Barcelona Part 6: The culture of warfare of Europe's Late Bronze Age

The mysterious Battle of the Tollense Valley. Above, an artist has depicted the wild and brutal combat which occurred during this bloody encounter. A man on the left lies dead or dying from a spear in his stomach. In the upper left, archers shoot their arrows into a mass of flailing warriors. On the right, a mounted man charges into the fray as dead or dying fighters tumble into the river. The previously unknown battle occurred sometime between 1300 and 1200 BC. 

Bones, weapons, and other artifacts from this Late Bronze Age site were discovered in 1996 in the remote Tollense Valley of northern Germany. Studies of the remains indicate that the battle may have involved as many as 5,000 combatants, with as many as 1,000 of them left dead. Its scale stunned archeologists, who had previously believed that no conflict of this size had occurred in Europe during that period.

It has become clear, however, that the Late Bronze Age was a time of ever-increasing militarization and warfare. During the same period as the Tollense Valley battle, Catalonia was invaded and conquered by people from the same culture who used similar weapons, tactics, and levels of ferocity. At the end of this posting, I will provide some of the fascinating details about the Tollense Valley Battle to illustrate how this may have played out in northeast Iberia.

The Urnfield Culture of warrior aristocrats 

The Late Bronze Age in Europe. At its greatest extent, the Urnfields culture stretched from the Balkans to eastern France and from the Netherlands to Italy and parts of Sicily. Archeologists consider the Urnfields people to be an early version of the Celts, whom they call Proto-Celts. Sometime between 1300 and 1200 BC, warriors from the Urnfield Culture invaded and conquered Catalonia. Although successful, they did not gain much ground in the rest of the Iberian Peninsula. 

During the same period, people of the Atlantic Bronze Age dominated the western coast of the Iberian Peninsula all the way up into Britain. Most of Scandinavia was occupied by people of the Nordic Bronze Age culture. Since the Tollense Valley lies very near the Urnfields-Nordic border, the battle may have involved a clash between these two different cultures. However, the identity of the combatants, the exact circumstances of the battle, and the reasons for it are still a mystery.

The Urnfields people are named for their burial practices. Inhumation (burial of bodies) was the standard practice of the Neolithic (New Stone Age), and Chalcolithic (Copper Age) people, as well as the Yamnaya pastoralists from the steppes who conquered them. The Urnfields Culture  broke with this long tradition by practicing cremation. The ashes, mostly from single individuals, were placed in urns and buried in pits, as seen above. Some Urnfields cemeteries contained hundreds of separately buried urns.

The Urnfields culture first arose in central Europe around 1800 BC. It was the successor of earlier cultures which had themselves developed as a result of the Yamnaya conquest. The Urnfields people were organized in tribes led by chiefs and war leaders and were aggressive and prone to raiding. They lived in fortified settlements and were thoroughly familiar with the military technology of their time, including the manufacture and use of bronze weapons and armor.

The rise of the Urnfields culture in central Europe coincided with the collapse of Bronze Age civilizations such as the Minoans of Crete, the Mycenaeans of Greece, and the Hittites of Anatolia. The Egyptian New Kingdom and the Assyrians were weakened but not destroyed. 

It is not clear what role Europe's Bronze Age cultures may have played in the collapse of these civilizations. 

It is possible that some of the mysterious "Sea People" who invaded the eastern Mediterranean during the collapse may have included mercenaries and free-lancers from the European Bronze Age cultures such as the Urnfields. 

Weapons and armor

An armed and armored Urnfields warrior-aristocrat. A man equipped like this would have been the leader of a war band, or even of a small army. While the bronze tipped spear and bronze sword would have been widely available to ordinary fighters, his bronze armor sets him apart as a man of wealth and fighting prowess. In other words, an early aristocrat. These items include his crested helmet, cuirass (torso armor), shield, and greaves (shin protectors). 

