RGK project “Body Itineraries” teams up with ethnoarchaeological project in Albania
The new collaboration began in summer 2025 with joint fieldwork by Dr Esmeralda Agolli, Associate Professor at DACH (Fig. 1), and Dr Alexander Gramsch, researcher at RGK. Both researchers have led their own projects for several years: “Das Itinerarium des menschlichen Körpers” at the RGK and “Mortuary Rites and Practices in Rural Albania” at DACH. By bringing the projects together they aim to better understand the role of the human body in rituals surrounding death and mourning, and how people actively shape these practices.
Fig. 1: The Department of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage (DACH) at the University of Tirana is housed in this historic building. © DAI + RGK// Alexander Gramsch
The first stage of the joint project has involved field trips across different regions of Albania and interviews with people in rural areas and small towns. During their research, the team met a wide range of individuals, including an Orthodox undertaker, the baba (spiritual leader) of a Bektashi tekke, and Sunni Muslim and Catholic participants with different levels of religious practice and commitment (Figs 2–3). Albania offers a particularly rich setting for this kind of study. Four major religious traditions – Sunni Islam, Bektashism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Catholicism – exist side by side, alongside long-standing local ‘pagan’ beliefs and practices. At the same time the country is undergoing rapid economic and socio-demographic change. These shifts are already affecting traditional rituals and their meanings – and sooner or later may lead to their transformation or disappearance. Documenting and analysing these data provides valuable insights into how people relate body and death and will help evaluating the potential of this type of evidence for a better understanding of archaeological evidence on death and burial. One particular focus is on attitudes towards the dead body.
Fig. 2: The Bektashi World Centre in Tirana. Bektashism is a liberal Sufi tradition within Islam, named after Haji Bektash Veli. It emerged in the 13th century and spread widely in the Ottoman Empire. © DAI + RGK// Alexander Gramsch
Fig. 3: One of the interviewees was Jovan (left), an undertaker in the Orthodox village of Bubullimë in western Albania (municipality of Lushnjë). He works from his private home, with no sign or logo indicating that it serves as a funeral business. © DAI + RGK// Esmeralda Agolli
Interviews were conducted in a variety of settings: e. g. in the Ethnographic Museum of Kavajë (Fig. 4), where a Sunni staff member shared her perspective; with gravediggers in Elbasan; and with Xhela, an elderly Catholic woman. Xhela is living alone in a modest house near the village of Fan in the mountainous region of Mirditë (Figs 5–6). At the end of the interview she sang a traditional funeral lament, offering a powerful example of how custom, memory, and emotion are expressed in these rituals.
Fig. 4: A restored Ottoman period building with a gallery, once common across 18th century Albania, now houses the Ethnographic Museum of Kavajë, south of Durrës. © DAI + RGK// Alexander Gramsch
Fig. 5: Accompanying Xhela to her home in the Mirditë region in northeastern Albania, where most communities are Catholic. © DAI + RGK// Alexander Gramsch
A formal cooperation agreement between the DAI and the DACH is currently in preparation. Looking ahead, the project will expand to include more interviews with people from different religious communities, across genders and age groups. Special attention will be given to older individuals who often hold detailed knowledge of traditional practices and attitudes towards body and death. The team also plans to document and scrutinise rituals that commemorate the dead, maintain connections with them, and reinforce social bonds.
Fig. 6: Interviewing Xhela in her home. © DAI + RGK// Alexander Gramsch
Ultimately, the researchers aim to use these findings to better understand how body-related practices and the body as an all-embracing social fact shape social life. Insights gained from present-day fieldwork will be applied to prehistoric case studies, combining ethnographic observations with bioarchaeological data from the “Itinerary” project.
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