of ships and sherds

OF SHIPS AND SHERDS
Pottery and People in the Pre- and Proto-History
of Palagruza
Suzanne E Ubick
11/26/2010
Of Ships and Sherds
Pottery ,a man-made form of stone, reveals much about the worldview and daily lives of a people. It is
especially useful in pre- and proto-literate societies. Stylistic traits can identify the origin and the age of
artifacts recovered from an archaeological excavation.
2
Pottery and People in the Pre- and Proto-history of the Adriatic Sea
Treasure, like beauty, lies in the eye of the beholder. To the archaeologist, a hoard of gold-set
jewels may be far less valuable than dirty fragments of old broken clay pots. Jewels and bullion may
show the wealth of individuals or a royal lineage, but sherds can reveal much about daily life of a people;
they may retain residues of foods and drinks, reveal the level of technology of the society, open windows
into the paradigm of the culture, and provide clues to trade networks. Sometimes these battered chips
open doors and windows into a previously unsuspected and unknown world, irrevocably changing our
ideas of history – as happened with archaeological exploration of the tiny island of Palagruža, midway
between the western and eastern coasts of the Adriatic Sea.
Palagruža, scarcely more than a knob of rock, sheer-sided, rising from the most dangerous
waters of the Adriatic, received little scientific attention until very recently. Lacking fresh water and
fertile soil, standing well out to sea, and – above all – very small, there seemed no reason for special
interest, especially with the rich Classical Greek, Hellenistic, and Roman cultural artifacts open for study
around the Adriatic Sea. Yet this 1300 meter long by 300 meter wide islet held a bundle of keys to many
sectors of both prehistory and early history, not only of the Adriatic region but also of cultures as far
away as Attica, Greece.
The English explorer Sir Richard Burton and the Italian archaeologist Carlo de Marchesetti
visited Palagruža, in 1875; their publications of 1877 and 1879 described finds of pottery, lithics, and
human bones. A century later, the Croatian archaeologist Nikša Petric made a brief survey, and
published a synthesis of all known material and papers. At this time, the prehistoric cemetery had
disappeared, including a skeleton “with a stone arrowhead stuck in it” noted by Marchesetti. 1
It was only in 1992 that the Adriatic Islands Project team turned its attention to Palagruža.
1
Forenbaher 2008:235
3
Project members on a day visit saw the lighthouse keeper’s collection of sherds, and themselves
found surface scatters of Neolithic, Late Copper/Early Bronze Age, Greek, and Roman pottery fragments
with other artifacts. Investigations began in earnest in 1994, and are still underway. Excavations have
yielded an astonishing amount of archaeological material, especially sherds, whose analysis has
reworked earlier ideas about the prehistory of the Adriatic region.
Of the more than 23,500 sherds recovered (Table 1), 1,755 were deposited during the Prehistoric
period, and of these a small handful can be confidently dated to the Neolithic age. This is very exciting,
as Palagruža has always been an island, even at the height of the last Glacial Maximum some 13,000
years B.C.E2, when global mean sea level was 120 meters lower than at present 3. It sits atop the Central
Adriatic Shelf, with deep pits south and north, amid swirling east and west bound currents. Artifacts
brought to Palagruža must have come in boats manned by competent mariners. The sea was long seen as
a barrier to early peoples, and it was considered that Neolithic technologies spread very slowly, through
2
3
Forenbaher 2009:74
Forenbaher 2002:362
4
mostly land-based diffusion from the burgeoning cultural centers in Anatolia. These finds show that
South Slope Layer 4050
1522 7978 2576
North Slope
233 414
77
Equivalent to Layer 4050
Central Salamandrija Plateau
0
15
26
Totals:
1755 1407 2679
2409 3896 389 2529
62 349 216 1188
41
270 250
47
2512 4515 855 3764
Medieval/Modern
Tiles
Amphorae
Coarse Kitchen Ware
Greek &/or Roman
Fine are
Roman FineWare
Greek Fineware
Site
Prehistoric
relatively rapid spread of goods and ideas was possible more than 6,000 years B.C.E.
Total
2 21,301
3 1,908
0 649
5 23,858
Table 1: Summary of finds from excavation sites, Salamandrija Plateau, Palagruža Island. Data extracted
from Kirigin et al., 2010: 70, 78, 79. Tabulated by Ubick 2010.
