Audio Tour of Vela Spila

Enjoy these 11 audio clips designed to help you understand some of the stories Vela Spila has to tell as you visit.
They are FREE to download to your device and to listen to as often as you like.
Click on the image or the text and then click on   to download each one.
Each clip lasts for about 3 minutes to give you a tour of 30 minutes.

Currently available only in Croatian, English and German.

Volunteers to translate the tour or to record it in other languages should contact ArchaeoLink.

Walk with care in the cave

the ground can be slippery.

Click here to Download in English with IMAGES.
Click here to Download in Croatian with IMAGES
Click here to Download in German
with IMAGES

Play audio
 

VS1 Welcome to Vela Spila ... the sea was not always in view.

Play audio
 

VS2 As we go down the slope we go back in time.

Play audio
 

VS3 20,000 years ago most of Europe was under ice.

Play audio

VS3b The making of fired clay figurines suddenly stopped.

Play audio
 

VS4 The layers of sediment help us understand the history of the cave.

Play audio
 

VS4b 11,000 years ago, Korcula became an island and people consumed a lot of fish.

Play audio
 

VS5 The cave was used for burials.

Play audio

VS6 Children were buried here.

Play audio
 

VS6b New ideas and new ways of life came to the area.

Play audio
 

VS7 The cave was used for penning animals.

Play audio
 

VS8 There is still so much to dig ... so many questions to answer.

Play audio

This Audio Tour is created from information available in the following research papers:

2014 Cristiani E, Farbstein R, Miracle PT, Ornamental traditions in the Eastern Adriatic: The Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic personal adornments from Vela Spila (Croatia). Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, v36, pp21-31. 
2014 Miracle PT, O'Connor T, Rainsford C, Fishing in the Adriatic at the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition: Evidence from Vela Spila, Croatia. Environmental Archaeology. v9(3) pp311-320.
2014 Mihanovi? H, Sikora M, Vilibi? I. Paleo-coastline of the Central Eastern Adriatic Sea, and Paleo-Channels of the Cetina and Neretva rivers during the last glacial maximum. Acta Adriatica. v55(1) pp3-18.
2013 Forenbaher S, Kaiser T, Miracle PT, Dating the East Adriatic Neolithic. European Journal of Archaeology v16 (4) pp589–609.
2012 Brajkovic? D, Farbstein R, Miracle PT, Radic? D, First Epigravettian Ceramic Figurines from Europe (Vela Spila, Croatia). PLoS ONE v7(7): e41437.
2010 Lightfoot E, Miracle PT, O’Connell T, Radic? D, S?laus M, Stable Isotope Analysis of Human Diets during the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods at Vela Spila Cave, Korc?ula UDK 903.3 (497.5 Korc?ula).
2010 Miracle PT, Radi? D, Wallduck R, Treatment of the Dead in the Late Mesolithic: Reconstructing Taphonomic Histories of Human Remains from Vela Spila, Croatia. UDK: 393 (497.5 Vela s?pilja).
2005 Forenbaher S, Miracle PT, The Spread of Farming in the Eastern Adriatic. Antiquity v79 pp514-528.