Beaker culture

Late Neolithic and early Bronze Age culture of northern and western Europe. The people are known for a group of distinctive bell-shaped earthenware beakers decorated with toothed stamps, probably used in rituals of consumption. The Beaker people buried their dead in simple graves but also in megalithic tombs in western Europe. They used the bow and arrow as well as copper daggers and spearheads. As they searched for gold and copper, they spread metallurgy into other parts of Europe. They eventually mixed with the Battle-Ax culture and spread from central Europe to eastern England.

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