Bell Beakers, Gimbutas and R1b

[curupira]

What is your opinion on Gimbutas' take on it?

Since the oldest R1b found in Europe so far has been found at a Bell Beaker site, in Kromsdorf, East Germany, I guess it would be interesting to see what Gimbutas had to say about the Bell Beakers:


The Bell Beaker complex, an offshoot of the Vucedol bloc (more precisely of the Zok-Mako group in Hungary) continued Kurgan charateristics. The Bell Beaker of the second half of the 3rd millenium BC were vagabondic horse riders and archers in much the same way as their uncles and cousins, the Corded people of northern Europe and Catacomb-grave people of the North Pontic region. Their spread over central and western Europe to the British Isles and Spain as well as the Mediterranean islands terminates the period of expansion and destruction.


In western Hungary and nothwestern Yugoslavia, the Vucedol complex was followed by the Samogyvar-Vinkovci complex, the predecessor of the Bell Beaker people. Furthermore, the exodus of the horse-riding Bell Beaker people in the middle of the 3rd millenium, or soon thereafter, from the territories of the Vucedol complex, may not be unconnected with the constant threat from the east. They carried to the west Kurgan traditions in armament, social structure, and religion. The fact of paramount importance of Bell Beaker mobility is the presence of the horse. Seven Bell Beaker sites at Budapest in Hungary have shown that the horse was the foremost species of the domestic fauna.


The spread of the already Indo-Europeanized central European population (the Corded Ware culture) to the northwest and northeast, as well as of the Bell Beaker people to the west, is hardly explainable without some insight into the role played by this element from the east.


The Proto-Indo Europeans were able to expand to the west, to the east, and to the south primarily because of the horse. Renfrew has also failed to stress the enormous importance of the horse and horseback riding in his treatment of the Bell Beaker phenomenon.

From "The Kurgan culture and the Indo-Europeanization of Europe"

[Void]

The horse is the best explanation of the rapid spread of IE and insertion of Siberian lineages. It's important however to be more specific than R1b because there's a distinct difference between R1b-U105 and R1b-L21. The two groups split up before their arrival in Europe.

R1b-L21 most likely came as a naval invasion from North Africa, interested in copper and tin. R1b-U105 would be a continental invasion from Anatolia.

Archeological evidence suggests I2 was the dominant haplogroup in England before the arrival of R1b-L21.

[Vesuvian Sky]

What is your opinion on Gimbutas' take on it?

Basically and most likely correct though some things raise questions. Gimbutas also made it a habit of owning Colin Renfrew in academic journals.:laugh:

[curupira]

This is what David W Anthony, leading IE expert, said on the contemporary classic "The Horse, the Wheel and Language":


Bell Beaker sites of Cespel around Budapest, west of the Yamnaya settlement region, are dated about 2800-2600 BCE. They could have been a bridge between Yamnaya on their east and Austria/Southern Germany to their west, through which Yamnaya dialects spread from Hungary into Austria and Bavaria, where they later developed into Proto-Celtic.


Beel Beaker decorated cup styles, domestic pot types, and grave and dagger types from the middle Danube were adopted about 2600 BCE in Moravia and Southern Germany. This material network could have been the bridge through which pre-Celtic dialects spread into Germany.

Interestingly both Italic and Celtic speaking populations are mainly R1b carriers, with basically no R1a.

[Reith]

A lot of Germanics are R1b too...

[curupira]

This is an interesting comment someone else posted at another forum:


Decorated horse phalanges have also been reported from Bell Beaker sites in Spain (Maier 1961; Piggott 1983). They are perhaps the strongest cultural marker for the Botai, and show a connection with the Tersek, a contemporaneous Copper Age culture in the Turgay region to the west (Kalieva et al. 1989).
Source: Olsen, S. (2003). "The Exploitation of Horses at Botai, Kazakhstan". In Levine, Marsha; Renfrew, Colin; Boyle, Katie. Prehistoric Steppe Adaptation and the Horse. Cambridge: McDonald Institute.

Botai:

http://s155239215.onlinehome.us/turkic/btn_Archeology/botai%2520map.jpg

[Vesuvian Sky]

^Let's not forget that R1b distribution map:

http://www.eupedia.com/images/content/Haplogroup_R1b_World.png

That dark red blob in Siberia relates well indeed to a certain archaeological site:

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/bd/a7/71/bda771073d95a366c047cb9515792df0.jpg

hmmmm....:icon_ask:

[Vesuvian Sky]

Here's something interesting I just came across over at Eurogenes:

http://bga101.blogspot.com/2014/11/short-clip-making-of-modern-europe.html

Apparently the 'jump off' point for Beaker folk making their way from the Balkans into the Mediterranean then to Portugal according to Gimbutas was during the Mako phase of the Vucedol culture:

http://s27.postimg.org/sy6a9mpub/gimbutasbadenvucedolbellbeaker.png

Here's more from wikipedia:


Marija Gimbutas characterized the Bell Beaker culture complex as an amalgam of Vucedol and Yamna culture traditions formed after the incursion of the Yamna people into the milieu of the Vučedol culture, which evolved in the course of the three or four centuries after 3000/2900 BC.

