De la dent à l’individu, du groupe humain à son histoire : le phénomène campaniforme dans le nord de l’Espagne

As an entity of the end of the European Neolithic, the Bell Beaker phenomenon, although difficult to define and explain as a whole, has been the subject of diverse and varied interpretations. Such difficulties are due to its broad geographic distribution and complex cultural components. For several years now, research in the Laboratory of Prehistoric Research and Population History at the University of Geneva has focused on research on the Bell Beaker culture area as a whole. Through four complementary axes of research (typology and chronology of common ware pottery, territorial occupation, copper metallurgy and dental anthropology), the objective is to identify the modes of transition governing the transition from the Final Neolithic to the Bell Beaker. Emphasis is placed in this contribution not only on one of the research axes - dental anthropology -, but also on key region for understanding the emergence of the Bell Beaker culture: northern Spain. The objective was to determine, by the analysis of nonmetric dental traits, whether the emergence of the Bell Beaker coincided or not with population renewal. Analyses were based on 11 sites gathered in seven groups belonging to the Final Neolithic, the Chalcolithic and the Bell Beaker and on 17 variables. Paleobiological results are in agreement with the interpretations suggested by archaeological results supporting peopling continuity in northern Spain connected with the emergence of the Bell Beaker culture