Various artefacts of ancient Greek civilization, either purchased, donated or found by chance on the Central Dalmatian islands and on the coastal belt, were recorded in the Museum’s very first inventory logs. Originally systematized in the Antiquities Section, then in the Greco-Illyrian Collection, and finally, as of 1993, in the Greek-Hellenistic Collection, it today consists of over 5,200 registered items. The Archaeological Museum in Split thus holds the oldest and largest inventory of objects originally discovered in Dalmatia which are from all phases of Greek art (Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic), giving this collection particular value.
The collection’s first curator, until 1972, was archaeologist and one-time Museum director Mladen Nikolani. He was succeeded by Branko Kirigin, also a former director and today a retired Museum advisor, who continued to administer and expand the collection until 2012. The collection’s inventory was significantly enriched by many years of archaeological rescue excavations in the town of Vis (ancient Issa) on the eponymous island, where two ancient urban necropolises were discovered and explored at the Martvilo and Vlaška Njiva sites. This prompted the Museum to establish the Issa Archaeological Collection in 1983, and it is today on display in the Battery building in Vis.
From 1992 to 1997, Kirigin’s Adriatic Islands Project gathered a multinational team of researchers who conducted reconnaissance and excavations on the islands of Šolta, Brač, Hvar, Vis, Biševo, Lastovo and especially Palagrža, where they systematically examined a temple dedicated to the Greek hero Diomedes. An immense amount of archaeological materials covering an extensive chronological framework was gathered.
Most of the artefacts in the Greek-Hellenistic Collection are types of entirely preserved ceramic vases and other vessels, mostly from the Hellenistic era, discovered during excavations in the city necropolis at Martvilo in Vis (ancient Issa). Other objects came from the old town on the island of Hvar (ancient Pharos), Solin (ancient Salona), Stobreč (ancient Epetion), Vid near Metkovic (ancient Narona), Budva (ancient Buthoe), Karin (ancient Corinium), Kaštel Sućurac, Mutogras, the island of Brač, etc.
Visitors can see more than 90 stone, ceramic, metal and glass objects dated from the 6th to 1st centuries BC in the Museum’s lapidarium and permanent display.
The lapidarium, or stone monument collection, contains public inscriptions in stone and architectural fragments: gravestones found in the south-western necropolis of ancient Issa, the public inscription/rescript of a decision issued by Julius Caesar from Salona, a dedicatory inscription mentioning a hieromnamon and priestess from Kaštel Sućurac, the base of a cult vessel from Salona and marble lining from a temple or mausoleum in Issa. A marble relief from Narona with the image of a dancer is exhibited in the Museum’s atrium. In the Large Hall, the collection has been arranged chronologically and topographically and is displayed in three cases. Objects from the Archaic and Classical periods and Pharos are exhibited in the first. Items from Issa and other, mostly Central Dalmatian, sites are exhibited in the second and third. Painted and ornamented ceramic vases (Black and Red Figure ware, imported and local Gnathian ware, late Hellenistic ware), terracotta statues, stucco sculptures, gold jewellery, glass unguentaria, amphorae and a gravestone dedicated to the hero Kallias, which is also the oldest Greek inscription in verse found in Croatia.
The artefacts from the Greek-Hellenistic Collection confirm various facets of the political, economic, social and religious life of Greek colonists in Dalmatia and at the same time their adaptation to and influence on local circumstances. The accompanying photographs, maps and explanatory texts give visitors greater insight into the spread of Greek civilization on the Eastern Adriatic seaboard, with emphasis on the establishment of and life in the Greek settlements of Issa and Pharos.