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Excavation

  • Chapel at the medieval cemetery of Lezha
  • Lezhë
  • Lissos
  • Albania
  • Lezhë County
  • Bashkia Lezhë
  • Bashkia e Lezhës

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)

  • During the archaeological investigations of 2011, at the highest point of area 7, and 15 km to the south-east of the previously discovered funerary church, the remains of a chapel were revealed. Due to the limited time, this year’s excavations removed only the upper layer (vegetation) of the monument. Despite of the bad preservation state of the monument, the excavations identified the general plan of the structure and produced an accurate topographic elevation. It is a small (7 m long and 4 m wide), one aisled church, with a semicircular apse. The northern part of the nave is entirely preserved; the apse and the western wall are partly noticeable, while its southern side is almost undetectable. The altar foundation (0, 9 m x 0, 6 m) of stone blocks bonded with lime mortar and half of the stylobate of the sanctuary gate (0, 40 m thick) were also uncovered.
    The entire structure is built on the natural rock of the hill, which is partially integrated in the walls of limestone blocks (0, 60 m wide) of various sizes bonded with mortar. The floor of the chapel was of slabs and stone blocks, as suggested by the remains found in the central nave.
    Three large rock-cut graves were identified on the floor level; graves 113 was found directly on the threshold entrance, to the west; 114 at the central part of the nave; and 115 in the southern side of the sanctuary gate. The entombment in the nave, suggest that after the abandonment, the chapel was integrated in the funerary area of the city. The rocky graves of the medieval cemetery of the city of Lezha are considered as later installations, for which we do not have an accurate date as yet, though they are certainly construction of the late 12th century AD.
    Both the date of the construction and of the abandonment of the monument remain so far unknown. A decorative element of the sanctuary gate of the church, found in the fill of the nearby cistern, dates to the 8-9th Centuries. However, the further excavations will help in defining the accurate chronology of the monument.

Director

  • Etleva Nallbani - CNRS/UMR 8167
  • Luc Buchet - CNRS-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de Nice, Centre d\'Études Préhistoire, Antiquité, Moyen Âge

Team

Research Body

  • Instituti Arkeologjik Tiranë (Albanian Institute of Archaeology)
  • École Française de Rome

Funding Body

  • Ministère de l'Europe et des Affaires étrangères

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