The Bell Beaker Phenomena spread across western and central Europe rapidly. Based on the identical modal STR values for P312's three major subclades (U152, L21 and DF27) and similar modal values for U106 (65 of 67), the spread of P312 and U106 suclades must have been equally rapid. The areas of high P312 and U106 align rather well with Bell Beaker distribution. In Italy, the same holds true for U152 (figure 1).[1] Both Bell Beaker sites and U152 are much more common in northern Italy and the Tyrrhenian (western) side of central Italy and drop off drastically in the south. Bell Beaker sites and U152 are uncommon on the Adriatic coast. Both are more common in Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily than on the southern peninsula. It can be inferred from older R1b studies from Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily that U152 is also similarly distributed in a north and/or western pattern in those islands.[2][3][4][5]
- In northern Italy, Bell Beakers sites are spread throughout but have their highest concentration in Lombardy and western Veneto. Important areas are also in Emilia-Romagna and Piedmont. The highest concentrations in central Italy are in north-western Tuscany, the hills around Florence, and north-west Lazio.[6][7]
- Early Bell Beakers are thought to have reached Italy from coastal France. These earlier Bell Beakers are thought to have traveled from Tuscany to Sardinia, and from north-western Sardinia to south-western Corsica.[8] While Tuscany, Corsica, and Sardinia are extremely under-sampled in commercial Y-DNA testing, the few samples seem to hint at such a movement. Of the two Sardinian samples in the FTDNA U152 project, one seems to be Z56+ and the other is L2-. Both are from the north-western part of the island which is where Early Bell Beaker sites are found. The lack of L2 among these few samples is similar to that seen in 1000 Genomes Project samples from Tuscany, where Z36 and Z56 were common, but very few were L2+. Affinities between Bell Beakers from central Emilia-Romagna and those from Tuscany can be seen throughout all Bell Beaker phases. Again, Y-DNA seems to support this. Based on high DYS385b values from R1b samples from Modena, a high percentage were probably Z56+.[9]
- Italian Bell Beakers did not completely replace the Copper Age inhabitants of Italy. However, their impact in the north was significant enough that they may have had an important role in the formation of the Polada Culture.[7][10] On the Alpine lakes, there is archaeological discontinuity between the Polada Culture and the preceding Lagozza Culture, with the Polada Culture being attributed to the arrival of new settlers from Central Europe.[11] Of note, the construction methods of Polada Culture lake pile dwellings are similar to those used in Lake Constance, Switzerland and attributable to the Únětice inspired Arbon Culture.[12] Some Polada Culture ceramic types are similar to that of the mid-Danubian Wieselburg-Gata Culture.[13]
- We can deduce from ancient DNA that there has been an important amount of genetic change in Italy since the Copper Age and possibly with the arrival of Bell Beakers. The best example is Ötzi the Iceman, the Copper Age mummy found in the Tyrolean Alps. His Y-DNA haplogroup is G2a4-L91, which today has its highest frequencies (25 and 9%) in southern Corsica and northern Sardinia, respectively.[14] His autosomal DNA groups closest with the modern day inhabitants of Sardinia. Compared to other European groups, Sardinians have a greater affinity with Middle Eastern groups. Haplogroup G2a has already been found in ancient DNA belonging to the Neolithic Cardial Ware Culture.[15] The Cardial Ware Culture spread throughout all of Corsica and has similar characteristics with the southern Tuscany-Pienza group.[16] The axe curried by Ötzi belonged to the Remedello Culture.[17][18] When Ötzi's skull was compared with other Neolithic and Early Bronze Age skulls, he clustered closest to his contemporaries in northern Italy, and more specifically with those of the Remedello and Cardial (Impressed) Ware Cultures.[19] The Bell Beaker skulls were far removed from that of Ötzi. The average height of Bell Beaker skeletons is also quite a bit taller than that of Ötzi and his Neolithic and Copper Age contemporaries.[20] When we triangulate Ötzi's Neolithic Y-DNA, his Remedello Culture axe, and his closest cranial grouping with both Remedello and Cardial Ware skulls, we begin to see that the most likely scenario is that U152 was a later development in Italy than both of these cultures.
