Title on Photograph: EUROPE 7,000 - 2,500 BC. EARLY FARMING SETTLEMENTS IN SOUTEAST EUROPE.
Material: MAP
Comments on Photo: IMAGE FROM: ONIANS, JOHN (2004), ATLAS OF WORLD ART. LAURENCE KING PUBLISHING LTD. MAP 1, PAGE 28.
Comments on Subject: THE EARLIEST FARMING COMMUNITIES OF SOUTHEAST EUROPE HAD MUCH IN COMMON WITH THEIR NEIGHBOURS IN WESTERN ASIA. THEIR SETTLEMENTS OF UP TO 50 OR MORE RECTANGULAR MUD-BRICK HOUSES GREW TO FORM TELLS, AND SOME OF THE HOUSES THEMSELVES WERE DECORATED WITH PAINTED DESIGNS AND MODELLED CLAY MOULDINGS. A CERTAIN UNITY OF BACKGROUND IS PROVIDED BY THE FIRED CLAY FIGURINES WHICH AGAIN CAN BE PARAELLELED IN ANATOLIA, BUT ARE NOT COMMON AT THIS PERIOD IN EUROPE NORTH OF THE DANUBE. IN CONVENTONIAL TERMINOLOGY, THESE FIRST FARMING COMMUNITIES OF SOUTH-EAST EUROPE MARK THE TRANSITION FROM THE FOREGOING MESOLITHIC PERIOD OF HUNTERS ADN GATHERERES, WHO RELIED ON WILD RESOURCES, TO THE NEOLITHIC PERIOD WITH POTTERY AND FARMING. EUROPE WAS BY NO MEANS A UNITY AT THIS PERIOD, AND WAS INDEED MARKED AS MUCH BY DIFFERENCES AS BY SIMILARITIES. THESE DIFFERENCE SHOW THEMSELVES IN THE WAY THAT THE NEW DOMESTICATES SPREAD AND WERE ADOPTED, AND THE CHANGES IN SETTLEMENT AND MATERIAL CULTURE THAT ACCOMPANIED THEM.
