Single Grave culture

Last updated
Single Grave culture
Single Grave culture.jpg
Geographical rangeWestern North European Plain
Period Chalcolithic
Datesca. 2,800–2,200 BC [1]
Preceded by Corded Ware culture, Funnelbeaker culture, Pitted Ware culture
Followed by Bell Beaker culture

The Single Grave culture (German: Einzelgrabkultur) was a Chalcolithic culture which flourished on the western North European Plain from ca. 2,800 BC to 2,200 BC. [1] It is characterized by the practice of single burial, the deceased usually being accompanied by a battle-axe, amber beads, and pottery vessels. [2] The Single Grave culture was a local variant of the Corded Ware culture, and appears to have emerged as a result of a migration of peoples from the Pontic–Caspian steppe. It was succeeded by the Bell Beaker culture, which according to the "Dutch model" appears to have been ultimately derived from the Single Grave culture. More recently, the accuracy of this model has been questioned.

Contents

History

Origins

The Single Grave culture was an offshoot of the Corded Ware culture, which was itself an offshoot of the Yamnaya culture of the Pontic–Caspian steppe. On the western North European Plain, the Single Grave culture replaced the earlier Funnelbeaker culture. [3]

Distribution

The Single Grave culture came to encompass the western part of the European Plain. In Denmark, Single Grave sites are concentrated in Jylland, where its appearance is accompanied by large-scale forest clearance and an expansion of animal husbandry, particularly cattle. In eastern Denmark, the Single Grave culture, the Pitted Ware culture, and the Funnelbeaker culture appear to have co-existed for some time. [4] It maintained close connections to other cultures of the Corded Ware horizon.

End

The Single Grave culture was succeeded by the Bell Beaker culture. According to the "Dutch Model," the Bell Beaker culture is thought to have been derived from the Protruding-Foot Beaker culture (PFB), which was a variant of the Single Grave culture. [5] More recently, this model has been questioned for its accuracy. [6]

Research

Single Grave culture artefacts, National Museum of Denmark DO-899.jpg
Single Grave culture artefacts, National Museum of Denmark

The term Single Grave culture was first introduced by the Danish archaeologist Andreas Peter Madsen in the late 1800s. He found Single Graves to be quite different from the already known dolmens, long barrows and passage graves.

In 1898, Danish archaeologist Sophus Müller was first to present a migration-hypothesis stating that previously known dolmens, long barrows, passage graves and newly discovered single graves may represent two completely different groups of people, stating "Single graves are traces of new, from the south coming tribes". [7]

Relative and absolute chronology

Frequent reburials in the mounds allow horizontal stratigraphic observations. In Jutland, three phases can be distinguished, which were originally proposed by Sophus Müller, verified by P. V. Glob and also by E. Hübner, who additionally verified the relative chronology in absolute time (calendar years). These phases are called under-grave, ground-grave, and upper-grave period. [8] [9]

In the under-grave period, the graves are deepened into the soil. In the floor-grave period they are laid out at ground level. In the upper-grave period they are laid out above ground level. The Danish scholar P. V. Glob applied the observation that so-called A-axes can be placed early in the Lower Grave Period to the entire area of the Corded Ware. This led to the assumption of a simultaneous, common European A-horizon. [8] [10] This has since been falsified. [11] However, the classification originally proposed by Glob has been verified, at least for Jutland and Schleswig-Holstein, and provided with absolute dates. The Younger Neolithic (YN) I corresponds to the Lower Grave Period (2850-2600 BC), the YN II to the Lower Grave Period (2600-2450 BC) and the YN III to the Upper Grave Period (2450-2250 BC). [9] For northern Germany this could be roughly verified, but not with the same accuracy. [12] The JN IIIb overlaps with the beginning of the Late Neolithic (also dagger period, Early Bronze Age in Central European terminology).

