The inhabitants of Central Europe from Gaul to the Danube Basin in the second millennium BC coalesced into a culture identified in the archaeological record by large well defined cemeteries containing numerous cremation burials contained in cinerary urns. The graves were often accompanied by bronze tools, pottery, ornaments and weapons.By the turn of the first millennium BC, the Urnfield cultural system began to give way to the Hallstatt, suggesting that the Bronze Age peoples of Central Europe were the predecessors of the Celts.