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Excavation

  • Tumulus of Kamenica
  • Kamenicë
  •  
  • Albania
  • Korçë County
  • Bashkia Korçë
  • Mollaj

Tools

Credits

  • The Italian Database is the result of a collaboration between:

    MIBAC (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Direzione Generale per i Beni Archeologici),

    ICCD (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione) and

    AIAC (Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica).

  • AIAC_logo logo

Summary (English)

  • This season one of the main objectives was to find the extension of the tumulus as a whole. The distance from the conventional centre to the eastern extremity of the monument approximately measured 55m. Important elements of the architecture of the tumulus were defined, because even the elliptical shape of the monument is unusual compared to the other tumuli known so far in Albania and the surrounding Balkan areas.
    It was also possible to understand an important element of the architecture of the tumulus: in a first phase the cemetery was quite small and built only with soil; then, in a second phase (probably at the end of the VIII century B.C.), the monument was enlarged and built with rocks. It has become clear that the cemetery is built on a natural slope, so that half of the mound occupied approximately by part of Sector 2, the whole of Sector 3, and part of Sector 4 has a lower elevation than the rest of the tumulus.
    Several grave types were identified during the excavations of the tumulus. The most common among them is the simple pit, which is a characteristic feature for all periods of use of the cemetery, but there were also found wooden structures in the simple pits; much rarer are the stone-lined graves.
    In this season we started putting chronological boundaries of the using of the tumulus: it looks like has started to the end of the late Bronze Age (XIII-XII centuries B.C.) till the VI century B.C. In this tumulus are also well represented the Early and Developed Iron Ages. In this season in Sector 3 a complex of 5 particular graves came to light. Inside each of these structures was found only one inhumation.
    In the VIII-VII century B.C. in all the graves only inhumation was practised. The mortuary customs of these graves include two important elements: the extended position of disposing the dead, as well as the frequent use of a particular type of ceramic vessel as grave good. In inhumation burials were found more bronze and iron jewellery, and ceramic pots, some of them with fine painted decoration, sometimes associated with plastic decoration.
    In the part of the tumulus that belongs to the first phase cremation is not rare. Some cremation burials were found with the ashes of the bodies that have been cremated somewhere outside of the cemetery, in some other cases the cremation has taken place in situ, and the clay has acquired the typical colour resulting from firing.

  • Maria Grazia Amore - GSHASH – Grupi Shqiptar i Arkeologjisë së Shpëtimit (ARAU – Albanian Rescue Archaeological Unit) 
  • Lorenc Bejko - GSHASH – Grupi Shqiptar i Arkeologjisë së Shpëtimit (ARAU – Albanian Rescue Archaeological Unit) 

Director

  • Skënder Aliu - Muzeu Arkeologjik i Korçës (Archaeological Museum of Korça)

Team

  • Belisa Muka - Instituti i Arkeologjisë Tiranë, Departamenti i Antikitetit (Albanian Institute of Archaeology, Department of Antiquity)
  • Petrika Lera - Instituti i Arkeologjisë Tiranë, Departamenti i Prehistorisë (Albanian Institute of Archaeology, Department of Prehistory)
  • Pippa Pierce - British Museum
  • Juljan Elezi

Research Body

  • GSHASH – Grupi Shqiptar i Arkeologjisë së Shpëtimit (ARAU – Albanian Rescue Archaeological Unit)
  • Instituti Arkeologjik Tiranë (Albanian Institute of Archaeology)

Funding Body

  • Packard Humanities Institute

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