Croatia

The territory of Croatia has been inhabited since prehistoric times, and the Krapina site, north of Zagreb, has remains of about 80 Neanderthals, about 125,000 years old, one of the largest Neanderthal finds in the world, presented at the Krapina Neanderthal Museum. The Vučedol culture, near Vukovar, flourished about 3000–2200 BC, and its ceramic Vučedol Dove became a symbol of the region. In the 1st millennium BC, Illyrian tribes, such as the Liburnians, the Delmatae and the Histri, lived along the coast, and the Liburnians were famous sailors.

Greek colonies and Roman rule

From the 4th century BC, Greek colonists founded settlements on the islands, such as Issa, on Vis, Pharos, today Stari Grad on Hvar, where the Stari Grad Plain, a UNESCO site, still shows the Greek field divisions, and Korkyra Melaina, on Korčula. The Romans conquered the region after long wars with the Illyrians, and it became the province of Dalmatia, with its capital at Salona, near Split, a city of about 60,000 people. Pula, in Istria, has a Roman amphitheatre, built in the 1st century AD, one of the six largest surviving Roman arenas. Around 295–305 AD, the Emperor Diocletian, born in Dalmatia, built his retirement palace on the coast, which grew into the city of Split.