Butrint 7: Beyond Butrint: The Vrina Plain, Kavilo, Mursi and Ҫuka E Aitoit, Albania. Surveys and Excavations, 1928-2016

This volume brings together unpublished Italian and Albanian archaeological reports and new archaeological studies from recent fieldwork that throw new light on the archaeology and history of the Pavllas River Valley, the Mediterranean alluvial plain in the territory of Butrint, ancient Buthrotum, in southwestern Albania. It gives prominence for the first time to two important sites, Kalivo and Çuka e Aitoit, which are here reinterpreted and shown to have played major roles in the early history of Butrint as it evolved in the later first millennium BC to emerge as the key city of Chaonia in Epirus. Butrint 7 also presents the full excavation report of the Late Bronze Age and Hellenistic fortified site of Mursi, in addition to other Butrint Foundation surveys and excavations in the hinterland of Butrint, including the Roman villa maritima at Diaporit, the villa suburbana on the Vrina Plain, and Roman sites on Alinura Bay and at the Customs House, as well as new surveys of the early modern Triangular Fortress and a survey to locate the lost Venetian village of Zarópulo. The volume also features a new study of the Hellenistic bronze statuette of Pan found on Mount Mile and of his sanctuary at Butrint. The volume concludes with a comprehensive reassessment of the Pavllas River Valley in relation to Butrint, from the Palaeolithic to the modern eras, examining how dominion, territory, environment and the ‘corrupting sea’ reshaped Butrint and its fluvial corridor diachronically and particularly brought profound territorial, economic and social alterations under the Roman Empire.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations
Introduction and Acknowledgments – David Hernandez and Richard Hodges

Part I. Italian and Albanian Surveys and Excavations
1. A Colonial Indifference to Butrint, 1923–1924. S. S. Clarke’s ‘Survey’ of the Hinterland of Buthrotum – Richard Hodges
2. The History of Archaeological Investigations at Kalivo and Çuka e Aitoit – Oliver J. Gilkes
3. L’acropoli di Calivò (with an appendix of preliminary notes) – Luigi Maria Ugolini (transcribed and edited by Oliver J. Gilkes)
4. Short Introduction to Ugolini’s and Islami’s Surveys and Excavations at Çuka e Aitoit (Monte Aetòs) – Oliver J. Gilkes
5. L’acropoli di Monte Aetòs (Çuka e Aitoit): Il lato nord (cinta delle mura) – Luigi Maria Ugolini
6. Monte Aetòs (Çuka e Aitoit): Scavi – Luigi MariaUgolini
7. La cinta medioevale di Monte Aetòs (Çuka e Aitoit) – Luigi Maria Ugolini
8. Monte Aetòs (Çuka e Aitoit): Necropoli – Luigi Maria Ugolini
9. I reperti da Monte Aetòs – The Finds from Çuka e Aitoit – Luigi Maria Ugolini, with contributions by Karen Francis, Oliver J. Gilkes, David Hernandez, and Belisa Muka
10. Giornale di scavo del Monte Aetòs (Çuka e Aitoit), 1929 – Alfredo Nuccitelli
11. Çuka e Aitoit: The 1979 Survey and Excavations – Selim Islami (with an introductory preface by Oliver J. Gilkes)

Part II. Butrint Foundation Surveys and Excavations
12. The Perimeter Walls of Kalivo: Electronic Survey, 2001, by Andrew Crowson
13. Excavations at Kalivo, 2004, by Andrew Crowson (with an appendix by Paul Reynolds and Nadia Aleotti)
14. A Roman and Venetian Site at Alinura Bay, by José C. Carvajal López
15. A Possible Roman Villa at the Customs House, by Andrew Crowson
16. Trial Excavations at the Triangular Fortress, 2014, by Ilir Parangoni, Oliver J. Gilkes
and David Bescoby
17. The Eastern Villa Suburbana and Its Pars Rustica on the Vrina Plain – Oliver J. Gilkes, Emily Glass, Valbona Hysa, Ilir Parangoni and Paul Reynolds (with appendices by Oliver J. Gilkes and Alessandra Pecci & Miguel Ángel Cau Ontiveros)
18. The Shën Dimitri Survey, 2015: The Rediscovery of Zarópulo – Ilir Parangoni
19. The Diaporit Villa in Context – William Bowden and Luan Përzhita
20. The Late Bronze Age and Hellenistic Fortified Site at Mursi, Albania – David Hernandez
21. The Late Bronze Age Pottery from Mursi, Albania – Sarah Lima
22. The Hellenistic Pottery from Mursi, Albania – Nadia Aleotti
23. The Coin