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The article offers new data on the Neolithisation process in the Struma valley and the Central Balkans based on recent research at the Early Neolithic settlement Ilindentsi in southwestern Bulgaria. The settlement was inhabited during the second half of the Early Neolithic. The stratigraphic analysis points to at least two main periods, which belong respectively to the Early Neolithic (Ilindentsi I) and the Middle Neolithic (Ilindentsi II). The entire ceramic assemblage shows a very smooth transition from the Early to the Middle Neolithic with two transitional stages of the final Early Neolithic – Ilindentsi FEN I and Ilindentsi FEN II. The results of this multidisciplinary study show the complexity of the processes related to the Neolithisation of this part of southeast Europe and the diversity of factors influencing the foundation and development of Ilindentsi, as well as its place in the network of early Neolithic settlements in the Balkans.

Buildings and Construction Techniques at Early Neolithic Kovačevo (SW-Bulgaria): Although the discovery of burnt clay fragments at the Early Neolithic settlement of Kovačevo demonstrates the existence of houses or parts of houses, which were destroyed by fire, the respective villages were spared large-scale fire disasters. This involves consequences for the preservation of the structural remains, the more so as we are concerned with buildings constructed mainly from unburnt clay. Despite this restriction, it is possible to show evidence, in a field measuring 30 meters by 40 in the main excavation area, of more than forty Early Neolithic buildings frequently overlapping each other. They suggest great architectural variety as concerns the form and dimension of ground plans, construction materials, technical knowledge and functionally determined conceptions.

The paper presents two types of small artefacts: anthropomorphic figurines and miniature beads, all of which were acquired during the excavations of the Early Neolithic settlement at Ilindentsi during 2011–2018. The anthropomorphic clay figurines are arranged in three groups: Group 1 – figurines with enlarged hips and buttocks (steatopygia); Group 2 – prism/parallelepiped shaped figurines and Group 3 – figurines with plastic projections on the head (buns or horns). One partially preserved marble figurine was also found. All of these objects show an interesting spatial distribution while being concentrated in two distant houses. All figurines confirm a general trend in the development of these objects in the central Balkans and northern Greece but also emphasise the supraregional contacts with the Pannonian Plain. Miniature beads are very characterisic of the Early Neolithic settlement at Ilindentsi. Forty-one beads have been found, most of them within the boundaries of house № 2. Thirty-six beads were made of clay and only five beads from other raw materials: shell, rock and mother-of-pearl. The collection of miniature clay beads from Ilindnetsi is unique, with no parallels from other contemporary sites in the Balkans. In terms of importance it places Ilindentsi right after emblematic Anatolian sites such as Çatalhöyük and Çukuriçi. The clay beads from Ilindentsi pose a number of questions about their place and role in the so-called Neolithic package; their function, social dimension and last but not least their expression of people’s specialized skills.

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.

A burnt house measuring 6 x 8 m was discovered in the Early Neolithic layer of the prehistoric settlement of Balgarchevo. It was occupied during the period 5550–5450 cal. ВС. The structure consisted of a dug-in part and a ground level area. Several big storage vessels and the wheat scattered on a fallen clay platform suggest that the upper story was used for grain storage. All installations and movable inventory in the house were uncovered in the dug-in room: two ovens and several grinding stone facilities, 50 ceramic vessels, 15 stone tools, four bone tools, two anthropomorphic figurines, a clay mask, and a ‘movable altar’. The cult objects were found in different parts of the dug-in area, and thus do not define any spaces intended specifically for cult practices. The archaeological material, as well as the interior design show similarities to other contemporary settlements in the Struma River Valley (Kovachevo Id, Ilindentsi, Galabnik III, Vaksevo III, and Mursalevo) and in the Vardar River Valley (Zelenikovo I, Madzari, and Govrlevo).