The name Battle-axe people (corded ware culture) identifies widely-scattered late Neolithic sites in Europe (3rd millennium BC). Burial sites containing the characteristic corded ware, impressed with cords in the unfired clay, are known in a wide area in Northern, Central and Western Europe: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, northwest Germany, Denmark and southern parts of Norway and Sweden. Little is known of them. The name comes from the perforated cast copper battle-axes of a particular double-bladed form that are found at archeological sites associated with them. Their successors, the Beaker culture— if they were in fact a separate people— copied the new axehead types in stone, but everywhere the arrival of the 'battle-axe' or 'corded-ware' cultures mark the phasing out of the Neolithic. The Neolithic, (Greek neos=new, lithos=stone, or New Stone Age) is traditionally the last part of the stone age. ... World map showing location of Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. ... (4th millennium BC – 3rd millennium BC – 2nd millennium BC – other millennia) Events Foundation of the city of Mari (Syria) (29th century BC ) Creation of the Kingdom of Elam (Iraq) Germination of the Bristlecone pine tree Methuselah about 2700 BC, the oldest tree still living now Dynasty of Lagash in Sumeria... Corded ware is pottery having an ornamental pattern created by a cord impressed in the unfired clay. ... Northern Europe is a name for the northern part of the European continent. ... Historical lands and provinces in Central Europe Central Europe is the region of Europe between Eastern Europe and Western Europe. ... Western Europe is distinguished from Eastern Europe by differences of history and culture rather than by geography. ... Archaeology or sometimes in American English archeology (from the Greek words αρχαίος = ancient and λόγος = word/speech) is the study of human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains, including architecture, artefacts, biofacts, human remains, and landscapes. ... The Beaker people (or `Beaker folk) were an archaeological culture present in prehistoric Europe, defined by a pottery style -- a beaker with a distinctive bell-shaped profile -- that many archeologists believe spread across the western part of the Continent during the 3rd millennium BC. The pottery is particularly prevalent in... The Neolithic, (Greek neos=new, lithos=stone, or New Stone Age) is traditionally the last part of the stone age. ...

Linguistic controversy surrounds the people whose burial sites have been found, whether they spoke an Indo-European language or if their language was a Pre-Indo-European language, which (due to contact with Indo-European nomads) supplied the Non-Indo-European roots of Germanic languages, and even whether a change of pottery type or burying technique indicate a migration of people or merely the adoption of ideas. Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies The Indo-European languages include some 443 (SIL estimate) languages and dialects spoken by about three billion people, including most of the major language families of Europe and western Asia, which belong to a single superfamily. ... The Pre-Indo-European population of Europe included an unknown number of ethnic groups that dwelt on the continent before the coming of the speakers of Indo-European languages (though some scholars dispute the Indo-European invasion theory: see Paleolithic Continuity Theory). ... Communities of nomadic people move from place to place, rather than settling down in one location. ... The Germanic substrate hypothesis is a hypothesis that some have ventured that attempts to explain the distinctiveness of the Germanic languages within the Indo-European language family. ...

Less controversial innovative features that distinguish the 'Battle-axe culture' from the later 'Beaker culture' that it infiltrated or simply superseded are the practice of burying the dead singly (instead of in megalithic group burials) under round tumuli enclosing a wooden mortuary house (a widespread practice), with grave goods. The Beaker people (or `Beaker folk) were an archaeological culture present in prehistoric Europe, defined by a pottery style -- a beaker with a distinctive bell-shaped profile -- that many archeologists believe spread across the western part of the Continent during the 3rd millennium BC. The pottery is particularly prevalent in...

For the first time in Europe, the bones of a domesticated horse are found in connection with the sites: the Tarpan, a forest pony that was native to Europe, but has been extinct since 1876. It is possible that wheeled carts were used in the corded ware culture. drawing of a Tarpan horse (1841) The tarpan Equus caballus gmelini is the original European wild horse. ... Hands are used to separate horses from ponies. ... 1876 is a leap year starting on Saturday. ...

See also: Swedish-Norwegian Battle-axe culture, Snow-Ceramic culture