Papers by David R Hernandez
Butrint 7: Beyond Butrint. Kalivo, Mursi, Çuka e Aitoit, Diaporit and the Vrina Plain. Surveys and Excavations in the Pavllas River Valley, Albania, 1928-2015, 2020
Butrint 7: Beyond Butrint. Kalivo, Mursi, Çuka e Aitoit, Diaporit and the Vrina Plain. Surveys and Excavations in the Pavllas River Valley, Albania, 1928-2015, 2020
Butrint 7: Beyond Butrint. Kalivo, Mursi, Çuka e Aitoit, Diaporit and the Vrina Plain. Surveys and Excavations in the Pavllas River Valley, Albania, 1928-2015, 2020
Hesperia 88.2, 2019
This article examines Butrint under Venetian and Ottoman rule during the period of its final sett... more This article examines Butrint under Venetian and Ottoman rule during the period of its final settlement and subsequent abandonment, before the start of archaeological excavations (a.d. 1386–1928). On the basis of excavated Venetian houses and later burials at the site of the Roman forum, it is argued that the Republic of Venice abandoned the Butrint headland after Süleyman the Magnificent sacked the city in 1537 and that Butrint was never resettled thereafter due to environmental adversities posed by malaria and emergent wetlands. Plague, border-zone dynamics, and state decay also exacerbated local conditions. Throughout its abandonment, however, Butrint and its environs remained economically active and strategically important, primarily to Corfu.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.88.2.0365
Journal of Roman Archaeology 31, 2018
L’Illyrie méridionale et l’Épire dans l’antiquité VI, 2018
This paper examines the forum as a unified complex, in relation to the design, purpose, and sitin... more This paper examines the forum as a unified complex, in relation to the design, purpose, and siting of its major buildings during the Roman Imperial period, from the 1st century B.C. to 3rd century A.D. It also explores themes of Roman colonization, as they relate to the topography and building sequences of the forum and to the transformation of the
Epeirote polis to the Roman colonia.
Hesperia 86.2, 2017
This article examines the archaeology and history of Bouthrotos (Butrint) from the 8th to 4th cen... more This article examines the archaeology and history of Bouthrotos (Butrint) from the 8th to 4th century b.c., in the context of Epeiros and the Greek colonization of Korkyra (Corfu). The Roman Forum Excavations (RFE) Project has recovered stratified material deep below the level of the forum that elucidates the phasing and topography of Archaic and Classical Bouthrotos. The conclusions include a reconstruction of the historic shoreline and formation processes of the Butrint headland and the identification and partial reconstruction of the Temple of Athena Polias on the acropolis.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.2972/hesperia.86.2.0205.pdf
Annual of the British School at Athens 112, 2017
This article examines the impact of sea level (water table) on archaeological research at Butrint... more This article examines the impact of sea level (water table) on archaeological research at Butrint (Bouthrotos/Buthrotum) from 1928 to 2014. Rising relative sea levels over the past three thousand years have shaped the actions not only of its ancient inhabitants but also of its modern archaeologists, conditioning archaeological objectives, fieldwork and the interpretation of the archaeological record. Butrint’s first archaeologist, Luigi M. Ugolini, considered groundwater to be a detriment to archaeological research at the site. Subsequent archaeologists have viewed it as the limit of excavation. Battling water at Butrint, archaeologists have shared a universal perception of groundwater as an enemy and thereby have overlooked one of Butrint’s most important areas of archaeological research – its wetland and wet-site archaeology. The Roman Forum Excavations (RFE) Project undertook the first wet-site excavations at Butrint, reaching depths of up to four metres below the water table in stratigraphic excavations in the ancient urban centre. The results demonstrate that the ancient urban centre formed much later than is presently thought: the lower city emerged as dryland in the second half of the second century BC. Relative sea levels have increased since antiquity at many coastal regions in the Mediterranean, often submerging archaeological sites either partially or completely. Butrint is a case study that shows how sea level is inextricably tied to archaeological practice and interpretation at this major ancient Mediterranean seaport.
Journal of Field Archaeology 42.4, 2017
Since the start of archaeological research at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Butrint (Bouthrot... more Since the start of archaeological research at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Butrint (Bouthrotos/Buthrotum) in southern Albania, archaeologists have allowed the water table to serve as a limit to
archaeological excavation. From 2011 to 2013, the Roman Forum Excavations (RFE) Project conducted the first wet-site excavations at Butrint, reaching depths of up to 4 m below the water table in the ancient urban center. Well-preserved wood and other organic remains were recovered from waterlogged deposits, dating as early as the 7th century B.C. Major changes in RFE Project methodology emerged in response to wet-site archaeology. Unskilled local workers were trained to become local excavators. This significantly improved excavation techniques and recording procedures and enhanced the quality of the archaeological data, showing the high degree to which seemingly disparate elements of field methodology are intertwined.
