Sara Popovic - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Sara Popovic

Vjesnik Arheološkog muzeja u Zagrebu LVI, 2023

The paper presents the first archaeological excavations at the Gračišće hillfort in the central p... more The paper presents the first archaeological excavations at the Gračišće hillfort in the central part of the island of Hvar, carried out within the Institute of Archaeology’s installation research project, Transforming the Adriatic cosmos: insularity, connectivity and glocal identities of pre-Roman Dalmatia (AdriaCos, CSF UIP 2020-02-2419), in cooperation with the Stari Grad Museum and the Stari Grad Plain Management Agency, a public institution. The excavations identified the remains of a prehistoric rampart; two trenches revealed potsherds, stone products and animal bones. The few finds nevertheless provide valuable insights into the little-known Bronze Age phase of the island of Hvar, narrowed down by radiocarbon dating to the Middle Bronze Age and the very beginning of the Late Bronze Age.

Archaeological investigations are usually focused on areas with the highest concentration of the ... more Archaeological investigations are usually focused on areas with the highest concentration of the remains of the material culture of a community, such as the settlements and cemeteries, while landscapes, including the industrial ones, often remain on the margins of research. This is the case with quarries, which testify to the industrial past of an area and provide an insight into social organization of a society in a given period. In the Mediterranean region, including our coast and islands, ancient quarries are numerous, which extend over large areas of landscape, but since many are used in subsequent periods, traces of extraction of raw material from antiquity are often destroyed. Similar is the case with the quarries found in Stari Grad Bay. Along the northern side of the bay there are six locations with visible traces of stone extraction. Extremely large contour lines of the rock suggested that these are ancient quarries from which large blocks were extracted and used in constru...

Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry 21, 1., 2021

Many interpretations of the ancient cadastre of the Roman colonies of Pola and Parentium on the I... more Many interpretations of the ancient cadastre of the Roman colonies of Pola and Parentium on the Istrian peninsula in Croatia have been offered recently on the basis of satellite imagery and the Croatian topographic map. This grid, spreading continuously over an area of roughly 1200 km 2 , was identified through numerous structures which correspond to the ancient Roman metric system, but they were never a part of further research. This approach enabled identification of structures that were most often visible in the contemporary cadastre, like modern roads or field boundaries, but gaps were left in areas where the modern cadastre did not reflect the ancient one. Until the commission of airborne laser scanning (ALS or LiDAR), from which our research began, one of these gaps was on the northern side of the Lim bay, in the Municipality of Vrsar. Interpretation of ALS data resulted in detecting different, multi-temporal spatial organisations of the landscape, among which were numerous, previously unidentified, remains of the Roman limites. The results of this interpretation guided the field inspection. Different surface manifestations of individual remains were categorized, and it was defined which are the original Roman structures. The results of this structural survey subsequently guided the archaeological excavations. Only with the combination of these procedures it was possible to understand the original construction of the limites.

The Stari Grad Plain is an active rural landscape, where basic geometric structure, set in the 4t... more The Stari Grad Plain is an active rural landscape, where basic geometric structure, set in the 4th century BC by the Greek land division, has been respected over millennia of its continuous use. Precisely because of this best preserved Greek chora (within which 90 individual archaeological sites, as well as numerous ethnographic heritage remains, have thus far been discovered) and the unaltered use of this area, the Plain is scheduled national monument and inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
This paper proposes the methodological framework for the valorization of individual archaeological sites inside the protected area of the Stari Grad Plain. At its first level, it describes a method of processing existing data about the sites and subsequent fieldwork which provided an insight into the current state of the heritage. At its second level, paper presents the results of a retrograde analysis which was used to detect the time and manner of the onset of changes at valuable sites over a longer period, which facilitated a re-assessment of their condition. Defining the causes of changes and evaluating the readiness to deal with them paves the way for an assessment of the success of heritage protection policies. The results of an analysis of the condition of the archaeological heritage inside the Stari Grad Plain’s protected zone, as well as the landscape as a whole, indicate the need for urgent intervention, in which cooperation between institutions for the protection of monuments from the national down to the local level is essential.

