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The article contains an assessment of the current state of recognition of the phenomenon present in the Neolithic of Polish lands, and referred to as the Eastern European sub-Neolithic. The picture it represents is does not provide grounds for optimism. The causes of the bad situation are outlined. The paper presents recent achievements and basic gaps in the evidence, among which the most important is the lack of research at potentially homogeneous sites. This make impossible to undertake the discussion of the problem of the local genesis of the phenomenon, the chronology and dynamics of its transformations or broader considerations on the character and the scope of interactions between pottery-producing hunter-gatherers and early agricultural communities. Interwoven into the narratives have become the views of Jan Kowalczyk (1969), in which the sub-Neolithic had an important role in the processes ongoing in the Neolithic period. The purpose of references to texts from half a century ago is not the desire to return to the general concepts of this researcher, but rather to consider the accurate and still valid specific observations of J. Kowalczyk and about the conviction expressed by him that a better understanding of the sub-Neolithic is important for discovering and comprehension of the processes occurring in the Neolithic of Polish territories (understood as a period).

The paper contains critical comments on the article by Agnieszka Czekaj-Zastawny, Jacek Kabaciński and Thomas Terberger entitled “The origins of the Funnel Beaker culture in the context of cultural changes in Northern Europe in the fifth millennium BC ”, which appeared in Przegląd Archeologiczny (Archaeological Review), volume 61. The paper stresses the incompatibility between the content and the declaration in the title, as well as ignoring the current archaeologicalknowledge. At the level of source studies and interpretation, the work contains errors and inaccuracies of theses as regards the results of research conducted at the site in Dąbki in Middle Pomerania. Hypotheses about the continuity of the settlement at this site, the evolution of Mesolithic pottery towards funnel beakers and the postulated chronology of events were brought up for special discussion. With reference to that, logical incorrectness of the assumed processes of the origins and spread of the Funnel Beaker culture has been suggested