The
ultimate goal of PASH is to explain the origins of Mediterranean social inequality,
beginning in the Late Copper Age, before about 3000 BC, through the late Iron
Age and following Roman conquest. The explanatory models we are testing assume
that Albanian late prehistoric landscapes – composed of nucleated hill top settlements
and burial in mounds – were the result of multiple, long-term, interacting factors. These include shifts in regional environment and climate, social and economic interaction,
competition and conflict, and, perhaps, migration. Since 2010, we have employed various field and laboratory methods to test our models and meet our goal.
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GeologyOur geological work is focused on integrating the data obtained from 124 auger samples from 13 locations with 519 core samples from five locations to interpret the spatial and temporal variability of the Shtoj alluvial fan during the past 2000 years.
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SurveyWe have intensively surveyed 2368 tracts covering 15.208 square kilometers in the areas of Shkrel and Shtoj, surface collected seven late prehistoric archaeological sites, including the hill top settlement of Zagorës and the large hill fort at Gajtan, and surveyed 144 burial mounds (tumuli).
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ExcavationWe have conducted excavations at three sites – Kodër Boks, Gajtan, and Zagorë – and four burial mounds. Radiocarbon dates point to an initial occupation of the region’s hill forts in the Late Neolithic, circa 4600 BC and elaboration of tumulus burial through the Late Bronze Age.
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Artifact Analysis
We have analyzed 1000s of artifacts from all periods of Shkodra's past. The region was first settled by Neanderthals during the Middle Paleolithic. There was a short-lived Late Paleolithic occupation, followed by an influx of Mesolithic foragers. An early Neolithic hiatus was ended when Late Neolithic settlers occupied the hill at Gajtan. Settlement of the region expanded throughout the Copper and Bronze Age, peaking in the Late Bronze Age. Shkodra was eventually conquered by the Romans, to be followed by exponential growth during the Medieval Age. To look at trade, PASH has analyzed clays and prehistoric pottery at the Elemental Analysis Facility at the Field Museum in Chicago. To track human migration, we have analyzed human teeth at the Isotope Geochemistry and Geochronology Lab at MIT. To reconstruct economy, paleo-botanical and -zoological remains are being studied.