 The Iron Age left traces of the early Illyrian Hallstatt culture and the Celtic La Tène culture.Much later, the region was settled by Liburnians and Illyrians, while the first Greek colonies were established on the Vis and Hvar islands.Dalmatia was the northern part of the Illyrian kingdom between the 4th century BC until the Illyrian Wars in the 220s BC and 168 BC when the Roman Republic established its protectorate south of the river Neretva.