The popular view of archaeology is that it is done and dusted on the ground, in the trench. Nothing is further from the truth. Analysing the results, then publishing these is the real labour – often as not a labour of love to entice those who enjoyed a summer in an exotic location to knuckle down and write. Well, the Butrint Foundation had a bumper year in 2019. Four heavyweight volumes were published about our excavations between 1994-2007. A decade or more’s work is now rea

Our book is published by Viella! Edited with Alessandro Del Muro, Il santuario di San Michele ad Olevano sul Tusciano (Viella, Rome, 2019), it is much more substantive than we originally imagined. Much of this compendium is rightly given over to John Mitchell’s ground-breaking overview of the painted decoration. But the atti are more than this. The book attempts to answer the riddle of the cave. Unusually for a conference (Salerno November 2018) lots of new thinking emerged a

The passing of Gabe Battista on Sunday, 26 January has shocked all of us. Gabe had had recent illnesses but volunteered only a few weeks ago that he was fighting fit. He was a wonderfully expressive man who never failed to surprise me. I tried to capture a little of his unforgettable character and enriching personality in this short memoir. Gabriel Battista, 1944-2020 Gabriel (Gabe) Battista was the Chairman of AUR’s trustees since 2012, and a Board member since 2006. Just to