Epidamnos: A Settlement Hidden By Time
by Dr Brikena Shkodra-Rrugia
Institute of Archaeology, Tirana
Epidamnos is the name of an Illyrian city, known on the eastern shore of the Adriatic from at least the 3rd millennium BCE. Albanian archaeology has confirmed its correlation to modern Durrës. The city stood at the southern end of an elevated peninsula (actually an island from prehistory to the beginning of the Christian era) at the crossroads of connectivity, surrounded by water and a fertile landscape, where perfect conditions for the development of human activity existed.
Epidamnos first appears in historical sources in the 5th century BCE where it is mentioned by the Greek historian Thucydides in his History of the Peloponnesian War (431-404). Thucydides recorded that Epidamn was on the right-hand side of the Ionian Bay, next to which lived the Taulantians, an Illyrian tribe.
Another, more legendary version of its foundation links the city’s name with that of a local king. The Roman historian, Appianus, writes: “Epidamn, a barbarian king of the region, founded a city by the sea and called it after himself, Epidamnos”. In his narrative, Appianus introduces the idea of a second settlement. According to his version, Dyrrachus, the son of Epidamn’s daughter, built a harbour for his city and named it Dyrrachion. From this legendary story, we can date the founding a Corinthian/Corcyran colony called Dyrrachion to between 628-624 BCE.
Archaeological evidence relating to the original shape and development of this important Illyrian settlement are episodic and lacking in context, due to the continuous use of the same terrestrial core up to today. One single flint tool has been discovered as a residual in the Roman period layers. Finds from surroundings nearby shed some light on the earliest use and exploitation of the landscape. Two late Neolithic sites (4500-4000 BCE), Kepi Pali and Arapaj, are confirmed to have existed near the coastal island of Epidamnos. Stone fragments found on both sites show an abundance of half-finished products rather than finished tools. This testifies to the existence of primary flaking sites for the production of flint blanks and consequently their exportation to other locations.
Fragments of stone and flint found at Kepi Pali and Arapaj
Such finds are of particular interest in understanding the impetus behind human activity, suggesting that the area around Epidamnos served as a sourcing area. The creation of temporary settlements linked to flint production for exchange in a region rich in natural resources seems to be the initial attraction for human exploitation of the region. The distribution of the same kinds of flints further inland in other known findspots bears witness to the mobility of prehistoric inhabitants around the main coastal island of Epidamnos.
The main focus for these connections is surely the island of Epidamnos. Unfortunately, the history of this island, where physical elements and structures from different historical phases overlay each other, conceals any trace of the original settlement. Environmental changes, especially the advance of the sea bank closer to the hill’s slope and the clay composition of these hills, mean that the space has always been susceptible to inundation and the accumulation of debris deposited by rain water. As a result, some physical traces have been lost; others have been reshaped and reused continuously up to the present level of modern Durrës.
Despite such unfavourable archaeological conditions, it is thought that the first settlement dates from the Bronze Age (3150-1100/1050 BCE) on the basis of finds recovered on the southern end of the island, where the modern port stands today. These finds include a stone axe and several pottery fragments, typical dating elements of this period but still sporadic. In addition, the terrace which stretches along the eastern base of the western hills has produced two very important findspots with finds predating the founding of the colony. These include examples of typical local pottery vases of the 8th-7th century BCE known as qeramika devollite, similar to Corinthian amphorae of the same period. They indicate both the commercial relations in the region and the ethnic composition of the population of Epidamnos.
Stone axe found where Pottery vase (qeramika devollite)
the modern port is today found on an inland terrace
The more northerly of the two findspots is particularly interesting because it is one of the rare examples where a sequence of stratigraphy seven metres deep reveals how the different phases of the settlement overlay each other, from at least the 8th century BCE to today. The earliest sequence from here predates the founding of the colony and is known only through the pottery finds. The “rescue approach” of the excavation, with limited time and space for research coupled with the intensive reuse of components of the older settlement by more recent remodelling and transformation, has considerably reduced a comprehensive recognition of the earliest/original phases of the settlement. Nevertheless, the identification of imported products through pottery fragments testifies to a developed trading network early before the colony was established. It was the economic impetus, traced since the late Neolithic period, that shaped the development of Epidamnos at the centre of a lively trade network by sea and land, which can be perceived as the early model of Via Egnatia.
The original topographical form and character of ancient Epidamnos still stands in the deep levels of stratigraphy beneath modern Durrës, at the heart of its public centre today, unlikely to ever be uncovered. Only planned and carefully executed excavations can reveal fragments of its still hidden story.