Bronze swords, spear tips, and daggers have often been found in Urnfields' grave sites. However, bronze armor (except for greaves) is rarely found there. Shields, cuirasses, and helmets are typically found in "hoards" that have been deliberately buried, either to protect them from theft or to store them for future use. Others were sunk as ritual offerings in bogs. The creation of bronze armor was technically difficult and expensive, so most of it was likely inherited or otherwise re-used. 

Metal workers casting bronze swords. Increasingly, bronze technology was directed toward its use in warfare. Above, several men work at different stages making swords. The casting process included pouring molten metal into a shaped cavity called a mold. The two men on the right are preparing to cast a sword, while the man in the foreground checks the quality of the sword he has just removed from the mold at his feet.  

Scattered around them are the broken remnants of swords and other bronze items. These bits and pieces, possibly recovered from a previously buried hoard, will be melted down and the metal re-used to make new weapons. The outline of the sword in the mold has a U-shaped device on the hilt, revealing it to be an "antenna sword", a term created by archeologists because of the resemblance to antennas used on old fashioned radios and TVs.

An antenna sword in Barcelona's Monjuic Archeological Museum. Antenna swords first appeared in Iberia and elsewhere in the western Mediterranean around the 1000 BC. The sword above would have been lethal in combat, with honed edges on either side of the blade for slashing and a sharp point for stabbing. It would likely have been carried by a mounted warrior-aristocrat. 

Bronze swords first came into use in Minoan Crete around 1700 BC. Previous to the development of swords, the weapons used for stabbing and slashing were daggers of various sizes, made from stone, copper, or bronze. By the Late Bronze Age (1500-1100 BC) bronze swords were widely available, even to the average farmer. In Denmark alone, around 20,000 swords have been recovered in grave sites from this period. The total in circulation must have been much higher.

 

Bronze spear points. These have hollow sockets where wooden shafts could be inserted. A bolt would then be driven through the hole in the side of the hollow end to secure the point. Although spears as weapons date back to Paleolithic times, bronze spear points didn't appear until about 1800 BC, a century before swords. Such points were smaller, simpler, and cheaper to make than swords. Free farmers could easily afford one or more spear points and could make their own wooden shafts.

Mycenaean pottery paintings of this era show that the average foot soldier carried two spears, which makes considerable sense. If he threw, broke, or otherwise lost his only spear, he would be defenseless. The second spear could keep an opponent at bay, particularly if the antagonist was armed with a sword or other weapon shorter than a spear. Shafts from Late Bronze age spears are scarce but those found measured 1.43m (4'8"). 

Bronze Urnfield helmet. The high crest and other decorative elements mark this helmet as the property of a leader or chief. Even the warrior-aristocrat shown in the earlier photo wears a simpler helmet than this one. In the confused swirl of battle, it was important for the combatants to be able to quickly and easily identify their leaders. Distinctive headgear for such men has been found in cave paintings as far back as the Neolithic period.

Urnfield helmets were made in two halves, shaped to fit a head. They were then connected by crimping along the edges of the crest. The areas below the crest in the front and back were connected with plates and rivets. The purpose of the rods extending to the front and rear is not clear, but may simply be decorative. On the side of the helmet, near the bottom, there are three small holes for attaching a strap under the wearer's chin.

Bronze cuirass, or body armor for the torso. This sort of armor first appears around 1500 BC. The Urnfields warriors may have adopted bronze torso armor from contact with the Mycenaean Greeks around 1300 BC. Cuirasses like this show a high level of craftsmanship and it is probable that only high-ranking individuals would have been able to afford them. 

It is possible that a lower ranking fighter might have obtained one by stripping it from the body of a dead enemy chieftain. However, war leaders generally claimed the best of the loot, so it might have been difficult for him to hang on to a cuirass in those circumstances, even if he was the one who killed the original owner.

Cuirasses were carefully hammered to give them the shape of a human torso, including male nipples and a groove for the spine in the back. They were made in two pieces (front and back) which were connected at the sides by rivets and hooks. The armor was worn over a wool or leather jacket to cushion the metal and provide warmth.

