---
title: "Six 1,600-year-old mosaics unearthed at a Roman complex in southern Albania"
description: "Polychrome floors at Qesarat point to a prosperous settlement above the Vjosa river — and to prehistory beneath it"
author: "Albion Grey"
published: 2026-09-25T21:00:10Z
modified: 2026-09-26T23:04:27Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/six-1-600-year-old-mosaics-unearthed-at-a-roman-complex-in-s-5c04dc
language: en
tags: ["archaeology", "history", "rome", "mosaics", "albania", "europe"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# Six 1,600-year-old mosaics unearthed at a Roman complex in southern Albania

*Polychrome floors at Qesarat point to a prosperous settlement above the Vjosa river — and to prehistory beneath it*

By Albion Grey · September 25, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/six-1-600-year-old-mosaics-unearthed-at-a-roman-complex-in-s-5c04dc

## In brief

- Six mosaic floors dated to the fourth century AD were uncovered at Qesarat, near Tepelenë in southern Albania
- The polychrome mosaics mix geometric motifs with human figures; painted wall plaster also survives
- Eduart Shehi and Sabina Veseli lead the joint Albanian-Italian dig with Custode Silvio Fioriello of Bari
- Surveys of roughly 70 hectares recorded 67 topographical units and around 20 archaeological sites
- A prehistoric concentration yielded more than 1,100 flint artefacts across more than three hectares

First the Vjosa river carved the bends around the hill; then Rome moved in for the view. Archaeologists working near Tepelenë, in southern Albania, have uncovered six richly decorated mosaic floors inside a Roman-period complex at Qesarat, according to an announcement from Vjosa – Park Kombëtar, the national-park authority. Dated to the fourth century AD, the floors are the clearest evidence yet that, some 1,600 years ago, this stretch of the middle Vjosa valley supported a settlement of considerable means.

The mosaics are polychrome, worked in geometric motifs with human figures woven in. Fragments of painted wall plaster survive above them, suggesting that the interiors were dressed as lavishly as their floors. The excavators, who exposed the floors during the 2026 season of a joint Albanian-Italian dig, have yet to publish a full interpretation of the structures. What the complex was actually for remains an open question.

The dig belongs to a project called “Landscape Archaeology in the Tepelenë-Memaliaj Area”, led by Eduart Shehi and Sabina Veseli of Albania’s Institute of Archaeology together with Custode Silvio Fioriello of the University of Bari Aldo Moro. Their ambition is broader than one fine building: the programme sets out to reconstruct how communities occupied and reshaped the middle Vjosa valley over long stretches of time. The work has featured in recent years among the archaeological research presented by Albania’s Academy of Sciences.

## A settlement, not just a villa

Qesarat has been hinting at its size for years. Earlier investigations proposed that the settlement grew up around a substantial Roman villa before spreading across the natural amphitheatre formed by the hill on which the modern village stands, overlooking the river’s bends. Systematic surveys in the first seasons covered roughly 70 hectares, recorded 67 topographical units and identified around 20 archaeological sites, many of them occupied in more than one period. Diggers had already encountered a large building with thermal spaces, and traces of wealthy Roman residences fitted out with mosaics and painted walls.

Against that background, the six new floors look less like an isolated splash of luxury and more like part of a dense concentration of buildings that grew through the imperial period and into Late Antiquity. By the fourth century Rome had controlled the region for centuries, yet grand rural estates and settlements still gave shape to the landscapes of the southern Balkans. Taken together, the mosaics, the architecture and the painted plaster record the wealth, building traditions and cultural life of whoever held Qesarat then.

The Romans are only the middle chapter. Surveys around the village have also recovered prehistoric material assigned to the Late Neolithic and the Bronze Age. One concentration stretched over more than three hectares and yielded more than 1,100 flint artefacts alongside hundreds of pottery fragments; researchers have previously suggested it could be an unusually large prehistoric settlement, though only further excavation will determine its extent and character. Nor is long-buried grandeur confined to the Balkans: this year an [entire planned Roman city](https://rews.cc/a/an-entire-planned-roman-city-has-been-found-under-an-austria-b5fa03) has been found under an Austrian field.

Whether the decorated complex was an elite residence, one piece of a larger settlement or some other sort of Roman-period centre beside the Vjosa is a question for the coming seasons. A site that waited 1,600 years for its floors to resurface can presumably wait a little longer for an explanation.