Expert: Ralph Salier - 11/24/2010

Question
Ralph - is this within your expertise?: - could you guestimate an approx time of appearance of Grooved Ware people/culture in the British isles? Presumably the people/culture was immigrant to Britain and not a local evolution. Would Cheddar Man, whose DNA we have obtained, belong to this or an earlier culture/bloodline, or do we have Grooved Ware People DNA? What does it tell us about their origins? Know of any recent, authoritative books on the Grooved Ware people? Thanks  

Answer
Hi Tony,

Grooved ware ceramics predate Beaker ceramics (Bronze age) by +/-500 to 1000 years.  It appears to have originated in the Orkneys in the 3rd millennium BC (4000BC) during the Neolithic.  These were some of the early farmers and may have used these pots to ferment ale and other beverages.  There is some similarity and matrix commonality to Unstan ware.  Grooved ware is associated with the peoples who began building Henges and is found in the first phase of Stone Henge excavations.  We also have human remains associated with these materials but I'm not sure if DNA has been studied.  Some archaeologists feel that the deeply incised grooves is remenicent of some of the early wicker/clay pottery where wicker baskets were lined with clay and when heated over the fire to boil water, "fired" the clay.  

These peoples were, in all liklihood transitional from the Mesolithic (middle stone age) who where generally hunter/gathers and quite migratory.  As they moved into more settled environs and began to farm, they also began to use ceramics.  Later (mid-neolithic sites) have huge quantities of ceramics and is something of a hallmark of the period.

So, Migratory peoples come and inhabit the British isles, the land bridges fall underwater isolating them and they then need to find an alternate subsistence mode and  this then leads them to the more sedentary life found in the Neolithic.  Being more sedentary, allows for the development of many art forms, and big among them is ceramics. One also finds a broadening of the flint tool assemblage, bone tools and other extant materials.

I hope this helps.  Please ask more questions and try looking up "grooved ware" on the internet.  www.google.com would be a good place to start.