Chalcolithic

The Chalcolithic (gr. χαλκός , jalkós 'copper'; gr. λίθος , líthos 'stone'), Copper Age or or Eneolithic (lat. aenĕus 'copper'; gr. λίθος , líthos 'stone'), is a period of prehistory located between the Neolithic ( New Stone Age ) and the Bronze Age.

Copper was one of the first metals that man used, initially using it in its natural state, native copper, since he did not know the mechanisms by which the mineral could be melted. In these early times it was molded thanks to the techniques of hammering or cold beating, so this phase is still not considered Chalcolithic but rather Neolithic. The improvement of ceramic techniques allowed him to experiment with metallurgical processes, thus beginning to understand them. When he already controlled them, he began to make various alloys with other minerals, the most common being the mixture with arsenic, first, and the later with tin, which gave rise to bronze. Gold and silver were also used.

Introduction

Prior to the sixth millennium BC. C. Copper artifacts have been found in southern Turkey and northern Iraq, but possibly they had been cold-worked or slightly heated to achieve some ductility. Pendants made with copper beads have been found in the Shanidar cave (Zagros Mountains, Iraq) at levels corresponding to 9500 BC. C., that is, from the initial Neolithic.But the first clear evidence of smelting (indicated by the presence of copper slag) has been found in Çatalhöyük, in Anatolia, and corresponds to a time around 6000 BC. C. Throughout the VI millennium more metallurgical evidence appears throughout southern Anatolia, Iraq and the Iranian Zagros, from which it has been deduced that southern Anatolia and Kurdistan (areas rich in copper ores) could be the nuclear areas where it was first smelted. Copper was smelted in Pakistan around 4000 BC. C. and, shortly after, also in the north of India, Israel and Jordan.Unsmelted native copper artifacts dating to the 5th millennium BC are found in Egypt and the Balkans. C., but it is during the IV millennium a. C. when the rise of Balkan Chalcolithic metallurgy took place, in a process with autochthonous characteristics that ended up spreading to continental Greece and, later, to a good part of the rest of Europe, thanks to the exchange networks (of objects and ideas ) existing since the Neolithic. Metallurgical processes of autochthonous origin have also been detected in the south of the Iberian Peninsula during the 3rd millennium BC. C., related to the archaeological cultures of Los Millares and Vila Nova .

In America there is evidence of the smelting of copper since the beginning of the first millennium BC. C., in the Bolivian and Peruvian highlands, making alloys with silver and gold from 500 a. C. in present-day Colombia and Peru. It was almost always used to make ritual or prestigious objects, with few utilitarian artifacts found. Only from the Chimú phase did arsenic copper begin to be used (its shape and texture is like hard, shiny excrement) .

Contextualizing the Chalcolithic

Although the Chalcolithic owes its name to and has always been identified with the use of the first metals by man, there are many other associated processes of change that are even more important than metallurgy itself:

• the intensification of production;
• the new models of occupation of the territory;
• craft specialization;
• the increase in exchanges;
• social stratification.

All of them together caused from the V millennium a. C. in the environment of the eastern Mediterranean a phenomenon that has been called the emergence of the first complex societies . Within this set of processes, metallurgy was only a relative technological innovation, since melting copper minerals does not require special techniques, but only a certain improvement of the methods used for the manufacture of ceramics: the fusion of copper is carried out at 1083 ºC, a temperature that had been almost reached by some ceramic communities in the Neolithic .

The increase in productivity in agriculture must have been achieved thanks to the use of the plow; in the Mediterranean, moreover, with irrigation techniques and the domestication of the vine and the olive tree, of all of which signs have been found. Thus, it was possible to expand the surfaces in operation and, thanks to the appearance of the car, transport the surpluses produced for exchange. In livestock there was what has come to be called the revolution of derived products , a consequence of the use of the driving force of cattle, milk (and its derivatives) and wool .

