ABSTRACT:
This paper analyses the early knowledge of the weather and climate of the Croatian Adriatic. Not only agriculture and food production but also seafaring and navigation were heavily dependent on perceptive observations and the power of understanding and interpreting natural phenomena contributing to weather forecasting. Some information on the ancient sailors’ awareness of the weather and climate on the eastern Adriatic coast can be found in myths (the Argonauts, Diomedes, the Dioscuri and others) or in the works of writers of that time (Apollonius of Rhodes, Pseudo-Skylax, Theophrastus, Strabo, Pseudo-Skimnos, Pliny the Elder, Martial and others). Besides these records, which directly mention weather and climate, it is possible to draw indirect conclusions about the (un)favourableness of the weather and climate on the Adriatic from information on seafaring, the way of living, architecture, warfaring, agriculture (olive-growing and viticulture), illnesses, plant cover and other sources. The Croats have taken over and preserved this ancient knowledge but have also, unobtrusively, added to it their own life experience. We can, therefore, say that the Croats, living by the sea and sailing the sea, have inherited the ancient civilisation, becoming active participants in the European civilisation and, over history, also the users and promoters of the old Mediterranean lingua franca.
