Archaeological data on some fortifications of Scanderbeg’s period in Dibra region

Abstract

An adequate correlation between the historic and archaeological sources would help us to obtain new data about Scanderbeg epopee.
This thing requires archaeological research in castles, fortresses or other structures, that chronologically refer to the period taken into examination. As it is only a 25-year period (1443-1468), which is very limited in archaeological terms, the solution is a detailed study of archeological sources and historic geography and the cooperation among the archeological scholars involved in medieval history. This collaboration is necessary when it comes to archaeological-historic monuments, chronologically connected to Scanderbeg's period and to subjective and voluntarism viewpoints, sourcing from the lack of this cooperation and ignorance of terrain². The archaeological research on Scanderbeg's fortifications has been limited only in some castles of this period or in structures within them. From 1964 to 2018 archaeological excavations were carried out in the town of Stelush (1964-1966)³, in the town of Lissos (1968-1970)⁴, in the castle of Kruja (1977-1980)⁵, in Scanderbeg's secret castle in Daula, Kurbin (1983-1985)⁶, in the castle of Matrica in Rubik (2016)⁷, and cleaning works are carried out at the fortifying system of Petralba castle (Gur i Bardhë) from the Institute of Cultural Monuments.