1,600-Year-Old Eros Mosaic Found in Albania

Six colorful mosaic floors just surfaced in southern Albania, and one of them still shows the unmistakable figure of a Greek god, more than 1,600 years after someone laid the tiles.

A Roman Complex Beside the Vjosa

Archaeologists made the discovery at Qesarat, a village near Tepelenë in the middle Vjosa Valley, during the 2026 season of a joint Albanian-Italian project called Landscape Archaeology in the Tepelenë-Memaliaj Area. The excavation is led by Eduart Shehi and Sabina Veseli of Albania’s Institute of Archaeology, alongside Custode Silvio Fioriello of the University of Bari Aldo Moro, working through Albania’s Academy of Albanological Studies in partnership with the Italian team. Vjosa National Park announced the results.

Six Floors, One Familiar Face

This season’s excavation exposed six mosaic-decorated floors dated to the fourth century AD, featuring geometric motifs alongside human figures. One of the mosaics preserves the figure of Eros, the Greek god associated with love and desire, despite partial damage to the surrounding structure. Archaeologists also recovered fragments of painted wall plaster, indicating that the rooms above these floors carried decoration beyond the mosaics themselves. Researchers have not yet published a full interpretation of the complex’s function.

A Settlement Bigger Than One Villa

These mosaics are the latest addition to a much larger picture. Earlier seasons of fieldwork surveyed roughly 70 hectares around Qesarat, documenting 67 topographical units and identifying about 20 distinct archaeological sites, several showing signs of activity across more than one historical period. That earlier work had already located a large building containing thermal spaces, along with other wealthy Roman residences decorated with mosaics and painted walls. Researchers believe the settlement first developed around a substantial Roman villa before gradually expanding across the natural amphitheater formed by the hill where the modern village now sits.

A History Stretching Back to the Stone Age

Qesarat’s story doesn’t begin with Rome. Surveys around the village have also turned up material from the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age, including one concentration of prehistoric finds spread across more than three hectares that yielded over 1,100 flint artifacts alongside hundreds of pottery fragments. Researchers have suggested this could represent an unusually large prehistoric settlement, though further excavation would be needed to confirm its true extent. Taken together, the evidence positions Qesarat as a site with continuous human activity spanning thousands of years, from prehistoric farmers through the Roman and Late Antique periods.

Sources

This report draws on an announcement by Vjosa National Park, citing archaeologists Eduart Shehi, Sabina Veseli, and Custode Silvio Fioriello.