For Renfrew, Chapman and their followers, social complexity was the result of the increase and diversification of production and exchanges. With diffusionist models currently marginalized, the debate has lately focused on the importance of contacts between human groups in cultural transmission, proven by abundant evidence. Thanks to the exchanges, the use of the wheel and the chariot spread throughout Central and Western Europe, while copper metallurgy spread along with the expansion of the bell-shaped vessel. The uniformity and extent of bell-shaped, chordate, and globular phenomena are often interpreted as the result of long-distance trade .

All these changes provoked the passage from the neolithic, autarchic domestic mode of production directed by great men, to a series of integrated and interdependent economies , controlled by stable chiefs, who, exercising coercion, appropriated the surpluses, with which they began to generate the first great inequalities within societies. Likewise, there was a clear demographic growth, which caused the expansion, stabilization and nuclearization of the populations, which, especially in the Mediterranean area, reached levels considered proto-urban , with sumptuary structures, certain urban planning and an incipient hierarchy of settlements. . These companies have been given the qualification ofpre-state .

The transforming nature of metallurgy probably had an impact on Chalcolithic mythologies, generating demiurgic divinities (modifiers of matter), and social stratification must also have been reflected in more hierarchical pantheons, ruled by male and warrior deities, who displaced the mother goddesses. Neolithic .

Virtually every aspect of Chalcolithic life is associated with ritual. Ceremonies were carried out to honor the Gods and the heavenly bodies. It is in this Age that the concept of "sanctuary" emerges—the earthly abode of the Gods. Three Chalcolithic sanctuaries have come to light: west of the Dead Sea, at Ein Gedi, at Teleilat el-Ghassul, Jordan, and at Gilat, in the northern part of the Negev desert.

Early Chalcolithic in the Near East

Copper began to be smelted in southern Anatolia during the 6th millennium BC. C. to make ornaments and/or accessories while the same stone tools (or other materials) of the Neolithic were still used, since the artifacts made of this metal (without any type of alloy) were less effective than those of flint or obsidian . The first evidence comes from Çatalhöyük, but in levels corresponding to the central years of the millennium some cast copper pieces such as punches, needles and ornaments also appear in Hacilar.

In Mesopotamia, the metallurgy of copper (and lead) is detected in the cultures of Samarra (Iraq) and Tell-Halaf (Syria), around the middle of the 6th millennium BC. Irrigated agriculture had begun to be practiced in both and ceramics were made high-quality hand-made, especially the Halafian groups, who built shrines, made small sculptures and used seals. In southern Mesopotamian, the site of Eridu stands out (for the Sumerians the oldest city, with strata belonging to the beginning of the 5th millennium BC) which initially participated in the previous cultures and where a small temple was built. From the same period El Obeid has bequeathed pottery made on a wheel, weapons and metal ornaments, as well as monumental temples that anticipated the later ziggurat .

From 5000 BC C. in Ugarit (Syria) and from 4500 in Palestine and Byblos (Lebanon) small amounts of metal objects began to be manufactured, which in the case of Byblos were not only copper but also gold and silver.

In the Nile valley it developed from 4000 BC. C. the culture of Nagada, corresponding to the predynastic period and already aware of metallurgy, although most of the objects found were made of stone. It has been considered a proto-state, with irrigated agriculture and an extensive necropolis with clear social differences. During this time, artistic conventions and religious signs (of an initial totemic character) appeared that later structured Pharaonic Egypt. Likewise, an important craft developed that made limited use of copper, gold, and silver ores (presumably from the Sinai Peninsula) to create pins, amulets, and other adornments .

