The Bell Beaker Interaction Sphere. © The Comparative Archaeology WEB

Added September 29, 2003. Updated January 13, 2009, 09:28 -5 hours GMT.

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The Bell Beaker Interaction Sphere

Version 3.21

Maximilian O. Baldia

Introduction

The purpose of this text is to provide a general overview of the culture and is intended as a resource for students and teachers of European Archaeology.

List of Figures

Map of Europe

Map of North and part of Central Europe

Central European chronological table

Bell Beaker burial and artifacts

Map of Sites at Avebury, including the West Kennet Long Barrow, the Silbury Hill Round Barrow, and the Sanctuary, (Source: English Heritage)

Silbury Hill: Completed ca 2650 BC

West Kennet Bong Barrow From Below

West Kennet Long Barrow Sealed at ca. 2250 BC, Silbury Hill in Background

Cord decorated Bell Beaker from the Middle Rhein (Rhine).

Bell List of Tables

Central and North German chronological table

Location

Unlike most European cultures, Bell Beaker culture is named after the characteristic bell shaped pots. The pottery occurs all over Europe from the Middle Danube to the Iberian Peninsula and from Ireland, Great Britain, and Denmark to Sicily and North Africa. Bell Beakers do not belong to a unified culture, but rather an interaction sphere, because there are considerable regional differences combined with an interregional system of shared symbols expressed in prestige goods. The origin of the Bell Beaker culture is hotly debated. It is possible that there were at least two separate developments, one in Iberia, the other in Central Europe. Other theories seek its origin in:

· The Iberian Peninsula/Pyrenees.

· Southern France/Western Mediterranean

· The Rhein (Rhine) River region of Germany

· The Lower Rhein (Netherland and immediately adjacent regions)

· Central Europe (Czech Republic and adjacent regions).

In continental Northern and Central Europe the Bell Beakers follow the Corded Ware culture.

Dating

The Depending on the location, the Bell Beakers belong to the Final Neolithic, the Final Copper Age, or the Early Bronze Age. The precise dating varies by location, but it must be pointed out that the radiocarbon dates fall into a period of strong wiggles visible in the radiocarbon curve. The dates range from range from ca. 2900/2400 – 1800/1700 cal BC. This would start the Bell Beakers as early as the Corded Ware culture.

In Denmark, the Bell Beakers are thought to follow the Single Grave culture, a variant of the Corded Ware culture, possibly starting in the late “Upper Grave” period of the Middle Neolithic B (MN B). Bell Beakers theoretically end in the Final Neolithic A (FN A). This is roughly the first half of the Final Neolithic (Senneolithikum) I (FN I), covering the Flint Dagger I and part of Flind Dagger II periods. The Danish Late Neolithic is dated 2350 – 1700 cal BC and divided into Flint Dagger Periods I – V.

In the Netherlands Beakers overlap with Single Grave/Corded Ware culture and end with the Early Bronze Age.

Table 2. Netherland Bell Beaker Chronology (after Bakker 1992)

AOO beakers	ca. 2700 – 2450 cal BC
Bell Beakers	ca. 2550 – 2050 cal BC
Barbed Wire Beakers	ca. 2050 – 1850 cal BC.

The Stonehenge and Avebury Connection

Starting with the all-over cord impressed beakers (AOC), the environs of Stonehenge and Avebury show the impact of the Bell Beaker people. To be more precise, at about 2650 BC nearby Silbury Hill, the highest prehistoric monument in Europe, is completed. At ca. 2600 BC construction of the stone circle of Avebury starts. At ca. 2500 the third circle is abandoned and as the ditch and bank construction begins. Meanwhile, at the nearby the Sanctuary Phase II construction includes the fence and house. About 2450 Phase III of the Sanctuary includes the freestanding timber circle. Around 2400 BC the earthwork and outer circle are completed, Beckhampton and West Kennet Avenue come into being. By about 2300 BC the avenues are finished and the Sanctuary’s stone circles of Phase IV (stone circles) is started. The ancient West Kennet long barrow is sealed at ca. 2250 BC. Around 2250 the small Blue Stones arrive for renewed construction of Stonehenge (Phase II). By 2100 BC Avebury’s importance declines. The huge Sarsen Stones arrive from Marlborough Downs to create Stonehenge IIIA. Beaker burials are placed into Stonehenge and the avenues. Around 1900 BC numerous round-barrows (tumuli) are constructed for the burial of important Beaker people in the vicinity of Stonehenge.

