassili pastoralist used, but Beaker pottery was used in the Meghreb and pre-dates Maritime pottery of Spain. So, if I had to guess, I would say that there is a very good chance that the ladies in the picture used a type of Beaker pottery, genetically akin to European Beaker pottery.

The Beaker/Mediterranean connections are innumerable, from the Cretean stone guards to the type of copper blades and hilts. The type of equipment they had and how it was manufactured would suggest close contact with individuals from Islands in the Eastern Mediterranean.

IMO, they may represent the closest example of what a Beaker person looked like.
 
attnetion!: almost everywhere were BB were found at first, they show 'dinaroid' forms, before fading out! in SW>Spain Portugal too!
 

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