The oldest ceramics, found in weathered-out
surface scatters of material below the tiny plateau
called Salamandrija, comprise a few small pot sherds
that can be dated to sometime after the end of the
seventh millennium B.C.E. This timespan is known as
the Impresso Culture, or Cardial Impressed Ware,
Adapted from Jose Manuel Benito Alvarez
from the distinctive decoration of its pottery with the
shell of an edible cockle, Cardium rusticum. Croatian archaeologist Dinko Radic describes this
“remarkably uniform across the circum-Mediterranean” ware as “strictly functional” in shape, with
“coarse surfaces, decorated by primitive techniques[…].”4
4
http://www.vela-spila.hr/eng/early-neolithic.html
5
Radic delimits three chronological stages of Cardial Impressed Ware:

“Thick-walled ware with carefully smoothed surface, decorated with dense, deep impressions,
and less frequently, pinching and short incision.” Decoration often applied in registers.

Ongoing refinement of the extant tradition; thinner walls, decoration mostly impressions and
short linear incisions. Impressed zigzags begin to appear.

The impressed zigzag is now common, while all earlier adornment techniques are still practiced.
New shapes appear, while clay is of much higher quality and lighter-colored.
Neolithic sherds found on Palagruza
Segments 1, 2, and 3 (numbering added for clarity) belong to one artifact, more finely fashioned,
while fragment 4 is the sole survivor of another, clunkier, piece. In the first item, the serrations appear to
be clustered and roughly aligned in rows. The slashes on Piece 3 look like incisions made with a stone
blade rather than the heavily grooved outer edge of the shell.
The dark brown color of the sherds, shown right in the
2003 photograph published by Kirigin et al, indicates that this is
very early pottery. The pieces are thick. The clay is coarse and
includes several different grain sizes of other material, and – while
the sherds are smoothed somewhat – they are not burnished.
Distinct ridged lines are visible in both images, clearly the
impressions of the serrated edge of the cardium shell.. The fourth sherd, lacking decoration, may have
6
been the base of a bowl or vase. Forenbaher quotes Műller (1994: 152-153) in assigning this simple
decoration to the early phase of the Cardial Impressed Ware, 6000-5500 B.C.E.5
Similar coarseware was still produced in Dalmatia, on the island of Iž , in 1988. Pottery was
produced without any machinery – even the wheel was hand-operated, like a Lazy Susan – or a kiln.
Leather-hard pieces were warmed in the sun, then placed directly onto ground preheated by the burning
of grass and olive prunings, then covered with more brush from the native maquis vegetation, and
thicker olive prunings to create a fierce fire that lasted about two minutes. The firing was repeated until
the pots changed color from red to orange, which signifies vitrification. These pots could not be told
apart from those made in the Iron Age of the region. 6 Early Neolithic pottery may have been produced
by the same technique.
Although only a few Neolithic sherds have been recovered, this may not reflect actual usage of
the island as a stepping stone across the Adriatic. During the
Neolithic Period, the Adriatic sealevel was 15 meters lower than
today7, so there may have been other landing places, now drowned,
available to early mariners8. Further, Palagruža lies in the path of
both summer and winter storms. Heavy seas continuously undercut
the sheer cliffs, and tons of rock fall into the sea each season,
taking whatever artifacts they may have concealed with them; Forenbaher postulates that 8,000 years ago
the island may have been twice its present size9.
After the Neolithic visits, there seems to have been a hiatus in regular cross-Adriatic travel until
the late Copper Age. Stašo Forenbaher suggests that the apparent absence of visits may be owing to the
use of larger boats which could not be hauled out of the water, so that crews may have spent the night on
5
Forenbaher 2005:13
Carlton 1988:109
7
Forenbaher 2008:233
8
Forenbaher 2009:75
9
Forenbaher 2009:75
6
7
board in the lee of the island10. Kirigin et al. assert that early sailors both sailed at night and, using square
sails, could tack against the wind, traveling faster and farther and able to bypass dangerous shoals11.
In the Late Copper Age, spanning the Early Bronze Age, Palagruža became the base of an arms
factory. Nodules of blue-grey radiolarian chert abound on the island’s neighbor, Mala Palagruža, where a
prehistoric quarry site has been identified. Chert was ferried the 200 meters to the bigger island. Expert
knappers shaped the cores into projectile points, especially arrow heads, fashioned sharp-edged
bladelets, and chipped out guards to protect the wrists of archers. More than 1,500 pottery fragments are
associated with the lithic industry; they date to the Cetina Culture, which pervaded the Adriatic Region
around 2600 – 1800 B.C.E, during the late Copper Age and Earlier Bronze Age of Dalmatia as defined
by Chapman et al. 1996:7. Philippe della Casa envisions Dalmatia as “an important zone of contact
between the Adriatic, the Danube region, and the Eastern Mediterranean”, and considers the appearance
of Cetina ceramics to mark the transition from Copper to Bronze Age12.
