ABSTRACT
A major aspect in the prehistory of Thrace in the late 7th and during the 6th millennium BC is the Neolithisation of the region as part of the broad topic of the emergence and early development of the first early farming communities in southeast Europe. The first farmers and stock-breeders in Thrace appeared towards 6100–6000 BC. A diagnostic trait of the Early Neolithic material culture in the western parts of Thrace is painted ware with rounded shapes; it developed there for a considerably longer period than in the region's eastern parts. The settlement of the central Balkan area and Thrace in the late 7th and 6th millennium BC underwent several phases, which can now be defined with a certain degree of reliability. The chapter outlines the idea of the main ways and directions of Neolithisation of the central and eastern Balkans should hardly undergo any significant changes.
