Bell Beakers and the Mediterranean

Maritime Connections and Networks

Eve Derenne, Maria Ivanova-Bieg, Ana Catarina Sousa, Juan Antonio Cámara Serrano, Enrico Giannitrapani

• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Year: 2026
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9798888572405
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: Social Sciences

Explores late Chalcolithic Mediterranean networks, highlighting Bell Beaker expansion, cultural exchange, and emerging social complexity.

The late 4th and 3rd millennium BCE saw the development of new long-distance maritime networks around the Mediterranean. During this late Chalcolithic phase, the ‘mental mapping’ of the Mediterranean as a maritime space reached a critical stage; the influx of new people and cultural traits, combined with a boom in seaborne exchange, meant that the western and central Mediterranean became integrated into a large maritime cultural area. Circulation routes seem to have expanded remarkably after 2500 cal BCE, enabling large-scale cultural phenomena such as the Bell Beaker complex to spread across the Mediterranean and integrate a variety of local Chalcolithic groups, both on islands and in coastal or mainland areas. These large-scale networks of interaction foreshadowed the emergence of major Mediterranean civilisations in the next millennium.

Noting that this topic had not been the subject of scholarly discussions in recent years, even though recent archaeological discoveries and analytical developments offered new opportunities to investigate these issues, the co-editors of this volume organised a session at the 2024 international conference of the European Association of Archaeologists in Rome. Their aim was to examine the origins and dynamics of Bell Beaker connections across the Mediterranean, be it in terms of material culture, subsistence strategies, technology, human-environment relationships, absolute chronology, genomic ancestry or isotopic provenance.

This resulting volume is a coherent collection of papers covering the entire western and central Mediterranean, including coastal Maghreb, the Balearic Islands, Sardinia and Sicily. The chapters present a wide variety of scales, methodological approaches and sub-topics ranging from site-based to supra-regional studies, typological and technological approaches, network analyses, computational modelling, but also raw material, isotopic and palaeogenomic data, and touch on themes such as mobility patterns, local integration, power display, exchange networks, luxury and exotic goods consumption, metallurgy and the emergence of social complexity. Some focus solely on Bell Beaker contexts, others discuss the relationships between the traditions of the preceding Chalcolithic societies and the Bell Beaker phenomenon, or the ties the latter shared with the Bronze Age groups that followed it.

Together, these contributions demonstrate the dynamic interplay of cultural, social and technological factors that shaped the Mediterranean during the late 4th–early 2nd millennia BCE. By integrating diverse lines of evidence and a wide array of methodological approaches, this volume not only provides a nuanced understanding of Bell Beaker networks and their integration with local Chalcolithic societies but also sheds light on the precursors to the major Mediterranean civilisations of the Bronze Age. The volume aims to stimulate further research and dialogue on these transformative centuries, bridging gaps in the scholarly discourse and setting a foundation for future interdisciplinary investigations.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• List of contributors
• In memoriam In memory of Carlo Lugliè, archaeologist (1963–2023)
• Between alpha and omega. The Bell Beaker phenomenon in the scientific path of Victor S. Gonçalves (1946–2024)
• Introduction Out across the sea: Bell Beaker maritime connections and networks in the Mediterranean
• Section I. Networks of exchange and the Mediterranean as a connected space
• Chapter 1 - Exchange networks during the Chalcolithic of the Iberian Peninsula
• Chapter 2 - Unveiling the ivory trail: exploring trans-regional connectivity and mobility patterns in the Mediterranean Bell Beakers through computational modelling
• Chapter 3 - Archaeological network analysis of decorated Bell Beaker pottery in the western and central Mediterranean
• Section II. Technologies, productions and material expressions of connectivity
• Chapter 4 - The copper’s shine. An approach to Palmela arrowheads based on the collection from the caves of the Carvalhal de Aljubarrota valley (Alcobaça, Leiria)
• Chapter 5 - Production and circulation: the pottery from the site of El Cerro de la Virgen (Orce, Granada, Spain) (2600/2500–2150/1900 cal BCE)
• Chapter 6 - Bell Beaker pottery and the Chalcolithic ceramic tradition in south-eastern Iberia: a comparative, technological and stylistic analysis of the productions from Los Millares (Santa Fe de Mondújar, Almería, Spain)
• Chapter 7 - Wristguards from the islands of Sicily and Sardinia: distribution and circulation
• Section III. Regional dynamics and local integrations
• Chapter 8 - Tracing the Bell Beaker phenomenon in north-eastern Iberia through the study of materials from the open-air site of Cal Conde (Cabrera de Mar, Catalonia)
• Chapter 9 - Bell Beakers in Mediterranean France
• Chapter 10 - Bell Beakers in the Balearic Islands
• Chapter 11 - Sardinia between the Chalcolithic and the Bronze Age: the relationship between the Bell Beaker phenomenon and indigenous cultures