Salona was the capital of the province of Dalmatia and the most important Roman site on the Eastern Adriatic. As a Roman colony, it was established in the 1st century BCE, and it lasted until 7th century CE when raids from Avar and Slavic peoples conquered Salona and forced its inhabitants to flee. It is probably the only provincial capital that didn’t develop into a medieval and, consequently, a modern city. Instead, the royal medieval city of Solin was founded at the eastern outskirts of Roman Salona, whose remains served as a quarry for not just Solin and surrounding places, but also for Split and even as far as Venice.

Salona has been excavated for more than 200 years. Yet most of the Roman city area – about 80% — is still unexcavated and unknown. There is much we need to know about Salona, including its building sequence, its integration of local population with Italian Romans, and its economic and political organization and institutions.

Our program is focused on digging at two distinct locations. The first area (Site 1) is a late antiquity building complex, dated to the 4-6 Centuries CE, with enigmatic design and unknown function. The second area (Site 2) is focused on the towers dotting the city’s walls, dated to the 2-4 centuries CE. To elevate the floor within the towers, the builders brought soil rich with ceramics from elsewhere at Salona (likely the nearby cemetery), creating a highly packed time capsule.

Both locations are rich in archaeological material, primarily pottery. They also contain other materials typical to a Roman city, including stone inscriptions and human remains. The first excavation location offers more complex stratigraphy, attesting to at least four centuries of using the same space (pre Roman and Roman periods), with the remains of several buildings from different occupation levels. The second excavation location offers a unique experience of understanding the building technique of a defensive tower. Namely, the layer below the floor surface consists of intentionally placed archaeological material. Because of that, we need to sift all the dirt we excavate, which brings to light not only pottery, bones and shells, but also many items that can be interpreted as personal belongings and grave goods.