ABSTRACT
Invasion or exchange? About 2750 BC there appeared amongst the thick pottery types of southern Britain a new vessel known as a bell-beaker. Finely made of thin red ware with an S-shaped profile, it was decorated with lines of twisted cord (all-over-cord beakers). These vessels were widely known on the continent from Denmark to Spain and it seemed logical to prehistorians in the past that these pots were brought to Britain by invaders, particularly as their earliest distribution is close to the south and east coasts, eastern Scotland, and on Salisbury Plain and in the upper Thames valley, all areas easily reached from the sea (fig. 36).
