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Excavation

  • Large portico of Apollonia
  • Pojan
  • Apollonia
  • Albania
  • Fier County
  • Bashkia Fier
  • Komuna e Dermenasit

Tools

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 excavations of the large Hellenistic portico continued even during the field season of 2011. In sector 15, at the northern side of the portico, the excavations identified traces of a rectangular structure, which was perhaps an auxiliary annex of the monument. The discovery of a drainage channel that collected water from the roof, directly above the terracing embankment built during the Hellenistic period with the purpose of leveling the terrain around the earlier semicircular building, might define the late 3rd or the first half of the 2nd Century BC, as a terminus post quem date for the construction of the portico, or at least of one of its rearrangement phases. This also suggests that in the northern side, the wall of the portico was raised to the upper level of the terracing embankment of the Hellenistic period: no other new embankment was added during the construction of the monument. This could be one of the reasons which make it difficult to define a precise date for the construction of the portico. However, important and precise evidence for the destruction of the monument were provided by the discovery of a grave right above the foundations of the rear wall of the monument. The grave is constructed with reused Hellenistic tiles arranged in a box-like form of 0, 80 m long. The tiles are bonded with mortar at each of the grave’s corners; at its floor level and on the outer part of the contours were also paved with mortar. The skeletal remains which indicate the burial of several individuals and the associated grave goods were badly preserved. Some of the skeleton remains were found between two of the stone blocks of the foundation of the portico, suggesting that the latter was opened during the grave’s construction. The grave goods consisted mainly of: fragments of a glass bottle with fine walls, a globular body and a long neck; a bone pin with oval head; two circular pearls; two silver bars containing floral decorations; and an annular object made of iron threads. The material and the construction technique of this grave are typical of the 2nd – 3rd Centuries AD. It suggests that the destruction (as shown by the discovery of the debris layers covering the foundation levels of the portico) and the material plundering of the large Hellenistic portico took place at this time.

Director

  • Faik Drini - Instituti i Arkeologjisë Tiranë (Albanian Institute of Archaeology)
  • Jean-Luc Lamboley - Université Lyon 2

Team

Research Body

  • Instituti Arkeologjik Tiranë (Albanian Institute of Archaeology)
  • Université de Lyon II

Funding Body

  • Ministère de l'Europe et des Affaires étrangères

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