The Funnel(-neck-)beaker culture

The Funnel(-neck-)beaker culture, short TRB or TBK from (German) Trichter(rand-)becherkultur (ca 4300 BCca 2800 BC) was an archaeological culture in north-central
Europe. It developed as a technological merger of local neolithic and mesolithic technocomplexes between the lower Elbe and middle Vistula rivers, introducing farming and
husbandry as a major source of food to the pottery-using hunter-gatherers north of this line.
Preceded by Lengyel-influenced Stroke-ornamented ware culture (STK) groups/Late Lengyel
and Baden-Bolerz in the southeast, Rssen groups in the southwest and the ErteblleEllerbek groups in the north, the TRB techno-complex is divided into a northern group
including modern northern eastalbingian Germany and southern Scandinavia (TRB-N,
roughly the area that previously belonged to the Erteblle-Ellerbek complex), a western group
between Zuiderzee and lower Elbe, an eastern group centered on the Vistula catchment,
roughly ranging from Oder to Bug, and south-central groups (TRB-MES, Altmark) around the
middle and upper Elbe and Saale. Especially in the southern and eastern groups, local
sequences of variants emerged. In the late 4th millennium BC, the Globular Amphora culture
(KAK) replaced most of the eastern and subsequently also the southern TRB groups, reducing
the TRB area to modern northern Germany and southern Scandinavia. The younger TRB in
these areas was superseded by the Single Grave culture (EGK) at about 2800 BC. The northcentral European megaliths were built primarily during the TRB era.

Contents

1 Range

2 Settlements

3 Religion and graves

4 Objects

5 Ethnicity and language

6 Genetics

7 Footnotes

8 Sources

Range
The TRB ranges from the Elbe catchment in Germany and Bohemia with a western extension
into the Netherlands, to southern Scandinavia (Denmark up to Uppland in Sweden and the
Oslofjord in Norway) in the north and to the Vistula catchment in Poland in the east.
Variants of the Funnelbeaker culture in or near the Elbe catchment area include the Tiefstich
pottery group in northern Germany as well as the cultures of the Baalberge group (TRB-MES
II and III; MES = Mittelelbe-Saale), the Salzmnde and Walternienburg and Bernburg (all
TRB-MES IV) whose centres were in Saxony-Anhalt.

Settlements
With the exception of some inland settlements such as Alvastra pile-dwelling, the settlements
are located near those of the previous Erteblle culture on the coast. It was characterised by
single-family daubed houses ca 12 m x 6 m. It was dominated by animal husbandry of sheep,
cattle, pigs and goats, but there was also hunting and fishing. Primitive wheat and barley was
grown on small patches that were fast depleted, due to which the population frequently moved
small distances. There was also mining (e.g. in the Malm region) and collection of flintstone,
which was traded into regions lacking the stone, such as the Scandinavian hinterland. The
culture imported copper from Central Europe, especially daggers and axes.

Religion and graves

Dolmen in Lancken-Granitz, one of about 1,000 preserved TRB burial sites in MecklenburgVorpommern
The houses were centered on a monumental grave, a symbol of social cohesion. Burial
practices were varied, depending on region and changed over time. Inhumation seems to have
been the rule. The oldest graves consisted of wooden chambered cairns inside long barrows,
but were later made in the form of passage graves and dolmens. Originally, the structures
were probably covered with a heap of dirt and the entrance was blocked by a stone. The
Funnelbeaker culture marks the appearance of megalithic tombs at the coasts of the Baltic and
of the North sea, an example of which are the Sieben Steinhuser in northern Germany. The
megalithic structures of Ireland, France and Portugal are somewhat older and have been
connected to earlier archeological cultures of those areas.
The graves were probably not intended for every member of the settlement but for only an
elite. At graves, the people sacrificed ceramic vessels that probably contained food, and axes
and other flint objects.
Axes and vessels were also deposed in streams and lakes near the farmlands, and virtually all
Sweden's 10,000 flint axes that have been found from this culture were probably sacrificed in
water.
They also constructed large cult centres surrounded by pales, earthworks and moats. The
largest one is found at Sarup on Fyn. It comprises 85,000 m2 and is estimated to have taken
8000 workdays. Another cult centre at Stvie near Lund comprises 30,000 m2.

Objects


Skarpsallingkarret, the clay pot from Skarpsalling, is from around 3200 BC. It was
found in 1891 on the Oudrup moor near Skarpsalling in Himmerland, Denmark.[1]

Pottery from a dolmen in Vstergtland, Sweden

Polygonal battle axe, from Dalarna

tjocknackig yxa (thick-neck axe), from Nrke, a flintstone axe characteristic of both
the Funnelbeaker and the Pitted Ware cultures


tunnackig yxa (thin-neck axe), from Skne

Double-edged battle axe from Skne

The culture is named for its characteristic ceramics, beakers and amphorae with funnel-shaped
tops, which were probably used for drinking. One find assigned to the Funnelbeaker culture is
the Bronocice pot, which shows the oldest known depiction of a wheeled vehicle (here, a 2axled, 4-wheeled wagon). The pot dates to approximately 3500 BC.
The technology was flint-based, of which the deposits found in Belgium and on the island of
Rgen as well as deposits in the Krakw area were important.
The culture used battle axes which were stone versions of Central Europe's copper axes. The
early versions were multi-angled, and the later are called double-edged, although one of the
edges is more rounded.

Ethnicity and language

In the context of the Kurgan hypothesis, the culture is seen as non-Indo-European,
representing the culture of what Marija Gimbutas termed Old Europe, the peoples of which
were later to be governed by the Indo-European-language-speaking peoples (see Yamna
culture) intruding from the east. The political relation between the aboriginal and intrusive
cultures resulted in quick and smooth cultural morphosis into Corded Ware culture.

Heterodoxically, one Dutch publication mentions mixed burials and propose a quick and
smooth internal change to Corded Ware within two generations occurring about 2900 BC in
Dutch and Danish TRB territory, probably precluded by economic, cultural and religious
changes in East Germany, thus opposing the migrationist view of steppe intrusions
introducing Indo-European languages[2] (at least in this part of the world).

Genetics
It has been suggested that the Funnelbeaker culture was the origin of the gene allowing adults
of Northern European descent to digest lactose. It was claimed that in the area formerly
inhabited by this culture, prevalence of the gene is virtually universal. [3] A paper published in
2007 by Burger et al.[4] indicated that the genetic variant that causes lactose persistence in
most Europeans (-13,910*T) was rare or absent in early farmers from central Europe. A study
published by Yuval Itan and colleagues in 2010

[5]

clearly shows this. A study published in

2009, also by Itan et al.,[6] suggests that the Linear Pottery culture (also known as
Linearbandkeramik or LBK), which preceded the TRB culture by some 1,500 years, was the
culture in which this trait started to co-evolve with the culture of dairying.
Ancient DNA extracted from three individuals ascribed to a TRB horizon in Gkhem,
Sweden, were found to possess mtDNA haplogroups H, J, and T.[7]