Echoes and Traditions of the Bell Beaker Phenomenon

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In book: Bartelheim M., Peška J., Turek J. (eds.) From Copper to Bronze. Cultural and Social Transformations at the Turn of the 3rd/2nd Millennia B.C. in Central Europe. Gewidmet PhDr. Václav Moucha, CSc. anlässlich seines 80. Geburtstages. Beitrage zur Ur-und Frühgeschichte Mitteleuropas 74, Beier&Beran. Archäologische Fachliteratur, Langenweissbach, 2013. — pp. 9-23.The Bell Beaker Phenomenon had a far reaching impact on the European farming communities during the Third Millennium BC. Besides the main area of direct impact there are some periphery zones that adopted some elements of the Beaker Package, but usually without the ideological framework. These signs of acculturation I call the echoes. In this chapter we are going to explore such echoes, as well as, the traditions of the Bell Beaker Phenomenon. The traditions differ from region to region, as in some regions the only some elements of material culture retained but the overall cultural expression continued in the pre-Beaker development and in some other regions beaker tradition and its decorative style remained for some time. Both, the echoes and traditions might have existed in some regions without the main Beaker ideological background.