Characteristics

Burials

Axes, hatchets and mace heads of the single grave culture Archaologisches Landesmuseum Schloss Gottorf 083.JPG
Axes, hatchets and mace heads of the single grave culture

The Single Grave culture is known chiefly from its burial mounds. Thousands of such mounds have been discovered. [13] These are typically low, circular earthen mounds. Originally, the mounds were surrounded by a circle of split timbers. In low mounds, grave would contain one, or even two, plank coffins. Each coffin contained a single individual. Occasionally, new graves and mounds would be added on top of previous ones. Males were typically buried with battle axes, large amber discs and flint tools. Females were buried with amber necklaces made of small beads. Both genders were buried with a ceramic beaker. This probably contained some form of fermented beverage, possibly beer. [3]

Economy

Ceramics of the single grave culture Archaologisches Landesmuseum Schloss Gottorf 081.JPG
Ceramics of the single grave culture

The Single Grave people were engaged in animal husbandry, particularly the raising of cattle. They also engaged in agriculture, with barley as the main crop. Hunting and fishing also played a role, as numerous settlement finds in Jutland, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the Netherlands prove. [14]

Pottery

Protruding-Foot Beaker culture (PFB), subset of the Single Grave culture. Museum fur Vor- und Fruhgeschichte Berlin 028.jpg
Protruding-Foot Beaker culture (PFB), subset of the Single Grave culture.

The Single Grave people produced pottery with cord impressions similar to those of other cultures of the Corded Ware horizon. The cultural emphasis on drinking equipment already characteristic of the early indigenous Funnelbeaker culture, synthesized with newly arrived Corded Ware traditions. Especially in the west (Scandinavia and northern Germany), the drinking vessels have a protruding foot and define the Protruding-Foot Beaker culture (PFB) as a subset of the Single Grave culture. [15]

Battle axes

Many archaeological cultures are defined by their pottery and internally structured (typochronologically) by them. For the Single Grave Culture, however, the battle axes are to be regarded as the main item for structuring this archaeological culture chronologically. The battle axes  form well differentiated types, which are also chronologically significant. In general, on the basis of Glob's study [8] and Hübner's [9] based on this, types A to L can be distinguished, in each case with several subtypes.

In the JN I, types A to F were used. The A1 axe is a form that is found supra-regionally and is referred to in many places as the A axe (or pan-European hammer axe). The A2 and A3 axes, on the other hand, are forms that occur almost exclusively in the area of the Single Grave culture; especially in Jutland, less so already in Schleswig-Holstein. Similarly, for most of the other forms of types B to L, it can be stated that the greatest variety and the most elaborated forms occur in Jutland. From here, the diversity decreases continuously.

In JN II, axes of the H, G and I variants were mainly used. The I axes are also referred to as boat axes because of their shape.

In JN III, mainly the K and L axes were used. The K-axes have shaft holes that are slightly to strongly offset towards the neck. This is a late development; prior to this, medium shaft holes predominated. Moreover, in the late Single Grave Culture (JN III acc. to Hübner), both very long and artistically designed battle axes (e.g. type K1) can be observed alongside very small and clumsy variants (K5). [9] This suggests that the importance of the battle axe is diversifying. This is further supported by the practice of integrating battle axes into multi-object hoards, which was not practised until late in the JN III. [14]

Contrary to established opinions, most battle axes are not known from burial contexts, but represent isolated finds. [14]

Single Grave culture pottery Danneil-Museum 035.JPG
Single Grave culture pottery

Genetics

In a genetic study published in Nature in June 2015, the remains of a Single Grave male buried in Kyndeløse, Denmark c. 2850 BC-2500 was examined. He was determined to be a carrier of the paternal haplogroup R1a1a1 and the maternal haplogroup J1c4. [16] [17] Like other people of the Corded Ware horizon, he notably carried Western Steppe Herder (WSH) ancestry. [18]

A genetic study published in January 2021 examined the remains of individuals from the Single Grave culture in Gjerrild, Denmark. The male carried the paternal haplogroup R1b1 and maternal haplogroup K2a. The female carried mtDNA haplogroup HV0. [19] The remains are dated to c. 2500 BC.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corded Ware culture</span> Type of Bronze Age culture

