A true science of myth should begin with a study of archaeology.
Robert Graves, The Greek Myths, p.21
The Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha was obsessed with defending his ‘paradise on earth’. He feared invasion by NATO troops using a combination of amphibious landings and parachutists. As a result, he covered the country with thousands of mushroom-like bunkers, concealed trenches, and anti-aircraft guns. From the sea to the mountains, Albania became a fortress. This extraordinary martial investment had one unexpected outcome. During construction of an anti-aircraft installation close to Fshati i Vjetër, ‘The Old Village’ high on Mount Mile, overlooking Butrint, ancient Buthrotum, and the Straits of Corfu, an exquisite bronze statuette of the god, Pan, came to light in 1981.
Reportedly, as the gun battery was made, ruins of some ancient building and pottery were also found. These suggest, in view of the pastoral setting, that a sanctuary of Pan had stood there in antiquity. Now this chance find has come to possess more meaning, as new research shows another sanctuary dedicated to Pan existed in Butrint itself. The significance of this lost urban sanctuary brings to mind a celebrated passage in the Greek writer Plutarch’s Moralia, written around the later 1st century AD, that, while reporting Pan’s death, indirectly mentions Butrint.
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