Beaker people
The Beaker people were a prehistoric people of Europe, whose pottery style many archeologists believe spread across the western part of the Continent during the 3rd millennium BC. They were particularly prevalent in northern Europe, most notably in Britain. They were skilled at metalworking, and are known as the Beaker people because of a particular type of beaker with a distinctive bell-shaped profile.Some archaeologists view the Beaker culture as an offshoot of the earlier Neolithic corded ware culture, widespread in Europe. Other scholars believed it to be of Iberian origin (modern day Spain and Portugal). The corded-ware advocates see the Beaker style as originating in the lower Rhine valley and spreading across the Atlantic region to Spain, France and Britain.
The Beaker people also buried their dead in round barrows (a type of tomb), often with beakers, possibly to hold a drink for the dead on their final journey.
However some historians now believe that the Beaker people did not exist as a group, and that the beakers and other artifacts found across Europe that are attributed to the Beaker people are indicative of the development of particular manufacturing skills, possibly by the influence of neighbouring peoples, rather than as a result of mass migrations.
There is also debate on whether they were succeeded by the Battle-axe people or if the Battle-axe people were a later stage of Beaker people culture.
See also Ancient Britain, Bronze Age