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Excavation

  • Temple of Heroon
  • Butrint
  • Buthrotum
  • Albania
  • Vlorë County
  • Bashkia Konispol
  • Xarre

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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)

  • The purpose of excavations in 2006 was to explore this monument in its topographic setting after the uncovering of it in 2005. To the north of this temple are two monuments excavated in 2001 and 2002 which clearly had some ritual purpose. These monuments were constructed in the early imperial period, the mid to late 1st century AD. A trench was opened to the west of the temple revealing a road running north-south from the foot of the temple steps. This road does not follow the earliest alignment of the centuriation grid nor does it follow any logical subdivision of the actus squares in Roman Butrint. Stone and tile-built drains ran along both sides of the road, although the temple had required the partial removal and reconstruction of the eastern drain on to the later alignment of the temple. The fill of the new drain was a layer of fine limestone chippings. This arrangement seems to confirm the existence of the two actus alignments. The foundation of the road was stone lumps paved with slabs and smaller stones. The material underneath the road contained a mixture of ceramics from the mid 1st century to the early 2nd century A.D. A stone slab pavement formed a side walk in front of a colonnade to the west of the road. It ran parallel and was formed of mortared stone piers 2.3 metres deep, set at intervals of 2.25m fronting portico with a wall forming its west side. The road was laid out of 4.5m wide and it was main road leading to Butrint from the south. A wall was built on the roads surface, reducing its length (width) to 3.7 metres. This formed the eastern limit of a whole new sequence. Meanwhile other walls were inserted between the piers, floor levels were raised and timber structures were built. This sequence was then closed by some more crude buildings of stone and tile. The archaeological deposits were sealed with yellow clay mixed with tiles and limestone representing a series of collapsed walls from the latest phase. This layer contained ceramics dating to 230-250 A.D. The collapsed walls contained pieces of side moulding from the temple which means it was partially demolished when the walls was erected. The cella remained in use into the 4th century and the road was resurfaced with earth containing 5th and 6th century coins. The road was reduced to a sunken track bounded by rubble, this Holloway was filled with demolition debris from the 14th century when the temple was pulled down.
  • Andrew Crowson - ICAA-International Center for Albanian Archaeology / IWA-Institute of World Archaeology, University of East Anglia 

Director

  • Ilir Gjipali - Instituti i Arkeologjisë Tiranë, Departamenti i Prehistorisë (Albanian Institute of Archaeology, Department of Prehistory)
  • Richard Hodges - ICAA-International Center for Albanian Archaeology / IWA-Institute of World Archaeology, University of East Anglia

Team

  • Oliver Gilkes - ICAA-International Center for Albanian Archaeology / IWA-Institute of World Archaeology, University of East Anglia

Research Body

  • IWA - Institute of World Archaeology, University of East Anglia
  • Instituti Arkeologjik Tiranë (Albanian Institute of Archaeology)

Funding Body

  • Butrint Foundation
  • Packard Humanities Institute

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