Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-xfwgj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-06T14:07:40.799Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A ‘god-guarded’ city? The ‘new’ medieval town of Butrint

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2016

Richard Hodges*
Affiliation:
The American University of Rome

Abstract

This essay describes the archaeology of the revival in the later tenth- to eleventh-century of the town of Butrint, ancient Buthrotum in south-west Albania. Based on the extensive excavations by the Butrint Foundation, all the elements (fortifications, town-planning, roads, property boundaries, dwellings, churches, wells) of a new urban centre are considered, as is its economy and its wider historical context in the southern Adriatic Sea.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 E. Ivison, ‘Urban renewal and imperial revival in Byzantium (730-1025)’, BF 26 (2000) 1-46 at 24-25.

2 See, for a review, principally Brandes, W., ‘Byzantine towns in the seventh and eighth centuries - different sources, different histories’, in Brogiolo, G. P. and Ward-Perkins, B. (eds), The idea and ideal of the town between Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages (Leiden 1999) 25–57Google Scholar; Haldon, J., ‘The idea of the town in the Byzantine empire’, in Brogiolo, G. P. and Ward-Perkins, B. (eds), The Idea and Ideal of the Town Between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (Leiden 1999) 25–58Google Scholar; Ivison, E., ‘Urban renewal’, 1–46Google Scholar; Ivison, E., ‘Amorium in the Byzantine Dark Ages (seventh to ninth centuries)’, in Henning, J. (ed.), Post-Roman Towns, Trade and Settlement in Europe and Byzantium, II: Byzantium, Pliska, and the Balkans (Berlin 2007) 25–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the Balkans see: Dunn, A., ‘Stages in the transition from the Late Antique to the Middle Byzantine urban centre in S. Macedonia and S. Thrace’, Aphieroma ston N.G.L.Hammond, Etaireia Makedonikon Spoudon [Society for Macedonian Studies], (Thessalonike 1997) 137-52.Google Scholar

3 Veikou, M., ‘“Rural towns” and “in-between” or “third spaces”. Settlement patterns in Byzantine Epirus (7th-11th centuries) from an interdisciplinary approach’, Archeologia Medievale 36 (2009) 51–62Google Scholar; Veikou, M., Byzantine Epirus. A topography of transformation. Settlements of the Seventh-Twelfth Centuries in southern Epirus and Aetoloacarnania, Greece (Leiden 2012) 273–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Ivison, E.g., ‘Urban renewal’, 1–46.Google Scholar

5 See, for example, Skre, D., ‘Post-substantivist towns and trade AD 600-1000’, in Skre, D. (ed.), Means of Exchange. Dealing with Silver in the Viking Age (Aarhus 2008) 327—41.Google Scholar

6 For an illustrated overview: Hodges, R., The Rise and Fall of Byzantine Butrint (London 2008).Google Scholar

7 See Bowden, W. and Hodges, R., ‘An “Ice Age settling on the Roman Empire”: post-Roman Butrint between strategy and serendipity’, in Augenti, A., Christie, N., and Augenti, A. (eds), Urbes Extinctae (Aldershot 2012) 207—41Google Scholar; Greenslade, S. and Hodges, R.The aristocratic ‘oikos’ on the Vrina Plain, Butrint’, BMGS (37) 1–19.Google Scholar

8 Hernandez, D. R. and Ҫondi, Dh., ‘Preliminary report on the Roman forum excavations at Butrint (Buthrotum): the archaeology of a Hellenistic and Roman port in Epirus’, Journal of Roman Archaeology 21 (2008) 275-92CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also Hernandez, D. R., ‘The refuse of urban history. Excavating the Roman Forum at Butrint’, Expedition 53 (2011) 36–43.Google Scholar

