{"id":16730,"date":"2025-09-11T21:31:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T21:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/16730\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T21:31:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T21:31:07","slug":"albania-digs-up-a-roman-nobles-tomb-the-first-of-its-kind-ever-found-in-the-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/16730\/","title":{"rendered":"Albania Digs Up a Roman Noble’s Tomb\u2013the First of its Kind Ever Found in the Country"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"First Roman-Era Tomb found in Albania \u2013 Photo courtesy of Blendi Gonxhja<\/p>\n

Once a byword for backward and mafiosos, Albania is experiencing a tourist boom, and sure to help the effort is the recent discovery of a Roman noble\u2019s mausoleum.<\/p>\n

Part of the Empire\u2019s territory for 600 years, the south Balkan country has never dug up anything like the 29 by 19 foot long tomb, which likely belonged to an honored member of a wealthy family.<\/p>\n

Grave goods included glass plates, knives, and fabric lined with gold, while the tomb walls are covered in Greek inscriptions that have yet to be deciphered largely.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe inscription tells us that the person buried here was named Gelliano, a name typical of the Roman period,\u201d the excavation\u2019s lead archaeologist Erikson Nikolli said<\/a>, noting that though inscribed in Greek, it had a Latin meaning. \u201cWe are uncertain about the identity of the second individual, but it is likely a family member.\u201d<\/p>\n

The discovery was made outside the village of Strikcan, near the border with North Macedonia. Many of the villagers came out to watch the excavation, which began when some locals informed the antiquities authorities of a large and unnatural stone formation up on a plateau.<\/p>\n

Researchers from Albania\u2019s Institute of Archaeology removed the large limestone slabs covering the tomb, which had been moved once before in modern times during a suspected plundering operation.<\/p>\n

MORE ROMAN EXCAVATIONS:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not known for its Roman heritage, the country nevertheless contains Butrint, a coastal city settled by Greeks, built by Romans, and administered by Byzantines which was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s described as \u201ca microcosm of Mediterranean history,\u201d by UNESCO, which adds that it features \u201coccupation dating from 50,000 BCE, at its earliest evidence, up to the 19th century CE.\u201d<\/p>\n

SHARE This Latest Archaeological News With Your Friends\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First Roman-Era Tomb found in Albania \u2013 Photo courtesy of Blendi Gonxhja Once a byword for backward and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[18641,18639,2026,111,139,69,18640,147,406],"class_list":{"0":"post-16730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-albania","9":"tag-archeology","10":"tag-discovery","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-rome","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}