Butrint 8. The Late Roman and Middle Byzantine Archaeology of Butrint, its Enclave, Saranda and Santi Quaranta

Richard Hodges
Aug 6
4 min read

Butrint 8. The Late Roman and Middle Byzantine Archaeology of Butrint, its Enclave, Saranda and Santi Quaranta, Edited by Richard Hodges and Nevila Molla, Oxford, Oxbow Books

This in the eighth book in the Butrint Foundation’s archaeological monograph series (although Butrint 6 consists of 3 volumes). To these we should add two monographs (on Butrint’s Hellenistic and Roman theatre and the Cardini archives relating to Butrint’s palaeolithic archaeology published with the British School at Athens). Thanks to the Butrint Foundation, created by Lords Rothschild and Sainsbury in 1993, this Ionian seaport has gone from comparative obscurity to being a benchmark for Adriatic Sea and Albanian archaeology. More volumes relating to the 1994-2012 campaigns are being presently prepared. In all, the aim is to do justice – something rarely done in Mediterranean archaeology – to the privilege of carrying out fieldwork in such a remarkable place.

This book is dedicated to the memory of Kosta Lako (1949-2021), the Saranda-born archaeologist with whom we began our collaboration at Butrint in 1994. Kosta excavated and published his research at Butrint, Çuka i Ajtoit, Saranda and in a preliminary way, the great Late Antique ruins of Santi Quaranta.

Selim Islami, Dhimosten Budina, and Kosta Lako - Saranda sea front, 1978

The volume contains a detailed report on the remarkable excavations in the Western Defenses, reappraising earlier interpretations on the basis of a short campaign in 2022. Tower 1 was destroyed by fire in about AD 800, while Tower 2, which had a similar stratigraphic sequence, continued in use until the later 9^th century. The finds include an important 9^th-century glass collection that is published in full.

Butrint 8 contains a report, too, on excavations around the Great Basilica, illustrating the episodic and long story of this important part of Butrint overlooking a major 1^st-century road bridge.

A chapter is dedicated to Butrint’s hinterland, ranging from the Dema wall – a Greek frontier wall refurbished in the Mid Byzantine era as well as by the later Venetians – to the settlement on the Vrina Plain outside Butrint with an exceptional 12^th-century rubbish midden full of finds, and finally the fortified hilltop at Çuka i Ajtoit, which is now believed to have been a Mid Byzantine rather than a Late Roman stronghold (as well as an Archaic Greek and Hellenistic citadel) overlooking the coast road.

Santi Quaranta crypt 6th-century painting of Christ

Four chapters are devoted to Saranda, ancient Onchesmos, with the aim of putting the archaeology of this small Roman and later port on the map. An overview of the archeology prefaces a reappraisal of the port’s main Late Roman Basilica, which had previously been a synagogue in a townhouse. There then follows a short report on rescue excavations made in the port by the Butrint Foundation, which includes a study of the coil-made, so-called Slavic wares found here as well as at Butrint (and more widely in Epirus).

The fourth chapter in this section is a major study of the hilltop sanctuary at Santi Quaranta, a truly remarkable site dedicated to the 4^th-century 40 martyrs of Sebeste. Blown up in 1967 or so, when all religions were banned in Albania, this report phases the remaining structures and proposes that it was a major healing centre in Late Antiquity. The new survey begins by hypothesizing that a Roman temple first occupied this spectacular site overlooking the Ionian Sea. Then, in the late 5^th century the great sanctuary was made, with remains of tile-made Greek inscriptions set in its walls. At least ten donors were involved. The sanctuary was then remodeled in the 520s opening it to pilgrims, when a new west front and stair were added. In the labyrinth of well-preserved crypts below wall paintings depict the process of healing through incubation close to the cult. In this telling, the processions to the cult are vividly reconstructed. The sanctuary was then struck by an earthquake in the later 6^th century. The 7^th-century phase is remarkable for its downsized and primitive form before it was abandoned, only to be reoccupied in Ottoman times, and again in the 20^th century. Still considered a holy site, this is one of the great places in Late Antique archaeology and now, thanks to this report, it is on the academic map. The next step, in the face of rampant hotel building at Saranda, is to use this report to ensure it is conserved properly.

The volume ends with a discussion of the Late Antique and Mid Byzantine archaeology as society and the economy around the Big Sea – the Mediterranean – collapsed, to be revitalized with Byzantine state support around the turn of the millennium.

The volume concludes with an interview of Dr. Dhimitër Çondi, an archaeologist from Saranda who has been active at Butrint and its surroundings for more than fifty years.