Encounters, Excavations, and Argosies, 2017
This article discusses a unique masonry lime-kiln identified in 2014 at Butrint (Buthrotum), an a... more This article discusses a unique masonry lime-kiln identified in 2014 at Butrint (Buthrotum), an ancient seaport situated between Greece and Italy that occupied a small headland on the Ionian Sea in southern Albania, in the region of ancient Epirus (Epeiros). The Butrint headland was settled as early as the second half of the 7th century BC and was occupied almost continuously until the Republic of Venice abandoned the acropolis and its colonial settlement on the headland in 1537. Excavations undertaken at the site of the Roman forum since 2004, under the sponsorship of the Butrint Foundation and the Roman Forum Excavations Project, have recovered material culture associated with the major urban phases of Butrint over this long period. Amidst the ruins of the old forum, the lime-kiln was built during a key phase in the city’s history, in the 10th-11th century, marking the death of classical Butrint and its resurrection as a ‘God-guarded city’ of the Byzantine Empire.
Rimske keramičarske i staklarske radionice, 2017
Rimske keramičarske i staklarske radionice. Proizvodnja i trgovina na jadranskom prostoru ATTI DE... more Rimske keramičarske i staklarske radionice. Proizvodnja i trgovina na jadranskom prostoru ATTI DEL III COLLOQUIO ARCHEOLOGICO INTERNAZIONALE Officine per la produzione di ceramica e vetro in epoca romana. Produzione e commercio nella regione adriatica PROCEEDINGS OF THE 3rd INTERNATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL COLLOQUY Roman Pottery and Glass Manufactures. Production and Trade in the Adriatic Region
Journal of Roman Archaeology 29, 2016
Proceedings of the International Congress of Albanian Archaeological Studies, 2014
Wiley-Blackwell’s Encyclopedia of Ancient History, 2013
Recent Archaeological Discoveries in Albania, 2013
In Butrint 4: The Archaeology & Histories of an Ionian Town, 2013
With a number of monumental tombs and burials having been discovered on the lower slopes of the h... more With a number of monumental tombs and burials having been discovered on the lower slopes of the hill near Butrint, the investigation in 2004 explored the western limits of the cemetery. A six-week archaeological survey was undertaken to examine an area of almost 11,000 sq. m. located c. 1 km west of the ancient city; this focused exclusively on the cemetery occupying the concave hallow on the lowest slope of Mount Sotira. The survey discovered substantial remains of tombs in six general areas, and in all identified 23 funerary structures, four of which were freestanding monumental tombs.
Expedition 54, 2011
Funded by the University of Notre Dame and the American Philosophical Society, the excavations ar... more Funded by the University of Notre Dame and the American Philosophical Society, the excavations are redefining the urban history of Butrint. Unlike Pompeii in Italy, where sterile volcanic deposits rest directly above the ruins of the Roman city of AD 79, the ancient urban center of Butrint is buried deep beneath a multitude of deposits rich in cultural material,
the remnants of thousands of years of human settlement. Excavation trenches, dug as deep as 5 m (about 16 ft), allowed us to peer, as if through a window, into the city’s historical transformation from the 5th century BC to modern times.
L’Illyrie méridionale et l’Épire dans l’antiquité V, 2011
The Roman Forum Excavations at Butrint (2004-07) furnish new conclusions concerning the chronolog... more The Roman Forum Excavations at Butrint (2004-07) furnish new conclusions concerning the chronology, topography and historical development of the urban center. Excavations of the north and south stoas, together with other Hellenistic monuments, have generated a new topographical definition of the sanctuary of Asclepius and the Hellenistic agora. An intense building program, leading to the construction of the agora, theater, and other buildings, occurred in the 2nd c. B.C. After discovering the forum and its NW corner in 2005, a trench in 2007 exposed the SW corner, thereby revealing the topographical layout of the
forum, which dates to the Augustan period. The visual focus of the forum was a two-storey building, adjacent to which was a tripartite building. Inscriptions and statuary were discovered in an extensive spoliation phase dating to the mid 3rd c. The end of the forum came in the mid/late 4th c., when the urban center was inundated, possibly due to an earthquake.
Uploads
Papers by David R Hernandez
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.88.2.0365
Epeirote polis to the Roman colonia.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.2972/hesperia.86.2.0205.pdf
archaeological excavation. From 2011 to 2013, the Roman Forum Excavations (RFE) Project conducted the first wet-site excavations at Butrint, reaching depths of up to 4 m below the water table in the ancient urban center. Well-preserved wood and other organic remains were recovered from waterlogged deposits, dating as early as the 7th century B.C. Major changes in RFE Project methodology emerged in response to wet-site archaeology. Unskilled local workers were trained to become local excavators. This significantly improved excavation techniques and recording procedures and enhanced the quality of the archaeological data, showing the high degree to which seemingly disparate elements of field methodology are intertwined.
the remnants of thousands of years of human settlement. Excavation trenches, dug as deep as 5 m (about 16 ft), allowed us to peer, as if through a window, into the city’s historical transformation from the 5th century BC to modern times.
forum, which dates to the Augustan period. The visual focus of the forum was a two-storey building, adjacent to which was a tripartite building. Inscriptions and statuary were discovered in an extensive spoliation phase dating to the mid 3rd c. The end of the forum came in the mid/late 4th c., when the urban center was inundated, possibly due to an earthquake.