Ancient World

Albanoi

The Albanoi (also Albani; Ancient Greek: Ἀλβανοί, romanized: Albanoi; Latin: Albani) were an ancient Illyrian tribe whose central settlement Albanopolis (Ἀλβανόπολις) was located roughly between the Mat and Shkumbin rivers, in what is today central Albania. The archaeological site of Zgërdhesh has been identified as its likely location. Their first possible mention was by Hecataeus of Miletus (550–476 BCE) under the name Abroi. Ptolemy (100–170 CE) is the first author who mentions them under the name Albanoi. Stephanus of Byzantium who reproduced Hecataeus added an entry for another settlement named Arbon in Illyria whose inhabitants were called Arbonioi or Arbonites. Another Arbon was recorded by Polybius. John of Nikiû wrote in the 7th century CE about a people known as Arbanitai in the Greek translation of the manuscript. In the Middle Ages, the names Albanoi and Arbanitai/Albanitai referred to medieval Albanians as an ethnic group. The equivalent terms in Latin are Albanenses/Arbanenses, in Slavic Arbanasi and later in Turkish Arnaut. These names reflect the Albanian ethnic endonym Arbëreshë/Arbëneshë, which itself derives from Albanoi. In the archaeological record, the Albanoi are mentioned on a funeral inscription in Stobi and Albanopolis is mentioned on another funeral inscription near Scupi. Another ethnonym, Arbaios found in Phoenice is likely linked to them.

Also on this shelf

See also

• ▸Izumi Koganezuka Kofun
• ▸Matisse Museum (Le Cateau-Cambrésis)
• ▸Bir ed-Duwali

Uncatalogued shelf

Text from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.