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An international study published in Nature, in which researchers from the University of Murcia and directed by the University of Barcelona, ​​undoes a century-old theory.
DNA analysis of more than 400 individuals associated with vessels and other bell-shaped prehistoric objects have revealed that this pottery spread across Europe through cultural exchange, and not through the expansion of groups from the peninsula to the continent, as it was thought until now: the ceramics were not of the hand of the population.
Bell-shaped ceramics appear for the first time some 4,500 years ago, with the oldest remains in the peninsula.
This pottery, named for having a characteristic shape similar to an inverted bell, was profusely decorated with incised and printed geometric motifs (parallel bands, cross-linked, triangles, etc.).
Also part of this "campaniform horizon" are daggers and punches and copper tips, ivory buttons, stone archer's bracelets and even some objects of beaten gold.
In our lands we find these objects forming part of collective burials, a funerary modality designed to reinforce the role of belonging to the group.
The same utensils reappear in central Europe, but unlike the peninsula, they are found in individual burials and are assimilated by populations that come from the east of the continent, reproducing their decorations adapting them to their traditions.
The communication networks allow them to reach these areas, where they are assumed as a singular element and will be used for private burials, endowing with singularity and highlighting the individuality of the deceased.
But, despite these networks through which objects flowed, the peninsular and Central European populations had no genetic relationship.
Joaquín Lomba Maurandi, professor of the area of ​​Prehistory of the University of Murcia, says that traditionally it was believed that this fact was produced by a migration of people from the peninsula to the rest of Europe, but this new study dismantles this theory.
"Although the oldest dates are still peninsular, there is no movement of population to central Europe, which is one of the great conclusions and novelties," he points out.
"Interestingly, the exchange of materials causes the bell-shaped vessels used in collective burials to reach the rest of Europe through communication channels, but they are assumed as distinctive elements and used for individual burials, where the important thing is not it is the belonging to a group, but the profile of the individual, "stresses the UMU professor, a clear indicator of progressive social hierarchy.
"The migratory progress of these Central European people to the west continues to the British Isles, where they penetrate together with the bell-shaped materials, the study reveals that the previous populations have a different genetic profile there than the populations that we found after the bell-shaped. that it is possible to be affirmed that at least 90% was replaced by the arrival of people campaniformes coming from the continent, explains Lomba.
As for the Peninsula, it is clear that those who made the metals and bell-shaped ceramics were people with a genetic configuration very different from the later, so future work will be oriented to know at what time the introduction of steppe component occurs, which It is the one we see today.
This investigation has ten peninsular deposits, including Camino del Molino, in Caravaca de la Cruz, whose study coordinates Lomba Maurandi.
The Caravaqueño site, in which remains of more than 1,300 individuals have been found and with an antiquity of 4,500 years (2,600-2300 BC), has been part of the study thanks to the quality of the remains and the information collected during their excavation and study.
Recently, this international team has published in Scientific Reports of Nature the results related to another DNA study, in which this researcher from the University of Murcia has also participated.
In this case to know the lineage and the mixture of populations in Western Europe during the Neolithic.
The study determines how the populations coming from the Near East were mixed with the local ones, highlighted as eminently hunter and gatherer societies.
This interaction produced a "neolization", which gave way to new economies with a tendency toward agriculture and livestock and a greater sedentary lifestyle.
Also, this study emphasizes that the populations of the peninsula show a more complex and intense relationship with newcomers, compared to what occurred in the rest of Europe.
"It's interesting because you can see the mixtures, very clear evidence that people here, like everywhere, are products of continuous mixtures", says Lomba.
As if it were a fable, Lomba explains how this fact occurs.
"The southeast of the peninsula is a balcony to the Mediterranean, a large pond around which several frogs interact, and as the pond evolves, even if they are not in contact, they sometimes act in a similar way and that makes the cultures Mediterranean may be similar, although there is not always contact between them, other times, on the other hand, there are cultural contacts, and in other cases, genetic ones ".
Finally, Lomba Maurandi ends with a reflection.
"We can never forget, we Europeans are like that, we have Africa very close, we build our history thinking of Europe, it's as if I were talking about my manual capacity forgetting my left hand because of being right-handed. to Europe, in Africa we also find ceramics produced in the peninsula, a fact that demonstrates the interaction between them, and ivory from Africa, and even from Asia Minor, through North Africa and from the navigation that costs it, arrive to peninsular lands. from bell-shaped period and then in the Bronze Age. "
Source: Universidad de Murcia
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