Balkans in the fourth millennium BC. C.: first European proto-states

Until the 70s of the 20th century, diffusionist models established that metallurgy arrived in Europe as a result of the influence of Troy, Eutresis or the Cyclades, linked to oriental civilizations, supposedly more developed. But the carbon-14 series showed that Balkan metallurgy was almost a millennium older than that of its supposed inspirers. Thus, in 2008 a copper ax was found in the Plocnik deposit (Serbia), in a context of the 5th millennium BC c.The investigations established that, towards 4000 a. C., in the Balkans, a powerful copper mining-metallurgical industry had emerged in an autochthonous way, associated with an impressive goldsmith, in a social environment that some authors have come to call the first European civilization . Situated between the Danube and Thessaly, the main foci were Vinça, Gumelnitsa, Salcuta , Cucuteni and Tiszapolgar , contemporaries of the Greek Neolithic groups. Vinça's group spread throughout present-day Serbia; that of Gumelnitsa by Bulgaria and Romania; Salcuta, closely linked to the previous one, in western Bulgaria; Cucuteni for Bessarabia, Moldova and the Ukraine; Tiszapolgar by the Carpathian Basin .

The most manufactured copper elements were axes, perforated and dual-use tools (pick-axe, hammer or hoe), as well as ornaments (rings, bracelets and pins). But all this was only for the ostentation of its owners, not for utilitarian use, since the artifacts made of stone were much stronger and more durable. The metals basically served to strengthen the position of the emerging elites, as an expression of their social status, of their power, something that is clearly reflected in the Chalcolithic necropolis of Varna. Up to 3,000 gold objects have been found there, most of them small; about fifty copper elements; thousands of shell beads and bracelets; flint blades; quartz beads; bone idols and Gumelnitsa-type painted ceramics.princely , richer the masculine ones than the feminine ones; a second group of burials containing a few precious and useful copper pieces have been associated with an elite of specialized craftsmen; a third larger group has a single ornament or utilitarian piece, in addition to ceramics; Finally, most of the graves only have a single ceramic vessel or nothing at all. In this necropolis, the pyramidal structure of a complex society can be seen, in which a few individuals held the leadership of the group, monopolized the wealth and manifested it through exclusive symbols of their social class: gold, copper and shells. from the Aegean Sea .

The excavation of numerous newly created settlements suggests that demography experienced a major boom: it has been estimated that in present-day Bulgaria alone there were about 1,000 settlements, of very different sizes, inhabited by about 100,000 people. In addition, the previous planning of many of these settlements, with a rectangular or circular floor plan, fortifications, oriented to the cardinal points and with two main streets that cross in the center, indicates that we are facing a proto-urban social stage. The appearance of unique dwellings (distinguished from the others) and buildings reserved for worship (abundant in offerings, treasures and figurines), as well as ceramic and/or metallurgical workshops, bring us closer to a scenario defined as typical of a civilization. As if this wasn't enough, Clay tablets, ceramics and a seal engraved with ideograms have been found in Vinça and Gumelnitsa, considered the first European attempt at writing. But all this brilliant cultural process was abruptly interrupted around 3000 BC. C. without the exact causes being known: perhaps an environmental crisis or the Kurgan "invasions", or a mixture of both.​

Karanovo-Gumelnitsa

In the territory of present-day Bulgaria and Wallachia, it developed from the middle of the 5th millennium BC. C. the archaeological culture of Karanovo-Gumelnitsa, in which a certain urbanism is appreciated with the design and construction of street networks and defensive structures. The house continued in the Danubian tradition of houses made of poles and clay, with double-sloped roofs and round windows, sometimes housing domestic workshops for tools, costume jewelery and weaving. The flint, ceramic and copper industries appear highly developed, which would denote a strong specialization both in crafts and mining which, in turn, would require a clear social hierarchy.

This is evidenced in necropolises such as the one in Varna (see above), dated around 4500 BC. C. and in whose tombs we find great differences between the grave goods, which show hereditary characters and denote the existence of a princely elite. In general, the burials maintained the traditional rite (in the fetal position), although some corpses appear in a stretched position, as well as cenotaphs (symbolic tombs without bodies, but with trousseau).