Dinko Radic classifies Cetina ware by “flat rims decorated by impression; thickened ring-like
rims decorated by horizontall (sic) series of impressions; frequent use of plain or decorated plastic
appliqué bands…[with] pinched finger marks”. Handles may be “tunnel-shaped”, “X-shaped”, or “kneeshaped,” while jars are globe-shaped, with cylindrical necks, “X-shaped handles and a rim that is
sometimes everted.”13 Della Casa stresses “pottery shapes such as beakers and jugs with cylindrical
necks and funnel-shaped rims 14.. Forenbaher describes “complex comb-impressed, or incised-andimpressed geometric designs, running in horizontal bands around the pottery.” 15 His 1999 paper, p. 315,
recognizes three phases: Cetina 1: “rocker or roulette decoration;” Cetina 2: “elaborate geometric incised
and impressed designs:” and Cetina 3: “high strap handles, shoulder channeling,. . .. diagnostic of Later
Bronze Age.”
10
Forenbaher 2009:84
Kirigin et al. 2009:143-144
12
Della Casa 1995:565-566
13
Radic, http://www.vela-spila.hr/eng/bronze-age.html
14
Della Casa 1995:566, 571
15
Forenbaher 2009:80
11
8
These pot fragments 16 a-e, belong to the Cetina 1
period. All of them have decoration in registers.
Sherds a, b, and e exhibit impressed decoration, using
a blunt-ended instrument to create small pits,
regularly spaced. Sherds c and d display bands of
incisions, which in sherd c alternate direction in a
rocker effect in the upper band. Sherds f and g are of
Cetina 2 vintage; f clearly presents an impressed
design applied by roulette, while sherd g has sharp
clean right-angled channels, like a frame, made by
impression rather than incision.
16
Kaiser & Forenbaher, 1999:317
9
The sherds shown above reveal much about their position within the item, and the shape of the
vessel from which they came, as well as exhibiting the stylistic elements identified by Radic and
Forenbaher. All fragments have been carefully smoothed and burnished, before application of the
decoration. The clay is notably lighter in color and more finely textured than that used in the Neolithic
sherds shown above. There are fewer inclusions, with those present being of smaller grain size, implying
that the raw clay was well washed and possibly even sieved before use in pot-making. This increased
plasticity and inherent strength supports manufacture of finer ware. If the clay did not contain natural
fluxes, the technology of the time, 2600-2200 B.C.E17., knew the importance of adding various nonburning materials to clays to prevent cracking during drying prior to firing, and to lower the fire
temperature required18. Early glazing may have been achieved by shoveling in table salt, sodium
chloride, at the end of the firing19. Glazing makes a vessel waterproof, extending its usefulness as a
storage vessel. Firing temperature depends heavily on sufficient fuel of high enough quality.
The decoration of these vessels has been applied in horizontal bands, even when elements
include diagonal slashes or closely spaced punctures. Sherd 12, shown here as a rim of vase B, exhibits
rim eversion, and strongly rhythmic repetition of a half zig-zag. A sharp-pointed tool has been used to
impress holes into the triangles, as well as to produce both horizontal and diagonal bands of punctures
onto Sherd 6, shown here as part of the body of a shallow bowl. Sherds1 and 2 are probably also scraps
of everted rims. The evenness of the pieces suggests that they were thrown on a wheel by an experienced
artisan; earliest known use of a pottery wheel dates to 5,000 B.C.E., in Worka [ancient Uruk].20 Sherd 11
has a plain finish above a zigzag punctured design, and appears to be associated with Sherd 3, as part of
a larger, deeper, bowl. Sherd 13, shown by Forenbaher as part of the rim of Vessel C, exhibits the
application of an appliqué; a band of clay has been cut into shape with a sharp tool, judging by the
cleanness of the edges, and set onto another piece, using a slip as glue.
17
Della Casa 1995:572.
Rado 1969:1-6.
19
Rado 1969:127
20
Rado 1969:3.
