Liburnians

[6] Liburni's archaeological culture can be traced to the Late Bronze Age and "were settled since at least the tenth century BC in northern Dalmatia".

[14][15][16] However, modern historiography questions the same scholarship's methodological identification of ethnicity with material culture, linguistic traces, deities and else which ignores anthropological exchange, and notes that prior 4th century BCE the name of Liburni and Illyrians could have been synonyms and the former was only later distinctively used in narrow sense for people of North Adriatic territory.

[17] The Liburnian people, especially when were stationed in foreign land, identified themselves as "Liburnus" or "natione Liburnus",[18] but the identity was also related to same-named administrative unit in Roman province of Illyricum, making the shared sense of ethnic and political identity prior to the 1st century BCE a matter of debate among modern scholars.

[26] The fall of Liburnian domination in the Adriatic Sea and their final retreat to their ethnic region (Liburnia) were caused by the military and political activities of Dionysius the Elder of Syracuse (406 – 367 BC).

The name of the Vindelician town of Cambodunum (today Kempten) is apparently derived from the Celtic cambo dunon: "fortified place at the river bend" .

[27] One classical source, Servius' commentary on Virgil's Aeneid,[28] says on the contrary that the Vindelicians were originally Liburnians – a non-Celtic Indo-European people from the northeastern shores of the Adriatic (modern Croatia).

This battle meant the loss of the most important strategic Liburnian positions in the centre of the Adriatic, resulting in their final retreat to their main ethnic region, Liburnia, and their complete departure from the Italic coast, apart from Truentum (nowadays on the border between Marche and Abruzzo).

Greek colonization, however, did not extend into Liburnia, which remained strongly held, and Syracusan dominance suddenly diminished upon the death of Dionysius the Elder.

[29] The middle of the 3rd century BC was marked by the rise of an Illyrian kingdom in the south of the Adriatic, led by king Agron of the Ardiaei.

[32] In 181 BC, the Romans established their colony at Aquileia and took control of all Venetia in the north, thus expanding towards the Illyrian area from the northwest.

This failed owing to bad weather and the low morale of the soldiers, who massively escaped to their homes in Italy, or refused to cross the sea to Liburnia.

The Dalmatae soon recovered and entered into conflict with the Liburnians in 51 BC (probably over possession of the pasture grounds around the Krka river), taking their city Promona.

In that year, near the island of Krk, there was an important naval battle between the forces of Caesar and Pompey, involving local Liburnian support to both sides.

In the same year, Caesar sent his legions to take control of the rebellious Illyricum province, and took the fortress of Promona from Dalmatian hands, making them submit.

[35] Throughout this time, Roman rule in Illyricum province, largely nominal, was concentrated in only a few cities on the eastern Adriatic coast, such as Iader, Salona and Narona.

Renewed Illyrian and Liburnian piracy motivated Octavian to organize a great military operation in Illyricum province in 35 BC, to finally stabilize Roman control of it.

After returning from the inland areas of Illyricum, Octavian destroyed the Illyrian pirate communities on the islands of Melita (Mljet) and Korkyra Nigra (Korčula), and continued to Liburnia, where he wiped out the last remnants of the Liburnian naval forces, thus resolving the problems of their renewed piratical activities in the bay of Kvarner (sinus Flanaticus) and their attempt to secede from Rome.

Octavian made another expedition inland against the Iapodes from the Liburnian port of Senia (Senj), and conquered their most important positions in 34 BC.

However, Liburnian seafaring tradition was not extinguished; it rather acquired a more commercial character under the new circumstances as Liburnia's ports and cities thrived economically and culturally.

[38] The development of Liburnian culture can be divided into 3 main time periods: The principal forms of settlements were forts (Latin: castellum, Croatian: gradina) built for defense, usually on elevations and fortified with dry walls.

About a hundred names of these hill-forts have kept their roots from prehistory, especially places that had been inhabited permanently, such as Zadar (Iader), Nin (Aenona), Nadin (Nedinium), Rab (Arba), Krk (Curicum), etc.

Similar stone houses are preserved in Croatian tradition all over Dalmatia and Kvarner, mostly of the rounded form called bunja.

[44] Liburnia's economy relied on its strength in the sectors of agriculture, stock breeding, crafts, trade, barter, seamanship, fishing, hunting, and food collecting.

Mention of the special role of women in Liburnian society can be noted in their writings, but the idea about their matriarchy is scientifically rejected.

Certain data suggest social division, stratification, and inequality, where the Liburnian aristocracy maintained many privileges, special status, and features of their culture under Roman rule.

[citation needed] Remains of a 10 meter long ship from the 1st century BC were found in Zaton near Nin (Aenona in Liburnia proper), the ship keel with the bottom planking made of 6 rows of wooden boards on each side, joined together and sewn with resin cords and wooden wedges, testifying to the Liburnian shipbuilding tradition style known as "Serilia Liburnica".

[50] A 10th-century AD ship of identical form and size, made with wooden fittings instead of sewn planking joints, was found in the same place, "Condura Croatica" used by the Medieval Croats.

Liburnae may have been shown in a naval battle scene carved on a stone tablet (Stele di Novilara) found near Antique Pisaurum (Pesaro) and dated to the 5th or 6th century BC.

Liburnae ships played a crucial role in the naval battle of Actium in Greece, which lasted from August 31 to September 2 of 31 BC.

[59] Two archaeogenetic studies published in Nature and Science (2022) examined 5 samples from four MBA-IA Liburnian tumuli at Velim-Kosa near Zadar.