History

History

The placid landscape and Mediterranean climate of Rogoznica provide a safe and comfortable life for local residents. Long has the area been suitable for the establishment of human settlements. It is possible now to find numerous traces of human habitation dating back centuries. Fragments of pottery, amphorae, roof tiles, coins, graves, grave monuments, pieces of stone, and sarcophagi have been excavated in recent years. Scholars have concluded from these artifacts that life in the area flourished especially in Antiquity and Late Antiquity. For the oldest data on the area of Rogoznica we must thank a Greek sailor named Skylax from Krayanda, who lived during the first half of the 4th century BC. According to his findings, on the coast between the Krka and Cetina lived two Illyrian tribes: in the northern part of the coastline, on a peninsula supposedly smaller than the Peloponnese, the city and port of Heraclea was home to a tribe called the Hili. Following Skylax’s description, researchers confirmed that the Hili inhabited the peninsula Bosiljine, which is why the peninsula is also called Hyllus peninsula. According to historians of the region, however, the Hili are the tribe of the Dorians, who, coming from Syracuse, founded Issa, but also settled in the city of Heraclea, located somewhere in the area of Rogoznica. During Queen Teuta’s war against Rome in 229 BC, the Hili came under the authority of the Illyrians; this fact was confirmed by a tombstone from the era, excavated in Stupin in 1968. The stone, which displays the Illyrians and Hili tribes, is kept in the Šibenik City Museum. It is assumed that in the Bay of Stupin is submerged an Illyrian city, and one of the traces of that time is the prehistoric ruins of Stupinska Glavica, consisting of pottery remains. In addition to these were found the ruins of the Castle Kruglica, near the ruins of Stupin; ruins in Rogoznica at the highest point of the Cape called Debeli Rt; and, ruins in Kotelja.

The exact location of Heraclea, the ancient city that coined its own money, is still in dispute and can be determined only through further investigation. Some archeologists already are convinced, however, that the ideal anchorage for merchant ships in Heraclea was actually in the area of Rogoznica.