KOMINI
(Municipium S.) Yugoslavia.
In N
Montenegro, near the small city of Pljevlja. It was probably an Illyrian settlement, which in the course of the
1st c. A.D. developed into a city, received municipal rights
in the middle of the 2d c., and survived until the middle
of the 4th c. The population included romanized natives
from the coast (Risinium) as well as immigrants' from N
Italy and Greek freedmen.
Excavations have been oriented mainly toward the
city's two burial sites. The older one (1st-early 2d c.) is
on a plateau; the other (2d-4th c.) is on the slope of
the mountain underneath the original settlement, in the
direction of the river Veziinica. At the older site were
found only cremation burials' in clay urns, pits, or chests.
The urns come from a prehistoric tradition, and the
grave offerings are uniform and modest.
At the other site were found eight monumental tombs
that consist for the most part of large stone blocks. They
contained coffers made of stone slabs. Above each coffer
was a cippus with an inscription and relief decoration.
Both cremation and interment were practiced in the cemetery, even into the late 3d c. The grave types are in the
prehistoric tradition, but construction and monuments
are completely Roman.
The monuments are the work of local stonemasons.
Most of them adopted Roman symbolism but the influence of the local Illyrian-Celtic tradition is marked.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. Evans,
Antiquarian Researches in
Illyricum, III-IV (1885) 6-43; A. Cermanović-Kuzmanović, “Die Ergebnisse der archäologischen Forschungen
auf dem Gebiete des Municipium S. bei Pljevlja,” Actes
IV, VII
Congr?ès des archéologues yougoslaves (1967)
77-84; id., “Le municipium S. et ses problèmes observés
sous la lumière des monuments archéologiques et épigraphiques,”
Starinar 19 (1969) 101-9.
A. CERMANOVIĆ-KUZMANOVIĆ
