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Since Gordon V. Childe first discussed the diffusion of culture from the Near East into Europe 100 years ago, various models for the advance of the Neolithic way of life have been proposed. Chronology has played an important role in this, but not all regions were included in the narratives due to a lack of data. Recent investigations in the border area between North Macedonia and Greece, namely in Pelagonia, have provided reliable new radiocarbon sequences, in total 42 new radiocarbon dates, that will contribute to the discussion on the Neolithic chronology of the Balkans.

This article contains the results of the lithic analysis of assemblages from the Neolithic sites of Kargadur and Vižula in southern Istria, Croatia. The assemblages have been analysed in terms of reduction strategies and typology, with a special focus on raw material analysis and petrographic analysis. During the Early Neolithic, and especially the Middle Neolithic, raw materials circulated the Istrian peninsula, as evidenced by the presence of obsidian and other non-local (exogenous) chert at several sites. Obsidian is certainly an exotic material in this region, and items found at Kargadur come from the Aeolian islands. With these results we have tried to gain a better understanding of lithic production of the period, the approach of the Neolithic people to raw materials and the scope of the distribution network of high-quality chert.

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Copyright of Documenta Praehistorica is the property of Documenta Praehistorica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study addresses the dynamics of the Neolithic expansion in the Central Balkans by reconstructing its direction and speed of spread. The Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) method is applied to the earliest radiocarbon dates from Starčevo culture sites in Serbia. Local speed estimates are derived from the earliest dates within specified spatial bins. The results confirm the assumed south-to-north direction, revealing rapid progression, particularly in the southernmost region. The possibility of pioneering scouting groups was also discussed. The results confirm the arrhythmicity of the Neolithization processes and higher local spread rates while offering new insights into Starčevo culture mobility.

Copyright of Documenta Praehistorica is the property of Documenta Praehistorica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this investigation we detail the results of a systematic analysis of worked animal bone from Ulucak, one of the earliest Neolithic sites in western Anatolia. The collection exhibits a wide range of types, including points, needles, spatulas, bevelled tools, perforated objects, and other unique objects. A study of the raw material shows a preference for sheep and goat long bones, while large-sized animal rib bones were also utilized. Manufacturing techniques employed included splitting, grooving, and abrasion, while a contextual analysis of the material underscores an intricate connection with other objects made from stone and clay. Items found in buildings relate to textile, leather, and ceramic production, while personal ornaments may have played a part in abandonment rituals. Examination of this assemblage is understood as a common set of regional tool types with some localized variations.

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Current models view southeast England as where Neolithic lifeways were first introduced to Britain from continental Europe c. 4000 cal BC, however, there has been little work detailing this process in coastal East Anglia. In 2019, work at the Freston causewayed enclosure provided the first view of a major gathering space associated with semi-mobile farming communities of the Early Neolithic in the county of Suffolk and located on a major estuary close to the North Sea. Excavation produced a rich assemblage of worked flint and Mildenhall Ware pottery (potentially for feasting), plus evidence for the consumption of cereals and hazelnuts.

Intensive and systematic surveys in the area south of Mount Olympos and west of Mount Ossa revealed not only tell settlements, but also several flat sites from different prehistoric periods. For one of the settlements, namely Elateia 1, a detailed relative chronological assessment was made with the help of statistical evaluations of pottery assemblages. In addition, short-lived bone samples confirmed and more precisely defined the exact chronological position of this 10-hectare site within the Middle Neolithic period. The present study underlines the importance of statistical evaluations of complete pottery assemblages, even those obtained through survey investigations, and their significance for a better understanding of chronological, chorological and post-depositional processes.

The first ceramic complexes appeared in the forest-steppe and forest zones of Eastern Europe at the end of the 7th–5th millennium BC. They existed until the first half of the 5th millennium BC in the Don River basin. All these first ceramic traditions had common features and also local particularities. Regional cultures, distinguished nowadays on the basis of these local particularities, include the Karamyshevskaya and Middle Don cultures, as well pottery of a new type found at sites on the Middle Don River (Cherkasskaya 3 and Cherkasskaya 5 sites).

