Bell Beaker Research Articles

What does the bell-distribution hide? Spatial behavior and demographic development of the Funnel Beaker culture populations in Bronocice region, Poland

What does the bell-distribution hide? Spatial behavior and demographic development of the Funnel Beaker culture populations in Bronocice region, Poland

Nekropole z bezkomorowymi grobowcami kultury pucharów lejkowatych w Polsce południowo-wschodniej w dorzeczach Wisły i Sanu. Przegląd historii i stanu badań

The research on cemeteries with unchambered tombs of the Funnel Beaker Culture has a long tradition in south-eastern Poland. Within the course of the twentieth century these necropolises were recorded in the areas of Sandomierz, Lublin and Western Małopolska lands. In recent years, they have also been identified in the Rzeszów Foothills. Due to field and cabinet works, carried out by various scientific centres for many years, it was possible to gather a lot of information about this phenomenon in this Trichterbecherkomplex zone. It relates mainly to the morphology of tombs and graves, and their spatial relationships. Relatively much is known about the age and sex structure of individuals buried there and accompanying artefacts. A novelty in recent times is a significant increase in data in terms of radiocarbon dates. They are some of the most crucial and desired sorts of information, explaining the time of functioning of such necropolises. This fact is particularly intriguing as for e.g. the attempt to determine time relations with over similar forms present in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian zone and the places of local settlement systems.

The adze-heads from Plemięta, Grudziądz district (Poland): Alpine jades, Armorican products and very long-distance exchanges

Discovered in the 19th century, the hoard from Plemieta (Chelmno county, Poland) consisted of three polished adze-heads, of which two are in the Museum in Grudziądz. Until now, this hoard had been assumed to be linked to Danubian farming communities. A petrographic approach coupled with an in-depth, Europe-wide typological study allows us to rethink this cultural attribution. In fact, the Plemieta adze-heads had very probably been made in the Armorican massif (France), produced by specialists directly influenced by the standards of the earliest adze-heads of Alpine jades from Mont Viso in the Italian Alps. This proposition, which is supported by other examples of adze- and axeheads that had probably been imported into southern Scandinavia from France, re-invigorates the hypothesis that there had been western Europeaninfluences on communities of the Eastern TRB Group, pertaining to the circulation of ‘object-signs’ andideas over distances exceeding 1500 km as the crow flies. Key words: Plemieta, Chelmno county, Alpine jades, Begude type adze-head, the Funnel Beaker culture.

Interplay of climate-human-vegetation on the north-eastern edge of the Carpathians (Western Ukraine) between 7500 and 3500 calibrated years BP

The area of Ukrainian Carpathians is still poorly investigated in the context of vegetation history and human activity during the Holocene. The present study was carried out on deposits collected from the former oxbow lake. The study aimed to examine (1) whether various tendencies for occupation of valley terraces by different Neolithic and Early Bronze cultures led to a discrepant records of human impact in palaeo-proxies and (2) whether forest vegetation in the Dniester River valley (Carpathian foreland, Western Ukraine) reacted to global climatic events during the period 7500 to 3500 calibrated years BP (cal BP). We reconstructed vegetation changes with special attention being paid to human and climate impact, applying palaeobotanical and faecal bacteria ancient DNA (aDNA) analyses combined with radiocarbon dating. The results revealed that aDNA and palaeobotanical proxies recorded human impacts of differing intensities in the deposits analyzed. The Linear Pottery culture (Early Neolithic) occupied lower terraces close to the lake and so high concentrations of aDNA were detected, although with the irregular presence of the pollen of cultivated plants. Subsequently, the Malicka culture (Lengyel-Polgar cycle) still inhabited lower terraces of the valley, although its representatives probably exploited higher terraces (fluctuations of aDNA, still with an irregular record of cultivated plants). Humans of the Funnel Beaker culture preferred the highest terrace levels and watersheds (more scattered aDNA distribution) and they extensively used fire for deforestation (an increase in the accumulation of microcharcoal); however, their activity only had a slight effect on the woodlands on the lowest terraces of the valley. During occupation by Late Neolithic and Early Bronze cultures, the pasturelands on the lowest terraces were probably (at least partly) transformed into mown meadows (spread of Plantago lanceolata). The advance of Picea abies in the Dniester valley approximately 6110–5240 cal BP and an increase in the water table dated at approximately 3975–3900 cal BP in the mire occurred during the global cold period at 6500-5900 cal BP and ‘4.2 ka’ cooling event.

