ABSTRACT
The usual fate of both Dalmatia and Croatia in overviews and syntheses of European history is to fall outside the author's scope, a neglected child which belongs neither fully to the West nor unequivocally to the East. There is a reason enough to argue that the seventh century was a time of real and decisive crisis in late antique Dalmatia. Archaeological data is scarce. Throughout the eighth century, social structures in Dalmatia seem to have remained fairly static, both in the coastal towns and in the hinterland. Sauro Gelichi's conclusions are important for those who try to understand what happened along the eastern Adriatic coast. Unfortunately, archaeological research in urban areas has been limited, while written sources are almost non-existent. It is clear that communications in the second half of the eighth century along the eastern Adriatic coast is intensified although they had probably not ceased altogether in the previous decades.
