I understand totally that the new Olalde paper on the Bell Beakers in Britain and Europe chose samples from the far North and the south, it is good scientific practice to scope the problem, rather than cover everywhere, but I was disappointed that no samples were chosen from Derbyshire (75% of my mum's DNA).
I have been reading "The Transition from the Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age in the Peak District of Derbyshire and Staffordshire" by Margaret Fowler (1955) and it has some great insights particularly with respect to what we are all now learning about the DNA.
This small booklet can be found https://books.google.co.uk/books/abo...AJ&redir_esc=y
She indicates that the beaker people came from the east since there is no further evidence in any other direction and there were considerable design similarities to those in Yorkshire (Pickering and Riggs group) P8 (73) “It seems indicated that an influence crossing the North Sea, however it was actually carried, introduced the use of Beaker related directly or indirectly to those representing Corded Ware in Jutland and that an extension of this influence reached as far inland as the Peak District.”
P27 “This type of pin (the pin from the Arbor Low, a megalithic burial) therefore seems to be well set into the period of overlap between Beaker and Food vessel and of confusion between multiple and single burial cremation and inhumation”
P41(96) “ the fusion of cultures at the transition of the late Neolithic and Early bronze Age produced several curious hybrids (but they were only meaning pottery here, but go on to discuss humans) some of which have been mentioned…..From a late infiltration of chambered tombs into the area could have evolved influences clearly megalithic in essence, which were to combine with newly arriving Beaker rites.”
P43 “The cranium from Mouse Low is mesaticephalic while that from Bee Low is dolichocephalic these instances tending to substantiate that there was physical and cultural fusion between the native elements and the incoming single grave within a relatively short time”
The cranial types are given in table VII p70 for each type of site and are summarised as
Beakers and simple rock graves
Brachycephalic 6
Mesasticephalic 3
Dolichocephalic 1
Food vessels
Brachycephalic 1
Mesasticephalic 2
Dolichocephalic 1
Debased Megalithic
Brachycephalic 7
Mesasticephalic 3
Dolichocephalic 3
Both Fowler and a later author interpret the positioning of the discovered goods as the recent Beaker arrivals were initially socially inferior and only gradually came to dominate the culture.
This influx from Eastern Europe goes a long way to explain why FTDNA has my mum's origins as 30% East European and illustrates the time slice of FTDNA ancestral origins algorithm. I have posted on the Olalde thread (post 384) that the residual on Giving using 3 poplins on MDLP
50% Bellbeaker
25% Bell Beaker Germany
25% Swedish LN
With a residual of only 1.03, which is a very low residual, i.e a very good match
and 50% of her ancestral areas are within 20 miles from the Bell Beaker sites.
This post complements http://www.anthrogenica.com/showthre...rs%2C+Gimbutas and what Tomenable wrote in post 2240 quoting from Coon page 224 of this long thread.
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Originally Posted by Judith