Del Calcolítico al Bronce antiguo en el Guadalquivir inferior. El Cerro de San Juan (Coria del Río, Sevilla) y el ‘modelo de reemplazo’

The transition between Copper and Bronze Ages in the Southwest of the Iberian Peninsula is poorly known still, especially when compared with the transition between Los Millares culture to El Argar culture in the Southeast. The settlement of Cerro de San Juan, which controlled the Guadalquivir mouth at that time, shows some evidences of human occupations of both periods, an uncommon feature along the South of Iberian Peninsula. The data from this site suggest a sedimentary break between the two periods, and a strong cultural change as well. The culture material sets are different between the Bell Beaker phase and the Bronze Age, and several radiocarbon dates define consistently the chronology of the phenomenon. From this perspective, an analysis of every archaeological stratigraphy that has evidences of both periods is carried out. Against a model of cultural continuity , numerous archaeological features rather suggest a model of demographic r eplacement . Thus, the Bronze Age can be defined as a new way of life perhaps by human groups that were not direct descendants of the previous communities.

Disturbances Of The Holocene Lake-Bog Sediment Succession As Revealed By Pollen Record From Wietrzychowice (Southeastern Kujawy, Central Poland)

Abstract Results of geological and pollen investigations of the lake-bog sediments from the section Wietrzychowice W5, located nearby the Neolithic Funnel Beaker Culture (FBC) megaliths, are presented. The pollen data reveal that sedimentation at Wietrzychowice has begun at the beginning of the Holocene (Preboreal). Pollen analysis was used to determine stratigraphy with regard to sediment characteristics. The pollen spectrum was divided into 8 LPAZes (1-7Xa, 7Xb) which were also, where possible, stratigraphically classified. Radiocarbon dating of 6 730 ± 90 BP (5 730–5 480 BC, MKL-702) at depth of 1.20 m confirmed the pollen analysis age estimation. Five settlement episodes were found in organic sediments in the upper part of the W5 core. The first was presumably during the Preboreal, the second in the early Atlantic, the third in the late Atlantic (probably Neolithic FBC), the fourth in the early Middle Ages and the last one in the late Middle Ages. The pollen analysis was useful to point irregularities in sediment succession. Such a situation made palaeoenvironmental interpretation difficult, but further research is still needed to enable an accurate reconstruction.

Nondestructive extraction DNA method from bones or teeth, true or false?

One of the most challenging points for ancient DNA studies on human remains is that analysing procedures involve partial or total destruction of the samples, which usually are unique and irreplaceable. This is what prevents museums, anthropologists or archaeologists from giving samples for genetic investigation. So that it is interesting to find an analysing method without destroying them.In this study, it was carried out the evaluation of a non-destructive extraction DNA protocol on 4 Neolithic individuals, from Can Gambús (Sabadell, Spain) and 4 pre Bell Beaker period individuals, from Los Cercados (Valladolid, Spain).Along this work, it was discussed the efficiency of the non-destructive protocol, valuing the obtained result, and the evidences state of preservation after the whole procedure.

La mujer en el registro funerario campaniforme y su reconocimiento social

The paper analyzes the Bell Beaker graves with female burials from three sites located near one another in the region of Madrid. The study addresses the female presence within contexts that have traditionally been considered mainly male. The variability of their grave goods and burial rituals and their identification in primary and secondary, single or collective inhumations, is also analyzed. Their associations with male adult individuals and/ or children are reviewed, and the social role of women buried with daggers in significant graves is discussed. Although the sample is quantitatively insufficient, its variability at least allows us to refute previons claims about the numerical superiority of male graves that have been made without any empirical support. We conclude with a discussion of why there are fewer women in Bell Beaker tombs than in contemporaneous tombs without Bell Beakers.

Campaniforme no funerario en la provincia de Toledo: el yacimiento de Las Vegas. De nuevo el Valle de Huecas

This article presents the latest results of the excavations at the site of Las Vegas in Huecas (Toledo). The site is located in an open area, near a stream and at the foot of the Valle de las Higueras necropolis. It is buried by a considerable colluvial deposition and was detected by geophysical survey. The site lacks structures and is made up of a single archaeological layer: it is a secondary deposit, containing Bell Beaker pottery and metal. A 14C sample has dated it to the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. Ceramics are the most abundant remain from this deposit. Macroscopic and X-ray Fluorescence (FRX) analysis of the ceramics indicates a local production, the fast formation of this deposit, and its long-term exposure on the surface. We suggest that it was formed by cleaning and maintenance activities carried out in a nearby occupational area. We suggest that settlement occurred in the valley bottom, with occupations whose ceramic productions differ from the ones found in funerary contexts.

