Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Beaker Enigma No More?

Here's a media round-up from this week.

A good article at Haaretz by Ruth Schuster "For Whom the 'Bell Beaker' Tolls: One of Archaeology's Longest Running Mysteries Finally Solved" whose title is a play on a paper by Vander Linden.

Solved?  It did clarify some central questions, some that had obvious answers based on physical anthropology.  Relationship to Corded Ware?  Answer that.
Beaker Double Burial at Trumpington Meadows, Cambridge (Dave Webb, Cambridge Archaeological Unit)
In the Guardian article "Arrival of Beaker Folk Changed Britain for ever, Ancient DNA Study Shows", Ian Armit of the University of Bradford makes this comment:
“It’s not necessarily a story of violent conquest,” Armit said. “There is some evidence of a declining population and increased growth of forests, suggesting that agriculture was in decline. We could be looking at climate change, or even an epidemic of imported disease to which they had no resistance. But we certainly now have the evidence that they were replaced – and they never came back.”

Two of the Harvard samples, 18 year old male, 16 year old female, same grave (Dave Webb)
Another by the Daily Mail "How the builders of Stonehenge 5,000 years ago were almost completely wiped out by mysterious 'Beaker people' from the continent whose blood runs in Brit veins to this day"

Basically.  Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but at the moment we know next to nothing of the other islands, Ireland in particular.

A number of universities report the findings.

Hungarian Academy of Sciences "Practically the entire population of the British Isles was replaced"

Ludwig-Maximilians Universitat Munchen "Pots, people and knowledge transfer"

Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona "Ancient DNA reveals impact of the "Beaker Phenomenon" on prehistoric Europeans"

University of Cambridge "Ancient DNA reveals impact of the "Beaker Phenomenon" on Prehistoric Europeans"

4 comments:

  1. "“It’s not necessarily a story of violent conquest,” Armit said."

    This is what's known as a rear-guard action. If they can't deny migration any more, for the love of God don't allow conquest. The noble savages were peaceful until Imperialism and greed came along. As I think Thomas Kuhn said, new ideas don't win out - old professors just go quiet, retire or die.

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    1. Ha ha, true that there does seem to be natural bias to interpret it as bloodless as possible. I think it is more likely that archaeologists are trying to be careful with the available evidence. I have several very large papers I haven't been able to fully read from last year concerning weapon use at this time. Pretty gory stuff.
      Keep in mind though that there was a very sharp decline in many of these populations hundreds of years before the migrations. Apocalyptic plague is likely based on an increase in mobility (Native America)and descent into increasingly destructive Neolithic wars seems evident. God's wrath ends with CW encroachments running cattle and pigs through the fields of farmers. And everything goes haywire from there.

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  2. Maybe after they completed Stonehenge UFOs abducted them all to Nibiru 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

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  3. Haaretz twisted language, especially on racism: slaps it on cultural divisions or on safety but not on Arab Muslim racist attacks


    The "competetive" tantrum trend among hard Israeli left to utter the "racisn" terminology has been for some time.


    They are ever so loud on isolated cases of violent attacks against Arabs which we all condemn, of course.


    Yet, they are silent on every weekly attacks by racist Arabs targeting Jewish civilians (at times travelling for miles far away from own Arab town...). Of course it's Arab Muslim terrorism but it's also anti-Jewish ethnic racism and religious bigotry. 


    Yet, will term any Israeli security measure as "racist." As if it's "not" saving lives, what it is really about.


    Will minimize Arab Islamic Palestinian use of its own population as human shields (at least since 1980 by Arafat), and Israeli attempts to evacuate before an anti terror operation. 

    Will maximize exaggerate any claim of abuse.


    Incidentally, with all the heavily funded anti Israel groups in Israel. why isn't there any peace movement on the Arab Palestinian side, Hamas' Gaza or Fatah's Ramallah? 


    If one specific community wants to keep its unique education, they immediately cry "racism".


    They are silent on every Israeli court case that favors Arab vs Jew. But ever so loud on any partial-discriminatory incident. Despite the fact, it is rather ultra-orthodox who feel most all out discriminated against, mainly prompted by anti Religious hatred campaign by hard left like Haaretz.


    These supposed "peaceninks", these same hypocrites, incite against, demonize Haredi ultra Orthodox conscientious objectors who refuse to serve in IDF draft in Israeli army.


    Haaretz and the like, are not just biased. But hate mongers.

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