The Beaker people [electronic resource] : isotopes, mobility and diet in prehistoric Britain / edited by Mike Parker Pearson [and five others].

This book presents the results of a major project that sought to address a century-old question about the people who were buried with Beakers - the distinctive pottery of Continental origin that was current, predominantly in equally distinctive burials, in Britain from around 2450 BC. Who were these people? Were they immigrants and how far did they move around? What did they eat? What was their lifestyle? How do they compare with Britain's earlier inhabitants and with contemporaries who did not use Beaker pottery? An international team of leading archaeologists and scientists, led by Professor Mike Parker Pearson, was assembled to address these questions. Overall, new light has been shed on 369 people: 333 Beaker and non-Beaker users from the core 2500-1500 BC period, along with 17 from the Neolithic and 19 from after 1500 BC. While the genetic data provide convincing evidence for immigration by Continental Beaker users, the isotopic data indicate a more detailed picture of movements, mostly of fairly short distances within Britain, by the descendants of the first Beaker users. This lavishly illustrated book presents a body of data that will be vital to studies of Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Britain for decades to come.

Intro -- CONTENTS -- List of Figures and Tables ix -- Contributors -- Abstract -- French Language Abstract -- German Language Abstract -- Acknowledgements -- Notes about radiocarbon dates and the use of the term 'east Yorkshire' -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Radiocarbon dates and their Bayesian modelling -- 3. Economy and society in Beaker-period Britain -- 4. The Beaker People Project individuals, their funerary practices and their grave goods -- 5. Beakers and bodies in north-east Scotland: a regional and contextual study -- 6. Aspects of human osteology and skeletal biology -- 7. Dental microwear: 2D and 3D approaches -- 8. Carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis -- 9. Sulphur isotopic analysis -- 10. Strontium isotopic analysis -- 11. Oxygen isotopic analysis -- 12. Synthesis, discussion and conclusions -- Bibliography -- Appendices -- Appendix 1. The pre-2500 BC individuals -- Appendix 2. The post-1500 BC individuals -- Appendix 3. Details of findspot location, current location of the human remains and bibliographic references for the skeletal material studied by the Beaker People Project -- Appendix 4. Location group, period, incidence of association with Beaker or Food Vessel and sex and age identifications -- Appendix 5. Analytical and dating work undertaken for the Beaker People Project and the Beakers and Bodies Project (plus other data used by these projects) -- Appendix 6. Part 1. Details of the individuals studied in the Beakers and Bodies Project: findspot, identifier, NGR, find date, associations and radiocarbon dates Part 2. Osteological information and data on orientation and disposition in the grave of individuals studied in the Beakers and Bodies Project -- Index.

Added to collection customer.56279.3