Heads & tails: Bell Beakers and the cultural role of Montejunto Mountain (Portugal) during the second half of the 3rd millennium BC

Abstract

This study aims to address the role that Montejunto Mountain (Portuguese Estremadura) may have had during the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. To this end, the available set of decorated Bell Beakers was studied, with particular attention to their formal and decorative variability. The materials came from the Walled Enclosure of Pragança, on the NW side of Montejunto and Cave III from Furadouro Valley, located to SE, which allowed to depict patterns and trends that might reflect identitarian and cultural differentiations between the communities that surrounded this landscape marker. Furthermore, non-local influences were also detected in the beaker elements, highlighting that these groups would be an integrant part of wider networks. As such, even based on materials from older excavations, it was perceptible that Montejunto must have had a structural role in the cultural, social and possibly symbolic landscape of the 3rd millennium BC groups.