Excavations at
the burial tumulus of Lofkënd in south-central Albania in
2004
The excavation of the burial tumulus at the site of Lofkënd
in the Mallakastra region of southern Albania was carried out as
a collaboration of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA (University
of California, Los Angeles), the International Center for Albanian
Archaeology (ICAA) and the Institute of Archaeology, Tirana and co-directed
by John K. Papadopoulos, Sarah P. Morris (UCLA) and Lorenc Bejko
(ICAA & Institute of Archaeology). A total of twenty-eight burials
were uncovered during the first season in late June and July 2004
in the uppermost meter of the tumulus (fig. 1), including a cluster
of early modern infant graves (fig. 2) and inhumed animals on the
east side of the mound, together with several adults. The largest
number of tombs belonged to the Early Iron Age, most of which were
in the characteristic “flexed” position, with several
of the tombs containing more than one individual. All of the burials
encountered in 2004 were inhumations. Finds included whole vessels
of the handmade matt-painted style, several “spectacle” fibulae
of a type familiar in sanctuaries and tombs in Greece, Italy and
the Balkans in the 10th through 8th Centuries BC, as well as various
other bronze, iron and bimetallic small finds. A number of typical
Early Iron Age and modern burials are presented in the overview of
graves. A particular focus of the 2004 season was the physical anthropology
of those buried in the tumulus and the nature and composition of
the fill (see Project Aims). One of the most interesting results
of the 2004 excavations was the large number of prehistoric stone
tools re-deposited in the tumulus fill (fig. 3), including Neolithic
and Bronze Age types, and also some Paleolithic examples.
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