Original scientific paper
Argyruntum and Its Territory in Antiquity
Martina Dubolnić
; Zavod za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Zadru, Zadar, Hrvatska
Abstract
The Roman city which is mentioned by writers of Antiquity as Argyruntum was located on the site of the center of today’s Starigrad Paklenica on the location known as Punta alongside the shores of the Velebit canal. Findings of epigraphic monuments with inscriptions bearing the name of emperor Tiberius and archeological excavations carried out in 1908 when the city necropolis and a part of the guise of the city wall were discovered confirmed the existence of the Roman city−municipality on this location. On the basis of the results of new investigations, the article sets forth the author’s views relating to the beginnings of the pre-Roman civitas which, as the later Roman community, encompassed the territory of 18 fort-hill settlements and occupied a surface of about 220−250 square kilometers. The article documents some new pre-historical excavation sites (Trošeljeva gradina, Gradina Silna gromila, seven stone hummocks, the Sopnjača cave) as well as some already registered but insufficiently known localities (Gradina on Veliki Vitrenik, Gradina Kneževići) in the vicinity of the city. The article comes to some conclusions relating to the founding and the urban appearance of the antique city, particularly its center where, on the basis of data from literature and remnants on the ground, it is supposed that a Roman forum and a temple stood. The article sets down also facts about the population, the municipal constitution, the economy and the size of the city territory. On the basis of findings from the city necropolis it is supposed that the city was founded at the beginning of the 4th century. In the vicinity of Argyruntum in late Antiquity two fortresses on the localities of Saint Trojica and Gradina above Modrič were built and these are also documented in the article.
Keywords
Argyruntum; Starigrad Paklenica; Antiquity
Hrčak ID:
26681
URI
Publication date:
19.12.2007.
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