Beaker culture in Britain came about through large-scale migration

Beaker pottery and culture spread through large-scale migration of people and through the exchange of new ideas, according to new research by an international team involving UCL scientists. The study involved analysis of ancient-DNA data from 400 prehistoric skeletons drawn from sites across Europe. It is the largest study of ancient human DNA ever conducted. The Beaker culture is a complex cultural phenomena which started 4,700-4,400 years ago, when a new bell-shaped pottery style spread across western and central Europe. For over a century, archaeologists have tried to establish whether the spread of 'Beaker' pottery, and the culture associated with it, represented a large-scale migration of people or was simply due to the exchange of new ideas. Scientists have now found that the culture of producing beakers spread between Iberia and central Europe without significant movement of people. But the Beaker culture spread to other places carried by large-scale human migration, and this is most notable in Britain. DNA analysis of skeletal remains show that Britain went through a 90% shift in its genetic make-up after the Beaker people arrived. This revelation suggests that the Beaker people almost entirely replaced the island's earlier inhabitants, Britain's Neolithic farmers, who were responsible for huge stone monuments, including Stonehenge. "The sheer scale of population replacement in Britain is going to surprise many, even though the more we learn from ancient DNA studies, the more we see large-scale migration as the norm in prehistory, said co-author Professor Mark Thomas (UCL Genetics, Evolution and Environment). "The big question now is how could such a massive population replacement happen?