What are large‐scale Archaeometric programmes for? Bell beaker pottery and societies from the third millennium BC in Western Europe

Abstract

Variability in clay processing recipes for pottery is still at a descriptive stage as far as prehistoric contexts are concerned. This paper intends to go beyond our traditional limits, based on the best-documented case for prehistory, the Bell Beaker style, which spread throughout the whole of Europe during the third millennium BC. The thousands of archaeometric analyses that have been carried out on the main concentrations from France, Spain and Portugal are taken into account in order to reconstruct the circulation mechanisms of the pottery and the social organization of the communities who used it.

Raw material choices and material characterization of the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC pottery from the Petit‐Chasseur necropolis: Insights into the megalith‐erecting society of the Upper Rhône Valley, Switzerland

“…The Petit‐Chasseur pottery serves as a good example of how different aplastic inclusions control the overall geochemical makeup of ceramic vessels. This adds to the importance of temper and natural inclusions when it comes to pottery classification and reconstruction of the procurement of raw material (Brunelli et al, 2013; Day et al, 2011; Salanova et al, 2016).…”

“…The heterogenous matrix and striated b ‐fabric may be natural artifacts of raw clays or represent the result of intentional blending/mixing of different raw materials (e.g., Eramo, 2020; Quinn, 2013; Whitbread, 2011), for example, an illite‐based clay and a granitic grus. Fe‐rich particles, which are particularly abundant in fabric 3 (Section 5.2), have been reported in BB culture ceramic ware from across the continent (e.g., Salanova et al, 2016, and references therein; Lantes‐Suárez et al, 2015). The presence of granitic rocks in ceramic pastes may be indicative of clays procured from weathering profiles and soils developed over decomposed granite (Niu et al, 2018; C. M. Rice, 1973), which is the well‐documented practice in other BB production centers (e.g., Convertini & Querré, 1998; Jorge, 2009).…”

Veinte años de arqueología de la Prehistoria tardía en la Península Ibérica. Mirando hacia atrás y hacia adelante

“…However, notable studies include those by McClure et al (2006), comparing raw materials and production methods during the Neolithic of Valencia, by Jorge et al (2013), which contextualizes in social terms the circulation of Neolithic vessels in the Mondego, by Kohring (2016) and Kohring et al (2007), which engages in multiscalar analyses of pottery technology at the Copper Age site of San Blas (Badajoz), by Odriozola and Hurtado (2007), which analyzes the use of bone incrustations in Copper Age ceramics from the Middle Guadiana, and by Díaz-del-Río et al 2011, which shows bone used as temper in Neolithic pottery in Madrid. Analyses of Iberian Beaker ceramics reveal a complex picture of both local and non-local production (Prieto-Martínez et al 2015;Salanova et al 2016;Dias et al 2017), with their possible origins in the copos of the Estremadura (Carvalho-Amaro 2013).…”

Bell Beaker Pottery From Galicia (Nw Spain): An Archaeometric Characterization and Provenance Study of Some Representative Sites. Cerámicas Campaniformes De Galicia (No España): Caracterización Arqueométrica Y Estudio Dela Procedencia De Algunos Sitios Representativos.

“…Therefore, while the composition of the pots points towards a local origin of the clays used, certain stylistic aspects are shared with pottery from very distant areas, a situation that is becoming increasingly clear through recent research projects carried out in the region (i.e. Nonat et al, 2014, Salanova et al, 2015, López-Romero et al, 2015. Of the productive process, designs were probably the easiest to imitate between different communities, so the movement of a small number of people may have had a greater impact in design transmission, provided the imported designs had a meaning for the receptor communities.…”