Study of Neolithization in Macedonia

The research of the beginning of Neolithic in Macedonia is still very modest and mostly based on older excavations and secondary data of analyses made in several European labs. However, though modest, these data give possibility for a certain starting reconstruction of the beginnings of agriculture and establishing the first Neolithic villages. So far, part of them were used as a base for several interpretations, therefore they were only culturally defining the Neolithic sites. Nevertheless, in the past few decades sufficient new calibrated dates have been obtained, as were paleobotanical and archaeozoological results for the wider Balkan area and which include part of the Macedonian sites, which largely contributes to tracing the directions and the modes of neolithization. These new data and results are included in the research of the CPR members and are being further deepened with new researches of the beginnings of the Neolithic in Macedonia. In addition, calibration of dates of several Early Neolithic sites in this regions is comprehended, as are the ceramic technology, the architectural techniques, rituals, visual culture, geography and the first forms of domesticated wildlife. Calibration of dates of the Early Neolithic sites comprises of utilization of old results and new examples for analysis, which are then calibrated with OxCal software in order to obtain the chronological sequence of the establishment and the duration of the first agricultural settlements in Macedonia. Within other researches, the archaeological material of the older and the more recent excavations of the Neolithic sites is being documented and analyzed. The result is a picture of the opus of vessels, figurines, models and tools, the shapes and the mode of building Neolithic objects, as well as the types of animals and plants determined in the settlements of the first agriculturers in the Balkan.