Around the mid-19th century, several groups of archaeologists active in northern Italy discovered a few sites characterized by the presence of ‘hut-floors’ or ‘pit-dwellings’ (fondi di capanna), which they attributed to a well-defined period of their Stone Age sequence. Research in the central Po Plain of Lombardy was resumed in the 1970s, allowing one to attribute some of the older discoveries to the Early Neolithic Vhò cultural aspect. The scope of the excavations, which started on one of the Vhò di Piadena sites in 1974, was to interpret the function of the previously discovered features, establish their radiocarbon chronology, and compare the finds with those of the Fiorano culture distributed across the eastern regions of the Po Plain. The main goal of this paper is to provide an international audience with novel information about one of the still poorly known Early Neolithic cultural aspects of northern Italy, namely that of the Vhò.

This paper examines the nature of initial neolithisation indications during the terminal Pleistocene and earliest Holocene in the Southern Levant. This interval corresponds to a period of significant and geographically variable environmental changes in the region. Various lines of evidence are provided to demonstrate the long durée (c. 15 000 years) character of interactions during the Early, Middle and Late Epipalaeolithic that were instrumental to the emergence of the fullyfledged agricultural life ways in the later phases of the Early Neolithic (PPNB).

By recovering and interpreting the hidden technological variability in the first pottery at Ilindentsi-Massovets, this paper reveals the innovative adaptations to local conditions that the adoption of pottery production, as a new technology, must have involved. Seventy-one samples were analysed using low-resolution binocular microscopy and high-resolution petrographic and scanning electron microscopy. The variety established within each of the major components in pottery production at the site is interpreted in the context of the local raw materials (availability) and technological approaches (decision making), thus reaching beyond the traditional interpretative models that suggest large-scale uniformity in Early Neolithic pottery production across extensive European regions.

Copyright of Documenta Praehistorica is the property of Documenta Praehistorica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Documenta Praehistorica is the property of Documenta Praehistorica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The explanatory power of Bayesian chronological modelling is often overestimated, leading to an uncritical belief in the reliability of each isolated model without the necessary look at archaeological connections between different models. The methodical pitfalls of this approach, especially in combination with inaccurate use of typochronological methods, are highlighted for Linear Pottery Culture (ger. Linienbandkeramik – LBK) and Middle Neolithic chronological models from Central Europe (Jakucs et al. 2016; Denaire et al. 2017; Bánffy et al. 2018). A more critical approach to Bayesian modelling, considering possible mathematical artefacts and the deficits of the actual calibration curve as well as the inherent imprecision of the used typochronological dates, seems to be required.

Copyright of Documenta Praehistorica is the property of Documenta Praehistorica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Documenta Praehistorica is the property of Documenta Praehistorica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Documenta Praehistorica is the property of Documenta Praehistorica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Documenta Praehistorica is the property of Documenta Praehistorica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Documenta Praehistorica is the property of Documenta Praehistorica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Upper Volga culture (UVC) in the Volga and Oka basin is one of the earliest pottery cultures in Eastern Europe. The Sakhtysh IIa site is attributed to the core area of the UVC, with pottery encompassing all stages of this culture. A detailed analysis of artefact deposition in different lay­ers allows the creation of chronological models of early pottery development in this region. A series of new radiocarbon dates of food crust on pottery sherds which typologically belong to different stages of UVC at Sakhtysh IIa, as well as an overview of the oldest pottery are presented in this article.

14C dating of bone collagen is believed to produce the most reliable absolute dates for the Central European Early Neolithic, as the selection of bones in anatomical context minimises ta­phonomic problems. In contrast, a comparison of three newly published local or regional chronolo­gical models as well as a comparison of several series of dates from bone collagen, charcoal and cereals highlights problems probably caused by diagenetic influences, especially on collagen. There­fore, at least the checking of bone collagen 14C dates against charcoal or cereal dates from the same contexts seems to be indispensable.

