Four monumental graves unearthed of IV-III Century BC

These four graves that belong to the IV-III Century BC were unearthed by a group of fact-finding archaeologists, quite by accident, in the Valley of the River Drino, in the Commune of Lunxheria, in the district of Gjirokastra, southern Albania.
These old graves were located at the edge of a parcel of land on the left bank of the river. These ancient graves were discovered one week ago during incursions of an expedition organized by the Archaeological Sector of Butrint in cooperation with the Archaeological Park of Antigonea, to photograph and register castles, sites and other archaeological objects located along the Valley of the River Drino. According to the local inhabitants, the graves were first unearthed here during the 80-ties when farming machinery was being used to plough the parcels of land along the river bank. However, since then no-one has shown any interest in archaeological excavation and/or study of this rare object of antiquity. According to the archaeologist Professor Dr. Dhimiter ȯndi, the Leader of the Expedition says that this is an ancient cemetery, 30 meters in diameter, almost completely obliterated by the brutal intervention of the tractors and bulldozers 25-30 years ago. Only these four graves have survived, two are in perfect condition while two have been partially damaged. “These are four ordinary graves. They are sealed with monolithic slabs of stone from the local rock formations. They were a part of a bigger cemetery which was in the shape of a circle, pertaining to ancient times, and which, astonishingly enough have not even been identified by the those institutions that are supposed to maintain these objects, but so far they have not even been dug out by the experts or archaeologists. From a quick reconnaissance of the location where these graves had been up until the 80-ties it appears that this was a well structured cemetery. However more than three quarters of the grave yard has been obliterated and the traces of this violation are visible. ȯndi said that this is a flagrant violation of this monument by heavy farming machinery to one of the most well structured ancient, circular graveyards in the country. However the remainder, the four graves do offer exceptional cultural material which should be carefully dealt with by the archaeologists and experts of monuments because this object is located in the middle of the Drino Valley, a geographical and historical unit of extraordinary importance and rich in monumental sites and objects from all periods of history,” ȯndi said.
The remaining graves have the shape of parallelepipeds, where every side of the grave is formed by the one slab of stone with dimensions that vary from 1.8 to 2.3 meters long and from 0.7 to 1 meter wide, while the thickness of the stone slabs varies from 18 to 23 centimetres.
The four graves which have just been discovered and the only remaining graves of a former cemetery in the form of a semi circle stretching from the east to the west, 18 meters long. Similar graves have been discovered at other points of the Valley of the Drino River such as at Antigonea, Jerguca, Sofratika and Melan. The assessment of these monumental graves presents special interest in transforming this valley into a tourist attraction with all its archaeological and historical objects.