Northern Aegean

Abstract The northern Aegean communities were dynamic partakers of the cultural processes that transformed southeast Europe and the Aegean during the Neolithic period until the end of the fifth millennium. During the third millennium, however, the dramatic developments in settlement organization, elaboration of material culture, technological advancement, and exchange caused the focus of changes to shift to the south and east. This article concentrates on the regions of the north, which present the strongest evidence for contacts with the cultural developments in the Aegean during the Bronze Age. These include the islands of Thasos and Samothrace, coastal Thrace, the coastal plains of central and southern Macedonia, and the peninsula of Chalkidiki. The discussion also focuses on parts of the inland basins of eastern, central, and western Macedonia and leaves out northern Macedonia, which remained outside the reach of significant Aegean influences.