The turn from the 7th to the 6th millennium BC in central Anatolia is marked by changes in settlement patterns and by the introduction of new pottery styles. In the Aegean new pottery assemblages also appear, accompanied not only by new technologies but also by new shapes and a wide spectrum of ornaments, ranging from complex painted patterns to the fusion of styles resulting in red paint being combined with impresso decoration. In the three main land zones framing the Aegean Sea to the west, north and east, several provinces with different repertoires can be defined according to surface treatments and firing techniques. The first appearance of pottery styles in a specific region distinguishes a center of innovation, which influenced and inspired neighboring areas, and possibly even more distant regions. But not only pottery styles highlight such regional innovation centers: joining together information on common and exceptional products and items made from e.g. obsidian or bone, the picture of both geographically and diachronically interrelated groups of people can be delineated. The spread of the Neolithic way of life can thus be conceived as a spread of innovations into the different parts of the Aegean. Mobility, networks and cooperation based on face-to-face contact were rather the motor for the complex and irreversible changes that reached their peak around 6000 cal BC in the Aegean than colonization or large-scale migration.