ABSTRACT
In addition to the emergence of buildings and villages, two important developments which distinguish the post-6500 BC Balkans from previous millennia were the adoption of ceramic pyrotechnology to make a wide range of containers and other objects and an increase in the number and types of visually expressive items. While the new technology accounts for much of the massive increase in the number and range of objects made after 6500 BC, many were made from materials and with technologies which had deeper continuities with local traditions. In this chapter I consider two major categories of these new things: ceramic vessels and intentionally expressive or symbolic objects made from ceramics, bone, antler and stone. Both categories shared a similar position within the new ways of living which emerged across the Balkans from the middle of the seventh millennium BC; both were the symptoms and mechanisms of new strategies of making explicit and tangible the relationships among individuals and groups and between people and places.
