THE REMAINS of the oldest Liburnian port were discovered in the Novigrad Sea near Posedarje.

Many ports from the Roman Empire era were discovered and partially examined long ago on the northern Dalmatian coast. Matko Ilkic, Ph.D., and Mate Parica, Ph.D. from the Department of Archaeology at the University of Zadar, have recently discovered one significantly older port. It’s situated in a hitherto unknown route, which was frequently traveled in the era before the Roman conquests.

The archeological remains of this port lay in the western part of the Novigrad sea, opposite to Posedarje, 22 kilometers north-east from Zadar. The Liburnians built it, and, for now, it’s their only port whose exact location is known. 

“Examining aerial footage, we spotted something along the west coast of Novigrad sea not far from Posedarje, and directly alongside the ancient hillfort Budim, there were some dark rectilinear shapes. We went to dive there and immediately spotted a construction on the seabed, which indicated the ancient port where archeological remains lie at approximately three meters. It’s the oldest port in Liburnia so far, and perhaps in the entire Croatian part of the Adriatic. That is also indicated by the radiocarbon analysis of the wood from port construction, whose sample we sent to Miami for testing. We have recently got the results from Florida, which made us really happy - the period is even older than we had presumed. The so-called C 14 date indicates that the port was built somewhere between 371-199 BC. Thus, it belongs to the late classical and early Hellenism period,” Ilkic reveals.

The port is quite big and not layered with later interventions. It’s built partly from massive stone blocks and wooden beams.

The archeologists from the Department of Archeology at the University of Zadar have just started exploring the site. Their goal is to study as well as possible, document, and protect the only Liburnian port so far, and perhaps the oldest on the Croatian coast.