Pre-Balkan Platform Flint in the Early Neolithic Sites of the Carpathian Basin: Its Occurrence and Significance

One of the most challenging questions at the onset of the Neolithic concerns the establishment of long-distance contacts, inferred from the identification of raw materials exploited for the production of stone tools. The precise location of outcrops, the study of supply strategies, and the reconstruction of the raw materials distribution network are of prime importance in attempts at shedding light on this aspect of the Neolithic world. The authors explore and summarize our current knowledge on a flint type variously known as “Banat flint”, “Balkan flint” or “Pre-Balkan Platform flint” (Moesian flint), regarded as one of the markers of Neolithisation in South-East Europe, focusing in particular on the occurrence of this raw material on the Early Neolithic sites of Hungary and Romania.