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This paper presents the contributions of micromorphology to the study of the hypogeum of Carrer Paris (Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona), dated between 2878 and 2206 cal bc. The hypogeum of Carrer Paris was first used for a collective inhumation during the Late Neolithic. Afterward it was used again during the Bell-Beaker Chalcolithic for three different burial episodes including Bell-Beaker vessels.. The continued use of the sepulcher highlights the evolution of common funeral practices in the Neolithic towards a progressive tendency to individualize burials parallel to the adoption of bell- shaped vessels. The study shows that the hypogeum was conceived and constructed well in advance of its use as well as the existence of a funeral ritual related to the use of fire prior to its use as a sepulchre. In addition, the sedimentary infilling of the structure by geogenic processes and identifies the post-depositional processes that the burials have suffered.  In summary, soil micromorphology has proved to be an essential tool for the study and interpretation of funerary contexts. In this case, it has allowed us to identify and characterize better the constructive and funerary process of this type of prehistoric burials in the peninsular Northeast. 

Throughout northern Europe, thousands of burial mounds were erected in the third millennium BCE. Starting in the Corded Ware culture, individual people were being buried underneath these mounds, often equipped with an almost rigid set of grave goods. This practice continued in the second half of the third millennium BCE with the start of the Bell Beaker phenomenon. In large parts of Europe, a 'typical' set of objects was placed in graves, known as the 'Bell Beaker package'. This book focusses on the significance and meaning of these Late Neolithic graves. Why were people buried in a seemingly standardized manner, what did this signify and what does this reveal about these individuals, their role in society, their cultural identity and the people that buried them? By performing in-depth analyses of all the individual grave goods from Dutch graves, which includes use-wear analysis and experiments, the biography of grave goods is explored. How were they made, used and discarded? Subsequently the nature of these graves themselves are explored as contexts of deposition, and how these are part of a much wider 'sacrificial landscape'. A novel and comprehensive interpretation is presented that shows how the objects from graves were connected with travel, drinking ceremonies and maintaining long-distance relationships.

The fortified chalcolithic settlement in Puente de Santa Bárbara (Huércal-Overa, Almería), with 1.5 ha, located 3 km away from the Cerro Minado copper mines, and exploited at least during the Late Chalcolithic, presents copper ores, crucible smelting and melting debris such as slags, casting prills, reduction vessels and crucibles. 4% of all the ceramic fragments correspond to reduction vessel and crucible fragments, spatially distributed in the three excavated sectors and suggest the generalization of the metallurgy within the habitat. The percentage of metallurgical evidences could only be compared in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula to the Copper Age settlements of Parazuelos (Lorca, Murcia) and Agua Amarga (Lorca, Murcia), another minor site of 0.25 ha. These data suggest the hypothesis of small settlements specialized in the production of tools or small metallic ingots made in rectangular crucibles during the Late Chalcolithic in the Southeast of the Iberian Peninsula.

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 replacement. 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.

In the present work, we examine the personal adornment in proboscidean ivory from the Bell Beaker period at the hypogeum of Padru Jossu, Sanluri (Sardinia, Italy) currently preserved in the Museo Civico Archeologico Villa Abbas of Sardara. For the first time, a complete study -morphological, use wear and archaeometric- of this material has been conducted. The typological study established two categories: buttons and pins. Those categories were also subdivided into three groups respectively. Technological and functional analyses were made difficult by the strong degradation of the items and the presence of glue and varnish. The archaeometric study highlighted the diverse provenances of the proboscidean ivories, suggesting a chronological difference in the geographical sources, as well as in the mobility patterns implicit in the movements of the raw material. The ivory from the older Stratum In is predominantly from the Asian elephant, and in the later Stratum II the exclusive supplier species is the African Savannah elephant. It is also important to mention that in the ensemble from Stratum in, one of the items seems related to the Eastern types of ossi a globuli, linking this Asian ivory with an Aegean and Oriental axis of mobility.

Could the circulation of objects or ideas and the mobility of artisans explain the unprecedented uniformity of the material culture observed throughout the whole of Europe? The 17 papers presented here offer a range of new and different perspectives on the Beaker phenomenon across Europe. The focus is not on Bell Beaker pottery but on social groups (craft specialists, warriors, chiefs, extended or nuclear families), using technological studies and physical anthropology to understand mobility patterns during the 3rd millennium BC. Chronological evolution is used to reconstruct the rhythm of Bell Beaker diffusion and the environmental background that could explain this mobility and the socioeconomic changes observed during this period of transition toward Bronze Age societies. The chapters are mainly organized geographically, covering Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean shores and the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula, includes some areas that are traditionally studied and well known, such as France, the British Isles or Central Europe, but also others that have so far been considered peripheral, such as Norway, Denmark or Galicia. This journey not only offers a complex and diverse image of Bell Beaker societies but also of a supra-regional structure that articulated a new type of society on an unprecedented scale.