The location of Pharos, a Greek colony on the island of Hvar, established 2400 years ago, was sub... more The location of Pharos, a Greek colony on the island of Hvar, established 2400 years ago, was subject of a lively debate among Croatian scholars for a long time. After it was undoubtedly proven that it is in fact in the place of today's Stari Grad, another problem presented itself – a question οf perimeter. Several proposals were brought, but apart from the most recent one, none were based on archaeological research. Since modern Stari Grad mostly lies above ancient Pharos, the opportunities for archaeological excavations are scarce and in that light, the site of Remete Garden is extremely important. The excavations on this site, carried out between 1994 and 2004, unearthed numerous architectural remains, most prominent of which are those of the city walls. They were interpreted as the original Greek fortifications. This paper will present the results of targeted trench excavations conducted by the Stari Grad Museum between 2009 and 2013, which show that this interpretation needs to be reconsidered. This paper will argue that these city walls were constructed in the late 3rd or 2nd century BC after Pharos had been destroyed in the historical battle with Romans.

Archaeologia Adriatica, Dec 27, 2012

sara popović -D. Gervaisa 1, hR-10000 Zagreb sara.popovic@outlook.com U fokusu arheoloških istraž... more sara popović -D. Gervaisa 1, hR-10000 Zagreb sara.popovic@outlook.com U fokusu arheoloških istraživanja najčešće su prostori s najvećom koncentracijom ostataka materijalne kulture jedne zajednice poput naselja i nekropola, dok krajolici, pa time i oni industrijski, često ostaju na margini istraživanja. To je slučaj s kamenolomima, koji svjedoče o industrijskoj prošlosti jednog prostora, a daju uvid i u socijalnu organizaciju društva određenog vremena. U mediteranskoj regiji, pa tako i našoj obali i otocima, antički su kamenolomi izuzetno brojni, zahvaćajući velike površine krajolika, no budući da se mnogi koriste i u kasnijim razdobljima, antički tragovi ekstrakcije sirovine često su uništeni novijima. Sličan je slučaj i s kamenolomima pronađenim u Starogradskom zaljevu. Na sjevernoj strani zaljeva nalazi se šest lokacija na kojima su vidljivi tragovi ekstrakcije kamena. Prirodne, izrazito velike slojnice kamena dale su naslutiti da je riječ o antičkim kamenolomima iz kojih su vađeni veliki blokovi za gradnju bedema grčkog Fara. Proučavanju kamenoloma pristupilo se koristeći više metodoloških pristupa i na multidisciplinaran način. Na svim lokacijama učinjen je površinski pregled terena, zračna prospekcija, analiza arhivskih fotografija i katastra. Učinjena je komparativna analiza tehnologije ekstrakcije sirovine, mikropaleontološka analiza uzoraka kamena iz kamenoloma i bedema, a sve je kartirano u geografskom informacijskom sistemu (GIS).

Conference Presentations by Sara Popovic

Every day we can observe how rapidly the modern way of living, with constant progress and develop... more Every day we can observe how rapidly the modern way of living, with constant progress and development, is changing our surroundings. Landscapes, natural ones as well as those of cultural character, are changing fast and their efficient preservation and management is a serious challenge. This poster presents a short overview of how these changes are being monitored in the cultural landscape of Stari Grad Plain, on the Croatian island of Hvar. It will show how, through a program of aerial reconnaissance, we can derive information on the current condition of the monument in an active arable landscape. During the last two years, recording changes through systematic aerial surveying has shown to be the most efficient method for their fast detection and, hopefully, it will become a permanent practice in monitoring system for this landscape, as well as an example for the other scheduled landscapes. The second part of this paper will present, on a sample area in the central part of Stari Grad Plain, how aerial photography can also be used to detect changes and modifications that have occurred in this landscape during a longer time span. By analyzing historical photographs we can assess condition of the landscape at different times and conclude how different factors, e.g. land use, affected its structures.

Vjesnik Arheološkog muzeja u Zagrebu LVI, 2023

Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry 21, 1., 2021

Archaeologia Adriatica, Dec 27, 2012