Bell Beakers were a multicultural phenomenon & trade network, not an ethnic culture

[Maciamo]

I started this thread 12 years ago, and as far as I know, I was the first person who argued that the bell beaker was a cultural phenomenon and not an ethnic culture. This was confirmed by many genetic studies. Someone created a map of the Bell Beaker complex showing the Y-DNA frequency in each region. The most important thing to keep in mind is that the Bell Beaker phenomenon started in southwest Iberia where there was no R1b. So the Bell Beaker, pottery spread culturally to the migrating R1b population that came from Central Europe to Western Europe.

 

[bicicleur 2]

I started this thread 12 years ago, and as far as I know, I was the first person who argued that the bell beaker was a cultural phenomenon and not an ethnic culture. This was confirmed by many genetic studies. Someone created a map of the Bell Beaker complex showing the Y-DNA frequency in each region. The most important thing to keep in mind is that the Bell Beaker phenomenon started in southwest Iberia where there was no R1b. So the Bell Beaker, pottery spread culturally to the migrating R1b population that came from Central Europe to Western Europe.


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The first Bell Beaker people would have originated in Iberia, then some of them would have migrated to Csepel Island on the Danube in Hungary where they would have met incoming steppe people. At least, that is some theory.

 

[Maciamo]

The first Bell Beaker people would have originated in Iberia, then some of them would have migrated to Csepel Island on the Danube in Hungary where they would have met incoming steppe people. At least, that is some theory.

If that were the case, what would have prompted them to migrate thousands of kilometers away without apparently settling anywhere in between?

 

[bicicleur 2]

If that were the case, what would have prompted them to migrate thousands of kilometers away without apparently settling anywhere in between?

Good question.
Wikipedia doesn't give the answer to that, but they say on Csepl Island maritime Bell Beaker met with Vucedol :

Bell Beaker culture - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Expansion and Corded Ware contacts​

Model of the Castro of Zambujal, Portugal
The initial moves from the Tagus estuary were maritime. A southern move led to the Mediterranean where 'enclaves' were established in south-western Spain and southern France around the Golfe du Lion and into the Po Valley in Italy, probably via ancient western Alpine trade routes used to distribute jadeite axes. A northern move incorporated the southern coast of Armorica. The enclave established in southern Brittany was linked closely to the riverine and landward route, via the Loire, and across the Gâtinais Valley to the Seine Valley, and thence to the lower Rhine. This was a long-established route reflected in early stone axe distributions, and via this network, Maritime Bell Beakers first reached the Lower Rhine in c. 2600 BC.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Beaker_culture#cite_note-FOOTNOTECunliffe2010-6"><span>[</span>6<span>]</span></a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Beaker_culture#cite_note-FOOTNOTEMüllerHinzUlrich2015-18"><span>[</span>18<span>]</span></a>

Reconstruction of a Bell Beaker burial, Spain.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Beaker_culture#cite_note-researchgate.net-19"><span>[</span>19<span>]</span></a>
Another expansion brought Bell Beaker to Csepel Island in Hungary by about 2500 BC. In the Carpathian Basin, the Bell Beaker culture came in contact with communities such as the Vučedol culture (c. 3000–2200 BC), which had evolved partly from the Yamnaya culture (c. 3300–2600 BC).<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Beaker_culture#cite_note-20"><span>[</span>a<span>]</span></a> In contrast to the early Bell Beaker preference for the dagger and bow, the favourite weapon in the Carpathian Basin during the first half of the third millennium was the shaft-hole axe.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Beaker_culture#cite_note-21"><span>[</span>20<span>]</span></a> Here, Bell Beaker people assimilated local pottery forms such as the polypod cup. These "common ware" types of pottery then spread in association with the classic bell beaker.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Beaker_culture#cite_note-22"><span>[</span>21<span>]</span></a>