The Vucedol along with the Baden culture are derivatives of Vinca culture, essentially the non-IE 'Old Europe' Neolithic cultures that appear to be EEF genetically speaking. Here's what was Gimbutas wrote in one of her books (http://www.scribd.com/doc/201124038/Kurgan-Culture-Civilization-of-Goddess-M-Gimbutas-1994#force_seo):



The physical type of Baden was predominantly Mediterranean, as was to be expected from the Vinca substratum. A steppe type was also identified, however, and a certain facial flatness in some individuals seems to reflect eastern relations. At Budakalasz, the steppe type predominated, while at Alsonemedi the Mediterranean was mixed with a European brachycranial type.

However steppe types do start to show up as well. Going back to Eurogenes, I noticed that Mako and Baden culture remains were analyzed and presented in a slide showing the difference in admixture. What's interesting is that the Baden culture remains are indeed that of an Neolithic-EEF-Med. type indeed as its admixture ratios show:

http://i62.tinypic.com/aqghw.jpg

We can also see this individual as clearly EEF on the MDLP 23b admixture results (number 10) (http://www.theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?148042-MDLP_K23b-aDNA-ADMIXTURE-RESULTS).

However the Mako individual has more northerly Meso. traits associated with him and a decrease in EEF:

http://i57.tinypic.com/2aj8ev7.jpg

It should be noted that the Gamba study has the Mako sample (BR1) plotted among the Westerners particularly the French:

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/141021/ncomms6257/fig_tab/ncomms6257_F2.html

There was a mini- back and forth (http://eurogenes.blogspot.com/2014/10/genetic-continuity-and-shifts-across.html) as to whether or not it had ANE and thus represented a migration from the north-east. Quite honestly I wouldn't rule it out but it would have been nice to see if this individual was R1b as this is what is said of the Mako phase of the Vucedol culture:



The late phase of the Vucedol culture, particularly its Mako type, is closely related to the Bell Beaker culture, from which it is sometimes difficult to distinguish.

Source (https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/radiocarbon/article/view/1232)

[Hamlet]

Here's something interesting I just came across over at Eurogenes:

http://bga101.blogspot.com/2014/11/short-clip-making-of-modern-europe.html

Apparently the 'jump off' point for Beaker folk making their way from the Balkans into the Mediterranean then to Portugal according to Gimbutas was during the Mako phase of the Vucedol culture:

http://s27.postimg.org/sy6a9mpub/gimbutasbadenvucedolbellbeaker.png

Here's more from wikipedia:



The Vucedol along with the Baden culture are derivatives of Vinca culture, essentially the non-IE 'Old Europe' Neolithic cultures that appear to be EEF genetically speaking. Here's what was Gimbutas wrote in one of her books (http://www.scribd.com/doc/201124038/Kurgan-Culture-Civilization-of-Goddess-M-Gimbutas-1994#force_seo):



However steppe types do start to show up as well. Going back to Eurogenes, I noticed that Mako and Baden culture remains were analyzed and presented in a slide showing the difference in admixture. What's interesting is that the Baden culture remains are indeed that of an Neolithic-EEF-Med. type indeed as its admixture ratios show:

http://i62.tinypic.com/aqghw.jpg

We can also see this individual as clearly EEF on the MDLP 23b admixture results (number 10) (http://www.theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?148042-MDLP_K23b-aDNA-ADMIXTURE-RESULTS).

However the Mako individual has more northerly Meso. traits associated with him and a decrease in EEF:

http://i57.tinypic.com/2aj8ev7.jpg

It should be noted that the Gamba study has the Mako sample (BR1) plotted among the Westerners particularly the French:

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/141021/ncomms6257/fig_tab/ncomms6257_F2.html

There was a mini- back and forth (http://eurogenes.blogspot.com/2014/10/genetic-continuity-and-shifts-across.html) as to whether or not it had ANE and thus represented a migration from the north-east. Quite honestly I wouldn't rule it out but it would have been nice to see if this individual was R1b as this is what is said of the Mako phase of the Vucedol culture:



Source (https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/radiocarbon/article/view/1232)

Was the Vucedol culture Dinaric?

[Sacrificed Ram]

Very basal clade of R1b are found in Kazakhstan. Probable R1b ruled over west eurasian steppes after replaced by R1a in a more recent event.