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 very beginning of the European Bronze Age. Arising from around 2800 BC, it lasted in Britain until as late as 1800 BC[1][2] but in continental Europe only until 2300 BC, when it was succeeded by the Unetice 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 small coastal areas in north-western Africa. The Bell Beaker phenomenon shows substantial regional variation, and a study[3] from 2018 found that it was associated with genetically diverse populations.
In its mature phase, the Bell Beaker culture is understood as not only a collection of characteristic artefact types, but a complex cultural phenomenon involving metalwork in copper and gold, long-distance exchange networks, archery, specific types of ornamentation, and (presumably) shared ideological, cultural and religious ideas, as well as social stratification and the emergence of regional elites.[6][7] A wide range of regional diversity persists within the widespread late Beaker culture, particularly in local burial styles (including incidences of cremation rather than burial), housing styles, economic profile, and local ceramic wares (Begleitkeramik). Nonetheless, according to Lemercier (2018) the mature phase of the Beaker culture represents "the appearance of a kind of Bell Beaker civilization of continental scale."[8]
The Beaker Folk: Copper Age Arch
Under the "pots, not people" theory, the Beaker culture is seen as a 'package' of knowledge (including religious beliefs, as well as methods of copper, bronze, and gold working) and artefacts (including copper daggers, v-perforated buttons, and stone wrist-guards) adopted and adapted by the indigenous peoples of Europe to varying degrees. This new knowledge may have come about by any combination of population movements and cultural contact. An example might be as part of a prestige cult related to the production and consumption of beer, or trading links such as those demonstrated by finds made along the seaways of Atlantic Europe. Palynological studies including analysis of pollen, associated with the spread of beakers, certainly suggests increased growing of barley, which may be associated with beer brewing. Noting the distribution of Beakers was highest in areas of transport routes, including fording sites, river valleys and mountain passes, Beaker 'folk' were suggested to be originally bronze traders, who subsequently settled within local Neolithic or early Chalcolithic cultures, creating local styles. Close analysis of the bronze tools associated with beaker use suggests an early Iberian source for the copper, followed subsequently by Central European and Bohemian ores.[citation needed]
The beakers are suggested to have been designed for the consumption of alcohol, and the introduction of the substance to Europe may have fuelled the beakers' spread.[37] Beer and mead content have been identified from certain examples. However, not all Beakers were drinking cups. Some were used as reduction pots to smelt copper ores, others have some organic residues associated with food, and still others were employed as funerary urns.[38] They were used as status display amongst disparate elites.[citation needed]
Historical craniometric studies found that the Beaker people appeared to be of a different physical type than those earlier populations in the same geographic areas. They were described as tall, heavy boned and brachycephalic. The early studies on the Beakers which were based on the analysis of their skeletal remains, were craniometric. This apparent evidence of migration was in line with archaeological discoveries linking Beaker culture to new farming techniques, mortuary practices, copper-working skills, and other cultural innovations. However, such evidence from skeletal remains was brushed aside as a new movement developed in archaeology from the 1960s, which stressed cultural continuity. Anti-migrationist authors either paid little attention to skeletal evidence or argued that differences could be explained by environmental and cultural influences. Margaret Cox and Simon Mays sum up the position: "Although it can hardly be said that craniometric data provide an unequivocal answer to the problem of the Beaker folk, the balance of the evidence would at present seem to favour a migration hypothesis."[41]
Although a broadly parallel evolution with early, middle, and younger Bell Beaker Culture was detected, the Southern Germany middle Bell Beaker development of metope decorations and stamp and furrow engraving techniques do not appear on beakers in Austria-Western Hungary, and handled beakers are completely absent. It is contemporary to Corded Ware in the vicinity, that has been attested by associated finds of middle Corded Ware (chronologically referred to as "beaker group 2" or Step B) and younger Geiselgasteig Corded Ware beakers ("beaker group 3" or Step C). Bell Beaker Culture in Bavaria used a specific type of copper, which is characterised by combinations of trace elements. This same type of copper was spread over the area of the Bell Beaker East Group.
