Amphipolis and its guardian

Amphipolis, after so many speculations and still more hypes, is tentatively back in the news – although this is an old story altogether.

The Greek Reporter retells the story of Alexandros Kochliaridis born and raised in Amphipolis, who seems to be the first to have found the ruins of the Amphipolis/Kasta Hill tomb as early as 1964. All through his long career of archaeological discoveries he closely worked together with the renown Dimitrios Lazaridis. He tells the story in this interesting Youtube movie, from which he emerges as the Guardian of Amphipolis.

The Kasta Hill has been used since prehistoric times as a burial site and there are many more tombs than the one that made the headlines a few years ago. It still is everyone’s guess who actually is buried here with the pomp worthy of a very important person or persons.

First restorations of Termessos

When I wrote my blog about Termessos (see: Alexander avoided the siege of Termessos) a few years ago, I repeatedly mentioned how little of the city had been cleared and excavated – be it to my greatest pleasure.

Understandably, there comes a time when some restorations and/or reconstructions are in order and the first choice fell on Termessos' 2,300-year-old city walls. It is a rather clear-cut project since almost 3,000 stone blocks are readily available. They have all been scanned and numbered in order to reconstruct one-third of the original one-thousand-meter-long wall. Modern cranes are now handling blocks that weigh as much as two and a half tons. It makes you wonder how the ancient Greeks managed to move and put these heavy stones into place. The restoration also includes four towers inside the wall. When this stretch of the wall is completed, it will stand at a height of six meters.

More excavation work has been initiated at Termessos and part of the ancient road leading from the ancient city to Attaleia (modern Antalya) has been exposed (partially still hidden, however, underneath the modern asphalt road). It is nothing more than a natural route connecting inland Pisidia to the sea that was used since prehistoric times. The most exciting part of this discovery is the fact that this may well be the road Alexander used when he besieged Termessos in 333 BC.

As mentioned in my earlier blog, there are many skeleton remains of Hellenistic and Roman buildings like the temples of Zeus and Artemis, the so-called Corinthian temple, the Heroon for an unknown hero, the Agora with its underground cisterns, the Roman Bouleuterion, the initially Greek theater that was later remodeled to meet Roman needs, the Roman Baths and Gymnasium, several fountains or Nymphaeums, and most striking of all, the impressive Tomb of Alcetas.

It is clear that Termessos has a lot to tell since it was only abandoned in the 5^th century AD after nearly one thousand years of existence.

[Pictures are from Hurriyet  Daily News, click here and here.]

“The countless aspects of Beauty” at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens

The beauty of Greek art, especially from the Classical and Hellenistic periods is, in my eyes, unsurpassed.

In order to celebrate its 150^th birthday, the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, put together a special exhibition to illustrate the beauty of Greek art from the Neolithic period to the late antiquity. To this purpose 340 works from the museum’s collection have been selected and are now exhibited under the common title “The countless aspects of Beauty” – a unique way to appreciate this facet of Greek art.

This special exhibition is set up in four separate sections.

“Eternal aesthetics” is the first section presenting objects of everyday life in prehistoric times, followed by “The Beautiful and the Desirable” referring to the aesthetic preferences in clothing, hairstyles and beautification. The third section “Focusing on the Body” treats the human body as represented from the Neolithic period to historic times. The exhibition concludes with a final section titled “The endless Quest” which concentrates on the significance of the beautiful and its value for humans.

Among the masterpieces, please note the Bronze head from Delos (early 1^st century BC),  the Birth of Aphrodite from Baiae (2^nd century AD), the Boy from Marathon (4^th century BC), the Diadoumenos from Delos (100 BC copy of an original from 450-425 BC) and many, many others.

This exhibition was started last month and will remain open to the public till the end of 2019 - time enough to plan your visit to Athens allowing you to include this highlight in your trip.

[Pictures from the NAM]

Alexander the Great, Son of the Gods by Alan Fildes and Joann Fletcher

A pleasure for the eye is what first comes to mind after reading Alexander the Great, Son of the Gods by Alan Fildes and Joann Fletcher (ISBN 0-89236-783-0).

Much care is given to the presentation, print, paper and illustrations. The edge of the pages is color-coded to match each of the five chapters: The Prince of Macedon; Conqueror of the East; The Great King; To the Endless Ocean; and, Return to Babylon. The fact that this book is published by Getty Trust Publications, J. Paul Getty Museum stands for quality, of course.

Portions of Alexander’s eventful life are served in small comprehensive bites, often filling two pages for a subject which is always started with a summary insert to keep the story flowing. Comprehensive maps cover selected areas, yet each map is connecting chronologically to the next. On top of all that, there are inserts on pertinent subjects like, His Father’s Son; Alexander’s Men; Coins for a New Empire; Crowns and Caps, Hats and Headcloths; Military Engineering; Medical Care; and plenty of other details.

This book makes easy and interesting reading. It is ideal for those who are looking for a solid overview of Alexander’s personality and campaigns without getting lost in too many details.

