The Neolithic site in Smilčić is located about 2 km southwest of today's settlement. The first systematic excavations were carried out by Š. Batović in the period from 1956 to 1962. On that occasion, settlements from the early and middle Neolithic were discovered, while surface finds suggested the existence of settlements from the late Neolithic. Due to many open questions about settlement aspects of Neolithic settlements, as well as their mutual stratigraphic relations, the Department of Archeology of the University of Zadar under the leadership of prof. B. Marijanović, conducted audit excavations aimed at offering an answer to at least some of these questions. Based on the results of a field inspection which collected surface ceramic finds and aerial images showing the outlines of negative elements, some students were sent to the position of Dugače, about 250 m from the originally discovered settlement in Barice, to conduct a trial excavation to determine types of buried element and its approximate cultural and relativechronological affiliation. A trial excavation determined a ditch of semicircular cross-section, such as those found in nearby Barica. Fragments of ceramic vessels, animal bones and individual specimens of a flint arrow and a bone piercing were found inside the ditch canal. Based on the technological and stylistic-typological characteristics of the ceramic material, the ditch is dated to the Middle Neolithic period in the area of northern and central Dalmatia. Thus, trial excavations at Dugače determined that the settlement area of the Middle Neolithic phase of settlement in Smilčić occupies a much larger area in relation to the Early Neolithic phase.