Traces of Roman Pier Found Off Croatia’s Coast

PULA, CROATIA—Stones from a Roman jetty, olive pits, and amphora fragments have been discovered under 10 feet of water in Barbariga Bay, according to a Total Croatia News report. Some 2,000 years ago, the pier measured about 200 feet long and was used to ship oil from a large olive mill situated along the coast, according to underwater archaeologist Ida Koncani Uhač of the Archaeological Museum of Istria. First-century A.D. Roman author Pliny the Elder wrote that oil from this mill was the second best in quality in the entire Roman Empire, she added. The oil would have been stored in amphoras that were also manufactured in the Istria peninsula. To read about the Romans' destruction of olive groves at the ancient city of Zita in present-day Tunisia, go to "Oliveopolis."