Butrint Life and Death at a Mediterranean Port : The Non-ceramic Finds from the Triconch Palace

This is the second volume arising from the 1994–2003 excavations of the Triconch Palace at Butrint (Albania), which charted the history of a major Mediterranean waterfront site from the 2nd to the 15th centuries AD. The sequence (Butrint 3: Excavations at the Triconch Palace: Oxbow, 2011) included the development of a palatial late Roman house, followed by intensive activity between the 5th and 7th centuries involving domestic occupation, metal-working, fishing and burial. The site saw renewed activity from the 10th century, coinciding with the revival of the town of Butrint, and for the following 300 years continued in intermittent use associated with its channel-side location.

This volume reports on the finds from the site (excluding the pottery), which demonstrate the ways in which the lives, diet and material culture of a Mediterranean population changed across the arc of the late Roman and Medieval periods. It includes discussion of the environmental evidence, the human and faunal remains, metal-working evidence, and the major assemblages of glass, coins and small finds, giving an insight into the health, subsistence base and material culture of the population of a Mediterranean site across more than 1000 years. The findings raise important questions regarding the ways in which changes in the circumstances of the town affected the population between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. They illustrate in particular how an urban Roman centre became more rural during the 6th century with a population that faced major challenges in their health and living conditions.

Table of Contents

Foreword, William Bowden and Richard Hodges

1. Introduction to the site and the excavations, William Bowden

2. An investigation of the subsistence base at Butrint: the archaeobotanical evidence, Alexandra Livarda and John Giorgi

3. The faunal remains, Zoe Knapp, Adrienne Powell and James Westoby

4. The human skeletons from the Triconch Palace and the Merchant’s House, Jared Beatrice, Todd Fenton, Carolyn Hurst, Lindsey Jenny, Jane Wankmiller, Michael Mutolo, Christina Rauzi, and David Foran

5. Metal working at the Triconch Palace and the analysis of slags and waste, Patrice de Rijk

6. The Roman and early Byzantine coins from the Triconch Palace c. 2nd century BC–c. AD 600, Sam Moorehead

7. The middle and late Byzantine, medieval and early modern coins, Pagona Papadopoulou

8. The small finds, John Mitchel

9. The vessel glass from the Triconch Palace, Sarah Jennings

10. The Triconch Palace as a lived environment in late antiquity, William Bowden

11. Living and dying at the Triconch Palace in the Middle Ages, William Bowden

Appendices
Bibliography
Index

William Bowden is Associate Professor of Roman Archaeology at the University of Nottingham and has been involved with the Butrint project since its inception in 1994. He has published widely on Roman, Late Antique and Medieval archaeology in Europe and the Mediterranean and has carried out excavations in the UK, Italy and Jordan.