18
10
The position of a fragment within the original, unbroken, ceramic piece can be identified with a
fair degree of certainty. Curvature varies over an object, depending on relative height and width; it is
most pronounced at sharply constricted points, like the shoulders and neck of a jug or bottle. Flat pieces
with an upright portion come from the edge of the vessel base, while flat fragments lacking such edges
are from the central portion of the base. Handles are usually easily recognized both by shape and by
increased thickness, and 59 fragments of kylix handles have been identified among the clay treasures 21.
Other portions, like the base of a cooking pot, may be thicker relative to the sides. Overall, the size of a
sherd, especially items like handles and bases, is a good indicator of the original object’s size. Greek
pottery is “strongly articulated. Mouth, neck, body and foot usually were set off from one another.”22
These clean sharp changes in the shape make it easier to recognize both Greek origin and shape and size
of the pot.
The lithic industry appears to have come to a more or less sudden halt, indicated by the
disappearance of Cetina ware. Forenbaher ascribes this economic slump to the likely collapse of the
elite-driven loosely connected societies of the time, a situation he considers to be “inherently unstable.”23
The next phase of trans-Adriatic travel is again evidenced by ceramics, this time linking
Palagruža with Greece. Both black- and red-figured pottery remnants have been recovered, and more
than 700 painted sherds remain to be cataloged and described24. Čače et al. describe these artifacts as
“representing kylixes and skyphoi, as well as bowls, plates, and hydriae. 25” The bowls found are almost
all fineware, small and elaborately decorated, of the type used for votive offerings of wine. 26 One
21
Kirigin et al. 2009:85
Folsom 1967:149
23
Forenbaher 2009:84
24
Forenbaher 2010, pers. comm.
25
Cace et al. 2001:243
26
Forenbaher 2008: 438
22
11
lekythos, used for storing olive oil, has been found27. Kylixes and skyphoi are large drinking cups,
associated with wine drunk during communal meals, while hydriae carried fresh water.
Basic Shapes for Greek Pottery Vessels; copied from Folsom 1967:103-106
Skyphos
Two horizontal handles
attached near rim. Deep
drinking cup, stemless, used
for communal meals.
Kylixes
Can be stemmed or stemless.
Large handles applied halfway up
body, extending well above rim.
Used for communal meals.
Hydria
12-18”/30-45cm tall.
2 horizontal side
handles, 1 vertical
back handle.
Lekythos
3-12”/7.530cm high.
Narrow neck,
deep mouth,
single
handle.
All of the “Greek Archaic and Classical pottery” remnants are Attic28. Attic pottery can be
distinguished by its natural orangey-red color. The clay contains up to 10% iron oxide, a natural flux29
which allows ceramics to be fired at no more than 900°C for biscuit stage, and 1000-1100°C for glazing.
Stoneware requires a biscuit fire of 1100-1300°C, with a glazing fire of 1000-1100°C30. These reddish
clays usually occur with little to no overburden, making them very easy to mine and work31. Table 2
summarizes the diagnostic characteristics of various phases of Attic pottery.
27
Kirigin et al. 2010:80
Kirigin et al. 2009:141
29
Rado 1969:22
30
Rado 1969:4
31
Rado 1969:22
28
12
Table 2. ATTIC POTTERY STYLES.
Information from Folsom 1967, pp. 29-30, Color Chart between pp. 201 and 205. Tabulated by Ubick 2010
Date
Style
Distinguishing characteristics
710-610 B.C.E.
Black slip used to produce silhouette designs of animals and
Proto-Attic
humans, together with geometric designs, “solid rays, hooked
Background color:
spirals, spotted leaves, cables, etc.” Humans and animals have
Yellowish, buff,
reserved faces. Poorly proportioned, badly planned decoration using
creamy slip
whole surface of pot. Events from mythology begin to appear.
Design colors:Black,
~650 B.C.E.
White paint appears on ceramics.
purple;
~675 B.C.E.
Details dull yellow and Red paint appears on ceramics.
dull white; Late period:
yellow-brown and
bluish-green.
610-450 B.C.E.
Humans have frontal torso, profile legs, profile face, frontal eye.
Attic Black Figure
Decoration applied in panels and bands; sometimes with titles.
Background color:
Details, e.g. hair, produced by incision. Earliest ware provides
Orange
narrative scenes of gods, humans, and mythological figures;
Design colors: Black
followed by mood-evoking portrayals; finally everyday life
(shiny)
happenings.
