Interwoven traditions in Bell Beaker metallurgy: Approaching the social value of copper at Bauma del Serrat del Pont (Northeast Iberia)

Abstract

Debates on early metallurgy in Western Europe have frequently focused on the social value of copper (between utilitarian and symbolic) and its purported role in the emergence and consolidation of hierarchies. Recent research shows that generalisations are increasingly untenable and highlights the need for comparative regional studies. Given its location in an intermediate area, the early metallurgy of Northeast Iberia provides an interesting case in point to explore the interaction between the well-characterised traditions of southern Iberia and southern France during the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE. Here the analytical study of seven Bell Beaker (decorated and undecorated) vessels reused as crucibles at Bauma del Serrrat del Pont (Tortellà, Girona) are presented. We employed pXRF, metallography, SEM-EDS and lead isotope analyses. The results show evidence for copper smelting employing a remarkable variety of ore sources, including Solana del Bepo, Turquesa and Les Ferreres mines, and an extra unknown area. The smelting vessels were manufactured using the same clay, which contained both mineral and organic inclusions. Our results are discussed with reference to all the evidence available for metals and metallurgy in the Northeast, and more broadly in comparison to southern Iberia and southern France, with special emphasis on issues of production organisation and social complexity. Taken together, our results support the notion that copper metallurgy played a predominantly utilitarian role in Bell Beaker societies and highlight idiosyncratic aspects of the metallurgical trajectory in the Northeast. Differences between territories challenge unilinear explanations of technological and social development after the introduction of metallurgy. Separate trajectories can only be explained in relation to area-specific socio-cultural and environmental factors.

The earliest Baltic amber in Western Europe

“…Evidence for these includes the presence of Barremian-Bedoulian flint from the Vaucluse region in northeastern Iberia, as well as other exogenous materials, such as Sardinian obsidian and Alpine rocks 24,27,76 . These connections, which become especially evident with the Vérasan group and other Late Neolithic-Chalcolithic groups who shared similar material culture, continued until at least the late 3rd millennium BC 77 . The Pyrenees mountains are currently seen as a barrier constituting the dividing line between two countries.…”

The Bell Beaker Phenomenon in Europe

“…In Alentejo, the presence of only a few pottery imports suggests that bell beakers were added to the local ceramic repertoire (Dias et al 2017). Other categories of evidence point to continuing economic dynamism: copper metallurgy, including production workshops (e.g., Dorado Alejos et al 2021;Montes-Landa et al 2021), and acquisition of amber with multiple origins, including locally and from Sicily (Murillo- Barroso et al 2018).…”

Metalurgia de la Edad del Bronce en las Bardenas Reales (Navarra). Análisis de materiales y primera aproximación experimental

“…a. C., donde destacan los hallazgos de una capa de escoria en cerámica con el 4,6 % de estaño, y un resto de fundición y una punta de flecha con más del 7 %, aunque también han sido interpretados como restos de una aleación accidental por el uso de minerales de cobre y estaño (Alcalde et al, 1998, p. 96). La explotación de estas mineralizaciones locales se ha confirmado mediante isótopos de plomo (Montes-Landa et al, 2021).…”