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TINA
Denizcilik Arkeolojisi Dergisi
Thus, it seems justifiable to suggest that
migrating farmers came to Thrace by seafa-
ring and not by following the land route along
the coast. Our work at Aşağı Pınar indica-
25
24
tes that the dispersal of Neolithic farmers after
reaching Thrace was very rapid. It seems as if
the region was devoid of Mesolithic commu-
nities, thus unlike the situation in the Eastern
Marmara, they kept moving without encoun-
tering Mesolithic groups. In a relatively short
span of time, migrant farmers dispersed to
almost all of eastern Balkans up to the Danu-
be basin, establishing numerous small settle-
ments. In spite of the homogeneity in the ma-
terial assemblages, the Early Neolithic culture
of Eastern Balkans are known under different
names, such as Karanovo-Kremikovci-Gra-
desnitsa-Starçevo-Körös,mostly derived from
stylistic differences in painted decoration.
Here we prefer to call them “Balkan Early
Fig.10: Fikirtepe çanak çömleğindeki tipolojik gelişim. Neolithic cultures”.
Fig.10: Typological development of Fikirtepe pottery. Balkan Early Neolithic cultures are chara-
cterized by rectangular wooden-post structu-
res, with red-coated floorings in earlier layers.
Among the features that are most distinctive
from the Eastern Marmara Neolithic is the
absence of burials, either in or around the
settlements. In spite of hundreds of burials
recovered from Fikirtepe-Yarımburgaz sett-
lements all over the Balkans, from hundreds
of excavated sites, the total number of buri-
als recovered is only about 30. The pottery
of Balkan Early Neolithic is characterised by
white-on-red painted pottery, depicting either
geometric patterns or spiral designs on open
plates, and tulip-shaped goblets with tubular
lugs and raised ring-bases. Interestingly, they
do have rectangular vessels with incised de-
Fig.11: Çizgi bezekli dikdörtgen Fikirtepe kaplarından biri.
Fig.11: An rectangular vessel with incised decoration from coration as well, but while those of Fikirtepe
Fikirtepe. group are rectangular in shape, those of the
Balkans are triangular. Contrary to the Eas-
tern Marmara group, there is an extensive
presence of clay figurines and polished stone
tools in the assemblage. Likewise, the lithic
industry also differs from the Eastern Mar-
mara group with the absence of pressure fla-
king, bullet cores and micro blades; instead
it is characterized by big, backed blades, the
so-called Karanovo blades.
24 It is now understood that in the dispersal of Neolith-
ic communities, the sea route had played a far more
important role than ever envisaged; in this respect.
see especially ÖZDOĞAN 2013b, ÖZDOĞAN 2016;
Fig.12: Fikirtepe kültürüne ait balıkçılık aletleri. pERLÈS 2005.
Fig.12: Fishing tools of Fikirtepe Culture. 25 ERES et al 2015; ÖZDOĞAN 2013a.
24
