ABSTRACT
For many decades the difficulty to locate sites with permanent installations datable to the 7th millennium bc in the area immediately west of the Bosporus has nourished the idea that the part of Europe entered the sedentary way of life later than its neighbours, namely later than the rest of Greece. In Greek eastern Macedonia, like in the rest of southeast Europe, most Neolithic settlements identified so far are tell sites – a situation that reflects prehistoric settlement pattern as well as the orientation of archaeological research. The discovery of Early and Middle Neolithic layers at the base of the tell at Dikili Tash puts an end to the lasting debate about the start of permanent settlements in eastern Macedonia and provides interesting clues concerning the processes of establishment of the newcomers under the new conditions. Nevertheless, the accumulation of anthropogenic deposits remained slow and Dikili Tash was a large flat site on the edge of a small marshy valley.
