Balkan prehistory conjures up images of the Exotic and the Other in
comparison with the better-known prehistory of Western Europe - often
written in unfamiliar languages about lesser known places. Combined with
the information revolution in archaeology, these factors have meant that
no new synthesis of Old Europe has been written in the last 20 years.
This has left a backlog of rich settlement data and object-rich
landscapes which have rarely been presented in theoretically challenging
ways. This material is an important, and greatly neglected, part of
European prehistory.
This research monograph is a synthesis of the archaeology of South East,
Central and Eastern Europe over four millennia (7000 - 3000 BC). The
varied cultural development of the region is treated as a mosaic of
local prehistories, in which people responded to major change and, in at
least two cases - the development of farming and metallurgy - profound
structural change through modifications of all the dimensions of their
identities. Informed by a gendered perspective, this book seeks to
structure the Mesolithic, Neolithic and the Chalcolithic periods in
terms of a nested set of identities - the person, the household, the
settlement and the regional network.
This book is intended for all those prehistorians who seek to expand
their general knowledge of Old Europe, as well as undergraduates,
postgraduates and specialists in Balkan prehistory. The book will also
attract social anthropologists and sociologists with an interest in the
creation and maintenance of nested social identities in the past.