An update on Germenicia

Back in 2012, I posted my first blog about the city of Germenicia located some one hundred kilometers north of Gaziantep in eastern Turkey (see: Ever heard of Germenicia?).

Illegal digs carried out in 2007 revealed the presence of the Roman city of Germenicia or Germenicia Caesarea named after Emperor Caligula (in full Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus) which covered an area of 140 hectares. The terrain has been divided into 50 parcels and after almost ten years the land of 30 of them has been expropriated. Works have been ongoing since in order to register, excavate and preserve the many large Roman villas and their exquisite floor mosaics.

[Mosaic from Germanicia, at the Kahramanmaraş Museum. 

Regional Directorate of Culture and Tourism Kahramanmaraş]

It appeared that these villas belonged to the local elite and military leaders and it is estimated that there are approximately one hundred such residences built on the foothill of the mountain. The mostly intact mosaics that have been unearthed so far are of the highest quality and generally date from the 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th century AD. They feature sophisticated designs using a mix of colored glass, marble, and limestone tesserae, deploying even three-dimensional effects. The quality of these mosaics is unusual because of their realism and their details ranging from architectural representations to scenes of daily life.

The Romans were not the first to occupy the region. Earlier settlers were the Urartians, Assyrians, Persians, Macedonians, and Seleucids because the city was built on the crossroads of several ancient trade routes, like the Silk Road. But the wear and tear of repeated wars, landslides, and fire buried the city into oblivion for almost 1,500 years.

Kahramanmaraş, the modern version of Germenicia  has a worthwhile museum of its own. It displays more than 30,000 artifacts from local excavations dating from prehistoric times, Hittite occupation, and Roman and Byzantine eras. Most spectacular are, of course, the mosaics recovered from the Roman villas of Germenicia  but also from other nearby sites. An adjacent room is exhibiting a number of steles, sarcophagi, and marble heads of the Roman elite; another room illustrates daily life through a rich collection of tools, jewelry, armory, pottery, bronze, and glass artifacts as well as coins from Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman eras.

As elsewhere, Turkey hopes to draw tourists to Germenicia, who may already be visiting the treasures of Sanliurfa (founded by Seleucos in 304 BC as Edessa) and Gaziantep (where the mosaics from Zeugma are being exhibited).

Improving the archaeological site of Philippi

Money is generally the main ingredient to get new excavations under way and it is great to hear that 2.3 million euros are being made available for Philippi, the city named in honor of Alexander’s father.

The site, as it is today, is a very welcoming place with ample parking and a large park where locals like to spend time with their children playing while enjoying a cool drink in the shade of old trees. It is an excellent spot to start a visit.

Until now, the ancient site of Philippi was divided in two parts by an old and recently disaffected asphalt road keeping the theater and Paul’s prison on one side and the Byzantine churches and the Roman Forum and private houses on the other. The new project includes the removal of this tarmac allowing the site to be fully unified. At the same time, the Via Egnatia running right next to that asphalt road will become more accessible.

The works will also include new fencing of the site with a new entrance to the west of Philippi as well as the restoration of the eastern fortifications. New archaeological finds resulting from these works will certainly make their way to the local Museum of Philippi which is sadly so often overlooked by tourists.

Greek bronze found in Slovakia

The rare discovery of pieces belonging to a Greek bronze relief in Slovakia is far from obvious. It happened during research carried out in 2016 and 2017 at the village of Slatina nad Bebravou not far from the Celtic settlement on the Udriana hill.

[Picture from Archaeology News Network]

Archaeologists were able to determine that the relief was made in Taranto, Italy, in the middle of the 4^th century BC and arrived in Slovakia about a century later. The shoulder board relief is said to be part of a bronze breastplate that belonged to a prominent Greek warrior. Digitization has enabled to reconstruct the entire picture which has been labeled as Hellenistic since it represents an Amazonomachy, a battle of Amazons and Greeks.

How this breastplate ended up in central Slovakia gives room for speculation but it seems plausible that it was looted from Delphi when the Celts/Gauls plundered the sanctuary in the first half of the 3^rd century BC.

The fortified settlement of Udriana is one of the rare sacrificial places used by the Celts and only found in Slovakia (not in neighboring countries). It was customary for the Celts to offer precious objects, animals and even humans to their gods. All their gifts were ritually broken and burnt, and the charred bones, glass jewelry and pieces of metal like these bronzes are still there to prove it. They believed that by performing this ritual, they would release the spirits.

Archaeologists also located the sacrificial hole that would collect the blood of animals and humans. A truly bloody business, no doubt.

The many colonies of Miletus

The colonization by the Greeks, either from mainland Greece or from Asia Minor remains a fascinating subject. I touched on the topic before when discussing Magna Graecia (see: Magna Graecia, the forgotten Greek legacy) and this time I will concentrate on the shores of the Black Sea, the Pontus Euxinus of antiquity.