In 1984, a Beaker period copper dagger blade was recovered from the Sillees River near Ross Lough, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.[91] The flat, triangular-shaped copper blade was 171 mm (6.73 in) long, with bevelled edges and a pointed tip, and featured an integral tang that accepted a riveted handle.[91] Flint arrow-heads and copper-blade daggers with handle tangs, found in association with Beaker pottery in many other parts of Europe, have a date later than the initial phase of Beaker People activity in Ireland.[92] Also the typical Beaker wristguards seem to have entered Ireland by cultural diffusion only, after the first intrusions, and unlike English and Continental Beaker burials never made it to the graves. The same lack of typical Beaker association applies to the about thirty found stone battle axes. A gold ornament found in County Down that closely resembles a pair of ear-rings from Ermegeira, Portugal, has a composition that suggests it was imported.[92] Incidental finds suggest links to non-British Beaker territories, like a fragment of a bronze blade in County Londonderry that has been likened to the "palmella" points of Iberia,[85] even though the relative scarcity of beakers, and Beaker-compatible material of any kind, in the south-west are regarded as an obstacle to any colonisation directly from Iberia, or even from France.[85] Their greater concentration in the northern part of the country,[84] which traditionally is regarded as the part of Ireland least blessed with sources of copper,[citation needed] has led many authorities to question the role of Beaker People in the introduction of metallurgy to Ireland. However, indications of their use of stream sediment copper, low in traces of lead and arsenic, and Beaker finds connected to mining and metalworking at Ross Island, County Kerry, provide an escape to such doubts.[93]
Beaker using communities lived across Europe around 2,500 BC around about the time of Stonehenge. In more Western regions, such as Britain, they were the first people to use copper and gold (giving rise to the term Copper Age or Chalcolithic). They buried their people in special ways, characteristically with a distinctive type of pot, known to archaeologist as a Beaker. They were also buried with other fine objects such as metal, stone and bone.
Some of the objects found in the grave hint at how he was dressed or adorned when he was buried. On his forearm there was a slate wristguard to protect the arm from the recoil of an archer's longbow. Next to the wristguard was a bone pin that may have held a piece of clothing such as a leather cloak or mantle. Partly covered by his torso was a copper knife which may have been worn in a sheath on the chest.
All equally belong to descendants of the local Copper Age populations,essentially Danubian II (Lengyel) folk mixed in varying proportions withintruders from farther north, Anatolians and Bell-beaker folk from Spain. Thelatter had profoundly affected the industry of the region, without,however, leaving any appreciable trace on the physical character of the population. The metallurgy of our regionis nonetheless on the whole inspired primarily by the Anatolianschool, as a consideration of the pins and ear-rings at once betrays. FromDanubian II times onwards there had been indications of Anatolianpenetration in the pottery, Mediterranean shells and stray metal objectsfound in graves throughout the Danubian area; prospectors, perhaps fromTroy, had discovered the gold of Transylvania and the tin of Bohemia. In theadvanced Copper Age some ceramic groups exhibit such marked Anatolianfeatures that one suspects a considerable influx of Orientals. Such wouldpresumably have been extracting gold, copper and tin for export down theDanube to Troy, where rich bronze occurs in the second city. But when Troy IIwas sacked, the market would be closed. The strangers must produce forlocal consumption. The rise of the native Aunjetitz industry dated from thatmoment.
The principal tools are celts, flat or with low flanges, and quadrangular awls.As weapons were employed round-heeled knife-daggers, halberds and thebow and arrows. The daggers, as in the Cyclades, were not seldom attached tothe hilts by small silver rivets. As noted, the daggers eventually grewinto short flat swords. The halberd, the most distinctive weapon of the peninsula, is already foreshadowed by flint blades from Los Millares andcontemporary sites. The bronze specimens vary widely in shape: most aresymmetrical, some have very broad butts, the rivets may be quite big and abroad midrib is frequently used to strengthen the blade. The arrows were tippedwith tanged copper heads, generally lozenge-shaped and seldom barbed.The type goes back to the Copper Age culture of Los Millares. Narrow plaques ofschist, perforated at either end, were probably worn on the wrist byarchers as a protection against the recoil of the bow-string. Elsewhere suchwrist-guards are found in graves with Bell-beakers. 2ff7e9595c
Comments