STEREOTYPE Throughout Northern Europe, Thousands of Burial Mounds Were Erected in the Third Millennium BCE
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Wentink STEREOTYPE Throughout northern Europe, thousands of burial mounds were erected in the third millennium BCE. Starting in the Corded Ware culture, individual people were being buried underneath these mounds, often equipped with an almost rigid set of grave goods. This practice continued in the second half of the third millennium BCE with the start of the Bell Beaker phenomenon. In large parts of Europe, a ‘typical’ set of objects was placed in graves, known as the ‘Bell Beaker package’. This book focusses on the significance and meaning of these Late Neolithic graves. Why were people buried in a seemingly standardized manner, what did this signify and what does this reveal about these individuals, their role in society, their cultural identity and the people STEREOTYPE that buried them? By performing in-depth analyses of all the individual grave goods from Dutch graves, which includes use-wear analysis and experiments, the biography of grave goods is explored. How were they made, used and discarded? Subsequently the nature of these graves themselves are explored as contexts of deposition, and how these are part of a much wider ‘sacrificial landscape’. A novel and comprehensive interpretation is presented that shows how the objects from graves were connected with travel, drinking ceremonies and maintaining long-distance relationships. STEREOTYPE The role of grave sets in Corded Ware and Bell Beaker funerary practices ISBN 978-90-8890-938-2 ISBN: 978-90-8890-938-2 Karsten Wentink 9 789088 909382 STEREOTYPE STEREOTYPE The role of grave sets in Corded Ware and Bell Beaker funerary practices Karsten Wentink © 2020 Karsten Wentink Published by Sidestone Press, Leiden www.sidestone.com Imprint: Sidestone Press Dissertations Lay-out & cover design: Sidestone Press Photography cover: front, landscape by Hans Koster; rider drawn by the author based on rider from painting by Anton Mauve (Morning ride along the Beach, 1876; collection: Rijksmuseum Amsterdam). Back, gold diadem from Bennekom, AMP0130 (collection and photography: Valkhof Museum, Nijmegen). Photography and illustrations: all photos and illustrations in this book are by the author, unless otherwise indicated. ISBN 978-90-8890-938-2 (softcover) ISBN 978-90-8890-939-9 (hardcover) ISBN 978-90-8890-940-5 (PDF e-book) This book was originally written as a PhD dissertation and successfully defended at Leiden University in 2020. This research was part of the Dutch Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) funded projects ‘Ancestral Mounds’ (no. 360-60-080). Contents 1 Introduction. The problem of typical Late Neolithic 11 grave sets and the lack thereof 1.1 Introduction 11 1.2 Beakers and burials 13 1.3 The rise of chiefdoms 13 1.4 Problems of interpreting standardized sets as expressions 14 of individual status 1.5 Late Neolithic graves from the Netherlands 15 1.6 Research questions 15 1.7 Methodology and dataset 16 1.7.1 Data collection 16 1.7.2 Functional analysis 17 1.8 Outline of the thesis 18 2 Presentation and perception 21 2.1 Introduction 21 2.2 The presentation of self 22 2.3 Us and them 25 2.4 The cultural biography of grave goods 28 2.5 Concluding remarks 29 3 The Age of Beakers 31 3.1 Introduction 31 3.2 Late Neolithic A: The rise of Corded Ware 31 3.2.1 Secondary products revolution 34 3.2.2 The Dutch Corded Ware Culture in context 34 3.2.3 All Over Ornamented beakers: The rise of Bell Beaker or 36 the demise of Corded Ware? 3.4 Late Neolithic B: Bell beakers on the horizon 38 3.4.1 Bell beakers in context 40 3.6 Typochronology 42 3.7 Concluding remarks 45 4 The Life of Beakers 47 4.1 Introduction 47 4.1.1 Late Neolithic A beakers in graves 48 4.1.2 Late Neolithic B beakers in graves 49 4.2 The production of beakers 50 4.2.1 Late Neolithic A Beakers 50 4.2.2 Experiments with wraps and cord-impressions 52 4.2.3 Late Neolithic B Beakers 54 4.2.4 Conclusions 56 4.3 Decoration of beakers 57 4.3.1 Late Neolithic motifs 58 4.3.2 International style beakers: CW-, AOO- and maritime bell beakers 62 4.3.3 Local style beakers: Dutch North-East-group versus 63 Veluvian bell beakers 4.3.4 Conclusions 67 4.4 Decoration