The Bell Beaker people occupied an area comparable in size to today's European Union, yet, argues Janus Czebreszuk, there is no consensus among Europe's archaeologists about the phenomenon. Instead, archaeolgists focus on the evidence from their own region or country. This well-presented study combines both regional studies and more general syntheses of Bell beaker culture and pottery, in order to explore the most peculiar area of Bell Beakers where the universal meets the particular'. Four general studies are followed by three papers on Bell Beakers common ware and three regional studies, which examine evidence from Britain, Mediterranean France and central Italy, and Czebreszuk's concluding overview of the present state of research. Eight of the eleven specially commissioned papers are in English, two are in French and one is in German.