Bell Beaker Culture

In the present work, we examine the personal adornment in proboscidean ivory from the Bell Beaker period at the hypogeum of Padru Jossu, Sanluri (Sardinia, Italy) currently preserved in the Museo Civico Archeologico Villa Abbas of Sardara. For the first time, a complete study-morphological, use wear and archaeometric-of this material has been conducted. The typological study established two categories: buttons and pins. Those categories were also subdivided into three groups respectively. Technological and functional analyses were made difficult by the strong degradation of the items and the presence of glue and varnish. The archaeometric study highlighted the diverse provenances of the proboscidean ivories, suggesting a chronological difference in the geographical sources, as well as in the mobility patterns implicit in the movements of the raw material. The ivory from the older Stratum iii is predominantly from the Asian elephant, and in the later Stratum ii the exclusive supplier species is the African Savannah elephant. It is also important to mention that in the ensemble from Stratum iii, one of the items seems related to the Eastern types of ossi a globuli, linking this Asian ivory with an Aegean and Oriental axis of mobility. Resumen: En el presente trabajo se han analizado los elementos de adorno personal de época campa-niforme en marfil de proboscídeos del hipogeo de Padru Jossu, Sanluri (Cerdeña, Italia) que actualmente se conservan en el Museo Cívico Arqueológico Villa Abbas de Sardara (Cerdeña, Italia). Por primera vez se ha realizado un estudio completo de este material-estudio morfológico, traceológico y arqueométrico-. El estudio tipológico ha permitido establecer dos categorías: la de los botones y la de los alfileres. Las dos cate-gorías se han subdividido en tres grupos cada una. Los análisis tecnológicos y funcionales han sido obstacu-lizados por la fuerte degradación de los artefactos y la presencia de pegamentos y barnices en la superficie. El estudio arqueométrico ha demostrado la diversidad de fuentes de aprovisionamiento de marfil de pro-boscídeos, mostrando una diferencia cronológica en el abastecimiento de esta materia prima. Mientras que en el más antiguo Estrato iii el marfil es predominantemente de elefante asiático, en el más tardío Estrato ii el marfil es exclusivamente de elefante africano de estepa. Así mismo, resulta interesante la aparición en 36 J. M. Morillo, C. Pau and J. Guilaine / The proboscidean ivory adornments from the hypogeum of Padru Jossu... © Universidad de Salamanca Zephyrus, LXXXII, julio-diciembre 2018, 35-64

M. Conrad/S. Conrad, Bohemia and South-East Europe in Saxony – a burial field of the Eastern Group of the Bell Beaker Culture with finds of the Kosihy-Čaka/Makó complex near Schweta, Lkr. Nordsachsen
During construction of the new S 31 bypass road near Schweta in 2011/2012, a burial site with twelve graves was uncovered. Seven of these were distinguished by finds of the Eastern Group of the Bell Beaker culture, the largest such group in the Mittelelbe-Saale river area (Mittelelbe-Saale-Gebiet, or MESG). Of the seven Eastern Group beakers found here, two are Epi-Maritime beakers. A bowl and a cup from the graves can be compared with object types of the Kosihy-Čaka/Makó complex. The bowl was found together with a decorated and an undecorated Bell beaker. This kind of “syncretistic” composition is usually found only in south-east Europe, and then only as singular finds – much like those of Kosihy-Čaka/Makó objects in the MESG. The material from Schweta belongs to the (typologically defined) early to middle phases of the Eastern Group of the Bell Beaker Culture. At present, 20 find sites with Eastern Group beakers are known from the MESG, and these are concentrated in Saxony. The use of Epi-Maritime beakers to denote specific social groups is almost exclusive to this region. The finds indicate a high mobility of specific persons or groups at the end of the Neolithic and the existence of an important route through Saxony which connected the Eastern Group of the Bell Beaker Culture and the MESG.

M. Conrad, Radiocarbon dating of a Bell Beaker burial from Eythra/Zwenkau (ZW-01), Lkr. Leipzig
The cremation burial of a 25–38 year-old male of the Bell Beaker Culture from the strip-mining region of Zwenkau near Eythra is exceptional in many respects. Its finds include (among others) a decorated bell beaker, silex arrowheads, a set of stones used for grinding and hammering, as well as two amber beads and five small gold discs. The beaker is one of the few Eastern Group examples from the Mittelelbe-Saale river area (MESG). As an Epi-Maritime beaker, the vessel can be ascribed more closely to the (typologically defined) earliest phase of the Eastern Group of the Bell Beaker Culture. Before this discovery, only one Eastern Group or Epi-Maritime beaker from the MESG had been radiocarbon-dated, making this a good opportunity for a new attempt. Unfortunately, the results of the 2016 AMS analysis produced a relatively long plateau-related 2-sigma interval of 2457–2202 calBC. This does not permit a precise chronological positioning of the burial within the Bell Beaker complex of the MESG. As there is not enough proof to support a purely chronological interpretation of the position of the Eastern Group beakers in the MESG (or of the Epi-Maritime beakers in general), a social interpretation should be taken into consideration.

