Funnelbeaker

Funnelbeaker culture, also known as the TRB culture (Trichterbecherkultur), is an Early Neolithic archaeological horizon in Northern Europe, named for its characteristic pottery featuring a funnel-shaped neck. It dates roughly 4000 to 2700 BCE, though regional onset and end vary.

Geographic range extends across Denmark, northern Germany, southern Sweden, the Baltic coast and adjacent areas, with extensions into the Netherlands and Poland. It marks the first widespread farming communities in much of this region, adopting domesticated cereals such as wheat and barley and keeping cattle, sheep and goats; people lived in small villages and built wells, houses, and storage features, with coastal and riverine sites common and evidence of long-distance exchange, including flint and amber.

Pottery: the hallmark is the funnel-neck beaker with comb-impressed, cord-impressed, or incised decorations, often with bands, cross-hatch, or parallel lines; other ceramic forms include bowls and jars. Stone tools include flint axes and scrapers; the TRB also used polished stone implements and, in its later phases, metal.

Burials and monuments: the culture is known for its megalithic tombs, such as dolmens and passage graves, and for individual or collective burials beneath earth or stone mounds. These tombs are often grouped in cemeteries near settlements and constitute major archaeological indicators of TRB sites.

Legacy: The Funnelbeaker culture is a key early Neolithic horizon in Northern Europe, representing a shift from foraging to farming. It eventually overlaps with and is superseded by later Neolithic cultures, including Corded Ware and Bronze Age groups, as the region moved into the Bronze Age.