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REVIEW BY OLIVIER LEMERCIER
To begin with, the Bell Beaker referred only to a small ceramic cup with a very recognisable morphology and decoration. In burials, this drinking vessel was often associated with weapons (particularly daggers and archery equipment) and sometimes copper and gold ornaments. As early as the 19th century, these objects were being unearthed in many regions of Europe. The nature of this diffusion – datable to the Neolithic–Bronze Age transition in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC – as well as its origin have been debated ever since, without reaching a real consensus. The result is a Bell Beaker that remains ‘an enigma’, sometimes considered ‘one of the most irritating questions in European prehistory’.
Marc Vander Linden, who devoted his thesis and part of his research to this phenomenon, offers us here a compact work of fewer than 100 pages, illustrated with about 20 figures. While very concise, the text includes a list of more than 230 references, allowing us to delve deeper into the subject.
The work is divided into five sections. The first is theoretical. It revisits the old – but still very useful – concept of archaeological cultures and presents various interpretations of the Bell Beaker from a gallery of the great European archaeologists who have tried their hand at it throughout the 20th century. It then takes stock of the very latest advances concerning human mobility with isotopic and genetic analyses of the last two decades. The third section specifies the geography and chronology of the phenomenon, while the fourth offers an overview by major regions, revealing both an underlying commonality and strong local variations. The fifth section develops the author’s vision of a ‘metapopulation’, a concept borrowed from population ecology, making it possible to integrate the now well-demonstrated human mobility of this period into a wider scheme that would constitute a network based on – among other things – matrimonial mobilities. The Bell Beaker is thus interpretable in terms of ideology as a ‘social front’, a set of values shared beyond local groups and regional cultures: what I would call ‘civilisation’. If human mobility is placed back at the centre of our interpretations, it is about diverse and numerous movements, and not about a single migration of a homogeneous people across Europe. The conclusion suggests some avenues for future research.
The book is well written, well structured, and takes into account the latest data as well as various older and more recent interpretations. At most, it could be criticised for being founded on minimalist maps of the distribution of Bell Beaker remains, too old or sometimes based on incomplete work. In my opinion, however, this very good little book will certainly offer laymen a clear introduction to the Bell Beaker phenomenon, concerning both the data and the questions surrounding it. Furthermore, the most seasoned researchers concerned with these questions will find new food for thought.
The Bell Beaker Phenomenon in Europe: A harmony of difference
Marc Vander Linden
Cambridge University Press, £17
ISBN 978-1009496865
