Komani-Kruja culture

It consists of settlements usually built below hillforts along the Lezhë (Praevalitana)-Dardania and Via Egnatia road networks which connected the Adriatic coastline with the central Balkan Roman provinces.

The population of Komani-Kruja represents a local, western Balkan people which was linked to the Roman Justinianic military system of forts.

The development of Komani-Kruja is significant for the study of the transition between the classical antiquity population of Albania to the medieval Albanians who were attested in the same area in historical records in the 11th century.

Until 1990 around 30 archaeological sites with similar artifacts dated to the same time period (7th-9th centuries AD) were found in various territories of Albania as well as modern Kosovo.

[5] What was established in this early phase of research was that Komani-Kruja settlements represented a local, non-Slavic population which has been described as Romanized Illyrian, Latin-speaking or Latin-literate.

[6][7] Archaeologically, while it was considered possible and even likely that Komani-Kruja sites were used continuously from the 7th century onwards, it remained an untested hypothesis as research was still limited.

[8] Whether this population represented local continuity or arrived at an earlier period from a more northern location as the Slavs entered the Balkans remained unclear at the time but regardless of their ultimate geographical origins, these groups maintained Justinianic era cultural traditions of the 6th century possibly as a statement of their collective identity and derived their material cultural references from the Justinianic military system.

In Winnifrith's narrative, the geographical conditions of northern Albania favored the continuation of the Albanian language in hilly and mountainous areas as opposed to lowland valleys.

[10] A ring found among the artifacts, had an inscription, which according to the Austrian Albanologist Ippen, as well as German linguist Krahe, was in Illyrian language, however Albanian archaeologist Hasan Ceka, and the Bulgarian archaeologist L. Ognenova proved that the inscription (KEBOH HANA English: God, please help Anna) was a prayer, in a formula that can be found in Medieval Greek.