Identifying Early Neolithic Settlements in the Šumadija Region of Serbia Through Combined Pedestrian Survey and Archaeological Geophysical Prospection

human-environment relationships within local ecological settings. An understanding of this process
in the Balkans peninsula has remained intriguing and challenging in the broader context of European
prehistory. Evidence for Neolithization processes in the Balkans begins around the seventh millennium
BC in the south-east at important tell sites such as Nea Nikomedia and Sesklo where rectangular
house structures and other elements of the “Neolithic package” strongly resemble those of the Levant.
The northern zone of the Balkans peninsula, however, presents a different situation, with small flat
sites with intrusive later occupation making patterns of early Neolithization difficult to discern. This
paper reports recent field research in Central Serbia (Šumadija region, Gruža River valley) where
Early Neolithic occupation related to the Starčevo culture has been found at the newly identified
site of Kneževac through systematic pedestrian survey, artifact spatial analysis, and near surface
archaeological geophysics. The results of this research are discussed in the context of other Early
Neolithic settlement evidence in the region, along with their implications for understanding early
agricultural populations in Central Serbia.