Original scientific paper
Prizna and Sutojanj - Fortifications of the Justinian Era
Željko Tomičić
; Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti
Abstract
Taking as an example a part of the Velebit coastal area and the Pag archipelago group in the northern Dalmatian islands, in our paper dedicated to Nenad Cambi, whose work and life we are celebrating, we look at two important points in the area. Concerned are the positions of the fortification complexes of Gradina on Prizna, on the northern coastal rim of the Velebit Channel, located opposite the fortress of Sutojanj on the northern point of Pag Island. These are examples of fortified compact settlements with important components, or ports, which fit into the circum-Mediterranean image of the castrification typical of the epoch of Emperor Justinian I (527-565). Reference to these two examples of forts is particularly important, for with the other fortifications along the northern coast of the Velebit Channel the beginnings of the process of the castrification in the archipelago and along the eastern facade of the Adriatic can be depicted. This process also defined the beginnings of the Early Middle Ages. During summer and late autumn 1989 and 1990 the present author carried out a detailed reconnoitre of the field in the area from the strait of Novsko ždrilo in the south east to Donja Prizna on the south west of the Velebit Channel. Also carried out was an immediate field autopsy of the western part of the island of Pag. During these investigations an endeavour was made to verify the hypothesis that there are several new sites, or sites not well enough known to scholarship, on which there are significant characteristics of military construction from the time of the early rule of Byzantium in the Adriatic. From the field walking and remote research and the interpretation of monumental complexes and visits to the fortifications in Prizna and Sutojanj, it is possible to conclude that the archaeological facts found can persuade us that they belonged to a very important cultural and historical bridge across which Late Antiquity we gradually transited into the Early Middle Age. This is a very interesting transitional period marked by the widely ranging activity of the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I (537-565). The consequences of this activity are revealed on the eastern facade and the archipelago of the Adriatic and in its hinterland with a unique organisation of the physical space, with the building of new types of fort, with the renovation of the fortifications of urban centres, with marked secular and religious construction going on in every corner of the vast empire, then with the thallasocracy in the Mediterranean, and its northernmost gulf, the Adriatic. The new urbanism on the classical base, the victorious progress of Christianity marked by the policy and personality of Justinian I, the wide ranging commerce over great distances, founded on well distributed artistic and artisanal work, then warfare at several theatres of war, all changed the organisation of the space and created new cultural landscapes. Such landscapes, with their new place names, particularly the hagyotoponyms and the lasting points of reference - the forts and churches, were turned into a part of the world heritage that should be the subject of scholarly research, evaluation and presentation as added value to the tourist product. The epoch of Justinian I had a crucial influence on the beginnings of the formation of the early Middle Ages and at the same time preceded the long-lasting presence of the Byzantine Empire in the urban centres up and down the easternmshores of the Adriatic.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
240838
URI
Publication date:
29.6.2020.
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