Archaeologists have always had difficulty reconciling the Northern and Southern cultural spheres of the Beaker phenomenon. What linked them? From where did the Beaker ideology originate?
This paper looks at one of the satellites orbiting the Iberian sphere. It's mostly about the various origins of elephant ivory used to make buttons for their woolen hobbit clothes. In a time in which the origins of the Beaker cultural identity are being widely discussed, the authors make no secret of their preference by interpreting the materials from this site.
The point being made is that the earliest Sardinian Beaker layer looks to the Southwest and its supply chains. The authors add to Schumacher's previous comments on the changing patterns of the ivory trade which they see as evidence of a new hegemon choking out non-affliates in the Western Mediterranean.
In other words, this outpost says more about the place from which they came and its age. It's a similar situation to that recently discussed relationship between Britain and the Netherlands. While the Netherlands has little to say about itself, Britain has a lot to say about the Low Countries and the Middle Rhine.
The situation expressed here is similar to the changing winds in the Sicilian amber trade. For whatever reason, when Beakers show up everything gets renegotiated, maybe with a hail of arrows.
Whoever these Beakers were, they were mature enough and strong enough to jam their foot in these far away doorways. Maybe instead of a cultural phenomenon, we are dealing with a bunch of gangsters.
The proboscidean ivory adornments from the hypogeum of Padru Jossu (Sanluri, Sardinia, Italy) and the mediterranean Bell Beaker
- Autores: José Miguel Morillo León, Claudia Pau, Jean Guilaine
- Localización: Zephyrus: Revista de prehistoria y arqueología, ISSN 0514-7336, Nº 82, 2018, págs. 35-63 [Link]
In the present work, we examine the personal adornment in proboscidean ivory from the Bell Beaker period at the hypogeum of Padru Jossu, Sanluri (Sardinia, Italy) currently preserved in the Museo Civico Archeologico Villa Abbas of Sardara. For the first time, a complete study –morphological, use wear and archaeometric– of this material has been conducted. The typological study established two categories: buttons and pins. Those categories were also subdivided into three groups respectively. Technological and functional analyses were made difficult by the strong degradation of the items and the presence of glue and varnish. The archaeometric study highlighted the diverse provenances of the proboscidean ivories, suggesting a chronological difference in the geographical sources, as well as in the mobility patterns implicit in the movements of the raw material. The ivory from the older Stratum iii is predominantly from the Asian elephant, and in the later Stratum ii the exclusive supplier species is the African Savannah elephant. It is also important to mention that in the ensemble from Stratum iii, one of the items seems related to the Eastern types of ossi a globuli, linking this Asian ivory with an Aegean and Oriental axis of mobility.
"Maybe instead of a cultural phenomenon, we are dealing with a bunch of gangsters."
ReplyDeleteI strongly suspect that this is true of most archaeological cultures. But, victors write history so the gangsters are spun as magnificent kings.
I'll develop my overall view later, but the Beaker commodities economy would be stateless, not really even pre-state. The only way to model an economic network this large would be to look at the economies of failed states or networks that operate outside the state.
DeleteThey seem to have some common characteristics and I think the Beaker Culture exhibits many of those in ways that are demonstrable.
Since you have decided to publish this work I wanted to make some considerations about it
ReplyDelete1- This international trade in exotic materials did NOT begin with the BBC but when the great Iberian calcolithic cultures were developed, that is, Los Millares, Valencina, Vilanova, and Zambujal. The trade with Asian and African ivory, ostrich eggs, Sicilian amber, is documented almost in parallel with the systematic exploitation of copper in southern Iberia.
2- This is important, because it allows us to document the continuation of this international trade throughout the Western Mediterranean and the Atlantic facade. That is, when the maritime style appears, the trade continues without changes in certain local customs (burials). That is to say, the BBC in its beginnings (2,800-2,700) is a kind of fashion or innovation within the established chalcolithic societies.that is transmitted to other cultures with which stable trade was maintained for hundreds of years.
3-And who were those other cultures? Small local groups of Iberian emigrants who developed parallel cultures at least in Morocco, Sicily, Sardinia, Liguria, Provence (Rhone) etc ...adapting and mixing with the original inhabitants of those lands.
4- How do we know this? Leaving aside unused clichés such as customs or pottery traveling and people do not, we have checked some deposits. Look at this
+ Marruecos- Cave of Kehf el Baroud- Located about fifty kilometers east of the city of Casablanca. Two samples has been radiocarbon dated from Kehf el Baroud site. The sample from the gray layer gave a date of 2,800 ± 110 BCE, while the white layer was dated around 3,210 ± 110 BCE. The human remains analyzed in this study were obtained from this layer whose pottery remains are quite similar to Late Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic pottery from Los Millares and Vila Nova de Sao Pedro. Based on the radiocarbon dates and the archaeological material, it is clear that the gray level corresponds to a Bell-Beaker horizon- Mit-Haplogroups
*Keb1- Female. Haplogrupo Mitocondrial- X2b+226
*Keb3- Female. Haplogrupo Mitocondrial- K1a1/b1
*Keb4- Female. Haplogrupo Mitocondrial-K1a1/b1.
