Conducting their research on Lukovac Island, Polish and Croatian archaeologists have established that the inhabitants of present-day Croatia were drinking Egyptian wine as early as 1,500 years ago. This is evidenced by the finding of fragments of Egyptian amphorae made of Nile clay.
The fragments of vessels found by researchers from Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw (UKSW) are characteristic dark brown bottoms with a corrugated structure, made of clay with an admixture of golden mica washed from basalt rocks in the Abyssinian highlands. The fragments of the amphorae will be examined in detail microscopically and archaeometrically, as this is the first discovery of its kind in the north-eastern Adriatic, confirming how far the merchant flotilla had ventured.
Lukovac is a small, rocky island, part of the archipelago of the well-known tourist island of Rab, which has remained uninhabited for hundreds of years. At the time examined by the archaeologists’, it was part of the Roman province of Liburnia.
“During the decline of the Roman Empire, there was a slow decay of state structures. The population left the cities in search of safe places with exceptional defensive qualities, i.e. hills or islands”, says Prof. Fabian Welc from UKSW.
The researcher points out that although the Roman diaspora lived on the island in conditions that differed from those in the empire, they took care to maintain the spirit of romanitas, which can be translated as Romanness.
“It refers to the observance of the law, the importance attached to a sophisticated table culture, the predilection for the consumption of high-class oil and wine drunk in glass vessels”, adds Prof Welc.
Most of the wine came from Tunisia, about 20 % from the Middle East and a small proportion from Egypt. “This is evidence of the astonishing extent of Byzantine trade. Wine imported from Egypt, Greece and the Middle East reached so far north”, convinces Prof Welc. “What remains to be decided is whether the goods reached there directly or indirectly, sailing from port to port” said the scientist.
Arkadiusz Słomczyński