Bell Beaker evidence in the domestic sphere of island contexts: Sardinia and Sicily

The Mediterranean area was the scene of both movement and exchange during Late Prehistory, as illustrated by studies on the source of raw materials. Obsidian, one of the prime movers of these activities since the Early Neolithic, had, by the end of the Neolithic, assumed an increasingly marginal role. Contemporaneously, new routes were being created through the circulation of metals, in a social panorama of gradual transformation. The objective of the present work is to broaden the analyses of cultural and territorial dynamics of Sardinia and Sicily, in a period when human groups had almost completely abandoned Neolithic traditions, starting from the middle and later phases of the Copper Age through to the beginning of the Early Bronze Age. In particular the Bell Beaker phenomenon, its evidence in settlements and its interaction with other cultural facies will be examined. Parallel analyses of both insular realities aim to highlight similarities and differences in the impact it had on the two principal islands of the Mediterranean.