out, as well as various vessels decorated with paintings and engravings. As the Stone Age moved into the Bronze Age, known as the Eneolithic or Chalcolithic period, in which the first metal – copper – began to be used, the Vučedol culture arose (c. 3000 BC – c. 2200 BC), named after the locality of Vučedol, on the bank of the Danube near Vukovar. Vučedol, near Vukovar, an important prehistoric site (‘The Troy of the Danube’), after which the Vučedol culture was named, and which embraced a wider cultural complex from the Carpathians to the eastern Alps and the Dinaric Alps. It is presumed to have emerged after the arrival of Indo-European settlers around 3,000 BC and lasted until about 2,000 BC. Its characteristics include new metalwork procedures, extremely skilled ceramics, and, according to some researchers, the people used a calendar marked on ceramic vessels. In the Bronze Age (c. 2500 BC – c. 800 BC), a period of great ethnic strife and migration, metalwork and techniques for producing bronze items continued to develop. Several cultural groups can be singled out (the Gradina (hillfort)/Castellieri culture in Istria, the Urnfield culture in northern Croatia, the Cetina culture in Dalmatia, etc.), which arose through the symbiosis of earlier cultural traditions and the various influences of strong neighbouring cultures. The Iron Age left traces of the Hallstatt culture (proto-Illyrians) and the La Tène culture (proto-Celts). The arrival of the systematic production and use of iron tools marked the beginning of the Iron Age (c. 800 BC – early 1st century), during which the first ethnic communities appeared in the area which is present-day Croatia. Their names were recorded by Greek and Roman writers. They belonged to the Illyrian Histri, Iapodes, Liburnians, Delmatae, Ardiaei, etc., and came under the strong influence of Greek and Italic culture, and from the 4th century BC, under the influence of Celtic spiritual and material culture. Nesactium (Vizače), northeast of Pula, was a prominent centre for the Illyrian Histri in the first millennium BC. They continued to live there right up to late classical times, i.e. the early Christian era. In Nesactium, bronze pails decorated with figures, fragments of jewellery, weapons and ceramics have been found, along with examples of monumental stonework, representing the greatest achievements of prehistoric artistic creativity on Croatian soil. In the village of Prozor near Otočac, the remains of a settlement and necropolis belonging to