The Starčevo-Körös culture is the name given by archaeologists to a widespread early Neolithic archaeological culture from Eastern Europe and the Balkans. It dates to the between the seventh and fifth millennia BC.
Starčevo is a site located on the north bank of the Danube, opposite Belgrade in Serbia. It represents the earliest settled farming society in the area, although hunting and gathering still provided a significant portion of the inhabitants' diet.
The pottery is usually coarse but finer fluted and painted vessels later emerged. A type of bone spatula, perhaps for scooping flour, is a distinctive artefact. The Körös is a similar culture in Hungary named after the River Körös with a closely related culture which also used footed vessels but fewer painted ones. Both have given their names to the wider culture of the region in that period.
Parallel and closely related cultures also include the Maritza in Bulgaria, Cris in Romania and the pre-Sesklo in Greece.
It was superseded by the Vinča culture in Serbia.