What are large‐scale Archaeometric programmes for? Bell beaker pottery and societies from the third millennium BC in Western Europe

Variability in clay processing recipes for pottery is still at a descriptive stage as far as prehistoric contexts are concerned. This paper intends to go beyond our traditional limits, based on the best‐documented case for prehistory, the Bell Beaker style, which spread throughout the whole of Europe during the third millennium bc. The thousands of archaeometric analyses that have been carried out on the main concentrations from France, Spain and Portugal are taken into account in order to reconstruct the circulation mechanisms of the pottery and the social organization of the communities who used it.

Open Warfare or the Odd Skirmish? Bell Beaker Violence in the North‐Eastern Iberian Peninsula

SummaryArchaeological examples of violence in prehistory have increased in recent years. The evidence, methodology employed and interpretation of the data have been diverse, but in each case the myth of the ‘peaceful past’ is questioned. This work provides new data on the issue from the north‐eastern Iberian Peninsula, associated with the Bell Beaker culture (c.2800–2350 cal BC). Material from two megalithic tombs, Can Gol I and Can Gol II (Barcelona Province), in particular a set of flint arrowheads, has been revisited. Use‐wear analysis on the arrowheads confirmed the presence of impact fractures. This indicates that the arrowheads were not funerary offerings, but that they entered the graves lodged in the bodies of the deceased. The data from the only site with evidence of massive death by violence in the neighbouring region (Costa de Can Martorell) reinforce the hypothesis of episodes of conflict and violence during prehistory. However, the interpretation of the nature of such violence remains open to debate: was it an act of warfare or an occasional skirmish? And is the image of the Bell Beaker warrior identified in other European contexts also applicable to this area?

Ancient DNA in the Cantabrian fringe populations: A mtDNA study from Prehistory to Late Antiquity

The present mtDNA study on human remains of fourteen archaeological sites from Cantabria, Basque Country and Navarra provided a diachronic overview from Paleolithic–Mesolithic to Late Antiquity period of some communities settled in the Cantabrian fringe. Ancient DNA studies in European human remains indicated a genetic discontinuity between the hunter–gatherers and later populations. However, some of the mtDNA lineages found in the Cantabrian fringe in Paleolithic–Mesolithic times persist in present-day populations.The mtDNA variability observed in hunter–gatherers and farmers in Europe denoted a complex pattern for the Neolithic transition, occurring along several different routes into and across Europe. The mtDNA lineages found in the Cantabrian fringe indicated that the dispersion of Neolithic farmers had a different genetic impact in this area with respect to Central and Mediterranean regions of Europe. The differences in mtDNA variability were also apparent after the Neolithic, as shown by the genetic distance between the Chalcolithic populations from the Cantabrian fringe and the Bell Beaker Culture (BBC) populations of Central Europe.

Between the Baltic and Danubian Worlds: the genetic affinities of a Middle Neolithic population from central Poland.

For a long time, anthropological and genetic research on the Neolithic revolution in Europe was mainly concentrated on the mechanism of agricultural dispersal over different parts of the continent. Recently, attention has shifted towards population processes that occurred after the arrival of the first farmers, transforming the genetically very distinctive early Neolithic Linear Pottery Culture (LBK) and Mesolithic forager populations into present-day Central Europeans. The latest studies indicate that significant changes in this respect took place within the post-Linear Pottery cultures of the Early and Middle Neolithic which were a bridge between the allochthonous LBK and the first indigenous Neolithic culture of north-central Europe—the Funnel Beaker culture (TRB). The paper presents data on mtDNA haplotypes of a Middle Neolithic population dated to 4700/4600–4100/4000 BC belonging to the Brześć Kujawski Group of the Lengyel culture (BKG) from the Kuyavia region in north-central Poland. BKG communities constituted the border of the “Danubian World” in this part of Europe for approx. seven centuries, neighboring foragers of the North European Plain and the southern Baltic basin. MtDNA haplogroups were determined in 11 individuals, and four mtDNA macrohaplogroups were found (H, U5, T, and HV0). The overall haplogroup pattern did not deviate from other post-Linear Pottery populations from central Europe, although a complete lack of N1a and the presence of U5a are noteworthy. Of greatest importance is the observed link between the BKG and the TRB horizon, confirmed by an independent analysis of the craniometric variation of Mesolithic and Neolithic populations inhabiting central Europe. Estimated phylogenetic pattern suggests significant contribution of the post-Linear BKG communities to the origin of the subsequent Middle Neolithic cultures, such as the TRB.

Ancient mitochondrial DNA from the northern fringe of the Neolithic farming expansion in Europe sheds light on the dispersion process.

