Early Turkish Bath Discovered in Shkoder, Albania

A fourteenth-century Turkish bath with a central heating system was discovered at the site of the ancient Illyrian town of Shkodra in northwestern Albania by archaeologist Piotr Dyczek of the University of Warsaw.

“We know of very few early hammams. This makes our discovery even more interesting, because it allows us to see how the old Roman idea of a hypocaust, which is a system of heating the floors and walls of buildings with hot air, was adapted by the Turks,” he told Science & Scholarship in Poland.

Dyczek’s team also located the original city center, dated to the third century B.C. “Now we know the location of the highest part of the fortress, with the Hellenistic structures. We have located parts of two walls made of large hewn stone blocks,” he said.