As a corresponding feature in their research history, both LBK and the Vinča cultures were predominantly defined by settlement archaeology. While in the Vinča territory the focus was (in compliance with southeastern european research traditions) on the tells for a long time, the extensive, hamlet-like settlements of the LBK required different approaches to investigation, analysis and interpretation. Extensive excavations, statistical analysis of the find material and modelling of settlement structures and development became state of the art for LBK research. To this day, the respective research traditions decisively determine our view of both cultures, leading to a tendency to overvalue the differences between them. Therefore, it’s time to deliberately watch out for similarities and parallels in forms of architecture and settlement structures and their development over time, rather than highlighting the obvious differences once more.

Also the end of the two cultural complexes is an interesting aspect: in Central Europe, the original impulses from the Carpathian Basin continue throughout the post-LBK cultural groups. This becomes especially apparent by the continuing tradition of the longhouses, which only in the mid-5^th millennium calBC are replaced by fundamentally new, late neolithic forms of architecture and settlement. At the same time, also in the Carpathian Basin a profound transformation of the established neolithic settlement system is taking place, bringing about the end of the Tell settlements.