Strontium and oxygen isotopes to trace mobility routes during the Bell Beaker period in the north of Spain

Strontium and oxygen isotopes of individuals from El Hundido and Valdescusa (north of Spain) sites, corresponding to the Bell Beaker culture, were analysed in order to determine mobility patterns and provenance areas. Strontium and oxygen isotope ratios in three teeth from two individuals at El Hundido and two teeth from the five individuals at Valdescusa were studied. The analyses were performed in both dentine and enamel fractions. 87Sr/86Sr ratios of El Hundido individuals indicate one was of foreign origin and the other was local whereas at Valdescusa were all of foreign provenance. Calculated δ18Ow values of El Hundido suggest a provenance from the geographical area close to the site while the Valdescusa would come from a warmer region. The comparison of oxygen and strontium isotope signatures indicate the west of the Iberian Peninsula (Zamora or the east of Leon regions) as the provenance area for the foreign individual at El Hundido and southwest France (Garonne basin) as the region of provenance for the Valdescusa.

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

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.

Biriai

The materiality of forced migration and resettlement have understandably moved to the forefront of archaeological research recently, although data from prehistoric refugia remain limited. One potentially informative example is the west Mediterranean island of Sardinia, where remains of the later third millennium BC document discontinuities associated with the appearance of Bell Beaker elements in local cultural modalities. Employing an augmented version of Aaron Burke’s ethnographically based approach, this study examines the Sardinian record, first toward identifying the contexts and factors that may have induced forced migration, such as agonistic relations with Beaker-bearing entities, then toward identifying likely refugia. Diagnostic correlates are derived in terms of the material consequences of adaptations to anthropologically documented risks encountered by refugees (e.g. landlessness, homelessness, marginalization). On these criteria, the eastern Sardinian settlement of Sa Sedda de Biriai in Oliena is identified and investigated as a possible refuge settlement of the Monte Claro culture. Evidence is marshalled with the aim of discovering temporal, spatial and material patterns consistent with Burke’s model in an augmented form, emphasizing non-local source venues, homelands or pre-flight affiliations, pre-flight or transitional objects, post-flight/refuge integrative expressions, security-adapted house architecture, residential enclaves or districts and removals of iconic pre-flight cult spaces. The social identity of the bearers of Beaker material culture on Sardinia is discussed briefly.

Deschmann’s pile-dwelling sites near Ig and the cultural-chronological attribution of the Late Copper Age Ljubljana culture

The contribution presents the results of a comprehensive study of the Late Copper Age Deschmann’s pile-dwelling sites near Ig in the Ljubljansko barje, central Slovenia. It opens with a history of research and goes on to tackle the main topics associated with the cultural attribution of the sites. A re-examination of the recovered pottery and available archival records, coupled with a new typological and chronological analysis of the small finds has enabled a cultural and chronological redefinition of the Ljubljana culture and its characteristic pottery. In addition to the typical vessel forms, usually decorated with whipped-cord impressions, the newly-defined Ljubljana culture includes common ware that reveals influences primarily from the Somogyvár-Vinkovci culture in the Carpathian Basin. Some of the vessels of the Ljubljana culture also follow the tradition of the Vučedol culture, while others reflect the influences and maybe contacts with the Corded Ware, Globular Amphora and Bell Beaker cultures.