The Johns Hopkins Univer: ity Eisenhower Express : 1177369 | l Hn ILLiad TI Journal/Bo0k Title: Apollo Volume: 142 Issue: 401 MonthiYear 11995 Pages: 24-26 Article Author: Hodges, Richard Article Tite: history Note: Call #: N1.A48 The rediscovery of Butrint (Albania) : a microcosm of Mediterranean WARNING CONCERNING COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS. The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of Photocopies or ther reproductions of copyrighted materials Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a Photocopy or other reproduction. 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Patron Information | Name: Nathan Dennis | Username: ndennis2 Status Graduate Department: History of Art Email nathan.s.dennis@gmail.com Delivery Method: Deliver Electronically | Transaction # 1177369The rediscovery of Butrint (Albania) A microcosm of Mediterranean history RICHARD HODGES We had soon put the cloud-capped citadels of Phaeacia down below the horizon and we coasted along Epirus until we entered the har- ‘our of Chaonia and then walked up to the lofty city of Buthrotur, (Virgt, Aenea, 291-3) ‘tint, ancient Buthrotum, lies in Be ‘Albania, twenty ilo- metres south of the modern port of Saranda, at the souther tip of the Hlexa~ mil peninsula, Its location is spectacular the ancient city occupies a biuif of land protruding into the Vivari channel, a stretch of water which today connects the Straits of Corfu, four kilometres west of Butrint, to the inland salt-water Lake Butrint. South of the channel lies a flat reclaimed plain, today drained by dikes, which effectively separates Butrint from the range of mountains that run along Albania's southern frontier with Greece Butrint has a long history. The site was probably first settled in the eighth century Bc by Corfiot traders engaged in com- merce between Epirus and the Greek colonies in southern Italy as well as with the Albanian ports of Epidamnos (mod- em Durres) and Apolionia, certainly the town associated with the legend of Aeneas. By the fourth century ‘ap, Butrint was a Chaoanian port, proba bly at the centre of one of the Hellenic tribes of Epirus® The Romans occupied the port in the second century 8¢ when it was a supply base for military campaigns in the Balkans. During the following cen tury it became a colony for veterans under Julius Caesar, when the writer politician Cicero became much involved with Butrint’ tribulations as a result of his celebrated friendship with Atticus, a magnate who owned extensive property in the environs of the town.’ By later Roman times, it had its own bishop, and ‘was evidently a place that was once again expanding. Ie then suffered attacks by the Goths in Ap 351, but its subsequent his tory until the tenth century, as in the case of many Mediterranean ports, remains a almost a “The shusaions to his ance ae rom photographs taken by the author unles otherwise stated 1 Laigh polit (1895-1986), by an unknown photographer mystery. Thereafter, it emerged as a major port of call on the Adriatic route from Venice to Byzantium, As a result it briefly fll into Norman hands in 1081 as Robert Guiscard brashly threatened the Byzantine navy. It was subsequently retaken by the Byzantine Empire before becoming an Angevin, Navarese and, most importantly, a Venetian port. For much of the later Middle Ages it was in Venetian hands, defending the caste flank of the strats of Corfu. Only in the eighteenth century did they abandon Butrint in the face ofthe Turks, who twice camped armies here bound fer invasions of Corfu. Later stil it became a favourite spot for the Turkish rulers of Toannina who hunted fowl in the surrounding marshes. By the 1850s, though, when Edward Lear passed this way, the place was largely deserted* The first antiquarian to discover Butrint was Ciriaco d’Ancona who arrived in a bireme on Boxing Day in 1434, During this brief visit he seems to have removed. few antiquities." Indeed, Butrint remained. overlooked until the 1920s, when a Fas cist mission despatched by the Italian ministry of Foreign AMfairs effectively dis- covered the site.’ Mussolini had wished to influence affairs in Albania, and preoc- cupied by the French archacological mission at Apollonia, the Foreign Minis- ter, Grandi, made the case for a comparable Italian project. The choice of director fell upon a young prehistorian called Luigi Maria Ugolini ig. 1), a charismatic man in his late twenties who, after service in the Alpine Corp in World War had studied at the Italian School of Archaeology at Athens. Ugolini_em- barked on a long joumey through ‘Albania in 1924, and chose the Illyrian fortress known as the Phoinike, on a hil top twenty miles north of Butrint, for his first campaigns. The excavations at the Phoinike proved to be less promising than Ugolini imag- ined and so, in 1928, in the hope of discovering the archaeology of the age of ‘Aeneas, which might then