Original scientific paper
The Undersea Discovery of the Lamps from the Time of late Antique in the Bay Polače on the Island Mljet
Anica Kisić
; Institute for Historical Sciences of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Dubrovnik, Croatia
Abstract
The bay Polače on the island Mljet was already much populated from the 1st century A. D. to the 11th century. Owing to its good geographic position it was very important for the navigation across the Adriatic sea in the south a big palace from the time of late antique gives the place a particular importance. The prosperity of Mljet reached its highest point in the 5th and 6th centuries. The bay becomes a real antique port. It is proved by the undersea research. In 1975 a great number of pottery from the time of late antique from the 2nd to the end of the 6th centuries A. D. was found. Most of them are from the 4th to the 6th centuries.
Among the most precious discoveries are 7 larger fragments of the lamps from the time of late antique and early Christian. They were imported from different parts of the west Mediterranean. Two best preserved pieces are pear — like lamps with two motives of Cataros (Singers) and a Palm, and with an engraved ornament of circles. Such kinds of lamps from the old Christian time are called »African« made early in the 4th century in North Africa (Pictures No. 1 and 2).
All other pieces are older and they are transitional forms of round lamps to oval ones which ware made later. It is the lamp with a rosette. This type is very often in Greece and Asia Minor from the end of the 1st A. D. to the 3rd and 4th centuries (picture No. 3). Other 3 fragments of lamps are completely oval and they are important for the later period in development of lamps in the 3rd and the 4th centuries A. D. (pictures No. 5, 6, 7).
Keywords
Mljet; Polače; late antiquity; lamps
Hrčak ID:
244702
URI
Publication date:
30.6.1978.
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