The life and professional career of Marek Zvelebil (1952–2011) unexpectedly came to an end in Sheffield one year ago. Our journal commented on this sad event immediately in the form of an obituary. We made mention of Marek Zvelebil’s important research advances (Beneš, Kuna 2011) as well as certain key events in his life. The scientific impact of his well-known conceptualisation of the agricultural frontier in the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition was also highlighted in another leading Czech archaeological journal (Končelová, Květina 2011), where the authors described the fundamental concepts and professional background in his main books and edited volumes. There is no doubt that the concept of agricultural frontiers at the Mesolithic – Neolithic transition, formulated by Marek and colleagues in 1986 (Zvelebil, Ed. 1986), fundamentally influenced the insights of a number of archaeologists throughout the world. Another challenging topic was the study and explanation of Mesolithic social formations themselves (e.g. Zvelebil et al. 1998; many others). Similar stimulating suggestions can be traced in Marek’s research on the study of language, nationalism, culture and, not surprisingly, the topic of food and health (Figure 1). His professional engagement was unusually vigorous. Where did such a wide scope of interests come from? The answer should be seen of course in his personality and professional identity, which was undoubtedly connected with his native country, town, family and education.