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Startling Phallic Stalagmite, Likely Focus of Ancient Cult Activity, Is Discovered in Croatia
The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) held a news conference today to announce that a team of international archaeologists co-directed by Dr. Tim Kaiser, ROM Research Associate, has discovered a hidden cave in Croatia, containing the undisturbed remains of an ancient Illyrian cult sanctuary dating from the 1st millennium B.C. This unprecedented discovery, made in a newly discovered chamber within the Nakovana Cave (located in Dalmatia on a remote hillside on Croatia's Adriatic coast), has revealed an astonishing phallic stalagmite surrounded by ritual artifacts. The excavation of this unusual site, evidently sealed for the last 2,000 years, has provided new insight into the Illyrian people, contemporaries of the ancient Greeks. Until now, very little was known about the Illyrians' beliefs, cults and symbolic lives.
"This discovery is rare and provocative. The archaeological evidence we have found to date strongly points to some mysterious, previously unknown cult activity, which may have been practiced in secrecy by the Illyrians," said Dr. Tim Kaiser, Research Associate in the ROM's Department of Western Art and Culture and co-director of the Nakovana Cave project. "For archaeologists to find a sealed, undisturbed cave site is fairly unusual. Nakovana is like a window on a Mediterranean past that's much richer than we ever thought."
Over the last ten years, the ROM has worked closely on this and related projects with a team of Croatian archaeologists, co-directed by Dr. Staso Forenbaher, of the Institute of Anthropology, Zagreb, Croatia.
The Nakovana Cave archaeological excavation is supported by the Royal Ontario Museum and generously funded by David and Audrey Mirvish. "Gifts such as this are a vital to the ROM's continuing ability to conduct world-class curatorial research, and to assist in the discovery and understanding of the forces that shape our natural and cultural worlds," said William Thorsell, the President and CEO of the ROM. "We are extremely grateful to the Mirvishes for their generous support of this fascinating and important project."
The Royal Ontario Museum has also worked in collaboration with the Discovery Channel in Canada to create exclusive video footage of the excavation of this rare ritual site in progress. The Secrets of the Nakovana Cave will air on Tuesday, October 3 and Wednesday, October 4, at 7 p.m. EST on the science news magazine, @discovery.ca.
The Illyrians were a loose federation of Indo-European tribes who appeared in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula around 1000 B.C. Contemporaries of the Greeks, the Illyrians were their trading partners, but were considered by the Greeks to be "barbarian" warriors, both on land and at sea.
In 1999, ROM researchers carried out preliminary excavations on the outermost chamber of the Nakovana Cave, and were astonished to discover that the cave really consisted of three linked chambers, two of which were sealed by rock falls. Unsealing the cave's hidden middle chamber, which is approximately 50 meters in length, the archaeologists found a central, unmistakably phallic stalagmite (a naturally formed mineral structure on the floor of a cavern), surrounded by a remarkable quantity of important artifacts, including hundreds of high quality scattered pottery fragments of Greek and Illyrian origin. The cave appeared to have been unseen by human eyes for at least 2,000 years.
Returning this summer for further excavations in July & August, Dr. Kaiser and his associates discovered that the large (60 centimeters) phallic stalagmite had been purposely placed at the center of the cave, in a strategic location that allowed a shaft of light from the cave entrance to shine directly upon it at particular moments each year.
Dr. Kaiser concluded that it was the focus of Illyrian cult activity, likely involving rites of potency, fertility, drinking, and feasting. Evidence was found to suggest that the sanctuary was used as a ritual site for offerings to the gods. Among the broken votive offerings are dedications to Aphrodite and to love, scratched upon cups and jugs imported from around the Mediterranean world.
While the exact nature of these rituals is unknown, Dr. Kaiser speculates upon the possibly orgiastic nature of these rituals, perhaps carried out in secret by participants in an exclusive cult. "The hundreds of fine ceramic vessels at Nakovana leave no doubt about the special nature of this site," Kaiser said. "These cups and amphorae were among the finest of the day and their use in the cave underscores the gravity of the rituals enacted there."
The presence of earlier artifacts found in excavations of the cave floor, dating as far back as the Early Neolithic Period (6000 B.C.), suggests that the Nakovana Cave may have been an important site for a very long time. The area around the cave was of great strategic importance for the Illyrians, as it dominated an important transportation route between the Adriatic Sea and the Neretva River valley. The researchers also discovered over 70 burial mounds around an Illyrian hill fort that overlooks the cave, and pottery fragments identical to those found in the sanctuary.
Throughout the summer, Dr. Kaiser posted personal reports of the progress of this fascinating project on the ROM website. The Secrets Of Nakovana Cave, consists of four colourful reports on the development of this research in progress, sent electronically from Croatia with photos, from July and August, 2000. Visit http://www.rom.on.ca/nakovana/ .
The Nakovana Cave is now a nationally protected cultural monument and all material recovered is the property of the Republic of Croatia, curated by the Archaeological Museum of Dubrovnik. At a later date, some of the artifacts discovered at the Nakovana Cave will be on display at the ROM. The team will continue their excavation work at the Nakovana Cave in 2001.
The Royal Ontario Museum's international research initiatives in 2000 include more than 20 field expeditions in the disciplines of anthropology, conservation biology, earth sciences, near Eastern and Asian studies, palaeobiology, and Western arts and culture.
Upcoming ROM field expeditions in 2000 include:
- China - In October, Chen Shen, Associate Curator, Far Eastern Art, will survey an upper Palaeolithic site in Shandong province of northern China. The project is a part of Shen's research on palaeolithic study of northern China, which looks for evidence of Asian links to our first ancestors in the Northern America around 20,000 - 10,000 years ago.
- Luxor, Egypt - Assistant Curator & Egyptologist Roberta Shaw be working in Theban Tomb #89 at the west bank in Luxor in November. This New Kingdom tomb (ca. 1450 BC) contains painted decoration and hieroglyphic inscriptions that have never been completely studied.
- Nubia - In December, Dr. Kryzstof Grzymski, Senior Curator, Egyptology, will continue his research on life in ancient Nubia.
Issue date:
October 2, 2000
For more information:
Media Relations
Tel.: 416.586.5547
Fax: 416.586.8022
E-mail: media@rom.on.ca
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