Abstract :
CAVE and rock-shelter sites are well known as key depositional environments for archaeological
and palaeoenvironmental material. Such locations form comparatively low-energy
geomorphological environments, favourable to the preservation of sedimentary deposits and
the cultural artefacts they contain (Farrand 2001). Like much of the Balkan Peninsula,
characterized by a mountainous, karstic topography, prehistoric cave sites in Albania are
common, although most lack any integrated, systematic study. However, in recent years a
number of important prehistoric projects have been undertaken, most notably at Kryegjata
(Runnels et al 2004), Konispol (Schuldenrein 2001), and Sovjan (Petrika and Touchais
2003).
In this paper we describe the prehistoric cultural assemblages from a cave site in the coastal
town of Himara, south-western Albania, and from a rock-shelter site at Kanalit in the
Acroceraunian Mountains, overlooking the Dukat Valley and the Bay of Vlora (FIG. 1). The
current investigations followed an evaluation of records discovered within the archives of the
Istituto Italiano di Paleontologia Umana in Rome, detailing fieldwork undertaken by the Italian
prehistorian Luigi Cardini in 1939 on behalf of the Italian Archaeological Mission to Albania
(Gilkes 2005). In 2001, a reconnaissance survey was undertaken to relocate and assess the
prehistoric sites originally investigated and described by Cardini (Francis 2000; Francis and
Hodges 2003). Having successfully located a number of Cardiniʹs sites, we undertook a
further preliminary investigation of the cave deposits at Himara in 2002 and 2003, as the site
had come under considerable threat from building work in front of the cave, destroying
extensive talus deposits. The rock-shelter deposits at Kanalit were subsequently re-evaluated
in 2004.
