Volume 42, Number 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2014 Corded Ware in the Central and Southern Balkans: A Consequence of Cultural Interaction or an Indication of Ethnic Change? Aleksandar Bulatovi c Archaeological Institute, Belgrade The analysis of corded ware and accompanying artifacts reveals the nature of its appearance across the Central and Southern Balkan Eneolithic during three cultural- chronological horizons. The first horizon corresponds to the Early Eneolithic, namely the Bubanj-Salcuta-Krivodol cultural complex (BSK), while the second corresponds to the Cotofeni culture. The third horizon, showing chronological continuity with the second, and set within the Late Eneolithic/Early Bronze Age, has a site distribution that encompasses the territory of nearly the entire Balkan Peninsula, where corded ware is found together with other steppe elements which are present in large numbers, such are burials under mounds and the appearance of the domestic horse. In contrast to the Neolithic, especially the Late Neolithic, where one can observe cultural continuity in the central Balkans over the course of several centuries, during the Eneolithic there are periodical changes in material and symbolic culture affecting the societies settled in this region. These changes are often regional, and observable in stylistic-typological properties of pottery. They are less prominent during the Early Eneolithic, but become more striking during the Middle and Late Eneolithic. Assuming that gradual cultural changes are mainly the result of autochthonous evolution of a society, every sudden and abrupt change in any segment of material or symbolic culture might point to the existence of certain outside factors that were the triggers of indirect cultural influences – migrations, exchange or other kinds of contact. One such striking and easily observable change is the appearance of a previously unattested style in pottery