6. Who were the Beaker people? What was distinctive about their graves?

Return to *History 8 The End of the Stone Age Video Notes

The beaker were the traders of the stone age in Europe. They buried their dead in mound graves. Mound graves as oppose to passage tombs are more individual. One person is buried and they are buried with favorite possessions they had in their lifetime. For example, most people were buried with their drinking cup and their fighting equipment. The appearance of the drinking cup in many mound graves suggest that drinking started to evolve into something special. This "evolution" of drinking was the discovery of alcohol by fermentation of barley.

Sources: Class notes from "The End of the Stone Age Video" by The Origins of Civilization