Bronze shields were for protection but also acted as a symbol of  rank. Less than 100 Late Bronze Age shields have survived, including some from the Urnfields period. Most were found in hoards or sunk in bogs. For a time, some archeologists believed that shields from this period were primarily for ritual display rather than actual use in combat. Since Tollense, bronze shields have been closely re-examined for so-called "wear", a euphemism for combat damage.

These inspections revealed holes shaped like spear points, dents that could only have been made by sword blows, and other possible damage from arrows. Some shields were intact, meaning that they may have been used for ritual display or that the carrier was a leader who was directing, but not personally participating in, the combat. Because the shields are rarely found in graves, they may not have been personal property, but communally-owned badges of rank.  

The round or slightly oval-shaped shields average 60-70cm (2-2.3ft) in diameter and 1.5k (3.3lbs). A bronze disk of about 20cm (0.65ft) was first cast, then expanded in size through hammering and annealing. The outside edges were often crimped over wire for extra strength against sword blows.  In the final stage, decorations were added. This long and technically difficult process was expensive, so common fighters carried shields of wood and hardened leather.

Late Bronze Age Combat

The Tollense clash may have focused on control of a causeway. A mounted warrior brandishes his bronze sword as he charges into a surging mass of foot soldiers. Several fighters lie dead from arrows on the bridge. One archer at the center right takes aim at a warrior on horseback at the far end of the bridge. On the hilltop, mounted figures survey the ongoing mayhem. One of them may be a chief, very possibly wearing his crested helmet, with the shield denoting his rank slung over his shoulder.

Surveys of the Tollense battle site have disclosed the remnants of a wood and stone causeway leading across the river. The causeway had originally been built 500 years previously, but repairs and improvements were contemporary with the battle. One scenario is that local fighters were attempting to defend their territory from an invading army by using the causeway as a chokepoint.

Another theory suggests that one group was a trading caravan from the Nordic Bronze Age area, guarded by mercenary warriors. The other may have been an Urnfields army sent to seize it by chieftains who wanted to control the route. Causeways such as the one at Tollense were important to the European trade networks. These included the Baltic amber route which carried amber for jewelry to southern Europe and Iberia, passing through this area along the way.

Flint arrowhead embedded in an arm bone. A young man passing by found this artifact protruding from the riverbank in 1996. The discovery set off archeological investigations that have continued ever since. The arrowhead shows that even during the Late Bronze Age, stone weapons were still in use and could be lethal. In the artist's portrayal, the archer firing at the mounted warrior may be the one who shot this arrow, since the arrowhead's trajectory was upward. 

The causeway lies upstream from the mass of skeletons, suggesting that dead or dying fighters may have fallen into the river and floated downstream. Another possibility is that, after the dead combatants of the defeated army were stripped of items of value, their bodies were simply thrown into the water. In either case, the bodies floated downstream to a river bend where they piled up and were gradually covered over by silt.

The bones of at least 140 individuals have been found at the site. 

Before deciding that this was a battle site, archeologists first had to discount a possible cemetery or a site of human sacrifice. As the bones were analyzed, it became clear that the vast majority were from males of prime fighting age (between 20 and 40). A handful of women and children were also present, but they may have been camp followers. Together, the gender, age range, and random distribution of the bones rule out a cemetery.

Bronze Age sacrifices were usually small in scale and very ritualized. The bones at Tollense are from a very large number of people and there is no indication of ritual behavior. The damage was inflicted by a variety of weapons, including sword cuts on bones and bronze arrowheads stuck in skulls. Most bones show no healing, indicating that death occurred the same day. The few long-healed wounds suggest experienced soldiers who had survived other engagements before falling in this one. 

