Original scientific paper
A Secret City - A City of Secrets Oporovina and the Cave System in the Canyon at Lovranska Draga
Martina Blečić Kavur
orcid.org/0000-0002-7626-6484
; University of Primorska Faculty of Humanities
Darko Komšo
orcid.org/0000-0001-9772-7481
; Archaeological Museum of Istria Carrarina 3, 52100 Pula
Abstract
This paper presents the research of the cave complex in the Medvejica stream canyon, i.e. the Lovranska Draga valley, conducted in 2006. The discussion is based on a comparative analysis and evaluation of the results of previous investigations in relation to newly gathered data. The paper discusses fourteen caves and abris in which anthropogenic activity has been registered. The greatest focus is dedicated to the research of the central Oporovina Cave, where two trenches have been excavated. In terms of the chronology, the caves situated on the eastern side of the canyon, around Oporovina, were
used as seasonal settlement during the Late Neolithic and Eneolithic. On the west side of the canyon, Vrtaška peć 1 was used intermittently and temporarily during the Bronze Age, when life continued at Oporovina. The true cultural metamorphosis of this cave system took place from the late 4th to 6th century, when the indigenous Roman population, likely from nearby Roman Lauriana, sought refuge there during periods of unrest. With the creation of an “building” of significant dimensions in Oporovina and the adaptation of other, smaller caves, this exceptional, carefully planned cave habitation complex would play an important historical role as a Late Antiquity refugium.
Keywords
Istria; Kvarner; Oporovina Cave; cave system; settlement complex; burial; material culture; Neolithic; Eneolithic; Bronze Age; Late Antiquity
Hrčak ID:
182625
URI
Publication date:
12.11.2016.
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