The presentation provides preliminary results of archaeological researches undertaken in the Zambratija Cove (Umag, Istria County), by the Archaeological Museum of Istria in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia and the Centre Camille Jullian (Aix-Marseille University – CNRS). In Zambratija, the seabed preserved the remains of a sewn vessel preserved up to the gunwale for about 7 m. This exceptional sewn ship, which is the more ancient example of a boat entirely sewn ever found in Mediterranean, as it has been dated between the last quarter of the 12th c. and the last quarter of the 10th c. BCE, corresponds also to an unparalleled architectural type of boat. The sewing technique employed for the assemblage of the planking and the related water tightness system, is also unparalleled. Due to these architectural characteristics, the type of assemblies and the early date of the boat, the ship of Zambratija could be considered as the archetypal of one of the traditions of sewing boats identified within the Adriatic geographical zone. This tradition, called “Illyrian sewn tradition”, survived till the Roman time (“Romano-Illyrian sewn tradition”) as demonstrated by the discovery of 8 shipwrecks dated from the 1st to the 2nd c. AD in Istria, at Pula, and in Dalmatia, at Caska and Zaton.