An extension of the Mediterranean Sea, the Adriatic Sea lies between the Italian and Balkan Peninsulas. While the western coast of the body of water is entirely Italian territory, its eastern coast is shared by Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Albania. The Adriatic Sea is bordered to the south by the Ionian Sea.http://maps.google.com/ Many rivers are connected to the Adriatic. Among them are the Adige, Brenta, Neretva, Po, Piave and Reno of Italy, the Neretva of Croatia, and Drin and Vijose of Albania.http://thayer.dartmouth.edu/adriatic/databanks/rivers/rivers.html

The maximum length of the Adriatic Sea is about 478 miles. The northern Adriatic is shallow. Between Istria and Rimini, the body of water is only about 150 feet at its deepest. However, between Ortona and Šibenik, the Adriatic Sea exceeds 500 feet in depth. South of Dubrovnik and west of Durrës is a large basin that is more than 3,000 feet deep. To the south of this basin is a small basin that is almost 5,000 feet deep. The average depth of the Adriatic is almost 800 feet.http://www.find-croatia.com/generalinfo/adriatic-sea.html

The Adriatic Sea was not a hindrance to the expansion of prehistoric cultures in southeastern Europe. The coasts on both sides of the body of water have more in common than the hinterlands, leading archaeologists to conclude that there was considerable human activity in the Adriatic Sea before written history. The earliest trace of navigation in the Adriatic is dated to the period following the Glacial period, approximately 10,000 years ago. Global warming caused the sea level to rise by about a hundred yards. The earliest sailors of the Mediterranean traveled between Apulia and Dalmatia. Although it is not clear how the ancient sailors navigated the sea, it is established that they mainly traveled in search of spouses, raw materials and technology exchange.http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:DvCzDGCDt1kJ:www.unizd.hr/Portals/39/Forenbaher.pdf+adriatic+sea+prehistory&hl=en&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESibr8P6aTKlqmUwZ1cga3x2l4OPZ_MeReO35K7xFFdwRybGwMLG9s0HBYJgLCqao4lJg8IkaFsmgPDZATqjOpcxzWrgHOhK8rw_ygmW3_gqNFK3cb0JV8HbWbxAoAdRvtxSPgfw&sig=AHIEtbT1YRRihcNkZpt_OasjSUYFJ61aRQ