The Corded Ware culture comprises a broad archaeological horizon of Europe between c. 3000 BC – 2350 BC, thus from the late Neolithic, through the Copper Age, and ending in the early Bronze Age. Corded Ware culture encompassed a vast area, from the contact zone between the Yamnaya culture and the Corded Ware culture in south Central Europe, to the Rhine on the west and the Volga in the east, occupying parts of Northern Europe, Central Europe and Eastern Europe. Early autosomal genetic studies suggested that the Corded Ware culture originated from the westward migration of Yamnaya-related people from the steppe-forest zone into the territory of late Neolithic European cultures; however, paternal DNA evidence fails to support this hypothesis, and it is now proposed that the Corded Ware culture evolved in parallel with the Yamnaya, with no evidence of direct male-line descent between them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bell Beaker culture</span> Archaeological culture, 2800–1800 BC

The Bell Beaker culture, also known as the Bell Beaker complex or Bell Beaker phenomenon, is an archaeological culture named after the inverted-bell beaker drinking vessel used at the very beginning of the European Bronze Age, arising from around 2800 BC. Bell Beaker culture lasted in Britain from c. 2450 BC, with the appearance of single burial graves, until as late as 1800 BC, but in continental Europe only until 2300 BC, when it was succeeded by the Unetice culture. The culture was widely dispersed throughout Western Europe, being present in many regions of Iberia and stretching eastward to the Danubian plains, and northward to the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, and was also present in the islands of Sardinia and Sicily and some coastal areas in north-western Africa. The Bell Beaker phenomenon shows substantial regional variation, and a study from 2018 found that it was associated with genetically diverse populations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Únětice culture</span> Bronze Age archaeological culture in Central Europe

The Únětice culture, Aunjetitz culture or Unetician culture is an archaeological culture at the start of the Central European Bronze Age, dated roughly to about 2300–1600 BC. The eponymous site for this culture, the village of Únětice, is located in the central Czech Republic, northwest of Prague. There are about 1,400 documented Únětice culture sites in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, 550 sites in Poland, and, in Germany, about 500 sites and loose finds locations. The Únětice culture is also known from north-eastern Austria, and from western Ukraine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Funnelbeaker culture</span> North-central European culture around 4300–2800 BCE

The Funnel(-neck-)beaker culture, in short TRB or TBK, was an archaeological culture in north-central Europe. It developed as a technological merger of local neolithic and mesolithic techno-complexes between the lower Elbe and middle Vistula rivers. These predecessors were the (Danubian) Lengyel-influenced Stroke-ornamented ware culture (STK) groups/Late Lengyel and Baden-Boleráz in the southeast, Rössen groups in the southwest and the Ertebølle-Ellerbek groups in the north. The TRB introduced farming and husbandry as major food sources to the pottery-using hunter-gatherers north of this line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nordic Bronze Age</span> Archaeological period in Northern Europe

The Nordic Bronze Age is a period of Scandinavian prehistory from c. 2000/1750–500 BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yamnaya culture</span> Archaeological culture from the Pontic steppe

The Yamnaya culture or the Yamna culture, also known as the Pit Grave culture or Ochre Grave culture, was a late Copper Age to early Bronze Age archaeological culture of the region between the Southern Bug, Dniester, and Ural rivers, dating to 3300–2600 BCE. It was discovered by Vasily Gorodtsov following his archaeological excavations near the Donets River in 1901–1903. Its name derives from its characteristic burial tradition: Я́мная is a Russian adjective that means 'related to pits ', as these people used to bury their dead in tumuli (kurgans) containing simple pit chambers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lengyel culture</span> Central European archeological culture (c. 5000–4000 BC)

The Lengyel culture is an archaeological culture of the European Neolithic, centered on the Middle Danube in Central Europe. It flourished from 5000 to 4000 BC, ending with phase IV, e.g., in Bohemia represented by the 'Jordanow/Jordansmühler culture'. It is followed by the Funnelbeaker culture/TrB culture and the Baden culture. The eponymous type site is at Lengyel in Tolna county, Hungary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Globular Amphora culture</span> Archaeological culture in Central Europe

The Globular Amphora culture (GAC, German: Kugelamphoren-Kultur ; c. 3400–2800 BC, is an archaeological culture in Central Europe. Marija Gimbutas assumed an Indo-European origin, though this is contradicted by newer genetic studies that show a connection to the earlier wave of Early European Farmers rather than to Western Steppe Herders from the Ukrainian and south-western Russian steppes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pitted Ware culture</span>