Religion is reflected through certain buildings considered temples, which house altars decorated in red on white with solar and spiral motifs. It is supposed to be a solar religion, associated with the cult of the Mother Goddess, whose idols (very schematic) appear in abundance. There are also votive figurines with individual traits, both male and female, and of couples.

In the Karanovo VI phase (around 3600 BC) the Ai Bunar chalcopyrite mines were exploited in Stara Zagora, of which 11 wells of 20 m depth are known. Fire was used to crack rocks and extract ore. This was turned into powder in nearby villages, then transported to the places where it was melted down. The pottery is like that of the last phase of Boian, painted in graphite, later appearing new forms such as undecorated thick-rimmed cups, vessels fine two handles and "askoi".

Vinça

The Rudna Glava mines in Bor are known from the Vinça-Plocnik phase , where they were exploited during the 4th millennium BC. C. about 30 wells using systems similar to those of Ai Bunar. They are considered the oldest European evidence of copper mining. The town planning shows continuity with the previous Neolithic phase, with the exception that the towns are usually fortified. Terracotta anthropomorphic figurines and deposits of metallic artifacts have been found .

Cucuteni-Tripoli

In what is now Western Ukraine, Moldova and part of Romania, this archaeological culture developed, identified through its globular containers and its huge villages surrounded by moats and embankments. In it, burial was practiced in an extended position. The cults to the Mother Goddess and to the animal divinities adopted more defined forms, building temples and altars in the open air, as well as ritual pits in which human bones appear (along with animal remains, vessels, ashes and pieces of adobe), which suggests possible ritual sacrifices of people. The appearance of cord-printed pottery evidences contacts with Sredny Stog.

The large settlements in southern Ukraine used to be in strategic places and protected by trenches and embankments, hosting between 5,000-8,000 people. The buildings followed an urban plan, arranged in successive concentric circles, with radial alleys that started from the center and made the most of the available space. There are documented entire neighborhoods of specialized craftsmen, who had complex ovens and a potter's wheel, which would allow them to mass-produce their pottery. In Romania and Moldavia the settlements were somewhat smaller, but even so, of considerable size, such as Petreny , which could have between 2,000 and 4,000 inhabitants .

Tiszapolgar

The culture of Tiszapolgar, of Thessalian tradition, developed metallurgy and with it social stratification, visible through its trappings, which include "magic" axes, imported flint nodules and copper hammer axes.

Kurgan peoples

The Kurgan groups were associated by Marija Gimbutas with the European expansion of the Indo-European languages. These groups were an amalgamation of different peoples who inhabited the Eurasian steppes north of the Black Sea and who shared some common cultural traits such as burials in barrows ( kurgans ), the use of horses or a livestock economy.

The Yamna culture, also known as the Pit Tomb culture, was characterized by its tombs in the form of a tumulus or "kurgán", appearing around 3500 BC. C. east of the Volga and throughout Turkestan. They installed their towns on heights, often fortifying them. Its economy was mainly agricultural, with herds of sheep above all. They developed copper metallurgy and a certain professional specialization, although the hierarchies are not clearly reflected before 3000 BC. C. They buried their deceased under burial mounds or kurgans (which are sometimes surrounded by stone slabs) in a flexed position on their back, sprinkling the corpses with ocher or plaster and accompanying them with offerings of meat and ceramic vessels. Each tumulus usually contains several burials, which would give them the character of family mausoleums.

Simultaneously, to the west of the Volga, considerable transformations took place that affected the culture of Sredny Stog II: to the great importance that the horse acquired, it would be necessary to add a clear social hierarchy and the appearance of ceramic decoration through the printing of ropes (ceramics chordate, see below). In the Crimea and the Caucasus there are regional facies, and an excellent example of a princely tomb, that of Maykop, perhaps a chieftain who dominated a wide region. In the upper and middle Dnieper basin, the Sofijevka group differs , characterized by cremation graves often in close proximity to each other with an occasional presence of ocher in the graves.

