Tour of Butrint

I'm back and better than ever. I'm now in Rome and beginning work at the Vatican tomorrow at 8 am. As promised, I am completing the tour of Butrint now. This is going to be an extremely long post, but will be broken up with pictures. Still, if you're not big into history, don't stick around, but skip to my forthcoming post about how bad my travel day was from Greece to Rome.

We start at the very top of Butrint. This is the oldest part of the ancient city, occupied throughout the Hellenistic period, and is today off limits to all tour groups. We went up on one of our lunch breaks for a visit. This part of the site hasn't been dug too much, but it has revealed some interesting mosaics, now covered in dirt as to preserve them.

The first of these next three is the jail aka the love shack. This is where all the pottery is stored and where the ceramicists worked during the season. This is also where they found two five foot long poisonous snakes a couple years ago, and where I spent the first week of the season organizing. It was used as a tavern at some point, but is now off limits to all visitors. The second is a view of the lower plain below Butrint. Butrint has always been prized as a great location for timber, fishing and farm land, as well as strategically important in its proximity to Corfu, and this modern house still has a fishing system set up in their front 'lawn.'

The first is a photo of the forum from up above, the second is the Venetian castle where the remaining specialists worked and the third is our group heading off for the grand tour.

The first is the backside of the castle. The second is the Buthrotum version of the lion gate. The most famous lion gate is Mycenaean, but we have our own version. This is a very Hellenistic artistic design and was brought into popularity during the time known as the orientalizing period, when ancient Greece began to interact to a greater extent with Babylonia in the east, around the 8th century BCE. The third is a massive gate, leading to steps on the interior to the upper level. This gate is probably 13 feet tall, and has a significant place in the legends of the place. In the Aeneid book 3, Aeneas arrives at Buthrotum and describes it as a duplication of his beloved (and now destroyed) Troy. He arrives at a certain gate, where he meets Andromache, the wife of Hector (Hector was the greatest Trojan hero, slain by Achilles, the greatest Greek hero) who says that after the sack of Troy they fled and founded Buthrotum, modeling it after Troy. The way it probably worked out is Virgil visited Buthrotum, and then modeled the passage after what he found, but the Italians under Mussolini loved this part of the story. The last image is what you see if you rotate 180 degrees from the gate.

These next four images are from the basilica/cathedral at Butrint. Like most ancient sites, the population of Butrint eventually became composed of Christians. Some weren't too keen on the ancient monuments to pagan gods, leading to destruction of many artifacts and destruction of parts of the city. This cathedral sits on an ancient part of the city, but is a testament to the will of the people of Butrint. The third photo is a picture of dirt. The fourth photo is what is under that dirt, protected from tourists and the elements by a natural cover.

The first is our fearless leader, the second, third and fourth are photos of the baptistery. This is the second largest baptistery in the world and is decorated with the mural in the third picture. This is again another building created by Christian inhabitants. The last photo is a recent creation (circa 2011) that the Albanians, in all their brilliance, created. Around Butrint there were 200 hundred of these manumission stones (manumission=public freeing of slaves) describing various government offices, laws and other historical facts, as well as slaves who were publically freed. The Albanians, picked all these stones up, and threw them together in one wall, mortaring in bricks wherever there were holes. It's helping to preserve and present them, but it's ugly and really doesn't go with the site. TIA

The first photo is none other than Augustus Caesar. Augustus is the most important figure in Roman history. He took over the collapsing Roman republic, and turned it into an Empire (read-dictatorship), successfully prolonging the lifespan of Rome. He personally poured numerous funds into Butrint, and made sure it functioned as a province. Other important figures are Julius Caesar, Cicero/Atticus, and Hadrian. Julius Caesar captured and stayed at Butrint prior to marching on Rome in 49 BCE (I will do a post where I run through Roman history, google it if you can't wait), Cicero may have visited Butrint, since one of his best friends, Atticus lived in and funded Butrint, and then the Emperor Hadrian visited Butrint on tour around 100 CE, prompting more building projects. All of these figures are found by name and statue at Butrint. The next photo is a friend I made. One of the dogs who roams (get it, Rome and roam!) had puppies, who happen to live at the archaeological portion of Butrint. We've visited them twice now, and I got a nice photo of one. The next is a Roman bath. The third is the tripartite building, where Professor Hernandez began work in 2005. Note the ground level above the gap on the right hand side. The ground above that gap was the ground level when Ugolini began excavations in the mid 20th century. Everything else was buried. The next is a picture of another Roman bath. Roman baths were heated by steam from below, and you can clearly see the two levels here. The final is a Roman theater.

And that's all there is too it. If you have questions or want to hear more about the site, let me know in the comments. Be sure to check out Professor Hernandez' forthcoming book if you want to hear more about the history of Butrint. There are a couple big surprises I can't share here, but let's just say his book is coming to be really excellent scholarship and shed light on the significance of this site, and yours truly helped in some of this research.