Corded Ware?

Which of the photos displays Corded Ware

  • A

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • D

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • E

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • F

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • No idea, they all look somehow similar

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    2

FrankN

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Probably, everybody knows about the Corded Ware culture - proto-Indo-European, originating from the Kurgan cultures in the East European steppes, and sweeping across most of Central Europe during the early Bronze Age. Since they are supposed to be quite different from everything that characterised "Old central Europe", that should also apply to the pottery which gave the culture its name.

So, here is a test: Below you find photos of various Central European pottery styles. Surely you won't have a problem to pick out Corded Ware, wouldn't you?

Style A:
640px-Keramik_Totenh%C3%BCtte_Benzingerode.jpg


Style B:
slawkeramik_1298990338.jpg


Style C:

]
grabgefaes_jpg.jpg


Style D:
bild284522_v-standardBig_zc-3ad1f7a1.jpg


Style E:

urne.jpg


Style F:
640px-Danneil-Museum_036.JPG

The other styles shown here are (of course not displayed in this sequence):
  1. Tiefstich pottery (middle Funnelbeaker, Altmark variant of Baalberge Culture, 3,600-3,100 BC)
  2. Salzmünde pottery, 3,300-3,100 BC
  3. Bernburg pottery (post-Funnelbeaker, 3,100-2,600 BC)
  4. Globular amphora culture, 3,100-2,800 BC (this is a bit unfair, as it is considered the Corded Ware predecessor)
  5. Early Medieval "Slavic pottery", West Pomerania (800-1,100 AD)
Feel free to post here a complete guess of which photo corresponds to which style.

I will give the solution once fifteen people have voted on this poll.

Edit: Just a hint to myself, should I forget the correct sequence: DE1091
 
Last edited:
I have to claim ignorance on this subject.
I've never seen corded ware pottery in my life, and for that reason I appreciate this thread greatly. I just hope you included proper Corded Ware pottery in the poll, :). Is it the post Funnelbeaker one? The time period fits.
I always assumed Corded Ware was made with decorative imprints of a rope. Looking at your examples, they might have not been the only once using this technique. So eventually I picked the B example, as only one displaying rope like protrusions, (opposed to indentations). It also looks glazed, and it might fit sophisticated culture of bronze civilization. However at the moment I don't remember if Corded Ware were proper bronze culture, or still mainly copper.
 
I have to claim ignorance on this subject.
I've never seen corded ware pottery in my life, and for that reason I appreciate this thread greatly. I just hope you included proper Corded Ware pottery in the poll, :). Is it the post Funnelbeaker one? The time period fits.
Yes, I included proper Corded Ware. Timewise, it is post-Globular Amphora which by itself is post-Salzmünde. Funnelbeaker, as non-IE ceramic/ culture, is completely different, and archaeologists (and even more so authors of popular books) claim that it is easily possible to distinguish Corded Ware from (post-)Funnelbeakers. IIRC, the whole theory of Indo-Europeanisation / "Germanisation" of Scandinavia is built on this remarkable shift in ceramic style...
 
I don't think we can start off by assuming that the Corded Ware folk are proto-IE. I realize that some of the Corded Ware remains that have been found are R1a, which would seem to connect them genetically to the IE folk who began to spread through Europe later. But if the Corded Ware folk spoke Proto-IE, why is it that the German language contains so many words that appear to have a pre-IE origin?
 
E is interesting but I believe picture C is the Corded Ware.
 
If I remember correctly I read that Corded Ware was simplicity or utilitarian in style and the ropes were used to decorate and hold pottery. Probably they were too busy warring, looking after their herds, milking, making mead, smelting bronze swords and building chariots so left little time for high quality pottery.
 
If I remember correctly I read that Corded Ware was simplicity or utilitarian in style and the ropes were used to decorate and hold pottery. Probably they were too busy warring, looking after their herds, milking, making mead, smelting bronze swords and building chariots so left little time for high quality pottery.
I was thinking about this yesterday and my initial choice was the ones with rope imprints and small "ears" holes for ropes to attache, C. At the end I went with the uniquely looking one. I realise I based my choice on esthetics more than anything, lol.
 
This link may help you figure out the answer.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Corded_Ware_ceramics

And there are plenty of other websites that provide useful information you can locate with the help of something called Google.
And since I had heard someone talking of such websites before, I had to take out some of my initial photo selections, which made it a bit difficult to come up with adequate photos in some cases.
In any case, the "simplicistic, utilitarian style" argument might point into the wrong direction. To me, Corded Ware ceramics looks quite sophisticated, not exactly a "baked it last night at the campfire" style.
 
Lol, I know that, but it would beat the purpose of guessing, right?

Given the fact that even archeologists sometimes have arguments over which culture or style a particular pot fits into, I don't think you should worry too much about it.
 
And since I had heard someone talking of such websites before, I had to take out some of my initial photo selections, which made it a bit difficult to come up with adequate photos in some cases.
In any case, the "simplicistic, utilitarian style" argument might point into the wrong direction. To me, Corded Ware ceramics looks quite sophisticated, not exactly a "baked it last night at the campfire" style.

Corded ware pottery seems to vary in style, depending on where it was found and when it was made. Some of it could be described as being of a "simplistic, utilitarian style", whereas such a description would only be valid for other Corded Ware pottery if it was being compared to 19th C. Japanese ceramics.
 
Nice pictures, thanks.
 

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