Kristian Kristiansen on Corded Ware ethnogenesis

Danish archaeologist Kristian Kristiansen will have a paper out early next year in Antiquity Journal on the emergence of the Corded Ware Culture in Late Neolithic Northern Europe. His talk at the recent European Archaeologists Association (EAA) annual meeting was based on the forthcoming paper.

At 6:50 minutes into the clip, Prof Kristiansen speculates that neighborly tensions between Neolithic farmers and Corded Ware newcomers led to the violent deaths of the Corded Ware family buried in Eulau, eastern Germany. In other words, he thinks the farmers did it. This is a plausible scenario, but there’s a chance he’s being rough on the farmers. Another potential explanation for these types of macabre Corded Ware family burials, in which most of the individuals appear to have been beaten to death by crazed attackers, is an early form of the ancient Indo-European practice of Sati. More on that here… Bell Beaker Blogger: Szczepanowice Mass Grave, Eulau ReduxArcheowiesci.pl: W Małopolsce odkryto prehistoryczny grobowiec z czterema szkieletami Wikipedia: Sati (practice) Source Eurogenes Blog