Il progetto Stari Bar nasce nel quadro di una cooperazione tra le Università di Venezia (Italia), Università di Koper/Capodistria (Slovenia) e le autorità montenegrine (Museo di Bar, Ministero per la Cultura, Sito Archeologico di Bar) e si inserisce all'interno del programma Culture 2000 finanziato dalla Comunità Europea. Il sito di Stari Bar (Antivari) rappresenta indubbiamente un luogo di straordinario interesse archeologico, innanzitutto per il grado di conservazione dei resti materiali. Una città distrutta ed abbandonata durante la guerra per l'indipendenza montenegrina ci restituisce, anche se a livello di rudere, l'immagine di una piccola 'Pompei' medievale. Obiettivo del progetto è lo studio delle fasi cronologiche dell'abitato, in relazione ai diversi gruppi sociali e culturali che vi hanno operato. Nel 2004 un primo studio delle architetture ha permesso di ricavare una valutazione archeologica della risorsa edilizia attraverso un'analisi della conservazione della leggibilità delle strutture della città. La valutazione preliminare sulla qualità dei depositi archeologici non ancora scavati, evidenzia l'eccezionale stato di conservazione delle stratigrafie e dei bacini sepolti, in relazione alle diverse fasi della città: bizantina, serba, veneziana e turca. Un saggio di scavo all'interno della Citadella ha permesso di datare le strutture fortificate di questa area alla fine del XII secolo, costruendo la prima sequenza stratigrafica con cronologie assolute, con interessanti associazioni ceramiche, disponibile per l'intero sito.

The project on Stari Bar is part of a cooperation between the University of Venice (Italy), the University of Koper/Capodistria (Slovenia) and the Montenegrin authorities (Museum of Bar, Ministry of Culture, Archaeological site of Bar) and is inserted in a wider framework, of which also the University of Innsbruck is part, funded by the European Union, that aims to study the ways and modalities that qualify the Venetian presence on the eastern coast of the Adriatic sea (Programme Culture 2000, The heritage of Serenissima). In this perspective some case studies have been analyzed (the shipwreck of Gnalic, in Croatia, the late medieval ceramics of some sites of Slovenia (Piran/Pirano, Izola/Isola, Koper/Capodstria) and Croatia (Sv. Ivan pri Umagu/S. Giovanni di Umago, Split/Spalato), and the site of Bar in Montenegro), in order to build autonomous guidelines for research, some of which have already been completed.
The site of Stari Bar (Antivari - Old Bar) represents undoubtedly an extraordinarily interesting archaeological site, first of all for the degree of preservation of the material remains. A village destroyed and abandoned during the Montenegrin Independence War gives us a picture, even if in ruins, of a small fossil town: with its streets, its palaces, its houses, its churches and monasteries, its mosques and its baths. A site whose archaeological potential stopped in 1870 AD.
Stari Bar has been for a long time among the objects of restoration of the Montenegrin Community. The site has already in fact been restored, consolidated, cleaned, re-fitted in the past, making it partially suitable for visits. In the occasion of these restorations, which respected the monuments and were realized after an attentive work of architectural mapping by a team led by prof. Durde Boskovic after the second world war, many artefacts have been uncovered that allowed to reconstruct the history of the site. Some of these objects (late medieval pottery from three contexts) have been recently studied and published by Mladen Zagarcanin, as part of the present project. The book of the Montenegrin colleague is then the first product of this co-operation born under the sign of the heritage of Serenissima. But the archaeological resource contained in this micro-cosmos is in its greater part unexplored and will then be a success if our presence will be able to increase its knowledge and development.
After this first campaign of research we would like to acknowledge many Institutes and people that helped us, encouraged us and supported us in our activity.
On the Montenegrin side the Minister of Culture, Mrs. Vesna Kilibarda, the Superintendent of Montenegro Slobodan Mitrovic, the Mayor of Bar, Mrs. Anka Vojvodic, the director of the Centre of Culture of Bar Milun Lutovac, the director of the Museum of Bar Vladislav Kasalica and, of course, our friends Omer Perocevic and Mladen Zagarcanin.
On the Italian side the Ministry for Foreign Affair, the Italian consulate of Podgorica and the Veneto Region for the fundings.
Sauro Gelichi - Mitja Gustin
Venezia - Koper, august 200