Funerary Diversity and Cultural Continuity: The British Beaker Phenomenon Beyond the Stereotype

Abstract

The Beaker phenomenon in Britain is typically represented by a particular form of pottery and its inclusion in graves with flexed or crouched inhumations referred to as Beaker burials. Analysis of the full range of burial evidence, however, reveals a high degree of variability in funerary rites including cremation and skeletal disarticulation. Summed probability distribution analysis of radiocarbon dates provides evidence for continuity of these other, atypical rites from the pre-Beaker Late Neolithic (c. 3000–2450 cal bc) through the Chalcolithic (c. 2450–2200 cal bc) and into the Early Bronze Age (after c. 2200 cal bc). Regional diversity is apparent in Beaker period funerary treatments and grave good provision between these typical and atypical rites, as is differential selection of rites on the basis of age and biological sex. This evidence for within and between community funerary diversity has implications for understanding the large-scale processes of cultural and genomic transformation across this period of major transition in British prehistory.

Living with the dead: mummification and post-mortem treatment in Bronze Age Britain

“…Burial practices in Britain's Bronze Age (2200-750 bce) are certainly well known, notably the inhumation and cremation rites of the Beaker period (2450-1800 bce) (Parker Pearson et al 2019;Bloxam and Parker Pearson 2022) and the burial of cremated remains in ceramic urns during the Early and Middle Bronze Age (2200-1150 bce) (Caswell and Roberts 2018). Even so, the archaeologically visible dead must represent only a tiny proportion of the population; by the Late Bronze Age (1150-750 bce) the vast majority of the dead are archaeologically invisible.…”