Two mosaic floor fragments f
Antiquities have been identified as the remains of a Christian basilica in Berat, Albania. This sheds new light on the urban layout of the ancient city of Antipatrea, about which little is known.
Berat is a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its characteristic 18th- and 19th-century Ottoman architecture and urban design, but human presence in the area dates back to the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, and there is evidence of an urban settlement in Berat defined by defensive walls, the destruction of which dates back to the 6th century BC. And the city was burned by Roman forces under the command of the consul Publius Sulpicius Galba in 200 BC during the Second Macedonian War.
After that, Antipatrea is not mentioned in ancient sources until the 5th century, when the Eastern Roman emperor Theodosius II (401-450 AD) is said to have rebuilt the walls and named the city Pulcheriopolis after his sister Pulchera. It was an episcopal seat during the Byzantine period, and Justinian the Great built a hilltop fortress that would later be rebuilt several times until it came under the rule of the Venetian Republic in 1420.
Because of its historically important urban center and due to several cycles of destruction and reconstruction, almost no archaeological material from Antipatria’s ancient history has come to light. The historic center of the city has never been systematically archaeologically investigated. The first excavations began in 1973 and lasted for two years, focusing on the citadel/citadel in the upper city. Remains of pottery and pottery imported from the Late Antiquity (4th to 6th century AD) have been found near the entrance of the fort. Subsequently, another excavation of the palace area took place in 1987 and no further archaeological finds were made.
The first mosaic was discovered in 2012 during the construction of a new network of water hydrants in the fort. It was broken and a burnt layer on the surface confirms how the building was finished. It covers an area of about 20 x 11 feet and has geometric designs in polychrome tesserae (white, red, pink, violet, gray and black) and a large inscription in Greek that was probably a dedication to the donors who financed the construction of the church.
The second was discovered in 2018 during the construction of a new drainage system under the foundations of the Kings Mosque in the lower city. It was a very small piece, about 7.4 x 2.6 feet, of a polychrome mosaic. opus tesselatum The technique also showed burn marks on the surface and a fragment of Greek writing.
One word is clearly preserved: Theotokos, which means “Theotokos” or “Mother of God.” The inscription mentioning the term “Theotokos” is an important clue to the dating of the mosaic. The title became central to Christian theology after the Council of Ephesus in 431.
For this reason, researchers believe that the mosaic was created after this event. Combined with other archaeological finds, such as coins found in the layers above the mosaic, including coins from the time of Emperor Justinian II, it is assumed that the mosaic dates from the late 5th or early 6th century AD.
While the findings were published locally, the discoveries only appeared outside of Albanian publications as late as 2025 as international researchers documented the finds, their construction methods and materials, design styles and inscription fragments. The motifs found in the mosaics – intersecting octagons, ivy scrolls, undulating interlaced bands, offset contiguous scales, laced circles, guilloche borders, simple filet borders – have been compared to decorative models of other mosaics in Albania, North Macedonia and Italy, but researchers believe they were created by local people. A border element, a dented simple filet border with dents three tesserae wide, found in the Castle Mosaic, is unique in the archaeological record of Albania.
The materials used – limestone and terracotta – are sourced from the region. The style is particularly similar to the mosaics of nearby sites such as Bailes and Butrint. This suggests that there was a network of artisans who traveled between cities and decorated early Christian churches in the Balkans.
Two mosaics in different locations, one inside the old walls in the citadel and one outside the walls in the lower city, show that there were at least two churches in the city in ancient times. The important “Theotokos” inscription, the rarity of the dented plain filet border, the impressive size of the mosaics within the old walls all point to Antipatria being an important early Christian community. It also offers a new perspective on the Codex Beratinus Purpureus Phi, also known as the Codex of Berat, a 6th-century illuminated manuscript of the Gospel of Matthew and the Mark of the Gospel written in silver ink on purple parchment that had been kept in Berat since at least the 14th century. Previous scholars did not believe that the most important manuscript, one of only seven “Purple Codexes” directly linked to the city, found its way by chance after being produced elsewhere. The discovery of mosaics and basilicas is evidence that the city was more prominent in the time of Justinian the Great than previously realised, and it is entirely conceivable that the codex came from there.
