‘Pre-Neolithic’ in Southeast Europe: a Bulgarian perspective

This paper discusses why large areas of the central and northern Balkans lack evidence of Mesolithic settlement and what implications this holds for future research into the Neolithization of the region. A marked shift in site distribution patterns between Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic is interpreted as a response to changing environmental conditions and resource availability. It is suggested that some important questions of the pattern, processes and timing of the transition to farming across the Balkan Peninsula may only be answered through new archaeological surveys of the Lower Danube valley and exploration of submerged landscapes along the Black Sea, Aegean and Adriatic coasts.V članku razpravljamo o vzrokih za pomanjkanje dokazov o mezolitski poselitvi velikega dela srednjega in severnega Balkana ter o posledicah, ki jih lahko imajo te ugotovitve za prihodnje raziskave neolitizacije v regiji. V poselitvenih vzorcih med poznim paleolitikom in mezolitikom smo prepoznali premik, ki ga razlagamo kot odziv na spremembe v okoljskih pogojih in razpoložljivosti naravnih virov. Predlagamo, da je mogoče na nekatera pomembna vprašanja, povezana z vzorci, procesi in ritmom prehoda h kmetovanju na Balkanskem polotoku, odgovoriti le z novimi arheološkimi pregledi Spodnjega Podonavja in z raziskovanjem potopljenih pokrajin ob obalah Črnega, Egejskega ter Jadranskega morja