This paper discusses the basis of Neolithic periodization used in mainland Finland. It is suggested that the periodization should be revised: boundary between the Middle and Late Neolithic periods should be moved to correspond the appearance of Corded Ware (ca. 2800 calBC), and a term Final Neolithic introduced to cover the final centuries of the Neolithic. This kind of division would reflect changes in the cultural development better than the currently used one. In addition, the chronological frames for the pottery types dated between the late 6th and mid-4th millennium calBC, i.e. the Early Neolithic and the beginning of Middle Neolithic, are presented.

In this study, we reconstruct population dynamics in the Early Neolithic of the Eastern Balkans and the Great Hungarian Plain using frequency of radiocarbon dates as a population proxy. The method of summed calibrated radiocarbon probability distributions is applied to a set of dates recently published in Bulgaria and Hungary. The aim is to test the hypothesis of the Neolithic demo­graphic transition (NDT) in these regions and to compare the patterns between these two and neighbouring regions. The results show that episodes of population growth occurred in both regions, which is in partial agreement with the predictions of the NDT theory. Population growth is detected, but it is followed by a bust, rather than stabilisation as predicted for the second phase of the NDT.

The characteristics of the oldest pottery in Eastern Europe, located in three main regions, the Lower Don and Lower and Middle Volga, and a description of different Early Neolithic types of pottery production are described in this article. We present ideas on how and when the oldest pottery traditions were distributed through Eastern Europe according to radiocarbon dates. Also, models of the Neolithisation of Eastern Europe are suggested based on archaeological evidence and absolute chronology.

Copyright of Documenta Praehistorica is the property of Documenta Praehistorica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Documenta Praehistorica is the property of Documenta Praehistorica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Documenta Praehistorica is the property of Documenta Praehistorica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Documenta Praehistorica is the property of Documenta Praehistorica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Documenta Praehistorica is the property of Documenta Praehistorica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Documenta Praehistorica is the property of Documenta Praehistorica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this article, we seek to discuss the tension between relational personhood, characterised by ‘dividuals’, and the individualisation of persons whose driving force was the creation of new embodied skills learnt to perform the wide range of new tasks which defined the farming way of life. This is, in effect, an exploration of the consequences of a vivid new world itself created by the interactions of a wider variety of individuals with different skills than had ever been seen before, including those required for domesticating animals, potting, building rectangular houses, growing cereals and pulses and polishing stone tools and ornaments.

At Galovo, near Slavonski Brod (Posavina, northern Croatia), a part of an early phase Starčevo culture settlement was found. Inside the settlement a ritual space was separated from the living area by semicircular wooden fences, which shows the so far unknown dimension of ritual burials and organisation of life in the settlement during this period. In a big burial pit, three individuals were buried: a man (complete skeleton), and a woman and a man, both without heads. In the small burial pit a man without a face was buried. Offerings near the buried individuals and objects in the pits show function and tribal status of these individuals at the settlement. Radiocarbon analyses date the burials to around 5700 and 5300 calBC.

In this paper, we discuss the easternmost material expression of the Funnel Beaker Culture – a megalith grave on the west coast of Gotland Island in the Baltic Sea. The people who built and used the megalith brought the Neolithic lifestyle to Gotland. The biography of this monument includes two excavations, of which we participated in the latest in 1984. Our osteological analysis confirms that some thirty individuals of both sexes and various ages were buried there. The structure of the monument is that of a rectangular dolmen. This paper discusses the discovery of this specific site, and explores the existence of this type of monument in a Gotland context. Furthermore, is this really the only megalith on Gotland, or are more of these structures yet to be recognised? Finally, one may ask if the Neolithic way of life really was successful on Gotland.

Most researchers today agree that the Early Neolithic is clearly related to the late Mesolithic and cannot be understood without its Mesolithic predecessors. Immigration is thus hardly an issue in the question of Neolithisation any longer.

The 14C gradient of pottery dispersal suggests that the sites in the southern Balkans are not significantly older than those in the northern and eastern Balkans. A gradual demic diffusion model from south to north and a millennium time span vector thus find no confirmation in the set of AMS 14C dates and associated contexts that mark pottery dispersal within Southeastern Europe. The first ‘demic event’ that was hypothesised to reshape significantly European population structure and generate a uniform process of neolithisation of southestern Europe has no confirmation in frequency of Y-chromosome subhaplogroups J2b and E3b1 distribution within modern population in Southeastern Europe.

