The sea throughout human history has often played the role of uniting rather than dividing peoples.

The exhibition “Adriatic without Borders” is an important opportunity to show the main acquisitions of decades of archaeological investigations in the Eastern Adriatic, but also the latest research carried out between Italy, Slovenia and Croatia. A moment of reflection on the cultural roots of our territory and the cultural and spiritual identity of the Eastern Adriatic.

- THE SPREAD OF AGRICULTURE IN 6000 BC

As in all of Europe, the practice of agriculture spread through the western Adriatic many thousands of years after it first began in western Asia. Sheep and goats appeared in 6000 BC and, whilst not contemporary, cereals and barley began to be cultivated around the same time. These elements were accompanied by technological innovations, such as ceramics and polished stone axes. Given the sudden and radical transformation in subsistence strategies and material culture, it seems that migration must have played a very important role in these changes. Naturally these processes also involved the participation of indigenous hunter-gatherers, and this resulted in characteristics that are always different from one place to another.

- THE EARLIEST CERAMICS

The model for neolithisation in this area seems to involve a first phase, which is rapid and pioneering and sees the arrival in the Adriatic of small Neolithic groups and their animals, and a second wave of slower colonisation, which reaches the central and northern regions of the Adriatic and results in the formation of true settlements.

The first Neolithic villages in the eastern Adriatic were established in Dalmatia after 6000 BC (Pokrovnik, Tinj, Smilčić, Vrbica, Crno Vrilo), in Istria around 5700 BC (Vižula, Kargadur) and lastly in Friuli in 5600 BC (Piancada and Sammardenchia).

- A NEW STYLE

In 5600 BC the style of pottery of Neolithic communities changed. In Dalmatia, pottery with impressed decorations was replaced by a much more elaborate, articulated and varied style, which is now known as Danilo. It seems that this style did not originate from one single place, but that it spread contemporarily across the eastern Adriatic. This diffusion was not entirely homogeneous: it is not clearly defined in southern Dalmatia and it is different in northern Dalmatia, where the style is know as "Vlaška".
Artefacts have been found which were made from obsidian, a form of volcanic glass that appears to have come from Lipari (in north-western Sicily).
This proves that there was communication over a very large area and suggests that people traded along sea routes.

Contatti con il mondo padano sono testimoniati, in particolare, da tazze e fi aschi con decorazione incisa e impressa, tipici della Cultura di Fiorano.

- A MEETING OF PEOPLES

In 5600 BC numerous small villages appeared in Friuli, and the area saw periods of widespread frequentation by Neolithic populations. The forms and decorations of certain ceramic artefacts and elements of lithic industry indicate contact with both the eastern Adriatic and the Po Valley area, in particular with the Fiorano Culture. The situation was slightly different in the karst area of Trieste. Here there were many caves and rock shelters, which were used as temporary dwellings, perhaps as shelter for shepherds or to protect their flocks. Ceramic artefacts here are an impoverished form of the Danilo style from the eastern Adriatic, know as the “Vlaška Group” or “Vasi a Coppa”.

- TOWARDS SIMPLICITY

4900 BC saw another change in the style of pottery. This is known as the Hvar style and is a distinctive feature of the eastern Adriatic. The decorations are limited to bands of incised geometric motifs, which are sometimes painted, and the pottery became progressively less ornate. The Hvar style gets its name from the archaeological discoveries in the Grapčˇeva cave on the island of Hvar in central Dalmatia. However, results of carbon dating now suggest that the style may have originated in the heart of the Danilo territory. Vessels with these forms and decorations have also been found in the northeast of this area, even as far as Friuli Venezia Giulia.

La fase antica dello stile di Hvar, documentata a Velištak, è caratterizzata da recipienti bruniti decorati a motivi geometrici stilizzati, con margini esterni delineati da incisioni e dipinti internamente di colore rosso.

- A COMMON CULTURAL ROOT

Sacred objects can be considered evidence of a communication system which is now lost to us. They are a reflection in the material culture of beliefs and ideologies and a non-verbal form of language. Whilst it is difficult to determine precisely what meaning these symbols had for the people that created them, their presence in the eastern Adriatic is proof of common cultural roots.