The panel above the case in which the Aymestrey burial is displayed tells you a lot about how the burial was found, and who the skeleton is likely to have belonged to. This page tells you more about the Beaker culture that the child came from.
Four and a half thousand years ago settlers from Eastern Europe and Russia brought a new skill to Britain. They were metalworkers who knew how to work with copper. Gradually, Britons learned to make objects from copper, gold and bronze. By 2100BC, Britons were mining metals themselves. Long wooden rowing boats travelled to and from mainland Europe carrying copper, tin and precious objects made by metalworkers. Large areas of the country were covered by forest & there were no roads, so transport by river & sea was easier than going overland.
Their culture was named after the clay cups they made and probably used as drinking vessels. You can see one in the burial case. Beakers seem to have been very special, being placed beside someone when they were buried, perhaps to give them nourishment in the afterlife. They were made by made by rolling clay into long strips joined together at the ends to form rings that were smoothed to give the vessel shape. When the clay had dried, the vessel was polished. Some cups were more highly patterned than others, and decoration styles varied. Finally, the Beaker was fired in a large bonfire, giving it a rich, mottled, orange-brown colour. Beaker pots and Beaker burials were common across much of Europe between 2800 and 2000BC. They are often found with daggers, flint arrowheads, and items of gold, amber, jet and bone.
In the past there was much argument between scholars about whether the arrival of the Beakers proved that a completely new group of people had come to Britain, or whether the Beakers and metalworking were simply new skills learnt from traders and adopted by the people who already lived here. Recently an international project, involving hundreds of scientists and archaeologists, has provided some answers. Using samples of more than 400 prehistoric skeletons from across Europe, researchers have uncovered new information about this period when a wave of migration rolled westward across Europe, almost totally displacing the earlier population in many places – including Britain.
DNA data suggests that over several hundred years, the people from Eastern Europe almost completely replaced Britain’s earlier inhabitants, the Stone Age communities. The data also shows that the Beaker folk would have looked different from the population they replaced, who had olive-brown skin, dark hair and brown eyes. In comparison, the Beaker folk brought genes causing lighter skin, blue eyes and blonde hair, which became more common in the population.
The study included remains of 155 individuals who lived in Britain between 6,000 and 3,000 years ago. In Britain the puzzle remains of what happened to the pre-Beaker population: people who had no metal tools but were capable of huge communal projects such as the construction of Stonehenge and the giant artificial hill of Silbury. It may not have been a story of violent conquest. The disappearance of the older population may have been due to climate change, or even an epidemic of imported disease to which they had no resistance. The study now gives the evidence that they were replaced – and they never came back.
Cist – the ‘coffin’ in which the body was laid. In this case, the slabs of Wenlock limestone were laid inside a pit, the body placed inside, and more slabs laid on top. Elsewhere, cists were made of wood, if this was more plentiful. Sometimes they were carved out of bedrock. Some cists had barrows, or mounds of earth, over them, but there is no evidence that this one ever did.
Skeleton – Because the child was only 7 or 8 when he/she died, it was impossible to tell whether the skeleton was a boy or a girl – this needs adult body characteristics. Modern genetic analysis might be able to indicate the gender of the child, and whether he/she had grown up locally or travelled from elsewhere. The bent position of the legs is characteristic of many Beaker burials. The child would have been buried wearing clothes, but these have rotted away along with the body’s soft tissues. The skeleton shows no sign of chronic disease, so the child may have died of an infection.
Flint Knife – The knife is made of flint, a very hard stone, which can be chipped to create a sharp edge. Before metal working technology arrived in Britain, flints provided the only sharp tools for hunting animals, cutting and shaping wood, and butchering & skinning meat. This knife is a tiny flake of stone – only 38mm long and weighing 2.2 grams. The edge shows some signs of wear, but archaeologists do not think it had been used much. It was placed in the cist beneath the child’s head. Adult graves often had more goods in them, but those of children rarely had more than a Beaker and a knife.
Beaker – The Beaker is 137mm tall, with sides that are 5-6mm thick. The patterns on it may have been made with a comb. The design is similar to others from northern England and Holland and suggest that it was made in the final centuries of the 3rd millennium BC.