The Beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of northwest Europe

During the third millennium bc, two new archaeological pottery styles expanded across Europe and replaced many of the more localized styles that had preceded them1. The expansion of the ‘Corded Ware complex’ in north-central and northeastern Europe was associated with people who derived most of their ancestry from populations related to Early Bronze Age Yamnaya pastoralists from the Eurasian steppe2–4 (henceforth referred to as ‘steppe’). In western Europe there was the equally expansive ‘Bell Beaker complex’, defined by assemblages of grave goods that included stylized bell-shaped pots, copper daggers, arrowheads, stone wristguards and V-perforated buttons5 (Extended Data Fig. 1). The oldest radiocarbon dates associated with Beaker pottery are from around 2750 bc in Atlantic Iberia6, which has been interpreted as evidence that the Beaker complex originated in this region. However, the geographic origins of this complex are still debated7 and other scenarios—including an origin in the Lower Rhine area, or even multiple independent origins—are possible (Supplementary Information section 1). Regardless of geographic origin, by 2500 bc the Beaker complex had spread throughout western Europe and northwest Africa and had reached southern and Atlantic France, Italy and central Europe5, where it overlapped geographically with the Corded Ware complex. Within another hundred years, it had expanded to Britain and Ireland8. A major debate in archaeology has revolved around the question of whether the spread of the Beaker complex was mediated by the movement of people, culture or a combination of both9. Genomewide data have revealed high proportions of steppe-related ancestry in Beaker-complex-associated individuals from Germany and the Czech Republic2–4, which shows that these individuals derived from mixtures of populations from the steppe and the preceding Neolithic farmers of Europe. However, a deeper understanding of the ancestry of people associated with the Beaker complex requires genomic characterization of individuals across the geographic range and temporal duration of this archaeological phenomenon.