Page 31 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 13(2) (2025)

ble that material from the Lošinj Channel shelf the present-day Osor Channel and the city wall
(wetland) was transported by currents towards has changed significantly due to extensive fill-
Osor Bay. This suggests that marine communi- ing in modern times. This is particularly evident
cation through what is now the Osor Channel when the first cadastral map of Osor from 1821
was feasible during the Bronze Age. More pre- (Sušanj Protić 2015, fig. 11) is compared with the
cise dating and geochemical proxies will ena- present-day one. Furthermore, strong currents
ble the establishment of marine communica- require the channel to be repaired repeatedly, re-
tion through the strait to be determined more sulting in the loss of older traces. For example,
accurately. Given the steady rise in the sea level, during the construction works in 1894, the re-
which was reconstructed at around –3 m for ca. mains of an older ‘riva antica’ were found (Sta-
4600 BC (Brunović et al. 2019), this seems like to di Trieste n. d.). The southern end of the Osor
a natural process. Current results cannot deter- Channel is particularly susceptible to erosion
mine whether human intervention played a role and requires regular repairs, as evidenced by the 31
in the formation of the Osor Channel. The sed- wooden pillars (dating in progress) detected dur-
imentary record (Subzone 21) partly coincides ing underwater excavations.
with the period of hillforts of the eastern Adriat- As the exact location of the Roman chan-
ic Bronze Age approx. 2200–900 cal BC (Blečić nel remains unknown, its depth cannot be de-
Kavur 2014), a topic covered in another article termined. Today, the depth of the Osor Chan-
in this volume. nel allows ships with a draft of up to 1.5 metres Dip Your Finger in the Sea...
A further increase in terrestrial organic car- to pass through (Peljar 2012, 61). Hrvatski hi-
bon in marine sediments, peaking between Iron drografski institut (2003) states that the chan-
Age and Late Antiquity (forthcoming publi- nel is 2.4 metres deep. However, ALB and un-
cation, see also chapter 5.1.2), can be attribut- derwater measurements show that the depth is
ed to the growth of the city, agriculture activ- actually around 3–3.5 m (the difference in meas-
ities as well as to the maintenance of the Osor urements of up to 60 cm can be attributed to the
Channel. From Roman times onwards, when ebb and flow of the tide). The shallow depth of
quay walls and other maritime infrastructure el- the Osor Channel has obstructed shipping at
ements were introduced to the northern Adri- least since the Late Middle Ages. According to
atic region (e.g. Koncani Uhač 2023), it is like- Sušanj Protić (2015), the city’s layout was reduced
ly that the Osor Channel was also maintained in size during the Venetian period. This appears
accordingly. If a bridge was built between Cres to be partly linked to restrictions on maritime
and Lošinj, the waterway’s banks had to be rein- traffic, as the Osor Channel was too shallow for
forced. However, no evidence of a Roman bridge large Venetian ships due to natural sedimenta-
has been found to date. A permanently installed tion processes and a lack of maintenance (Klen
bridge may have functioned similarly to those in 1957, 316–7). Ultimately, the Venetian govern-
the Middle Ages and the early modern period. ment resolved this issue by relocating the island’s
Illustrated sources, like the one from 1500–1530 administrative centre from Osor to Cres.
(http://www.arhiv.hr/portals/0/_DigitalniAr- It is reasonable to assume that the bottom
hiv/GrafikeHrvatskihMjesta/Osor1.htm), show of the channel is limited by bedrock. This is ev-
a permanent bridge with a narrow central sec- ident from the seismic measurements taken pri-
tion that could be raised to allow (sailing) boats or to construction and underwater work com-
to pass underneath. mencing at the southern end of the channel
It also seems impossible to determine the (MOHO d.o.o. 2023). These measurements in-
exact location of the channel in Roman times, dicate that the bedrock lies 4–6 metres below
as its position in relation to the Roman city wall the current sea level. The size of Roman ships has
is no longer traceable. The topography between been reconstructed based on shipwrecks. For the