Not far from the city of Kavala in Macedonia, you can find one of the most important archaeological sites in Greece: the ruins of the ancient city of Philippi, part of the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2016.

Throughout its centuries-old history, the city has been associated with historical figures and events that shaped the Western world, including Macedonian kings, Roman politicians and generals, and one of the most influential apostles of Christianity; a crossroads of cultures and civilisations, it has been the theatre of one of the most crucial battles of antiquity and the site of the first Christian baptism in Europe.

The History of the city of Philippi

The ruins of Philippi are located about 13 km north-west of Kavala. The city was originally founded in 360 BC under the name Krenides (meaning "springs"),by settlers from the island of Thassos. After only four years, however, the city was conquered by King Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, who renamed the city after him; recognising its economic and strategic potential -due to its position on the great royal route which runs east-west across Macedonia, and to the neighbouring gold mines- Philip enlarged and fortified the city. Among the archaeological finds that date to this era are the remains of the original city walls, a theatre and a heroön.

During the Third Macedonian War (171-168 B.C.), which marked the end of Hellenistic Macedonia, Philippi was conquered by the Romans, who divided the kingdom into four separate states; the city formed part of the eastern Macedonian state. Due to its position on the route that ran across Macedonia, reconstructed by the Romansin the 2nd century BC as part of the Via Egnatia, Philippi attained major importance, as evidenced by numerous Latin inscriptions and illustrated by the magnitude of the monuments constructed in that era, especially in relation to the city’s moderate size; a vast roman forum was constructed and expanded in various phases, while the theatre was enlarged and modified to host public games.

It was here that one of the most decisive battles of antiquity took place, in October 42 BC: following the assassination of Caesar, his heirs Mark Antony and Octavian (of the Second Triumvirate) confronted the forces of Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus, outside the western walls of the city. The Battle of Philippi, part of the long series of civil wars that upset Rome during the first century B.C., ended in victory for the Second Triumvirate and consolidated their control over the territory of the Roman Republic, setting into motion the course of events that would eventually lead to the end of the Republic and the establishment of the Roman Empire.

After the battle, Brutus committed suicide, demoralised by the defeat. In Parallel Lives, Plutarch describes a ghostly apparition of Caesar to Brutus, where he warns his murderer "thou shalt see me at Philippi"; William Shakespeare reprises this phrase in his play Julius Caesar. In Italian, "i’ll be seeing you in Philippi (ci rivedremo a Filippi)" is in fact a common phrase loosely translating to "you're gonna get yours".

Following their victory, Octavian and Antony released some of their veteran soldiers to colonise the city, which was refounded as Colonia Victrix Philippensium. After Octavian was proclaimed as Emperor Augustus (27 BC) he reorganised the colony under the name Colonia Augusta Iulia Philippensis, establishing more settlers; the territory of Philippi was centuriated (divided into squares of land) and distributed to the colonists. It was at that time that the Roman forum was constructed, east of the site of the original Greek agora. The city was transformed into a "little Rome", administratively modeled on the empire’s capital, and governed by two military officers, the duumviri, who were appointed directly from Rome.

According to the New Testament, the Apostle Paul visited Philippi during his second missionary journey, in around 49-50 A.D.; he is believed to have preached for the first time on European soil in Philippi. According to the Acts of the Apostles, a woman named Lydia offered to host Paul and his companions in her house in Philippi, after she and her household were baptised; she is regarded as the first documented convert to Christianity in Europe. Paul would revisit the city in the following years, and also addressed to the city’s congregation one of his most famous epistles (Epistle to the Philippians, 61-62 AD).

As the seat of the first Christian community in Europe, the city gained additional prestige in the emerging Christian world. Between the 4th and 5th centuries A.D., the face of the city changed, adapting to its new status, with the erection of three majestic churches, including Octagonal Basilica, the cathedral consecrated to St. Paul. Philippi continued to flourish as part of the Byzantine Empire until the beginning of the 7th century; already weakened by Slavic invasions, the city was almost completely abandoned after a catastrophic earthquake that took place around 619 AD. In the following years the city served as a Byzantine garrison, but at some point after the Ottoman conquest the site was completely deserted.

The first excavations of the ancient city of Philippi began by the French School of Athens in 1914, discontinued during WWI, and later resumed until 1937. After the Second World War, systematic excavations were conducted on the site by the Greek Archaeological Service and the Archaeological Society of Athens. Archaeological research continues to this day, carried out by the Archaeological Service, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the French School of Athens. The finds from the excavations are now at the Archaeological Museum of Philippi, whose four collections include objects from the prehistoric settlement of Dikili-Tash, and the city’s Hellenistic, Roman and early Christian history.

