CVIJINA GRADINA- Archeological site

A place of exceptional historical discovery about the existence of Liburnia in this area. A brief overview provided by the Zadar Archaeological Museum, which has carefully researched this archaeological site, is listed below: Cvijina gradina is a settlement founded by the old Liburnians, most probably as early as the beginning of the Iron Age (9th / 8th century BC). Due to its favorable geographical position and as a prominent center of a Liburnian municipality, the settlement continued to live during the ancient period and became a Roman civitas - urban autonomy of the Roman type. To this day, the site has preserved the form of the city with all the basic elements of its urban character - access with entrance, circular city perimeter (ramparts), main plateau and terraces of the residential zone, city communications and cemetery in the southern and southeastern foothills. The north and northwest sides of the settlement are defended by a natural cliff that rises steeply to a height of twenty meters, while the dry stone wall is very well preserved on the less defended south and east sides. Archaeological excavations within the settlement have revealed the walls of houses that are prehistoric in terms of floor plan and spatial layout, ie built in the same way as in other Liburnian settlements as one-room rectangular single-storey houses made of dry clay. During antiquity, the settlement adopted the achievements of the Roman urban style. Like many Liburnian forts where life was continued by the same indigenous population, Cvija's fort has largely retained local traditions, and the city has acquired the attributes characteristic of Roman settlements: on the western edge of the plateau a temple was built which to a well-preserved sculpture of an eagle with lightning in its claws, was dedicated to Jupiter. To the east of the temple, a square alignment is visible, which is possible for the rest of the forum, and on one of the southern terraces, a bathing complex with a preserved mosaic floor has been established. Although older authors believed that the Roman settlement on Cvija gradina was called Clambetae, more recent data show that it was a Roman Ansium. At the southern and southeastern foot of the hillfort is the Liburnian-Roman necropolis, which suffered a lot in the devastation that began at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries by the local population in search of treasure. Intense life within the settlement ceases with the end of antiquity (4th / 5th century AD), and the following historical periods leave no visible traces on it. Due to the importance of the settlement during the Iron Age and antiquity, it is intended to continue systematic archaeological research in several different locations within and around the settlement, which would cover all aspects of city life: housing, economy, defense, cult and burial. (From the Introduction to the Exhibition on this topic, from the Museum's website)