The spread of farming in the Eastern Adriatic Staˇ so Forenbaher 1 & Preston T. Miracle 2 The authors present a new, two-stage model of the spread of farming along the eastern Adriatic coast based on the first appearance of pottery. The initial stage was a very rapid dispersal, perhaps by ‘leapfrog colonisation’, associated with cave sites in southern Dalmatia. The second stage was a slower agropastoral expansion associated with cave and open-air sites along the northern coast. Migration was a significant factor in the process. The mountainous hinterland formed an agricultural frontier zone, where farming was adopted piecemeal by indigenous groups. Keywords: Neolithic, Croatia, Adriatic, farming, colonisation Introduction Great strides have been made in our understanding of the spread of farming in Europe, most recently through the integration and comparison of archaeological, linguistic and genetic evidence (e.g. Bellwood & Renfrew 2002; Ammerman & Biagi 2003), through the characterisation of human diets and population movements by studying stable isotopes in human bones (e.g. Milner et al. 2004; Richards et al. 2003; Price et al. 2002), and through the refinement of theoretical models (e.g. Price 2000; Thomas 1999; Whittle 1996, 2003). Alongside and underlying many of these advances are the ever-accumulating results of field projects. However, even though the eastern Adriatic coast lies along a major route into Central Europe from the south-east, our state of knowledge about the spread of farming in the region remains relatively undeveloped. Even maps offering quite sophisticated models for the spread of farming into Europe can leave the eastern Adriatic region blank (Barker 1985: Figure 21; Renfrew 1987; Whittle 1996: Figure 8.2; Tringham 2000: Figure 2.1; Zvelebil & Lillie 2000: Figure 3.1) or merge it with one of the neighbouring regions (e.g. Zvelebil & Lillie 2000: Figure 3.4). Both approaches, we suspect, are a consequence of researchers not being familiar with the (admittedly meagre) data that are available from this region. In this brief paper, we hope to put the eastern Adriatic region ‘on the map’ through a systematic review of the available evidence and the presentation of a new model of the spread of farming in the region (Figure 1). Models for the transition to farming in the Eastern Adriatic The transition to farming in Europe has been explained by a wide variety of models ranging from a completely autochthonous process where local foragers turn to farming, to 1 Institute for Anthropological Research, Amruˇ seva 8, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia (Email: staso.forenbaher@zg.htnet.hr) 2 Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3DZ, UK (Email: ptm21@cam.ac.uk) Received: 7 May 2004; Accepted: 9 July 2004; Revised: 13 October 2004 antiquity 79 (2005): 514–528 514