Archaic Walls

The most notable Archaic walls can be found on the Acropolis. They were first classified by L. M. Ugolini in three different phases, based on their masonries. The earliest was called by Ugolini "pelasgic" or "cyclopean", 3 m long and 2 m wide, and is a short segment on the southern side of the acropolis. It is formed by large, not shaped boulders filled with smaller stones. There is also a section of this first wall discovered in 2006 almost 10 m to the east of the one noted by Ugolini. It is 10 m long and 2,6 m high, with a return at its eastern end. Ugolini believed that this stretch was built before the 6th century BC. The second section, in polygonal masonry, was called by Ugolini "primitive polygonal". It is 4 m long and 3,5 m high. The third section is the longest among them (16 m), and was called by Ugolini "large boulder polygonal". It presents also angled returns and a corner segment.

 N. G. L. Hammond got the opportunity to observe these walls accompanied by Ugolini himself, however he concluded that these were terrace wall, since no remains of towers or gates had been found, and also considering the fact that retaining walls are quite common in Epirus. He did not believe that the first section of the wall was built in the 6th century BC and dated it to the "late Greco-Roman period". 

 

N. Ceka was actually the first to study all the fortification of Epirus and Illyria and he noted that both the observation of Ugolini and Hammond, based on masonry stiles, were not correct. Following D. Mustilli, he believed that the acropolis was fortified between the 7th and 6th century BC with a wall of rough stone, then replaced between the 5th and 4th century BC by trapezoidal and polygonal masonry. He proposed this dating because it was perfectly inscribed in the process of transition between proto-urban and urban phases which he had previously discovered for Illyrian cities. In fact he named the first phase of the wall circuit on the Acropolis as "Butrint I" because he could see the presence of a "pre-urban phase and signs of a developing urban process". 

This dating was later confirmed by G. Karaiskaj, based on the occupation of the acropolis and the technical features of the walls.

 

During the Greek-Albanian campaign, K. Hadzis and A. Nanaj excavated a trench on the inners side of the first segment. The ceramic remains recovered, in particular the Corinthian pottery, led Nanaj to believe that the acropolis was fortified in the second half of the 7th century BC/first part of the 6th century BC. However, on the basis of the stratification of pottery, Arafat and Morgan proposed the terminus post quem of 500 BC for the construction of the "pelasgic" wall. Later Hadzis and Nanaj explained that a terminus post quem of late 6th century BC is also possibile because it is actually difficult to determine a separation between the material culture of the late 6th century and the one of the beginning of the 5th century. 

After the campaign of 2006, the Butrint Foundation stated that the earliest walls was built between the 8th and the 6th century BC, not after 500 BC, and that the Archaic circuit was probably used as terrace wall for containment, and not for properly defensive purpose. The area occupied by the first small settlement was probably expanded to the west by the third stretch, the one which Ugolini called "large boulder polygonal". 

 

In recent years, D. R. Hernandez has analyzed again the wall circuit on the Acropolis. He believed that the wall circuit is part of defensive system built around the archaic sanctuary dedicated to Athena Polias, which would have been under the current Late Antique Basilica. He defines Ugolini's "pelasgic" wall as F-1, and he also see a second section farther west. The stretch that Ugolini called as "primitive polygonal" is considered by Hernandez as the reconstruction and continuation of the "pelasgic" wall. He also locates a third section (F-3) breaking off to the west towards the inside due to the presence of an access gate to the acropolis. This entrance would have been placed at the end of an uphill pathway starting in the Roman Forum. He also agrees with the dating of F-1 after the 500 BC and F-2 and F-3 between the 4th and 3rd century BC. 

 

These Archaic walls were preserved within the Medieval fortifications built between the 10th and the 11th century AD.  

Bibliography on the subject

 

  • Arafat K. W. e and Morgan C. A., "In the footsteps of Aeneas: Excavations at Butrint, Albania 1991-2" in Dialogos. Hellenic Studies Review, n. 2, 1995, pp. 25-40
  • Benfatti M., Castignani V., Pizzimenti F., "Le fortificazioni di Butrinto: nuove acquisizioni topografiche e stratigrafiche" in Caliò, Gerogiannis, Kopsacheili, Fortificazioni e società nel Mediterraneo occidentale, Albania e Grecia settentrionale, Roma, 2020, pp. 183-200
  • Ceka N, "La fortification antique de Butrint et le territoire des Prasaibes" in Monumentet, vol. 12, 1976, pp. 27-48
  • Giorgi E., Lepore G., “Comparing Phoinike and Butrint. Some remarks on the walls of two cities in Northern Epirus” in Caliò L. M., Gerogiannis G. M., Kopsacheili M., Fortificazioni e società nel Mediterraneo occidentale, Albania e Grecia settentrionale, Roma, 2020, pp. 153-181

  • Greenslade S., Leppard S., Logue M., "The acropolis of Butrint reassessed", in Hansen, Hodges, Leppard, Butrint 4, Oxford, 2013, pp. 47-76

  • Hammond N. G. L., Epirus. The geography, the ancient remains, the history and the topography of Epirus and adjacent areas, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1967, pp. 108-109

  • Hernandez D. R., "Bouthrotos (Butrint) in the Archaic and Classical Periods: The Acropolis and Temple of Athena Polias" in Hesperia, vol. 86, n, 2, 2017, pp. 205-271
  • Hodges R., “Excavating away the poison: the topographic history of Butrint, ancient Buthrotum” in Hansen (a c.), Butrint 4: the Archaeology and Histories of an Ionian Town, Oxbow Books for the Butrint Foundation, 2013, pp. 1-21

  • Karaiskaj G., Crowson A. (edt), The fortifications of Butrint, English edition of Butrinti dhe fortifikimet e tij (Tirana 1986), London-Tirana, Butrint Foundation, 2009, pp. 25-51

  • Ugolini L. M., Butrinto. Il mito di Enea. Gli scavi, Istituto grafico tiberino, 1937, pp. 116-117

  • Ugolini L. M., L‘acropoli di Butrinto, Roma, 1942, pp. 26-28