Šas

It is believed that Šas / Svač is named after Illyrian martyr Saint Astius.

The Latin form of the Šas / Svač is Suacia, and is formed from the abbreviation of sanctus (saint) – Su. and the Astius. The combination Su+Astius forms Suastius, and through the phoneme shift st → c, Suastius becomes Suacius, which in the feminine form is Suacia.

The Albanian and Montenegrin forms of Šas / Svač are not formed via translation from the Latin form. Instead, however, they are formed based on localised translations of Saint Astius.

• The Albanian form of Šas / Svač is Shas, and is formed similarly to the Latin form. Saint Astius in Albanian is Shën Asti. The first two letters of both words form Shas. The modern-day term Šas in Montenegrin is a borrowing from Albanian.
• The Montenegrin form of Šas / Svač is Svač, and is also formed similarly to the Latin form. Saint Astius in Montenegrin is Sveti Astije. Like in Latin, a phoneme shift also occurs, st → č. After the phoneme shift, the first two letters of both words form Svač.

In 1985, fragments of prehistoric pottery were found in the rocks. Even if the pottery was from various epochs, it was not separated by layers. On the eastern end, several fragments were found decorated with fingernails, which possibly indicates early neolithic origin. These fragments also show trace amounts of quartz and silex. Chalcolithic pottery was also found in the same area, with findings from a ditch in the upper part of the town dating from the same era, or slightly younger, from the Bronze Age.[2]

The most numerous findings were of Iron Age pottery, found in several trenches, in the upper part of town and a great part of the suburbium. Such findings provides evidence for the existence of an Iron Age fort. This idea is also supplemented by constructed dry walls built of certain large stones. This type of stone was also found in some walls of medieval Svač.

Fragments of some Hellenistic pottery was found in the waterfalls east of Svač, suggesting that a Hellenistic layer could exist in the northern outskirts. Fragments of thin-walled pottery in red and yellow colors, possibly Roman, were discovered in the upper fort and in the outskirts by the northern waterfalls beneath the city.

Svač was first mentioned in the 1067 in a papal bull by Pope Alexander II as "Svacia Civitas" (literally "city-state of Suacia"). However, it is believed to have been founded in the 6th century during the reign of Justinian I.

In 1183, Serbian ruler Stefan Nemanja conquered the town. In 1242, following their failed invasion of Ulcinium, the Mongols led by Kadan (grandson of Genghis Khan) destroyed Svač and slaughtered its inhabitants. The ruins remaining from the Mongol invasion are today known by the locals as kishat, Albanian for churches.

Historical sources indicate that the Serbian Queen Helen of Anjou ordered its reconstruction in the late 13th century. Jelena was residing at Ulcinj at the time. However, the town's structures were starting to collapse in ca. early 15th century as evidenced by a letter to Venice in 1406 written by the Archbishop of Svač, pleading for monetary funding to renovate the town's walls.

From what we can see in one Latin manuscript in the 14th century (The Directorium ad passagium faciendum 1332 ) we get a clear indication of the demographics of the area of that time including Šas in the middle ages; "The Latins have six towns with bishops: firstly Antibarum (Bar), the seat of the archbishop, then Chatarensis (Kotor), Dulcedinensis (Ulcinj), Suacinensis (Shas), Scutarensis (Shkodra) and Drivascensis (Drisht), which are inhabited by the Latins alone. Outside the town walls, the Albanians make up the population throughout the diocese.". note; this area would later be incorporated into Albania veneta (Venetian Albania) in the 15th century but would be lost later on to the Ottomans according to Dalmatian historian Luigi Paulucci.

The town was destroyed by the Ottoman Turks in 1571 and the ancient See of Suacium was forever suppressed.[1]

According to Montenegro's 2011 census, all residents of Šas are ethnically Albanian and consider Albanian to be their mother tongue.[3] All 238 residents practice Islam.[3]