In order to understand the process which would lead to the appearance of medieval Slavic identities, it is of crucial importance to see it, not as a sudden process which occurred in the post-Roman period, but as part of a larger process of transformations in the late antique world in which Illyricum and its parts belonged. Post-Kossina scholarly methodology which deals with pre-Roman identities rests on the methodological tripod made up of: the archaeology of regional Iron Age cultures, onomastics, and the interpretation of the reports on Illyricum and its population in Greek and Roman written sources. The written sources do not reveal much about the indigenous population in Illyricum in Late Antiquity - the archaeological sources will be examined in this chapter.Keywords: Illyricum; medieval Slavic identities; post-Roman period

This chapter explores the ways in which Croat origins have been seen throughout history, as well as the current popular views of Croat origins. The 'autochthon Slav' discourse derived from Renaissance times, which linked early modern Slav identities with the ancient construction of Illyricum, as well as the ancient perception of the indigenous population as 'Illyrians'. Like other Southeastern and Central European ethnicities, modern Croatian ethnicity has been significantly impacted by sense of historical continuity in the space that the Croatians inhabited. It is very obvious in public identity-discourse. The popular discourse and popular perceptions of Croat migration in 'the promised land' from a 'faraway homeland' are reflected through-out more recent Croatian art, but it is curious that they are not as numerous as might be expected.Keywords: Croat origins; Croatian imagination

This chapter focuses on the material evidence from the 'Dark Ages', in particular the 'Pagan' horizon of the row-grave cemeteries of the 'Old-Croat' culture. It use material evidence which derives mostly from the numerous row-grave cemeteries in Dalmatia, attributed to the 'Old-Croat' archaeological culture. Cremation in Dalmatia is a highly controversial topic. The indigenous population used cremation in the late Iron Age and early Roman times. As stated earlier, an important shift occurs in the material record, and scholars are oft en in agreement with dating the beginning of the change to the late 8th century. The 'Old-Croat' cemeteries from the earliest phase of the 'Pagan' horizon showed a society of the post-Roman Dalmatia in transition, which rebuilt their social structures from the roots.Keywords: Dark Ages; Old-Croat; Post-Roman Dalmatia

The postmodern interpretation of history is slowly becoming the foundation stone of the wider scholarly consensus in the research of past societies. Postmodernism as an archaeological-historical interpretation of the past has been impacted on by several different conceptual approaches, which will be briefly mentioned and discussed in this chapter. The problem of the appearance of South Slavic identities is a highly disputed and controversial issue that has attracted heated scholarly debates over the last few centuries. New theoretical frameworks discussed in the chapter represent a long awaited opportunity to re-examine the problems of a transition from pre-Slavic identities of Late Antiquity to medieval Slavic identities in post-Roman Dalmatia, and in a wider context, Illyricum. The scholarship on early medieval history and the archaeology of post-Roman and early medieval Dalmatia is a very vibrant and exciting area of study.Keywords: post-Roman Dalmatia; postmodern interpretation; South Slavic identities

This chapter discusses at length the written sources that are related to the Slav migrations to the western part of the Balkan Peninsula. There are three major groups of sources which should be taken into account when discussing the appearance of the earliest Croat identity. The first are the earliest sources that mention the appearance of the Slavs during the events of the 6th and the first part of the 7th century; the second are the sources which mention the appearance of the Slavs in the western parts of the Balkan Peninsula, and the last are late sources for the fall of Salona, the provincial capital of Dalmatia, including the treaty, De Administrando Imperio by the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, written in the mid-10th century, which is considered to be the only more-less credible primary source that historians use as evidence for the arrival of the Croats.Keywords: Balkan Peninsula; Croat identity; Dalmatia; De Administrando Imperio; Slav migrations; Western Illyricum

The great Bellum Batonianum of AD 6–9 was one of the most significant events, if not the most significant one, in the history of the relations between Rome and Illyricum. Its significance went far beyond local, provincial history; it shaped the future conduct of the early Principate, and perhaps, combined with the aftermath of the clades Variana in the Teutoburg forest, caused a sudden end to Roman expansion in north and central Europe. This conflict brought destruction and devastation to almost every corner of Illyricum, and Italy feared the external enemy. This was the first political crisis of this kind after the end of the Republic that seriously undermined Roman confidence and Rome's position in its newly acquired territories. These events were not a separate phase of Roman interaction with Illyricum, but we need to examine them in more detail as a direct consequence of the political framework earlier defined as Greater Illyricum, after the extension of Illyricum in the aftermath of the Bellum Pannonicum . Although the final result was Roman victory and the ultimate establishment of Roman rule, the war and its scale and ferocity were the result of the monumental failure of the previous approach. It made the Romans seriously rethink their previous arrangements and devise new ones. The most important consequence was the post-rebellion division of Illyricum into the provinces of Illyricum inferius , future Pannonia, and Illyricum superius , future Dalmatia.

The major point of the prevailing metanarrative of the 'Slav migrations', which completed its formation in the 19th century, was that the Slavs arrived in an 'empty house', the depopulated lands whose inhabitants were either exterminated or displaced due to the period of migrations in the last centuries of the Roman Empire. The relative security of Illyricum in the period of the early to middle Roman Empire provided an opportunity for significant economical advancement of the area, especially in the Pannonia and Dalmatian littoral. From the archaeological evidence and itineraries from Late Antiquity, scholars have detected an establishment of an entirely new system of habitation in Dalmatia in c. late 4th/early 5th centuries.Keywords: Dalmatian littoral; Illyricum; Slav migrations