SARCOPHAGUS' LID FROM 3TH CENTURY UNEARTHED IN SOUTH CROATIA

SOLIN, Jan 10 (Hina) - Experts of the Split Archaeological Museum have recently found out a marble lid of a sarcophagus which is believed to date from the third century AD. The lid, discovered in the area where the ancient town of Salona used to be, was produced by a stone-mason's workshop that had made sarcophaguses in Salona from the second century BC until the seventh century AD. Six marble fragments which make up the reconstructed lid, were unearthed accidentally, while the grounds for a residential building were dug in Zvonimirova Street in Solin, near Split. According to the curator of the Solin archaeological site, Ema Visic-Ljubic, the discovered lid is an exceptional work of the sepulchral classical art. The Salona stone-mason's workshop made sarcophaguses out of the local limestone or marble transported from the then Greek town of Prokones, which is in today's Turkey. The discovered lid is decorated by the carved laurel and band, the sign of Salona's workshop. It has been transferred to Solin's ancient Christian archaeological site "Manastrine" to be treated and protected. Salona's workshop used to be the most important workshop for making sarcophaguses on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, according to 26 archaeological fragments that have been unearthed so far at the Salona site. (hina) ms