Butrint: At the Crossroads of the Mediterranean

My new book on Butrint is published this week by Bloomsbury Academic https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/butrint-9781350548619/ at £21.99

The gloriously situated archaeological site of Butrint, ancient Buthrotum, on the Straits of Corfu was made famous by Virgil in his account of Aeneas’wanderings before founding Rome.

It became a major Roman and Medieval port, thriving in Venetian times as a fishery. Many great names passed through here, including Pyrrhus, Julius Caesar, Cicero (in all likelihood), crusaders and Casanova.  Ali Pasha hunted duck on Lake Butrint and a built a castle here to prevent the British invading.

Krushchev & Hoxha

This new book describes the history of the excavations led by Luigi Maria Ugolini, between 1928-36; the post-war excavations when Albania was isolated as a communist country; and, since 1993 the excavations led by me on behalf of the Butrint Foundation, a UK charity founded by Lord Jacob Rothschild and Lord John Sainsbury. These large excavations encompass the acropolis, the forum, the Triconch Palace and the Western Defenses besides a major investigation of Butrint’s suburb.

Drawing on original excavation reports, this book gives an overview of a place over millennia that was at the crossroads of the Mediterranean, and now is Albania’s premier tourist destination.

Butrint looking to Corfu