The well of Junia Rufina

The well, cut into the lower part of the acropolis hills, adjoins the complex of steps leading up from the Lion Gate entrance. It is undoubtedly contemporary with the construction of the wall and gate, but the form in which it is seen today is datable to the 2nd century AD.

In a characteristic Roman act of civic munificence, a local woman, Junia Rufina, paid for the aggrandizement of the well adding a marble balustrade closing off the deep shaft that plunges into the rock-face. Despite her Roman name, the inscription commemorating her dedication of the well to the Nymphs is written in Greek. In other words, at a local level the language spoken at this time was clearly reverting to Greek rather than using the official Latin.

The nymphs that the well was dedicated to are nature goddesses particularly linked to water. The worship of the Nymphs seems to have been popular around Butrint – entirely appropriate given its close links to water. A cave with several votive figurines has been discovered near Konispoli south of Butrint, and on mount Milë a sanctuary to Pan, a nature deity linked with pasturage and with whom the Nymphs were associated, may have been located.

In the 6th century the well was given a new Christian identity, and two peacocks flanking a Kantharos – strikingly similar to the iconography of the Baptistery mosaic – were painted on its back wall. The niche around which they are set may have held an image or a light. A niche cut into in the lateral wall probably functioned as a votive shrine, and a vaulted chapel appear to have been constructed here with the well as its focus in late Antiquity.

In the Middle Ages the opening to the well was blocked with a wall separating it from the shrine. A shaft was cut through the vault of the well ceiling, enabling water to be drawn from a higher level on the acropolis slope. A narrow staircase down to the area of the well probably had as its focus the small votive niche, and the shrine was roofed with a vault – traces of which can still be seen.

The later structures were demolished by the Italian archaeological Mission, but there is much to suggest that the well may have survived as a cult focus into the later Middle Ages.

 

• The Lion Gate
• The Lion relief
• QTVR of the Lion Gate
• The well of Junia Rufina
• QTVR of the Well of Junia Rufina
• The cemeteries

The Nymphs
The Nymphs are female nature deities in human form, the word meaning ‘a young woman of marriageable age.’
They usually appear in groups, often forming a chain of dancers, and are associated with other deities linked to the natural world, in particular Pan and Dionysus.
The Nymphs were seen as active wherever there is life in nature, and several types of Nymphs were thought to exist, each with different spheres: springs, mountains, trees and the sea.
They were normally worshipped in natural settings – at a spring or in a cave or grotto – though also at fountain houses or in temples proper.