The Split Archaeological Museum is the oldest museum in Croatia when it was established in 1820 by a decree of the Dalmatian government in

Zadar Zadar ( , ; historically known as Zara (from Venetian and Italian: ); see also other names), is the oldest continuously inhabited Croatian city. It is situated on the Adriatic Sea, at the northwestern part of Ravni Kotari region. Zadar ser ...

. Some 150,000 artifacts cover prehistoric times, the period of

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

colonization of the Adriatic,

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

Provincial and Early Christian era to the early

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

and the period of Croatian popular rulers. There is a collection of stone inscriptions from

Salona Salona ( grc, Σάλωνα) was an ancient city and the capital of the Roman province of Dalmatia. Salona is located in the modern town of Solin, next to Split, in Croatia. Salona was founded in the 3rd century BC and was mostly destroyed in ...

and the collections of Graeco-Hellenistic ceramic objects, Roman glass, ancient clay lamps, bone, and metal articles, gems and coins. The museum is housed at Zrinsko-Frankopanska 25 in

Split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, entertai ...

. There is also a branch building in

Solin Solin (Latin and it, Salona; grc, Σαλώνα ) is a town in Dalmatia, Croatia. It is situated right northeast of Split, on the Adriatic Sea and the river Jadro. Solin developed on the location of ancient city of ''Salona'', which was the ...

(Salona and

Tusculum Tusculum is a ruined Roman city in the Alban Hills, in the Latium region of Italy. Tusculum was most famous in Roman times for the many great and luxurious patrician country villas sited close to the city, yet a comfortable distance from Rome ( ...

) and two regional centres at Vid near

Metković Metković () is a town in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County of Croatia, located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the river Neretva and on the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Demographics The total population of the city municipal ...

(

Narona Narona ( grc, Ναρῶνα) was an Ancient Greek trading post on the Illyrian coast and later Roman city and bishopric, located in the Neretva valley in present-day Croatia, which remains a Latin Catholic titular see. History It was founded a ...

Collection), and on the island of Vis. The museum complex consists of a two-story main building with the exhibition halls on the ground floor and the museum library as well as study rooms on the 1st floor as well as a row of arcades surrounding the main building (for the

lapidarium A lapidarium is a place where stone (Latin: ) monuments and fragments of archaeological interest are exhibited. They can include stone epigraphs; statues; architectural elements such as columns, cornices, and acroterions; bas reliefs, tombston ...

) and an attached garden.

History

At the beginning of the 16th century, the Split humanist Dominik Papalic brought together a collection of ancient writing and picture tablets in his house, which he and poet

Marko Marulić Marko Marulić Splićanin (), in Latin Marcus Marulus Spalatensis (18 August 1450 – 5 January 1524), was a Croatian poet, lawyer, judge, and Renaissance humanist who coined the term "psychology". He is the national poet of Croatia. According to ...

had found in the ruins of ancient Solin (''Salona''). In 1750 Papalic founded a museum. The Split Archaeological Museum was founded in 1820 by the decree of the Dalmatian government in

after a visit of Emperor Francis I to Dalmatia in 1818. The original museum building was erected in 1821 next to the eastern walls of

Diocletian's Palace Diocletian's Palace ( hr, Dioklecijanova palača, ) is an ancient palace built for the Roman emperor Diocletian at the turn of the fourth century AD, which today forms about half the old town of Split, Croatia. While it is referred to as a "pala ...

but this soon became too small to house the growing number of artifacts. The Catholic priest, archaeologist, and historical researcher

Frane Bulić Frane Bulić (October 4, 1846 - July 29, 1934) was a Croatian priest, archaeologist, and historian. Biography Bulić was born in Vranjic (now part of Solin), and studied theology in Zadar and then classical philology and archeology in Vienn ...

was the museum director starting from 1884 for more than fifty years. He founded the first Croatian archaeological society in 1894 and developed the building of the second museum building from 1912 to 1914. The new building was built according to the plans of the Viennese architects, August Kirstein and

Friedrich Ohmann Friedrich Ohmann (21 December 1858, Lemberg - 6 April 1927, Vienna) was an Austrian architect in the Historicist style. Life and work His father was a building official. In 1877, he began his studies in architecture at the Technical Universit ...

in the

neo-Romanesque Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...

style. The

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

delayed the opening of the new museum building, and the government only opened it to the public in early 1922.

Exhibits

The exhibits are mainly based on Split and

finds. A central part of the museum is a collection of stone inscriptions from Salona and Graeco-Hellenistic ceramic objects, Roman glass, ancient clay lamps, bone and metal articles, gems, medieval coins and an underwater archaeological collection.

Research

The museum does archaeological research in Salona, Issa, and

. The museum has two other collections in Vid near

and on the island of Vis. Since 1878, the Museum has published the first archaeological journal, entitled ''Bullettino di archeologia e storia dalmata'' ( ''Journal of Dalmatian Archeology and History'' ).

Collections

The collections cover the entire history of Dalmatia from prehistory to the early Middle Ages. The museum also has an extensive collection of over 70,000 ancient and medieval coins and significant library and archive holdings. The museum has eight collections: * Early Christian Collection on the Christian Archeology of Dalmatia * Old Croatian Collection on the Conquest of the Croats in the Balkans * epigraphic collection * Greek-

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

collection on the Greek colonization of Dalmatia *

Underwater archeology Underwater archaeology is archaeology practiced underwater. As with all other branches of archaeology, it evolved from its roots in pre-history and in the classical era to include sites from the historical and industrial eras. Its acceptance has ...

in the

Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) to t ...

* Numismatic Collection * Roman Provincial Collection on the History of the Roman Province of Dalmatia * Prehistoric Collection on the history of the

Illyrians The Illyrians ( grc, Ἰλλυριοί, ''Illyrioi''; la, Illyrii) were a group of Indo-European-speaking peoples who inhabited the western Balkan Peninsula in ancient times. They constituted one of the three main Paleo-Balkan populations, a ...

External links

Museum
(Official site)
Virtual tour of Museum

Kroatische Archäologische Gesellschaft

References

{{Reflist