In terra incognita : le Campaniforme normand, synthèse préliminaire du mobilier céramique

Abstract

In view of the multiplication of Bell Beaker sites in Normandy, a first work of analysis and synthesis has been undertaken. The inventory of sites and ceramic wares first made it possible to fill the geographical vacuum that this area represented within the European Bell Beaker phenomenon. Its analysis made it possible to define the main characteristics as well as the links with earlier and later cultures. Bell Beakers in Normandy are a late phenomenon. Nevertheless, we can adapt previously retained definitions – even those resulting from work in southern France and the rest of Europe – to it. However it quickly appears that this culture falls under a much wider phenomenon of transition between the Final Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. The beaker cannot here be separated from other ceramic forms known in common ceramics or more characteristic elements from the Early Bronze Age, in particular from the “ Groupe des Urnes à Décors Plastiques”, which seems to confirm certain theories outlined before. After a classification of the pots and a small seriation, we were able to set up a proposal for a relative chronology which shows a gradual transition between the Final Neolithic and Early Bronze Age during a period we could qualify as “ Chalcolithic” and in which Bell Beakers are a central and recurring phenomenon.