In order to understand how agriculture came to central Europe, it is important to know something of the geography of this region. I prefer to simplify the very complicated patchwork of hills, mountains, plains, and streams into two major landscape zones which have relevance for the study of early European farmers. These are the upland basins drained by the major river systems of central Europe and the flat lowlands of the North European Plain. I am putting aside the mountain chains like the Carpathians, Sudetens, and Harz, and the glacial outwash plains of central Poland and Niedersachsen, for these became of interest to European farming peoples only later. The upland basins of interior central Europe had generally served as traps for wind-blown dust during the last glaciation, which formed the fertile loess soils, while the North European Plain is covered with thinner soils which had been moved around quite a bit by glacial action. In the upland basins, streams formed a dendritic pattern separated by dry watersheds. On the North European Plain, the drainage was the result of glacial action: the bogs and streams that formed in meltwater valleys and kettle lakes, connecting with meandering little rivers and the broad floodplains of major streams like the Oder and Vistula.

Within the upland basins, there was one habitat that was of greatest interest to the early farming populations. This was the valleys of the smaller streams which drained patches of the loess. Loess is fertile but dry, and these stream valleys were oases of moistness from runoff from the adjacent watersheds and from upstream. Early farming populations settled in these habitats along the smaller rivers and creeks. In the lowlands of the North European Plain, there was also one very important habitat. This was among the chains and clusters of lakes left in meltwater valleys and dead-ice features that interrupt patches of ground moraine in several parts of the plain. In some respect, these features are analogues of the upland creeks, in that they are moist habitats in the midst of drier areas of fertile soil.

Europe's broad plains curve around the highlands. Scoured by Ice Age glaciers, the North
European Plain, or Great European Plain, stretches from southeastern England and western France eastward to Poland, Ukraine, and Russia. The plain's fertile soil and wealth of rivers originally drew farmers to the area. The southern edge is especially fertile because deposits of loess, a fine, rich, wind-borne soil, cover it.

Deposits of coal, iron ore, and other minerals found on the North European Plain led to western Europe's industrial development during the 1800s. Today many of Europe's largest cities, such as Paris and Berlin, are located on the plain.

Another fertile plains area, the Great Hungarian Plain, extends from Hungary to Croatia, Serbia, and Romania. Farmers cultivate grains, fruit, and vegetables and raise livestock in the lowlands along the Danube River.

Wherever the region's terrain is rolling and drainage is satisfactory, the land is highly productive. This is especially true of the areas that contain a very fertile siltlike loess soil, better than most German soils. Such areas, called Börden (sing., Börde ), are located along the southern edge of the North German Lowland beginning west of the Rhine near the Ruhr Valley and extending eastward and into the Leipzig Basin. The Magdeburg Börde is the best known of these areas. Other Börden are located near Frankfurt am Main, northern Baden-Württemberg, and in an area to the north of Ulm and Munich. Because the areas with loess soil also have a moderate continental climate with a long growing season, they are considered Germany's breadbasket.