Labeatae

[1] Their territory, which was called Labeatis in classical antiquity, seems to have stretched from Lissus at the river Drin in the south, or probably even from the valley of Mat, up to Meteon in the north.

Livy in his Ab Urbe Condita Libri mentioned several times the tribal name Labeatae, the region Labeatis and palus Labeatis/lacus Labeatum (Lake Scodra).

It is present in hydronyms like the Llapi river and toponyms like Llapashticë along the later Roman route from Lissus to Ulpiana and indicates the movement of Illyrian tribes from the interior of Illyria to the coastline or vice versa.

[10] Unlike other Illyrian tribes, the extent of the territory of the Labeatae can be determined with relative precision through some important literary informations from ancient sources.

[12] The territory of the Labeatae comprised a number of relevant rivers, including Drin (Oriund), Buna (Barbana), Kiri (Klausali) and Morača, and the alluvial plains surrounding the Lake Shkodra (Lacus or Palus Labeatis).

[19] The number of fortified settlements throughout the Shkodra basin increased at the beginning of the Iron Age, and the proceeding of social and economic diversification occurred in the area.

In Grunas, in the deep mountainous valley of the Shala river in the Dukagjin Highlands, a fortified community has been discovered, dating back to the 11th–8th centuries BC.

These fortifications shed new lights on the history of the Illyrian people, and in particular of the inhabitants of the Shkodra region where a politically complex society emerged.

In this region the population practiced seasonal transhumance, built mountain fortifications and terraces, and defended a key trade route across an isolated harsh territory.

In particular, a 3rd century BC silvered bronze belt buckle, found inside the Illyrian Tombs of Selca e Poshtme near the western shore of Lake Lychnidus in Dassaretan territory, depicts a scene of warriors and horsemen in combat, with a giant serpent as a protector totem of one of the horsemen; a very similar belt was found also in the necropolis of Gostilj near the Lake Scutari in the territory of the Labeatae, indicating a common hero-cult practice in those regions.

Modern scholars suggest that the iconographic representation of the same mythological event includes the Illyrian cults of the serpent, of Cadmus, and of the horseman, the latter being a common Paleo-Balkan hero.