14 DAY TRIAL // At least some of the amphoras suspected to be 2,200-year-old dug in a Bosnia-Herzegovina swamp are believed to have carried wine, as expressed by experts on Monday.
"A preliminary analysis showed amphoras, found at what are believed remains of the first-ever discovered Illyrian ships, were used for transporting wine," has stated Snjezana Vasilj, head of a Bosnian team of archaeologists.
Late in March, Vasilj's team found what they believed were the Illyrian ships in the Desilo location, more than 20 feet (6 m) under the water level of the Hutovo Blato swamp, near Capljina in southern Bosnia.
The Illyrian ships are thought to have sailed from the Adriatic Sea up the Neretva River transporting merchandise to the inland Balkans.
The Illyrians formed several kingdoms in the central Balkans in the first millennium BC, and the first known Illyrian king was Bardyllis.
They often warred with ancient Greeks, especially with ancient kingdom of Macedonia, and the Illyrian pirates also posed a great danger for the neighboring people.
"The Illyrian ships, suspected dating back to the 2nd century B.C., are known to historians only through Greek and Roman legends as their physical existence had never been established," said Vasilj.
Illyrians are considered as the earliest inhabitants of what is today Bosnia-Herzegovina, long before the Roman Empire took control of the Balkans.
After the Roman Empire conquered Illyria, most of the Illyrians were romanized (they adopted the Latin language and culture).
Several Roman emperors were native Illyrians, the most famous being Diocletian and Constantin the Great, the first Christian Roman Emperor, proclaimed saint together with his mother Helena.
Constantin is also the founder of Constantinople, the modern-day Istanbul.
Most Illyrians preserved their culture and language from assimilation by the Slavs (Serbs, Bosnians and Croats) when they arrived in the Balkans in the 5th and 6th centuries.
Many historians regard the modern Albanians as the descendants of the Illyrians (culturally, linguistically, and genetically), but this is strongly debated by others.