Mogorjelo od vile do kastruma
Mogorjelo from Villa to Castrum

Summary/Abstract: Mogorjelo is a well known ancient site on the lower Narenta (Neretva) river, north of the ancient Illyro-Greek emporium and later Roman colony of Narona. In this area the Romans arrived in their first incursions onto the eastern Adriatic coast. Narona was their military stronghold during the conquest of this part'of Illyricum. The colonists from Italy founded their large estates already in the 1st century B.C. with villae rusticae as their centres. One of those villas was Mogorjelo, whose ancient name is not preserved. It was excavated by Carl Patsch 1899-1903. Regrettably Patsch never published the results of his explorations nor interpreted the site as a Roman castrum from the period of the pacification of the Illyrians, especially the Delmatae in this region in their great rebellion 6-9. A.D. The fertile land around the estuary of the Narenta river was divided between the veterans and colonists. Several luxurious villas are known in the surrounding countryside. The new conservation of the monument together with some revised excavations by Đuro Basler and Ivo Bojanovski has shown the existence of the century villa. The building tile with the stamp of Parisians confirms this conculusion. In the late antiquity after the invasions of the Goths at the beginning of the 4th cenury A.D. Mogorjelo was rebuilt as the castrum from the defense of the city of Narona to the south.. Probably the early Christian double basilica vas built then. Some new finds (the Carolingian sword and the early Croatian ear-rings) indicate the continuity of this defensive function in the early Middle Ages.

• Details
• Contents