LUMBARDA, CROATIA—Croatia Week reports that an ancient cistern measuring about 30 feet wide by 55 feet long and surviving to a depth of about 12 feet has been fully excavated on the southern Croatian island of Korčula. “That’s a huge amount of water,” said archaeologist Hrvoje Potrebica. In 1877, Božo Kršinić discovered the Lumbarda Psephisma, an inscription describing the founding of a Greek settlement on the island some 2,200 years ago, in the cistern, which also dates to about the beginning of the third century B.C. Conservator Krešimir Bosnić said the cistern is coated with high-quality plaster that had been expertly applied. Potrebica added that the research team created a highly detailed 3-D scan of the structure to help them monitor its condition. To read about early evidence of cheese making that was identified on pottery from Croatia's Dalmatian coast, go to "When Things Got Cheesy."
