The Molossoi, one of the major Epirotan races occupying since the twelfth century B.C. the entire area west of the Pindos mountain range, were living for seven centuries in small unfortified settlements, scattered in river and lakeside regions, and were practising cattle-breeding. Along with their relative tribes of Thesprotoi and Kassopaioi they belonged to the Greek speaking races of NW Greece, who however were not using writing until the seventh century B.C. Such settlements of the Early Iron Age have beeen located at Loutselio, in the basin where the campus of the University of loannina lies, at the foot of the hill of Kastritsa and at the valley of Rodotopi. The religious and administrative center of Molossoi, their capital Passaron. in the timber theater of which, according to the literary sources, Euripides taught his play “Andromache”, seems that has been established in this latter site already since the Early Iron Age.