Going forward, looking back: early Neolithic raw material procurement and formation of communication routs between the Balkans and the Carpathian basin

In the early Neolithic, locating good sources of raw material such as flint and clay was essential for daily life. Settlements of Starčevo population formed on river terraces, slight elevations near small watercourses or the edges of marshlands in that period are well documented (Minichreiter 2010). However, settlements on large clay deposits or in their vicinity were also located in modern times thanks to clay extraction processes, such as Starčevo (Aranđelović-Garašanin 1954), Slavonski Brod – Galovo (Minichreiter 2007), Našice – Ciglana (Dimitrijević 1974 ; Marković et al. 2016), several positions at Đakovo (Hršak 2010 ; Đukić 2014a), Podgorač (Marković 1971 ; 2002 ; Minichreiter 1992 ; Marković et al. 2016) etc. This settlement pattern would suggest specific strategy further underlined by the presence of numerous pottery kilns especially at Galovo near Slavonski Brod site. At this site, situated close to Sava river, large amounts of flint and cores were found, again suggesting a centre of lithic production and distribution of raw material (Šošić Klindžić et al. 2018). Recent research regarding the position of deposits of raw material used at this site suggests that it partially came from the area between Doboj, Maglaj and Gračanica in northern Bosnia (Šošić Klindžić et al. 2018). This area is relatively close to Gornja Tuzla salt deposits easily reachable through Spreča river valley and it is connected by Bosna river with the Sava river valley sites to the north as well as Obre site near Sarajevo in the south. Further connection with the Balkans can be seen in the presence of domesticated pigs at Galovo and Zadubravlje sites from the earliest settlement phases, which is in contrast to the northern Balkan region and the rest of the Carpathian basin (Ethier et al. 2017).