On 15 July 2016, the archaeological site of Philippi was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

The monuments of the archaeological site of Philippi

Because of its rich and centuries-old history, the archaeological site of Philippi offers visitors an insight into Greek, Roman and Byzantine art and architecture. Among the archaeological finds brought to light during the excavations carried out in the area include parts of the walls erected by Philip II, the acropolis, the theatre, the Roman forum, Basilica A, Basilica B and the Octagonal Basilica.

The city’s gated walls (first phase of construction: Philip II, half of the 4th century BC; second phase of construction: Justinian I, 527 - 565 A.D.) are 3.5 kilometres long, starting from the acropolis of the city and encircling the foot of the hill and part of the surrounding plain. The acropolis itself contains the remains of a late Byzantine tower.

Arguably, the most impressive building of the Hellenistic period in the city is the Ancient Theatre of Philippi, which was probably built by King Philip II in mid-4th century B.C., and subsequently remodelled several times to host Roman games. Near it there is also a Roman shrine to Silvanus and one dedicated to Egyptian divinities.

The Roman forum, dating to the Antonine period of the 2nd century A.D., which served as the religious, commercial, administrative and cultural centre of the city in the Roman era, was a complex of public structures arranged around a central square. The large paved road that runs along its northern side has in fact been identified as the ancient Via Egnatia, the Decumanus Maximus of the Roman colony.

The early Christian monuments of Philippi are among the best preserved examples of religious architecture of their kind; built between the 4th and 6th centuries AD, often on top of Roman public or private buildings, they include two grandiose basilicas (A & B) and the ecclesiastical complex of the Octagonal Basilica.

130 metres long and 50 metres wide, the Basilica identified as "A" (end of the 5th century AD) is a large basilica with three naves, with fragments of the lavish paving and part of the ambon still preserved in its central nave.
Basilica B (ca. 550 A.D.), also a three-nave basilica, has a central nave of almost square shape, which at one time was covered by a dome supported by large pillars.
The complex of the Octagonal Basilica is centred around the octagonal cathedral dedicated to the Apostle Paul, which was built in three phases, and also includes the two-storey "Bishop's Palace", as well as a phiale (liturgical fountain), a baptistery and a monumental gate towards Via Egnatia.

_____
Source: S. Dimitriadis, in Italian; Translated into English by N. Mosaidi; via GNA

With the help of drones, archaeologists discovered a lost city with ties to Alexander the Great, according to the British Museum in London.

Qalatga Darband, an ancient city located in what is now Iraqi Kurdistan, lies along the Darband-I Rania, or a pass at the Zagros Mountains. What’s so significant about this path? Besides being a historic route from Mesopotamia to Iran, Alexander the Great traveled the path more than 2,000 years ago.

Declassified spy satellite images from the 1960s first gave explorers a glance at this city, which had never been deeply explored. In addition to ground surveying, researchers used drones to take images. The team discovered buried buildings after analyzing images taken via drone, according to the British Museum.

​Archaeologists are increasingly deploying drones to aid their research. Drones are great alternatives to traditional aerial imaging methods, like airplanes or balloons, because they are often cheaper and allow for almost instant processing of gathered data.

After studying ceramics found at the site, researchers concluded Qalatga Darband was likely founded during the Hellenistic period by the Seleucids, the successors of Alexander the Great. Researchers believe this site dates back to the first and second centuries BCE.

And guess what? Those people seemed to have a knack for wine. Along with a fortified structure, British Museum officials note that archaeologists found many stone presses, which “hint at facilities for wine production.”

“The discovery of a city established in the wake of the conquests of Alexander the Great is already yielding evidence for the fundamental changes wrought by the advent of the culture of the Greeks,” according to the British Museum.

This fieldwork was conducted by the British Museum’s Iraq Heritage Management Training Scheme, which is training archaeologists from Iraq how to preserve historically significant sites. Over the past few years, numerous historical sites across the Middle East including Iraq have been destroyed by the Islamic State Group.

