The prehistoric presence of the Beaker People was unknown until the middle of the nineteenth century, when archaeologists began to unearth the brightly coloured, bell-shaped drinking vessels that were found in abundance on their burial sites
The Beaker People of Europe
There was no more specific name for the Beakers, since no one knew for sure where they originated. Suggestions have varied between Spain, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and eastern Europe
It is, however, evident that Beaker communities spread their expertise throughout Europe during the Bronze Age, for archaeologists have found their settlements, graveyards and pottery in all these places as well as in Britain
Another idea has been that the Beaker People did not invade Britain at all. Instead of a mass influx, the changes ascribed to Beaker influence may have come about in the course of regular trade with Europe across the English Channel. Or they were brought in by individual immigrants who introduced new ideas and techniques to the established population
Changes the Beaker People Made
But whether home grown or imported, Beaker innovations made fundamental changes to the world in which Britons had so far lived. For example, clothes had previously consisted of animal skins. The Beakers replaced them with woven textiles
They also introduced the beer and mead that were Britain’s first alcoholic drinks and the bronze razors that may have allowed men to get a really clean shave for the first time. All these were signs of a more comfortable, even luxurious, life than earlier peoples in Britain had been able to enjoy
New Beaker Technology
There were signs, too, that technology was about to make advances beyond the techniques that had prevailed in Palaeolithic and Neolithic times. It is believed, for instance, that the Beaker Folk contributed to the building of Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain and the huge stone rings at Avebury, both of them sited in Wiltshire
These projects, which are still visible in the west of England today, involved feats of engineering and organization that seem to go far beyond human capabilities in earlier prehistoric eras.
However, the most important innovation by far was the Beaker use of copper and its alloy with tin, bronze, which had already been known in the Middle East for some two thousand years.
When the Bronze Age, as it is now known, reached Britain some four thousand years ago, the difference it made was pivotal. Stone and flint, the basic material of the Stone Ages, continued to be used but bronze made possible better, stronger ploughs that cut deeper furrows than the Stone Age scratch ploughs had ever been able to manage.
Benefits of the Bronze Age
This meant better, more extensive food production for a populace that was rapidly growing and exerting more and more pressure on precious resources. Bronze also made everyday work quicker and easier by providing sharper, stronger tools and implements, such as knives for butchering meat or axes for cutting down trees and chopping wood.
Unfortunately, though, these benefits could not be used extensively. In Britain, deposits of copper were scarce and tin for making bronze alloy was found only in Cornwall in the far southwest of England. The metals were available through trade, but that made them expensive.
The Iron Age and the Celts
Then, the prospects improved when iron was found in abundance in Britain in around the eighth century BC. As well as being cheaper and more prolific, iron was a harder, more durable metal than copper or bronze and the next invaders, the technologically brilliant Celts were the best people to make the most of it.
Sources
Harrison, Richard J, The Beaker Folk (Ancient Peoples and Places) (London, UK Thames and Hudson, 1980) ISBN-10: 0500020981/ ISBN-13: 978-0500020982
Edmonds, Mark, Stone Tools and Society: Working Stone in Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain (London UK Routledge, 1997) ISBN-10: 0415214491/ISBN-13: 978-0415214490
Website: Archaeology - The Beaker Period | British History Online
 |
