Cetina Valley — Middle Bronze Age

The Cetina Valley group emerges in the archaeological record of inland Dalmatia around the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age (c. 2000 BCE). Archaeological data indicate communities organized along the river corridor, exploiting upland pastures and fertile terraces. Material culture — pottery styles, metalwork in bronze, and funerary practices recorded in valley cemeteries — suggests local developments built on earlier Neolithic and Early Bronze Age traditions combined with influences from neighboring Adriatic and inland groups.

Limited evidence suggests these communities participated in regional exchange networks that threaded the Dalmatian coast to the interior. The landscape itself — the Cetina river cutting through karst landscapes — shaped movement, resource use, and settlement placement. While settlement patterns and ritual behaviors can be observed in excavations across the valley, many interpretations remain provisional: preservation bias and uneven excavation coverage mean we rely on a patchwork of sites rather than a continuous record.

Genome-wide data for this Cetina Valley group are limited in the provided dataset, but mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from 16 individuals shows a clear concentration of maternal lineages: haplogroup H (6 individuals) and J (5 individuals) dominate, with single occurrences of T, H5, and HV. Haplogroup H is widespread across Europe from the Neolithic onward and is commonly interpreted as reflecting longstanding maternal continuity in many regions. Haplogroup J likewise appears frequently in Neolithic and Bronze Age contexts and can reflect maternal lineages associated with early farmers and later regional dynamics.

No common Y-DNA pattern is reported for these samples, so paternal lineage structure cannot be assessed here. Without accompanying genome-wide autosomal data for all individuals, interpretations about Steppe-related ancestry, Neolithic farmer continuity, or later admixture remain tentative. The sample size (n=16) is moderate: it is sufficient to identify dominant maternal lineages locally but still limited for making broad demographic claims. Future genome-wide and Y-chromosome sequencing, combined with strontium/isotopic mobility studies, will better resolve questions of migration, sex-biased movement, and population continuity in Middle Bronze Age Dalmatia.