A ‘god-guarded’ city? The ‘new’ medieval town of Butrint

Abstract

This essay describes the archaeology of the revival in the later tenth- to eleventh-century of the town of Butrint, ancient Buthrotum in south-west Albania. Based on the extensive excavations by the Butrint Foundation, all the elements (fortifications, town-planning, roads, property boundaries, dwellings, churches, wells) of a new urban centre are considered, as is its economy and its wider historical context in the southern Adriatic Sea.

Beyond Butrint: The ‘Mursi Survey’, 2008

“…The closure of the road bridge across the Vivari Channel by an eleventh-century wall (Leppard 2013) – and perhaps its abandonment at this or at any time over the previous four centuries – presupposes the growing importance of seaborne trade and the reduction of Butrint's hinterland to gardens within and immediately around the fortified Byzantine town (Hodges 2015). Certainly, the effective reduction of the road running across the Vrina Plain suburb in the middle Byzantine period tends to add weight to the changing nature of Butrint's relationship with its hinterland, and thus its economy (Hodges 2015; Greenslade and Leppard forthcoming).…”

“…The closure of the road bridge across the Vivari Channel by an eleventh-century wall (Leppard 2013) – and perhaps its abandonment at this or at any time over the previous four centuries – presupposes the growing importance of seaborne trade and the reduction of Butrint's hinterland to gardens within and immediately around the fortified Byzantine town (Hodges 2015). Certainly, the effective reduction of the road running across the Vrina Plain suburb in the middle Byzantine period tends to add weight to the changing nature of Butrint's relationship with its hinterland, and thus its economy (Hodges 2015; Greenslade and Leppard forthcoming). Much of this has been confirmed by the geomorphological record that shows intensive activity in the Imperial Roman period, followed by increasing episodes of colluvium resulting in the formation of new marshes by the later Byzantine period if not a little before (Bescoby, Barclay and Andrews 2008; Bescoby 2013) on the Vrina Plain.…”

“…Sanders 2004, 163–8). All the survey data indicates that even with the substantial renewal of Butrint as a port in the later tenth and eleventh centuries, when a new castle, new city walls and new urban elements were constructed (Hodges 2015), it was largely disengaged from its surrounding hinterland. Minimal evidence of Byzantine rural settlements was discovered, although, of course, Byzantine era settlements were probably small communities on hilltops like Mursi and Xarra – thus obscured by the later ( i.e.…”

“…In particular, the Vrina Plain altered in form considerably after seismic events in the fourth century, with the precursor of the early modern marshes taking shape in the Mid- to Late Byzantine periods (Bescoby 2007; Bescoby, Barclay and Andrews 2008; Bescoby 2013). The final phase of the Vrina Plain community coincides with the revival of Butrint as an urban community (Hodges 2015, 212). It appears that the water table was steadily rising, making occupation of the plain difficult after c. 1200.…”