found on other forms of material culture 68 4.5 The ‘ugly ducklings’ 69 4.6 The use life of beakers 71 4.6.1 Late Neolithic A use life 71 4.6.2 Late Neolithic B use life 73 4.6.3 Conclusions 76 4.7 Placement in the grave 76 4.7.1 Late Neolithic A Placement in the grave 76 4.7.2 Late Neolithic B Placement in the grave 77 4.7.3 Conclusions 77 4.8 Beer and beakers 78 4.9 Concluding remarks 82 5 The life of Late Neolithic A grave goods 85 5.1 Introduction 85 5.2 Flint blades and daggers: Introduction 86 5.3 Northern flint blades 88 5.3.1 Production and origins from afar 88 5.3.2 A life of circulation 91 5.3.3 Placement in the grave 93 5.4 French daggers 94 5.4.1 Origins from afar 94 5.4.2 Production 95 5.4.3 Use life, and the origin of wear traces 97 5.4.4 Placement in the grave 100 5.4.5 Blades from afar 100 5.5 Axes 101 5.5.1 Local production and objects from afar 102 5.5.2 A useful life 105 5.5.3 Two axes, one toolkit? 107 5.5.4 Placement in graves 109 5.5.5 The role of axes in the Late Neolithic 109 5.6 Battle axes 111 5.6.1 Production 113 5.6.2 History of speculation, lives of use 115 5.6.3 Experiments 120 5.6.4 Battle axes for clearing the land 125 5.6.5 Placement in graves 126 5.7 Flakes, beads, arrowheads and other grave finds 127 5.7.1 Flint flakes 127 5.7.2 Arrowheads 129 5.7.3 Amber beads 130 5.7.4 Other grave finds 134 5.8 Concluding remarks 136 6 The Life of Late Neolithic B grave goods 137 6.1 Introduction 137 6.2 Flakes and blades 138 6.2.1 Production 139 6.2.2 Use life 140 6.2.3 Placement and arrangement in graves 143 6.3 Archery equipment 144 6.3.1 Flint arrowheads 145 6.3.2 Wristguards: bracers or bracelets? 151 6.3.3 Arrow shaft smoothers 159 6.3.4 Archery, do it in style! 160 6.4 Amber ornaments: beads, buttons and pendants 161 6.4.1 The origins of amber 162 6.4.2 Production 162 6.4.3 Wear and tear 165 6.4.4 Type of wear and location in the grave 169 6.4.5 Ornaments to be seen 170 6.5 Metalwork and metalworking 170 6.5.1 The origins of copper 174 6.5.2 Copper daggers 177 6.5.3 Copper ornaments and awls 182 6.5.4 Bell Beaker gold 184 6.5.5 Cushion stones 188 6.6 Axes, daggers, strike-a-lights and other grave finds 192 6.6.1 Battle axes 192 6.6.2 Flint and stone axes 192 6.6.3 Flint daggers 195 6.6.4 Strike-a-lights 196 6.6.5 Other grave goods 198 6.7 Concluding remarks 199 7 Late Neolithic graves. Nothing new under the sun 201 7.1 Introduction 201 7.2 Pits, beehives, coffins and burial chambers 201 7.3 The orientation of bodies 206 7.4 The sky is the limit 209 7.5 Those outside the range 214 7.6 Concluding remarks 216 8 Grave sets and object categories 219 8.1 Introduction 219 8.2 Categorizing apples and oranges 219 8.3 East versus west; left versus right 221 8.4 Status and prestige: standing out or blending in? 223 8.5 Negotiating the grave set 224 8.6 Conclusion 228 9 The presentation of self in the Late Neolithic 229 9.1 Introduction 229 9.2 Presenting the self in the Late Neolithic A 229 9.3 Presenting the self in the Late Neolithic B 232 9.4 Being Bell Beaker 233 9.4.1 Increased social interaction 234 9.4.2 The differences that remain 237 9.5 Conclusion 238 10 The traveller 239 10.1 Introduction 239 10.2 The world of wandering 239 10.3 Have a drink 241 10.4 Guests and hosts 242 10.5 Souvenirs and passports 245 10.6 Conclusions 247 11 Time travel 249 References 253 Appendices 277 Dutch summary 287 Acknowledgements 295 1 Introduction The problem of typical Late Neolithic grave sets and the lack thereof 1.1 Introduction When I first started my PhD research, a far too long time ago, my project colleague Quentin Bourgeois told me an anecdote. Over the years we have both frequently retold this anecdote, although I am actually not sure whether it really happened. I asked the main protagonist of the story about it, but even he did not seem to remember. The reason, however, why I keep telling this story, is because it perfectly illustrates one of the key problems of understanding Late Neolithic grave assemblages. Here it goes. Years ago, the then curator of the National Museum of Antiquities, prof. Leendert Louwe Kooijmans, was working on a book about Dutch prehis- tory aimed at the general public: Verleden Land (1981).1 In this book the story of Dutch archaeology was told, based on key sites and finds from the Netherlands.