Bosnian diver Esad Humo takes an underwater video of what are believed to be the remains of two Illyrian ships that sank in the Hutovo Blato marshlands near Mostar some 2,200 years ago. [Getty Images]
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29 March 2007
The ancient Illyrians, who flourished in the Western Balkans thousands of years ago, were said to be skilled shipbuilders, sailors and -- most likely -- pirates, but no material evidence of this has been located. Until now, that is.
In one of the most sensational archeological discoveries in the Balkans in recent years, a Sarajevo University professor and her team say they have found the sunken remains of two Illyrian boats.
"They are the first Illyrian boats from this era ever to be discovered," says Dr Snjezana Vasilj.
They were located some 8m under water in the Hutovo Blato marshlands near the southern Bosnian town of Mostar, and are believed to have been engaged in piracy, trade or perhaps both. Design features suggest their Illyrian origin, Vasilj said.
"It is a known fact that Illyrians were pirates," she said. "They stole from Roman and Greek ships, and this is the type of boat they used. We can assume that the Illyrians were followed and they hid here. They were probably discovered and sunk."
In addition to the boats, Vasilj's team found more than 70 artifacts, as well as a Roman spear. Seven tombs from an Illyrian tribe known as the Daors were also discovered in the vicinity, as well as what may be an Illyrian hut.
"The artifacts that we found were probably the result of looting," according to the professor. Although excavations are currently limited to the boat site, she says the team plans to study a larger area in the future.
After the discovery was announced, police officers from the local precinct were called to protect the site, which likely was looted during the past few years. The area "should be put under state protection right away", said Esad Humo, a member of the archeological team.
A proposal to that effect is in the works, according to the president of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Commission to Preserve National Monuments, Dubravko Lovrenovic.
The find at Hutovo Blato is a "remarkable and extremely rare discovery", says Predrag Novakovic, general secretary of the European Association of Archeologists.
"Historical records tell us that in the first millennium BC boating and shipping was already developed in the east Adriatic Sea, but boats from that period are an extremely rare thing, and each represents a gem," he told the FENA news agency.
The Illyrians were nomadic tribes that occupied parts of the Balkans from at least the Iron Age into the early Common Era. Following the Roman conquest, they were dispersed or assimilated, and by the time Slavic tribes arrived in the area, in the 5th and 6th centuries, they had all but vanished.
Many scholars believe that today's Albanians are their descendants, and that the Albanian language -- which forms its own, unique branch of the Indo-European language family -- is derived from ancient Illyrian. But others dispute this theory, claiming links instead between Albanians and the ancient Thracians or Dacians.