Source: Discover Magazine

Ever since the days of Homer, Greeks have long idealized their Mycenaean “ancestors” in epic poems and classic tragedies that glorify the exploits of Odysseus, King Agamemnon, and other heroes who went in and out of favor with the Greek gods. Although these Mycenaeans were fictitious, scholars have debated whether today’s Greeks descend from the actual Mycenaeans, who created a famous civilization that dominated mainland Greece and the Aegean Sea from about 1600 B.C.E. to 1200 B.C.E., or whether the ancient Mycenaeans simply vanished from the region.

Now, ancient DNA suggests that living Greeks are indeed the descendants of Mycenaeans, with only a small proportion of DNA from later migrations to Greece. And the Mycenaeans themselves were closely related to the earlier Minoans, the study reveals, another great civilization that flourished on the island of Crete from 2600 B.C.E. to 1400 B.C.E. (named for the mythical King Minos).

The ancient DNA comes from the teeth of 19 people, including 10 Minoans from Crete dating to 2900 B.C.E. to 1700 BCE, four Mycenaeans from the archaeological site at Mycenae and other cemeteries on the Greek mainland dating from 1700 B.C.E. to 1200 B.C.E., and five people from other early farming or Bronze Age (5400 B.C.E. to 1340 B.C.E.) cultures in Greece and Turkey. By comparing 1.2 million letters of genetic code across these genomes to those of 334 other ancient people from around the world and 30 modern Greeks, the researchers were able to plot how the individuals were related to each other.

The ancient Mycenaeans and Minoans were most closely related to each other, and they both got three-quarters of their DNA from early farmers who lived in Greece and southwestern Anatolia, which is now part of Turkey, the team reports today in Nature. Both cultures additionally inherited DNA from people from the eastern Caucasus, near modern-day Iran, suggesting an early migration of people from the east after the early farmers settled there but before Mycenaeans split from Minoans.

The Mycenaeans did have an important difference: They had some DNA—4% to 16%—from northern ancestors who came from Eastern Europe or Siberia. This suggests that a second wave of people from the Eurasian steppe came to mainland Greece by way of Eastern Europe or Armenia, but didn’t reach Crete, says Iosif Lazaridis, a population geneticist at Harvard University who co-led the study.

Not surprisingly, the Minoans and Mycenaeans looked alike, both carrying genes for brown hair and brown eyes. Artists in both cultures painted dark-haired, dark-eyed people on frescoes and pottery who resemble each other, although the two cultures spoke and wrote different languages. The Mycenaeans were more militaristic, with art replete with spears and images of war, whereas Minoan art showed few signs of warfare, Lazaridis says. Because the Minoans script used hieroglyphics, some archaeologists thought they were partly Egyptian, which turns out to be false.

The continuity between the Mycenaeans and living people is “particularly striking given that the Aegean has been a crossroads of civilizations for thousands of years,” says co-author George Stamatoyannopoulos of the University of Washington in Seattle. This suggests that the major components of the Greeks’ ancestry were already in place in the Bronze Age, after the migration of the earliest farmers from Anatolia set the template for the genetic makeup of Greeks and, in fact, most Europeans. “The spread of farming populations was the decisive moment when the major elements of the Greek population were already provided,” says archaeologist Colin Renfrew of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, who was not involved in the work.

​The results also show it is possible to get ancient DNA from the hot, dry landscape of the eastern Mediterranean, Renfrew says. He and others now have hope for getting DNA from groups such as the mysterious Hittites who came to ancient Anatolia sometime before 2000 B.C.E. and who may have been the source of Caucasian ancestry in Mycenaeans and early Indo-European languages in the region. Archaeologist Kristian Kristiansen of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, who was not involved in the work, agrees. “The results have now opened up the next chapter in the genetic history of western Eurasia—that of the Bronze Age Mediterranean.”

Source: Science Magazine

During excavation work at a site in the El-Shatby neighbourhood of Alexandria, an Egyptian archaeological mission from the Ministry of Antiquities discovered a rock-hewn tomb that can be dated to the Hellenistic period (323-30 BC).

Mahmoud Afifi, head of Ancient Egyptian Antiquities at the ministry, told Ahram Online that studies on the architectural style of the tomb’s decorative elements and pottery sherds found at the site show that the tomb dates to the time of Greek occupation in Egypt.

The tomb is composed of four halls with burial shafts decorated with geometric, coloured designs as well as funerary prayers written in ancient Greek.

Mustafa Rushdi, director-general of Antiquities of the Western Delta and Alexandria told Ahram Online that the mission found around 300 artefacts within the tomb’s hall. Among the objects were pottery vessels, a terracotta statue and lamps made of clay.
​
During the next archaeological season, the mission plans to study the funerary phrases written on the tombs to identify their owners.