be directly linked for propaganda purposes to Rome, hhe began work at Butrint" Ugolini and his team were to spend the following dozen years occupied! with the site In 1928, Butrint was a largely bare hill with a craggy outcrop in a totally deserted landscape. Ugolini hired Albanian work- men who within three months had unearthed great stietches of the Greek polygonal walling around the acropolis, including several fine gates. His largest excavations, however, were on the south facing flank of the hilltop where i discovered the fourth-century theatre Fig. 3). This theatre, with its well-pre~ served seating and caves, produced a sensation when a line of statues including, the ‘goddess of Butrint’ anda fine head of Apollo were discovered in the water logged levels.’ Working on a huge scale Ugolini unearthed the Temple of Ascle- pulus beside the theatre, a fine Roman bathblock in front of it, parts of an early Byzantine palace by the Vivari canal (seeifth-century mi many oth rked with zeal unti death in 1936 from malaria, Butrint unt essentially a monument to him: to spirit and inexhaustible enthusiasm’, to quote his successor, Domenico Mastili.” ‘The present campaign of ns supported by the Albanian of Archaeology and the Butrint Foundation Butrint from aims to d wo points of view.” Firs, as most of the previous ogical investigations has been trated upon the ancient levels, Butrint remains largely unknowm. The main objective of the new campaign is to chart the topographical history of this period. In particular, itis important to establish the sixth to tent century aD phases: to examine how this important port fared as the Mediter- ranean commercial systems collapsed. Was there limited mercantile activity between Constantinople and the Aegean the Adriatic ports leading up to Venice, as some recent archeeological evidence hints, or was there a complete breakdown of commerce in the period 640-80? Part of this investigation involves examining the hinterland of B i photograph of December traces of fossilized field systems, almost later Repub The second aim of the new campaign at Butrint is to promote this remarkable site insucha ‘way that it attracts a steady flow of tists which in turn provide 2 so income Albania has s transition & The state villages are in a ravished con: fas much as half the population migrated to Greece. The region plainly requires investment. An obvious source of such investment is through tourism, ut commonly this has instigated another form of wholesale destruction. The new project aims, through careful heritage management, to hel Butrint nst such likely depredations. Excavations and surveys ix 1% have been limited in their scope. A phase of assessment has taken place in order to develop the project successfully. This has included a new topographic survey with Butrint’s commercial time iti likely that 1g by land, visitors would have approached Bi h now separates Lake Butr Bronze Age and early Greek times, when -opolis) was the ce!(examined first by major buildings by any how that this prol o decay in the sixth century First, its presence prevented and was reoccupied e, coinciden 3s extensively vessels from proceedi th centuries at the en the basilica wa is tempting to surmise, discovery of dence, of activity shifted for a pered as a hig Although a mas was constructed ar ppears likely that the ed on west side of the wn, A shallow bay seems to have beer ears sive curtain wal and created defended on all sides by forts t is the tria sometimes attributed to the nineteenth- Ali Pasha. The origina high Byzantine times the earlier jent which had either been on the hilltop or nestling on end serve he sou lanks of the hill. The towers on fields putative Roman por A e intera be the subject al project. Our chart an isciplinary history that builds upon Its of mis sion. The new pr less mia under Caesar. ory ~ a history of ac wldings. In Luigi Ugol aptistry and the concerned with Butrint’s ri and fine objects, but mus examine the port sive to local as well as international ments also aim t a community res conditions. Already initial survey in the surrounding landseape has brought to light the traces of many late antique set including a fine villa with a large basilica on the south-east shore of ements, nt has attracted travellers since the age of Aeneas. Tis scientific importance in the fact that it is a microcos Mediterranean history over the housand years set in a beautiful environment Ugolini made Butrint into a great arc context Li ological site led Alba Pompei later, while charting its history with modern means and in moder terms, our ¢ also to icrocosm the Mediterranean past is turned to Alba and future fortune o many fallenge is despoiled 3 been in re imilar places Ss G2 aco en p58 beth Raison, Cire Apart anon 375 supeiei Foundation was extablahed ideas calaboative aschaeologt Buta and in she surooncing ep a3 Ricard lodges, sw Meon fli es of Pee