Well-preserved plant remains found in clay bodies of Early Neolithic pottery of Southeastern Europe have been largely understudied. The characteristics and provenance of this ‘organic temper’ remain mostly unknown, making interpretations obscure. Based on a range of research methods, this article explores the macro and micro plant remains within the pottery clays, considering such aspects as the use of domesticated versus wild plants and actual functional temper versus organic inclusions as background noise. This innovative approach is applied to explore three different Early Neolithic Balkan sites, demonstrating the importance in distinguishing between (a) deliberate addition of selected temper as a technological prerequisite; (b) sporadic occurrence of plant parts in (domestic) areas where pottery was made, (c) natural characteristics of the local clays containing organics and used as raw materials, and (d) plant use pointing towards more specific pottery-making techniques. Possible misinterpretations and pitfalls are discussed in using the applied integrated methodology, thus revealing crucial details on the variability of the technological approaches applied during the Early Neolithic of Southeastern Europe.

在东南欧新石器时代早期陶器的粘土体中发现的保存完好的植物遗骸在很大程度上没有得到充分研究。这种“有机脾气”的特征和出处大多不为人知，使解释变得晦涩难懂。本文基于一系列研究方法，探讨了陶土中的宏观和微观植物残留，考虑了驯化与野生植物的使用以及实际功能性与有机内含物作为背景噪声等方面。这种创新方法被应用于探索三个不同的新石器时代早期巴尔干遗址，证明了区分（a）故意添加选定的脾气作为技术先决条件的重要性；(b) 在制造陶器的（国内）地区零星出现植物部分，(c) 当地粘土的天然特性，含有有机物并用作原材料，以及 (d) 植物用途指向更具体的制陶技术。在使用所应用的综合方法时讨论了可能的误解和陷阱，从而揭示了东南欧新石器时代早期应用的技术方法的可变性的关键细节。