Source: Ahram Online News

THESSALONIKI - The Vulci Foundation has signed an agreement with the Thessaloniki Archaeological Museum to bring a collection of artifacts and jewelry from the era of Alexander the Great, who ruled the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia in the 4th century BC, to Italy for the first time ever in 2018.

Vulci Foundation president Carmelo Massina and scientific director Carlo Casi signed the agreement with Thessaloniki museum director Polixeni Adam-Veleni, on the heels of a strategic cooperation agreement between the museum and Rome's Archaeological Superintendency directed by Alfonsina Russo.

"For the first time in Italy an important nucleus of the treasures from the Macedonian dynasty will go on display alongside the finest examples of Etruscan culture, starting with those from Vulci," Russo said.

"We're taking the opportunity to show the differences as well as the similarities between the two distant Mediterranean shores between the 6th and the 4th centuries BC," she said.

In addition to a series of artifacts belonging to the era of Alexander the Great, there will also be a collection of priceless gold jewelry as well as Etruscan artifacts from southern Etruria.

With this initiative the Vulci Foundation is aiming to strengthen its presence as an organiser of archaeological exhibitions.

"Thanks to this international event, the Vulci Foundation is taking a step up in terms of quality on the level of cultural tourism," said Vulci Foundation president Messina.

Source: Ansamed

The marble door that once sealed its entrance is on display at the Istanbul Archaeology Museums, the most striking find made by Greek Ottoman-era archaeologist Theodore Makridi during his excavations of a tomb in Derveni, near Thessaloniki, two years before the northern Greek port city was liberated.

The double-chambered barrel-vaulted tomb is among the greatest discoveries in the area and has been associated with Lete, one of the greatest cities of the ancient Kingdom of Macedonia. Nevertheless, it lay almost completely abandoned for over a century.

The elements did their worst and this beautiful historic structure was at the point of collapse in 2011, when it was finally slated for restoration and protection under the European Union structural funds program for 2007–2013, with a budget of 1.2 million euros. Work on the site commenced in 2012 and now the Tomb of Makridi Bey, as it is known, constitutes one of the highlights of Thessaloniki’s historic sites.

Dated to between the late 4th and early 3rd century BC, with a monumental facade in the Ionic rhythm and a marble sarcophagus in the death chamber, the tomb is a splendid sample of architecture and burial rites, as well as evidence of the incredible wealth that poured into the Kingdom of Macedonia with the return of Alexander the Great’s army from its Eastern campaign.

“When we took over, the condition of the tomb was lamentable. The structure was distorted and the antechamber had settled onto the scaffolding that had propped it up since 1997,” says architect and restorer Fani Athansiou.

An interdisciplinary team of experts conducted a dozen studies before any decisions could be taken to start restoring the structure and to protect the site with a solid shelter, part of which is submerged in the ground. The team (comprising Venetia Malama, Maria Miza, Maria Sarantidou and Alexis Papasotirou) then proceeded to restore the road that led up to the tomb, its Ionic facade and the original colors of the plaster that adorned its walls and arches.

Restored and illuminated at night, the monumental tomb – 10 meters in length and 8 meters in height – constitutes yet another piece of evidence in the narrative shaped by a plethora of other finds on the strategic significance of Lete, a city that was inhabited from early Neolithic (5,600–5,300 BC) to Roman times, archaeologist Katerina Tzanavari explains. Built before Thessaloniki, it was a fortress on the narrow stretch between the plain of Langadas and Lake Koroneia, and experienced its peak during the reign of Philip II.

Excavations in the vicinity have also brought to light the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore (1936), unlooted graves from a large Archaic cemetery (1962), the ancient settlement and masterpieces in metal and gold (including the famed Derveni Krater, metal utensils, precious vessels, marble statues and the Derveni Papyrus). These finds grace the permanent collection halls of the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki.

Source: Kathimerini English

(Reuters) - Archaeologists unearthed the missing head of one of the two sphinxes found guarding the entrance of an ancient tomb in Greece's northeast, as the diggers made their way into the monument's inner chambers, the culture ministry said on Tuesday.

The tomb on the Amphipolis site, about 100 km (65 miles) from Greece's second-biggest city Thessaloniki, has been hailed by archaeologists as a major discovery from the era of Alexander the Great. They say it appears to be the largest ancient tomb to have been discovered in Greece.

The marble head, slightly damaged on the nose, has curls falling on the statue's left shoulder and traces of a reddish color.

