The Projekti Arkeologjikë i Shkodrës (PASH), the Shkodër Archaeological Project, is a collaboration between Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi and the University of Tirana, Albania. Michael Galaty, the Principal investigator proposes to investigate the appearance of social inequality in northern Albania, a strategically important region located in the western Balkans along the Adriatic coast. The transition to social inequality in northern Albania was marked by the construction of nucleated, hill-top centers ("hill forts") and burial of elite individuals ("warrior chiefs") in mounds ("tumuli") at the start of the Early Bronze Age, about 3000 B.C. In order to understand better the transition to social inequality in Albania, and in Europe generally, the research team is conducting three years of interdisciplinary archaeological research focused on hill forts and burial mounds. The methods will allow the identification of the various factors that alone or in combination contributed to the dramatic changes in social organization in northern Albania that marked the Bronze Age. The team plans two seasons (2012 and 2013) of geological and archaeological survey and rescue excavation of tumulus burials, followed by excavation at a representative hill fort (2014).
The study region encompasses the Shkodra Plain and surrounding hills, and is situated along the eastern shore of Shkodra Lake, the largest freshwater lake in the Balkans. Geological surveys will be conducted in order to date lake shore and river course changes, which can be correlated with shifts in settlement, as established through intensive archaeological survey. Archaeological survey, along with excavation of tumulus burials and a representative hill fort, will produce artifacts and human remains. These will be subjected to a battery of analytical tests, including radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon dating will allow determination of whether hill fort and tumulus construction occurred simultaneously or sequentially. The warrior chiefs buried in tumuli seem to have accessed multiple sources of power, ranging from violence and warfare to control of land, food, and trade. In addition, episodes of migration may have affected the course of events, bringing new blood and ideas at the start of and throughout the Bronze Age. Conflict and migration will be addressed through physical-anthropological assessment and strontium-isotope analysis of human bone remains and teeth from tumuli. Changes in economy and subsistence will be gauged through study of botanical and faunal remains and residue analysis of pottery. And the degree and direction of inter-regional interaction will be measured through the chemical characterization of clays and pottery.
Recently, some archaeologists have suggested that elite institutions and social hierarchy spread north into Europe from the Near East via Greece in the later Bronze Age (2000-1000 B.C.). This project is designed to test this model. Time is of the essence, though. Hill forts and tumuli are being fast destroyed in Shkodër as the city expands northward. PASH also includes, therefore, a cultural-heritage educational program targeting landowners and farmers, and will instruct dozens of Albanian and American students in methods of archaeological reconnaissance and rescue excavation.
