Settlements in the iron age and classical Antiquity at the foot of Velebit

Abstract

The area at the foot of the Velebit rungc which is investigated acheologically for the Iron Age and classical antiquiti appears as a separate unit, enclosed Dy the mountains and the Kvarner islands. The archeological findings and conclusions drawn from them show that the region was part of the ethnic and cultural heritage of the Adriatic. The harbours and the mountain saddles were natural roads for trade and migrations of prehistoric pocples and cultures.
In the Iron age, settlements developed on the coast and hilltops in the region under Velebit (34). Some of them became administrative, religious and economic centres (civiiatcs) mentioned in the written records from the 4th c. B.C. In the Roman times these civitales became focal points of the Humanisation of the coastal areas and the interior beyond the mountain. At the beginning of the 1st c. A.D. they grew into urban and Romanised urban centers (oppida civiurn Rornanorum). They acquired municipal status under Augustus and Tiberius, which is confirmed in the epigraphic finds. From NW towards SE these centres were: Senia (Scnj), Lopsica (Sv. Juraj), Orlonla (Stinica), Vegium (Karlobag) and Argyruntum (Starigrad - Paklenica). The archeological finds testify to the prosperity of their inhabitants from the 1st to the 4tti c. A.D. Little is known about their destiny during the late antiquity and early Middle Ages, when they declined.