Research project details
- P.I.: Nadia Aleotti
- Funding: “Progetti per Avvio alla Ricerca” programme of Sapienza University of Rome
- Year: 2024
- Protocol no.: AR2241907808A0A6
- Participants:
- Nadia Aleotti, P.I. nadia.aleotti@uniroma1.it
- Julian Bogdani, Tutor julian.bogdani@uniroma1.it
Abstract
The project is part of the research activities of the Sapienza Archaeological Mission in southern Albania, at the site of Çuka e Ajtoit, and in particular of those supported by a research fellowship dedicated to the study of materials from the old and new investigations at the site. The research continues the work begun with a Progetto di Avvio alla Ricerca funded in 2023, dedicated to the analysis of the ceramic fabrics from Çuka e Ajtoit (The ceramic fabrics from the excavations at Çuka e Ajtoit-Konispol, Albania: sampling, analysis and a diachronic study). In light of the results obtained from this first study, it was decided to continue the sampling programme, this time focusing on a specific class of material. When the data from Çuka e Ajtoit are set within the context of the ancient region of Kestríne and northern Epirus, amphorae of Corinthian type increasingly emerge as an important fossile directeur for the Archaic-Classical period and for the subsequent transition to the Hellenistic age. These are archaeologically little-known phases, both at Çuka e Ajtoit and in northern Epirus more generally, attested almost exclusively by ceramic fragments. Within this framework, Corinthian-type amphorae stand out both for their quantity relative to the other attested classes and, above all, for the possibility of approaching their study from several different angles: from the economic perspective linked to the production and circulation of the goods they contained, to the questions raised by the model of reference for the various production centres attested not exclusively at Corinth, as well as the possibility of establishing a typology of their regional variants from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period. To this end, the study of the fragments from Çuka e Ajtoit will be complemented by that of the Corinthian amphorae from Butrint, closely tied in the Archaic and Classical periods to the Corinthian colony of Corcyra, and the site in the region that has yielded the most substantial evidence for these phases.
Starting from the study of the ceramic fragments, the first objective is to establish an up-to-date catalogue of Corinthian-type amphorae from Çuka e Ajtoit and Butrint. On the basis of this catalogue, a typology of the attested variants will then be established, together with a characterisation of their fabrics. New samples of Corinthian-type amphorae from Çuka e Ajtoit and Butrint will therefore be selected, in order to broaden as far as possible the representativeness of the fragments and types under analysis. The typological and technical characterisation of the catalogued amphorae will then form the basis for a study that is not limited to the ceramic fragments themselves, but that also aims to contribute to the reconstruction of certain aspects of the regional economy from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period. Recognising any local production will in fact call for a reassessment of the region’s economic organisation, both with regard to the production of these transport containers and, above all, of the goods they were meant to contain, and the relationship between imports and exports over time, as well as the reasons and dynamics that led to the adoption of Corinthian models. Conversely, the exclusive importation of these amphorae and their contents will prompt further investigation of the various commercial contacts attested in the region and of local production that presumably did not generate a surplus destined for export. Given the breadth and complexity of the issues touched upon by this second part of the project, the aim of the research is not necessarily to exhaust them, but rather to contribute, on the basis of the data from the amphorae analysed, to outlining future research prospects.