The Oxford Handbook of Balkan Prehistory

Until recently, the Balkans were viewed as mysterious, fractured, impenetrable, near Europe but not part of Europe. This was true also of Balkan archaeology: published in various, difficult languages, atheoretical, backwards. The Oxford Handbook of Balkan Prehistory transcends these various stereotypes, presenting the region's vast, fascinating prehistoric record. The Handbook is the first comprehensive, synthetic volume aimed at describing the region's prehistory in full, from the Stone Age to the Roman conquest. Authors highlight changing trends in human behavior that span space and time, finding evidence for migration, interaction, and trade across incredibly diverse landscapes. The impact of new, scientific methods, like aDNA analysis and programs of absolute dating, are further highlighted. Ultimately, whereas the Balkans are often described as a cul de sac or a bridge connecting the Near East to Europe, or the Steppes to the Mediterranean, in fact, the Peninsula was itself, in many periods, a destination, a generative “hot zone,” from which resources were acquired, people came and went, and new technologies and ideas emerged. The Oxford Handbook of Balkan Prehistory places the Balkans at the center of global prehistory, displacing the region from the margins of archaeological thought. This re-centering reveals new ways of explaining human adaptation and agency, a region in communication with, not peripheral to, the Mediterranean world-system, and processes that helped create the modern, globalized world we recognize today.