ABSTRACT
A major aspect in the prehistory of Thrace in the late 7th and during the 6th millennium bc is the Neolithisation of the region as part of the broad topic of the emergence and early development of the first early farming communities in southeast Europe. I set forth the hypothesis of the role of the Struma and Mesta river valleys in this process thirty years ago (Nikolov, 1985, 1987, 1989) (Figure 6.1). Research during the next decades made it possible for this hypothesis to be confirmed and further elaborated (Nikolov, 1998, 2002a, 2002b, 2004, 2007a, 2007b; Bacvarov, 2008). There is no doubt now that during the transition from the 7th to the 6th millennium bc the early farming culture penetrated into Thrace from the west to the east, and not vice versa as it was assumed earlier (Özdoğan, 1997). In terms of its basic characteristics it is linked with southern Anatolia. In the wake of this process contacts with northwestern Anatolia gradually developed as well. The research on the relative and absolute chronology of the Early Neolithic sites in the central Balkans and Thrace as well as the quickly progressing excavations in the Marmara region are the methodological basis of this hypothesis.
