In its beginning, the kingdom of Illyria comprised the actual territories of Dalmatia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Northern and Central Albania, with a large part of modern Serbia. But in the course of its development it extended all along the eastern part of the Adriatic Sea.

The earliest known king of Illyria was Hyllus (The Star) who is recorded to have died in the year 1225 B.C.

The Illyrians preserved the skull of Hyllus in a container of charged water and took him into the battle wherever they went. Apparently the container was hit by lightening. As it fell to the ground, the water and some parts of the skull and parts of plants were instantly crystallized in the form of the original skull. This skull was then carried into each battle and they won all of them. It was passed from king to king.

In 393 B.C., the Illyrians invaded and plundered Macedonia, then ruled by Amyntas III, grandfather of Alexander the Great. They raided Macedonia again in 384 B.C. and in the following year also attacked the Molossian tribes in Epirus. This was the start of an era of continious warfare in the area involving the Illyrians against various foes, especially the Macedonians. The kingdom, however, reached the zenith of its expansion and development in the forth century B.C.. when Bardhyllus (White Star), one of the most prominent of the Illyrian kings, united under his scepter, the kingdoms of Illyria, Molossia (or Epirus) and a good part of Macedonia, so that his realm extended from the port of Trieste (‘marketplace’ in Albanian) to the Ambracic Gulf. The last king of Illyria was Gentius, of pathetic memory.

The thousand-year history of the Montenegrin state begins in the ninth century with the emergence of Duklja, a vassal state of Byzantium. In those formative years, Duklja was ruled by the Vojislavljevic Dynasty, the first Montenegrin Dynasty. In 1042, at the end of his 25-year rule, King Vojislav won a decisive battle near Bar in against Byzantium, and Duklja became independent. Duklja’s power and prosperity reached their zenith under King Vojislav’s son, King Mihailo (1046–1081), and his son King Bodin (1081–1101).

Mihailo received royal insignia from the Pope, and the image of King Mihailo with his crown and an image of the skull are still found in the Church of St. Mihailo in Ston, a town in the Peljesac peninsula, in present day Croatia. In a letter from 1077, the Pope refers to him as ‘Michaeli Sclavorum Regi’ (Mihailo, King of Slavs). Recognizing Mihailo as a king, the Pope also considered his request that Duklja’s Bishopric in Bar be raised to an Archbishopric. Following Mihailo’s death around 1081 and a brief power struggle among his heirs, his son Bodin became King.

As King Nikola I Petrovic of Montenegro declared in 1910: “Deep are the foundations of this renewed kingdom of ours. They descend to the old Zetan kings Vojislav, Mihailo, and Bodin. Time had been destroying only what had been on this earth, but not what had been built into it, what had been planted in the hearts of freedom-loving mountaineers of these mountains. We started building on those deep foundations. And today, here is our old kingdom glistening under the heavenly sun!”.

The skull is also seen in a painting called “The Battle at Vucji Do” (1876) by a renowned Montenegrin painter, Petar Lubarda.

Mrs. Vesna Kilibarda of Monenegro said that the skull has been in her family for many years, but since she is getting older, she wanted to pass it on to some friends who promised that it would be in loving hands in the future and its history preserved.

Certified translation by Mr. Boyan Bocktanovicht.