Along the Rivers and Through the Mountains. A revised chrono-cultural framework for the south-western Balkans during the late 3rd and early 2nd millennium BCE

This book is based on my doctoral research that concerned the typological analysis and investigation of pottery distribution patterns from two sites in the south-western Balkan: Sovjan and Sveta Nedela. At the very beginning of this work, these two contexts (Sovjan levels 9-8-7 and Sveta Nedela) were selected as they were believed to broadly date to the Middle Bronze Age. However, after the first year it became clear that the Sovjan levels and Sveta Nedela assemblages presented numerous chronological discrepancies, rendering them difficult to compare directly. In the end, the Sovjan level that compares best with Sveta Nedela turned out to be level 6, which, however, was excluded from the present work as it belonged to a later chronological horizon. This level is currently being studied by Tobias Krapf, and it is very likely that some of the ideas developed here will eventually need to be modified. Nevertheless, Sovjan levels 9-8-7 remain the main focus of this volume given the site's importance and relevance for addressing chronological and stratigraphic problems in south-western Balkans. The conclusions of the present study, while revealing numerous new problems, have also generated challenging new questions that will hopefully form the basis for future studies in the region. Starting from an accurate typological analysis of the pottery, this work seeks to frame Sovjan and the Korce Basin in the context of Balkan-Aegean connectivity. In doing so, traditional chrono-typological connections have been critically reviewed and précised thanks to new data available for Sovjan.