WARSAW, POLAND—The Miami Herald reports that researchers excavating a 2,400-year-old building situated at the highest point of an ancient Illyrian town on a ridge in northwestern Albania uncovered a large number of drinking vessels in various sizes. The town, which was first discovered in 2018, had defensive walls and at least two city gates. The rectangular building, made up of three large rooms next to a long corridor, resembles a prytaneion, a type of Greek structure where government officials met, or a hestiateron, a public place where an eternal fire was burned, according to archaeologist Piotr Dyczek of the Antiquity of Southeastern Europe Research Center. Although the settlement was not a Greek city, it may have been planned and run like one, Dyczek concluded. For more on Albanian archaeology, go to "Letter From Albania: A Road Trip Through Time."
Large Building Unearthed at Ancient Illyrian Site in Albania
News August 6, 2023
Recommended Articles
Artifacts May/June 2023
Greek Kylix Fragments
Digs & Discoveries March/April 2022
Poetic License
Digs & Discoveries March/April 2022
Who Drank From Nestor's Cup?
Features November/December 2021
When Isis Was Queen
At the ancient Egyptian temples of Philae, Nubians gave new life to a vanishing religious tradition
-
Features July/August 2023
An Elegant Enigma
The luxurious possessions of a seventeenth-century woman continue to intrigue researchers a decade after they were retrieved from a shipwreck
(Courtesy Museum Kaapskil; Courtesy Museum Kaapskil/© National Portrait Gallery, London) -
Features July/August 2023
Rise of the Persian Princes
In their grand capital Persepolis, Achaemenid rulers expressed their vision of a prosperous, multicultural empire
(Borna_Mir/ Adobe Stock) -
Letter from Patagonia July/August 2023
Surviving a Windswept Land
For 13,000 years, hunter-gatherers thrived in some of the world’s harshest environments
(Courtesy Raven Garvey) -
Artifacts July/August 2023
Norse Gold Bracteate
(Arnold Mikkelsen, National Museum of Denmark)