Bell beaker and strategic rituals in the Middle and Lower Guadiana basin (South Western Iberian Peninsula).
English abstract:
No monographic study about bell beaker pot in the Middle and Lower Guadiana basin has been carried out until now. Moreover, the recent archaeological excavations in the area, due to the construction of the Alqueva dam, have provided new and substantial information about the 3rd millennium b.C.
The present study contributes not only to the currently known bell beaker pots, but also to the information related to their archaeological contexts. There are 54 known sites with beaker pottery throughout the region under study, which is noteworthy if one takes into account that this area was considered as marginal with regards to the beaker phenomenon twenty years ago, when only a few sites had been identified.
Statistical analyses of the pottery assemblage are carried out, but our work also studies the distribution of pottery within the settlements (micro and semi-micro scale) and throughout the region (macro scale). As many general studies about the beaker phenomenon have pointed out, our study demonstrates here too that these pots have a prestige role and, as the archaeological record suggests, their use was restricted to a specific sector of society.
With the exception of 11 funerary contexts, fundamentally in earlier megalithic tombs, most of the beaker pots are found in settlements (43 cases). At all of the sites at which extensive excavations have been carried out, beakers are essentially found in the central huts of the settlements that are normally delimited by ditches or walls and constitute citadels. In a few cases the pottery has been found in the ditches that delimitate the total extension of the settlements. In contrast to the funerary role generally attributed to beakers, in this region the beaker pots seem to be related with other roles and processes. According to the evidence currently available, a restrictive prestige value can be argued for these objects, and we suggest the close relationship between the bell beaker set and strategies of political and social clients, which were promoted by the elite of these human groups and communities.
If effectively these objects were of particular prestige and exchange value, the analysis of their macro regional distribution would reflect the relationships between settlements and, ultimately, the complexity and hierarchy of the landscape.
A model of bell beaker promotion and diffusion in the region is presented that is structured by 4 different scales of relationships: trans-regional, inter-regional, long distance intra-regional and, finally, short distance intra-regional. The latter is more closely related to the common relationships between all of the different types of settlement, in the transference of basic elements such as food or raw materials but the beaker pot flow was restricted to the other three scales.
In addition, a diachronic analysis of the beaker phenomenon is carried out on the basis of the different decorative styles of the regional beaker pottery. According to the radiocarbon dates, the Beaker phenomenon dates approximately from 2700 to 2000 B.C. The clear differences between the distributions of the earlier (impressed) and the later (incised) decorative styles reflect the different political and social strategies of the dominant sectors of those groups, that have been related to the disintegration of the earlier territories constituted at least from the beginning of the 3rd millennium B.C.
With regards to the structure of the book, the first chapter is a short general foreword and the second is a specific introduction about the geographical and geological aspects of the region. In chapter three the research history of the Beaker phenomenon is presented at both a European and regional scale. Chapter four presents the theoretical basis, the subjects and the methodology of the study. In addition, a short introduction to the studies of the decoration of prehistoric pots and of Iberian beaker pots is carried out. In chapter five, the Bell beaker record of the Middle and Lower Guadiana basin is analysed. The first part sets out the basic characteristics of the settlements and burials. The rest of the chapter is dedicated to the analysis of the many aspects of the pottery assemblage: morphometry, types of vessels and contexts, decorative styles, etc. Also, the distribution of this pottery in the region is analysed, and several tendencies of data are presented. On the basis of the pottery distribution, chapter six suggests some ideas about the hierarchical structure and the complexity of the territory. Chapter seven is dedicated to the meaning and the role of this kind of pottery within this region. In chapter eight, an assessment of the most significant data and aspects of the material and their contexts is carried out and a hypothesis about the Bell beaker phenomenon in this geographical area is put forward. The bibliographic references make up chapter nine and the tables and maps that are cited in the text are presented in chapter ten. The study concludes with two appendices: the first appendix is a substantial descriptive catalogue of all of the beaker sites in the Middle and Lower Guadiana basin and the second is an illustrated catalogue of all the beaker pottery assemblages of the region under study.
ÍNDICE
1. INTRODUCCIÓN (p. 7)
2. CARACTERÍSTICAS GEOGRÁFICAS Y GEOLÓGICAS DE LA CUENCA DEL GUADIANA (p. 9)
3. HISTORIA DE LAS INVESTIGACIONES SOBRE EL CAMPANIFORME 3.1. Corrientes de interpretación a nivel europeo (p. 11)
3.2. Historia de las investigaciones en el área del Medio y Bajo Guadiana (p. 16) 4. OBJETIVOS, METODOLOGÍA Y ASPECTOS TÉCNICOS
4.1. Causas, objetivos y fundamentos del trabajo (p. 25) 4.2. Metodología y aspectos técnicos (p. 26)
4.2.1. Breve resumen sobre el estudio general de las decoraciones cerámicas prehistóricas y del campaniforme peninsular (p. 28)
5. EL CAMPANIFORME EN EL TERRITORIO
5.1. La distribución de los sitios con cerámica campaniforme: características de poblados, de enterramientos y de otras localizaciones (p. 31)
5.1.1. Los asentamientos (p. 31)
5.1.1.1. El tamaño de los poblados (p. 32)
5.1.1.2. Los recintos de delimitación (p. 32) 5.1.2. Los enterramientos (p. 36)
5.1.3. Otras localizaciones (p. 39) 5.2. El conjunto cerámico (p. 40)
7.2.1. Tipos de recipientes y características morfométricas (p. 41) 5.3. Tipos de recipientes, contextos y tipos de estructuras (p. 50)
5.4. La decoración campaniforme: análisis y difusión (pp. 51) 5.4.1. Marítimo Internacional (p. 52)
5.4.2. Puntillado Geométrico (p. 56) 5.4.3. Inciso (p. 58)
5.4.4. Ejemplares de tipo campaniforme mixto (p. 62)
6. COMPLEJIDAD, JERARQUÍA Y DIMENSIONES DEL TERRITORIO (p. 63) 7. USO Y SIGNIFICADO REGIONAL DEL CAMPANIFORME (p. 69)
9. BIBLIOGRAFÍA (p. 87)
10. TABLAS, MAPAS Y LISTA DE ILUSTRACIONES (p. 103)
ANEXO I. CATÁLOGO DESCRIPTIVO DE LOS SITIOS ARQUEOLÓGICOS CON CERÁMICA CAMPANIFORME (p. 141)
