For Whom the Bell Tolls: Social Hierarchy vs Social Integration in the Bell Beaker Culture of Southern France (Third Millennium bc)

Abstract

The development of social hierarchy during the European Late Neolithic and Bronze Age is often taken for granted in the literature. The Bell Beaker culture has been given a primary role in this picture as it would correspond to the large-scale diffusion of prestige goods and associated individualistic values. On the basis of the French Midi sequence, this article seeks to demonstrate that the prestige model rests upon a simplistic and abstract perception of the data. Rather than the climax of social competition, the Bell Beaker culture marks the building of new fluid social networks which allowed better circulation of knowledge and people.

Who's been using my burial mound? Radiocarbon dating and isotopic tracing of human diet and mobility at the collective burial site, Le Tumulus des Sables, southwest France

“…Due to the presence of numerous and varied artefacts attributed to the BBP and the radiocarbon dated human bone belonging to this phase, it has been presumed that the majority of burials at Le Tumulus des Sables belong to people of the BBP. The term Bell Beaker initially referred to a distinctive type of ceramic ware, but has since come to describe an artefact assemblage, a cultural complex, a group of people, and a time period (Benz and van Willigen, 1998;Desideri and Besse, 2010;Price et al, 1998;Vander Linden, 2006).…”

“…The BPP appears at different times in different areas, was established on very different older local substrates, and typically coexisted with and reflected locally specific material culture, technological traditions and practices (Desideri and Besse, 2010;Heyd, 2007;Vander Linden, 2007). The artefact assemblage of the BBP (almost always deriving largely or solely from the funerary sphere) unites this widespread phenomenon, while the funerary and domestic structures differ greatly (Price et al, 1998(Price et al, , 2004Vander Linden, 2006). Funerary practices ranged from individual graves (predominantly in Eastern Europe, Britain and Scandinavia) to re-use of graves, collective tombs and mass inhumations (predominantly in Iberia and Western Europe) (Benz and van Willigen, 1998;Besse and Desideri, 2004;Desideri and Besse, 2010;Price et al, 1998Price et al, , 2004Vander Linden, 2007;Rojo-Guerra and Garrido-Pena, 2005).…”