Globular Amphora culture

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Approximate extent of the Corded Ware horizon with adjacent 3rd millennium cultures (after EIEC).

The Globular Amphora Culture (GAC), German Kugelamphoren-Kultur (KAK), ca. 3400–2800 BC, is an archaeological culture in central Europe. Marija Gimbutas [1] assumed an Indo-European origin, which is objected by newer genetic studies [2]. The GAC preceded the Corded Ware culture in its central area. Somewhat to the south and west, it was bordered by the Baden culture. To the northeast was the Narva culture. It occupied much of the same area as the earlier Funnelbeaker culture. The name was coined by Gustaf Kossinna because of the characteristic pottery, globular-shaped pots with two to four handles.

Globular Amphora






Globular Amphora tomb



The inclusion of animals in the grave is seen as an intrusive cultural element by Marija Gimbutas. The practice of suttee, hypothesized by Gimbutas is also seen as a highly intrusive cultural element. The supporters of the Kurgan hypothesis point to these distinctive burial practices and state this may represent one of the earliest migrations of Indo-Europeans into Central Europe. In this context and given its area of occupation, this culture has been claimed as the underlying culture of a Germanic-Baltic-Slavic continuum.[3]


  1. ^ Marija Gimbutas (2001). The Living Goddesses. University of California Press. p. 188. ISBN 978-0520229150. 
  2. ^ Tassi, F. et al. (2017). Genome diversity in the Neolithic Globular Amphorae culture and the spread of Indo-European languages. Proc. R. Soc. B 284:20171540.
  3. ^ J. P. Mallory and D. Q. Adams, Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, London and Chicago, 1997., "Globular Amphora culture"


Retrieved from ""
This content was retrieved from Wikipedia :
This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article "Globular Amphora culture"; it is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA). You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the CC-BY-SA