I. THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN IN THE FIRST STAGES OF CIVILIZATION
II. THE BALKANS: EARLY CULTURAL GROUPS
On the basis of archaeological data mentioned, the progressive spread of the Neolithic in the Eastern Mediterranean and Southeastern Europe is sketched as follows:
Although the first known Neolithic culture is traced in the area of the Near and Middle East at the beginning of the ninth millennium, organised Neolithic habitation is only attested from about the middle of the eighth millennium onwards. It is then that the Saharan Neolithic culture, of unknown provenance, takes shape in the Tassili and Akakous mountains as well as the Messak-Fezzan.
By the seventh millennium some evidence for a Neolithic way of life is confirmed in Greece and Cyprus. From now on, evolving of this culture will clearly differentiate it from that of the Near East and form distinct cultural-geographical entities.
From the early sixth millennium onwards the Aceramic Neolithic and then the Early Neolithic of Greece take shape independently, contributing to the further development of the Neolithic of the Balkans and Southeastern Europe, which is divided into two major cultural streams, one in the Central Balkans and the other on the Adriatic coast.
During the fifth millennium cultural developments first in Greece and then in the rest of the Balkans, possibly due to a wave of immigration from Asia Minor, leads to the emergence of the Middle Neolithic. Thus the Linear Pottery Culture is created (second half of the same millennium), which in its turn affects the formation of the Neolithic of Central Europe and of the steppes northwest of the Black Sea.
Around the end of the fifth millennium the Neolithic way of life is introduced in Egypt (possibly through the Sinai Peninsula), where it develops into the Faiyum culture.
In the early fourth millennium influences between the cultural groups of the Danube regions and the Mediterranean are attested.
In the late fourth millennium elements from the steppes to the west of the Black Sea intrude into the Carpathian basin and expand up to Northern Europe, contributing to the creation of many regional cultural complexes of the Early Chalcolithic.
In the first half of the third millennium, in the Balkans as well as the Carpathian basin, there are Middle Chalcolithic cultures bearing influences from both the Pontic steppes and the Bronze Age of the North Aegean.
By about the second half of the third millennium the Balkans and Southeastern Europe pass to the late Chalcolithic period under continuous influences from the Aegean.
