engleski

The Caska necropolis – exceptions, rituals and “deathscapes”

Caska, present-day settlement located within a deep cove on the island of Pag (Croatia), was most likely during the Roman period the ancient settlement of Cissa (Gissa), mentioned by Pliny the Elder. The island of Pag was inhabited by the people of Liburni and after the Roman expansion it was included in the province of Dalmatia. Nice and cosy Caska bay attracted the attention of one of the Rome’s most powerful senatorial families - the Calpurni Pisones, who most likely had their estates there and certainly made an impact on life and customs of its inhabitants during the early 1st century AD. The site is also important because of a complex Early Roman necropolis located at the southern end of the cove. This necropolis is truly an exceptional site for its complex grave constructions, unique in all Liburnia and province of Dalmatia, and with no known direct analogies elsewhere in the Roman world (which justify naming them as tombs of the Caska type): these tombs consist of two different layers of construction placed around the incinerated remains of the deceased and the grave-goods: the internal one, almost always of the alla cappuccina type (i.e. with tegulae and imbrices put in such a manner as to imitate a gabled roof), and the external one, rectangular and built of local stone and mortar, which was closely attached to the former. The top part of the latter - slightly smaller than the bottom part - was executed with greater care and most certainly was intended to be visible above ground and to carry the tombstone. Furthermore, almost every such tomb had at least one libation pipe (profusio) so stone structures and their libation pipes absolutely dominated the “deathscape” of the Caska necropolis. The complex structure of the Caska type tombs in itself should imply an elaborate and distinct funerary ritual. Furthermore, through libation pipes (quite uncommon in Liburnia and entire Province of Dalmatia) - which clearly indicate common libation rituals - the worlds of both the living and the dead interlaced. Apart from the libation pipes, necropolis in Caska displays remains of other potential rituals, which are rarely found in the territory of Liburnia, making them exceptional and unique for the aforementioned area (although some are attested at other necropolises throughout the province of Dalmatia and the Roman world in general). Such rituals are, in example, the placement of amphorae immediately by the grave or partly beneath it, which could also indicate the existence of libation rituals, rustic and almost unusable ceramic lamps deposited next to the deceased, which were most likely used only in sepulchral contexts, remnants of sepulchral meals within the graves (mostly seashells) or the procedure of cleansing of the burial space with fire before the placement of the cremated remains of the deceased. The most intriguing feature, possibly also linked with libation and/or some other ritual, can be observed in a circle made of 15 glass balsamaria placed beneath the urn bottom with their necks turned downwards. Therefore, in this contribution we shall extensively discuss the issue of the funerary landscape created by the Roman necropolis in the Caska bay and, at the same time, explore the occurrence and importance of funerary rituals present therein, but also in the context of territory of Liburnia and province of Dalmatia.

Cissa (Caska, Island of Pag, Croatia) ; Roman necropolis ; Funerary rituals ; Libation ; Deathscape

Abstract and the key words are published separate of the paper, at the p. 813.