The dead may have totaled as many as 1000 out of a possible 5000+ combatants. However, only about 5% of the potential battle area has been excavated so far. The winning side would probably have honored their fallen fighters properly, according to their culture. The Urnfields warriors, for example, would have cremated their dead and buried the ashes. Therefore the actual number of dead and the overall number of combatants may be even higher than the bones indicate.

So, who were these people? DNA from a selection of the bones shows that they were largely from the central European areas like southern Germany, Poland, and Hungary. This was far from the Tollense Valley, but it was the heartland of the Urnfields culture. Their tooth enamel also shows that they ate millet, which was not grown in the area of the battle but was cultivated in central Europe. Interestingly, a few came from the Baltic area, France and even the Iberian Peninsula. 

This completes my Part 6 of my Barcelona series. I hope you enjoyed it and, if so, you will leave any thoughts or questions in the Comments section below. If you leave a question, please include your email so that I may respond in a timely manner.

Hasta luego, Jim

 

Barcelona Part 5: The Early Bronze Age in Catalonia

Warriors gather in an Early Bronze age village. This scene captures life in Catalonia about 4000 years ago. While one warrior chats with a family, a metal worker prepares to pour molten bronze into molds. Another worker hammers the cooled axe heads into final shape. The warriors may be local men setting out on a mission or a passing detachment pausing to re-supply and catch up on the news. 

Warrior detachments often provided protection to merchant-traders who brought goods from as far away as the Baltic Coast or the Eastern Mediterranean. The men above are armed with bronze swords and spears tipped with bronze. They possess no protective armor other than simple bronze helmets and shields of hardened leather with bronze fittings.

Map of Iberian Peninsula during the Early Bronze Age. The Iberian Peninsula was usually one of the last areas of Europe to be reached by migrations and new pre-historic technologies. Copper was alloyed with arsenic to produce bronze in the Middle East as early as 7000 years ago. However, on the Peninsula, the Bronze Age  began about 4200 years ago at El Argar , one of Europe's first state-level civilizations (see map). Bronze came to northeastern Iberia and Catalonia even later.

During this period, the Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic (Copper Age) culture continued in Catalonia. The Bell Beaker phenomenon, which occurred late in the Chalcolithic period (see Part 4), is noted for its high quality copper and ceramic goods. However, little in the way of bronze was produced in Catalonia during this period and only on a small scale at scattered locations. Most bronze in use arrived through trade networks

One reason for the slow start of Catalonia's Bronze Age was the limited availability of tin. The discovery that tin was a much better alloy than arsenic led to more and better bronze, but tin was much more difficult to obtain. A look at the map above shows that most of the Iberian Peninsula's tin mines were located in the northwest, with only a handful in other areas and none in Catalonia.

The Bell Beaker/Steppe Culture in Catalonia

Ceramic pot in the Bell Beaker style. The pots were used for a wide variety of purposes, including as crucibles to melt metals such as copper, gold, and silver. These ceramics, as well as other features of the Bell Beaker phenomenon, were first produced for the elites in the Iberian Peninsula. They then spread through trade networks to other cultural elites in western and central Europe. 

About 4500 years ago, just as the Bell Beaker phenomenon reached central Europe, the great migration of pastoralists from Eurasian steppes called the Yamnaya also reached that area (see Part 4). The high quality Bell Beaker artifacts and corresponding cultural ideas were quickly adopted by the newcomers. This probably helped them in their subsequent conquest of Europe's Neolithic/Chalcolithic cultures. 

Yamnaya is Russian for "People of the pit burials". The Neolithic/Chalcolithic people had buried their dead in large communal barrows for thousands of years, reflecting their egalitarian heritage. By contrast, the pastoralists from the steppes, called the Yamnaya, usually buried their dead individually in stone lined pits called cists, and then covered these with mounds called kurgans. This method reflected the Yamnaya social hierarchy, based on chieftainship, patriarchy, and their concepts of personal property.  

