Haunted by the ghost of the Beaker folk?

Abstract

A recent Europe-wide study of ancient DNA (aDNA) has exploded some of the preconceptions regarding a long-standing archaeological problem, otherwise known as the Beaker phenomenon. The study's results seemed to indicate that large numbers of people had migrated from continental Europe into Britain around 2500 BCE. In the course of this migration, the newcomers brought their belongings, including Beaker pottery, with them and replaced the pre-existing population and their ways of life. Or at least, this was how the research was presented in the media, e.g., ‘Ancient-genome study finds Bronze Age ‘Beaker culture’ invaded Britain’ or ‘Did Dutch hordes kill off the early Britons who started Stonehenge?’. While the study's conclusions were actually more complex than the headlines suggested, its findings surprised many archaeologists; but had genetics actually solved the Beaker problem?