The policy of systematic destruction of the cultural heritage in the Serbian-Bosnian-Croatian war has led to the loss of many prehistoric and historic remains in Dalmatia. Since many of the sites studied by the Neothermal Dalmatia Project (NDP) in the Zadar lowlands can no longer be visited, the findings of this international research project, in operation from 1982 to 1986, represents the last chance for a generation to study the archaeological and palaeo-environmental field remains of the largest and most fertile plain in the East Adriatic. The research report tells the story of a changing landscape, settlement pattern and land use over the last 12,000 years in the Plain and in the adjoining Velebit Mountains. The core fieldwork consisted of an intensive field survey of over 120 sq. km of lowland, trial excavations on six sites (from Neolithic to Roman), and soil investigations of the total surveyed area. Work studies were based on surveyed plans and sections of fourteen drystone-walled sites. One archive-based chapter discusses the charming historical picture of the Zadar lowlands in the early medieval and Ottoman periods. The main conclusions are based on the evaluation of four landscape-based models: a predictive model of environmental change, particularly in soils, climate and hydrology as they relate to land use, a cyclic land use and settlement model, a communal ownership of property model, and a social power model. A number of important long-term trends are identified against the framework of a wider comparative picture of Mediterranean social change. This volume combines inter-disciplinary research with modern social theory in a regional study which fills a major gap in prehistoric cover in Europe. The volume is aimed at researchers from a wide range of historical and environmental sciences, and posttgraduates both in Britain and in the USA.