Background to Beakers

Prof. dr. Harry Fokkens studied Human Geography at the Free University in Amsterdam and Prehistoric Archaeology at the State University Groningen. For more than twenty years he excavated Bronze and Iron Age settlements and cemeteries around the town of Oss (Netherlands). This research formed the basis for many articles about Bronze Age cultural landscapes, including settlements and barrow cemeteries.Franco Nicolis studied Ancient History and Prehistory at the University of Bologna. His PhD thesis at the University of Pisa was focused on the Bell Beaker phenomenon in Nortern Italy. Since 1991 he is working as archaeologist at the Archaeological Heritage Office of the Autonomous Province of Trento, Italy.

Background to Beakers is the result of an inspiring session at the yearly conference of European Association of Archaeologists in The Hague in September 2010. The conference brought together thirteen speakers on the subject Beakers in Transition. Together we explored the background to the Bell Beaker complex in different regions, departing from the idea that migration is not the comprehensive solution to the adoption of Bell Beakers. Therefore we asked the participants to discuss how in their region Beakers were incorporated in existing cultural complexes, as one of the manners to understand the processes of innovation that were undoubtedly part of the Beaker complex. In this book eight of the speakers have contributed papers, resulting in a diverse and interesting approach to Beakers. We can see how scholars in Scandinavia, the Low Countries, Poland, Switzerland, France, Morocco even, struggle with the same problems, but have different solutions everywhere. The book reads as an inspiration for new approaches and for a discussion of cultural backgrounds instead of searching for the oldest Beaker. The authors are all established scholars in the field of Bronze Age research. Of the editors Harry Fokkens is a professor of European Prehistory at Leiden University and well known for his research in the Low Countries and in a broader European context. He published several books on settlement research, amongst others Bronze Age settlements in the Low Countries (Oxbow 2008, with S. Arnoldussen). Franco Nicolis is the Director of the Heritage Office of the autonomous Province of Trento and published many articles and books on Bell Beakers. He was the organiser of the conference Bell Beakers today (Riva del Garda 1998) and published a two volume book on the conference (2001).