Over a period of more than 10 years, Horsens Museum undertook a series of excavations at Østbirk, north of Horsens. These resulted in an extensive and diverse body of evidence from a settlement area with scattered houses and an associated cemetery with barrows and flat-field graves. The two areas lay together within a melt-water valley that also framed their areal extent. In dating terms, the burial ground extends from the Single Grave culture to the early Pre-Ro-man Iron Age, while the settlement is restricted to the period from the Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age period IA (EBA IA), 2350-1600 BC. Neither the settlement nor the burial ground have been fully exposed , but collectively these two areas provide an excellent insight into a local agrarian community that, in the course of the Late Ne-olithic, developed under successive external cultural influences. In Late Neolithic I (LN I), these were, in the first instance, from the northern Jutish Bell Beaker environment, while in Late Neolithic II (LN II) they came from southern Sweden and the continental Únětice culture. The changes saw expression in not only a number of new artefact types but also in completely new grave forms and house types. In LN II, the latter included the hybrid house and the three-aisled longhouse, which both occurred together with the traditional two-aisled longhouse with a sunken floor. Throughout the entire habitation period, the settlement consisted of small households that, via economic cooperation, were able to practise intensive arable agriculture aimed at producing an economic surplus. The special significance of arable agriculture is demonstrated , first and foremost, by the farmsteads' utility-or economy buildings, and it was perhaps an increased need for these buildings that led to the development of new types of longhouses at the end of the period. The locality lay on one of the area's important travel and communication routes and later, in the Bronze Age, a palisade was built across the mouth of the valley, probably to regulate or control movement through this natural bottleneck.

The Knockloon and Roughan hill projects aim to increase our understanding of social organisation and change in the west of Ireland during the Beaker period in Ireland (Chalcolithic: c.2500 – 2200 BCE). This paper presents results from four seasons of fieldwork on two neighbouring hills: Knockloon and Roughan and builds earlier work on Roughan which began in the 90s. It includes details from the excavation of four megalithic tombs (a court tomb and three wedge tombs) on Roughan (2000 & 2015 – 2017) and a barrow on Knockloon (2018). It also includes data gathered through remote sensing (magnetometry and electrical resistivity) and UAV survey. While remains of several periods were encountered, this paper focuses only on the Beaker period burials. We consider why people were contemporaneously buried in such different monuments, barrows and wedge tombs, within the same region and ask whether these reflect different belief systems of cultural backgrounds. This is approached through analysis of the cultural material associated with the burials, and osteological, aDNA and isotope analyses; post-excavation work which is only partially complete. We will also return to excavate more of the barrow in 2019. However, we feel our initial findings substantially add to our understanding of social organisation in the west of Ireland during the Chalcolithic and present these in this paper. The project has a relevance to the wider understanding of the Beaker phenomenon in north western Europe, the period of the first metal use in that region, and to the question of whether it was the movement of people or ideas that were the prime drivers of social change during the period.
The project was helped through grants from The Irish Quaternary Society, The Royal Irish Academy and the fees of students attending the fieldschool. The aDNA work is being carried out Dan Bradley and Lara Cassidy at The Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin and the isotopes work by Rick Schulting at Oxford University.

This special volume of the Journal of Neolithic Archaeology is dedicated to a collection of papers presented at the conference held between the 17th and 21st of May 2017 in Kiel, Germany. The topic of this conference was “Think Global, Act Local! The Transformation of Spatial Interaction and Material Culture in Beaker Contexts of the 3rd Millennium BC in Europe”. In total, ca. 70 people, specialists from all over Europe, brought together in the loose research network of Archéologie et Gobelets, attended this conference. 27 papers were presented focusing either on this specific topic at hand from various angles, or on presenting new Corded Ware or Bell Beaker finds from all across Europe. Of these 27 presentations, nine were found able to contribute to this volume. In this editorial I will highlight the different articles and their relevance to the overarching topic. Next to this overview, a possible way is paved for future studies into the 3rd millennium BC.

