Bell Beaker Burial Customs in North-western France

Abstract

Ever since large amounts of Bell Beaker complex pottery were first discovered within megalithic graves in north-western France, the Bell Beaker has been tightly tied to the ‘megalithic phenomenon’. However, the fact of construction of these various kinds of megalithic monument during the Middle to Late Neolithic pre-dates the users of Bell Beakers. While this is a case of the re-use of older funerary monuments, it is assumed that Bell Beaker funerary practices witness a shift from Neolithic collective burial to individual inhumation. For a long time finds from the megalithic graves have constituted our main source of information on the Bell Beaker complex in north-western France. However, these ‘artificial caves’ have biased our understanding of the Bell Beaker complex and, in particular, of its funerary practices. The re-assessment of old finds and recent large-scale excavations have brought to light a large number of new sites, revealing a greater diversity in Bell Beaker funerary practices in the region than had been perceived previously. In the first part, we set the broader picture, stating what we know or can say about funerary practices during the Recent and Late Neolithic (3350–2550 bc), before the beginning of the Bell Beaker phenomenon. We then discuss the different Bell Beaker burial practices (2550–1950 bc), their chronological and regional variabilities, and, above all, the research biases that might have affected their understanding.

Late Neolithic collective burial reveals admixture dynamics during the third millennium BCE and the shaping of the European genome

“…The merging of genomes and cultural practices would have led to the emergence of a "hybrid" culture that continued to evolve and rapidly spread all over Europe. In support of this hypothesis are various bell beaker decorative styles in northwestern France that have been interpreted as hybrids, reflecting mutual influences between the Iberian and the Rhine decorative traditions (46). Thus, the hypothesis of merging genomes and blending of cultural elements matches and supports previous propositions solely based on archaeological evidence.…”

“…The main cultural expression of this eventually pan-European phenomenon was the characteristic bell-shaped ceramic beaker, the only reliable feature for its identification, sharing similarities throughout time and space [e.g., (14,29,32,44) and citations therein]. There is no agreement, however, on the classification of the decorative styles of the beakers, leading to inconsistencies of assignments and their interpretations (46).…”

The Bell Beaker Phenomenon in Europe

“…This intricate mix of local and pan-regional expressions extends further during the Bell Beaker period. Variation is evident in the funerary sphere, with several areas containing few individual graves (Salanova 2011), but there are hotspots of collective burials and reuse of megalithic architecture, as in Brittany (Favrel & Nicolas 2022). A closer look at some of the individual graves reveals an intriguing pattern: a couple of graves found at Ciry-Salsogne and Jablines, in the Paris Basin rather than along the Atlantic coast stricto sensu, have both yielded AOC beakers associated with Grand-Pressigny flint daggers, funerary packages strongly reminiscent of Dutch examples though both graves postdate by a century or two the corresponding typological phase in the Netherlands (Salanova 2011).…”

“…Bell Beaker material culture is also routinely found in collective burials and megalithic monuments, though in most cases the long and complex history of use and reuse of these sites precludes precise evaluation of the Bell Beaker context (Favrel & Nicolas 2022). An exception is provided by the chance discovery of the Tumulus des Sables in Aquitaine (James et al 2019).…”