Pagan rituals and folklore games at Antigone park

TIRANA, May 28 – More than a dozen groups from all over Albania will be participating in a pagan rituals and folklore games festival in the Antigone archeological park in the southern district of Gjirokastra this weekend.
The comic dance of the ram, the scarecrow, the ancient ritual of honouring snakes, weaving, King Piro and Queen Antigone, and several folklore games will be some of the performances in the fifth festival of this kind scheduled to be held on Saturday May 31. The festival organized by Antigone’s administration office is aimed at preserving non-material cultural heritage.
Archeologists have earlier discovered a figurine, a promenade and a stone mill in Antigone.
A new 8-km road built a couple of years ago has made access to the archeological park of Antigone much easier for tourists and put Antigone on the agenda of tourists who visit Gjirokastra and southern Albania.
The ancient literary sources do not mention the circumstances of Antigonea’s founding or the reason behind its name. The various opinions range from Antigonos Gonatas, King of Macedonia being its founder to the most persuasive of all opinions that Pyrrhus, the Molossian king built the city in 296 B.C., in honor of his wife Antigone.
Antigonea lies on a hill about 600 meters above sea level and the wall circuit is estimated to have had a length of ca. four kilometers, covering 35 hectares. The Agora of the city has been excavated and a Stoa, 59 meters long and 9 m wide has been brought to light. Coins from various city states have been found in excavations, arriving from Korkyra (modern Corfu), Apollonia, Dyrrachium, Oricum, Ambracia but also the Epirote League, most of them made of bronze and few in silver.