I cinerari della necropoli ellenistico-romana di Phoinike (Albania meridionale)

The study here presented analyzes all the ashes containers attested in the Hellenistic-Roman necropolis of the city of Phoinike (Southern Albania), investigated by the Italian Archaeological Mission of the University of Bologna in collaboration with the Albanian Archaeological Institute from 2001 to 2009. Cremation is the predominant practice attested from the Hellenistic to Roman period, but it is always associated to inhumation. Starting from the chronological information given by the whole materials of each burials, a sequence of ashes containers have been defined. After the pelike which occurs only in the early Hellenistic period (late 4th-3rd Cent.B.C.) the most attested ashes containers both for Hellenistic (3rd-early 1st Cent.B.C.) and Roman period (1st-2nd Cent.A.D.) are the stamnoi and the chythrai, which are primarily domestic vases, re-used as ashes containers. The evolution of their shapes has been identified in six different types of stamnoi (four Hellenistic and two Roman) and in five type of chytrai (three Hellenistic and two Roman). The most particular ashes containers is a jug intentionally placed upside down inside a calcareous urn. Beside these, amphoras, olla, fragment of dolia walls, calcareous and clay urns are also attested, in less cases and with more variability in the Roman period, even thought the best represented one is the Hellenistic period.