A striking feature of the Yamnaya was their great mobility and the key to this was their invention of wheeled vehicles. Their wagons were valued so highly that they were sometimes buried in kurgans with their owners. Mobility and a warlike attitude enabled them to rapidly take over the societies they encountered. This profound transformation can be seen in the Proto-Indo-European language the Yamnaya spoke, which became the basis for most modern European languages. 

Over the centuries, waves of Yamnaya migrated into Europe, spearheaded by groups of young men who were seeking their fortunes in new areas. They mated with Neolithic/Chalcolithic women, to the detriment of Neolithic/Chalcolithic men whose DNA disappears from the genetic record in many areas at about the same time. All this led to dramatic cultural changes in many areas of Europe. However, as usual, such changes arrived much later in the Iberian Peninsula.

Daily life

Roundhouses were typical of many Early Bronze Age villages. The walls of roundhouses were a combination of wooden strips woven together and covered with mud. This method of construction is called "wattle and daub". The roofs were of thatched materials supported by wood poles. The large open room was heated by a fire pit in the center, where cooking activities also occurred. There was no chimney, since the smoke would filter out through the thatched materials. 

The roundhouses provided both living and working areas for the multi-generational families who inhabited them. Weaving, potting, jewelry-making and other individual crafts would have been conducted inside, possibly by the light of the central fire. 

Finely crafted shell necklace. People have been making jewelry from shells for at least 150,000 years. Various kinds of personal adornment found in the Early Bronze Age graves show that both sexes wore jewelry. This included items made from copper, bronze, gold, and silver, as well as shell necklaces like the one above. 

To assemble this many individual shells, all of the same size and shape, and then shape and drill each of them so that they could be strung must have taken immense patience and concentration. It is not clear whether this particular necklace was made from shells collected from the Catalonian coast or whether the necklace arrived from elsewhere through the trade networks. 

Unusual double vase found at Stiges, on the coast south of Barcelona. There is a nub of what may have been a handle on the part that connects the two containers. The purpose of the double vase is not clear and I could not find any other examples in Barcelona's Montjuic Museum of Archeology or on the internet. 

Possibly it had some ceremonial function during feast rituals. It certainly would have been difficult to drink or pour from either vase without spilling from the other. I encourage anyone with any information or suggestions to share them. 

Flanged axe head made during the Early to Middle Bronze Age. This axe was found at Cova d'Olopte, a cave north of Barcelona in the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains. In the illustration at the beginning of this post, the two metal workers are creating flanged axes similar to this one. 

Because of the dangerous and highly flammable nature of metallurgy, it would have been conducted outside the home, as seen in the first illustration. Axe heads like this may or may not have been intended for actual use as a tools. Sometimes they were used as ingots and melted down later to create other useful objects. 

Early Bronze Age workman's tool kit.  These artifacts are dated to between 4100 to 3500 years ago. They include a knife and a flat ax, both made of copper. The other knife and the punch are bronze made from an alloy of copper and arsenic. 

Notice that neither of the knives has a tang, or shaft, to fit into a wood or bone handle. Instead, they have holes for rivets which would have attached them to their handles. These artifacts were found in various sites around Catalonia and are clearly intended as working tools rather than ingots. 

Animal bones from the Early Bronze Age. These include large and small skulls, probably from domesticated animals like cattle and sheep. There are also two jaw bones, one from a canine and the other from a grazing animal, as well as a hollow leg bone. These remains may be the normal detritus of daily living. On the other hand, feasting was a popular way to commemorate religious or social occasions and to strengthen community bonds, as it still is today.

This completes Part 5 of my series on the ancient history of Barcelona and Catalonia. I hope you enjoyed it and, if so, you will include any thoughts or questions in the Comments section below or email me directly. If you leave a question, please include your email address so that I may respond in a timely manner.

Hasta luego, Jim

 

Barcelona Part 4: The Chalcolithic or Copper Age

Otzi the Iceman, as he may have looked in life. Otzi's mummy was  discovered in 1991 under a melting glacier in Italy's Otzal Alps. He died about 5,300 years ago, killed by an unknown assailant who shot a flint arrowhead into his back. This happened early in the transition from the Neolithic (New Stone) Age to the Bronze Age. The period is called the Chalcolithic (Copper) Age and it marked the beginning of metallurgy, a major step in the development of civilization. 

