Today, we made our way to the other end of the island of Korcula to a town called Vela Luka, to see the discovery site of some of the oldest bones of Neolithic civilisations in the area. The bones have been dated as 7,000BC - 6,000BC...pretty old by most measures... perhaps not the measures used by Mongo Man in outback NSW... his bones are supposed to be 40,000 years old. The archaeologists have yet to finish their digging... there appears to be plenty of artifacts at layers deeper than 7,000BC.
We went to the Tourist Information Centre and asked for the keys to let us into the cave... then we trudged up a steep path behind the town and located the cave. We could understand why Neolithic man used the cave... very large... very cool (today's temperature was in the high 20's)... and probably quite warm in winter. The town of Vela Luka has the same charm as Korcula and Lumbarda (the other large towns on the island)... the uniform colour of buildings in the town... the neat little harbour filled with small fishing boats... birds fluttering overhead... small fish nibbling at the mooring ropes that secure the boats. After our strenuous walk, we enjoyed our beer and studied these details intently.
Earlier in the day, we had visited the museum in Korcula and brushed up on more recent history. The cast of conquerors is long and varied. The Greeks made money trading in the waters and eventually settled on the island very early on. The Romans sent them home in 35BC... also using the island's strategic position for coastal shipping. The island became part of the Byzantine empire... and when that civilisation had run its course, the Venetians took over. Because it was close to home and strategic for coastal shipping, the Venicians held onto the island for a long period... 300 years... and this accounts for the Italian feel you get walking around the villages.
The Venicians had designed a few towns before they got around to taking a greenfield site (in this case it would have been a 'greenrock' site) and putting these talents to work to build Korcula. The main street is angled to collect the maximum sun (especially in winter)... for defensive reasons, it is the only east-west street permitted in the old city. The side streets had a clever feature... they were not set perpendicular to the main street... but set at an angle producing a 'fishbone' effect. The benefit of this design was to stop the cold winter winds blowing straight through the city.
Why don't our modern town planners think of these things?
After the Venicians called it a day, there was a rapid succession of foreign rulers. Even England had a go... only for two years... but in that short period built a defensive fort around the old city... good on you England.
At least in the 1990's Balkan war, Korcula got off relatively unscathed... we were told a few shells fell but there was relatively little damage.
Korcula has a history that is not as bloody and violent as most of the big cities in the Balkans. Is there a Balkan city that mirrors Sydney's history... Can any of them say, "We conquered the land at a cost of many deaths amongst our indigenous citizens. Thereafter, there have been no deaths from military conflict on our soil... but some citizens have suffered deaths at sea in our territorial waters while on military service". Korcula and hundreds of Balkan cities would give their eye teeth to have their history the same as Australia.
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