The newly released volume of the CRC series “Scales of Transformation in Prehistoric and Historic Societies” presents the results of the research completed by Jos Kleijne on settlement evidence from the Bell Beaker period. Kleijne indicates that local communities adopted new ideas and objects in different ways during the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. While some prehistoric communities adopted the Bell Beaker phenomenon rapidly and as a whole package, other communities adopted it more slowly or reshaped ideas to adapt them to their own cultural sphere. The study demonstrates that these varying strategies and tempi related to existing social networks of information exchange between Bell Beaker communities. These emerging networks were based on long-distance mobility of a limited number of individuals, who spread new technologies and practices.

This research was completed with the support of the Graduate School Human Development in Landscapes (GSC 208).

Kleijne, J.P., 2019. Embracing Bell Beaker. Adopting new ideas and objects across Europe during the later 3rd millennium BC (c. 2600-2000 BC). Scales of Transformation in Prehistoric and Archaic Societies 2. Leiden: Sidestone Press. ISBN:987-90-8890-755-5

To the publisher Sidestone Press