People had been killed in similar ways to Otzi since the bow was invented 7,000 years previously. Who killed him and why are still a mystery, but robbery was not the apparent motive. Otzi's possessions were still scattered about him when his body was discovered, including several stone tools and weapons. Also found nearby was his hand-axe, tipped with a valuable copper blade (see above). 

While Otzi probably never lived in or even visited Iberia, he was typical of the inhabitants there and throughout most of early Chalcolithic Europe. While copper smelting began in the Balkans about 7,000 years ago, this technology didn't arrive in northeastern Iberia until about 5200 years ago. The Chalcolithic era in Iberia ended about 1000 years later, when people began alloying copper with arsenic and tin to create bronze. 

Life in the Chalcolithic Era

Model of the fortified town of Los Millares in southern Iberia. Otzi and the overwhelming majority of other Chalcolithic people lived in hamlets and small villages like their Neolithic forebears. However, during the middle of this transitional period, large fortified towns like Los Millares began to appear. About a thousand people lived in the town in circular-shaped dwellings. Also present were workshops for smelting copper, gold, and silver, making Los Millares an important trade center. 

The town was occupied from about 5000 to about 4000 years ago and its economic activity seems to have made it a target for raiders. Los Millares was positioned on a hill and protected by a series of defensive walls, buttressed by multiple bastions. The main gate is a small fort in itself. All this indicates that the Chalcolithic period was a time of rising organized violence. However, attackers armed only with bows and spears would have found it difficult to overcome these defenses. 

Stone tools were still employed during the Chalcolithic period. The artifacts above were found near the town of Berga, north of Barcelona. The two tools on the left are for cutting, while the one on the right is probably the tip of a spear. The manufacture and use of stone tools continued long after copper was first smelted in the Balkans. 

In some areas of Europe, stone tools were in use well into the Bronze Age, just as horses have continued to be used as work animals long after the invention of the internal combustion engine and typewriters were still widely used for many decades after computers were developed.

People in a fortified town using Chalcolithic technologies. Two men on the left are pouring molten copper into a mould while the man in the center hammers a copper object into its final shape. The man standing in front of a tall kiln is smelting copper while the boy to his right feeds wood into the fire. The woman to their right is spinning wool. The boy seated in the foreground is starting a fire using a bow drill. 

 Copper won't melt until it reaches 1084C (1983F), but cooking fires burn at much lower temperatures. So, the first smelting probably have occurred by accident in a potter's kiln, since it was the only source with sufficient heat. Once released from the ore, copper is highly malleable, particularly in a liquid state. A potter could easily have crafted moulds to create a variety of shapes which were then hammered and polished. Small axes, like the one carried by Otzi, were probably the earliest manufactured objects.

Selection of early copper and bronze tools. These were found in Catalonia, at sites north and west of Barcelona. The small copper ax head on the right is the oldest, possibly from the period around Otzi's time. Moving toward the left, the tools are progressively more recent, ending with a Middle Bronze Age spear point on the far left.The first uses of copper and bronze were probably utilitarian, i.e. to create tools and weapons. Objects for personal adornment no doubt came later.

Various pottery used for food storage and preparation. The Chalcolithic person's diet depended upon geographic location, but was pretty much the same as his Neolithic predecessors. When scientists examined Otzi's stomach contents, they determined that his last meal was heavy in the high-energy animal fat required by his Alpine lifestyle. 

Archeologists have sometimes found food traces from storage or cooking in pottery like that shown above. Included were cultivated crops such as wheat and barley, as well as natural plants such as berries and nuts and traces of various animal fats. 

