Corded Ware culture, Battle Axe culture (German: Schnurkeramik) — an archaeological culture of the Copper and Bronze Ages, widespread over vast territories of Central and Eastern Europe, dated 3200 BC/2300 BC — 2300 BC/1800 BC. The tribes of the Battle Axe culture are often considered the first Indo-Europeans in the territory of Central Europe.
Territory
It covers most of continental Europe, except for the Mediterranean and Western Atlantic regions, where pre-Indo-European populations lived (Ligurians, Iberians, etc., as well as the ancestors of modern Basques), and northern Scandinavia, where the ancestors of the Saami lived.
Name
The name "Battle Axe" arose due to the custom of these people to place a stone battle axe in male graves. Other names, "Corded Ware" and "Single Grave," are based on the characteristic method of pottery ornamentation and burial rite.
Origin and development
A. Ya. Bryusov linked the origin of all "Battle Axe cultures" with the Catacomb culture of the south of the European part of the USSR. Other researchers associate the formation of the Battle Axe culture with the earlier Yamnaya culture.
In the west, it includes all areas of the earlier Funnelbeaker culture and is obviously its heir (not necessarily the only one). On the territory of modern Baltic countries and the Kaliningrad region, the Corded Ware culture apparently became a culture of newcomers, replacing the southwestern part of the Narva culture. In other places, however, especially in the eastern regions, it was completely new, not associated with any of the earlier cultures.
Very small settlements and agriculture similar to the Funnelbeaker culture are characteristic, as well as livestock keeping. Most, however, apparently led a nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle. Wheeled transport was used (presumably with oxen as draft animals). Horses, possibly domesticated, were represented by the tarpan. The main domestic animal was the pig.
Burials
Burials were made to a depth of about a meter, without any external signs, in a crouched position; men lay on their right side, women on their left, both facing south. Graves are often arranged in a row. Many are marked by a small mound. Men's graves usually contain a stone battle axe.
The contemporaneous Bell Beaker culture had similar burial traditions, and together these two cultures occupied most of Western and Central Europe.
Hypotheses about the protoculture
The Corded Ware culture has long been considered the most suitable to be the ancestral home of the peoples of the Indo-European language family. This view is still reflected in recent literature, but has been significantly shaken by the work of Marija Gimbutas and her energetic promotion of the Kurgan hypothesis.
The role of the Corded Ware culture in the history of the peoples of the Indo-European language family is actively disputed, but not rejected. The people of the Corded Ware culture are most often considered as the ancestor of Proto-Balto-Slavs in the east and Proto-Germanics, Proto-Celts, and Proto-Italics in the west.
The Corded Ware culture in terms of Gimbutas' theory can be considered as a "Kurgan" culture that emerged in Europe during the Neolithic era (in Russia, Corded Ware cultures are attributed to the Eneolithic or Early Bronze Age). The beginning of this "Kurganization" or Indo-Europeanization roughly coincides with the Globular Amphora culture (c. 3400-2800 BC) and the Baden culture (c. 3600-2800 BC), a process described by Gimbutas as the second wave of "invasion" of the Kurgan culture. See also the Germanic substrate hypothesis. It appears that in the early phase there was a large non-Indo-European community, part of which Gimbutas designated as Old Europe. Subsequently, this community possibly became more Indo-European.
Corded Ware culture
Monuments of the Corded Ware culture, which served as a prototype for the Battle Axe culture, have been discovered in Central Europe, mainly in Germany and Poland, and represent characteristic ceramics: wet clay was decorated with imprints of ropes. This applies mainly to burials; in the graves of both men and women, characteristically decorated pottery is found. These were linen or hemp ropes.
3600—2300 BC Yamnaya culture