Unfortunately the bats didn't get all of the mosquitoes and one had taken shelter in Henrietta. In the dead of the night, it pounced and, choosing the tastiest meat, it bit me. Given that all of me was under the cover except my head, it bit me once on the mouth and once on the eyelid. In the morning I had a very large lip and my eye was half closed due to the swollen eyelid – I looked like a prizefighter. Our good friend Jackie may well disagree with this description as her father was a real prizefighter and, I suspect, often had far more injuries than me. However as a weak male, I expected and received sufficient sympathy from Jane to make me feel much better.
Caught the 09:35 bus from Stobrec and then a bus out to Solin, the site of Roman Solona. Jane was in a state of consternation when she managed to lose her ticket in the ticket stamping machine on the first bus. She was a little too aggressive when inserting it and forgot to hold on. It provided the other passengers with some amusement and elicited a 'what do you expect me to do about it?' shrug from the bus driver. I don't approve of travelling on public transport without a valid ticket but, of course, I wasn't. Fortunately we didn't have a visit from a ticket inspector. Trying to explain what had happened would have been quite interesting – I would have left that to Jane!
Solona was much larger than we expected and it took us three hours to explore it. One pagan necropolis (Kapljuc) on the site became a centre for Christian burials after the martyrdom of a priest and four of the imperial praetorian guard. They were executed during Emperor Diocletian's last purge of Christians in April 304 AD and their remains were brought there in the early 4thCentury AD, after Constantine (307 – 337 AD) issued the Edict of Milan that proclaimed religious tolerance. A small church was built on the site and this was expanded over the years and became a focal point for early Christian burials in anything from small urns to massive stone sarcophagi. It was notable that all of the sarcophagi that we saw had large holes cut into them where they had been plundered. In fact the archaeologists have only found one unlooted sarcophagus in the whole of Solona.
During the construction of a road two months ago in modern Solin, they discovered a number of richly carved sarcophagi, both pagan and Christian. They had brought them to Solona and it was intriguing to see them pre-conservation with the dirt still in evidence. There was also evidence that they had been hit by the bucket teeth of a JCB with scrapes and pieces of marble broken off. These damaged parts showed how bright white the sarcophagi must have been when first made – they must have been very impressive.
We also visited the amphitheatre where the Romans staged fights with animals, gladiators and, when the arena was flooded, mock sea battles. It was also the scene of the execution of the five Christian martyrs.
The weather was much hotter than we expected and after three hours we were glad to head for the bus back to Split for a very late lunch and then back to Henrietta. We used the site Internet Café to catch up on emails and update the blog. Unfortunately, they didn't have WiFi, so we had to use their PC, which seems always to give complications. Apart from the QWERTZ keyboard with the Z, Y and many special character keys in the wrong place, the email refused to let me send new mails (I could reply and forward) and the Blogger site refused to upload photographs (they are working on the problem). I managed to send new emails by forwarding another mail after removing the content and changing the subject. The blog photographs will have to wait until I get Internet access again, assuming that they have fixed the problem.
Jane cooked a dinner of cottage / shepherd's / something pie with some local mince. We couldn't find out what meat the mince was made from – the Croatian words for beef, lamb and pork did not appear on the packet. I suggested that it might be horse and got a filthy look from Jane. Whatever it was, it was very tasty.
Rain started to fall gently just before 10 pm but, by the time that we went to bed, the thunder had started and the wind was increasing.
Photos: Griffins on the recently excavated sarcophagus from Solin; Kapljuc church and cemetery; Solona amphitheatre where the five Christian martyrs were executed.
Caught the 09:35 bus from Stobrec and then a bus out to Solin, the site of Roman Solona. Jane was in a state of consternation when she managed to lose her ticket in the ticket stamping machine on the first bus. She was a little too aggressive when inserting it and forgot to hold on. It provided the other passengers with some amusement and elicited a 'what do you expect me to do about it?' shrug from the bus driver. I don't approve of travelling on public transport without a valid ticket but, of course, I wasn't. Fortunately we didn't have a visit from a ticket inspector. Trying to explain what had happened would have been quite interesting – I would have left that to Jane!
Solona was much larger than we expected and it took us three hours to explore it. One pagan necropolis (Kapljuc) on the site became a centre for Christian burials after the martyrdom of a priest and four of the imperial praetorian guard. They were executed during Emperor Diocletian's last purge of Christians in April 304 AD and their remains were brought there in the early 4thCentury AD, after Constantine (307 – 337 AD) issued the Edict of Milan that proclaimed religious tolerance. A small church was built on the site and this was expanded over the years and became a focal point for early Christian burials in anything from small urns to massive stone sarcophagi. It was notable that all of the sarcophagi that we saw had large holes cut into them where they had been plundered. In fact the archaeologists have only found one unlooted sarcophagus in the whole of Solona.
During the construction of a road two months ago in modern Solin, they discovered a number of richly carved sarcophagi, both pagan and Christian. They had brought them to Solona and it was intriguing to see them pre-conservation with the dirt still in evidence. There was also evidence that they had been hit by the bucket teeth of a JCB with scrapes and pieces of marble broken off. These damaged parts showed how bright white the sarcophagi must have been when first made – they must have been very impressive.
We also visited the amphitheatre where the Romans staged fights with animals, gladiators and, when the arena was flooded, mock sea battles. It was also the scene of the execution of the five Christian martyrs.
The weather was much hotter than we expected and after three hours we were glad to head for the bus back to Split for a very late lunch and then back to Henrietta. We used the site Internet Café to catch up on emails and update the blog. Unfortunately, they didn't have WiFi, so we had to use their PC, which seems always to give complications. Apart from the QWERTZ keyboard with the Z, Y and many special character keys in the wrong place, the email refused to let me send new mails (I could reply and forward) and the Blogger site refused to upload photographs (they are working on the problem). I managed to send new emails by forwarding another mail after removing the content and changing the subject. The blog photographs will have to wait until I get Internet access again, assuming that they have fixed the problem.
Jane cooked a dinner of cottage / shepherd's / something pie with some local mince. We couldn't find out what meat the mince was made from – the Croatian words for beef, lamb and pork did not appear on the packet. I suggested that it might be horse and got a filthy look from Jane. Whatever it was, it was very tasty.
Rain started to fall gently just before 10 pm but, by the time that we went to bed, the thunder had started and the wind was increasing.
Photos: Griffins on the recently excavated sarcophagus from Solin; Kapljuc church and cemetery; Solona amphitheatre where the five Christian martyrs were executed.
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