Unexpected Histories? South-east and Central Europe

Abstract

My brief is to review other chapters on south-east and central Europe. I concentrate on four connected themes: beginnings; the character of settlement and agricultural economy; the nature of society; and the kinds of Neolithic history that we can now attempt to write. New genetic evidence may support again the arguments for colonization, but beginnings may have involved people of varied backgrounds. Living well together continues as a theme in established Neolithic settlement, but plenty of evidence for internal difference is emerging. Models suggesting steady intensification of the agricultural economy are probably flawed, and production may have remained based on the ‘domestic mode of production’. Communities can be seen as both unified and differentiated; tensions may have existed between competing values. The ending of tell settlements in south-east Europe could be related to such factors. Future research needs to engage with the integration of different scales of analysis, not least of chronology.