The Pitted Ware culture was a hunter-gatherer culture in southern Scandinavia, mainly along the coasts of Svealand, Götaland, Åland, north-eastern Denmark and southern Norway. Despite its Mesolithic economy, it is by convention classed as Neolithic, since it falls within the period in which farming reached Scandinavia. The Pitted Ware people were largely maritime hunters, and were engaged in lively trade with both the agricultural communities of the Scandinavian interior and other hunter-gatherers of the Baltic Sea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fatyanovo–Balanovo culture</span>

The Fatyanovo–Balanovo culture was a Chalcolithic and early Bronze Age culture within the wider Corded Ware complex which flourished in the forests of Russia from c. 2900 to 2050 BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nordic Stone Age</span> Time period in Scandinavia

The Nordic Stone Age refers to the Stone Age of Scandinavia. During the Weichselian glaciation, almost all of Scandinavia was buried beneath a thick permanent ice cover, thus, the Stone Age came rather late to this region. As the climate slowly warmed up by the end of the ice age, nomadic hunters from central Europe sporadically visited the region. However, it was not until around 12,000 BCE that permanent, but nomadic, habitation in the region took root.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle Axe culture</span> Archaeological culture

The Battle Axe culture, also called Boat Axe culture, is a Chalcolithic culture that flourished in the coastal areas of the south of the Scandinavian Peninsula and southwest Finland, from c. 2800 BC – c. 2300 BC. It was an offshoot of the Corded Ware culture, and replaced the Funnelbeaker culture in southern Scandinavia, probably through a process of mass migration and population replacement. It is thought to have been responsible for spreading Indo-European languages and other elements of Indo-European culture to the region. It co-existed for a time with the hunter-gatherer Pitted Ware culture, which it eventually absorbed, developing into the Nordic Bronze Age. The Nordic Bronze Age has, in turn, been considered ancestral to the Germanic peoples.

The archaeology of Northern Europe studies the prehistory of Scandinavia and the adjacent North European Plain, roughly corresponding to the territories of modern Sweden, Norway, Denmark, northern Germany, Poland and the Netherlands.

Haplogroup I-M253, also known as I1, is a Y chromosome haplogroup. The genetic markers confirmed as identifying I-M253 are the SNPs M253,M307.2/P203.2, M450/S109, P30, P40, L64, L75, L80, L81, L118, L121/S62, L123, L124/S64, L125/S65, L157.1, L186, and L187. It is a primary branch of Haplogroup I-M170 (I*).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indo-European migrations</span> Migrations out of the Proto-Indo-European homeland

The Indo-European migrations are hypothesized migrations of Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) speakers, and subsequent migrations of people speaking derived Indo-European languages, which took place approx. 4000 to 1000 BCE, potentially explaining how these languages came to be spoken across a large area of Eurasia, spanning from the Indian subcontinent and Iranian plateau to Atlantic Europe, in a process of cultural diffusion.

Walternienburg-Bernburger Kultur refers to a mid-neolithic culture which was focused on the area of modern Saxony-Anhalt, the Thuringian Basin and Franconia from 3200 to 2800 BC. It consisted of two regional groups, Walternienburg and Bernburg which interacted closely with each other. Both are named after burial sites in Saxony-Anhalt. Alfred Götze identified the Bernburg type in 1892 and the Walternienburg in 1911. Nils Åberg linked them together as the Walternienburg-Bernburg Culture in 1918, as two closely connected or completely co-extensive cultures. This suggestion is no longer valid, however, since the two cultures have clearly distinct funerary and burial practices. The earlier large stone graves attributed to the Walternienburg culture are today assigned to the Tiefstichkeramik culture and the shape of pottery belonging to the Walternienburg culture shows that it was in the Tiefstichkeramik tradition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prehistory of the Netherlands</span>

The prehistory of the Netherlands was heavily influenced by the region's constantly changing, low-lying geography. Inhabited by humans for at least 37,000 years, the landscape underwent significant transformations, from the last ice age's tundra climate to the emergence of various Paleolithic groups. The region witnessed the development of the Swifterbant culture, which was closely linked to rivers and open water, while the Mesolithic era saw the creation of the world's oldest recovered canoe, the Pesse canoe. The arrival of agriculture around 5000–4000 BC marked the beginning of the Linear Pottery culture, which gradually transformed prehistoric communities.

