ABSTRACT
The emergence and early development of pottery holds an important place in the debate about the European Neolithic. To date, an influential archaeological school in the former USSR identifies the Neolithic with the large-scale manufacture of ceramic ware and polished stone and bone tools by predominantly hunter-gatherer communities. Both archaeological evidence and mathematical modelling support the suggestion that the spread of the Neolithic in Europe involved at least two waves propagating from distinct centres. It argues that an earlier wave spread from the east via the steppe corridor'. This wave resulted in the adoption of pottery making, the establishment of permanent and semipermanent dwelling sites, advanced forms of hunting and food gathering and, in some cases, elements of stock-breeding. This was supplemented by a later wave which originated in the near east, bringing to Europe advanced techniques of cereal husbandry, architecture, agriculture-based symbolism and, possibly, Indo-European speech.
