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Excavation

  • Bonjakët
  • Pojan
  • Apolonia
  • Albania
  • Fier County
  • Bashkia Fier
  • Komuna e Levanit

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Credits

  • The Italian Database is the result of a collaboration between:

    MIBAC (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Direzione Generale per i Beni Archeologici),

    ICCD (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione) and

    AIAC (Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica).

  • AIAC_logo logo

Summary (English)

  • In September 2006, excavations were continued at the archaeological site of Bonjakët. The results of the excavation were exceptional: revealing a history of cult practice at the site over six hundred years from 650/630 BC – middle of the 1st century BC; and shedding new light on the nature of a monumental stone temple built in the late Archaic period.
    Excavations of the temple concentrated on exposing the south side of the foundations in Trench 15T as the stylobate and cella floor of the temple are no longer preserved (i.e. above modern ground level). Three courses of foundation were preserved and three paved surfaces, the lowest of Late Archaic date, the upper two of Hellenistic date, had been laid against the foundations. The foundations of the temple were of sandstone and its superstructure seems to have been principally of limestone. Marble appears to have been reserved for special purposes.
    The lowest course of the foundations consisted of carefully-fitted polygonal blocks set in a trench. Blocks in the middle course were fitted with anathyrosis, with wide borders on all but the lower surface. The upper edge of the middle course is bevelled; surfaces of blocks are carefully finished to a depth of c. 0.10m. The upper course is stepped back c. 0.30m from the middle course. In 15T only a single large block from this course was exposed: its western end has been destroyed by recent digging.
    A fragmentary terracotta lion’s-head spout and a piece of a Doric capital were found in the packing of the Hellenistic pavements. It seems likely that major repairs to the structure of the temple took place in the 3rd century BC. This year, the most significant finds were a fragment of a marble geison with a cyma reversa moulding, a stone lion’s-head spout, various guttae broken from their blocks, and part of a Doric column capital.
    It was recently brought to our attention that an architectural sculpture of the later 5th or 4th century BC, now in the Apollonia Museum in the cloisters of Shën Mri, was found 50 years ago at the Bonjakët site. Stratigraphic evidence from 15T has confirmed the impression gained from previous finds that the Bonjakët temple was first built c. 500 BC and that it continued to be used into late Hellenistic times. As a result of the excavation of 17T, it is now also clear that in the Archaic period the sanctuary extended east of the Bonjakët house complex; this is where the temple altar was most likely located. Well-preserved Archaic pottery was found on a surface just above the water table. It is suspected that the scarcity of superstructure fragments is due to large-scale spoliation. Two architectural phases were recognized in 16T. In the earliest, a narrow wall built of brick and stone was associated with pottery from c. 600 BC and a handmade terracotta figurine. Above this level, deposits of the later 6th century, including moulded figurines, had accumulated against a large worked sandstone block that was found in situ.
    Substantial deposits of Archaic date were also found in strata that extended beneath the lowest course of the foundations of the temple in 15T and in 05T. In the latter trench, Early Corinthian pottery was recovered and a core drilled 0.70m. below the water table indicates the survival of earlier levels. Several sherds from 15T appear to be non-Greek and may represent Illyrian types of the Iron Age. These sherds remain to be examined thoroughly. A fragment of an altar also came from 6th century deposits in this trench; foundations of the later temple rested directly on it. In the same deposit lay a bronze earring and a fragment of what appears to be an alabaster lid covered with gold leaf (c. 90 × 70mm).

Director

  • Iris Pojani - QNASH - Qendra Ndërkombëtare për Arkeologjinë Shqiptare (ICAA- International Centre for Albanian Archaeology)
  • Jack.L. Davis - University of Cincinnati

Team

  • Sharon R. Stocker - University of Cincinnati
  • Vangjel Dimo - Insituti i Arkeologjisë Tiranë (Albanian Institute of Archaeology)

Research Body

  • QNASH - Qendra Ndërkombëtare për Arkeologjinë Shqiptare (ICAA- International Centre for Albanian Archaeology)
  • University of Cincinnati

Funding Body

  • Packard Humanities Institute

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