Origin of the Bell Beaker phenomenon. The Moroccan connection

Description

In book: Fokkens H., Nicolis F. (eds). Background to Beakers. Inquiries into regional cultural backgrounds of the Bell Beaker complex. — Leiden: Sidestone Press, 2012. — pp. 191-203.Since the mid-3rd Millennium BC the Bell Beaker phenomenon was spanning the vast area from Northwest Africa to the hearth of Carpathian Basin. One of the earliest Beaker styles is the “Maritime tradition” that probably originated from the Early Copper Age “Copos” in the area of the mouth of the River Tajo in Portugal. The pedigree of the specific Bell Beaker stamped decoration may be found in the northwestern Morocco Late Neolithic cemeteries of Skirat and El Kiffen. It is therefore possible that the origin of the Bell Beaker phenomenon was based on the cultural communication between the northwest Africa and Estramadura. The Maritime style of the earliest Bell Beakers arrived from the Iberian Peninsula in the Lower Rhine region where the Beaker tradition, symbolism and perhaps ideology already existed in the form of the late Corded Ware (SGC) beakers. This stylistic impulse was adopted into the continuous development of the Beaker concept.This hypothetical model was not yet proved and tested and it is facing range of problems, such as lack of radiocarbon dates for Moroccan beakers. Or for example the lack of Bell Beaker finds in Algarve, dividing the Estramadura from Western Andalusia (Cadiz region, south of the Guadalquivir River), where we could presume a natural connection to Morocco.