The archaeological research covers the city of Stari Bar and its territory. The urban area offers an notable potential, since it is the center of an early medieval foundation abandoned towards the end of the nineteenth century, and thus did not undergo the violent transformations of the twentieth century on the Dalmation/Montenegran coast. The principle aim of the project was to analyze and reconstruct the settlement history, and then to understand in what form, and to what extent spaces, functions and character of the material culture are expressions of identity of the social groups that inhabited the site over time.
The sequence starts with residual material of the Bronze Age. Then, remains of a Late-Antique mosaic pavement, reused in an early material building, and sherds of the same period, suggest the existence of a stable settlement on the site from that period onward. Less fragmentary remains of a settlement, however, appear in the middle Byzantine period (9th and 10th centuries), when a defensive wall with semi-circular towers – in one case flanking a gate – was built. This circuit-wall must have protected a settlement within which there was at least one church. Excavations have shown even more clearly the moment of transformation of the settlement from castrum to city in the 13th and 14th centuries, and then the successive changes and expansion of the Venitian and Ottoman periods. Much information comes from the study of the pottery, which gives good evidence for the commercial character of the town, but is also representative of its social organization. The study of the territory is aimed at constructing a cartographic instrument for the recording of its archaeological heritage, but is also vital for establishing the context in which the town’s development took place.