Upending a ‘Totality’: Re-evaluating Corded Ware Variability in Late Neolithic Europe

Abstract

‘Corded Ware’ in central and eastern Europe is an archaeological phenomenon that has generated multiple ideas and myths about the origins of the Indo-European language, large scale migrations from the eastern Steppes and radical ideological turnovers after 3000bc. These ideas have been fostered in large part by the over-emphasis placed by successive generations of archaeologists on its extraordinarily large geographical extent and on the seemingly uniform pattern of Corded Ware material culture. The traditional model is characterised by the presence of an early phase, the so-called A-horizon, showing pan-European unity in material culture, and a successive phase characterised by increasing regional variability. However, over the last 15 years, a number of new studies, especially those focusing on the rigorous radiocarbon dating of Corded Ware contexts, bring into question several of the fundamental aspects of this old model. New results strongly suggest that the different components of the Corded Ware A-horizon emerged in several different regions, and that the previously claimed cultural uniformity is instead due to the co-occurrence of some special elements, while regional variability stands out as being much more prominent than hitherto assumed throughout all Corded Ware phases. Here, a new interpretation built on the diversity and regional variability of material culture and burial practices is proposed, one that challenges the view of Corded Ware as an expression of a social totality. This new model argues that several interlinked networks facilitated the flow of new practices and symbols into very diverse regional settings. Rather than viewing the Corded Ware phenomenon as representing a singular identity, ideology, or tradition, it may be more appropriate to regard it as a set of symbols and practices that were selectively incorporated into, and transformed by, local societies; it is this which produced the diversity attested for in the archaeological record

The genetic prehistory of the Greater Caucasus

“…The role of early Yamnaya groups within this network is still unclear 57 . However, this interaction zone pre-dates any direct influence of Yamnaya groups in Europe or the succeeding formation of the Corded Ware 62, 63 and its persistence opens the possibility of subtle bidirectional gene-flow, several centuries before the massive range expansions of pastoralist groups that reached Central Europe in the mid-3 rd millennium BCE 19, 35 .…”

The impact of male burials on the construction of Corded Ware identity: Reconstructing networks of information in the 3rd millennium BC

“…In total, we collected data on 1161 Corded Ware burials from well-known burial clusters in north-western Europe as defined by Martin Furholt [16], i.e. Denmark, the Netherlands, Schleswig-Holstein and Niedersachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Thuringia, Hessen, Bohemia and Moravia (Fig 1; S1, S2 and S3 Files).…”

“…It is widely accepted that right-flexed burials are predominantly male burials and that left-flexed burials are predominantly female burials. However, it is important to note that a direct determination of biological sex is often lacking and rare deviations from the norm exist as well [16,18]. …”

Population history in third-millennium-BC Europe: assessing the contribution of genetics

“…Yet, absolute dating and typological re-examination of the regional sequences demonstrate that each component of the A-horizon was developed independently in distinct areas and came to be widely shared at a later stage (Furholt 2003(Furholt , 2014. The rest of the material record follows the same patttern: each material trait presents a different distribution, and constitutes part of a network of widely shared and integrated items and practices (Furholt 2014). A broadly similar conclusion can be reached for the Bell Beaker Phenomenon, dated between c. 2800 and 2200 cal BC, and distributed across western and central Europe.…”