The Excavation of the Prehistoric Burial Tumulus at Lofkënd, Albania [2-vol set]


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Series: Monumenta Archaeologica 34
ISBN: 978-1-938770-00-5
Publication Date: Dec 2014
Price: Hb $169.00 (2 vols), eBook $134.00
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John K. Papadopoulos, Sarah P. Morris, Lorenc Bejko, and Lynne A. Schepartz

“The largely American team have worked closely with Albanians (both senior scholars and students), demonstrated great sensitivity to local history, politics and culture, and they have expended considerable time and effort on the conservation of finds, the analysis of local environment and survey, a summary in Albanian, and heritage management issues.”
  — James Whitley, Antiquity, 2016

The burial tumulus of Lofkënd lies in one of the richest archaeological areas of Albania (ancient Illyria) home to a number of burial tumuli spanning the Bronze and Iron Ages of later European prehistory. Modern understanding of the pre- and protohistory of Illyria has largely been shaped by the contents of such burial mounds, yet some were robbed long ago, others reused for modern burials, and few were excavated under scientific conditions. WheelWhat inspired this systematic exploration by UCLA was more than the promise of an unplundered necropolis; it was also the chance to revisit the significance of this tumulus and its fellows for the emergence of urbanism and complexity in ancient Illyria. In addition to artifacts, the recovery of surviving plant remains, bones, and other organic material contributed to insights into the environmental and ecological history of the region. Full analysis of all the skeletal remains, inhumed and cremated, enhanced knowledge about the demography and human population in this region of Albania. Finally, an intensive survey of the environment around the burial mound revealed the long-term history of its human and natural landscape.

Site panorama

Recipient of the Jo Anne Stolaroff Cotsen Prize
Table of Contents

Part I: The Excavation of the Tumulus

Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. The Excavation of the Tumulus
Chapter 3. Catalogue of Tombs and Their Contents
Chapter 4. The Relative and Absolute Chronology of the Tumulus

Chapter 5. Conservation at the Lofkënd Archaeological Project, 2004–2008

Part II: The Population of the Tumulus

Chapter 6. Bioarchaeology of the Lofkënd Tumulus
Chapter 7. Results of Stable-Isotope Analyses of Human Bone Samples from Lofkënd

Part III: Analyses of Materials from the Tumulus

Chapter 8. The Prehistoric Burial Customs
Chapter 9. The Pottery from the Tombs and Tumulus Fill
Chapter 10. Objects of Terracotta, Metal (Gold/Electrum, Bronze, Iron, and Bimetallic), Semi-Precious Stone, Faience, Glass, and Worked Bone
Chapter 11. Analytical Studies of the Metal Objects from Lofkënd
Chapter 12. Textiles and Other Mineralized Organic Remains at Lofkënd
Chapter 13 The Lithic Artifacts
Chapter 14. Daub
Chapter 15. Bitumen at Lofkënd: Deposits, Sherds, and Containers
Chapter 16. Environmental Archaeology at Lofkënd

Part IV: The Tumulus in Its Context

Chapter 17. Research on Tumuli in Albanian Archaeology
Chapter 18. An Intensive, Systematic Archaeological Survey of the Landscape around the Lofkënd Tumulus
Chapter 19. The Three-Dimensional Model: Digging into Information Design
Chapter 20. Lofkënd as Cultivated Place
Chapter 21. The Beginning and the End of the Lofkënd Tumulus and the Prehistory of the Kanun
Chapter 22. Heritage Management and the Future of the Tumulus

Tuma Prehistorike e Lofkëndit në Shqipëri: Përmbledhje (Albanian Summary)