Apart from a few stray pottery sherds and a single Roman coin, the earliest materials found during the excavation season of 2007 at the Tower in the western wall of Butrint, date from around the period of its construction and first use. The general absence of earlier material indicates that the construction of the new fortification line dismantled and cleaned the ground around the tower. Thus, the bulk of Roman coins from the site date to the late 5th century, with a couple from the later 6th century. Also the Roman ceramic assemblage is dominated by material dated from the late 5th century through to the mid 6th century. From the post-Roman period there were found only in the tower, the latest one date in the earlier 7th century. From the 7th to 9th centuries there is total absence of archaeological material evidence that proves the occupation of the Tower in this period.
However, it is clear from this season of excavation that the tower remained in good order and was presumable used and maintained in some form until around the turn of the 9th century. The excavation focused on an earthen floor-the ground floor storeroom of residents living on an upper storey with access gained from a staircase outside the tower. Remains of animal bones from the floor show that the residents’ diet included plenty of sheep, goat, and wild deer and boar. The floor and the contents of the store were sealed beneath a collapsed upper floor of shattered 5th century paving and roof tiles and carbonised joist timbers. The collapse of the floor above was clearly the result of a catastrophic fire, an event dated by radiocarbon analysis of the remains to c. AD 800.
In the centre of the beaten earth floor were found a simple hearth and a portable oven. Just inside the door, in front of the hearth, were found two groups of stores. To the right lay a collection of glass, probably stored in a wooden crate. The assemblage included at least 60 thin-stemmed late-style wine goblets, window glass, fragments of late Roman vessels and a lump of opaque green glass. This large deposit of mixed glass fragments bears many of the hallmarks of a collection intended for recycling as cullet – an extraordinarily precious consignment destined for a glass maker to melt down for new vessels. Alongside the glass was found an assemblage of ceramic vessels which included: two tall decorated locally produced pots of the regional Slavic tradition; a brightly painted amphora and bowl from Apulia; and thin, white-walled tableware from Constantinople. A tiny black-painted 3rd century BC aryballos (perfume bottle) was found amongst the other pots, presumably taken from a tomb as a token of antiquity. More vessels were gathered untidily in a corner to the left of the door, crushed by the collapsed first floor of the Tower. Seven globular wine amphorae from Otranto were accompanied by another probably from Ephesus on the west coast of modern Turkey.
Finds of mid 13th to mid 14th century pottery date from when the tower was next refurbished as a defence under the Despots of Epirus.