First of all, what are is the Bell Beaker Culture? Starting 2500bc and ending 2200bc, the Bell Beaker were a massive cultural network spanning the entirety of western and central europe. they brought the eponymous Bell Beaker wherever they went-

but that isn't the only thing part of the "Beaker Package". A tradition of Archery, wrist guards, v-perforated buttons, various accompanying ceramics (Begleitkeramik), a Solar Cult, Palmela Arrow heads, Copper daggers as prestige objects, and most notably... Steppe Ancestry

The Beaker culture spread Steppe Ancestry from a Corded-ware source wherever they went, in places like brittain this steppe ancestry was so intrusive it replaced 90% of the previous neolithic gene pool.

Steppe ancestry and Haplogroups R1b-L2 and R1b-L21 are most commonly associated with the Spread of Bell beakers, so that settles it right? The Bell Beaker were a Indo-European culture that spread the Indo-European languages, right?

Its debated. The Origin of the culture is far more unclear. Most notably, the Earliest Bell Beakers are from Iberia, in 2700bc. And there was NO steppe ancestry present here in this time.

These Iberian made, Non-IE beakers are called the Maritime beaker, and they spread as the name suggests through maritime routes out of Iberia into France and Italy. The Maritime beaker reaches Southwest germany, inhabited by the Corded-ware Indo-europeans in 2600 BC,

where the style gets adopted by the Native Indo-europeans. These early IE group distinguish themselves from their Corded Ware neighbours, with Beaker East Group sites being typicalls south of the Danube, and Corded ware sites North of it. In Moravia, there was more Cohabitation

These groups also develop more societal hierarchy, with richer graves and a tradition of using copper daggers as prestige objects.

In the North, in the netherlands, the picture is different. The IE Single-Grave culture developes their own Beakers, independent of Iberians. These styles are called AOO (All over ornamented) and AOC (All over corded) Beakers. Maritime beakers reach here and influence late...

and the fusion of Southwest german maritime beakers and Dutch AOC/AOO Beakers creates the basis for the Indo-European Bell Beaker culture. after 2500 BC, these indo-european groups expand MASSIVELY and RAPIDLY. Brittain is invaded and conquered in less than a hundred years,

So is france. Northern and Central iberia in 2300bc, southeast Iberia in 2200bc. Infact, the ties to central europe are so strong and recent that Iberian beaker individuals have direct relatives still living in Central Europe!

The Beaker culture also expands eastward, with its centers being in the Mittleelbe-saale-Prague-Moravia area. There is a small expansion southward into Hungary, and larger expansions into Poland, forming the Iwno and contributing to the Trzciniec cultures.

However its still a complex picture. Steppe ancestry appears in Iberia in 2300bc, but historically, we know these areas spoke non-indo european languages. Basque, Iberian, and Tartessian! In italy we know of Rhaetic and Etruscan, although the Beaker invasion of Italy was smaller

In Iberia, it seems that Steppe Languages were not culturally prestigious or important enough, and the native tongues survived due to the high amount of Social stratification and civilization in Iberia at the time.

Speaking of Linguistics. What language did the Beaker speak? A common thesis is Proto-Italo-Celtic, but this is not quite the case. The Celtic and Italic langauges spread way later, with celtic spreading 1200-800bc, and Italic spreading around the same time.

Instead, the languages spread into Western Europe by the Bell Beaker were Italo-celtic-like, but not part of the clade. We know of two of these languages, Ligurian and Lusitanian, who are often seen as "Para-Celtic".

Lusitanian enters Iberia with the Ciempozuelos Beaker group in 2300bc, then Evolves into Proto-cogotas and then Cogotas I. Ligurian evolves out of Southern french Beaker groups, perhaps spreading as far as tyrhhenia and iberia

I hypothesized in another post that Para-Germanic languages were also present, namely due to the fact that the AOC and AOO beakers are derived from the Single-Grave culture, which evolved into Germanic.

So really, Bell Beaker could represent Para-Germanic languages spreading across the atlantic to brittain, and Para-Italo-Celtic languages West, South, and East.

So to Recap: 2700 BC: Maritime Beakers are invented in Iberia. 2600 BC: Maritime Beakers reach Southwest Germany. 2500BC: AOC, AOO, and all other features characteristic of the Beaker culture are invented in Central Europe by IEs After 2500 BC: The Migrations...

Again i encourage you to go watch this, and read Heyds articles on the Subject. His work is absolutely amazing regarding Corded ware and Bell Beaker https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

@edthesped345 read this thread

@VVeltkrieger what do you think about the unetice culture

@Aytest21 Evolved out of Moravia-Bohemian-Elbe Bell Beakers

@VVeltkrieger best resume about bell beaker on the internet but i'm afraid it will get lost in twitter and almost unfindable on web search. Do you plan to make a blog ?

@papa_oursss Yes

@VVeltkrieger Some archeologists would still have us believe that beaker culture spread to Britain by cultural diffusion.

@VVeltkrieger Great work! Thanks for sharing!

@VVeltkrieger Thanks for this, very informative 👍

@VVeltkrieger Really interesting stuff. Great thread.

@VVeltkrieger @nrken19 Great thread! 💪🏻

@VVeltkrieger This was such a good threat, thanks for reporting it. Reminds me of the recent interview with Joseph Henrich where says societies can be looked back upon as a history of expansions and collapses. Some expand too far, degrade, and either get conquered or rejuvenated when they

@VVeltkrieger is this in an essay anywhere, or should I just bookmark the thread for future reference?

@VVeltkrieger Great summary of a very complicated topic. Thanks!

@VVeltkrieger @nrken19 @threadreaderapp please unroll