Early European Farmers (EEF), First European Farmers, Neolithic European Farmers, Ancient Aegean Farmers, or Anatolian Neolithic Farmers are names used to describe a distinct group of early Neolithic farmers who brought agriculture to Europe and Northwest Africa (Maghreb). Although the spread of agriculture from the Middle East to Europe has long been recognised through archaeology, it is only recent advances in archaeogenetics that have confirmed that this spread was strongly correlated with a migration of these farmers, and was not just a cultural exchange.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western Steppe Herders</span> Archaeogenetic name for an ancestral genetic component

In archaeogenetics, the term Western Steppe Herders (WSH), or Western Steppe Pastoralists, is the name given to a distinct ancestral component first identified in individuals from the Chalcolithic steppe around the turn of the 5th millennium BC, subsequently detected in several genetically similar or directly related ancient populations including the Khvalynsk, Sredny Stog, and Yamnaya cultures, and found in substantial levels in contemporary European, West Asian and South Asian populations. This ancestry is often referred to as Yamnaya ancestry, Yamnaya-related ancestry, Steppe ancestry or Steppe-related ancestry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albersdorf-Dieksknöll</span>

The site Albersdorf-Dieksknöll LA 68 is a causewayed enclosure of the fourth millennium BC in Albersdorf, district Dithmarschen, northern Germany. It is one of the three or four known enclosure sites in Schleswig-Holstein and of the 47 known causewayed enclosure of the Funnel Beaker Culture.

References

  1. 1 2 Frei 2019.
  2. ↑ Davidsen 1978, p. 10.
  3. 1 2 Price 2015, pp. 161–169.
  4. ↑ Price 2015, p. 160.
  5. ↑ Fokkens 1998, p. 105.
  6. ↑ Fokkens 2012.
  7. ↑ Trigger 1989, pp. 155–156.
  8. 1 2 3 Glob 1944: P. V. Glob, Studier over den jyske Enkeltgravskultur. Aarbøger 1944.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Hübner 2005: E. Hübner, Jungneolithische Gräber auf der Jütischen Halbinsel. Typologische und chronologische Studien zur Einzelgrabkultur. Nordiske Fortidsminder Serie B 24:1 (Kopenhagen 2005).
  10. ↑ Struve 1955: K. W. Struve, Die Einzelgrabkultur in Schleswig-Holstein und ihre kontinentalen Beziehungen. Offa-Bücher N. F. 11 (Neumünster 1955).
  11. ↑ Furholt, Martin (December 2014). "Upending a 'Totality': Re-evaluating Corded Ware Variability in Late Neolithic Europe". Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. 80: 67–86. doi:10.1017/ppr.2013.20. ISSN   0079-497X. S2CID   130766572.
  12. ↑ Brozio, Jan Piet (2019-11-22), Zur absoluten Chronologie der Einzelgrabkultur in Norddeutschland und Nordjütland [Supplement], heiDATA, doi:10.11588/data/hbavwg , retrieved 2021-10-05
  13. ↑ "The Single Grave Culture". National Museum of Denmark . Retrieved February 3, 2020.
  14. 1 2 3 Schultrich, Sebastian (2018-12-31). Das Jungneolithikum in Schleswig-Holstein. ISBN   978-90-8890-742-5.
  15. ↑ Fagan et al. 1996, pp. 89, 217.
  16. ↑ Allentoft et al. 2015, Supplementary Information, pp. 40-42, Supplementary Table 9, RISE61.
  17. ↑ Mathieson et al. 2018, Supplementary Table 1, Row 352, RISE61.
  18. ↑ Malmström et al. 2019, p. 6.
  19. ↑ Egfjord, Anne Friis-Holm; Margaryan, Ashot; Fischer, Anders; Sjögren, Karl-Göran; Price, T. Douglas; Johannsen, Niels N.; Nielsen, Poul Otto; Sørensen, Lasse; Willerslev, Eske; Iversen, Rune; Sikora, Martin (2021-01-14). "Genomic Steppe ancestry in skeletons from the Neolithic Single Grave Culture in Denmark". PLOS ONE. 16 (1): e0244872. Bibcode:2021PLoSO..1644872E. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0244872 . ISSN   1932-6203. PMC   7808695 . PMID   33444387.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.