This paper explores decorative resemblances between Neolithic and Chalcolithic ceramics and pottery in the Cogotas i style –Later Bronze Age–. A diachronic approach from the Early Neolithic allows tracking a series of recurring ornamental motifs and techniques throughout later prehistory: comparable geometric themes, the deployment of stab-and-drag –Boquique– and excision techniques and smearing of white inlays. In order to account for such analogies, a suite of options is assessed: mere coincidence, independent innovation, trans-cultural endurance of craftwork procedures. The most likely hypothesis considers a revival of such technological decisions by potters in the second millennium bc; they did so fully aware of their alien character. Such pottery features were used to elaborate a symbolic code displayed on vessels, whose transmission and faithful reproduction were of crucial importance. Ancient potsherds were used as prototypes by potters, and might have been understood as part of ancestral, esoteric or mythical realities. Such cultural preference is consistent with the habitual handling of relics and anachronistic or exotic things. The lifestyles of these people facilitated their encountering of remains from their past, either removing soil (to cultivate and pit-digging) on the same settings occupied by their predecessors, or visiting and altering old megaliths and tumuli, caves and ditched enclosures.

During the mid-third millennium BC, people across Europe started using an international suite of novel material culture including early metalwork and distinctive ceramics known as Beakers. The nature and social significance of this phenomenon, as well as the reasons for its rapid and widespread transmission have been much debated. The adoption of these new ideas and objects in Ireland, Europe's westernmost island, provides a highly suitable case study in which to investigate these issues. While many Beaker-related stone and metal artefacts were previously known from Ireland, a decade of intensive developer-led excavations (1997-2007) resulted in an exponential increase in discoveries of Beaker pottery within apparent settlement contexts across the island. This scenario is radically different from Europe where these objects are found with Beakers in funerary settings, stereotypically with single burials. Using an innovative approach, this book interlinks the study of the pottery and various object types (that have traditionally been studied in isolation) with their context of discovery and depositional treatment to characterise social practices within settlements, funerary monuments, ceremonial settings and natural places. These characterisations deliver rich new understandings of this period which reveal a much more nuanced narrative for this international phenomenon.

