This paper represents an initial attempt to present a rough outline of the vast pottery evidence from central Dalmatia. To be sure, Dalmatian Hellenistic pottery needs to be analysed in a more elaborate way, with tighter chronological controls, closer attention to the quantification of data, and better analysis of fabrics so as to infer provenience. We hope that this information will provide evidence of aspects of life that are unrecorded in the rare, and often controversial political and military histories of the East Adriatic coast. This information allows insights into what were the real production and commercial potentials of the area. The amphorae and the fine wares examined here come from a variety of contexts. We find them at sanctuary sites of Diomedes (Palagru?a and Cape Plo?a) and at the cave sanctuary at Spila Nakovana on Pelje?ac peninsula. We find them in Greek settlements at Pharos and Issa and at Issaian subcolonies at Lumbarda, Tragurion and Epetion and also on numerous sites on the island of Vis. The islands of ?olta and Bra?, which do not have Greek settlements, have also many locations where amphorae have also been found: some on farmsteads, some on native hillforts and burial mounds. At the moment we cannot clarify weather the amphorae on ?olta and Bra? represent imported wine or that it was locally produced, stored in amphorae and transported within the island, or that something else (for example olive oil) was exchanged with wine. This observation can also be valid for other islands and the coastal area of central Dalmatia. The absence of amphorae in the interior of central Dalmatia, the territory that is associated with the Illyrian tribe of Delmati, is a very intriguing problem, especially when we know that amphorae are found among the neighbours of Delmati: on Liburnian sites and among the Daorsi. Loughton (2003, 200) has correctly observed, “Clearly then, deposition biases, which include social conventions that interfere with where and how amphorae entered the archaeological record, need to be understood before we can properly interpret the distribution of Republican amphorae in France.” This could also be true for central Dalmatia, as our data mainly do not come from modern stratigraphic excavations but from random and systematic field survey. The complete English version of this paper will be published in the proceedings of the international conference “Rimini e l’Adriatico nell’ eta delle guerre puniche” that was held in Rimini from March 25th to 27th 2005.
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