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.