Les sociétés du Bronze ancien atlantique du XXIV e au XVII e s. av. J.-C.

Plus de 26 ans après la tenue du colloque du CTHS de Clermont-Ferrand sur les Fondements culturels, techniques, économiques et sociaux des débuts de l'âge du Bronze, ce colloque APRAB propose de réexaminer cette période chronologique à la lumière des travaux et des découvertes récentes. Ces dernières années ont vu le déploiement d’une archéologie préventive, de nouvelles approches méthodologiques (ADN et isotopes, modélisation bayésienne, LIDAR…) qui ont permis de renouveler très largement la documentation et les problématiques comme la question des mobilités ou des paysages. Ce colloque vise à présenter ces nouvelles données en privilégiant les communications synthétiques. Il ambitionne de dresser un bilan des connaissances sur le Bronze ancien autour de l’Arc atlantique. Le champ chronologique retenu couvre la période comprise entre le milieu du IIIe millénaire et le milieu du IIe millénaire.
Cette fourchette large offre le double avantage d’aborder la question de la genèse de l’âge du Bronze (place du phénomène campaniforme) et celle du chevauchement des systèmes chronologiques. A la lumière de travaux récents, sera discutée la question des cultures du Wessex, des Tumulus armoricains et de leurs périphéries : comment les définir (champ chronologique, culture matérielle) et les délimiter ? Les notions de
sociétés « princières », de l’émergence des élites, des réseaux sont-elles
toujours appréhendées de la même façon ? Une mise en parallèle avec des travaux synthétiques portant sur d’autres grandes cultures européennes pourra par ailleurs être faite (El Argar, la Culture du Rhône, d’Hilversum ou d’Únětice…)....

Despite the potential of a biocultural methodology, osteology and archaeology are often approached separately in some parts of Central Europe. This osteoarchaeological thesis presents a rare comparative study of populations occupying modern-day Slovakia, Moravia, and
Bohemia from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age (EBA). By examining skeletal indicators of health and lifestyle, it aims to contribute to bioarchaeological research within the study region. It also provides new insights into a series of important sites where no osteological evaluation of skeletal remains have previously been performed. Human remains from thirty-four sites in Slovakia, Moravia and Bohemia, 152 adults and 136 subadults, were analysed. Demographic, pathological and metric data were recorded and evaluated, and compared with previously published data for contemporaneous populations in order to create a more comprehensive representation of the populations in the area.
The results suggest several differences between the Neolithic and the following periods, mostly as regards health status. Higher dietary and environmental stress was indicated in the Neolithic period, as suggested by lower mortality peak (especially of females and subadults) and about
5 cm shorter stature, and generally worse health status of Neolithic population when compared to the Chalcolithic and EBA individuals. The Neolithic is also the only period where females were more numerous than males. Such a trend is quite common in the Neolithic of the study
region. This may be a result of increased migration of Neolithic females, as raids for wives are suggested to have been practiced. As indicated by both the osteological and archaeological record, one of the sites examined, Svodín, could have been a site of contemporary elites and
their family members. Chalcolithic populations revealed differences in cranial shape, being mesocephalic (medium-headed) or brachycephalic (short-headed), whereas both the Neolithic and the EBA populations were dolichocephalic (long-headed). Differences in male and female
cranial features suggest a possible mixing of indigenous and incoming populations. Such results may contribute to the ongoing discussion about the ‘foreignness‘ of Chalcolithic Bell Beaker people in the area. Traumatic lesions suggest that males were more physically active than
females in all three periods, including violent encounters. Even though violence was recorded in all three periods, especially in the western part of the region, and the intensity and brutality of the assaults appears to increase in the Chalcolithic and culminating in the EBA. In addition,
poorer health status of EBA children was recorded, possibly related to more marked social differentiation in the period. In general, poorer health was implied for the prehistoric populations of today’s Slovakia. The results of this study can serve as the basis for future research and contribute to a more comprehensive image of lifestyle and development of prehistoric populations in the study area.

LEMERCIER O. (2018) - La question campaniforme - The Bell Beaker Question - Chapitre 12, in : GUILAINE J., GARCIA D. (Dir.) : La Protohistoire de la France, PAris : Hermann, 2018, p. 205-217 (collection Histoire et Archéologie).

