Peljesac Peninsula – A great archaeological discovery

A great discovery on Peljesac peninsula. A team of archaeologists has investigated graves dating back to the 11th century BC. In one of them, a multitude of jewellery was found as well as an exceptional Greek-Illyrian helmet, one of only a few in the whole world.

This is the moment when, after two and a half millennia, the Greco-Illyrian helmet saw the light of day. The extremely rare invention as there are only about 10 such helmets in the whole world.

They were worn from the 7th century until the 3rd century BC and in each of these periods, they had the significance of actually defining members of the elite, the warrior elites who actually ruled the communities of the time.

dr.sc. Hrvoje Potrebica, Department of Archeology, Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb

Works on this location on Peljesac peninsula began this summer and continued last week. The tomb from the fourth century BC hides a real historical treasure.

What we see, in any case, are fragments of a Greek vessel, neskifos, with a handle. Next to it are fragments of a bronze bracelet, which is usually found as part of the jewellery of women of that time, so we are talking about the time somewhere in the fourth century BC.

dr.sc. Marko Dizdar, Director of the Institute of Archeology of Zagreb

For this mound here, experts believe it is a tomb from the fourth century or fifth century BC. There are at least fifteen such mounds in this area, which tells us that there used to be a significant settlement here, but it also tells us that archaeologists will still have work to do here for decades, said HRT reporter Vicko Dragojević.

Now we actually have a few years to document the area to actually know what we have in that area from the archaeological findings. And then when we understand the landscape, in parallel we will conduct targeted research on the most endangered parts.

Potrebica

And finally, this should become one huge international interdisciplinary project, because there are extremely rare objects that, thanks to archaeological forensics, can reveal something that cannot be found anywhere else.

Source: Morski.hr