ABSTRACT
This chapter examines extensive prehistoric periods of pottery use in foraging contexts, leaving the term with little analytical clarity. It builds on a research tradition that Marek Zvelebil has developed in bringing to light research on early agricultural societies in Eastern Europe and on Peter Jordan's work in northern Eurasia that introduces new perspectives on pottery-using hunter-gatherers. Ceramic cooking and storage capabilities were external innovations that were adopted into the pre-existing Near Eastern socioeconomic context, and went on to trigger the subsequent spread of cereal agriculture across Western Europe. So, the further spread of agriculture across Western Europe was triggered by the arrival of pottery technology from further east, and it was not a product of purely local cultural evolution. The Near East has long been viewed as the source of agricultural-based civilizations that laid the groundwork for western civilization.
