‘Balkan Flint’ – fiction and/or trajectory to Neolithization: Evidence from Bulgaria

The paper focuses on the current state of research and knowledge about ‘Balkan flint’ (hereinafter BF) and trajectories flowing from the BF problem to the bigger and increasingly complex problem of the Neolithization of the eastern Balkans. The emergence and consolidation of the BF problem within the research agenda of specialists working on Balkan prehistory is briefly traced, as well as the confusing and inconsistently repetitive use of the term BF leading to some ‘mythologisation’ of the topic.A particular section of the paper represents the thoughts of the author on the conceptual meaning of BF in the context of the Balkan Neolithization debate, because until now its role has not been fully appreciated and recognized. Several theories and scenarios of the emergence and spread of the Neolithic in present-day Bulgaria are reviewed through the evidence of the particular Early Neolithic flint toolkits consisting in representative (retouched) blades made from BF and attributed to the diagnostic features of the Early Neolithic package/culture.