Albania's archaeological wealth remains homeless

The investment for the restoration project of the Archaeological Museum of Durrës has entered its final phase, although it is not known whether the exhibition will be ready for the new tourist season.

The restoration of the Durrës Museum is being carried out with a fund of 348 million lek donated by the European Union, but the intervention period has exceeded three years.

The delays have also created difficulties for the work of employees of the Institute of Archaeology, part of the Academy of Sciences.

Since 2008, the Durrës Museum, as well as the Museums of Apollonia and Butrint, have been subordinated to the Ministry of Culture.

“The Institute of Archaeology and the Academy of Sciences are responsible for the scientific side of this Archaeological Museum,” the Academy explained, adding that “the Ministry of Culture has missed the deadlines for the reconstruction of the Museum.”

"This has created difficulties in the work of Durrës archaeologists and the maintenance of this city's archaeological funds," the Academy of Sciences emphasized.

Archaeologists are dissatisfied with the solutions that have been offered for the preservation and study of around 17,000 objects that make up the archaeological funds of Durrës.

As part of the restoration, they have been housed in a temporary silo built behind the Museum, which lacks the necessary surface area for arranging the objects, and also lacks the conditions for the scientific activity of archaeologists.

According to archaeologist Brikena Shkodra, archaeological sites have specific conditions for arrangement, preservation, restoration and study.

"On what criteria is a silo of minimal size built, which will essentially have to house at least 17,000 archaeological objects and at the same time provide working spaces for archaeologists," she asked.

"What will be the fate of the archaeological funds and scientific research spaces in Durrës," Shkodra added.

This is not the first time that archaeologists have sought a solution for housing the archaeological fund.

“We requested the support of the city municipality to be located in certain sectors near the Martyrs' Mausoleum and the Children's Cultural Center,” recalled Prof. As dr. Eduard Shehi.

"Our efforts were unsuccessful even when we proposed returning the former Archaeological Museum building to its original function," he added.

The archaeological funds of Durrës began their existence as part of the former Museum of Nature, founded by Vangjel Toçi, who collected objects that were previously part of a small local museum and enriched them with new findings.

They subsequently became part of the Archaeological Museum, and subsequently came under the administration of the former Durrës Archaeological Center, an integral part of the Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences until 2007.

During this phase, the Archaeological Fund of Durrës has experienced a significant quantitative growth, representing the largest archaeological wealth of Albania.

Taken together, the Foundation Fund (around 17,000 objects) and the Research Fund (thousands more), constitute an extraordinary treasure, discovered and preserved over decades by archaeologists of Durrës and the Institute of Archaeology.

Around the 1980s, construction began on the new building of the Archaeological Museum of Durrës (the current building), with the idea of ​​transferring the exhibition and the archaeologists' offices there. While the archaeological funds were expected to remain in the premises of the old Museum, which is located only 300 meters from the new Museum.

In 1999, the original building of the Archaeological Museum was returned to its owners.

The chests of small objects were arranged on the second and third floors of the new building, in spaces intended for exhibition. While the stone objects were placed without criteria for storage and preservation in the courtyard.

The construction process of the new building was partially finalized in 2003 with the inauguration of the museum exhibition only on the first floor of the building. While the second and third floors of the current building of the Archaeological Museum were used as functional, storage and preservation spaces for archaeological funds.

The 2007/2008 reform of the scientific/educational system sanctioned the separation of archaeological funds from the Archaeological Museum. Since that year, the Archaeological Museum has become part of the regional structure of the Ministry of Culture in Durrës, while the archaeological funds remained under the administration of the Institute of Archaeology in Tirana.

This administrative transformation paved the way for the implementation of the project for the reconstruction and revitalization of the Archaeological Museum building, the realization of which was hindered by the presence of archaeological funds.

Again, it was requested that the spaces on the second and third floors be emptied of archaeological treasures and removed from the building, and not only that, but it was also strongly requested that part of the research funds be buried, as worthless, according to the expertise of the restoration designers.

The resistance of archaeologists in Durrës to allow the burial of archaeological treasures at least forced the construction of a silo, only 140 m2. But this building was too small to house all the objects in the fund.

Prof. As. Dr. Brikena Shkodra recalled that 10 years ago, thanks to economic assistance provided by colleagues and cooperating institutions such as the German Archaeological Institute of Rome and the University of Lille, two containers were provided for the arrangement of part of the collection remaining outside.

"For 3 years, archaeologists have been working in expired containers that have become a haven for rodents in the surrounding canals," Shkodra emphasized./ BIRN