Discovery of archaeological sites

DURRES, Aug 14 – An Italian-Albanian archaeological expedition will continue to operate at the Durres ancient amphitheatre for the next two years until 2010.
The Durres city hall will fund 10 percent of the annual budget of the mission, which aims at rehabilitating ancient sites in the city.
The Italian-Albanian expedition has been working in the city for the last five years with some 60 experts from Italy and Albania. The Italians come from the Parma University, Tome’s La Sapienza, Milan’s Biccoca University, from Venice and Rome, and also Archiometria of Parma enterprise.
In their last mission they opened up some 600 square meters digging it up to five meters to discover many items to show Durres, or Dyrrahium’s life in the ancient times.
In Gjirokastra Italian and Albanian experts of archaeology have discovered many ancient icons, other items at the ancient theatre of Hadrianopolis in Sofratika village, some 10 kilometers from the city. The Hadrianapolis theatre was believed to have been created during the Roman Empire period. It is considered to have a 4,000 spectator capacity, built with 27 steps, four entrances and two floors. It belongs to the middle second century B.C..
It was first discovered during the War World I from an Austrian archaeologist. (Tirana Times Staff)