Who were the Beaker Folk

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A.� Our ancestors, identified by the archaeologist John Thurnam in the late 1860s.< xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

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Q.� Why beaker

A.� Thurnam, examining the skeletons from the barrows - burial mounds - of Wiltshire around the site of Stonehenge, noticed a difference in the barrows themselves. He spotted that long barrows seemed to belong to the Stone Age and round barrows to the Bronze Age.

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Then he observed that the skulls in long barrows were dolichocephalic (long in relation to their width), and the skulls in the round barrows were brachycephalic (more rounded). It seemed that they must belong to two different races of people.

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It was also soon noticed that the 'roundheads' tended to be associated with certain specific artefacts, most noticeably a distinctive type of pottery, the beaker style.

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Q.� Other artefacts

A.� Other finds in 'beaker' graves included barbed flat arrow heads, copper axes, small gold, jet or bone ornaments, and stone objects referred to as archers' wrist guards. These deposits were dated to between 2000 and 1500BC.

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Q.� Why the change

A.� It's possible that the Beaker people were a group of invaders, with superior technological knowledge who brought other new traditions, including the building of stone circles, with them.

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The most likely theory now, though, is that the Beaker people were merely the transition between Stone Age and Metal Age cultures.

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Q.� And what about these beakers themselves

A.� The beaker pots are of two main types. The first is known as the all-over cord beaker, which was decorated by pressing a double-stranded twisted cord into the wet clay. Then came a long-necked pot decorated by a notched comb. The design was often geometric.

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Q.� Other characteristics

A.� Beaker burials were single under a mound with the bodies placed in a crouched position rather than the communal burial of the Neolithic era.

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Clothing was of woven wool or skins with buttons and fastenings of copper or bone, with men wearing long skirts starting below the shoulder with a poncho-type cape. Women wore long dresses with half-length sleeves in winter and a corded skirt and thin, square necked jumper.

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Both sexes wore headgear, the men a woollen cap and the women a cap or net. Women's graves often contain copper or bronze earrings and copper hairpins, and men's often contain weapons.

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Q.� What sort of weapons

A.� Flat-bladed copper axes. Some of the copper will have come from Cornwall - and some of them will have been traded for other possessions.

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Q.� And their settlements

A.� It showed the start of permanent settlements rather than the nomadic lifestyle of the earlier ages. These people had to stay in one place to protect their crops.

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Steve Cunningham

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