engleski

The significance of Amber in the Kvarner region

The paper focuses on distribution of amber finds in Kvarner region, northern Croatian littoral. Kvarner is a very important archaeological area, where amber finds have been identified on many sites. Most of them are necropolis and are well excavated, like Grobnik-Grobišće, Kastav-Mišinac in Kvarner littoral or Baška and Osor on Kvarner islands. In the period of the last millennium BC in the larger area of the Kvarner region, there lived communities of prehistoric people whose accurate name and ethnicity is not entirely known to us. We can recognize obvious differences in the material culture, in the traditional way of folk costume, in the burial as well as in religious aspects. Various traditional kinds of fibulae, rings or belts, decorative beads, especially amber pearls and necklaces, earrings, pectorals or special forms of amulets were probably the mark of more outstanding individuals of the community. However, according to the chemical analyses, whole amber finds are from « ; ; ; Baltic» ; ; ; provenance and are known in only several types. The whole amber reached Kvarner through several stages, as trade or as gift or as prey. In this microregion, what is especially important is the connection with Aegean in the 12th-11th century BC and with Italy and Caput Adriae, in particular with sub-Alpine in 3rd-1st century BC. There were some important sea and continental routes. The current stage of the research with the history of previous excavations will be presented in this paper.

Kvarner region; Bronze and Iron Age; Amber; Tradition; Exchange; Amber routes

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