Pottery

The pottery is brown, reddish brown, orange to tan. Cord impressions are common. The all-over cord (AOC) or all-over ornamented (AOO) Beaker was the result of using cords to create the bell shape. Others are incised or stamped with various geometric motives, often arranged in zones. The designs were once filled with a white paste. There is fine as well as coarse ware. The fine ware occurs most often in burial context.

Copper, Gold, and Bronze

Irish copper celts (ax blades without a shaft hole) are highly decorated with chevrons, and filled triangles (Child 1972 Fig. 29). Daggers (Irish halberds) have two to four rivets (Clark 1970:410, Child 1972 Fig. 32). Occasionally adornments were made of gold and even bronze. Perforated buttons sometimes had decorated metal caps. Copper pins are also reported.

Wagons

There is ample evidence of wooden wheels and some wagon parts. The vehicles must have been relatively common, facilitating the interregional communication system.

Houses

Houses are freestanding constructions. The western Bell Beakers have a wide variety of houses. At Szigetzentmiklós-Üdülősor, 3 km outside Budapest, Hungary, a cigar-shaped 16:6 m post-built waddle and daub house was unearthed. A few similar houses occur in Denmark, Germany and Netherland. The Czech Republic reports pit houses.

Stone Tools

Chipped stone tools include triangular arrow points with a concave or a stemmed base. Large, somewhat willow leaf-shaped chipped stone “blades,” similar to those of the Corded Ware culture occur. In Denmark, where copper does not exist, these blades are eventually developed into skillfully chipped flint daggers, imitating copper ones. In fact, the Late Neolithic (Senneolithikum) is dated by the Flint Dagger types (Period I –V), suggesting that the art continued past the Bell Beaker period right up to the Bronze Age. (Note that the Danes do not start the Bronze Age until bronze is manufactured on local soil.)

Burials

The dead were usually buried in a contracted position. Some burials contain evidence of bows and arrows, including wrist guards.

Adornments

Jewelry is made of precious metals. The “Beaker people” had copper and gold earrings, flat copper and gold bands. The bands of decorated metal sheets were bent into rings. Rare gold collars with cold hammered designs are very spectacular.

References and Credits

Bakker, Jan Albert

1992 The Dutch Hunebedden: Megalithic tombs of the Funnel Beaker culture. Archaeological Series 2, International Monographs in Prehistory, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Benz, Marion and Samuel van Willigen

1998 Some new Approaches to the Bell Beaker "Phenomenon". Proceedings of the 2^nd Meeting of the "Association Archéologie et Gobelets," Feldberg (Germany), 18^th – 20^th April 1997, J. and E. Hedges, British Archaeological Reports, International Series 690, Hadrian Books, Oxford.

Clarke, D. L.

1970 Beaker Pottery of Great Britain and Ireland, 1-2. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge.

Burl, Aubrey

1979 Prehistoric Avebury Yale University Press, London.

Child, Gordon V.

1972 Prehistoric Communities of the British Isls. Blom, Inc. New York.

Nielsen, Poul Otto

1993 Yngere stenalder. In S. Hvass and B. Storgaard (Eds.) 1993:84-87. Da klinger I Muld …25 års arkæologi i Danmark. Aarhus Universitetsforlag. Århus.

Richards, Julian

1996 Stonehenge. English Heritage, London. (First published 1991, Fifth printing 1996)