Summer Archaeological Field School in Croatia – Research Design Overview

In general, urbanism along Croatia’s Adriatic coast is not well understood, including incipient urbanization in the Iron Age, the impact of colonization (Roman, Venetian, or Ottoman) on existing settlements and landscapes, or changing urban-ecological relationships over the past 3000 years. Even the Ravni Kotari region in the outskirts of Zadar, arguably the most urbanized region along the entire coast in antiquity, has yet to receive significant archaeological attention regarding the process of urban growth and decline, or its articulation with and impact on local and regional landscape change. The question of human agency, landscape change, and urbanization is an important one in the context of the city of Zadar and its hinterland, which has remained an important cultural and economic center along the eastern Adriatic coast for the past 3000 years, and it continues to experience rapid growth and expansion along with a booming tourist market in the 21st century.

This project explores the process of urbanization and landscape change at the Nadin archaeological site, a moderately sized secondary urban center in the Ravni Kotari region of Zadar’s hinterland. Urbanization refers to the process of a settlement performing an increasingly diverse set of functions (e.g., political, economic, religious) in the context of a wider hinterland, but also resulting in generally higher populations in more nucleated centers, greater concentration of goods and services, greater economic specialization, increasing social stratification, a wider range of architectural forms (monumental and vernacular), the development of long-distance trading partners with increased reliance on non-local resources, and a greater impact on local and regional landscape change. Importantly, each of these variables leaves archaeological indicators that can be traced through time. The project focuses on such indicators at Nadin as a measure of wider urbanization and landscape change.

Zadar, Croatia
Zadar, Croatia

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