Burning the Bones of the Earth — Documenting the Traditional Lime Kilns Technology Across the Albanian-Greek Border

PI: Ioanna Ntoutsi | Collaborators: Faidon Moudopoulos-Athanasiou, Anisa Lloja,
Panos Kostoulas, Grigoris Koutropoulos, Christoforos Theocharis, and Athena Siafaka
Project ID: 2021SG05 | Location of Research: South Albania and northwest Greece
Host Institution: Itinerant Workshop on Traditional Building Techniques, Boulouki

The project was initiated in November 2021 and concluded two years later following extensive field research in several locations of Epirus in northwest Greece and in regions of south Albania. Its objective was to trace and document the traditional craftsmanship of wood-fired, flare-type lime kilns on both sides of the border; to explore the knowledge, practice and social dimensions regarding the lime kiln technology and the ways it evolved in the two neighbouring countries.

The traditional lime kiln structures under investigation belong to the preindustrial typology of intermittently operating, continuous loading flare kilns, i.e. funnel-shaped dry stone structures used for the calcination of a single limestone batch and lit by wood for several days in a row. In many cases, perimeter walling is, also, built as a permanent structure which infers reduction of heat losses during the burning stage and reflects a more permanent kiln workshop and/or a more standardised production.

Material vestiges of pre-industrial lime kilns and community memoirs of this practice are still detected in the Greek regions, despite the fact that the traditional practice has been totally subsumed by industrial products since the 1960’s. The traditional practice was followed in Albania, until the early ’90s, during the communist regime and within the framework of agricultural cooperatives. In fact there are, also, cases of revival of the traditional practice after 2000s. In Southern Albania, in the area of Leshnjë, near the town of Korçë, there is still a lime practitioner following the traditional process and maintaining an open-air lime kiln workshop.

Employing a multi-level and multimedia documentation methodology, a rich digital archive of audiovisual material, architectural drawings, interviews, field notes and geographical mapping was developed.

The project evokes the interest on traditional lime manufacturing and its modern implications for natural resources management and architectural heritage. It aims to reveal the importance of preserving traditional skills and practices that have shaped the historic built environment in Greece, Albania and the Balkans. It further fosters the modern use of air building lime in architecture, restoration and modern design, as a less carbon-intensive and culturally consistent material, compared to Portland cement and commercial hydraulic lime products.

Four clusters of geographical areas are examined in the project: villages and cities in Vlorë & Gjirokastër Counties, Southern Albania; the area of Leshnjë; the mountainous areas of Tzoumerka and Zagori; and the cross-border area of Pogon(i).

A leaflet summary of the rural lime industry.

Methodology

The research methodology included the following levels:

• Geographical mapping and photo documentation of sites where traditional kilns operated (built structures or landscape remnants/traces). According to the state of preservation, architectural drawings of selected structures were, also, developed to showcase the differences and similarities from place to place (in shape, volume, materials used etc.).
• Interviews in audiovisual format, with key-informants from the source communities, from both countries. This material was essential for understanding the technical parameters, and further socioeconomic dimensions, such as the social organization of the agricultural cooperatives in Albania during the communist regime, folklore traditions and tacit knowledge on natural resources management, stories that connect with the modern history of the two countries etc. The encounter of common words in both languages describing elements of the traditional process was, also, an interesting aspect of the documentation.
• Videos documenting all stages of the traditional process: the building of the dome-shaped drystone kiln, the firing for 3 days in a row with constant wood fueling, the disassembly and quality control on the ultimate production, the slaking into water tanks to produce the final product, hydrated lime. In total, 14 videos with a duration 3-10 minutes each, depict all stages of the process; it is to our knowledge the most accurate documentation of this traditional process,a t least regarding the Balkans region.
• Field notes from the interviews collection and the process documentation supplement the above data with stories and notes recorded during our encounters with locals (practitioners or not) or further explain technical details of the process.

Selected Assets

The following provide an overview of the project’s topics.

Acknowledgements

Host institution: Boulouki — Itinerant workshop on traditional building techniques
Principal investigator, Archive curation: Ioanna Ntoutsi
Coordination of the fieldwork: Ioanna Ntoutsi (PI), Panos Kostoulas (Blk)
Photos-videos recording: Ioanna Ntoutsi, Faidon Moudopoulos-Athanasiou (project team member), Grigoris Koutropoulos (Blk), Panos Kostoulas (Blk)
Photos editing: Ioanna Ntoutsi
Videos production: Ioanna Ntoutsi
Drone operators: Faidon Moudopoulos-Athanasiou, Grigoris Koutropoulos
Architectural documentation/fieldwork: Anisa Lloja (project team member), Panos Kostoulas, Grigoris Koutropoulos, Athena Siafaka (Blk)
Architectural documentation/post-fieldwork: Anisa Lloja, Grigoris Koutropoulos
Pre-fieldwork bibliographic research/communication with informants: Ioanna Ntoutsi, Christoforos Theocharis (Blk), Anisa Lloja (project team member)
Transcription/translation: Ioanna Ntoutsi, Anisa Lloja, Aulon Harijaj (external collaborator), Eleni Spanou (Blk intern)
Map development: Faidon Moudopoulos-Athanasiou
Texts: Ioanna Ntoutsi

The project team is grateful to all local informants, masons and skilled labourers who consented to be interviewed or documented. They acknowledge the contribution of peers from the NGO Cultural Heritage without borders (CHwB) Albania, as well as many people form the communities we worked with, in both countries that assisted the project’s completion in diverse ways.