Iberia's Chalcolithic people raised pigs, sheep, cattle, and goats for meat, and sometimes supplemented this with protein from wild game. The cattle and goats also provided milk, as well as hides for clothing, tools, and weapons. Sheep's wool was spun into yarn that was then woven into clothing.

The Bell Beaker Phenomenon

Artist's conception of a Bell Beaker man. The drawing follows closely the clothing, weapons and other artifacts found in a Bell Beaker grave. Scientists have fiercely debated the significance of the Bell Beaker phenomenon ever since grave goods from the culture were discovered from southern Iberia to northern Britain and from the Atlantic Coast as far east as Poland. 

The oldest artifacts have been dated to 4,500 years ago and were found in southern Iberia. Archeologists initially thought that they represented the remains of a great migration out of the Iberian Peninsula to far-flung areas of Europe. The difference between the oldest and most recent artifacts stretched over a period of only a few hundred years. The finely crafted grave goods included the distinctive pottery that gave the culture its name. 

Pottery in the Bell Beaker style. These pots were found in a cave called Cova de Toralla, northeast of Barcelona. Trace remains have been found inside many Bell Beaker pots. Tests show that they were used as kitchen utensils, funeral urns, copper melting crucibles, and as containers for alcoholic beverages such as mead and beer. The pottery is usually found next to finely crafted copper daggers and arrowheads, as well as stone bracelets for archers. Other typical grave goods are prestige items like gold ornaments and V-perforated bone buttons. 

However, something was quite odd about these finds. For one thing, the direction of the supposed Bell Beaker migration was unusual. Paleolithic Homo sapiens had moved out of Africa, then headed north and west, finally arriving in Iberia. Neolithic farmers had begun in the Middle East and also moved north and west, then south into Iberia. Pastoralists from the Russian steppes again moved west, ending up in Iberia and finally in Britain. 

New technologies such as farming, metallurgy, and wheeled vehicles accompanied these migrations. However, in the case of the Bell Beaker phenomenon, the movement was in the opposite direction, out of Iberia and then north and east. In addition, Bell Beaker graves were not located in broadly contiguous areas, as normally occurred in migrations. Instead, there were small concentrations of burial sites in widely-scattered areas. 

Copper axe, called a halberd, found at a Bell Beaker site. In recent decades, archeologists have begun using DNA and genome-tracing in their work. When they applied these to the human remains in Bell Beaker graves, more questions arose. Most of the remains in the scattered sites were not genetically related to those found in southern Iberia. Further, the DNA in the different areas to which the supposed migrations extended also did not match each other. 

It seems that large numbers of Bell Beaker people were not moving around. On the other hand, Bell Beaker goods and ideas were traveling widely, apparently transported by long-distance traders. We should remember that when iPhones or Beatles songs rapidly spread around the world, they were not accompanied by large migrations of Americans or British people. These hugely popular cultural icons were quickly adopted by local people who had access and could afford them.

Map showing the distribution of Bell Beaker sites in Europe. After beginning in the Iberian Peninsula, the phenomenon spread relatively quickly into central and northern Europe before finally crossing over into Britain. The Bell Beaker cultural package contained what we would now describe as "high-end" goods. Not surprisingly, the burials in which Bell Beaker goods have been found tend to be those of the high-status people who could afford them. 

Then, just about the time when the Bell Beaker phenomenon reached central Europe, it encountered an actual mass migration which was moving in the traditional east-to-west direction. These were the the Yamnaya pastoralists, who would bring massive social and technological changes to the Neolithic/Chalcolithic cultures of Europe.

The Yamnaya migration

Yamnaya warriors were well-armed with copper weapons.  The Yamnaya probably originated as Neolithic farmers who moved north from Anatolia to the Eurasian river valleys. Yamnaya is a Russian word that refers to the pits they used to bury their dead. They were a culture that developed in the Eurasian steppes north of the Black Sea. These great grasslands were not suitable for farming, given the technology then available, but were ideal for pasturing herd animals. 