Details: purple, white.
~610 B.C.E.
Rare depictions of frontal faces.
~600-575 B.C.E. Late Attic: white slip Dionysus and satyrs enter canon.
~575 B.C.E.
used as background for Artists begin to sign work; earliest example “Sophilos”.
~570 B.C.E.
Introduction of sex-linked color; men black, women white.
glossy black figures.
~566-560 B.C.E.
Introduction of Panathenaic amphorae; awarded at athletic games.
Athena faces left until ~355 B.C.E.; thereafter she faces right.
~520 B.C.E.
Peplos replaced by chiton; drapery increasingly detailed.
~530 - 480
Daily life scenes almost totally replace mythological depictions.
Attic Red Figure
B.C.E.
Human torso now in profile, full, or three-quarter view. ThreeBackground shiny
black. Design Orange- quarter face now common. Profile eye replaces frontal eye.
Hairstyles reserved. Little ornamentation other than human figures.
red.
Details: earlier: Purple.
Later: Yellow,
brownish-yellow,
white, red, gold.
480-323 B.C.E.
Pleasant everyday scenes predominated. Details no longer incised;
Classical
indicated by paint. Perspective appears first in furniture and later in
figures. Very detailed contours and clothing, tending eventually to
fussiness. Two or three stereotyped male youths appear on back on
pot.
323-146 B.C.E.
Plastic ornamentation replaces paint, as relief and impression come
Hellenistic
Background: white slip into style. Painting simple and not intimately engaged with vessel.
Ivy, vines, wreaths become common. Artists appear to lack talent
Design: Pink, red,
and skill.
blue, yellow-brown,
brown, black (usually
several)
Also: Matt black
background with
designs in white,
yellow, purple, gold.
13
Black and red figured sherds from Palagruža. Kirigin et al. 2010.
Black-figured ware developed during the earlier part of the Greek Archaic Period, 600-490
B.C.E. It is highly diagnostic, expressing the keen Greek interest in expressing greater reality and
naturalism along with building the Greek paradigm of exploration of identity and selfhood, and pursuit
of a canon of beauty and aesthetics, as described by Diana Scott.32 The black-figured sherd, top left,
shows the distinctive Greek treatment of the human body. A nude man has been painted on the vessel,
using a black slip, and the details of his arms and beard have been produced by scratching through the
glaze to reveal the natural reddish color of the clay. However, the style, especially the anatomically
incorrect depiction of the visible arm, the solid black silhouette with minimal face, and crowded effect
due to closely spaced design elements, could indicate the Proto-Attic, 710-610 B.C.E. (See Table 2.).
The other fragments are all red-figure ware, probably produced after 490 B.C.E., when redfigure superseded black-figure ware. Throughout their history, Scott explains, the Greeks were
constantly experimenting and refining their thoughts and their techniques, serendipitously making it
32
Scott 2010, Class Notes.
14
possible for the archaeologist to focus ever more finely and establish more certain chronologies. Peter
Throckmorton says that “stylistic comparison of potsherds from one site with pottery found and dated
elsewhere in the Mediterranean frequently enables an expert to place their dates within a century,”33
while Scott believes it possible to recognize 25 – 50 year intervals 34.
The transition to red-figured ware, says Scott, gave the artist great freedom in expressing his
vision. Painting the figures, with brushes of varying thickness, in black slip onto the vase, either au
naturel or coated with a colored slip, permitted much more flowing, elegant treatment of the subject.
With more elegance came a higher degree of realism.
The nude man on the red-figured sherd at the bottom right of the image can be directly compared
with the black-figured fragment at the top left. While both depict highly curvilinear subjects, the redfigured male is markedly more realistic. The profile eye in the profile face indicates a date after 530
B.C.E. The arm of the black-figured male is somewhat off-kilter, both in position and in structure,
hollow where the bulge of the tricep should be and joined to the shoulder in a non-anatomically correct
manner. The face is stylized and generic, indicated by the beard, whereas the red-figure male has actual
facial features. The central sherd shows the degree of detail that could be achieved by a ceramic artist;
the proportions of the arm and torso are yet closer to realistic, suggesting that this particular piece could
be younger than the others, and that Palagruža was being visited regularly over a long time period.
