Review article
Towards understanding of ancient Varvaria
Ruža Sekso
Abstract
The paper consists of three parts: the first one examining the phases of the construction of Varvaria’s defense walls, the second one presenting for the first time the upper part of a Bribir stela from the Archaeology Museum Zadar, and the last one examining the purpose of the stone block with a Vespasian’s inscription, also found in Bribir. Exhibiting various approaches used in their construction, Varvaria’s walls are the best example for studying the development of defense fortifications in the Liburnian territory. Complementing the literature on the phases of fortification construction, this paper elaborates on two phases – the one preceding the phase the beginning of which is dated to the mid1st century BC and the one that was built before the adaptation in the Justinian period and has been recreated on the basis of a comparative analysis of the western and eastern sections. The stela from Archaeology Museum Zadar, depicting a soldier, is part of the modest collection of stelae of this type found on the Eastern Adriatic coast. It is a gabled stela the inscribed part of which has not been preserved. The fragment this paper is focused on contains a standing figure that, based on its accouterments and the way it is depicted, could be dated to the mid-1st century AD or the beginning of its second half. Based on the available literature and the site where it was found, the stone block with an inscription to Emperor Vespasian (CIL III 10179), identified as a milestone that was destroyed in the meantime, should be identified as an inscription erected to honor an important event – possibly the adaptation of part of the western wall from which it probably rolled away during one of the devastations the wall had sustained.
Keywords
defense walls; phases of construction; stela; standing figure; honorary inscription; Vespasian
Hrčak ID:
162408
URI
Publication date:
10.5.2016.
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