History and archeology

Dugi otok writes its own history for thousands of years, and the fact that it was inhabited from the earliest times is testified by the remains of buildings scattered around the island.

Dugi otok was first mentioned in mid-10th century by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, who in his “De administrando imperio” mentions it under the name Pizuh. In the beginning of the 11th century the island was called Insula Tilagus in written documents, and this name is preserved in the name of Telašćica bay. The island’s present name was given in the 15th century.

The island was inhabited very early as evidenced by archaeological finds from the field Krševanje polje, Veli Rat and cave Vlakno which originate from the Old and Middle Stone Age (Paleolithic and Mesolithic). The island holds the remains of Illyrian settlements (Omišenjak, Koženjak, Veli Brčastac) with or without fortified characteristics (Vrtlaci), then numerous piles (Gominjak,Čuh polje) and a cemetery (Dugo polje). During the excavations in the cave Vlakno in 2011, the remains of a human skeleton were found, whose age was estimated at 11 000 years ago (early Mesolithic).

The press named him “the oldest Dalmatian Šime” (a very common Dalmatian name) and the archaeologists estimated that he was 40 years old at the time of death, between 168 and 172 centimetres tall and died of a nonviolent death. The scientific value is enormous because there are almost no human findings in Dalmatia from this period. The finding has been transferred to the Department of Archaeology, of the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences, and further research will reveal new details.

Testimony of the ancient time are the numerous scattered fragments of pottery, small monuments (sarcophagi, votive monuments) and remains of commercial buildings including the remains of which considerable attention should be paid to the economic complex at Mala Proversa and a votive monument of the imperial slave Euhemerus in honour of the goddess Diana, which indicates the existence of the imperial estates in the area of the Žman lake.

Early Christian and pre-Romanesque period is accompanied by a number of churches (St. John and St. Victor in Telašćica) many of which are well preserved churches like the church of St. Pelegrin in Savar.

Of the profane residential architecture a few examples from the period of the 16th to the 18th century have been preserved (Guerrini houses and the house Petricioli in Sali). These buildings represent a valuable contribution to the profane architecture of mannerist and baroque periods of the islands and Zadar.

Archeology