My ancestors were part of an invasion. OK, so it was not
the kind we think of that occurred during the major wars of the 20th
century. Or even over the last millennium. I’m referring to the push of a
culture into Britain in the 3rd millennium BC. They have become
known as the Bell Beaker culture or package, with reference to unique
earthenware vessels found in burial sites across Europe.
OK, this is not genealogy, other than a nebulous
relationship to families that existed over 4,000 years ago. It’s more like
archaeology, but where is the line that divides such studies? The information
and studies are not new to archaeologists or research geneticists. The subject
may also be familiar to many readers here. My interest is in relating the
migration and movements of human groups to natural events, primarily climate
change, as well as in looking at where my familial lines originated.
The people referenced are part of that segment of
humans who share the R1b-M269 Y-DNA
marker that originated about 10,000 years ago. The group has a disproportionate
demographic signature: in Eastern Turkey, 12% of men have it; in England, 60%
have it; in Scotland, it’s 72%; and in Ireland, 85%. The pattern demonstrates a
westward migration of people as well as the location in which they originated –
somewhere in the region of the Black Sea.
We are not so unique, as it turns out. Apparently over
110 million men carry the marker. It’s staggeringly common in European men. So
widespread is it that all the men in my wife’s family are also part of the
R1b-M269 group. We are all cousins if you want to go back far enough.
I came across the term in a book published in 2013,
but which I am just getting around to read: The
British – A Genetic Journey by Alistair Moffat. It weaves a fascinating
trip through the origins of the inhabitants of the British Isles.
And how did I get on to this particular book? Well, it
came out of my reading and research into my genealogical past, the effects of
natural phenomena on people and communities, climate change, human migration
and all the myriad of subjects dealing with how my family got to where they
are.
The interesting story is how and when my people, as I
will refer to them here, arrived in Britain. I can say with confidence it was
long before the use of surnames.
My suspicion is that this DNA subgroup came into
Europe following the flooding of the Black Sea region – Euxine Lake. Another
interesting theory, described by Ian Wilson, in his 2001 book Before the Flood, suggests the people of
that region were forced out, migrating in all directions, including into what
is now Europe and the Fertile Crescent, when the Mediterranean Sea broke
through the Bosporus about 7,200 years ago. The story of Noah relates to this
event as do similar accounts from peoples outside the region.
At any rate, archaeological studies show these people
may have spread over land across the valleys and plains of Eastern Europe and
through the Mediterranean by boat to Italy and Western Europe.
Beaker people arrived in Britain in more than one wave:
one (my people?) likely travelled north from the Iberian Peninsula, with groups
moving into southwest England and Ireland; another migrated from central Europe
into eastern England and Scotland. Both groups had been part of a general
westward spread across Europe in the preceding centuries.
Over 260 other burial sites of Beakers have since been
unearthed across the British Isles. Eventually, once in Britain they probably
merged.
Beaker-period
burials in Britain for which isotopic analyses have been undertaken; source Pearson
et al, 2016.
The first grave of a Beaker man was found at Amesbury,
Wiltshire, in 2002. He has been named the Amesbury Archer, as he was buried
with bow and arrows, and many tools and decorative items, in addition to five
Beaker pots. The distinctive pottery style is unique to this group with many
similar containers having been found all over Europe.
My people were primarily farmers, who brought their
tools, techniques and culture to the British Isles, eventually displacing or
becoming part of the people who were there before – perhaps the societies that
had built such monuments as Stonehenge. It was the fact that Beaker people knew
how to grow their own food, as well as hunt, that allowed them to be successful
and their population to grow.
Beaker people were also skilled at metalworking,
creating both implements and adornments from copper and gold. That expertise
spawned whole new industries among the inhabitants of Britain, such as working and
manufacturing of bronze tools and weapons. The Cornwall/Devon region is where
tin deposits are found in Britain, a metal required in the production of
bronze. It may be that my people were among the first to make bronze tools,
given their smithing skills and the required materials available in this area.
I have only scratched the surface in looking at Beaker
people. I know I will never be able to trace my ancestors to any particular
group, but it is fascinating to think that family members originated as part of
this invasion.
References:
Kennedy, Maev. (2018). Arrival of Beaker folk changed
Britain for ever, ancient DNA study shows. The
Guardian, 22 February 2018.
Moffat, Alistar. (2013). The British A Genetic Journey. Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited. 288 pp.
Pearson, Mike Parker, Andrew Chamberlain, Mandy Jay,
Mike Richards, Alison Sheridan, Neil
Curtis, Jane Evans, Alex Gibson, Margaret Hutchison,
Patrick Mahoney, Peter Marshall, Janet
Montgomery, Stuart Needham, Sandra O'Mahoney, Maura
Pellegrini & Neil Wilkin. (2016).
Wilson, Ian. (2001). Before the Flood: The Biblical Flood as a real event and how it changed
the course of civilization. New York: St. Martin’s Press336 pp.
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