The first settlers arrived in the second half of the 7^th century BC mainly from Ionia but by far the most prominent group came from Miletus. Ancient authors go as far as claiming that the city possessed between 75 and 90 colonies but this number does not immediately refer to cities founded and populated by Miletus since they did not have enough manpower to occupy so many settlements. In fact, Miletus acted as their organizer and the initial true number of colonies was about 25.

The reason for people from Asia Minor to emigrate is complex but one of the main causes to relocate was the westward expansion of the Persian Empire which even attacked Greece itself. The Ionians were facing a simple choice to either submit to the Persians with the risk of being killed or enslaved or to leave their homeland for new horizons.

The Actual Archaeology Magazine of May 2011 published a very interesting article, “Greek Colonisation of the Black Sea” written by Gosha R. Tsetskhladze about the origins of a great number of settlements on the shores of the Back Sea including both sides of the Cimmerian Bosporus.

Among the first settlements, we find Berezan (modern Borysthenites) founded in the third quarter of the 7th century BC, and Tangarog (on the Sea of Azov) in the last third of the 7^th century BC (completely destroyed by the sea). Other colonies were located on the western shore of the Black Sea like Histria (at the mouth of the Danube) in ca. 630 BC, Apollonia Pontica (modern Sozopol in Bulgaria) in ca. 610 BC, and Tomis (modern Constanta in Romania) at the end of the first quarter of the 6^th century BC. On the southern shoreline, we find Sinope (modern Sinop in Turkey) from the late 7^th century BC and Amisos (modern Samsun in Turkey) from ca. 564 BC. Olbia (in modern Ukraine) was settled on the northern side of the Black Sea by the end of the first quarter of the 6^th century BC.

Between 580 and 560 BC, Miletus colonized new territories on the Kerch peninsula (the western side of the Cimmerian Bosporus) and the Taman peninsula (the eastern side of the Cimmerian Bosporus). On the European side of the straight, we find cities like Panticapaeum, Nymphaeum, Theodosia, Myrmekion, and Tyritake (all on the Crimean peninsula); and on the Asian side, we name Kepoi, Patraeus, Corocondame (destroyed by the sea) and Hermonassa (joined colony of Miletus and Mytilene).

In the wake of Cyrus’ westwards conquests during which he took the stronghold of Sardes in 546 BC, the Black Sea area was once again flooded by a new wave of Ionians – this time by people not exclusively from Miletus. The Megarians and the Boeotians founded Heraklea in 554 BC on the south shores, and Miletus founded Odessos (modern Varna in Bulgaria) on the western shore. In turn, those colonies who already had settled around the Black Sea created many small settlements of their own.

Around that same time, new cities like Tyras and Nikonian appeared together with some fifty rural settlements under their control. Non-Milesians founded Gorgippia (modern Anapa in Russia), Toricos (near modern Gelendzhik in Russia), Akra (in Russia, destroyed by the sea), Porthmeus (in Russia) and several other colonies on the Cimmerian Bosporus and around 542 BC the Teians established the colony of Phanagoria on the Taman Peninsula (as well as the city of Abdera in Thracia).

Ionians settled even further north along the Black Sea coast and by 422/1 BC, Herakleia Pontus founded a small town that would become the later Chersonesus (near modern Sevastopol in Crimea). The Milesians, once again, founded Colchis (modern western Georgia) who in turn established the cities of Phasis, Gyenos, and Dioscuria, and two more settlements, Pichvnari and Tsikhisdziri. The last wave arrived when the Ionians were defeated in their revolt against Persia. Mesambria (modern Nessebar in Bulgaria) was founded on the western shore of the Black Sea by the Chalkedonians and Byzantines, and in western Crimea, the Ionians established Kerkinitis and Kalos Limen which later on became part of Chersonesus.

[Picture from Bosporan Kingdom growth map-pt.svg:] 

In the days of Alexander and even during the reign of his father Philip, we read about ships bringing corn from the Black Sea to Athens. This leads us to believe that this traffic existed already in earlier centuries. It has been established, however, that the earliest ships loaded with corn circulated at the end of the 5^th/beginning of the 4^th century BC, and that they were not meant for Athens but for the island of Aegina and the Peloponnese instead. Except in case of emergency, it appears – according to the abovementioned article - Athens was perfectly capable of feeding its citizens.

With so many sites spread over so many countries around the Black Sea (from Turkey to Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, and Georgia) one can wonder how much of these colonies still exist or have been excavated and, if so, to what extent. Yet the fact remains that this geographical knowledge was part of Alexander’s baggage and his Companions. The ancient world was much and much larger than what we like to believe!

The heavy colonization shows that emigration is not a modern phenomenon but existed in eons past. Famine may have been a major reason for people to leave hearth and home but generally, it was and is a war that triggers the displacement of entire populations. In any case, it is quite amazing to see how many peoples were on the move between the 7^th and the 5^th century BC. In my opinion, these three centuries of constant emigration explain - at least in part – the general Greek resentment against the Persians. Their occupation of Greece and the burning of the Acropolis is, of course, another valid reason for their grudge.