The building of the high-speed rail track linking the Rhine to the Rhone led to the discovery of two Bell Beaker burials in an Iron Age cemetery located in the plain to the east of Dijon. The Tilles plain is an alluvial environment, shaped by the valleys of the Tille and the Ouche and populated since Late Prehistory, particularly during the Bell Beaker and Early Bronze periods, which have yielded settlements located on the rivers. These burials are the first funerary features discovered in the area. The two Bell Beaker cremation burials excavated at Genlis “ le Nicolot” are remarkable, as still too little is known of the funerary practices of the period in the east of France and in particular in Burgundy. Few Bell Beaker cremation burials are documented in Western Europe, whereas this practice is well known in Central Europe and the Genlis burials underline the strong cultural links with this area. The Genlis cremations are unprecedented in an area where until now only individual inhumations have been found. One of the burials has a remarkable funerary monument, with a complex layout of corner posts connected by shallow side pits. This architecture delimits a quadrangular space 1.4 m long and 1.2 m wide. The remains of a cremation, certainly originally located in the middle of the monument, were found scattered in the fill of the features that delimit it. The cremation contained two beakers with corded decoration and the remains of an ox skull. The painstaking excavation of this funerary monument and the micro-morphological analyses carried out on the ditch fill provide new data, which has contributed to precise reconstructions of the architecture and the funerary space. The detailed analysis of the bone material in the fill of the post holes and the monument''s boundary pits, has also identified unburnt animal offerings, including a bovid skull, which again refers to funerary practices attested from the Final Neolithic and Bell Beaker graves in Central Europe or in the Rhine area as well as in Britain. This cremation has yielded two beakers with corded motifs and a set of animal bones that may have been offerings. Goblets with corded decor are rare in Burgundy and bear witness to an early Bell Beaker phase that is still difficult to define from a chrono-cultural point of view, but for which corded influences seem more than likely. This early Bell Beaker phase has also been highlighted in the area of Genlis with typical features identified at the sites of Labergement-Foigney, “ les Côtes-Robin” and Genlis, “ la Moussenière”. These features represent the first stages of an occupation that develops during the second half of the Bell Beaker phase and the Early Bronze Age. The other burial is located in a shallow square pit interpreted as a small wooden chest. The pit housed the cremated remains, which were contained in a perishable envelope and the accompanying grave goods. These are similar to the typical Bell Beaker funerary sets containing a vessel with a Burgundian-Jurassian comb decoration, an archer''s cuff made of schist, a small copper dagger and a flint tool, which was probably a lighter. The dagger with its relatively atypical shape is without doubt the oldest metal object found in a funerary context in Burgundy. Unfortunately, the metallographic analyses carried out on this object have not pinpointed the origin of the ore used in its manufacture. These two burials provide important new information on Bell Beaker funerary practices within a regional chronocultural framework, in establishing links between central Eastern France and Central Europe. Funerary monuments, which are delimited by corner posts remain rare in France and show connections with Central Europe where this type of architecture built to house cremation burials, is more frequent. The cultural links between Central and Eastern France and Central Europe are only part of the story, as there are other probable links with northern Europe, but also the Netherlands and Britain, where funerary practices similar to those at Genlis have also been identified. These burials have shed new light on the role of Burgundy within the Bell Beaker group. They have also contributed to clarifying the place of Burgundy in the Bell Beaker network, as it transpires that this area played an important role as a buffer zone between the eastern Bell Beaker group influenced by Central and, to a lesser extent, Northern Europe, and the Atlantic Bell Beaker group, for which the cultural links are less obvious. In fact, the so-called Maritime pottery types are not found in the region. This paper provides detailed analysis of two exceptional and unprecedented Western European Bell Beaker tombs, which also raise the question of the longevity of certain funerary sites used from the beginning of the Bronze Age to the end of the Iron Age, as attested by other local necropolises. À l’occasion des travaux liés à la réalisation de la ligne à grande vitesse Rhin-Rhône dans les plaines de l’Est dijonnais, deux tombes ont été mises au jour dans le secteur d’une nécropole de l’âge du Fer. Les deux sépultures à crémation découvertes à Genlis «le Nicolot » constituent des témoignages exceptionnels pour cette période encore méconnue en ce qui concerne les pratiques funéraires dans l’Est de la France et en Bourgogne. Jusqu’à présent, ce type de tombe est très peu attesté dans l’Ouest de l’Europe et les sépultures de Genlis témoignent de liens culturels avec l’Europe centrale où les crémations sont mieux documentées. La première sépulture se caractérise par un monument funéraire remarquable, réalisé sur poteaux de bois et livre deux gobelets à décor à la cordelette et des offrandes animales. Les gobelets décorés à la cordelette sont très rares en Bourgogne et témoigneraient d’une phase précoce du Campaniforme encore difficile à définir sur le plan chrono-culturel mais pour laquelle les influences cordées paraissent plus que probables. La fouille fine complète de cette tombe et les analyses micromorphologiques effectuées sur le remplissage des fossés du monument apportent ici des données encore rares permettant d’envisager des reconstitutions précises de l’architecture et de l’espace funéraire. L’analyse détaillée du mobilier osseux retrouvé en position secondaire, piégé dans le remplissage des trous de poteaux et des fosses de délimitation du monument, montre également la présence de restes animaux non brûlés, parmi lesquels un crâne de bovidé faisant encore référence à des pratiques funéraires attestées du Néolithique final au Bronze ancien en Europe centrale ou dans les régions rhénanes (restes de banquet cérémonial, ornementation de la tombe ou encore dépôt alimentaire pour le défunt ?). Dans la fosse de la deuxième sépulture ont été déposés les restes d’une crémation, contenus dans une enveloppe périssable et accompagnés d’une dotation funéraire, composée d’un vase à décor au peigne de style bourguignon-jurassien, d’un brassard d’archer en schiste, d’un petit poignard en cuivre et d’un outil en silex de type briquet. Le poignard, de type court à languette triangulaire, est sans doute l’objet métallique le plus ancien trouvé en contexte funéraire en Bourgogne. Ces deux tombes apportent des données considérables sur les pratiques funéraires du Campaniforme et sur le cadre chrono-culturel régional. La place et le rôle de la Bourgogne dans le Campaniforme peuvent ainsi être précisés.

Se presenta un estudio detallado de dos discos de oro de procedencia desconocida que permanecen depositados desde mediados del s. XX en el Museo Arqueológico de Asturias. Pese a la abundante bibliografía sobre estas piezas, hasta el momento no se había realizado un análisis arqueométrico y arqueometalúrgico de las mismas. Los resultados permiten inferir observaciones interesantes acerca de su composición, manufactura y secuencia tecnológica de elaboración, así como sobre la posible procedencia del oro, confirmando, con los paralelos reconocidos para la decoración de estas placas, de una clara raigambre atlántica.