Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Thankerton Man

The young guy looks like a slacker.
Thankerton Man, Dundee University

I missed this reconstruction of an early Scottish Beaker as reported by the BBC in 2015.  He was about 5-11" or 180cm and buried in a stone cist. (see also)  If is cist #2 (GU-1117), then he is described as an unusually tall adolescent young man.

Caroline Erolin, quoted by the BBC, said: "Once we built the basic shape of his face we then looked at historical data to get a better idea of how a man would have looked at that time. For instance, we know they had the ability to shave."

Thankerton Man, Dundee University
I believe the carbon dates broadcast by news outlets (2460-2140 b.c.) are calibrated dates for the same GU-1117 in the Canmore database and referenced in a paper by Allison Sheridan, "Scottish Beaker dates: the good, the bad and the ugly".  In other words, he'd be among the earliest British Beakers.  Also, the right side of page 96 will give you something to anticipate as more Beaker and CW genomes are revealed (I'm personally curious of how 'Eastern' the Eastern Scottish Beakers will be and how this is reflected in modern Scots).  

See also the 3d "Thankerton Man" digital reconstruction via Biggar Museum.
 
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5 comments:

  1. jvJanuary 17, 2017 at 5:18 PM

    I've read that the Scottish have a pretty good chunk of Yamnaya DNA. Is this from the CWC or an earlier Yamnaya/Catacomb migration?jv

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    Replies
    1. bellbeakerbloggerJanuary 17, 2017 at 7:28 PM

      I suspect they could be closest to North German/Lowland Protruding Foot Beakers (Corded Ware). By this I'm referring to the East European components, not total ancestry. If considering archaeological cultural categories, I'm not sure I understand why BBC is more appropriate than CWC for these people when weighing attributes.
      In any case, DNA will add fuel to the fire.

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  2. Romulus the I2a L233+ Proto Balto-Slav, layer of Corded Ware WomenJanuary 19, 2017 at 12:46 PM

    Looks a bit like this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conchita_Wurst

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