The Neolithic culture had always included animal herding. However, once the Yamnaya had become mobile through their invention of wagons, they moved out onto the steppes to become full-time pastoralists. This highly mobile and nomadic lifestyle produced a hierarchal social structure based on chiefs. Looking for wealth and glory, groups of young young men went on raids to capture animals and women. From this, the Yamnaya developed a warlike culture not unlike that of the Huns and Mongols of later eras.

Scale model of a wagon found in a Yamnaya grave. As with metallurgy, a pottery shop in Mesopotamia was probably the site where the first wheel was invented about 6,200 years ago. The potter didn't do it to transport people or cargo, but as an easier way to make pots. Around 5,500 years ago some Yamnaya had the bright idea of turning the potter's horizontal wheel on its side. By mounting it on an axle with a wheel on the other end, this new device could then carry a load. 

Inventing wagons was a huge technological achievement because it involved solving a variety of difficult problems. These included inventing the composite wheel, figuring out whether to use fixed or moving axles, and how to break cattle to the harness. The first wagons were probably pulled by oxen (castrated bulls), although there is some evidence that the Yamnaya also rode horses. However, ancient horse DNA shows that they were not widely used until later times.

Although these early wagons were slow-moving, they set the Yamnaya population free to wander the steppes. Instead of carrying everything on their backs, they could now haul their shelter, equipment, and families as they followed their herds. They no longer needed fixed villages because their food, as well as supplies of leather and wool, were all "on the hoof". In fact, the health and stature of the pastoralists improved over that of their Neolithic farmer forebears because of their improved diet. 

The Yamnaya spread rapidly into all parts of Europe. Neolithic farmers took about 4,500 years to reach Iberia from the Middle East. By contrast, the Yamnaya's mobile lifestyle and lack of attachment to any particular place allowed them to cover about the same distance within 500 years or so. And, as they encountered more and more farm settlements, their warlike organization enabled them to dominate the people in them. 

Conflict and violence had certainly increased among the farmers of the Neolithic and early Chalcolithic periods, but nothing really prepared them for the aggressive and fast-moving tactics of the newcomers. When the Yamnaya reached central Europe, they encountered the Bell Beaker phenomenon and quickly incorporated its technological advances--particularly in metallurgy and weaponry--into their culture. This further strengthened their ability to dominate local people wherever they went, both militarily and culturally. 

The Yamnaya society of male warriors ruled by chiefs was strongly hierarchal and patriarchal. They introduced the idea of personal ownership of property and its transmission through male lineage. The status of women had gradually deteriorated from the end of hunter-gatherer times through the Neolithic and early Chalcolithic periods. With the arrival of the Yamnaya, the patriarchy became ascendant, and remained so for the next 4,500 years.

Yamnaya man's face re-constructed from skeletal remains.Their migration can be traced both through DNA and language. Recent studies have shown that the DNA of Neolithic males (but not females) disappeared in most of Europe only a few hundred years after the Yamnaya arrived. Even today, most European DNA traces back to the steppe pastoralists. Some have suggested that this points to a prehistoric genocide, but no archeological evidence has been found to support the claim. 

It is more likely that the dominant social, political, and cultural position of the Yamnaya men would have made them more desirable to the local women. In fact, the average male/female ratio among the Yamnaya who initially migrated into Europe was 10/1. All those young male warriors would certainly have been looking for women with whom to mate. As recently as WWII, many European women gravitated toward German soldiers when the Nazis seized the continent. 

The other major cultural artifact of this great migration is language. The Yamnaya spoke Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the father of nearly all European languages. Although most of these languages are today mutually unintelligible, they all derive from PIE. The language of the Neolithic/Chalcolithic farmers survives only in a few tiny enclaves, like the Basque region of northern Spain.

This concludes Part 4 of my Barcelona series. Hope you found it interesting and enlightening. If you have any thoughts or questions, please leave them in the Comments section below or email me directly. If you leave a question, please include your email address that I may respond in a timely fashion.

Hasta luego, Jim