*Keb6- Haplogrupo Mitocondrial-K1a4/a1
*Keb7- Haplogrupo Y- Non data. Haplogrupo Mitocondrial-T2b3+151
*Keb8- Female. Haplogrupo Mitocondrial- X2b+226
Obviously those Mit haplogrupos had never been documented in Africa previously
X2b+226- (Iberia, Cerdañola del Vallés-BB culture-I0263-2.550 BC/ Iberia, Portugal, cueva Verdelha-BB culture-I1970-2.500 BC/Torre Velha-1.600 BC)-
X2b+226- Germany, Haunstetten-2.027 AC/2.020 AC. And...... surprise
X2b+226-England, Neolithic-I0519/I5366-3.513BC/3.230BC/CarsingtonPasture,BB culture I5373-2.088 BC
Then, obviously relations between beria and the British islands from the Neolithic, probable continuation of that haplogroup in the isles until the BBC and migration to Morocco and Germany during the BBC
T2b3+151- (Iberia, Cueva del Toro, Antequera, Málaga-5.030 BC/Humanejos, BBC–I6539-2.251 BC)
T2b3+151-(Italia, Via Guidorossi-Parma, BBC-I2477-2.065 BC)
It seems clear truth, the haplogroups of this also coincide exactly, but I do not send it to you so as not to get bored.
ReplyDeleteI hope you're interested in this, I'm going to compare now Iberia and Sardinia (the same happens in Sicily, Liguria, French Mediterranean coast and other regions of Europe, including the British isles)
T2b3-(Iberia-Cueva del Toro, Antequera-Tor7/Tor6-5.030 BC
T2b3- Camino de las Yeseras, BBC-Ciempozuelos-I4247-2.338 BC
T2b3- France, Dolmen de Villard, BBC-2.118 BC)
T2b3- Italy, Via Guidorossi-Parma, BBC-2.065 BC
T2b3- Hungary, Bronze Age-RISE349-1.909 BC
T2b3- Sardinia, Nuragic Culture-MA110-1.085 BC
U5b2/b5- (Iberia, Lorga de Dine, Portugal, Calcolítico-2.465 BC)
U5b2/b5- (Cerdeña, Cagliari- Su Asedazzu-MA88-2.155 BC)
T2c1/d+152-(Iberia-Cueva del Toro, Antequera, Neolíthic-5.030 BC)-
T2c1/d+152 (Hungary, Csepel Island, BBC-I7045-2.350 BC)
T2c1/d+152 (England, Yarnton, BBC-I2443-2.135 BC)-
T2c1/d+152 (Haunstetten, Bronze Age-1.971 BC).
T2c1/d- (Cerdeña, Monte Claro Culture, Chalcolithic, MA92-2.625 BC)
T2c1/d-(Iberia-Los Rompizales, Burgos- Chalcolithic-2.400 BC)
J2a1/a1-
Camino del Molino, Chalcolithic Pre.BB- 2.900 BC
El Mirador, Atapuerca, Chalcolithic-2.623 BC/
Humanejos, Madrid-Campaniforme-I6630-2.600 BC)-
J2a1/a1- Sardinia, Monte Claro culture-MA92 -2.615 BC)
J2a1/a2- Praga, Kobylisy, BBC-I4891-2.171 BC)
The same goes for other haplogroups such as K1b1/a1, K1b1/b1 etc
Female migrations are evidence, the big question is what happened to men ?, they migrated too?. Furthermore, in a period as long as 800 years it is evident that there had to be many small migrations and in many directions. I do not know what you think.
In a way, you're right about qualifying the BBC as a bunch of gangsters, an elite that controlled the international trade in exotic materials. Someone imagines what it had to mean in a prehistoric society to see people with ivory buttons, quartz or copper daggers, halberds, gold jewelry, variscite and amber necklaces, dressed in colors etc ... The rest of the mortals had to be fascinated by this wealth. They also dominated the production of food (irrigation systems, fallow, livestock) and the production of salt and copper. In a sense it seems a mixture of commercial and colonial political system.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think there are BB settlements in Sicily?Because there they could trade with simetita
ReplyDeleteThis chapter presents a study of the amber pieces recovered, currently curated at the Archaeological Museum of Seville, in their broader Chalcolithic Iberian context. 35 samples from the Montelirio tholos as well as fragments appeared in the structure 10042-10049 of PP4-Montelirio were analyzed by Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR). Results obtained for the amber dagger pommel of the same structure previously published (Murillo-Barroso and Garcia Sanjuan, 2013) were also considered as a matter of comparison. All amber samples from Montelirio with little alteration, as well as samples from PP4 Montelirio have the same spectra which, as the amber pommel does, resemble the Sicilian simetita. Samples taken from the altered layer have allowed defining the characteristic spectrum exhibited by these resins after post-depositional alteration.
I think the point they made is that Sicilian amber actually declines rather hard as a source in the Western region.
DeleteCrete knows very well Sardinia and Iberia ( Genetic Check) where we do find real Asian Elephant Ivory ( Knossos) from Siria. Who was able to Ship between distant isles if not Cretans?
ReplyDelete