European Bronze Age in the context of "Old Europe (archaeology)"

The Tumulus culture (German: Hügelgräberkultur) was the dominant material culture in Central Europe during the Middle Bronze Age (c. 1600 to 1300 BC).

It was the descendant of the Unetice culture. Its heartland was the area previously occupied by the Unetice culture, and its territory included parts of Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, the Carpathian Basin, Poland and France. It was succeeded by the Late Bronze Age Urnfield culture and part of the origin of the Italic and Celtic cultures.

The Únětice culture, Aunjetitz culture, or Unetician culture (Czech: Únětická kultura, German: Aunjetitzer Kultur, Polish: Kultura unietycka, Slovak: Únětická kultúra) is an archaeological culture at the start of the Central European Bronze Age, dated roughly to about 2300–1600 BC. The eponymous site for this culture, the village of Únětice (Czech pronunciation: [ˈuːɲɛcɪtsɛ]), is located in the central Czech Republic, northwest of Prague. There are about 1,400 documented Únětice culture sites in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and 550 in Poland, with about 500 further sites and loose-finds locations in Germany. The Únětice culture is also known from northeastern Austria (in association with the so-called Böheimkirchen group) and from western Ukraine.

The Bell Beaker culture, also known as the Bell Beaker complex or Bell Beaker phenomenon, is an archaeological culture named after the inverted-bell beaker drinking vessel used at the beginning of the European Bronze Age, arising from around 2800 BC. The term was first coined as Glockenbecher by German prehistorian Paul Reinecke, and the English translation Bell Beaker was introduced by John Abercromby in 1904.

Bell Beaker culture lasted in Britain from c. 2450 BC, with the appearance of single burial graves, until as late as 1800 BC, but in continental Europe only until 2300 BC, when it was succeeded by the Únětice culture. The culture was widely dispersed throughout Western Europe, being present in many regions of Iberia and stretching eastward to the Danubian plains, and northward to the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, and was also present in the islands of Sardinia and Sicily and some coastal areas in north-western Africa. The Bell Beaker phenomenon shows substantial regional variation, and a study from 2018 found that it was associated with genetically diverse populations.