Selected Archaeological finds and plans at the Roman villa in Soline Bay, Sv. Klement Island, Croatia 2010 – 2019
These are fragments of two hemispherical drinking cups, made in molds decorated with motifs of theater masks and palm leaves. The ware was manufactured in Greece and in various regional Mediterranean workshops in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE.
This is a rim fragment of a dish decorated with a motif of a hanging garland. This mold-made luxury tableware is distinguished by its brilliant red, glossy slip. Decorated sets of cups, bowls and plates were made in molds and often stamped with the name of the manufacturer. Workshops were located in north and central Italy and were active from the 1st century BCE to the 1st century CE.
This is a fragment from the base of a large plate stamped with a cross. This fine tableware was imported from North African workshops located in present-day Tunisia. Imports of North African Red Slip Ware were common in the Mediterranean regions from the 2nd to the 7th c. Small bowls and large plates and dishes were decorated with stamped motifs on the bottom of the interior and Christian symbols became common in the 5th-7th centuries.
An almost complete wine amphora was found embedded against a wall foundation in the production area of the villa. The top and handles were missing, perhaps broken off on purpose to use the amphora as a storage vessel or for holding water.
Such lids with letters or other symbols are associated with Greco-Italic wine amphorae of the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE.
Many such fragments were found in almost all excavated trenches, but were most concentrated in the production area of the villa.
This is a fragment from an Imperial workshop located in northern Italy in the river Po valley, identified by the “Pansiana” stamp. Ceramic building materials, notably roof tiles from this imperial source were exported across the entire Adriatic region from the time of Augustus to the 3rd century. Pansiana started as a private workshop by the senatorial family of Pansa Vibi (the name on the earliest stamp) in the mid 1st c. BCE, when exports were limited to the northern Adriatic. After Pansiana became an imperial workshop, its materials were exported more broadly.
Remembered as Julian the Apostate, he was the last non-Christian ruler of the Roman Empire, a rare post-Constantinian emperor who rejected Christianity and attempted to return the empire to Neoplatonic Hellenism.
This is one of over 90 coins unearthed since 2008. Roman coins found at the villa site range in date from a Republican bronze of the late 3rd century BCE to late Roman imperial coins of the 5th century CE. The great majority are from the Late Empire 4th-5th century.
This coin can be find at romancoins.omeka.net
This broken but almost complete pitcher was found embedded in the soil against the foundation of the western perimeter wall in the production area of the villa.
This type of Roman key generally dates from the 2nd to the 4th century CE and was found in the fill layer in the northwestern sector of the production area of the villa.
The Soline villa was in use from the 1st-6th centuries CE with at least two phases of construction. The wall painting fragments (some in true fresco and some fresco secco) were not found in situ, but come from secondary fill. The non-figural patterns are too fragmentary to reconstruct, but the designs and pigments are broadly similar to late Roman wall painting at other Mediterranean sites.
