From Cagliari we headed to the west coast archeological site of Nora, now just a ruin of an ancient city port inhabited first by the Phoenicians who left few traces, it was thought, until one night at the end of last century, a wild storm uncovered a tophet in the sand not far from the church: a Phoenician - Punic cemetery for stillborn and premature babies, adorned with many pieces of burial pottery which helped age the site.
But, today, it is the Romans who have left the biggest mark in this lovely spot jutting out into the blue of the Mediterranean shaded by green date palms. Ruins of a tiny city that at one time serviced eight thousand inhabitants tumble around a lovely headland which had two harbours: east and west. A perfect site for trade. And the dig finds at the well laid out museum in the neat and tidy modern town of Pula bear this out: oils and wines arrived in beautiful amphora and urns from different parts of the Mediterranean for hundreds upon hundreds of years.
Archaeologists have only been working on the Nora site for about 60 years, and every year hundreds of university students from all over Italy and the world, spend much of their summer here at the dig. We talked with a group and their findings today included glass and some low status pottery objects: nothing grand so far.
So much glass has been excavated around the temple area alone that some folk think that the entire temple might have been decorated with it. In such a blue reflective setting that would have been stunning to see. Some of the glass finds displayed in Pula show the finest of fine glass: rarely would you see glass spun so fine today. Amazing skill.
The city's skeleton and rocky foundations are laid out all over the hill: the theatre, the shopping section, the apartment block equivalent to two modern stories high, crowded and probably a city slum.
Not far away is the massive public bath house with its typical hot steam and frigid cold rooms; the wells, the public loos, the meeting places, the crossroads, along with the more prestigious homes of the very wealthy. And it is here where the most beautiful mosaics have yet been uncovered, laid out as they ever were in the bedroom, dining room and living room of an elegant patrician home with a privileged view overlooking the sea.
No comments:
Post a Comment