Beaker settlements in Mediterranean France in their cultural context

The Bell Beaker Phenomenon in Europe

“…Settlements are relatively well documented in southern France and northern Italy, far less so in other areas. A recurring feature in southern France, as just noted for La Fare, is the presence of Bell Beaker finds in sites otherwise characterised by the material culture of local traditions, leading to a distinction between so-called Bell Beaker sites and sites with bell beakers, echoing the situation for the Iberian Peninsula (Lemercier et al 2019). Settlements are found in all sorts of topographical settings, but with some regional preferences (e.g., hilltops in western Provence).…”

“…The latter is hardly informative, especially in light of the aforementioned limits of Bilger's data collection, and also because it is notably difficult to assess site density without any in-depth knowledge of local archaeological practices (e.g., areas that might be overrepresented due to the intensity of development-led fieldwork). Visual comparison with published regional maps suggests a general level of accuracy, though certain areas with known Bell Beaker sites are under-represented (e.g., southeastern France: Lemercier et al 2019) if not absent (e.g., Sardinia: Melis 2019).…”

“…There, the Bell Beaker presence is clearly documented, though in several instances, it is rather diffuse within existing cultural traditions so that local specialists speak of sites with Bell Beakers rather than Bell Beaker sites (Garrido-Pena 2019; see Section 3). The same distinction applies to Mediterranean France, where, alongside contemporary Late Neolithic groups, sites yield assemblages with varying degrees of Bell Beaker material culture (Lemercier et al 2019). The rest of the Western Mediterranean basin is characterised by a comparable mix of areas rich in Bell Beaker finds, and areas devoid of them but occupied by other archaeological groups, such as along the eastern coast of Iberia, the Italian Tyrrhenian coast, or in Sicily.…”

“…Twenty years later, it ought to be possible to assess its accuracy, and, yet at the time of writing, there is still no Bell Beaker atlas in the sense of a comprehensive georeferenced dataset of archaeological sites and finds. There are, however, a few regional maps and site gazetteers (e.g., Nicolis 2001;Fokkens et al 2016;Lemercier et al 2019). At a larger scale, the only attempt at a site-based cartography is that published by Michael Bilger (2019), which forms the empirical basis of Figure 3.…”

“…Settlements are found in all sorts of topographical settings, but with some regional preferences (e.g., hilltops in western Provence). As in other parts of the domain, architectural features and structures remain rare (Lemercier et al 2019). Northern Italy presents a relative concentration of domestic sites.…”