Project Gallery Crop choice, gathered plants and household activities at the beginnings of farming in the Pelagonia Valley of North Macedonia Ferran Antolín 1, * , Amalia Sabanov 2 , Goce Naumov 3 & Raül Soteras 1 1 Integrative Prehistory and Archaeological Science, University of Basel, Switzerland 2 Laboratory for Bioarchaeology, University of Belgrade, Serbia 3 Museum of North Macedonia, North Macedonia * Author for correspondence: ✉ ferran.antolin@unibas.ch A combined archaeobotanical and micro-refuse analysis is being implemented at two Early Neolithic tells currently under excavation in the Pelagonia Valley: Vrbjanska C ̌ uka and Veluška Tumba. The first results suggest similarities with Greek sites that show a relatively broad crop spectrum. Keywords: Europe, Neolithic, tell, archaeobotany, micro-refuse analysis North Macedonia and the Neolithisation of South-eastern Europe The current state of research suggests that the Neolithisation of South-eastern Europe started in Thessaly, after the arrival of early farmers from western Anatolia via maritime networks c. 6500 BC, and spread northwards, most likely along the Vardar River and the Pelagonia Valley (Naumov 2015; Krauss et al. 2018). These early farmers often settled in villages that developed into tell sites. Archaeobotanical investigations have provided highly valuable information on the set of crops grown in different areas (e.g. Ivanova et al. 2018; Gaastra et al. 2019). The crop assemblages found in sites located in Thessaly and Thrace kept many similarities with those known from Anatolia. Conversely, a more reduced crop assemblage spread into the Balkans (e.g. Colledge & Conolly 2007; Marinova et al. 2016; Marinova 2017), with a more limited range of pulses, and also lacking some of the cereals such as naked barley (Hordeum vulgare var. nudum). Nevertheless, with the exception of Bulgaria (e.g. Kreuz & Marinova 2017), the state of research for these early phases is still precarious because of the pau- city of evidence (Valamoti & Kotsakis 2007). Despite new research in the Korça Basin, Albania (Allen & Gjipali 2014), the Struma Valley, Bulgaria (Marinova et al. 2016; Marinova 2017), and the Pelagonia Valley (Beneš et al. 2018), we have limited knowl- edge of the nature of farming, domestic activities, refuse management and the overall role of cultivated and gathered plants in the Neolithic diet. Our project aims to Received: 30 October 2019; Revised: 13 February 2020; Accepted: 18 February 2020 © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2020 Antiquity 2020 Vol. 94 (376): e21, 1–8 https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2020.119 1