Previous historiography has problematized the older demographic history of Pakostane (up to the beginning of the 17th century) based on the three archival sources: the 1597 settlement renewal contract and the lists of family heads from 1608 and 1610.In this paper, we reviewed these sources anew, at the same time outlining the dynamics of the historical demography of Pakostane in the period that preceded them -from the earliest reliable news to the beginning of the Cyprus War. For this purpose, we studied numerous unpublished writings of Zadar and Sibenik provenance.In the Middle Ages, Pakostane belonged to the Vrana district. Since passing under the auspices of the Republic of Venice in 1409, state properties in the district, including those in Pakostane, were managed by the Venetian Chamber in Zadar. Pakostane was assigned to the Zadar noble family Karnarutic as a hereditary property (a fiefdom) based on the State investiture in 1446. At that time, about 10 serf families lived in the village. Due to the strengthening of the Ottoman threat, during the second half of the 15th century and in the early decades of the 16th century, there were occasional migrations from and to Pakostane, mostly individual, which show that the network of origin and destination settlements of migrants did not exceed the boundaries of the wider Pakostane area. In addition, there were families that had been staying in the village for generations. It can be assumed with reason that there were shorter interruptions of population during the Ottoman incursions and the Venetian-Ottoman war of 1499-1502, but it is quite certain that the population to a good extent returned to their homes immediately after the danger ended. In the subsequent period, marked by the Venetian-Ottoman wars of 1537-1540 and 1570-1573, deeper demographic cuts occurred.During the war of 1537-1540, many inhabitants of the mainland part of the Zadar territory temporarily or permanently fled to the city, to the islands or outside Zadar territory. The people of Pakostane did the same and only one family returned to the village after the end of the war. The 548 contracts signed between the feudal lords of Karnarutic and potential settlers indicate the slow reconstruction and years of neglect of Pakostane. Based on these contracts, the six residents of the island of Murter took six settlements of Pakos"tane for cultivation, with the obligation to settle in them with their families. It seems that only one of them fulfilled the obligation, because the surnames of the other five are not mentioned in later sources. In the middle of 1552, there were at least 10 families living in Pakos"tane, with the following surnames: Aladinic (Ladinovic), Dikoje (and/or Trvizanovic), Feketic, Jakovic, Kovacic, Lipinic, Siko, Svirac and Vis"ic. We tend to conclude that some of them belong to Morlach families, former Ottoman subjects who settled in Pakos"tane after the war, more precisely in the period 1548-1550.In the first year of the Cyprus War (1570), all settlements on the coast of Biograd, including Pakos"tane, were burned or destroyed. History repeated itself, the population perished or fled, and there was no return. The village was rebuilt only in 1597, with signing of the contract between Margarita Karnarutic and 14 serfs (six each from Biograd and Zlosela and two from the island of Murter), who were to settle the "old village of Pakos"tane" and build a defensive wall around it. Judging by the lists of heads of families from 1608 and 1610, only five of the aforementioned fourteen can be said with certainty to have become residents of Pakos"tane. Overall, the families that had lived in Biograd (Ajazovic, Dikovic, Dlancic, Ljubovic, Pehrinovic, Pilicaric, Punos"evic) and Zloselo (Baicevic/ Backovic, Milic) participated to the greatest extent in the second reconstruction of the settlement.