The Aegean between the IV and III millennium BC. C.: the dawn of classical cultures

At the end of the IV millennium a. C. a series of changes began to take place in the area of ​​the Aegean Sea:

• appearance of copper metallurgy shortly before 3000 BC. C.;
• demographic increase;
• increase in exchanges between islands and between them and the continental coasts;
• appearance of megaron-type buildings and walls;
• social stratification.

These processes caused a clear increase in social complexity, being attributed by Arthur Evans to the Minoan pressure, conditioned, in turn, by its relations with Egypt and the Mediterranean Levant. Other authors have explained them as the result of supposed colonization from Anatolia or the Balkans. But the archaeological evidence indicates a clear continuity with the previous Neolithic settlements, although new ones were being created as a result of the increase in population. The fortifications, the singular buildings and the signs of stratification also have precedents in the Neolithic (for example in Sesklo), which leads one to suppose that most of these changes were of an internal nature .

An important role must have been played in these transformations by the network of exchanges that connected the Cyclades with Anatolia, Attica, the Peloponnese, Crete and Rhodes, and through which stone manufactures, salt and some metallic elements, as well as ideas, moved .

The fortified towns were, initially, modest in size, most not reaching one hectare in area: Troy I, Lerna, Dimini, Jalandriani (island of Syros), Panormo (in Naxos), Termí or Poliojni .

Initial Helladic

Dimini, located in Thessaly, near the city of Volos, is interesting for its precocity, since the fortification is documented throughout the fourth millennium BC. C.: structured in six successive and concentric walled enclosures, a megaron-type house was excavated inside, which suggests a precedent of the "palaces" in very early times .

Initial Cycladic

The considerable demographic increase in the Cyclades Islands could not have been due to an agrarian intensification, since their soils are, in general, relatively poor, but, rather, to their wealth in raw materials: silver, copper, obsidian, marble, etc. The Jalandriani site, on the island of Syros, has been considered the archetype of the moment, with a wall and semicircular bastions, rectangular dwellings separated by alleys, collective tombs, but with differentiated grave goods and numerous small female idols, with their arms crossed. , sitting or standing and with very evident sex .

Early Minoan (or ancient)

Since the end of the Neolithic, rectangular compartmentalized houses with warehouses had appeared in Crete, in which some copper objects have been found. The continuity with the previous period in Knossos and Phaistos is unquestionable, although not in the rest of the island. Neolithic incised pottery continued to be used, but also other new typologies decorated with linear and geometric motifs, with the appearance of spout-jugs and the characteristic chalice-type vessels. Although in the early days copper elements were not abundant, most of the tools used being made of stone, towards the end of the period they became general, probably being achieved around 2300 BC. C. make the alloy with tin .

Individual burials have been found under the floors of houses, in caves or shelters, but there are also (especially in the Mesará region) collective burials in circular tombs up to seven meters in diameter, built in stone and with rich grave goods.​

Towards the end of the period, Minoan society appeared clearly stratified and with a territorial hierarchy system in which settlements such as Knossos, Festus and Vasiliki functioned as main centers. They did not have defensive structures or communal buildings, but they did have differentiated houses, which still cannot be considered palaces. The economic base was agriculture, diversified thanks to the cultivation of almond trees, olive trees and vines. Trade and crafts were still poorly developed, although obsidian was imported from Milos, ivory from Egypt, and possibly precious metals from there as well .