Given the previously described paucity of resources of the island, and the relative difficulty of
access (there are only two possible landing places, which require visitors to swim ashore if no small boat
is available35, the question naturally arises as to why Palagruža was such a popular port of call. Chert
blades were long out of fashion, and the lithics works long disused. The Bronze Age had transitioned
into the Iron Age four hundred years before36, and stone was no longer used even for agricultural tools.
33
Throckmorton 1962:698
Scott 2010: Class Notes
35
Kirigin 2009:138
36
Chapman 1977:7
34
15
The answer to this question of why so many people would visit this speck of rock over such a long
period incidentally solved a long-standing archaeological mystery; again, it was pottery that provided the
crucial clues.
As the sherds were sorted by the archaeologists, inscribed
ostraka were discovered, indicating that the island had been a cult
center. First one sherd, and then others, turned up with the name
“Diomedes” written on them in Ionic and Aeginetan script. More
than 200 inscribed ostraka have now been identified, of which
only 20 have been published and the rest are still to be
National Express, Croatia
cataloged37,38. It has been known since antiquity that Diomedes, a hero of the Trojan War mythology,
became the cult patron of sailors and merchants, and that “Islands of Diomedes” housing a shrine,
“beautiful and holy,” according to Aristotle 39 were to be found in the Adriatic.
Maria Paola Castiglioni reports that Pliny the Elder placed a promontorium Diomedis along the
Dalmatian coast, but was the sole source for this location, and scholars did not take the report seriously.
Strabo (63/64 B.C.E. – 24 A.C.E.) does not give a precise location for these islands in his geographical
work, and it became received wisdom that the islands were to be found off the Italian coast, as one
variant of the Diomedes story has him fleeing his murderous wife and her lover to take refuge in
Daunia40, just north of the Gargano Peninsula forming the spur on Italy’s boot. The Tremiti Islands are
Italy’s only islands, hence it seemed logical that they housed the tomb, and – at some time – the shrine of
Diomedes, although little archaeological evidence was found to support the hypothesis.
37
Kirigin 2009:141
Mise 2010 Pers. Comm.
39
Kirigin et al. 2009:143
40
Castiglioni 2008:9-13.
38
16
The discovery of the Diomedes ostraka on Palagruža suggested otherwise in 1998. As research
continued, the number of these finds increased and - together with votive offerings of “coins, gems,
rings, fibulae, dice….lamps and terracottas41” - now
make it almost certain that there was a shrine on the
Salamandrija plateau of Palagruža,42. Without the
evidence of the ceramics, the sanctuary’s existence
would never have been suspected, due to damage and
Kirigin et al. 2009: 138
1. Landing; 2. Salamandrija; 3: Lighthouse.
reworking of the site
“by the Late Roman
fortification, the mid 19th Century church of St.
Michael, several cisterns and water collecting pavements, the two Italian military installations, and the
erosion” that have succeeded its probable 6th Century B.C.E. origin43.
41
Kirigin et al. 2009:141
Cace et al. 2001:243
43
Kirigin et al. 2009: 141
42
17
Sherd # 1 in this image44, is the original ostrakon that catalyzed new research into the Islands of
Diomedes. The sherds span the period from the “late 6th Century BC – 1st/2nd century AD” from Attic
through Hellenistic to Roman times. The inscriptions so far deciphered record names of devotees, and
their prayers for good weather and safe homecomings 45. Similar sherds have been recovered from Cape
Ploča, between Šibenik and Trogir on the Dalmatian coast. This is another dangerous region for
shipping. Interestingly, the Diomedes cult became established at Cape Ploča only during the Hellenistic
period, 200 years after Palagruža’s shrine was set up.
Sherd #8, despite containing only two words, has yet
much to tell. This dedication, written in Aeginetan script, was
made by a man called Soleios. A drinking cup of the same
date, c. 500 B.C.E. found at Adria, is marked with its owner’s
name, Soleios 46. If this is the same man, there is reason to
believe that regular north-south shipping routes existed along
the Adriatic. Once a thriving seaport, silting of the shallow
northwestern sea after the Etruscan –dug drainage ditches fell into disuse after the first century set Adria
15 miles inland. Similar black- and red- figure ceramics have been
found in Spina47 Both Adria and Spina are said to have been founded
by Diomedes48 after his immigration to Daunia. The map, left, shows
the relative positions of the two Diomedes shrines and the two ports
under the protection of Diomedes.
