Sorin Paliga graduated from the University of Bucharest in 1980. His research is primarily focused on the cultures and languages of Central Europe, but also on southeast Europe and its fascinating evolution from the Neolithic Revolution down to recent times. The Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs awarded him its special prize for promoting Czech culture abroad in 2009.Lily Bonga studied at Cornell, Brandeis, and Temple University. She has presented, published, and excavated at several prehistoric sites throughout Greece and specializes in the Neolithic period. Her current independent research is centred on the Early Neolithic period in Western Macedonia.

• List of Figures - List of Tables - Foreword - Sorin Paliga, Prehistoric symbolism and the Pre-Indo-European heritage - Marco Merlini, A Neolithic writing in southeastern Europe. An assessment of the research - Murat Turgut and Nur Bal, The importance of Burdur and its surroundings in the spread of the Mother Goddess cult - Adamantios Sampson and Minas Tsikritsis, Prehistoric script in the Cyclades in the third millennium BC - Christina Marangou, Neolithic signs: materialising memory, notation and transmission - Senica Țurcanu, Prehistoric anthropomorphic vessels and their symbolic messages - Alexandra Comșa, Symbolism of Neo-Eneolithic skeletal finds in Romania - Franco Enio Todorović and Marcel Burić, Through the eyes of the figurines: contemporary legacy of Marija Gimbutas - Mihai Netea, Neolithic migrations and their impact on population genetics in the Balkan Peninsula - Addenda, A tentative chronology of the main Neolithic cultures - Glossary - Notes on Contributors