9 Wilson, A., ‘The aqueduct of Butrint’ in Hansen, I. L., Hodges, R. and Leppard, S. (eds), The Archaeology and Histories of an Ionian Town (Oxford 2012) 77–96 (hereafter, Hansen, et al., (eds), An Ionian Town)Google Scholar; Leppard, S., ‘The Roman bridge at Butrint’, in Hansen, I. L. et al. (eds), An Ionian Town, 97–104.Google Scholar

10 Greenslade, S., ‘The Vrina Plain settlement between the lst-13th centuries AD’, in Hansen, et al. (eds), An Ionian Town, 123-64.Google Scholar

11 See Bescoby, D., ‘Landscape and environmental change: new perspectives’, in Hansen, et al. (eds) An Ionian town, 22–30Google Scholar; see also, Pavlides, S., and Caputo, R., ‘Magnitude versus faults’ surface parameters: quantitative relationships from the Aegean region’, Tectonophysics 380 (2004) 159-88CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Pirazzoli, P.A., Laborel, J., and Stiros, S.C., ‘Earthquake clustering in the eastern Mediterranean during historical times’, Journal of Geophysical research - Solid Earth 101 (1996) 6083-97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 For an overview: Hodges, R., Bowden, W. and Sebastiani, A., ‘La transizione urbana a Butrinto nel V secolo: ricerche recenti e nuove questioni’, in Delogu, P. and Gasparri, S. (eds), Le trasfortnazioni del V secolo. L’ltalia, I harbari e I’Occidente romano, (Turnhout 2010) 371-99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 Lane, A., et al., ‘The environs of Butrint 1: the 1995-96 environmental survey’, in Hodges, R., Bowden, W. and Lako, K. (eds), Byzantine Butrint: Excavations and Survey 1994-1999 (Oxford 2004) 27–46 (hereafter, Hodges, et al. (eds), Byzantine Butrint)Google Scholar; Bescoby, D., Barclay, J., and Andrews, J., ‘Saints and sinners: a tephrochronology for Late Antique landscape change in Epirus from the eruptive history of Lipari, Aeolian Islands’, Journal of Archaeological Science 35 (9) (2008) 2574-79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14 Soustal, P., ‘The historical sources for Butrint in the Middle Ages’, in Hodges, R. et al. (eds), Byzantine Butrint, 20–26 at 22.Google Scholar

15 See Bescoby, ‘Landscape and environmental change’.

16 Ibid.

17 Bescoby, ‘Landscape and environmental change’. See also Besonen, M. R., Rapp, G. and Jing, Z., ‘The Lower Acheron River Valley’, in Wiseman, J. and Zachos, K. (eds), Landscape Archaeology in Southern Epirus, Greece (Hesperia Supplement 32) (Princeton 2003) 199–263 at 222, fig. 6. 14 (upper)Google Scholar; see also Veikou, Byzantine Epirus, map 6.

18 Bescoby et al., ‘Saints and sinners’.

19 See Soustal. ‘The historical sources for Butrint’, for an overview; see, also, Veikou, Byzantine Epirus, 47.

20 Chrysos, E., ‘The Middle Byzantine Period (sixth century -1204)’, in Sakellariou, M. B. (ed.), Epirus. 400 Years of Greek History and Civilization (Athens 1997) 182-95.Google Scholar

21 Von Falkenhausen, V., ‘Tra Occidente e Oriente: Otranto in Epoca Bizantina’ in Houben, H. (ed.) Otranto nel Medioevo tra Bisanzio e l’Occidente (Galantina 2007) 13–60 at 35Google Scholar; Von Falkenhausen, V., ‘Between two empires: Byzantine Italy in the reign of Basil II’, in Magdalino, P., (ed.), Byzantium in the year 1000 (Leiden 2003) 135-59.Google Scholar

22 Soustal, ‘The historical sources for Butrint’, 22.

23 Ibid.

24 Stephenson, P., Byzantium’s Balkan Frontier. A political study of the northern Balkans 900-1204 (Cambridge 2000) 162-63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

