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1. Introduction Richard Hodges, William Bowden, Oliver Gilkes and Kosta Lako Toward evening we arrived at a village called Livari, a corruption, itis thought, of Vivarium, from the fisheries in the lake, which here finds an outlet into the sea by means of a river. By the people of the place the lake is also called Boidoperes. At Corfu the village is known as Butrinto or Vutzindro, but in the country itself we found these names unknown, a source of confusion, which caused us much difficulty. On the opposite side of the water is a rocky height, with remains of walls, which mark the site of the ancient Buthrotum, the celsam Buthroti urbem of Virgil. As we were embarking to cross to Corfu, I said toa Turkish official who was standing by, ‘Now we are leaving Turkey?” “Yes,” he replied, ‘now you are going to Europe” (Fanshawe Tozer 1869: 232-3). Introduction Butrint sits at the crossroads of the Mediterranean, commanding the sea-routes up the Adriatic Sea to the north, across the Mediterranean to the west, and south through the Tonian islands. Like ancient Dyrrhachium (modern Durrés) to the north, it also controlled a land- route into the mountainous Balkan interior. The aban- doned ancient and medieval port is located 3 km inland from the Straits of Corfu in south Albania (Fig. 1.1). For much of its long history it occupied a hill on a bend in the Vivari Channel, which connects the Straits to the large inland lagoon of Lake Butrint. A narrow plain, formerly a marsh, separates the channel from a band of hills to the south, along which runs the present frontier between Albania and Greece. Immediately east of Lake Butrint, a range of hills and low mountains rise up to 824 m, effectively creating a basin around the ancient city and the inland lake. The walled city, designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1992, covers an area of c, 16 ha (Figs. 1.2-3), but geophysical survey on the eastern side of the Vivari Channel shows that at times in antiquity Butrint covered as much as 30 ha (see Chapters 5 and 6). The walled city comprises two parts: the acropolis and the lower city. The acropolis is a long narrow hill, approx- imately 200 m long and 60 m at its widest, that rises up to 42 m above sea level at its east end; its sides are accentuated by a circuit of walls that separate it from the natural and artificial terraces gathered around the flanks of the hill, The lower city occupies the lower- ‘contours down to the edge of the Vivari Channel. Remains. of a cemetery are recorded on the spine of the hill running, west from the acropolis (Ugolini 1937: 174; Budina 1988), but its extent is unknown. The most obvious monument outside the city walls, on the opposite side of the channel, is the Triangular Castle, which after 1572 became the nucleus of the early modern settlement (Leake 1835: 95; Karaiskaj 1980: 33-5). Beyond the fortress to the east, opposite the walled site, there are substantial remains of late Republican to Byzantine date. These, as ‘we shall see, form part of the Roman town and, later on, the late antique vicus. History of discovery Cyriacus of Ancona was the first antiquarian to visit Butrint. The Renaissance collector paused here on 26th December 1435, and recorded two inscriptions that he quite probably removed (Ugolini 1942: 223), as well as drawing sketches of the ruins. Many subsequent visitors mentioned the port, but the first major description of Butrint’s topography is by Colonel W. M. Leake, who visited Butrint in 1805. Leake arrived by boat from Saranda, and described his arrival at Butrint thus: ‘As we approach Vutzindré, the water becomes muddy, and in the bay is almost fresh. This bay is very shallow on the northern side, and the bar at the mouth of the river will even now, when the water is still at the highest, but just admit of the entrance of xaifkxt, or small coasting vessels. We row three or four miles up the river, through a plain once perhaps the property of Atticus, a friend of Cicero, and now peopled with horses from the neighbouring Richard Hodges et al. LC Siraits of ( Compu ZS T Butrint K; alivo || Fig. 1.1 Butrint and the surrounding region. (IWA) village, We then arrived at the Vivéri, or more vulgarly Livéris that is to say the principal fishery, which is on the left side of the river, at its exit from the lake, nearly ‘opposite to the peninsula which was anciently occupied by Buthrotum. The only buildings at the Livéri are a ruined house of Venetian construction, and near it an old triangular castle, occupied by a diny bilibssh of the Vezir, and fifteen ‘or twenty soldiers (Leake 1835: 95) ‘The following year, Leake’s rival at the court of Ali Pasha, the French diplomat Francois Pouqueville, also visited Butrint, writing a description that was similar to that of Leake: On the south side of the channel, communicating between that lake and the sea, is constructed the modern Venetian fortress of Buthrinto, and on the opposite side are the ruins of old Buthrotum ... These ruins show an acropolis, or citadel, and the Roman town inclosed within a double wall, containing fragments of both Greek and Roman architecture. But, in the walls of the acropolis are preserved foundations of the highest antiquity, consisting of vast blocks without cement (Pouqueville 1820: 34-5). There were other visitors as well. An anonymous tourist inscribed his initials and a date, AD 1796 P. A. 'M., on a Byzantine fresco on the acropolis (Museo della Civilt&a Romana, Ugolini file [hereafter MCR Ug] 35), and during 1819 the French artist Louis Dupré visited in the company of the British High Commissioner on Corfu, Sir Thomas Maitland, in order to meet Al unimpressed with modern Butrint: ‘The fortress, if one can really apply that term to such a miserable tower, is armed with three cannon of mixed calibre ... (Dupré 1825: 10), However, the ruins of the ancient city moved him to speculate on future possibilities: Introduction acropolis xX ? = (ce Ve ae Roman town and es late antique vicus lower city line of aqueduct Triangular Fortress = 500m Fig. 1.2 Overview of archaeological remains at Butrint and on the Vrina Plain. (WA) Fig. 1.3 Aerial view of Butrint. (BF)

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