Complexity of the processes of Neolithization: Tradition and modernity of the Aegean world at the dawn of the Holocene period (11–9 kyr)

This paper explores the complexity and the plurality of the Neolithization process in the Aegean area (including the Balkans). In view of recent multidisciplinary research, the Neolithization of that area can no longer be viewed as a simple colonization originating from the Near East and Anatolia. It has become increasingly apparent that the Childean Ex oriente lux concept is based on insufficient evidence. The autochthonous model of a localized Aegean or rather Balkan-focused process, and implying that the Neolithic has its roots in a diversified Mesolithic substratum, is increasingly gaining ground. The transition to the Neolithic in Southeast Europe is first and foremost a shift from the primeval Paleolithic and Mesolithic traditions (scavenging and hunting) to modernity (stock rearing and farming).The rise of the Aegean Sea level at the beginning of the Holocene considerably complicated any survey of Mesolithic and earliest Neolithic sites. Despite the views held by the diffusionists, the Aegean area was densely populated by the end of the Paleolithic and during the Epipaleolithic/Mesolithic period (10 000–9000 BP). This is the result of the richness of the resources for hunter gathering and incipient agriculture. The apparent paucity of Mesolithic and early Neolithic sites (9000–8000 BP) in Greece is largely due to the insufficient exploration. The difficulty of prospecting for small-size microlithic industries necessitates great experience and expertise.Numerous Mesolithic and initial Neolithic dwelling sites (both sedentary settlements and short or seasonal encampments) existed: along the coasts, in the interior and also in the highlands. One may reasonably suggest that various manifestations of environmental changes were at the base of the complex mosaic character of the Neolithization process in the Aegean World, and in the Balkans.