|
Vocabulary | Suggested Activities | Kids' Corner
|
Courtesy of The Butrint Foundation
|
Vocabulary
acropolis: center of an ancient Greek city, located on the highest ground, usually a hilltop, and containing the most important military and religious buildings, including a fortress and a temple to the gods
Aeneas: mythical hero of Troy and Rome; played an important role in the war to defend Troy against the Greeks; leader of the Trojan survivors after Troy was taken by the Greeks; founded Rome
Ali Pasha of Templena: Turkish colonial governor
alluvial: of, relating to, or made up of sedimentary material deposited by flowing water, as in a river or delta
Angevin: of, or relating to the province of Anjou, France; in 1246, Louis IX of France gave Anjou to his brother Charles, future king of Naples and Sicily (1266-85), first of the Angevin dynasty, and creator of a powerful but short-lived Mediterranean empire
|
Courtesy of The Butrint Foundation
|
aqueduct: in Latin aqua, "water," and ducere, "to lead"; man-made structure, as in a pipe or channel, used to carry water from a remote source
Asclepius: Greco-Roman god of medicine; Zeus (the king of the gods), afraid that Asclepius might make all men immortal, killed him with a thunderbolt
Balkans: peninsula of southeast Europe, occupied by the states of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, and Moldova
baptistry: hall or chapel in which baptism is administered; originally evolved from small, circular Roman and Byzantine religious buildings; commonly octagonal in plan and roofed with a dome
basilica: rectangular structure with an open hall extending from end to end; public building in ancient Rome, used as a market, courthouse, meeting hall, and as a Christian church
Byzantine: of or relating to the eastern half of the Roman Empire, which survived for a thousand years after the western half had crumbled
|
Courtesy of The Butrint Foundation
|
Chaonian: ancient tribe centered at Butrint; one of the fourteen tribes in the Epirot League
classical: relating to ancient Greece and Rome
Corfiot: from the island of Corfu
Corfu: island in the Ionian Sea lying just off the coast of Epirus; its favorable position between Greece and Italy has attracted powers from east and west
delta: low-lying plain and alluvium deposit at the mouth of a river
Epirus: coastal region of northwestern Greece and southern Albania
fascist: political attitude and movement that tended to dominate political life in central, southern, and eastern-central Europe, especially Germany and Italy, between 1919 and 1944; emphasis on the nation (race or state) as the center and regulator of life, and on the indisputable authority of the leader; the word fascism was first used in 1919 by Mussolini in Italy, but is also commonly associated with Hitler's rise in Germany; in the following years fascism influenced countries as far away as Japan, Argentina, Brazil, and the Union of South Africa
fortified: protected and strengthened by a fortress
|
Courtesy of The Butrint Foundation
|
fortress: any structure erected to strengthen a position against attack
Greek: of, or relating to the city-states of Greece occupying the southernmost areas of the Balkan Peninsula, which reached their height of power in the 5th century B.C.E.
hinterland: surrounding area
Ionian islands: group of seven islands off the west coast of Greece, including Corfu, Cephalonia, Zacynthus, Leucas, Ithaca, and Cythera.
Islam: major monotheistic religion based on the doctrine of submission to Allah (God in Arabic) and acceptance of Muhammad as the last and chief prophet of Allah; the Koran is the sacred text of Islam, believed to contain the revelations of Allah to Muhammad
Julius Caesar: Roman general, statesman, and historian
Luigi Ugolini: distinguished Italian historian and archaeologist who led excavations at Butrint from 1928 to 1940
Macedonia: country of the southern Balkans, bordered on the north by the Yugoslav Republic of Serbia, on the east by Bulgaria, on the south by Greece, and on the west by Albania; ancient kingdom centered in the northeastern corner of Greece, which achieved control over Greece in the 4th century B.C.E., establishing a short-lived empire
Mediterranean: of, relating to, or typical of the Mediterranean Sea (intercontinental sea that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean on the west, to Asia on the east, and separates Europe from Africa) or the countries that border it
Mussolini, Benito: Italian prime minister (1922-43) and the first of 20th-century Europe's fascist dictators
Ottoman Turks: of, or relating to the empire established in the 14th century by the Turkish tribal chieftain Othman; the dynasty that Othman founded was called Osmanli, meaning "sons of Osman" and the name evolved in English into Ottoman; as this empire grew by conquering lands of the Byzantine Empire and beyond, it came to include at the height of its power all of Asia Minor; the countries of the Balkan Peninsula; the islands of the eastern Mediterranean; parts of Hungary and Russia; Iraq, Syria, the Caucasus, Palestine, and Egypt; part of Arabia; and all of North Africa through Algeria
|
Courtesy of The Butrint Foundation
|
Romans: of, or relating to the ancient state that had its center in the city of Rome, from the time of the events leading up to the founding of the republic in 509 B.C.E., through the establishment of the empire in 27 B.C.E., to the fall of the empire in the 5th century
sanctuary: a sacred place or place of refuge, set apart from the ordinary world; originally a natural location, such as a grove or hill, where the sacred was believed to be present; later extended to include man-made structures
silt: to become filled with silt, which is a sedimentary material composed of fine mineral particles (ranging from 0.004 to 0.06 mm in diameter)
Slavs: members of the Slavic speaking peoples of Eastern Europe
Straits of Corfu: the narrow passage of water joining the Adriatic Sea and the Ionian Sea; also links Lake Butrint to these seas
Suleiman the Magnificent: tenth Ottoman Sultan; took over the Turkish throne in 1520 at the age of twenty-six; under his rule the Ottoman Empire reached the height of its power
Venetians: the people of the Venetian Republic, which became an important commercial and military power on the mainland of Italy and in the Mediterranean Sea
Virgil: Roman poet, best known for his national epic poem, The Aeneid, which tells the story of Aeneas and Rome's mission to civilize the world
Suggested Activities
Detective Work: How is an archaeologist's job like detective work? How do archaeologists learn about the past? What kinds of evidence do they uncover? How do they make sense of their evidence? Why is archaeology especially important to the preservation of cultures that did not leave behind written records? Create a comic strip, a short story, fairy tale, or any other imaginative project that shows the many ways in which archaeology is like detective work. You might want to base your creative project on Butrint and the archaeological discoveries made there, so that you can include specific examples to support your ideas.
Natural Disasters: You have learned about how natural events, including a retreating coastline and an earthquake, have influenced the development of Butrint. Now it's time to learn about how nature has influenced the evolution of your hometown! Has your hometown ever experienced a flood, earthquake, or other natural disaster? When did it happen? What effects did it have on your hometown and its inhabitants? Create a flip book or write a story that explains the natural disaster and its effects.
Managed Tourism: Imagine that you are on the planning committee to create the management program for Butrint. Write a four-minute speech, entitled "The Future of Butrint," that proposes your opinions about "managed tourism." Would you try to balance tourism and conservation? If so, how? If not, which one would you favor? Why? Give specific examples to help explain how your plan would work. Get a few friends together to debate the important issue of "managed tourism." How does this issue affect you?
Map Project: During its long history, Butrint has been under the control of the Chaonians, Corfiots, Romans, Byzantines, Normans, Angevins, Despots of Epirus, Venetians and Turks. Create a colorful map, locating the homelands of each of Butrint's occupiers. How does this map help you understand the strategic importance of Butrint and the country of Albania?
|
| |
Kids' Corner
Click here to visit UNESCO's web site for kids, featuring projects, games, and activities.
|
|
Vocabulary | Suggested Activities | Kids' Corner
|
|
