User:Frostly/Nakovana Cave

Nakovana Cave is a nationally protected cultural monument located about 100 km north of Dubrovnik on Croatia's Dalmatian coast. A two-chamber 45m-long cave channel, it contains cultural remnants, including that of a secretive Illyrian phallic or fertility cult. The cave was first discovered by Timothy Kaiser and Stašo Forenbaher in 1999 and further research was conducted in collaboration with Alexander Jones. Ritual activities began shortly after the founding of Greek colonies on neighboring Dalmatian islands, escalated during the 3rd century BCE, and ended with the ultimate consolidation of Roman control in the area. Today, the cave provides important context regarding the Illyrian tradition in the absence of first-person historical accounts.

Location
The cave is located 100 kilometers northwest of Dubrovnik on Croatia's Dalmatian coast, overlooking the Adriatic Sea from just below the top of a 400m high mountain on the strategically significant western edge of Peljeac Peninsula. The islands of Vis (Issa), Hvar (Pharos), Korula (Korkyra Melaina), and Mljet are visible from above the cave entrance, while the mouth of the Neretva River (ancient Naron), a vital conduit into the western Balkans interior, is just twenty miles to the east. Some of antiquity's most significant Adriatic sea-lanes travel via water channels beneath the cave.

Naming
The nearby village of Nakovana refers to the site simply as 'Spila' ('the cave'), implying its significance in comparison to numerous other caves in the vicinity.

1999 initial excavation
Before the initial excavation, the cave was already known as the type-site for the eastern Adriatic Early Copper Age.

A test trench constructed at the cave's mouth revealed evidence of repeated visitation to the site dating back to the Early Neolithic period. The cultural deposits in the cave are almost 3 m thick and extend to an unknown depth and time. An intial excavation in 1999, led by Timothy Kaiser of the Royal Ontario Museum and Stašo Forenbaher of the Institute for Anthropoligical Research, revealed a a wide 45m-long cave channel with two chambers that extended beyond what was thought to be the end of a somewhat deep abri.

Its low entrance was blocked by natural cave deposits and deliberately piled-up limestone boulders. The first room was discovered to have a highly dense surface dispersion of Hellenistic period potsherds, centered around a single massive stalagmite, beyond the closed entrance. The highly organized nature of the evidence, as well as the extraordinarily high quality of the discoveries, led Kaiser and Forenbaher to believe that this area of the site was used for ceremonial purposes. There is no indication of disruption by human visits after the 1st century BCE.

Summer 2000 full-scale excavation
In the summer of 2000, a full-scale excavation revealed a 34-square-meter region around the stalagmite as well as further details regarding the cultural remnants, deposition of contents and rituals performed in the cave.

Cultural remnants
73% of the 8000 potsherds collected were from fine Hellenistic ceramic vessels, with over a hundred entirely reconstructible. They include a variety of Greek imports, Gnathia items from Greek territories in southern Italy, and their reproductions, which, like the later Liburnian wares, were most likely created locally, in Greek colonies inside Dalmatia. Several unique vases, known from classical sources to have been made specifically for use in offerings, were also found. A few vessels have brief votive graffiti carved in either Greek or Latin.

The majority of the containers were associated with drinking and food service (cups, jugs, and plates). This, in conjunction with faunal remnants indicating the preferential ingestion of the finest cuts of lamb, concurs with ritual feasting. A handful of amphorae pieces were discovered, but their geographical distribution differs from that of fineware sherds, indicating that they were not offered. They were dumped after apparently transporting wine or another beverage to the cave. The imported pottery were all made between the late fourth and early first century BCE.

Deposition
There were at least several instances of deposition that lasted around 250 years. Vessels were unpredictably arranged in a dense cluster just in front of a large, solitary stalagmite. This stalagmite is positioned near the far end of the chamber on a break in the cave floor, its penile form contrasted against the black background of the channel that continues into the mountain. It was clearly the focal point of ritual activity, and it may be read as an image signifying the divine guardian of the shrine, with evident iconographic implications of masculine fertility, potency, and other conventional male-related traits including warrior strength and prowess.

Rituals
Considering the type and relative frequency of finds, ritual activities began shortly after the founding of Greek colonies on neighboring Dalmatian islands, escalated during the 3rd century BC, and ended with the ultimate consolidation of Roman control in the area. During that time, the Pelješac peninsula was ruled by the local Illyrians. An enormous hill-fort barely 1 km from the cave, as well as numerous burial cairns that surround it, give significant proof of their existence. Hellenistic sherds similar to those found in the cave have been recovered from the hillfort and parts of the cairns, demonstrating that Illyrian elites had access to foreign pottery via commerce or piracy.

Anthropoligical relevance
This is not unexpected given that the principal longitudinal and transverse sea-lanes of the Eastern Adriatic pass directly under the hill-fort and merge 8 kilometers to the west, near the peninsula's tip. The incredible preservation of the Nakovana cave shrine offers an unparalleled opportunity to study prehistoric ritual and religion. Nakovana provides a rare insight of the Illyrian spiritual world during the turbulent final centuries of its integration into the Mediterranean world-system; as the Illyrians left no written chronicles of themselves, the only writings available are the prejudiced ones of of their opponents, the Greeks and Romans.

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