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Archaeological landscape in central northern Istria (Croatia) revealed by airborne LiDAR: from prehistoric sites to Roman centuriation

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Abstract

This paper presents the results of a research aimed at investigating by airborne LiDAR the ancient landscape of a sector of central northern Istria (Croatia) from prehistory to Roman times. The area, approximately corresponding to the territory of Oprtalj/Portole, is located in a strategic position just north of the mid–Mirna/Quieto river, an important waterway connecting coastal Istria with the inlands since prehistory. The elaboration of high-definition LiDAR data compared with aerial and satellite images, historical cartography and field surveys allowed us to identify unreported prehistoric and Roman features and also get detailed topographic information about already known sites. Beside a few protohistoric hill forts discovered in the past, an open-air Neolithic or Copper Age site, a probable Bronze Age burial mound and three small protohistoric fortifications have been identified. These hill forts are clustered around a north-south valley, which represents a preferential access route from the larger Mirna valley to the karst plateau north of Oprtalj/Portole. In the same plateau, small Roman buildings associated with enclosures and probable artificial ponds have been interpreted as remains of farmsteads related to small-scale herding and agricultural activities. In the southern sector of the investigated area, consisting of marls, sandstones and fertile soils, large scatters of archaeological materials sometimes associated to outcropping features are probably the remains of larger structures characterized by a well-developed agricultural economy. Particularly interesting is the identification of fossil rectilinear land division features that overlap with the cardines of Istrian centuriation. Before our study, centuriation was identified only in the territories of Poreč/Parenzo and Pula/Pola, hence believed not to extend beyond the Mirna river. The new evidence revealed by LiDAR and satellite images, however, shows that a large part of central and northern Istria, between the Mirna and the Dragonja rivers, was divided by the same grid. Based on these considerations, the archaeological evidence here presented makes the Istrian peninsula one of the largest areas in the entire Roman world to have undergone a single planned land division survey.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Monton MMS company and in particular to S. Šutej for giving ICTP Multidisciplinary Laboratory the opportunity to study the LiDAR data of the Oprtalj area, to A. Krt, mayor of Oprtalj for his support to the research and to Margherita Di Giovannantonio for the language review of the paper. We also thank the following colleagues for their support and useful advice: G. Bandelli, G. Benčić, A. De Min, E. Forte, I. Lazar, R. Matijasic, Z. Mileusnić, M. Pipan, A. Tomaž and J. Višnjić.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro Fermi, Museo Storico della Fisica e Centro di Studi e Ricerche “Enrico Fermi”, Piazza del Viminale 1, 00184, Rome, Italy

    Federico Bernardini

  2. Multidisciplinary Laboratory, The “Abdus Salam” International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP, UNESCO), Strada Costiera 11, 34151, Trieste, Italy

    Federico Bernardini & Giacomo Vinci

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  1. Federico Bernardini
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Correspondence to Federico Bernardini.

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Supplementary Fig. 1.

Kukuj protohistoric hill fort. For its position see Figs. 1 and 3. Visualizations as in Fig. 4. (PNG 7297 kb)

High resolution image (TIF 15290 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 2.

Sv. Jelena and site 15, where scatters of prehistoric surface materials have been identified. For the position of Sv. Jelena and site 15 see Figs. 1 and 3. Visualizations as in Fig. 4. (PNG 7531 kb)

High resolution image (TIF 15620 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 3.

Čebranjak hill with the digitization of main structures and the position of the area where few protohistoric pottery fragments have been identified (see number 1). For the position of the site see Figs. 1 and 3. Visualizations as in Fig. 4. (PNG 7277 kb)

High resolution image (TIF 15550 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 4.

Beninići. For the position of the site see Figs. 1 and 3. Visualizations as in Fig. 4. (PNG 7178 kb)

High resolution image (TIF 19617 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 5.

Sv. Stjepan. 1: Sv. Stjepan church; 2: probable Roman cistern; 3: remains of ancient fortification associated to remains of at least two turrets, not shown in the figure. For the position of the site see Figs. 1 and 3. Visualizations as in Fig. 4. (PNG 5870 kb)

High resolution image (TIF 11489 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 6.

Probable Roman structures detected in the area of Zrenj (site 11) and location of the finding of a Roman rotary millstone made of volcanic rock (1) and tiles, bricks and a few amphora fragments (2). For the position of the site see Fig. 3. Visualizations as in Fig. 4. (PNG 5805 kb)

High resolution image (TIF 11973 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 7.

Probable Roman structures detected about 700 m west of Sv. Lucija (site 5). For the position of the site see Fig. 3. Visualizations as in Fig. 4. (PNG 5529 kb)

High resolution image (TIF 11300 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 8.

Roman sites 13 and 14. For the position of the sites see Fig. 3. Visualizations as in Fig. 4. (PNG 7914 kb)

High resolution image (TIF 16296 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 9.

Centuriation feature 1c. The northern stretch seems to be a ditch, while the small southern one is detectable as a modest ridge. For the position of the feature see Fig. 3. Visualizations as in Fig. 4. (PNG 6026 kb)

High resolution image (TIF 12882 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 10.

Site 6 (enclosure 1), linear features with an orientation similar to the one of Istrian centuriation (2) and probable limestone kilns (3). For the position of the sites see Fig. 3. Visualizations as in Fig. 4. (PNG 7544 kb)

High resolution image (TIF 15842 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 11.

Terraces, enclosures and linear structures in the central karst sector between centuriation features 1a and 1b (Fig. 3 site 2). Visualizations as in Fig. 4. (PNG 8355 kb)

High resolution image (TIF 16613 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 12.

Relict features corresponding to main limites of Istrian centuriation in an area south of Pazin (for the position see Fig. 16, box 2) superimposed to Google Map (2016). The traces we detected fit well in the geometric reference grid. (PNG 9486 kb)

High resolution image (TIF 16552 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 13.

Relict features corresponding to main limites of Istrian centuriation in the area north of Dragonja river (for the position see Fig. 16, box 3). The traces we detected fit well in the geometric reference. (PNG 14936 kb)

High resolution image (TIF 24575 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 14.

Relict features corresponding to main limites of Istrian centuriation in the area of Strunjan (for the position see Fig. 16, box 4). The traces we detected fit well in the geometric reference grid. (PNG 10747 kb)

High resolution image (TIF 18196 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 15.

Structures corresponding to main limites of Istrian centuriation (blue lines, modified from Marchiori 2013, Fig. 51) and traces of Roman centuriation in the Karst area (green lines; modified from Bernardini et al. 2018). (PNG 624 kb)

High resolution image (TIF 306 kb)

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Bernardini, F., Vinci, G. Archaeological landscape in central northern Istria (Croatia) revealed by airborne LiDAR: from prehistoric sites to Roman centuriation. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 12, 133 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-020-01070-w

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