The items in the Mediaeval Collection date from end of the 4^th to the 12^th centuries. The Collection consists of jewellery from graves (earrings, temple ornaments, rings, buttons, necklaces, belt buckles), military gear (Frankish swords and spearheads), and Early Croatian braidwork sculptures that adorned the interiors of churches. The Collection holds monuments v ital to the history of the Croatian state, among them a fragment of an altar screen pediment bearing the name of the Croatian ruler Trpimir. The Early Croatian collection was created thanks to the tireless work of Don Frane Bulić (link to History of the Museum).

Late Antiquity was a time of crisis in the Western Roman Empire, which could no longer safeguard its borders from invasions by neighboring, newly-arrived tribes (Ostrogoths and Visigoths, Vandals, Suebi, Alemanni, Franks, Lombards, etc.). A crucial event occurred in around 375 AD (considered the beginning of what is called the Migration Period) when nomadic warlike tribes from Asia dominated by the Huns invaded, prompted by the Germanic tribes to cross the borders of the Western Roman Emprire. In 493 the Ostrogoths established a state in Italy. Dalmatia and Pannonia Savia also came under the Ostrogothic state’s rule, with Salona as the seat of civilian and military administration. The period of peaceful and tolerant Ostrogothic rule lasted from the end of the 5^th century to 537, when Dalmatia came under the aegis of the Eastern Roman state.

In the latter half of the 6^th century, a new group of nomadic warriors under Avar rule launched the migration of Slavic tribes from their original homeland between the Upper Elba and Oder, the Baltic Sea, the Dnieper and the Carpathians. The center of the Avar state was in Pannonia. After the fall of Syrmium in 582, the routes to Dalmatia were opened to the Avars and Slavs, and penetrated southward in waves. Several decades after the Slav migrations, the Croat tribe from White Croatia on the Upper Vistula River arrived in Dalmatia, freed the Slav populace from Avar rule and permanently settled the hinterland of the Dalmatian coastal cities. Under the onslaught of these newly-arriving tribes, Salona fell in the first half of the 7^th century, while life came to end in Narona as well. The population fled, seeking shelter on the islands and in fortified cities (Diocletian’s Palace). Zadar, Trogir, Split, Dubrovnik, Kotar and the islands of Krk, Cres, Rab and Osor remained under Byzantine rule, while in the 9^th century the Byzantine theme of Dalmatia was orgnaized as a vital stronghold for navigation routes on the Adriatic Sea.

In the ensuing centuries, the decentralized territorial units governed by tribal chieftains became the core of the Croatian state under the consolidated authority of a knez (duke) in the river valleys of the Cetina, Krka and Zrmanja with centers in Biograd, Nin, the Solin Plain and Knin.

At the beginning of the 9^th century, the mighty Frankish state under Charlemagne became the western neighbour of the Croats, while under the Peace of Aachen (also known as the Pax Nicephori) concluded in 812, it shared a sphere of interest in the former Roman province of Dalmatia with the Byzantine Empire. The Dalmatian cities belonged to the Byzantines, while Croatian territory c ame under Frankish suzerainty. By the mid-9^th century, the Croatian rulers began to become more independent and moved away from Frankish influence.

The collection’s manager is senior curator Ante Piteša.