The Early Neolithic in Greece: The First Farming Communities in Europe (Cambridge World Archaeology)

Farmers made a sudden and dramatic appearance in Greece around 7000 BC, bringing with them new ceramics and crafts, and establishing settled villages. Their settlements provide the link between the first agricultural Near Eastern communities and the subsequent spread of the new technologies to the Balkans and Western Europe. Drawing on evidence from a wide range of archaeological sources, including often neglected "small finds", the author introduces daring new perspectives on funerary rituals and the distribution of figurines, and constructs a complex and subtle picture of early Neolithic societies. Farmers made a sudden and dramatic appearance in Greece around 7000 BC, bringing with them new ceramics and crafts, and establishing settled villages. They were Europe's first farmers, and their settlements provide the link between the first agricultural communities in the Near East and the subsequent spread of the new technologies to the Balkans and on to Western Europe. In this 2001 book, Catherine Perlès argues that the stimulus for the spread of agriculture to Europe was a colonisation movement involving small groups of maritime peoples. Drawing evidence from a wide range of archaeological sources, including often neglected 'small finds', and introducing daring new perspectives on funerary rituals and the distribution of figurines, she constructs a complex and subtle picture of early Neolithic societies, overturning the traditional view that these societies were simple and self-sufficient "Farmers made a sudden and dramatic appearance in Greece around 7000 BC, bringing with them domesticated plants and animals, new crafts and techniques, and establishing settled villages. They were Europe's first farmers, but Catherine Perles argues that the stimulus for the spread of agriculture to Europe was a maritime colonisation movement involving small groups of people of various origins. With title competition from local hunter-gatherers, they recreated, to an unusual degree, a completely man-made environment, neglecting local resources or raw materials and favouring interaction with other communities Drawing evidence from a wide range of archaeological sources, including often neglected 'small finds', and introducing daring new perspectives on funerary rituals and the distribution of figurines, she constructs a complex and subtle picture of early Neolithic societies, overturning the traditional view that these societies were simple and self-sufficient."--Jacket The natural features of Greece, its climate, topography, water resources and soils, had decisive effects on the Neolithic economy and settlement patterns.

a New Look At Neolithic Society, Including New Perspectives On Funerary Rituals And Figurines.

Describes the farming techniques of the early Neolithic in Greece.