Timothy Kaiser
Professor of Anthropology, Lakehead University, Orillia Campus; Research Associate, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.
Address: Department of Anthropology
Lakehead University - Orillia Campus
500 University Avenue
Orillia, ON L3V 0B9
Canada
Address: Department of Anthropology
Lakehead University - Orillia Campus
500 University Avenue
Orillia, ON L3V 0B9
Canada
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area of the Town of Hvar constituted the largest native
community on the island of Hvar in later prehistory.
Although probably smaller than the Parian colony at
Pharos (at the site of the today’s Stari Grad), the Town
of Hvar’s relative importance is indicated by the local
density of burial mounds. Among the 72 mounds discovered
nearby, the tumuli at Vira (HV0015) are of special
significance: the Vira group is better described as a
monument than a cemetery. Although not closely dated,
the authors would argue that these mounds reflect (a)
the ability of some to mobilize the labor and resources
of others in order to memorialize a few members of the
community; (b) conspicuous consumption (of an unknown
scale); and therefore, (c) the existence of an elite
that is at the very least more visible at the Town of Hvar
than anywhere else on the island.
Evidence from archaeological surveys and excavations,
together with a large corpus of underwater finds discovered
off of Hvar’s coast and nearby, shows that, in later
prehistory, and in the subsequent Hellenistic period, the
indigenous population of the Town of Hvar maintained
significant maritime connections that reached out to
nearby islands and across the sea to the Dalmatian mainland
and Italy. We cannot say when or to what extent sea
commerce became subject to elite control and contributed
to elite status, but it seems clear that contacts across
the water led to a concentration of the outward signs of
social success and social difference in the Town of Hvar.
Greek pottery and coins are among such signs. As discussed
above, the Town of Hvar differs from communities
on neighboring islands in that Archaic and Classical
period Greek fine wares are completely absent. “It was
not until the 4th c. BCE, shortly after the establishment
of Pharos, that Greek fine wares first appeared at Hvar.
Likewise, coins from a variety of predominantly Greek
mints make their first appearance in the local archaeological
record of Hvar in the 4th c BCE. They reflect a
new component in the local political economy. Supplementing
a variety of previously existing, socially embedded
exchange types, from gift-giving onward, the appearance
of coinage among the inhabitants of the Town
of Hvar surely also reflects the merging of previously
distinct spheres of exchange. The authors hypothesize
that their use made it easier to conduct transactions involving
novel categories of material culture and novel actors
(i.e., new to Hvar’s natives). Greek pottery, like the
South Italian matt painted vessels of earlier centuries,
would have presented a variety of contents and doubtless
accompanied other things, probably including coins
and all they betoken. Perhaps the most important of all
that was brought in, along with Greek pottery and other
goods, was a worldview, a network of shared cultural
practice and knowledge.
That network tightened shortly thereafter. By the end of
the 3rd c. BCE the Town of Hvar and its immediate vicinity
were in close contact with Issa, only 12 nm away,
which came to dominate the region. It is possible that
the indigenous community of the Town of Hvar then
came under Issaean control and became part of the Issei
koinôn. This lasted for a short time. By 215 BCE Pharos
was under Roman rule and, after 47 BCE all Hvar’s
native communities (including others on nearby islands
and the mainland) became part of the Salona area as civitates
peregrinae.
area of the Town of Hvar constituted the largest native
community on the island of Hvar in later prehistory.
Although probably smaller than the Parian colony at
Pharos (at the site of the today’s Stari Grad), the Town
of Hvar’s relative importance is indicated by the local
density of burial mounds. Among the 72 mounds discovered
nearby, the tumuli at Vira (HV0015) are of special
significance: the Vira group is better described as a
monument than a cemetery. Although not closely dated,
the authors would argue that these mounds reflect (a)
the ability of some to mobilize the labor and resources
of others in order to memorialize a few members of the
community; (b) conspicuous consumption (of an unknown
scale); and therefore, (c) the existence of an elite
that is at the very least more visible at the Town of Hvar
than anywhere else on the island.
Evidence from archaeological surveys and excavations,
together with a large corpus of underwater finds discovered
off of Hvar’s coast and nearby, shows that, in later
prehistory, and in the subsequent Hellenistic period, the
indigenous population of the Town of Hvar maintained
significant maritime connections that reached out to
nearby islands and across the sea to the Dalmatian mainland
and Italy. We cannot say when or to what extent sea
commerce became subject to elite control and contributed
to elite status, but it seems clear that contacts across
the water led to a concentration of the outward signs of
social success and social difference in the Town of Hvar.
Greek pottery and coins are among such signs. As discussed
above, the Town of Hvar differs from communities
on neighboring islands in that Archaic and Classical
period Greek fine wares are completely absent. “It was
not until the 4th c. BCE, shortly after the establishment
of Pharos, that Greek fine wares first appeared at Hvar.
Likewise, coins from a variety of predominantly Greek
mints make their first appearance in the local archaeological
record of Hvar in the 4th c BCE. They reflect a
new component in the local political economy. Supplementing
a variety of previously existing, socially embedded
exchange types, from gift-giving onward, the appearance
of coinage among the inhabitants of the Town
of Hvar surely also reflects the merging of previously
distinct spheres of exchange. The authors hypothesize
that their use made it easier to conduct transactions involving
novel categories of material culture and novel actors
(i.e., new to Hvar’s natives). Greek pottery, like the
South Italian matt painted vessels of earlier centuries,
would have presented a variety of contents and doubtless
accompanied other things, probably including coins
and all they betoken. Perhaps the most important of all
that was brought in, along with Greek pottery and other
goods, was a worldview, a network of shared cultural
practice and knowledge.
That network tightened shortly thereafter. By the end of
the 3rd c. BCE the Town of Hvar and its immediate vicinity
were in close contact with Issa, only 12 nm away,
which came to dominate the region. It is possible that
the indigenous community of the Town of Hvar then
came under Issaean control and became part of the Issei
koinôn. This lasted for a short time. By 215 BCE Pharos
was under Roman rule and, after 47 BCE all Hvar’s
native communities (including others on nearby islands
and the mainland) became part of the Salona area as civitates
peregrinae.