Cetina Communities on the Move across the Central Mediterranean and the Balkans in the 3rd Millennium BC

The 3rd millennium BC is an epoch characterized by the presence of large-scale and ideologically motivated interactive networks that spread over Europe and beyond, such as the Corded Ware Culture and the Bell Beaker Phenomenon. These networks are expressed materially by complex archaeological assemblages, in which various traits and practices are distributed over extended areas. The so-called Cetina culture, which covered the western Balkans approximately from the mid-3rd until the early 2nd millennia BC, is one of these. Ivan Marovi? (1959) first described the Cetina culture in the 1950s on the basis of the presence of groups of burial tumuli concentrated along the upper course of the Cetina River in central Dalmatia, in which pottery with characteristic incised decoration was recovered. The complete publication of the excavations undertaken by Marovi? (1991) and the first synthetic work authored by Blagoje Govedarica (1989) provide an overview of the main characteristics of those Cetina burials in the Split-?ibenik area: these consist of tumuli, often grouped in clusters, under which different types of burials are placed - single or multiple inhumations, mostly in stone cists (e.g. Rudine tumulus 13 - Marovi? 1991, fig. 10) or without any funerary architecture (e.g. Rudine, Tumulus 19, grave 1 - Marovi? 1991, fig. 12). Cremations are also known (ashes without urn, e.g. Rudine, Tumulus 26 - Marovi? 1991, 51; a thickened rim bowl used as an urn, e.g. Rudine, Tumulus 27 - Marovi? 1991, 57-58). Some tumuli are devoid of graves and contain only scattered potsherds. Grave goods are rare (e.g. at Juki? - Oluji? 2012) and often take the form of ceramics scattered throughout the tumulus; metal and stone objects are also present. Distinctive Cetina ceramics include bowls with thickened rims and beakers of the so-called 'Kotorac-type', decorated with incised lines and triangular impressions