En France, les vestiges campaniformes, de la transition du Néolithique à l’âge du Bronze, sont étudiés depuis plus d’un siècle sans que l’ensemble des questions qu’ils posent n’aient reçu de réponses satisfaisantes. Ce phénomène d’ampleur européenne fait cependant l’objet d’une recherche encore intense et le nombre de découvertes (près de 1600 sites) comme les progrès faits, concernant tout à la fois les vestiges mobiliers, les contextes de découvertes, les pratiques liées etc., sont très importants. Les diverses composantes du Campaniforme sont aujourd’hui mieux caractérisées permettant de revenir sur les nombreuses hypothèses proposées dans les dernières décennies pour interpréter ce curieux phénomène et le développement des cultures qui l’ont suivi. En France, le  Campaniforme, qui ne saurait être réduit à un phénomène funéraire, correspond à un long cycle de six à sept siècles où trois phases de nature différentes peuvent être distinguées aussi bien dans la moitié nord que dans la moitié sud. Le premier phénomène de diffusion à l’échelle du continent est probablement issu d’influx d’origine orientale, mais la genèse du Campaniforme maritime demeure probablement atlantique au même moment que celle des gobelets AOC aux Pays-Bas. À partir de ce premier phénomène, on observe le développement de quelques cultures et de nombreux groupes campaniformes formant une véritable civilisation campaniforme à l’échelle de l’Europe qui inaugure le passage à l’âge du Bronze plus qu’elle ne clôt le Néolithique.

In Europe the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age is marked by a multitude of archaeological cultures which have in common, from 2600-2500 BCE and for some centuries, the use of small ceramic cups that have a S-shaped profile (bell-shaped beaker) until the appearance of the true Bell Beakers cultures. These beakers found in rich burials from Ireland to Sicily, from Poland to Morocco and from the Atlantic to the Balkans reveal the existence of long-distance relationships, practices and rites common to many cultures and depict a completely new cultural scenario in Europe at the end of the prehistoric period. Since the beginning of the 19th century and the first definition of these objects by British archaeologists numerous theories have been proposed concerning both the nature and the origin of this unusual phenomenon, considering alternately war invasions, commercial networks or social and identity markers, as well as an origin in Egypt, Asia Minor, Spain, Central Europe, Portugal, Netherland, Ukraine and even in France, in the Gulf of Lion.
Even today decorated goblets are the subject of very little consensus within the scientific community. Yet research on this subject remains extensive and intense, in France as well as in the other regions of Europe, and the Bell Beaker Culture is increasingly well-known whether this concerns the objects, contexts of discovery (nearly 1,600 sites), settlement sites, rites, chronology or even individuals.
In France Bell Beaker remains are numerous but discoveries stemming from burials represent only 38 %. The Bell Beaker period spans over six to seven centuries between 2550/2500 BCE and 1950/1900 BCE. In the north and the south of France periodisations of Bell Beaker assemblages can be proposed, which distinguish an early, late and final stage based on the objects, the contexts of discovery, the dating and associations of objects. These three phases can be characterised as follows: the initial phenomenon of diffusion on a European scale resulted in a second stage in the development of fully regional cultures and lastly Bell Beaker traditions in distinct areas maintained during the Early Bronze
Age. This periodisation also points out that the Bell Beaker period does not postdate the Final Neolithic and Chalcolithic cultures (according to the terminology used). As a matter of fact, the Bell Beaker emerge and develop within, in interaction with or in exclusion of these latter (depending on the regions) and in most cases replace them prior to the beginning of the Bronze Age. The Bell Beaker phenomenon does not correspond to the long-distance diffusion of “prestige items” since there is little circulation of the vessels, whereas the existence of technical transfers involves human displacements. But, if the mobility of individuals can clearly be attested, this is equally the case for the spread of distinct objects (pottery, metal objects, etc.), practices and ideology: the most striking elements of the early Bell Beaker diffusion which invariably characterise the burial contexts, are particular objects (weapons, personal ornaments, etc.) and the use of decorated drinking cups. All the novelties that can be observed in connection with the Bell Beaker phenomenon (individual burial, use of the drinking cup, distinction of the “Bell Beaker archer”, i. e. an adult man accompanied by weapons, etc.) probably correspond to a large contribution of eastern European ancestry, identified in the preceding Corded Ware of Central Europe. However, the origin of the maritime style cannot be located in Central Europe or in the Netherlands, but rather in the Atlantic zone. Because of the presence of distinct Corded Ware elements in Western Europe and even in the Atlantic area, prior to
the emergence of the maritime beakers, it was assumed that these eastern influences triggered the emergence of the maritime beaker, in parallel with the development of the AOC beakers in the regions of the lower Rhine basin, along with the phenomenon of rapid hybridisation. The consequences of this phenomenon appear to be very important in many regions, although they are
not uniform across the continent. Numerous advances in the characterisation of the late Bell Beaker made it possible to distinguish several Bell Beakers groups (defined on the basis of decorated pottery, in most cases on the scale of two or three regions in France) that were grouped together in large “Bell Beaker cultures” (defined on the basis of their common wares, on the scale of one to several European countries). All these cultures can be defined as a vast “Bell Beaker civilisation, as they share a distinct number of traditions and practices: in some sense a form of an early European union, much stronger marked than in the case of the initial phenomenon of diffusion. Lastly, in France its dating and its duration make the Bell Beaker cycle a link and a pivotal moment between the Final Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age. The Bell Beaker emerge during the Final Neolithic (with
the Bell Beaker phenomenon) and decline during the Early Bronze Age (with the Bell Beaker traditions of incised and barbed wares). On a European scale, however, the situation is more complex because the Bell Beaker appear in different cultural substrates and at different stages of technical development, depending on the region (Bronze Age, Final Neolithic or Early Neolithic in the northernmost regions) and they seem to introduce the transformations of the Bronze Age rather than to close the Neolithic cycle.

