An Assessment of the Dendrochronological Potential on the Submerged Prehistoric Pile-dwelling in Zambratija Bay within the Wider Context of Prehistoric Pile-dwellings in Croatia

At the site of Zambratija Bay in the northern Adriatic Sea, underwater archaeologists recorded over 120 wooden piles and material culture from a Late Neolithic to early Bronze Age submerged settlement at a depth of three metres under water. Situated in a sunken karstic depression off the Croatian coast, the seabed was partly covered with a well-preserved peat bed. Archaeological material included typologically identifiable ceramic and stone tool artefacts. This article presents original results derived from a 2017 targeted archaeological and dendrochronological assessment of the site and reviews the archaeological findings in their wider regional context. Results include a wiggle-matched 62-year floating dendrochronological sequence of the found prehistoric architecture dating the site to 4041-3934 cal BC (95.4% probability). Combined with evidence on other prehistoric pile-dwellings in Croatia, the results from Zambratija Bay suggest a need to revise the geographical expansion of the European Prehistoric Pile Dwellings phenomenon, which has been a topic of debate in European archaeology since the 19^th century.