The article presents an archaeological description of the Starčevo-Cris close complexes at Miercurea Sibiului-Petris, one of the Earliest Neolithic settlements in Romania. The site belongs to the early wave of First Temperate Neolithic communities who reached Romania. Each complex is presented through plans, statistical ceramic analyses and some representative materials. White painting is present here in the earlier complexes.

The evidence from the Bulgarian Early Neolithic chipped stone industry reveals coherent and diagnostic flint assemblages for the vast Karanovo I and II cultural area, characterized by high quality yellow-honey coloured flint, quite long and regular blades, with (bi)lateral semi-abrupt high retouch and sometimes with rounded or pointed ends, as well as highly (re-)used sickle inserts. These assemblages possess many characteristics of so-called ‘formal tools’ (as distinct from expedient ones), the production of which required a special raw material, advanced preparation, anticipated use, and transportability. The wide geographical distribution and circulation of this formal toolkit implies that lithics could be conceived as a factor in identity and social cohesion, and as an important aspect of the Neolithic mentality for ‘doing things’.

There is a growing body of evidence that the spread of farming in Europe was not a single uniform process, but that it involved a complex set of processes such as demic diffusion, folk migration, frontier mobility, and leapfrog colonisation. Archaeogenetic studies, which examine contemporary geographical variations in the frequencies of various genetic markers have not succeeded in addressing the complex Neolithisation process at the required level of spatial and temporal resolution. Moreover, these studies are based on modern populations, and their interpretive genetic maps are often affected by post-Neolithic dispersals, migrations, and population movements in Eurasia. Craniometric studies may provide a solid link between the archaeological analysis of past events and their complex relationship to changes and fluctuations in corresponding morphological and thus biological variations. This paper focuses on the study of craniometric variations between and within Pre-Pottery Neolithic, Pottery Neolithic, and Early Neolithic specimens from the Near East, Anatolia and Europe. It addresses the meaning of the observed multivariate morphometric variations in the context of the spread of farming in Europe.

We are going to demonstrate that it is possible to invest an Armorican stele of the 5th millennium with an order of meanings in the same way as a language or a kinship system; in other words, a set of operations destined to ensure, between individuals and groups, a certain type of communication. But such demands necessitate modifying established patterns, because none agree on the idea that we have conceived of a peaceful passage to agriculture and animal husbandry on the Atlantic façade of Europe. Each fundamental sign on these standing stones will here be reconsidered, and their ‘syntax’ analysed. However, we have no innocence about the subject: as soon as we display the strange desire to question these engravings, we ‘participate’ in an analogical spell attributed to a distant image, we fall as well into those exegetic attempts which pretend to obey to a cultural project wherein it appears they interpret the symbolism but that, finally, tend to renew it, because any key to symbols is part of their symbolism. And even in an oneiric or fairy world, power does not derive from gratuitousness, but from coherence.

These are few sites about 10 000 BP in the early Neolithic period in North China; among these, the Donghulin site is the only one which included the remains of peoples' use of fire (hearth pits), stone implements, pottery objects, and human tombs. The excavation of the Donghulin site in 2001 provides very important information for research on people and culture in the early Neolithic period in North China. The finding of Donghulin Man has filled the gap in our knowledge of human development since the period of the "Upper Cave Man" (30 000a BP) in North China. It is also important for research on people-land relationships.

The appearance and dispersion of the first farmers in Europe has been the subject of heated debate among anthropologists, archaeologists, and linguists for over a century. There is no consensus regarding two main aspects: (1) the extent to which the transition to farming was an indigenous process, and (2) the historical pattern in terms of the timing and tempo of the dispersion events. Morphological variability and affinities are assessed among Mesolithic and Early Neolithic populations of the Near East, Anatolia and Europe. Statistical results reveal regional and temporal differences in the dispersion process among these populations. Based on these results, a new model is presented for the spread of farming in Europe.