44
Kirigin et al. 2009:142
Kirigin et al. 2009:142
46
Kirigin 2009:14
47
Castiglioni 2008:21
48
Castiglioni, 2008:12
45
18
These two sherds, Attic ware of the 5th Century
B.C.E.49, exhibit plastic modeling. The human eye has been
carved into the clay, while the red sherd on the right
displays a pattern of small raised discs. Their regularity and
even spacing indicate the use of a tool, perhaps a roulette
gear, although it looks as if these small pegs were added
after the black paint was applied. The lower right-hand portion of the piece shows small shallow scars
where discs have come off.
The lekythos pictured left portrays a hero, either Theseus or Heracles in a bull fight. This oil jar
was produced at the end of the 6th century B.C.E.50 The mythological scene is
typical of the earliest period of Black-Figured Attic Ware. The bull and man are
both depicted in solid silhouette with crowded decoration in the form of stripes
and dots on the vase’s shoulders and neck. The decoration plays no part in the
scene; indeed, it unconformably impinges on the hero’s head and the bull’s tail.
The perspective is skewed, and the hero’s arm much too long for the
Kirigin et al. 2010:80
proportions of the body, while the bull’s tail is more like that of a horse than a
bovine. (See Table 2.)
Given Palagruža’s near-inaccessibility and its barrenness, especially lack of potable water,
travelers must have stayed only a day or two, en route to richer destinations. The importance of
Palagruža’s location, becomes obvious with the aid of the pottery. The Adriatic Islands Bridge allows
hopscotching of even small boats from one coast to the other, with no more than a day’s travel required
between islands. Palagruža is the one place from which, on a clear day, both coasts of the Adriatic can be
49
50
Kirigin et al. 2004:
Kirigin et al. 2009:80
19
seen51. There is a north-flowing current along the eastern shore, which bends sharply westward at the
Central Adriatic Shelf, flowing toward Italy at up to 6 knots/hour52. The western coastline directs a
south-flowing current, deflected eastward at the Shelf toward Croatia, also at up to 6 knots/hour. The
richest fisheries in the Adriatic, especially for sardines, lie here53. From a cult shrine atop Salamandrija,
60 meters above sea level, or with all-round visibility is excellent on a clear day, allowing sailors to get
their bearings for their destinations, as well as assess weather conditions 54. Astute seafarers like the
Greeks would recognize and exploit these advantages, either for trading or colonization.
Like the keystone in an arch, Palagruža was the most crucial node of the island bridge55.
Whoever controlled it controlled the Adriatic Sea, as gatekeepers of the Strait of Otranto linking the
Adriatic with the Ionian Sea, and thus the trading routes linking the Baltic Peninsula, western and eastern
Europe, and the greater Mediterranean. Pianosa Island, one of the Tremiti archipelago of Italy, lies only
28 miles/46 kilometers away, and from there it is possible to reach the Gargano Peninsula of Italy with a
sea run of another 22 miles/35 kilometers. This would be no more than two days travel, with a night on
Pianosa Island in between, for a prehistoric boat. Looking toward the Dalmatian coast, it is 28 miles/45
kilometers to the island of Sušac, thence easy day sailings to the islands of Vis, Mljet, Korčula, Hvar,
Brač, and the eastern mainland. The Romans built a massively walled fort on Palagruža, with water
collecting pavements and cisterns, to protect their interests. Unfortunately, the Romans cleared their
building sites to bedrock and doubtless any remnants of a shrine or other buildings would have been
scraped off the edges of the plateau. This explains the high degree of breakage of artifacts as well as the
admixture of periods in the material.
Were it not for the pottery, these exciting chapters in pre- and proto-history of the Adriatic
region might never have been unfolded. While physical tests like thermoluminescence and thin-
51
Forenbaher 2009:79
Kirigin 2009:137
53
Forenbaher 2009:80
54
Kirigin et al. 2009:143
55
Forenbaher 1999:323
52
20
sectioning of sherds to identify microfossil assemblages unique to particular clay sources are very useful
support tools, stylistic elements of pottery and other artworks remain the most valuable tool in
deciphering history.
21
Appendix 1
Bathymetry of Adriatic Sea. http://engineering.dartmouth.edu/adriatic/bathymetry.html. Adapted from Dr.
Christopher E. Naimie, Dartmouth College
The Palagruža Sill, aka Central Adriatic Shelf, lies at the Adriatic Sea’s waistline. Image:
http://doga.ogs.trieste.it/doga/jwz/miro/NATO1.html
22
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