Overview of the Graves

1. Modern Graves

The upper part of the tumulus on the east side and largely in the northern sector was used for a series of early Modern graves of infants/fetuses (e.g. Tomb 11), several adults (e.g. Tomb 23, as well as a number of associated animals (e.g. Tomb 19). Small finds associated with these graves were scarce, but in a few of them a solitary and much disintegrated bronze or copper alloy coin was associated with the deceased. Not one of these coins is legible enough to provide a firm date, but on the basis of their fabric, weight, and what is visible on their surface, the coins appear to date, according to Dr. Shpresa Gjongecaj who inspected some of them in 2004, to the modern era, perhaps as early as the 17th or 18th century. These modern graves are predominantly oriented east-west, with the head to the west facing east, a possible index of religious affiliation.

2. Early Iron Age Graves

The total number of graves cleared to the end of the 2005 season was 62, and a further four burials were uncovered but not excavated. Most of the Early Iron Age burials were in the characteristic “flexed” position, with several of the tombs containing more than one individual. The state of preservation of the bone in these tombs varied: some, like Tombs 5 and 18, were comparatively poorly preserved, while others were very well preserved. Unlike the modern burials, the Early Iron Age tombs had no fixed orientation (indeed, individuals in multiple burials could lie at different orientations). Finds deposited in individual tombs included whole vessels of the Early Iron Age handmade matt-painted style as well as unpainted ceramics, several so-called spectacle fibulae of a type familiar in sanctuaries and tombs in Greece, Italy, and the Balkans in the 10th through 8th centuries B.C., as well as various other bronze, iron, gold, and bimetallic objects (see Overview of Finds).

The flexed disposition of the skeleton is traditionally explained by the fact that the body was laid out with the torso in a supine position, the arms normally folded across the lower torso or pelvic region, but with the legs bent at the knees and thus drawn up. In time, the weight of earth above the tomb caused the legs to collapse or fall to one side, thus resulting in the typical flexed position. In some cases the legs were only slightly bent. The difference in the degree of flexing could, however, be rather marked, so much so that in the case of a few tombs the degree of flexing was so pronounced that it raised the possibility that the deceased

was intentionally “bundled,” not only for burial, but also for transportation to the tumulus site. The possibility of bundling the deceased for transport – particularly if they died at any distance from the tumulus – and burial will form part of our ongoing assessment and analysis of the Lofkënd burials. Some of the burials, like Tombs 41 and 42, were in a more or less fetal position.

In addition to the inhumed bodies of Early Iron Age adults and adolescents, the remains of several Early Iron Age infants or children were encountered. The skulls of three infants/children were found in Tomb 62. Although there was no real evidence of cremation among the tombs uncovered in 2004 and 2005, a number of graves displayed evidence of some burning in situ. In some instances, traces of blackened material often intermingled with calcareous earth was noted, but there was no evidence of human bone cremated in the normal sense. In other cases, poorly preserved bone was found together with what appeared to be burnt clay. A similar phenomenon was encountered at the burial tumulus of Patos excavated by Professor Muzafer Korkuti in 1976, who is of the opinion that clay was thrown onto burning bone during the funerary ritual resulting in this characteristic fire-affected clay.

Among the most well endowed of the burials were Tombs 17, 52, and 55. It appears that the richest burials encountered in 2004 and 2005 were of younger, adolescent, females, which may be more than a coincidence, and will be closely analyzed in our final publication.