ABSTRACT
The evidence for post-Roman Dalmatian society between the 620s and the end of the eighth century presents an image of decline with respect to connectivity with the outside world and the simplification of different types of social networks and hierarchies of power. This image is shaped by a lack of written sources and our inability to precisely date most of the archaeological material, and so we are clearly missing many important details. This was, however, only the beginning. Within two and a half decades, between the Carolingian takeover of Istria ca. 788 and the Treaty of Aachen in 812, Dalmatia became a major battlefield for two empires, the Frankish and Byzantine, who fought each other for supremacy in the Adriatic. The beginning of the early medieval burial phase in Dalmatia is characterised by the appearance of graves with elaborate grave good assemblages dateable approximately to the very late eighth and first third of the ninth century.
