One of the most widespread of tribal groups, the Corded Ware culture of the Bronze Age inhabits most of northern Europe 3000 - 2350 BCE. Corded Ware people occupied southern coasts of Scandinavia, south to the Black Sea and west to France.
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The Corded Ware culture is named for its pottery style, that of impressing rope made of hemp or flax into the damp clay. Corded Ware pottery has a distinctive style and this culture begat several sub-groups.
It was once thought the Corded Ware evolved from the Yamnaya people of the Steppe. Later tests such as DNA matching show Corded Ware as a separate, co-existing culture. However the mass migrations of the Yamnaya infiltrated or otherwise affected almost every culture in the known world.
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A couple of centuries later, the Single Grave Cultures found at the Baltic and North Sea coasts come into prominence. They're thought to emerge from a branch of the Yamnaya through the Corded Ware and characterized by the practice of single burial.
Grave goods such as battle axes, amber beads and pottery vessels are placed with the body. They're considered a subgroup of the Corded Ware. As the name suggests the Single Grave people bury their dead in individual graves.
There may be several graves in a burial mound, or tumulus, one atop the other. It's not unusual to find more layers of single grave burials beneath the first.
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Corded Ware territory of northern Europe covers a vast area. It stretches from the Rhine on the west to the Volga in the east, including most of modern-day Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Switzerland, northwestern Romania, northern Ukraine, and the European part of Russia.
It also expands to coastal Norway and the southern parts of Sweden and Finland. In the Early Bronze Age it dominates almost the entire Balkan Peninsula. Here the Corded Ware mix with other Steppe tribes and cultures. The spread of the people create localized traditions and myths.
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Subgroups of the Corded Ware culture include:
Middle Dnieper culture c. 3200 BCE - possible bridge bet. Yamnaya & Corded Ware
Fatyanovo–Balanovo culture - in the Russian forest regions since 2900 BCE
Schnurkeramikkultur - prototypical: twisted cord pressed in wet clay to make patterns
Single Grave culture - Neolithic groups c. 2800 BCE
Scandinavian Battle Axe culture c. 2800 BCE
Most tribe or clan groups at this time were part of a larger culture, adopting certain skills, beliefs, patterns, designs and techniques of those around them. Influences come in waves. Along with the previous Yamnaya migrations, they spread the languages of Indo-European people, which would later become German, English, Hungarian and others.
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