New Views on the Relations of the Aegean and the North Balkans

We have been treated to many variants of the thesis that brings some or all the elements of neolithic culture in Greece from a little-known region north of the Balkans. Recently two versions have appeared that surpass their forerunners in profundity and erudition. After intensive study in the principal Greek Museums and visits to Serbia and Hungary, Dr. Frankfort has come to the conclusion that there was a great influx of people from the Danube basin across the Balkans and into Greece about the end of the First (Thessalian) Neolithic Period. This Danubian invasion would have been in a sense a counterpart of one from farther east that brought the obviously intrusive Dimini culture to eastern Thessaly.The clearest proof of their advent that his Danubians have left consists in certain types of carboniferous pottery. But, of course, carboniferous wares are characteristic of the earliest cultural layers in the whole east Mediterranean region from the Hellespont to Upper Egypt.