Malta: first megalithic temples

The beginning of the Chalcolithic in the Maltese archipelago is synchronous with that of the Aegean and corresponds to the construction of the first temples in the world made of stone until now. While the settlements are practically unknown to us (although some oval-shaped huts have been identified), the funerary and ritual structures reached an unprecedented monumentality for the time. According to Renfrew, the temples must have had, in addition to their religious function, a referential character, serving each of the chiefdoms that built them as a symbol of their power. Ggantija, Hagar Qim, Mnajdra or Tarxien, to mention the main ones, are built following the same typology, although some are more complex than others: a corridor as the main axis that crosses different oval-shaped spaces and together they have a plant similar to a clover. In addition to the temples, the Hal Saflieni hypogeum should be highlighted, excavated under a hill at the top of which was the entrance door to the chambers, antechambers and corridors that, arranged on three levels, occupy some 500 square meters and contained some 7,000 burials.​

Peninsular autochthonous focus: Vila Nova and Los Millares

The Chalcolithic opened in the Iberian Peninsula with two cultures rooted respectively in the Portuguese megalithic tradition and in the Neolithic culture of Almeria . Their fortified towns are characteristic, which reached a considerable size in the cases of Los Millares or Zambujal. In the years of its discovery, there was much talk of fortifications built by settlers from the Aegean Sea, due to its relative proximity to the sea and its supposed similarities with the Aegean civilizations of the Bronze Age. But modern carbon-14 dating has established its precedence to the latter and, furthermore, not a single object of oriental origin has yet been found, although some idols have certain formal similarities.

Between the two groups lie the Andalusian and Extremaduran regions in Spain, and the Portuguese Alentejo and Algarve, highly influenced by the great centers of Millares and Vila Nova, appearing fortified towns and abundant megaliths: corridor dolmens, tholoi, artificial caves, etc. . As in the previous phase, imports of African and Scandinavian materials (amber) were common, not only in Portugal but also in southern Iberia.

New village

In the Portuguese Estremadura and the Setúbal peninsula, it began to develop from 3100 BC. C. approximately, a great cultural complexity whose main reference has been the eponymous site of Vila Nova de São Pedro (VNSP), a small fortified settlement north of the Tagus estuary, where thousands of arrowheads were found. The largest known population, however, was Zambujal , located right in the center of the Estremadura peninsula and which seems to accumulate up to six consecutive levels in its stratigraphic sequence, always maintaining a walled enclosure with few entrances. A total of 21 fortified settlements appear in this region, burials in artificial caves being common., of which a dozen are known. Instead, no tholos have been found .

From 2900 BC. C. Bell-shaped pottery is characteristic of this cultural group, as well as the presence of innumerable idols, both anthropomorphic, such as decorated stone plaques, slate staffs, betylos (truncated cone-shaped stone columns with a votive character), clay lunulae and simple phalanges. Of bull.

The Thousands

At the end of the 19th century, Luis Siret discovered the other great center of cultural complexity on the peninsula: the settlement of Los Millares, located on the Andarax River, which at that time must have had a greater flow than it does today, possibly being navigable. This large Almerian town began to take shape from 3100 BC. C. and lasted until 2200 a. C. approximately, differing from other settlements in its environment due to its large dimensions. The burials of this population were collective and were carried out in their characteristic tholoi (this would be the main difference with Vila Nova), where small idols with ocular motifs, in the form of violins or cruciforms, as well as bell-shaped pottery (somewhat later than the of Villa Nova).

French noon

The French South has a high population density, but with small towns that housed houses with dry stone walls and gabled roofs. Some of the villages in Provence were fortified, and two fortresses from this time have also been found in Hérault.

The finding of arrowheads in some skeletons, together with the successful practice of trepanation to heal head injuries, lead us to think that the conflicts were common. In addition, the interruption of the trade in flint and obsidian has been proven, diversifying the points of stone extraction. The copper used was mined locally.

The burials were of a collective nature, in tholos-type megaliths, in artificial and natural caves, as well as in hypogea and in abandoned mine galleries. The abundant pottery found, divided into five typologies, initially suffered a formal impoverishment compared to the previous period, as well as the loss of all decoration.

