1 The controversial demic-diffusion theory presumably responsible for the emergence of farming in the Bal- kans, which rests largely on the chronological primacy of south-central Anatolian Neolithic in the region, is still being debated. In the absence of identifable causes that could have triggered a massive migration from the central plateau westwards in the early/mid-7 th millennium BC, the emer- gence of farming in the Balkans requires a reassessment of the relevant records, including the evaluation of dynamics created by interacting natural and human environments during climate related changes that could have affected traditional subsistence modes and settlement patterns 1 . The frst two quarters of the 7 th millennium BC seems to have been a time of steady demographic and economic growth in the Konya Basin and the Lakes District 2 . Even the 8.2K climatic event whose effects may have lasted up to four centuries did not seem to have impacted the settlement pattern and the resource base of most Neolithic commu- nities in central Anatolia in a signifcant way, if at all 3 . As for the Balkans, the expansion of post-glacial dense forest cover could have affected the wild game in the central and northern regions, and forced the Mesolithic hunter-gather- ers to shift their activity areas to the Black Sea littoral and its hinterland 4 . The effects of 8.2K related climate change seem to have occurred in episodes and regionally varied in their impact. Changes in temperatures, precipitation regime, hydrology and fora apparently were not extreme enough to have triggered a massive migration of farmers 1 See also Gronenborn 2009. 2 Yakar 2011, 133−156, 163−190, 209−232. 3 Asouti 2009, 2f. 4 Mesolithic and the earliest Neolithic sites would have been submerged during the marine transgression triggering a repop- ulation of the interiors at the end of the 7th millennium BC. Gurova / Bonsall 2014a, 107−111. from Anatolia to Europe in the mid-7 th millennium BC 5 . Nevertheless, one cannot rule out voluntary relocation or involuntary dislocation experienced by small groups of farmers for a variety of social, economic, political, envi- ronmental and other reasons. The potential that small-scale migrations from Anatolia could have introduced certain material culture characteristics and agrarian techniques in regions they settled beyond the south-central plateau is not in doubt. The sparsely settled southern Marmara Basin and Thrace could have attracted the attention of some agro-pastoral groups from the south-central plateau. It is important to note that sites such as Demircihöyük, Fındık Kayabaşı, Orman Fidanlığı, Ilıpınar, Menteşe, Fikirtepe, Pendik, Yenikapı, Aktopraklık and a few others indicate that most communities did not cease to pursue foraging, fshing or hunting-gathering alongside farming which ap- peared in the second half of the half of the 7 th millennium BC, with a few exceptions roughly about the same time as in parts of the Balkans 6 . In reassessing the reasons that triggered the Neolith- isation process across the Aegean Basin including western Anatolia and in the Balkans, the nature, chronology and geographical scope of prior contacts and interactions need to be evaluated. Interregional activities of Aegean Epipaleolithic/Mesolithic seafaring island hopping groups also reaching the mainland shores are primarily refect- ed in their traceable exploitation and trade activities (e.g. Melos obsidian), as well as typological and technological similarities in their chipped stone assemblages recovered from mainland and island sites. The stone toolkit of up- per Paleolithic site of Ouriakos in Lemnos is one among many other examples that share such form and produc- 5 Asouti 2009; Düring 2013. 6 Thissen 2010, 279, tab. 6; Yakar 2011, 216−222, tab. 3. THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF NEOLITHIC ANATOLIA’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE EMERGENCE OF FARMING COMMUNITIES IN THE BALKANS – AN OVERVIEW JAK YAKAR Dedicated to Professor Dr. V. Nikolov, one of the principal architects of Bulgarian prehistoric archaeology Abstract The primacy of the incipient stages of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent and the Levant compared to its relatively late appearance in areas with grassland vegetation frst in the south-central plateau, and later in the western and north-cen- tral regions of Anatolia convinced many scholars that agriculture in southeastern Europe must have arrived as a ‘Neolithic package’ from the east. The relatively late start of farming in the eastern Aegean seaboard and west-central plateau has often been explained by immigrants from the Konya Basin that were likely responsible for its western and northwestern dissemination. While such a scenario over a longer time period cannot be totally refuted, one cannot rule out additional possibilities including local initiatives in developing agro-pastoral modes of subsistence, especially by hunter-gatherer groups that interacted with nearby and distant neighbouring farmers especially in the later part of the 7th millennium BC.