Bell Beaker culture
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. Bell Beaker culture lasted in Britain from c. 2450 BC, with the appearance of single burial graves, until as late as 1800 BC, 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 coastal areas in north-western Africa. The Bell Beaker phenomenon shows substantial regional variation, and a study from 2018 found that it was associated with genetically diverse populations.
Distribution of the area of influence of the Bell Beaker culture | |
| Geographical range | Europe and Northwest Africa |
|---|---|
| Period | Chalcolithic – Early Bronze Age |
| Dates | c. 2800–1800 BC |
| Major sites | Castro of Zambujal, Portugal |
| Preceded by | Corded Ware culture, Funnelbeaker culture, Neolithic British Isles, Neolithic France, Chalcolithic Iberia, Veraza culture, Chalcolithic Italy, Baden culture, Vučedol culture, Horgen culture |
| Followed by | Únětice culture, Bronze Age Britain, Nordic Bronze Age, Bronze Age France, Armorican Tumulus culture, Rhône culture, Bronze Age Ireland, Bronze Age Iberia, Argaric culture, Levantine Bronze Age, Pyrenean Bronze, Polada culture, Nuragic culture, Cetina culture, Middle Helladic Greece, Hilversum culture, Elp culture, Mierzanowice culture |
| Bronze Age |
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The Bell Beaker culture was partly preceded by and contemporaneous with the Corded Ware culture, and in north-central Europe preceded by the Funnelbeaker culture. The name Glockenbecher was coined for its distinctive style of beakers by Paul Reinecke in 1900. The term's English translation Bell Beaker was introduced by John Abercromby in 1904.
In its early phase, the Bell Beaker culture can be seen as the western contemporary of the Corded Ware culture of Central Europe. From about 2400 BC the Beaker folk culture expanded eastwards, into the Corded Ware horizon. In parts of Central and Eastern Europe, as far east as Poland, a sequence occurs from Corded Ware to Bell Beaker. This period marks a period of cultural contact in Atlantic and Western Europe following a prolonged period of relative isolation during the Neolithic.
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. 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".