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A well documented site exists in Croatia. It is a key example of how small, enclosed farming villages developed in the Adriatic

Excavations document abundant impressed/cardial pottery; domestic economy with herded animals (including sheep/goat); craft production and communal ritual activities; as well as, direct chemical evidence for dairy processing (fermented dairy/cheese residues) on pottery.

Pokrovnik was a nucleated settlement. With features suggesting enclosed occupation zones of pit clusters, house remains, burial pits, and activity areas
Houses were built of perishable materials like, timber, wattle, and reed. So structural traces are ephemeral. But archaeologists can infer oval/rectangular hut plans from hearths, postholes and floor features.

Some burial and ritual pits are integrated into the settlement plan, showing close links between daily life and ritual practice.

No intact wooden boats have been reported because preservation is poor on dry sites
Though coastal submerged neolithic deposits in the eastern Adriatic show that watercraft were in use regionally. In general, waterlogged preservation is rare on open terrestrial sites. So absence of preserved wood is expected.

Stable-isotope and residue analyses show dairying and milk processing took place at Dalmatian sites including Pokrovnik
In particular, residue analyses on pottery from Pokrovnik yield fatty-acid signatures interpreted as fermented dairy (early cheese/yogurt production).

Zooarchaeological and biomolecular studies place caprines (sheep and/or goats) among the domestic animals at Pokrovnik, together with cattle and pigs
A mixed early farming economy. Typical of Adriatic Neolithic villages.

Archaeology cannot recover moods, but the material culture points to social and communal behaviours. Likely used for enjoyment, display and identity
They produced and decoration pottery with impressed motifs; made small ritual/miniature objects; manufactured ornaments and tools; and, its also expected the communally feasted, and had food processing.

These activities — craftwork, ritual deposition, feasting, inter-household exchange — would have structured a social life with leisure time. In this beautiful area of the Adriatic. Thousands of year ago during the neolithic.

Bibliography: Pokrovnik – an example of an enclosed Neolithic settlement. Opuscula Archaeologica, 41(1), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.17234/OA.41.1

Forenbaher, S., & Miracle, P. (2005).
The spread of farming in the eastern Adriatic. Antiquity, 79(305), 514–528.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X0011436X

McClure, S. B., Podrug, E., Moore, A. M. T., Culleton, B. J., Kennett, D. J., & Šošić Klindžić, R. (2018).
Fatty acid analysis of early Neolithic pottery from Pokrovnik and Danilo Bitinj (Dalmatia, Croatia) indicates fermented dairy products. PLOS ONE, 13(5), e0197728. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0197728

Podrug, E., & McClure, S. B. (2011).
Settlement organization and mortuary practices at Pokrovnik (Dalmatia, Croatia). In S. Forenbaher (Ed.), Adriatic Prehistory: New research results (pp. 73–88). Zagreb: Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

McClure, S. B., & Podrug, E. (2015).
Community, ritual, and identity in Neolithic Dalmatia: The case of Pokrovnik. Documenta Praehistorica, 42, 221–236. https://doi.org/10.4312/dp.42.17

Forenbaher, S., & Kaiser, T. (2011).
Adriatic prehistory: new research perspectives. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology, 24(1), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1558/jmea.v24i1.1