ICAA
International Centre for Albanian Archaeology
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Latest News
Promotion of the ICAA Monograph Series Nr. 2
THE COMPLEX OF TUMULI 9, 10 and 11 in the NECROPOLIS of APOLLONIA (ALBANIA) by Maria Grazia Amore
On April 20, 2010 in the hall “Aleks Buda” of the Academy of Sciences was held the promotion of the new publication of the ICAA Monograph Series
Changes were brought to the “Cultural Heritage Law”
Recently some important changes were brought to the “Cultural Heritage Law” approved in 2003.
Field projects
The Kamenica Tumulus Project
Introduction
The tumulus of Kamenica is situated in the southeastern corner of
the Korça plain and is identified and placed on the archaeological
map of the region of Korça since early 90-es. It was, however, very
badly damaged during 1997, and since then looters have
systematically dug, even with heavy machineries to find
archaeological artifacts, by using metal detector.
Fig. 1: Map of Korça
area with location of Kamenica Tumulus.
For this reason the
Albanian Rescue Archaeology Unit set up a rescue and research
project in close co-operation with the Albanian Institute of
Archaeology and the local archaeological office and Museum of Korça.
The project went on during three years for nine months in total and
was conducted with a clear goal: to save the monument and gather
archaeological information from this monument. However, to use time
and sources effectively, we thought as well to consider this project
as an opportunity for a collaboration with the community and the
local authority (local administration, police, and museums), to make
them conscious about the archaeological heritage of their region,
and to offer our unit modest assistance in their protection.
The team had as permanent members Lorenc Bejko, Maria Grazia Amore,
and Skënder Aliu, and large number of young archaeologists and
students, mostly Albanian, but also British and American, who in
rotation took part to the project. An important part of the staff
was the group of conservators, at the beginning Frederik Stamati,
director of the Conservation Laboratory of the Academy of Sciences,
and Kristaq Balli, conservator at the National Museum of Medieval
Art of Korça, replaced later by Pippa Pearce from the British
Museum, and by Alma Bardho, trained by Pippa Pearce. Very important
is also the fact that all the human osteological material was
studied in depth by physical anthropologist, in the first year by
Aleksandër Dhima, who later was replaced by Dr. Todd Fenton, and his
group from the University of Michigan State.
The project of Kamenica was supported by the Scientific Council and
the director of the Institute of Archaeology, and has been fully
funded by the Packard Humanities Institute.
The excavation
The first phase of the project was dedicated to the preparation work
with the aim to clearly define the damaged and in situ portions of
the tumulus. This was a long procedure, not only for the big volume
of dirt to be removed, but also for the considerable amount of
archaeological artifacts found in the soil of the tumulus, that
escaped to the attentation of looters. The tumulus was divided into
four sectors along the cardinal axes, and the cleaning procedure was
carried out contemporaneously in all of them. Figure 2 shows a 3D
reconstrucion of the terrain, as it was found at the beginning of
the project (Fig. 2)
After the cleaning of the tumulus from the vegetation and from the
soil moved by the looters (Fig. 3), the next task was to investigate
the real extent of the tumulus and the main elements of its
architecture.
Fig. 2: 3-D model of the tumulus.
Fig. 3: View of
the tumulus before the starting of the excavation.
In order to achieve this, two trenches
were opened at the south and south-west part of the tumulus build
with soil. Soon after it became clear that the tumulus of Kamenica
was one of the biggest known so far in the country, with a diameter
more than 40m and approximate height at the centre of more than 3m.
According to some preliminary calculations, we can say that was
damaged around 18-20% of the tumulus.
Unfortunately, we will never know the excact number of the damaged
graves, but we can give an approximate figure, after a detailed
study of the archaeological artifacts and human bones (skeletal
remains), from the damaged deposits of the tumulus (see below the
physical anthropological study).