The north Bačka and Banat regions of Serbia are physically divided by the waters of the Tisza River, but were greatly influenced by its everchanging course throughout (pre)history. In the presentation we will introduce the results of several recent archaeological surveys in the area of Novi Kneževac, Čoka and Kikinda municipalities on the north Banat side of Tisza and Kanjiža and Senta municipalities on the Bačka side of the River. These surveys, conducted over the course of three separate projects between 2012 and 2018 have yielded new information about the middle and late Neolithic in the north of Serbia, but have also brought to light numerous interesting facts.

The earliest evidence of human habitation in the area date to Körös-Starčevo period of the middle Neolithic with multiple sites of various sizes discovered on both sides of the River. Surface collection indicates that these sites are mostly short time, single period settlements, without prominent vertical stratigraphies or tell like formations. While the north Banat area on the left bank of Tisza was continuously occupied and transformed unhindered from middle to late Neolithic traditions with several multi-layered telloid sites attested from the period, having Körös-Starčevo, Sakalhat and early Vinča presence, on the opposite bank, in the north Bačka area, the late Neolithic period remains elusive, recently confirmed by two systematic archaeological surveys of 2017 and 2018 in Kanjiža and Senta municipalities. The survey yielded locations of over 350 new archaeological sites of various periods, without a confirmed presence of late Neolithic settlements in the process. In the presentation, we will analyse and compare multiple aspects of the living environment, the landscape and subsistence strategies to compare two neighbouring regions and attempt to identify factors that may have influenced the absence of the late Neolithic in the area of Serbian north Bačka.