"It is a sculpture of exceptional art," the ministry said, adding that fragments of the two sphinxes' wings were also found.

Excavations, which began in 2012, have not yet determined who is buried in the tomb. They have uncovered an intricate mosaic depicting the god Hermes as the conductor of souls to the afterlife. Made up of colored pebbles, it covers the floor of a room thought to be the antechamber to the main burial ground.

Culture ministry officials have said that the monument appears to belong to a prominent Macedonian from the 300-325 B.C. era.

(Reporting by George Georgiopoulos; Editing by Larry King)

Source:
(c) 2014 | Reuters

Newly revealed mosaic may hold key to unlocking mystery: Who was buried in the massive mound?

Greek archaeologists have discovered the image of a young, red-haired goddess being swept off to the underworld inside a 2,300-year-old tomb near the ancient site of Amphipolis in Macedonia, northern Greece. Identified as Persephone, daughter of Zeus, the goddess portrayed on a mosaic floor provides a key new clue to what in recent months has become a much publicized mystery: Who was laid to rest in the immense, marble-walled tomb 61 miles (99 kilometers) northeast of the Greek city of Thessaloniki?

Monumental in scale and Macedonian in style, the Amphipolis tomb (also known as the Kasta tumulus) lies close to the Aegean port that Alexander the Great used for his fleet. Archaeologists have dated the tomb to the last quarter of the fourth century B.C., likely placing its construction in the fractious period following Alexander's death in 323 B.C. All this has fueled intense speculation that the tomb was built for someone close to Alexander, but clear evidence has been lacking.

Greece's Ministry of Culture and Sport announced at a news conference on Thursday that the newly discovered image of Persephone closely resembles one in a painting from the royal cemetery of Vergina, where Alexander the Great's father was buried. This discovery, noted Lena Mendoni, general secretary of the Ministry, links the Amphipolis tomb to the royal lineage of Alexander the Great. "The political symbolism is very strong," Mendoni said.

The new find is raising hope that the tomb will add another chapter to the tumultuous history of the ancient Macedonian royal house. "Without doubt," said archaeologist Katerina Peristeri, principal investigator of the Amphipolis tomb, "the deceased was extremely important."

Carried Off to the Land of the Dead

Peristeri and her colleagues discovered the Persephone mosaic as they cleared the floor of one of the tomb's inner chambers. Extending over some 145 square feet, the finely executed artwork depicts the Greek myth of the abduction of Persephone. According to the ancient story, Hades, the god of the underworld, spied Persephone, the daughter of Zeus and the harvest goddess, working in a field, and decided to make her his wife. So he captured her and took her to the underworld, where she became his queen.

The mosaic portrays Hades as a bearded charioteer carrying off the curly-haired Persephone, who looks back wistfully toward her home. Running in front of the chariot is a third figure, the messenger god Hermes, who wears a scarlet cloak and hat and a pair of winged sandals as he leads the way to the underworld.

Peristeri was unwilling to speculate on the identity of the tomb's owner based on this new evidence. But Ian Worthington, a classical scholar at the University of Missouri in Columbia, thinks the excavators could be looking at "a female occupant of the tomb, because the mosaic shows a female being led to the underworld." If this proves to be the case, Worthington added, the tomb might hold the remains of Roxane, Alexander the Great's wife, or Olympias, his mother. Both women were put to death by one of Alexander's generals, Cassander, as he secured the throne of ancient Macedonia.

Surviving classical texts record that Cassander put Roxane and her young son to death at Amphipolis in 310 B.C., so it's very possible, said Worthington, that she could lie in the Amphipolis tomb.

But other evidence points strongly toward Olympias. Alexander intended to make his mother a goddess, like the female deity in Hades' chariot. Moreover, Olympias continued to hold considerable political power even after Alexander's death. Although she was murdered by Cassander and his allies, "I think she still could have been honored by such a tomb," said Philip Freeman, a professor of classics at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.

Only time, and further excavation, will tell.

Source:
(c) 2014 | National Geographic
Written by Heather Pringle

More than 500 treasures of Macedonia will be on display - treasures that have been unearthed in the last 25 years of archaeological digs. Some of the items in the year long exhibition include: gold wreaths, gold funerary masks, various statuary, metal, alabaster and clay vessels, and other breathtaking golden objects from the necropolises of Aegae and Archontiko that date as far back as the 7th - 6th centuries B.C.E.

Source: Pella Museum