Heirs of the Balkan proto-states

The splendor of Vinça, Gumelnitsa, Salcuta , Cucuteni and Tiszapolgar was succeeded by a series of groups whose villages lost their previous proto-urban characteristics, with all traces of ideograms disappearing and whose metallurgical production was reduced to a tenth. This sharp decline was related by Marija Gimbutas to alleged invasions by the peoples of the North Pontic steppes; by Nandor Kalicz, with the entry of anatolic groups. Currently, less disruptive and more nuanced models are preferred to the old diffusionist explanations, although a certain external acculturation is recognised: at this time most of the copper was of Caucasian origin and a significant percentage of ceramic vessels followed oriental models (corded ceramics ) or Aegean (smooth or ribbed pieces) .

Cerdanova

The Cerdanova group developed in the Gumeniltsa area , whose most characteristic sites are Ezero and Ezerevo , which present traditional housing structures and ceramic elements of foreign origin .

Funeral rites would be associated with Eastern peoples, since the presence of ocher in tombs is common. Among the ritual objects have been found images of the Mother Goddess, ritual axes and characteristic clay idols in the shape of an anchor, of Aegean origin, although also typical of other Balkan cultures. The settlement of Ezero appears fortified, housing houses inside that, in essence, follow the local tradition and where arsenic copper objects have been found.

Pecel-Baden

In the Tiszapolgar area a characteristic group developed, called Pecel in Hungary and Baden in Croatia and Serbia, whose different phases have been called Boleraz , Kostolac and Vucedol , successively. The towns were located on heights or on the banks of rivers, being formed by houses made of mud and wood, small in size and partially dug into the ground. The known tombs are tumular and only of male individuals, usually accompanied by sacrificed animals .

The fact of fortifying the towns shows a great continuity of settlement. The cult seems to have been exclusively centered on the Great Mother, with some human statuettes also appearing, possibly offerings. The funeral ritual was very varied, with large necropolises in which individual burials are found in a flexed position next to collective graves, in which some bodies appear in a sitting position, with burned faces and with the first torques of European archeology. There are also various cremations, multiple tombs, symbolic tombs (cenotaphs) and ritual tombs with animals (both isolated and associated with human burials).

Bowling

The people of Boleraz lived in fortified villages with moats and embankments, worshiped the Great Mother and the animal gods, and possessed excellent quality funnel-mouth pottery, burnished with metallic sheens. But its most characteristic feature was its funeral ritual of incineration in small circles of stones known as cromlech, providing a repetitive trousseau consisting of: jug, cup, hard stone axes and shell ornaments.

Vucedol

In Vucedol(near Vukovar), a citadel, or "gradac", was excavated in the center of the town, inside which a megaron-type dwelling was found, with a metallurgical workshop, as well as a catacomb tomb, similar to the 'Nordpontic' . The ceramic, of excellent quality, adopted a new style of polished finish with a black background; the decoration continued to be linear motifs (dotted-grooved, incisions, impressions), also tracing spirals and concentric circles (which could have a solar meaning) and embedding red-white-yellow colored paste. The shaft was used for the production of ritual axes and the copper in the manufacture of various types of axes. Images of the Great Mother are no longer found in the cult, but only small ceramic altars, wheel-like idols, and ritual zoomorphic vessels.

Through the grave goods of this final moment of the Chalcolithic, a strong stratification is perceived, a consequence of the fact that the metallurgical processes were already dominated exclusively by the heads of this society .

Bell-shaped vessel

The bell- shaped vessel was a Chalcolithic cultural manifestation that spread throughout almost all of Western Europe, being used until the I Bronze Age. It has been related to the spread of copper metallurgy to such an extent that it has become its principal fossil. Its name comes from the special characteristics of these ceramic vessels or vessels, shaped like an inverted bell and profusely decorated, which have generally been found in funerary contexts. Currently and thanks to the systematic review of the data provided by radiocarbon in bell- shaped vesselsfrom all over Europe, it has been possible to establish that the oldest would be those found in the Bajo Tajo area, in Portugal, with a chronology that would go from 2900 to 2500 BC. C.

