Next research travel: Berlin and Moravia

Next week I will travel again. This time to Berlin and to several cities in Moravia in the Czech Republic. This will be my last big research travel I guess. Most of the work in my final year (November 2017 deadline!) will be the final analysis and writing up of everything (don't worry, I've already written several bits and bobs).

For my last research travel I will first visit the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut in Berlin to study in their library. They have most of the literature on Bell Beaker archaeology in Portugal, and it's cheaper and quicker than a flight and hotel to Lisbon. I also hope to be able to see something of the city as well in the weekend, visit the Museuminsel and things like that..
The Portugese case study, focusing on the Estremadura region, will give me clues to changing traditions in pottery assemblages, vessel shapes and ceramic technology throughout the third millennium BC from sites such as Leceia, Vila Nova de Sao Pedro and Zambujal. I spent a week in Portugal last year (next to visiting the JIA conference, see photo) to get the first batch of literature that is unavailable in Kiel and with this I compiled a list of Bell Beaker settlement sites, most of the 14C dates and some pottery assemblage data. Next week I hope to delve deeper into this subject. Of course I use the works of Kunst and Amaro to guide me through the forest of 'copos acanalada' and 'acacia-leaf' pottery.. As Amaro writes, 90% of the pre-BB sites have no stratigraphy, and those who do all have mixed assemblages where only relative frequencies of different types of pottery can be observed. To me this is not so much a problem, but maybe more of an archaeological reality that the typological divisions we see (based primarily on burial practices) are perhaps more our constructs than reality. It will be interesting to see the results from the 'pure' Bell Beaker sites! In Galicia (N Spain) some of these sites have been excavated and published, showing a mixture of Common Ware, both undecorated and decorated types, and Bell Beaker vessels (Prieto Martinez et al 2012). Early indicators for a similar development come from Rotura (Spindler 1981) where nail impressed pottery was found in a layer together with BB pottery..

Me at Zambuhal in 2015 (photo: S. Autenrieth)

After Berlin I'll go to Moravia. Now that's a completely different story, as no representive "settlements" are known there, just a lot of pits and pit clusters! My main focus will be on several of these smaller pit clusters, analysing the pottery on technological characteristics from a chaine opératoire perspective, and maybe even getting some material from the pits for 14C dating. My basic understanding of Moravian Bell Beaker settlements comes from the work of Ondracek et al 2005, where he lists all of the sites until that moment. It also gives me a detailed overview of the interesting sites, based on number of sherds and vessels and the presence of charcoal (hope it's preserved!). Yes, charcoal will be used for dating, as it's in most cases the only datable material. Up to now only two settlements have been dated in Moravia, and it's difficult to use this for understanding the developments of Bell Beaker adoption and understand the local Common Ware tradition (Begeleitkeramik A and B types).. We'll see what comes out of it!

Unfortunately this also means that I can't attend the Metaaltijdendag, the Dutch Metal Ages day. I'm in the organising committee and I've also written a piece for the latest volume, so it's a shame to miss this moment. If people are interested, visit: www.metaaltijden.nl The different volumes can be bought at www.sidestone.com. The paper I wrote is a small piece about a side-project I did, concerning bone pendants from the Late Neolithic in Europe. These pendants occur mainly in Schönfeld, Corded Ware and Bell Beaker times, and are mainly made of bone. I started with the one below from Velsen (close to where I grew up in the Netherlands) and now I've got a list of 61, with four different types and different contexts and materials, ranging from Ukraine to Britain and Sweden to Bulgaria.. What were they used for? Interpretations have ranged from lasso-holders, to bow-string spanners, to decorative pendants, to sun-symbols and belt-hooks. And soon you'll be able to read much more about it :) More work needs to be done (experiments, use-wear analysis, contextual analysis), but that is for another time...

From Clason (1974), copyright: Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed