Season Team

• AIAC_1131 - Medieval Cemetery at Rrëmbec - 2004
  In May 2004 the Albanian Rescue Archaeological Unit in collaboration with the Institute of Archaeology and the Archaeological Museum of Korça, organized the second season of excavations at the Mediaeval cemetery at Rrëmbec. This season was the continuation of the first season organized in November 2003. Besides carrying on the same goals of the first season, in this season another goal was to be reached, that of the anthropological study of the skeletons. During this year 28 graves were discovered. They all consisted in rectangular pits with dimensions varying from 2.10m to 0.55m length and from 0.60m to 0.35m width. The burial type practiced was inhumation, individuals mostly were supine with extended legs and folded or extended arms. The orientation of the disposals was Northwest-Southeast. In this season as well, the inventory was not very rich. From 28 graves only 8 of them had inventory. The most common group of finds was composed by ceramic vessels such as vessels without handles and two-handled vessels. The inventory also included ornaments like bronze earrings and glass beads, a clay object identified as a spindle whorl, a couple of small iron knifes and an iron buckle. All the materials were dated to the VIII-IX centuries A.D. The anthropologists studied 41 well preserved skeletons. 15 of them were adult males aged from 25 to over 40 years old, 9 were adult females aged from 25 to over 40 years old and 17 were children and sub-adults from 0 to 15 years old. The length of the individuals varied from 170 to 177cm for males and from 153 to 161cm for females. Morphological analyses showed that some of the individuals had great morphological similarity, which is an evidence for the presence of family burial areas at Rrëmbec.