New Evidence Supports the 1200-year Cycle in Neolithic Cultures of Northern Europe
Archaeologists working in Orkney have uncovered a large complex of structures (buildings and walls) that they believe represent a religious center for a widespread community or culture dating to the period of roughly 3300 BCE to 2300 BCE.
The length of the cultural continuity (about 1,000 years) and the approximate end-date (about 2300 BCE) rang some familiar bells for me. As I mentioned two years ago, some scientists suggest there may have been a 1200-year cycle among Europe’s Neolithic cultures (at least in the west, as the evidence is mostly found in Ireland). That is, every 1,000 to 1200 years there appears to be a natural upheaval or disruption that changes weather patterns enough to bring about grave drought.
These drought cycles seem to coincide with changes in cultural activities and styles, such as are represented by surviving architecture and artifacts. One hypothesis which has been put forward is that when local economies began to wane under the ravages of 18-20 year-long droughts the societies collapsed. Either the various families or clans began competing aggressively for dwindling resources or new clans/tribes moved in to seize control over vital lands.
The idea of revolution-from-within such that these societies transformed themselves, adopting new belief systems and perhaps social structures (especially changing elite hierarchies), is more appealing than the thought that Neolithic tribes went rampaging across the landscape every 1,000 to 1200 years.
The Guardian summarizes what archaeologists believe happened in Orkney several thousand years ago: there was a change in weather. Apparently the local community celebrated a final feast, slaughtering 600 cattle (perhaps more — the digging and discovery continue), and then they abandoned the site.
Why would a community slaughter hundreds of cattle? One possible explanation is that they knew they were leaving the area and could not take the cattle with them. Why leave the animals behind to starve and suffer — or, worse, to feed an enemy? Why so many people might leave a once rich and prosperous land is a mystery to us today, but European history is filled with migrations that set off chains of events that altered the course of many cultures.
The most famous and far-reaching historical migration may be the Helvetii’s flight from what is now Switzerland. They (along with several allied tribes) burned their villages and crossed the Alps into what is now southern France. The tribes living in those regions called upon Rome to help drive the invaders back. The Helvetii had originally lived farther north, across the Rhine in what is now southern Germany. At least one Helvettic tribe, the Tigurini, had participated in the Cimbric-Teutonic invasion of the 2nd Century BCE (about 60 years earlier). The Tigurini were the only tribe NOT to be conquered by the Romans, as they turned back after the other invaders had failed.
The Helvettic invasion was a massive movement of peoples, estimated to number in the hundreds of thousands. Their migration purportedly began with a failed plot to conquer all of Gaul by a prince named Orgetorix. Orgetorix died before the migration began. But the events his plotting set into motion led to Julius Caesar forming several legions and marching into Gaul to stop the Helvetti and their allies.
Caesar’s intervention led to his conquest of Gaul, which in turn led to his punitive campaign in Britain. The Romans returned almost 100 years later to conquer Britain. The course of history was thus altered for France, Britain, and smaller countries like Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. For if the Romans had not conquered Gaul and Britain their descendants might not have been easy conquests for the Franks and Angles, Saxons, and Jutes.
Had the Germanic tribes not conquered Gaul and Britain and carved out new kingdoms among them then perhaps the Celtic peoples of western Europe might have survived as independent nations down to this day. But this is all “What If” history, which is just fantasy. What we know for sure is that the Helvetti attempted to invade Gaul and that invasion led to Caesar’s conquests and subsequent Roman conquests and political dramas.
A large-scale migration of tribes from one region to another is thus not out of the question, even in an earlier time. In fact, we have documented accumulating evidence of intercultural conflict across Neolithic Europe as farming peoples clashed with hunter-gatherer societies. The conflicts were not so one-sided. In fact, another recent discovery shows that Neolithic peoples living in northeastern Spain 7400 years ago were using yew bows.
The La Draga yew bow is believed to have belonged to a farming community, but you can be sure that if the farmers had bows the hunter-gatherers had them too. We know that large battles were fought in northern Europe Circa. 1200 BCE. It doesn’t require much of a stretch of the imagination to suggest that hundreds of men could have clashed in battle in various places across Neolithic Europe 1100 years earlier.
We have no evidence of a migration out of Orkney (or an invasion there). What archaeologists are sure of at this point is that a very sophisticated culture simply chose to stop making use of an ancient complex of well-constructed buildings, walls, and passage-ways — and that they then vanished from (pre)history. It’s unlikely they died of disease and had one last feast before passing out. Besides, we would find their remains if there had been a mass die-off.
Hence, it seems most reasonable that we need to look for evidence of a migration away from Orkney. If we cannot find that evidence something else will emerge. We may never know exactly what happened to those people but we have a pretty good indication that whatever it was the event was highly unusual. Most likely either they invaded someone else’s territory or someone else invaded theirs.
It could be as simple as population growth. Their culture might have become so successful that their numbers increased beyond the local area’s ability to support them. Faced with eventual starvation they may have decided to set out in search of new homes — and perhaps killing off all the cattle was one way to ensure that no one would remain behind, safe and sound, while others went off to face unknown risks and perils.
If there was a mass exodus because of overpopulation it could be that this once mighty people simply went in multiple directions to increase their chances of survival, and ultimately they disassembled their culture, leaving behind no traces to indicate where they settled next. Perhaps they began raiding the cattle herds of more southerly people, setting into motion a tradition among Scotland’s peoples that lasted until the Middle Ages.