The European Neolithization process started around 12 000 years ago in the Near East. The introduction of agriculture spread north and west throughout Europe and a key question has been if this was brought about by migrating individuals, by an exchange of ideas or a by a mixture of these. The earliest farming evidence in Scandinavia is found within the Funnel Beaker Culture complex (Trichterbecherkultur, TRB) which represents the northernmost extension of Neolithic farmers in Europe. The TRB coexisted for almost a millennium with hunter-gatherers of the Pitted Ware Cultural complex (PWC). If migration was a substantial part of the Neolithization, even the northerly TRB community would display a closer genetic affinity to other farmer populations than to hunter-gatherer populations. We deep-sequenced the mitochondrial hypervariable region 1 from seven farmers (six TRB and one Battle Axe complex, BAC) and 13 hunter-gatherers (PWC) and authenticated the sequences using postmortem DNA damage patterns. A comparison with 124 previously published sequences from prehistoric Europe shows that the TRB individuals share a close affinity to Central European farmer populations, and that they are distinct from hunter-gatherer groups, including the geographically close and partially contemporary PWC that show a close affinity to the European Mesolithic hunter-gatherers.

Ceramika z ornamentem pasmowo-grzebykowym z osady kultury pucharów lejkowatych w Poganicach, pow. słupski, stan. 4. Przyczynek do studiów nad kierunkami kontaktów interregionalnych ludności grupy łupawskiej

During the excavations within the settlement of the Funnel Beaker culture in Poganice, Słupsk county, carried out in the 1970s, two fragments of vessels decorated with band and comb ornament were discovered. This discovery appears to be one of the north-westernmost appearances of such a type of pottery, very common in Chełmno land, and considered to be one of the indicators of the Mątwy group of the Funnel Beaker culture. Their presence at the site of the Łupawa group of the Funnel Beaker culture permits to follow the ways the pottery got into the Łupawa River basin. It might have been via the route along the left side edge of the lower Vistula valley, and further on along the courses of the Wierzyca and Słupia Rivers into Central Pomerania.

Przyczynek do badań nad krzemieniarstwem grupy łupawskiej KPL

Discussion in the article concentrates mainly on the relationship between flint working of the communities of the Łupawa group and populations representing the Funnel Beaker culture in Kujawy. Such a comparisons became possible with the discoveries at Wilkostowo 23/24 site, com. Aleksandrow Kujawski.

Cmentarzysko ludności kultury pucharów lejkowatych w Marianowie, pow. koniński, stan. 17

The cemetery in Marianowo is the first non-megalithic burial site of the Funnel Beaker culture (hereinafter referred to as TRB from German Trichterbecherkultur), which has been recorded in eastern Wielkopolska. It is also the first one where biritual funeral rites have been adopted. Despite the poor evidence, it might be generally dated to the Classic Wiorek phase (III), and even to sub-phase IIIC of TRB. All six unearthed burials were of children, and the question of the reason why one of them was cremated provides a wide range of interpretative alternatives.

Początki kultury pucharów lejkowatych na Niżu Polskim

In the article, the author discusses and accepts the need to rejuvenate the chronology of the beginnings of the Funnel Beaker culture in the Polish Plain which should be then dated to about 4200/4100 years BC. While accepting such an approach, the author presents also some of its consequences – e.g. multi-stylistic of pottery and variability of environments inhabited by the earliest Funnel Beaker communities. The article also presents some suggestions concerning the participation of huntergatherers and early agrarian groups in the shaping of this culture in the Polish lowlands. It also raises some questions, which, under the new chronological circumstances, await further archaeometric data and proper discussion.

Z badań nad neolityzacją polski środkowej. Pozostałości osadnictwa kultury pucharów lejkowatych ze stanowiska Polesie 1, gm. Łyszkowice

The article presents the results of the study of the Funnel Beaker culture settlement at site Polesie 1, com. Łyszkowice. There have been recognised very damaged remnants of a settlement and campsites of Neolithic communities. The author of the study links them to the process of colonisation, which had started in Kujawy or eastern Wielkopolska.

Zagadnienie tzw. domów kultowych w megalitycznym obrządku pogrzebowym ludności kultury pucharów lejkowatych w Polsce

The article is a summary of the state of the art concerning the so-called cult houses discovered in megaliths of the Funnel Beaker culture (hereinafter referred to as TRB from German Trichterbecherkultur) in its Eastern and South-Eastern groups. The author suggests to divide the discussed objects into types “A” and “B”, which may better reflect their characteristics. He also emphasises that the reinterpretation of some of the known features as the structures of this type would significantly increase their number. If the chosen course of interpretation appears accurate, it may indicate that the presence of wooden structures in the TRB graves in the Polish lands was not at all special. However, it should be borne in mind that these objects might have served not only for religious purposes.