Dans le cadre de la plus grande étude jamais conduite sur l'ADN ancien, avec quatre cents squelettes analysés, une équipe internationale de cent quarante-quatre archéologues et généticiens d'Europe et des États-Unis révèle l'histoire complexe d'une des périodes déterminantes de la Préhistoire européenne.

If H2a1 Mitochondrial DNA (MtDNA) bearers suddenly appeared in Eastern Europe in late 6th millennium BC and were omnipresent during Eurasian Copper and Bronze Ages, their modern dispersion's pattern seems to indicate they consciously overlapped Palaeolithic sites we have linked to the practice of early medicine. However they brought new characteristics from a prior southeastern Anatolian (Taurus Mountains) and Levantine (Galilea) ethnogenesis based on the convergence of Pastoralism for Milk (PM), co-evolution between gene and food practice implying the development of Lactase Persistence (LP), the Early Seeds Processing and specific associated behaviours such as selected body parts or perforated teeth as beads in burials. A Levantine thaumaturgical and matriarchal organization based on military force seemed to have synthesized all these influences and has diffused a culture whose elements are all reunited in the grave of Individual from Hilazon Tachtit Stage D (12000 cal BP, Natufian Culture). The lineage seemed to have followed the Fertile Crescent corridor that leads to Lesser Caucasus and reconstituted in Karabakh, close to the Kalavan-1 site, most of the Natufian cultural context. During Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB), while H2a1 MtDNA bearers expanded in Western Asia by Levant to become one of the most frequent sub-haplogroup of H, the corridor that promoted exchanges between Armenian Obsidian sites and the later Halaf site of Domuztepe, close to the modern Cilician H2a1 MtDNA hotspot, imposed advanced agricultural technics on the Araxes and Vorotan rivers. Thanks to a solid transgenerational transmission of medicinal practices that allowed overpassing the simultaneous development of new diseases like Yersinia Pestis, the innovative woman's lineage became a key element in the new population's admixture from Araxes – Vorotan-Hakari Rivers, future pillar of the Kura-Araxes Culture. While the agricultural Halaf influence extended towards the Caspian maritime plain, Bolgarçay River (Azerbaijan) and Gilan, (Iran), medicinal exchanges with central Asia triggered a new military network specialized in the trade of Boric acid and projected H2a1 MtDNA bearers in Inner Asia. West, the Transcaucasian expansion of H2a1 MtDNA bearers put an end to the Shulaveri-Shomu Tepe culture and their penetration between Don and Volga broadcasted thaumaturgy and advanced agricultural technics until Rhine following Gravettian sites we have demonstrated to be dedicated to medical practices. A last wave of H2a1 MtDNA coincides with the expansion of the Kura Araxes Culture in all Fertile Crescent and reached Atlantic during late 3 rd and early 2 nd millennia BC, changing the whole agricultural landscape of Western Europe until the Roman Empire. This paper demonstrate that Epi Palaeolithic elites were personally engaged in the survival and well-being of their groups, the Neolithic increasing demography forcing them to find solutions (*həll (n.) modern Azeri) making the 'Hellenism' the common base of the Indo-European culture born in Fertile Crescent.