Unexpected finds on a slope near Amantia

Groma, 2020

Review of Maddalena Bassani of the book by Danilo Leone, Maria Turchiano, “Liburna 1. Archeologia subacquea in Albania. Porti, approdi e rotte marittime”, Edipuglia, Bari 2017, pp. 384.

In almost eight decades of explorations, the research in the field of prehistory in Albania demonstrated considerable dynamics, a series of seminal efforts to delve into the distant past, effects of external factors to instrumentalize the archaeological interpretations, various research strategies, and, of course, numerous efforts to valorize and preserve the data as a crucial testimony of culture heritage. Many different strategies of data collection, including systematic excavations, regional surveys, test pits and so on, has been extensively applied in a large number of field projects. However, while considering cohesively research agendas, scientific queries that yet remain to be addressed, as well as the potential for further explorations and the value that archaeological sites have gained beyond their discovery, some crucial matters need to be discussed. In this paper, I deal with the character of the archaeological research of prehistory in Albania and to what extent it impacts the understanding of the past, including both, flaws and achievements. In three chapters, in this discussion, I attempt to analyze the conceptual setting of research of the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages, focusing on theoretical questions, research design, and valorization of the prehistoric heritage.

Iliria, 2022

Elezi. 2014: G. Elezi, Keramiki apo ton Neolithiko oikismo stin Thermi Thessalonikis. choriki katanomi kai prosdiorismos leitourgias ton choron, Unpublished MA Thesis.

In I. Gjipali and L. Perzhita, eds. 60 Vjet Arkeologjike Nderkombetare në Shqiperia, pp. 107-119. Tirana: Institute of Archaeology.

Albania is a possible stepping-stone for the dispersal of Homo sapiens into Europe, since Palaeolithic traces (namely from the so-called Uluzzian culture) have been discovered in neighboring Greece and Italy. After two years of searching for evidence of modern humans in Albania we here report on excavated test trenches representing two time slices: an Aurignacian open-air site from southern Albania and two Epigravettian cave sites in central and northern Albania—areas heretofore archaeologically unknown. The new Albanian data fill a gap in the eastern Adriatic archaeological record for Marine Isotope Stages 3 and 2. Adding current knowledge of Late Pleistocene landscape evolution, a “contextual area model” can be constructed describing the habitats of these human populations.