Catherine Perlès is Professor in the Department of Ethnology at the University of Paris. Her recent publications include Préhistoire du feu (1977), Les industries lithiques taillées de Franchthi (3 vols., 1987, 1990, in press) and 'Greek Neolithic: a new review' (co-authored with J.-P. Demoule, 1993).

• 1. The land and its resources: the geographic context; 2. The Mesolithic background; 3. The introduction of farming: local processes, diffusion or colonization?; 4. Foreign colonists: where from?; 5. The earliest Neolithic deposits: 'aceramic', 'pre-pottery' or 'ceramic'?; 6. The spread of the Early Neolithic in Greece: chronological and geographical aspects; 7. A case study in Early Neolithic settlement patterns: Eastern Thessaly; 8. Early Neolithic subsistence economy: the domestic and the wild; 9. The Early Neolithic village; 10. Craft specialization: the contrasting cases of chipped stone tools, pottery and ornaments; 11. A variety of daily crafts; 12. Ritual interaction? The miniature world of 'dolls or deities'; 13. Interacting with the dead: from the disposal of the body to funerary rituals; 14. Interactions among the living.

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