25 Soustal, , ‘The historical sources for Butrint’, 22–23.Google Scholar

26 Ibid., 23.

27 For a discussion of mobile early medieval settlement, see Hamerow, H., ‘Agrarian production and the emporia of mid Saxon England, ca. AD 650-850’, in Henning, J. (ed.) Post-Roman towns, trade and settlement in Europe and Byzantium. Vol. l.The heirs of the Roman West (Berlin 2007) 219-32.Google Scholar

28 See Hodges, R., The Rise and Fall of Byzantine Butrint; Hodges, R., Kamani, S., Logue, M., and Vroom, J., ’The sack of Butrint, c. AD 800’, Antiquity 83 (2009) http/:www.antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/hodgesGoogle Scholar; Kamani, S., ‘Butrint in the mid-Byzantine period: a new interpretation’, BMGS 35/2 (2011) 115-33.Google Scholar S. Greenslade and R. Hodges, ‘The aristocratic ‘oikos’ on the Vrina Plain’.

29 Bowden, W., Culwick, A., Francis, K., Gilkes, O., Lako, K. and Price, J., ‘The medieval occupation of the Triconch area’, in Bowden, W. and Hodges, R., Butrint 3: Excavations at the Triconch Palace (Oxford 2011) 119-32.Google Scholar

30 Vroom, J., ‘From one coast to another: early medieval ceramics in the southern Adriatic region’, in Gelichi, S. and Hodges, R. (eds), From One sea to Another: Trading Centres in the European and Mediterranean Early Middle Ages (Turnhout 2012) 353-92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

31 Bowden, W., Crowson, A., Logue, M. and Sebastiani, A., ‘The medieval occupation of the Merchant’s House’, in Bowden, W. and Hodges, R., Butrint 3. Excavations at the Triconch Palace, (Oxford 2011) 202-8Google Scholar; cf. Sanders, G., ‘Recent developments in the chronology of Byzantine Corinth’, in Williams, C. K. and Bookidis, N. (eds), Corinth: The Centenary 1896-1996 (Princeton 2003) 385–400.Google Scholar

32 Pestell, T. and Ulmschneider, K. (eds), Markets in Early Medieval Europe. Trading and ‘Productive’ Sites, 650–850 (Bollington 2003)Google Scholar; Loveluck, C. and Tys, D., ‘Coastal societies, exchange and identity along the Channel and southern North Sea shores of Europe, AD 600-100’, Journal of Maritime Archaeology 1 (2006) 140-69CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Skre, , op. cit., 337-8Google Scholar; Hodges, R., Dark Age Economics: A New Audit (London 2012) 29–31.Google Scholar

33 Skre, , ‘Post-substantivist towns and trade AD 600-1000’, 337.Google Scholar

34 Ibid., 338.

35 David Hernandez has excavated a line of probable new eleventh-century buildings on a terrace above the east end of the Roman Forum in 2013. The date of these has yet to be confirmed. See Hodges, R., ‘Butrint. Finding a timeless oasis’, Current World Archaeology 61 (2013) 46–51 at 50.Google Scholar

36 Hodges, R., ‘From Roman insula to medieval quarter’, in Bowden, W. and Hodges, R., Butrint 3. Excavations at the Triconch Palace (Oxford 2011) 319-26.Google Scholar

37 Papadopoulou, P., ‘The numismatic evidence from Southern Adriatic (5th-llth centuries): some preliminary observations and thoughts’, in Gelichi, S. and Hodges, R. (eds), From One Sea to Another, 297–320.Google Scholar

38 Hodges, R., From Roman insula to medieval quarter, 322.Google Scholar

39 Ibid., 321.

40 Ibid., 321; fig. 10.2.

41 Ibid., fig. 10.2.

42 Ibid., 322.

43 Bowden, et al., The medieval occupation of the Merchant’s House, 205.Google Scholar

44 Phoinike, a powerfully fortified hill city in Hellenistic and Roman times nearby, abandoned since late antiquity, may have been re-occupied at this time, judging from a significant coin hoard dating to the 960s found in the principal church. Unlike Butrint, however, Phoinike did not become a medieval town. See Podini, M., Meta, A. and Mancini, L., ‘L’area del tempio in antis e la basilica paleocristiana’, in De Maria, S. and Gjongecaj, S. (eds) Phoinike V (Bologna 2011) 27.Google Scholar

