The Beaker People: Isotopes, Mobility and Diet in Prehistoric Britain

The Beaker People: isotopes, mobility and diet in prehistoric Britain presents the results of a major project that sought to address a century-old question about the people who were buried with Beakers a – 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. Around 300 skeletons were subjected to isotope analysis to explore patterns of mobility and diet, and 150 new radiocarbon dates were obtained. Dental microwear was examined for 64 individuals to provide further information about the food they had eaten, and new information on the sex and age of 201 people obtained. A comparative study was undertaken of the shape and size of Beaker users’ skulls and those of Neolithic people in the Peak District of England, to examine the long-held claim that there was a switch from long-headed to round-headed people with the appearance of Beakers. Tantalizing evidence for head-binding among Neolithic people was found. The range of objects found in Beaker graves was reviewed. In addition, the Beaker People Project was able to incorporate the results of another project, focusing on Beaker users in north-east Scotland (The Beakers and Bodies Project) along with other recently obtained data, including ancient DNA results. 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.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures and Tables Contributors Abstract French Language Abstract German Language Abstract Acknowledgements Notes about radiocarbon dates and the use of the term ‘east Yorkshire’ 1. Introduction By Mike Parker Pearson, Mandy Jay and Alison Sheridan 2. Radiocarbon dates and their Bayesian modelling By Mandy Jay, Michael P. Richards and Peter Marshall 3. Economy and society in Beaker-period Britain By Mike Parker Pearson 4. The Beaker People Project individuals, their funerary practices and their grave goods By Mike Parker Pearson, Stuart Needham and Alison Sheridan with Alex Gibson 5. Beakers and bodies in north-east Scotland: a regional and contextual study By Neil Curtis and Neil Wilkin, with Margaret Hutchison 6. Aspects of human osteology and skeletal biology By Chris A. Deter, Patrick Mahoney, Sarah E. Johns and Sandra Thomas 7. Dental microwear: 2D and 3D approaches By Patrick Mahoney, Laura Chiu, Pia Nystrom, Chris A. Deter and Christopher W. Schmidt 8. Carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis By Mandy Jay and Michael P. Richards 9. Sulphur isotopic analysis By Mandy Jay, Olaf Nehlich and Michael P. Richards 10. Strontium isotopic analysis By Janet Montgomery, Jane Evans and Jacqueline Towers 11. Oxygen isotopic analysis By Maura Pellegrini, Mandy Jay and Michael P. Richards 12. Synthesis, discussion and conclusions By Mike Parker Pearson, Mandy Jay, Janet Montgomery, Alison Sheridan and Stuart Needham Bibliography Appendices Appendix 1. The pre-2500 BC individuals By Mandy Jay, Janet Montg omery, Mike Parker Pearson and Alison Sheridan Appendix 2. The post-1500 BC individuals By Mandy Jay, Janet Montg omery, Mike Parker Pearson and Alison Sheridan 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 By Mandy Jay and Alison Sheridan Appendix 4. Location group, period, incidence of association with Beaker or Food Vessel and sex and age identifications By Mandy Jay and Alison Sheridan 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) By Mandy Jay and Alison Sheridan 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 Both By Margaret Hutchison Index

About the Author :
Mike Parker Pearson is Professor of British Later Prehistory at University College London. A distinguished prehistorian he has been involved with many major projects, including leading the recent Stonehenge Riverside Project. His many publications include Stonehenge: Exploring the Greatest Stone Age Mystery (2012) and From Machair to Mountains: archaeological survey and excavation in Uist (2012). Alison Sheridan is emerita Principal Curator of Early Prehistory with National Museums Scotland and specialises in British and Irish Neolithic pottery and in the Neolithic period in this archipelago more generally. Mindy Jay is an honorary research fellow in teh Department of Archaeology, University of Durham where she specializes in the scientific study of isotopes ion diet in prehistory. Andrew Chamberlain is professor of Bioarchaeology at the University of Manchester. He specializes in the study of Human remains from archaeology site with research interests focussing on a range of questions in biological anthropology, science-based archaeology, and palaeodemography. Jane Evans works for Worcester Archaeology and specialises in Roman pottery.

Review :
"This 600-page edited volume... continues the tradition for weudite, well- and sensibly illustrated tomes, and it sells it short to say this is 'yet another' important book... This consummate volume [...] provides the full 'Beaker Experience' that must guide/control the answer to that question: Who thought a few old bones could say so much?"-- "Current Archaeology" "Was it worth waiting? Yes. Are the results significant? Yes. Is the book worth acquiring? Yes... one of the greatest merits of the entire exercise is the delivery to the archaeological community a treasure trove of data, providing the empirical foundation for much work to come, and all the authors must be rightly thanked for that. "-- "The Prehistoric Society" "[...]page numbers do not convey the scale of the work that went into it [...] the data assembled here will be invaluable as the challenge continues."-- "British Archaeology"