These ceramic vases are of excellent quality, red or reddish-brown in color, profusely decorated with incised (engraved), excised or printed horizontal bands, with geometric, striped, checkered, etc., themes. The earliest vessels have been described as international style , which would include the Maritime and AOO ( all over ornamented / completely ornamented and stringed ) groups, while later styles fall within different regional developments .

Apart from ceramics, what best defines this archaeological horizon are funerary trousseaus, which almost invariably consist of a ceramic vessel, ornaments made of bone, buttons with a characteristic V -shaped perforation , clay pendants in the shape of a crescent , gold spirals, abundant arrows called Palmela, triangular copper daggers and perforated schist plates that are usually considered archer's bracers. Although in the areas of Vila Nova and Los Millares there was no break with the previous megalithic funerary traditions, in the rest of Europe, as the III millennium BC progressed. C., individual burials in cists and simple pits became widespread, in which male and female bodies were deposited differently.

The relative unity of the bell-shaped glass in Europe at the end of the third millennium could be explained as a consequence of the great commercial interaction caused by elites eager for prestige goods, among which the bell-shaped glass stood out. Thus, it could be interpreted as a fashion, a luxury tableware used by the headquartersEuropean in social ceremonies in which it was associated with drinking, also used in political pacts, transmission of knowledge, marriage alliances, etc. It is known that it was used to drink beer or mead, as evidenced by the analysis of the grounds of the Scottish part of Ashgrove. But it was also used in some cases as a reduction vessel to melt copper ores. There are vessels that preserve organic remains associated with food and some were even used as funerary urns .

Rope pottery

Corded pottery identifies a vast European archaeological horizon spanning the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages (that is, between 2900 and 2450/2350 BC). Inseparably associated with the so-called battle-axe culture /war or individual tombs , receives one or another name depending on the different archaeological schools. Both the ceramics decorated with ropes and the battle axes (symbolic, since they were polished in stone, which made them inefficient weapons for that time) were typical masculine funerary offerings, deposited in individual tombs, so that the three elements form a recurring association. It is contemporary with the bell- shaped vessel, overlapping in its westernmost range with it. Although they adopted similar social organization and settlement patterns, Corded Ware groups lacked the refinements of Corded Ware, only made possible through trade and communication by sea and rivers. Corded Ware is associated with the introduction of metal in northern Europe and, according to some researchers, with certain languages ​​of the Indo-European family.

Few villages are known, perhaps because they are too precarious, but there is evidence of the practice of agriculture and grazing, as well as the presence of horses and solid four-wheeled carts. The burials used to be individual burials, although in some cases cremation took place. The grave goods were very uniform and included a glass, an amphora, stone or bone tools and ritual axes for the men, while the women were buried with sumptuary objects instead of weapons. The sexes were also differentiated by laying down the female bodies on their left side and the males on the right. There might or might not be a small burial mound, and in the case of Denmark the burial mounds contained two or even three successive burials; in Poland the earlier tradition of niche-tombs in catacombs was maintained.

Expansion of megalithism

From 3200 BC. C. began to rise the megalithic temple of Hagar Qim in Malta (see above). From 3100 BC C. in the Portuguese and Almerian Chalcolithic foci, important innovations appeared in funerary construction: artificial caves and tholoi, linked to the development of Iberian fortified populations, which formed the first and only known complex societies involved in the megalithic phenomenon: the cultures of Vila Nova and Los Millares (see above) .

From 3000 BC. By 2800 BC, the earlier entrenched fields in Britain were being replaced by complex orthostat circles known as henges . C. the high point of megalithism was reached in Denmark and the construction of the Stonehenge circle began. About 2500 BC. C. the climax of the megalithism linked to the bell-shaped vessel (see above) was reached in the Iberian Peninsula, France, Germany and the British Isles, with the construction of hundreds of small stone circles in the latter.