45 Andrews, R., Bowden, W., Gilkes, O., and Martin, S., ‘The late antique and medieval fortifications of Butrint’, in Hodges, R. et al. (eds), Byzantine Butrint, 137Google Scholar; Molla, N., Paris, F., and Venturini, F., ‘Material boundaries: the city walls at Butrint’, in Hansen, , Hodges, , and Leppard, (eds) Butrint 4, 258-77.Google Scholar

46 Forum excavations, made in 2005-6, context 144.

47 Leppard, ‘The Roman bridge at Butrint’.

48 Molla et al., ‘Material boundaries: the city walls at Butrint’; Andrews et al., ‘The late antique and medieval fortifications of Butrint’, fig. 8.8.

49 For a brief description see Papadopoulou, B., ‘Fortifications of Rogoi, Greece’, in Ćurčić, S. and Hadjitryphones, E. (eds) Secular and Medieval Architecture in the Balkans, 1300-1500, and its Preservation (Thessalonike 1997) 102-3.Google Scholar See also Veikou, M., Byzantine Epirus, 476-78.Google Scholar

50 Giorgi, E. and Bogdani, J., Il Territorio di Phoinike in Caonia. Archeologia del Paesaggio in Albania Meridionale (Scavi di Phoinike serie monografica I) (Bologna 2012) 235-7Google Scholar, figs 4 and 5.

51 Hernandez and Ҫondi, ‘Preliminary report on the Roman forum excavations at Butrint (Buthrotum)’.

52 Unpublished excavations of the well-head by S. Islami in 1982 show that there was a makeshift Medieval phase (I am grateful to David Hernandez for a photograph of the excavation in progress from the Institute of Archaeology, Tirana, which he showed me.); cf. Hernandez and (Ҫondi, ‘Preliminary report on the Roman forum excavations at Butrint (Buthrotum)’, fig. 8.

53 Hernandez and (Ҫondi, op. cit. (wall 141; the coin is small find 0586).

54 Gilkes, O.J. (ed.), The Theatre at Butrint. Luigi Maria Ugolini’s Excavations at Butrint 1928-1932 (Albania antica IV) (London 2003) 78.Google Scholar

55 See Ceka, N., ‘Recent excavations in Butrint (2004-5): notes on the growth of the ancient city centre’, in Bejko, L. and Hodges, R. (eds), New Directions in Albanian Archaeology (Tirana 2006) 177-85 at 185.Google Scholar

56 Greenslade, S., Leppard, S. and Logue, M., ‘The acropolis of Butrint reassessed’, in Hansen, I. L., Hodges, R. and Leppard, S. (eds), The Archaeology and Histories of an Ionian Town (Oxford 2012) 47–76.Google Scholar

57 Cf. Arthur, P., Byzantine and Turkish Hierapolis. An archaeological guide (Istanbul 2006) 47Google Scholar; fig. 12; Lightfoot, C. and Lightfoot, M., Amorium. An archaeological guide (Istanbul 2007) 119-20.Google Scholar

58 Bowden, W. and Mitchell, J., ‘The Christian topography of Butrint’, in Hodges, R. et al. (eds), Byzantine Butrint, 104-11Google Scholar; fig.7.8; Molla, N., ‘The Great Basilica of Butrint. Archaeological survey and architectural analysis of a religious building’, in Hansen, et al. (eds), An Ionian Town (Oxford 2012) 200-12.Google Scholar

