Between 2006-2008, following an intensive archaeological prospection, excavations at the multiphase site Fajsz-Garadomb (southern Hungary), were carried out in the course of a research project supervised by Eszter Bánffy (then Institute of Archaeology, Has, Budapest) and Jörg Petrasch (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Ur- und Frühgeschichte und Archäologie des Mittelalters) funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). This was the starting point for the first archaeobotanical investigations of botanical macroremains in the Danubian alluvial “Sárköz” area, with several major Neolithic sites like Fajsz-Garadomb and Alsónyék-Bátaszék. The archaeobotanical results from 19 further Hungarian archaeological excavation sites have been collected in the context of a research project concerning Neolithic agriculture and land use in Hungary.

The synthesis presented will be based on the archaeobotanical data from 58 Neolithic sites of the Late Starčevo, Late Körös, Transdanubian and Alföld Linearbandkeramik and Szakálhát distribution areas (D, AU, HUN). The different crop spectra will be discussed in the context of their Balkan roots, their possible role in human diet as well as their reflection of the different archaeological cultures.