Vela Spila Archaeological Site, Vela Luka

Vela Spila is a cave northeast of Vela Luka on the island of Korčula, on the southern slope of the Pinski Rat hill above Kale cove. It is of interest to visitors because layers discovered in it bear witness to thousands of years of habitation.

Years of systematic research have revealed exceptionally rich cultural layers, from the Upper Palaeolithic (Epigravettian), through the Mesolithic and Neolithic (the Vela Luka and Hvar cultures) to the Eneolithic (the Nakovana culture), and on to the Bronze Age, when the cave lost its significance. Numerous flint and bone tools, animal bones, shells, fish and snails, as well as pottery from the later periods, speak of intensive, long-term life in the cave and of its importance in this part of the Adriatic.

The site is a protected cultural good, entered in the Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia under the code Z-3817, and is located in Dubrovnik-Neretva County.

Photo: Roberta F., CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Data: Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia (Ministry of Culture and Media), Open Licence; coordinates: Wikidata (CC0).