This volume is a collection of papers originally presented at the Origins of the LBK symposium held at the 8th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) in Thessaloniki, Greece, between September 25th and 29th, 2002. The aim of the session was to summarize recent developments in research and fieldwork taking place in the eastern part of the LBK area of distribution, and to introduce this very interesting research to the broader archaeological community. The 15 papers have been organized into three themes: "Theoretical Constraints on the Understanding of the LBK", "The Earliest LBK and What Came Before: The Emergence of Traditions" and "Perspectives on the Early LBK: Life and Times".