ABSTRACT
Some time after 2000 B.c. an alteration in the northern English Beaker cultures took place. This involved the modification of some of the existing types, especially the fine pottery, but also the acquisition of new types from abroad. In the emerging culture the native element consists of Food Vessels, mainly vase-shaped, flat round-butted riveted metal daggers, metal awls, metal earrings, jet buttons with V-shaped perforation, stone battle axes and flint artifacts (Simpson 1968, for Food Vessel associations). The burial ritual and the art is also Beaker-derived. The foreign element consists of metal objects – thin-butted flat axeheads, halberds, bar and ribbed bracelets or armlets, and possibly band armlets although these could be derived from the Beaker culture. The industry was based on single-piece stone moulds for casting and most of the artifacts cast were made from bronze (Britton 1963, 263–84, Migdale-Marnoch Tradition; Coles 1968–9). The origin of the foreign types can be traced back to the central European Early Bronze Age cultures but they appear to have reached northern Britain from north-west Europe. The Food Vessel ‘culture’ can thus be described as a heavily industrialized and provincialized Beaker society in north Britain.
