Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)
Dukat Tumuli
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Overview
About this site
Overview
The Dukat Tumuli (Albanian tumat e Dukatit) are Bronze Age and Iron Age burial mounds in south-western Albania, about 22 km in a straight line south-south-east of the city of Vlora, at the edge of Dukat-Fshat in the valley of the Dukat stream, on both sides of the main road SH8.
Together with the tumuli of Pazhok and Piskova, they are known as one of the earliest prehistoric burial places in Albania, in use from the early Bronze Age.
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Article
Dukat Tumuli
Excavations began in 1973 under Neritan Ceka, and Namik Bodinaku took over in 1974 and 1975.
ExcavationsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (hu): Dukati halomsírokCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (hu): Dukati halomsírokCC BY-SA 4.0
Excavations began in 1973 under Neritan Ceka, and Namik Bodinaku took over in 1974 and 1975. Only two tumuli standing out from their surroundings survive. The larger is known locally as the Idrizi tower (Kulla e Idrizit). The tumuli are among the smaller ones in Albania: the Idrizi tower, which contains 53 graves, measures 20×19 m across and is 2.35 m high.
DatingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (hu): Dukati halomsírokCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (hu): Dukati halomsírokCC BY-SA 4.0
The central grave of the Idrizi tower (tumulus 2), the second to be excavated, was dated to the early Bronze Age. New burials continued to be made there until the middle of the Iron Age, about 900/700 BCE. The smaller tumulus (tumulus 1) is a later development: its earliest grave was placed at the end of the Bronze Age, in the 12th century BCE, and its last burial took place around the 8th century BCE. Burials were made at the mounds sporadically by the local population in late antiquity and the Middle Ages as well.
FindsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (hu): Dukati halomsírokCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (hu): Dukati halomsírokCC BY-SA 4.0
The most significant grave goods, which show the direction of trade contacts of the time, came from the Middle Bronze Age layers. They include clothing clasps in large numbers, characteristic of the Protogeometric period and known from finds in southern Italy. Several bronze swords made by local craftsmen came from the early Iron Age graves of the 11th to 10th century BCE.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (hu): Dukati halomsírokCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (hu): Dukati halomsírokCC BY-SA 4.0
In the western Balkans, burial under a mound defined the Bronze and Iron Age cultures of the region the Greeks and Romans called Illyria.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Tumuli of Albania and the western Balkans
In the western Balkans, burial under a mound defined the Bronze and Iron Age cultures of the region the Greeks and Romans called Illyria. The Glasinac-Mati culture, which first developed in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, covered much of modern Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, south-eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina and parts of western Serbia. It is named after two type-site areas, Glasinac in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Mati in Albania. A defining element of the culture is the use of tumuli as a method of inhumation, and iron axes and other weapons are typical finds in the mounds throughout the region.
The Glasinac region was explored from 1880, after the chance discovery of the burial mound of an Iron Age priest; between 1888 and 1897 a total of 1,234 mounds were excavated. In the Mat and lower Fan valleys of Albania, mounds covered the graves of a warrior class, with many weapons and pieces of armour, and these were in use until the fourth century BCE, when new burial customs emerged. In central Albania the culture is represented by the tumuli of Pazhok, which appeared in the Late Bronze Age, about 1300 BCE.
The Illyrians who lived here were a group of Indo-European-speaking peoples of the western Balkans. The name was applied by the Greeks to their northern neighbours, and it may have referred to a broad and ill-defined group; the tribes may never have called themselves Illyrians collectively. Archaeologists therefore describe the mounds by culture and period, not by tribe.
Dating relies on pottery, which followed geometric patterns, and on weapons and metalwork; absolute dates are few.
When visiting, look for mound groups on hilltops and valley terraces, and for museum displays of the weapons and ornaments found in them.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Glasinac-Mati culture, Wikipedia: Illyrians, Wikipedia: Tumulus · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 900 CE
900/700-ig szolgált újabb és újabb temetések helyszínéül.
Source - 1973
A dukati ásatások 1973-ban indultak meg Neritan Ceka vezetésével, akitől 1974–1975-ben Namik Bodinaku vette át a stafétabotot.
Source - 2001
↑ Bodinaku 2001: Namik Bodinaku: Varreza tumulare e Dukatit në Rrethin e Vlorës (gërmime të viteve 1973–74).
Source - 2001
(2001) 9–100. o. ↑ Ceka 2013: Neritan Ceka: The Illyrians to the Albanians.
Source - 2013
2013. ISBN 9789928407467 ↑ Gilkes 2013: Oliver Gilkes: Albania: An archaeological guide.
Source - 2013
2013. ISBN 9781780760698 ↑ Korkuti 2013: Muzafer Korkuti: Albania: Archaeological studies on the prehistory of Albania.
Source
See it in 3D
An interpretive reconstruction of the monument, standing on the real ground at its exact point, under the sun for that place and season. Drag to look around it.
The reconstruction is ours, not a survey: it shows what a monument of this type looks like, at the size the record gives for this one.
Where it stands
Albania
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 40°16′58″ N, 19°28′50″ EFor a GPS or map app: 40.28281, 19.48055
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Vajzë Tumuli
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Lofkënd tumulus
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Bajkaj Tumulus
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Vodhinë Tumulus
Torre Pinta hypogeum- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Pazhok
Menhir San Paolo (Giurdignano)2800–1800 BCE
Menhir San Vicenzo (Giurdignano)2800–1800 BCE
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
1 source behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q54909294wikidata.org
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Dukati halomsírok" (hu), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (hu): Dukati halomsírokCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q54909294CC0