It was recognized a long time ago that the western Carpathian basin played a pivotal role in the transmission of key inventions of food production. Southern Transdanubia in western Hungary may serve as a unique ‘laboratory’ of targeted investigations, because central European and northern Balkanic phenomena overlap here. Recent large-scale excavations on later 6^th millennium calBC sites provide insight into different combinations of material culture, their alterations on a regional scale, and even possible patterns in architecture and settlement layouts.

In order to gain a more complex view, three micro-regions have been selected for further study on different vantage points between Lake Balaton and the Dráva river, within the framework of an ongoing project. They are located on the southern shore of Lake Balaton, on the northern fringes of the Tolnai Sárköz area along the Danube, and in the southern Baranya Hills in the southernmost part of Transdanubia, respectively. The principal aim of our field surveys, complemented with geomagnetic prospections, was to reconstruct entire settlement clusters, and to examine settlement organisations and settlement hierarchy within the clusters, as well as their external connections.

Presently, there are two dominant scenarios in absolute chronological studies that are hard to harmonize with each other. The traditional theory estimates the start of the westward spread of LBK to 5500 calBC at the latest, and is definitely more plausible from the perspective of west-central European research. On the other hand, recent radiocarbon dating programmes estimated the beginning of this process to 5350–5300 calBC, with a potential of harmonizing the Neolithisation of central Europe with the emergence of the Vinča culture, at least in its northernmost region. In addition to defining chronology, the approach one chooses determines how one thinks about social, mental and demographic issues, the appearance of longhouse architecture, as well as about technology transfers, such as the adoption of different pottery styles on a supra-regional level.

In our contribution we discuss the possible impact of Transdanubian discoveries on the interpretation of central European developments. Although the presented research is still in a mapping phase, regional evidence provides information that may help solving the major contradictions inherent in distinct narratives of the Neolithisation of central Europe.