ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to figure out whether the burial customs within the 7th and the first half of the 6th millennium of western Anatolia, Greece and the southern Balkans give hints for the spread of the Neolithic. It examines whether the burial customs of the southeast European Neolithic can be traced back to local Mesolithic forerunners, or whether they bear evidence for new incoming cultural elements, imported together with the new way of life. The mortuary data are analysed in order to search for the routes and directions of dissemination of the Neolithic life. In Greece several Mesolithic sites yielded burial evidence. Franchthi Cave on the Peloponnese, yielded at least twenty-eight individuals from the transition of the Late Palaeolithic/Mesolithic to the Final Mesolithic period. The best evidence for Mesolithic burial practices in southeast Europe derived from sites in the Iron Gates section of the Lower Danube.
