The introduction of the Bell Beaker culture in Atlantic France:

The Bell Beaker Phenomenon in Europe

“…In comparison to the Late Neolithic rectangular buildings, continental Atlantic Bell Beaker architecture is dominated by smaller structures, between 5 to 7 m wide and from 10 to 20 m long. Only twenty or so actual buildings are known from over 100 domestic sites, the majority of which are almond or pearshaped (Nicolas et al 2019). Their distribution is biased towards Brittany (Tinévez 2022), although rare examples are recorded in Normandy and Charente.…”

Bell Beaker Burial Customs in North-western France

“…They were the result of a combination of factors including environmental settings (availability of building stones, caves) and the amalgamation of aspects of various cultural traditions, including (among others), the re-use of old burial places, a possibly local invention (stone cists), and a Dutch/ Central European custom (ring-ditches). While exogenous components are obvious in some aspects of the burial record and material culture, as well as a shift in settlement patterns (Nicolas et al 2019), questions still remain about the degree of Bell Beaker acculturation of local Neolithic groups and the inception of foreign trends in the genesis of Bell Beaker complex in Atlantic France. Most of these issues come from a lack of knowledge related to the funeral practice of the Late Neolithic.…”

“…In north-western France, as in other parts of Europe, Beaker pottery can be divided into three stages: stage 1 (2550–2350 bc ), stage 2 (2350–2150 bc ) and stage 3 (2150–1950 bc ), the last corresponding to the beginning of the Early Bronze Age (Fig. 1; Salanova 2011; Favrel 2015; Nicolas et al 2019). The range of pottery includes fine and common ware.…”

“…Carinated or hemispherical bowls are not observed during stage 3, but both trunconic cups and some polypod bowls are known. To date no unquestionable association between both primary late Beaker types exists but they are found with the same coarse ware variants (see Nicolas et al 2019).…”

Faire gras à Molène: dairy products and ruminant fats detected by lipid and isotopic analysis of pottery dating to the Final Neolithic-Early Bronze Age from the island site of Beg ar Loued (Molène, western Brittany, France)

“…From the Final Neolithic and into the Bronze Age, evidence of subsistence strategies is still lacking. In Brittany, northwestern France, this period is marked by climatic fluctuations and landscape transformations (Stéphan et al 2019b), changes in building methods and settlement patterns (reduction in the size of the settlement/population, Blanchet et al 2018), the introduction of metal production, and the spread of new technical and decorative styles of ceramics (Salanova et al 2011;Ripoche 2017Ripoche , 2022Blanchet et al 2019;Nicolas et al 2019;Favrel 2020). Due to the acidic pH of the region's sediments, faunal remains rarely survive, and as a result, subsistence strategies during this period are not well documented.…”