International Symposium 

The Carpathian Basin and Its Role in the Neolithisation of the Balkan Peninsula 

Sibiu, 18-20 mai 2007 

Koros and Early Eastern Linear Culture in the Northern part of the Carpathian Basin: a view from the lithic industries perspective

dr. Małgorzata Kaczanowska, prof.dr. Janusz K.Kozłowski

The Koros Culture entered the Northern part of the Carpathian basin from the south, along the middle Tisza, and from the east crossed the Samos basin, reaching the upper Tisza. The earliest sites of the Eastern Linear Complex appeared at the northernmost fringe of the Koros area, entering the - unsettled by FTN - zone of the North-Eastern Hungary, Eastern Slovakia and Transcapathian Ukraina.

Lithic industries at the interface between Koros and Eastern Linear Cultures show some continuation of the macroblade technology typical for the Balkan FTN with White Painted Pottery, and adaptation of this tradition to the raw materials available in the Zemplen-Presov Upland, mostly obsidian and limnoquartzites. The adaptational process north from the “agro-ecological barrier” concerned also subsistence economy, determining the functional spectrum of lithic tools (for ex. occurrence of tools used in foraging whose role became more important in the Northern part of the Carpathian Basin), but also social structure and symbolism, which influenced the organization of lithic production and raw material procurement systems.

These tendencies reached their maturity in the Late Linear (AVK), partially under influence of the Vinca complex, mostly in Bukk Culture.