1993/01/01 by Humphrey Case · 3 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Archaeological and Geological Studies #Pottery #Beaker #Chronology #Quarter (Canadian coin) #Archaeology #Geography #Ancient history #Group (periodic table) #History
paper · doi:10.1017/s0079497x00003807
openalex publication_date 1993/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Taking grave and non-grave pottery together, five summary regional groups of beaker pottery are proposed for Britain and Ireland: Group A, Ireland; Group B, north Britain and eventually widespread; Group C, north and to some extent south Britain; Group D, south Britain; and Group E, East Anglia and south-east England. It is anticipated that further discoveries and research will enable these groups to be refined regionally. These groups are set in a quarter-millennium calendrical chronology, which suggests that they may all have appeared around or near the mid-3rd millennium BC, and that many of their aspects were long enduring, some surviving to the 2nd quarter of the 2nd millennium BC. Decorative features especially are related to bell-beaker pottery in western Europe, to Single Grave pottery across the North Sea, and to native Late Neolithic pottery. In presenting the chronology of these relationships, it is argued that a widely held view that bell-beaker pottery evolved in north-west Europe requires modification.