59 On the Early Byzantine decoration of the well see Bowden and Mitchell, ‘The Christian topography of Butrint’, 118; on the excavations of the Middle Byzantine chapel and cemetery beside the well, see Sebastiani, A. et al., ‘The medieval church and cemetery at the Well of Junia Rufina’, in Hansen, et al. (eds), An Ionian Town, 213-42.Google Scholar

60 Bowden, and Mitchell, , ‘The Christian topography of Butrint’, 114-18.Google Scholar

61 Bowden, W. and Përzhita, L., ‘The baptistery’, in Hodges, et al. (eds), Byzantine Butrint, 193-95.Google Scholar

62 Mitchell, J., Greenslade, S., Hodges, R. and Leppard, S., ‘Preliminary report on the early Christian basilica on the Vrina Plain, Albania’, Archeologia Medievale 32 (2006) 406Google Scholar; Greenslade, ‘The Vrina Plain settlement between the 1st and 12th centuries’; Greenslade and Hodges, ‘The aristocratic ‘oikos’ on the Vrina Plain’.

63 For churches in Middle Byzantine Kastoria see Ćurčić, S., Architecture in the Balkans. From Diocletian to Suleyman the Magnificent, (London 2010) 313–315, figs 331-33Google Scholar; for Epirote churches see Veikou, Byzantine Epirus, 57-68.

64 For the line of stone buildings found in David Hernandez’s excavations above the Roman Forum in 2013, see Hodges, , ‘Butrint. Finding a timeless oasis’, 50.Google Scholar

65 Bowden, et al., ‘The medieval occupation of the triconch area’, 123-29Google Scholar; Bowden, et al., ‘The medieval occupation of the Merchant’s House’, 208-12.Google Scholar

66 See Bowden, W. and Mitchell, J., ‘The Triconch Palace at Butrint: the life and death of a late Roman domus’, in Lavan, L., Ozgenel, L. and Sarantis, A. (eds), Housing in Late Antiquity (Leiden 2007) 455–574.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

67 See, for example, Arthur, P., ‘From vicus to village: Italian landscapes, c. AD 400-1000’, in Christie, N. (ed.), landscapes of Change. Rural Evolutions in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (Aldershot 2004) 103-34Google Scholar ; Galetti, P., Uomini e Case nel Medioevo tra Occidente e Oriente (Rome 2001)Google Scholar; Santangeli Valenziani, R., Edilizia residenziale in Italia nell’altomedioevo (Rome 2011)Google Scholar; Valenti, M., L’Insediamento Altomedievale nelle Campagne Toscane. Paesaggi. Popolamento e Villaggi tra VI e X secolo (Florence 2004).Google Scholar

68 Sigalos, L., ‘Middle and Late Byzantine houses in Greece (tenth to fifteenth centuries)’, in Ken Dark, (ed.), Secular Buildings and the Archaeology of Everyday Life in the Byzantine Empire (Oxford 2004) 53-81Google Scholar; see also: idem. Housing in Medieval and Post-Medieval Greece (Oxford 2004).Google Scholar

69 Arthur, P., Byzantine and Turkish Hierapolis, 136-7; fig.69.Google Scholar

70 Greenslade and Hodges, ‘An aristocratic ‘oikos’ on the Vrina Plain’.

71 Pescara: Staffa, A., ‘I centre urbani dell’Abruzzo adriatico fra tarda antichità ed altomedioevo’, in Augenti, A. (ed.), he Città italiane tra la tarda antichità e I’alto medioevo (Florence 2006) 345–476Google Scholar; Ravenna: Augenti, A., Cirelli, E. and Marin, D., ‘Case e Magazzini a Classe fra VII e VIII secolo’, in Volpe, G. and Favia, P. (eds), Atti del V Congresso Nazionale di Archeologia Nazionale (Florence 2009) 138-44 at 141-43Google Scholar; Stari Bar: Gelichi, S., A Town through the Ages. The 2006-2007 archaeological project in Stari Bar (Florence 2008) 17.Google Scholar

