The Early Neolithic communities in Macedonia

Abstract

The Neolithisation and the first agricultural societies in Southeast Europe are under constant discussions. Besides numerous data on the earliest farming settlements in this region, still there are debates on the directions and chronology of the dispersion of such significant economic and social process. Many proposed the diffusion of agriculture was initially introduced from Asia Minor to southern parts of Greece or eastern areas of Bulgaria, but there is not much written on how this process further progressed towards Macedonia. This region is still insufficiently explored to be thoroughly incorporated into the studies of Neolithisation in the Balkans, but however the modest research provided substantial data in order to propose the emergence of first agricultural societies in the Early Neolithic. Therefore this paper will incorporate the current knowledge on the initial Neolithic stages in Macedonia and how it was manifested within material culture, economy, rituals and social features specific for the farming communities in this region. In regard to vivid pottery patterns and abundance of human representations it will be proposed as well that the Neolithisation also involved a variety of symbolic processes.