Project Nivica Archaeology: Internal Report

At the top of a sweeping cliff, the small town of Nivica rests on a flat plateau 850m above sea level. A rectangular extension from the town level stretches out into the valley with sheer cliffs on three sides. Resting on this plateau is a large complex of ancient ruins that have, to date, never been studied in depth. To the north, the Roman Via Egnatia connected Nivica to the world by secondary routes. To the west, the coastline was out of sight but only a day's journey across mountain passes. Several major projects have researched the history and archaeology of ancient Albanian coastal sites, such as Apollonia and Butrint, but few archaeologists have travelled inland.

Adventurers, antiquarians, and poets passed through the region from the eighteenth century, recording notes about the small village of Nivica. Sir Henry Holland remarked that the ruins in Nivica were of Cyclopean structure, built by the Chaonian of Epirus. William Martin Leake thought that the site was built by the Amantes. Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond stopped to record some stones and commented that they looked large and ancient. The paucity of ancient sources on Albania increases with altitude; little is written about this enigmatic site.

Accidental discoveries in recent decades suggest the existence of elite burials from the Illyrian/Epirote era. During the April 2018 pilot season, Dr Tierney was shown some of the local communities' collections of found objects. These include funerary perfume ceramics, loom weights, swords, spear heads, and a hoard of forty-two coins marked with AE PTAN on the reverse and a bust of Demeter on the obverse. These objects are similar to Illyrian/Epirote material excavated in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Butrint to the South, which was occupied by the Romans in 188 BC.

The project's ambition is to compile a detailed picture of the history and archaeology of the village of Nivica and its environs. The aims of the project are:

To investigate the impact of Illyrian/Epirote influence on the material culture of the inland mountains.
To examine themes of isolation and connection, questioning our modern assumptions of remoteness.
To understand how the inhabitants of Nivica shaped their identity in relation to Epirus, Illyria, and Rome.
To situate heritage practice and participatory engagement within the principles of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Dr Tierney has secured access permission from the relevant landowners and government organisations to conduct further investigations across the village and hinterland. Fieldwork will continue multiple archaeological methods, including fieldwalking survey, 3D imaging and photogrammetry, survey drawings, excavation, and artefact analysis.