Battle-Axe & Beaker Complexes
(2nd millenium B.C.)

Battle-Axe Complex

	1. Maikop Bowl. Engraved silver bowl from a Maikop, South Russia, chief's grave. Mid 3rd millenium, B.C. (Leningrad: Hermitage Museum). Among the animals shown is the tarpan wild horse that had been domesticated at the beginning of the millenium. The Battle Axe complex rested upon the domestication of plants and especially of livestock. The roots of the Battle-Axe culture lay in West Asia and the Black Sea region.
	2. Block-wheeled ox-drawn wagon from Lchashen, Lake Sevan, Caucasus. Ca 1500 B.C. (Erevan Historical Museum). Animal drawn wheeled transport, including the chariot, seems a union of the domesticated horse from the steppe to the North and the farm cart used by cultivating societies to the South in West Asia.
	3. Gold torque, pins, bead and ear-rings from a chief's grave, Helmsdorf, Saale Valley, Germany (Halle: Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte). By mid-2nd millenium the Battle-Axe culture experienced social stratification and burial of chiefs in tumuli with prestige goods such as this. By this time, the battle axe was more symbolic than practical.

Beaker Complex

1. The Rillaton gold cup from a Cornish grave, Cornwall, England, c. 1500 B.C. (London: British Museum). Wessex bronze age culture, perhaps with Mycenaean influence. The Beaker complex had its roots in Africa and the Western Mediterranean, and spread along the coasts. It also experienced social stratification by mid 2nd millenium and therefore placed prestige goods such as this in their tumuli.