Bringing the secrets of Antigoneia to light

A team of Greek and Albanian archaeologists are cooperating on a three-year excavation project in Epirus, northwestern Greece

By Iota Sykka - Kathimerini

Though Greece and Albania have much in common, Greece has not been officially involved in the burgeoning archaeological excavations and the activities of foreign archaeology schools in Albania in recent years.

But the cooperation memorandum signed last year by the Greek Culture Ministry and the Archaeological Institute of the Tirana Academy of Sciences has paved the way.

Joint research is being carried out at ancient Antigoneia under the supervision of the institute, headed by Muzafer Korkuti, and the 12th Ephorate, headed by Constantinos Zachos.

While they explore the mysteries of the city and its founder, Pyrrhus, king of the Molossians, a group of Albanian students from the universities of Girokaster and Tirana are in training for the future. The Greeks and Albanians will be working on the project together for the next three years.

Zachos talked about the Greek-Albanian project and the history of Antigoneia on Tuesday in a lecture at the Archaeological Society.

Pyrrhus was a descendant of Achilles. The city he founded in 296 BC was destroyed in the second century BC. The Romans meted out harsh treatment to the Epirote tribes who had been allies of Perseus.

«Seventy walled settlements in Epirus were destroyed and 150,000 were taken into slavery,» Zachos said. Rome was taking revenge for Pyrrhus' campaign in Italy more than a century earlier. Some scholars believe that Illyria and Epirus were razed in order to ensure unhindered communication with eastern Greece.

Albanian archaeologist Dhimosten Budina identified the city on a 35-hectare site at roughly 600 meters altitude, with walls 4 kilometers long. The identification was made on the basis of bronze ballots bearing the inscription «ANTIGONEON» on a Hellenistic-era house.

Pyrrhus named the city after his first wife Antigone, the daughter of the Macedonian nobles Berenice and Philip.

Budina has unearthed many finds, including the ancient agora, a 69-meter stoa, a treasury of bronze judicial ballots, vases, agricultural implements (including one used to castrate bulls), fragments of a bronze equestrian statue - the horse's tail and a life-size hand with a signet ring and a bronze muzzle. Most of the 700 coins that were found are from the Assembly of the Epirotes. A sixth-century Early Christian basilica as well as a tomb monument in one of the houses near the agora were also found.

Zachos said the impressive tomb, which contained fragments of jars, a glass vase, loom weights, a lamp, potsherds and Roman storage jars, was «along the lines of Macedonian tombs» and dates from the Hellenistic era.

The monument will be restored. As for the house, the bronze Macedonian coin (232-168-7 BC) found in it may be associated with the abandonment of the house in 167 BC. Research will continue in the agora, where there is a continuous sequence of material from the third century BC at the lower level to the second century BC at the higher level.