Corded Ware culture: Encyclopedia II - Corded Ware culture - Origins and Development

Corded Ware culture - Origins and Development

Considering its immense, continental expanse, it clearly represents a fusion of earlier archaeological cultures of varying degrees of relatedness, probably led by intrusive elements from the east and south. It does not represent a single monolithic entity, but rather a diffusion of technological and cultural innovations. The fact that the Globular Amphora culture similtaneously overlies much of the same area as of the Corded Ware culture proves this. Different peoples, living in close proximity to each other at the same time really did leave different archaeological remains.

In the circum-Baltic and more westwards coastal Scandinavian areas, there is clear evidence of a maritime economy, where the sea has to be seen as a uniting element, much as the Aegean Sea united the Greeks.

In the west, it involves all of the area and is an obvious but not necessarily the only successor of the earlier Funnelbeaker culture. In the area of the present Baltic states and Kaliningrad Oblast (former East Prussia), it is seen as an intrusive successor to the southwestern portion of the Narva culture. Elsewhere, however, particularly in its eastern extent, it is a new presence, not really associated with any earlier culture.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Origins and Development", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki