Mesolithic-Neolithic Interactions in the Danube Gorges

The exceptional character of Mesolithic-Neolithic sequences in the Danube Gorges has been recognized since the discovery of these sites in the 1960s. Yet only with a new research impetus in (re-)examining old collections from the sites such as Lepenski Vir, Padina and Vlasac in the 1990s did it become possible to ask a different set of questions about the way Mesolithic and Neolithic worlds interacted in the Danube Gorges. Were the inhabitants of trapezoidal buildings at Lepenski Vir using Early Neolithic pottery, and what role did the domesticates play in the subsistence of this community? Ultimately, in what way was the world of Lepenski Vir fisher-foragers changed by the arrival of the Neolithic? In order better to answer these questions archaeometric analyses have been employed on the material from the old collections. Most recently, new field research has been initiated in the hinterland areas of the Danube Gorges in order to define an assumed frontier between foragers and farmers, while a revision excavation of the site of Vlasac is underway. This paper reviews some of these new developments and discusses the nature of Mesolithic-Neolithic interactions in this region and the surrounding areas of the Balkans by reference to newly available data