Butrint 6: Excavations on the Vrina Plain Volume 2: The Finds: 6.2 (Butrint Archaeological Monographs)

Butrint 6' describes the excavations carried out on the Vrina Plain by the Butrint Foundation from 2002-2007. Lying just to the south of the ancient port city of Butrint, these excavations have revealed a 1,300 year long story of a changing community that began in the 1st century AD, one which not only played its part in shaping the city of Butrint but also in how the city interacted and at times reacted to the changing political, economic and cultural situations occurring across the Mediterranean World over this period. Volume II discusses the finds from the Vrina Plain excavations. 0This volume provides an insight into how the Vrina Plain community lived, worked and ultimately died and includes chapters on the medieval and post-medieval ceramics from the excavations, analysis of the human and faunal remains, environmental evidence, Roman and Medieval coins, a detailed study of the small finds as well as a discussion of the glass including a report on a number of glass cakes, ingots of raw glass associated with glass working that were found during the excavations. 0The volume also reports on five lead seals dating from the late 9th to the 10th century, an uncommon find but one which when considered with the contemporary coins suggests that for 100 years the Vrina Plain was Butrint.00- Vol. 1: The Lost Roman and Byzantine Suburb - ISBN 97817892521320- Vol. 2: The Finds - ISBN 97817892521700- Vol. 3: The Roman and late Antique pottery from the Vrina Plain Excavations - ISBN 9781789252217 0- Volumes 1-3 set - ISBN 9781789252255 Butrint 6' describes the excavations carried out on the Vrina Plain by the Butrint Foundation from 2002-2007. Lying just to the south of the ancient port city of Butrint, these excavations have revealed a 1,300 year long story of a changing community that began in the 1st century AD, one which not only played its part in shaping the city of Butrint but also in how the city interacted and at times reacted to the changing political, economic and cultural situations occurring across the Mediterranean World over this period. Volume I discusses the results from the excavations, tracing the development of the area from an early Roman bridgehead suburb during the 1st and 2nd centuries AD to a major 3rd-century domus, one of the largest of its kind in the province of Epirus Vetus, its transformation into a new residential centre dominated by a Christian basilica in Late Antiquity, to becoming the home of a Byzantine archon during the 9th and 10th centuries when it was, in all but name, Butrint, and its subsequent uses following its abandonment due to the rising water table. This is followed by a description of the domus mosaics and a detailed examination of the basilica mosaics, analysing the imagery, meaning and context of this intricate and detailed pavement, together with discussions of the Vrina Plain and its place within the story of Butrint and the wider Mediterranean World during the Roman and Byzantine periods HISTORY / Ancient / Rome Cover 1 Book Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 Background to the site and excavations: Simon Greenslade 8 1 The medieval and post-medieval pottery findsfrom the Vrina Plain excavations: Joanita Vroom1 22 2 The ancient and early Byzantine coins fromVrina Plain: Sam Moorhead1 36 3 Byzantine and early modern coins (9th–17thcentury): Pagona Papadopoulou1 62 4 Lead seals1: Pagona Papadopoulou2 76 5 The human skeletons from the Vrina Plain: Angela Soler,1 Carolyn V. Isaac,2 Jared S. Beatrice3and Todd W. Fenton4 80 6 Small finds: John Mitchell1 98 1) Silver 101 2) Lead 102 3) Copper alloy 104 4) Iron 148 5) Metal slag 163 6) Glass 164 7) Ivory and bone 166 8) Amber 173 9) Ceramic 173 10) Lime stucco 176 11) Semi-precious stone 176 12) Stone 177 13) Mosaic 183 14) Inscriptions3 184 Appendix: The conservation of the VrinaPlain Small Finds 188 7 The vessel glass of the Vrina Plain: Karen Stark1 190 8 Glass cakes and glass tesserae fromthe Vrina Plain: Nadine Schibille1 220 9 Diet and economy: The faunal evidence: Richard Madgwick1 230 10 Aquatic resource exploitation at Vrina Plainfrom the 1st to the 13th century AD: Rena Veropoulidou1 248 11 Hand-collected shell: Matthew Law1 and Richard Madgwick2 258 12 The archaeobotanical evidence of the VrinaPlain settlement: Alexandra Livarda1 266 Bibliography 272 Index 284 Plate section 290 Back Cover 306 Butrint 6 describes the excavations carried out on the Vrina Plain by the Butrint Foundation. Volume 1 traces development from Roman bridgehead suburb to 3rd century domus and important Byzantine residential centre.