72 Ugolini, L. M., Butrinto. II mito d’Enea, gli scavi (Rome 1937) 21; fig. 7.Google Scholar

73 Sigalos, ‘Middle and Late Byzantine houses’.

74 Amorium: see Ivison, ‘Amorium in the Byzantine Dark Ages’; Hierapolis: Arthur, Byzantine and Turkish Hierapolis, 111-14; 131-34; Pergamum: Buchwald, H., ‘Byzantine town planning - does it exist?’, in Grünbart, M., Kislinger, E., Muthesias, A. and Stathakopoulos, D. (eds), Material Culture and Well-Being in Byzantium (400-1453) (Vienna 2007) 57–74 at 68-9Google Scholar; Bari: Skinner, P., ‘Room for tension: urban life in Apulia in the eleventh and twelfth centuries’, Papers of the British School at Rome LXVI (1998) 159-76CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Naples: Skinner, P., ‘Urban communities in Naples, AD 900-1050’, Papers of the British School at Rome LXII (1994) 279–300CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ravenna: Augenti, A., ‘A tale of two cities. Rome and Ravenna between 7th and 9th century AD’, in Gasparri, S. (ed.), 774. Ipotesi su una transizione (Turnhout 2008) 175-98 at 183-92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

75 See Pennas, C., Byzantine Aigina (Athens 2005) 14–17Google Scholar (I owe this reference to Sarah Morris).

76 Greenslade, Leppard and Logue, ‘The acropolis of Butrint reassessed’.

77 Greenslade, ‘The Vrina Plain settlement between the 1st and 13th centuries’.

78 Gilkes, O. and Hysa, V., ‘In the shadow of Butrint’, Expedition 53 (3) (2011) 34–35.Google Scholar

79 Unpublished field survey by Alessandro Sebastiani and Emanuele Vaccaro for the Butrint Foundation, November 2008, 6, 87. The sherds were discovered at site 69 within the modern village of Mursi and comprised Otranto amphora and local pottery.

80 Karaiskaj, G., The Fortifications of Butrint (London 2009) 45.Google Scholar

81 Soustal, ‘The historical sources for Butrint’, 25.

82 Ibid., 25

83 Meshini, M., and Male, A., ‘Strukturat e reja - Muri antic’, Raport Vjetor 2010/Annual Report (Tirana 2011) 126-7.Google Scholar

84 See, however, Bace, A., ‘Fortifikimet e antiketit të vonë ne vendin tone’, Monumentet 11 (1976) 53–54Google Scholar; W. Bowden, Epirus Vetus: The Archaeology of a Late Antique Province (London 2003) 96.

85 Hodges, R., ‘Butrint’s northern frontier in the 11th century? The Dema Wall’, Annual of the British School at Athens 108 (2014) 1–5.Google Scholar

86 D. Mylona, ‘Fish’ in A. Powell, ‘The Faunal Remains’, in R. Hodges et al. (eds) Byzantine Butrint, 319.

87 C. Claasen, Shells (Cambridge 1998) 176-78.

88 R. Veropoulidou and S. Kamani, ‘The archaeomalacological remains of the Western Defences (Butrint, Albania) from the 8th to the 11th centuries AD: from domestic consumption to large-scale processing of mussels’ Journal of Archaeological Science (forthcoming).

89 Bowden and Hodges, ‘An “Ice Age settling on the Roman Empire’”.

90 Horden, P., and Purcell, N., The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History (Oxford 2000) 22.Google Scholar

91 Horden and Purcell, The Corrupting Sea, 153-72.

92 Soustal, ‘The historical sources for Butrint’, 23.

93 Ibid., 23.

94 Loveluck and Tys, ‘Coastal society, exchange and identity’, 146.

95 Sindbæk, S.M., ‘The small world of the Vikings: networks in early medieval communication and exchange’, Norwegian Archaeological Review 40 (2007) 59–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

96 Hodges, Dark Age Economics. A New Audit, 23-25.