Mount Olympus - Travel Guide about the Ancient Sites, Museums, Monasteries and Churches by Jürgen Weidner - HTML preview

History and Archaeology — an Overview

During the last decades, numerous ancient sites have been excavated in the surroundings of Mount Olympus. The oldest are from the Neolithic, the most recent ones from the Byzantine period.

Historically and archaeologically significant epochs

Neolithic, circa 6500 to 3000 BC

The area around the Olympus and the Pieria Mountains was populated in the 7th millennium BC, possibly from the east. The surrounding area offered the settlers good living conditions, such as a mild climate, water, fertile farmland, and hunting grounds. Finds from this period come among others from Korinos, Ritini, Pigi Athinas, and Makrygialos. Remnants of settlements have barely been excavated, but graves with various burial objects were found: stone and earthen figures, pottery, bone and stone tools, flint arrowheads, and jewelry made of bone or clay.

Bronze Age, circa 3000 to 1000 BC

The settlement shifted in the Bronze Age from the mountains towards the sea. Metalworking, shipping and, related trade brought some prosperity to the region. The archaeological finds from this period come, among others, from the regions around Platamonas (ancient Heraklion), Aiginio, Methone, Pydna, Pigi Artemidos, Trimbina, Kitros (Louloudies) and Korinos.

In addition to individual tombs necropolis and settlements were discovered. The findings from this period include clay pots and larger storage vessels, metal tools, and weapons, as well as jewelry made of gold, silver, bronze and glass.

Mycenaean Period, circa 1650 to 1050 BC

The late Bronze Age is referred to as the Mycenaean period in southern Greece and Crete, as these areas were under the cultural influence of Mycenae. During this time not only Mycenaean goods were traded in the Mediterranean, people but also adopted the Mycenaean customs. The northern border of the spread of the Mycenaean culture lies in Pieria, further north no signs have been discovered yet.

Iron Age, circa 1000 to 700 BC

The coastal population grew and some Bronze Age settlements were apparently abandoned. People were more likely to settle in places offering natural protection. Existing settlements were fortified, the ancient Methone with a threemeterhigh wall. Trade relations were expanded, the Phoenician alphabet introduced and modified for the Greek language.

• displaced settlers from Kerkira (Corfu), who originally came from Eretria (Euboea), settled in ancient Methone during the second half of the 8th century BC.
• In Methone the Greek alphabet was used.
• About 800 BC Leivithra was founded.
• Probably in the second half of the 8th century BC Homer wrote the Odyssey and the Iliad. He laid the foundation for Greek mythology, whose gods resided on the Olympus.

Finds from this period include jewelry, pottery, weapons and tools as well as remnants of wooden grave constructions.

Contrary to tombs near the coast tombs of male deceased in inland Pieria always contain an iron spearhead.

Archaic and Classical Greek Period, circa 700 to 323 BC

• The production of iron has spread across Europe.
• Hesiod wrote the Theogony and thus consolidated the cult of gods of ancient Greece. About 700 BC, the Macedonian kingdom was founded.
• In the first half of the 5th century BC Alexander I introduced coinage in the Macedonian kingdom.
• 432 BC Pydna was besieged by the Athenians.
• Around 424 BC Thucydides first mentioned the existence of Dion.
• After the capture of Pydna by Archelaus, 410 BC, he had the city moved 20 stadia far from the coast to the inland.
• End of the 5th century BC King Archelaus relocated the capital of the kingdom from Aegae (now Vergina) to Pella. He introduced the Olympic Games in Dion, a nineday festival in honor of Zeus and the nine Muses.
• In the 2nd  quarter of the 4th century BC, the Macedonian tombs of Katerini were built.
• In the late 4th century BC the Macedonian tombs of Korinos were built. It‘s assumed that they were used until the beginning of the 3rd century BC.
• 356 BC Alexander III (the Great) was born.
• 354 BC Philip II besieged and defeated Methone.
• Alexander III ruled Macedonia from 336 to 323 BC. During his campaigns, he was represented by the general Antipater.
• Before starting his campaign against the Persians, Alexander sacrificed to the gods in Dion.
• After the battle of Granicus (334 BC), Alexander commissioned the respected sculptor Lysippos to make bronze statues of the 25 horsemen killed during the fighting and place them in the Zeus Olympios sanctuary, Dion.

Hellenistic Period, circa 323 to 146 BC

• 323 BC Alexander the Great died.
• The Antigonids finally took over the rule in Macedonia.
• 219 BC Dion was destroyed by the Aitolians. Philip V had the city rebuilt.
• 179 BC the Macedonian King Perseus sent ambassadors to Rome in order to renew the “good relations” between the two states.
• In the same year, King Perseus initiated an extensive debt cancellation. The reason for this was a bad harvest that drove many of his subjects into indebtedness.
• 169 BC the Romans erected their army camp on the plain between Heraklion (today Platamonas) and Leivithra.
• 168 BC King Perseus was defeated by the Roman army commander Lucius Aemilius Paullus at the Battle of Pydna. Macedonia was divided into four regions, and the Macedonian elite expelled from the country.
• 148 BC with the help of an army of Thracians and the support of the native population, Andriscus tried to liberate Macedonia from the Romans. He was beaten by the Roman general Metellus. Then Rome founded its first province in the east, with Thessaloniki as the capital.

Roman Period, circa 146 BC to 330 AD

• Around 100 BC Leivithra was destroyed by a natural disaster and abandoned by its inhabitants.
• Circa 150 to 200 AD, a temple dedicated to Dionysus was built in Dion.
• In 212 AD, Rome grants Roman citizenship to all inhabitants of the Empire.
• In 285 AD, the empire was divided, the western Roman and eastern Roman Empires emerged.
• In Dion, the Nonae Capratinae was held on July 7 of a year. Female slaves enjoyed certain freedoms during this festival. There was a connection between the worship of Zeus Hypsistos and the Nonae Capratinae.

The archaeological finds from the over 1000year period, the end of the Iron Age to the end of the Roman rule over Pieria, are very extensive. Dion is the leading archaeological site here. Methone benefited from several years of collaboration with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). This gave valuable insights into the beginnings of the Greek alphabet.

The finds are either displayed in museums or they are stored. The Archaeological Museum in Dion is fully equipped, in the Leivithra Park only replicas can be seen, the finds from Leivithra are stored in Dion. In the Archaeological Museum of Makrygialos smaller artifacts and clay vessels are shown.

Coins, jewelry, clay and glass vessels, weapons, tools, building materials, sarcophagi, funerary steles, statues, statuettes, well enclosures, mosaics, a water organ, and many other pieces were discovered.

Byzantine Period, circa 330 to 1453 AD

• 343 Dion was appointed bishopric, the basilica of the bishop was built in two stages of construction in the 4th and 5th centuries.
• In the last quarter of the 5th century at Louloudies, located near the ancient Pydna, a fortified bishopric was built.
• Dion was last mentioned in the 10th century as an administrative district of Byzantine Emperor Konstantinos Porphyrogennetos.
• 1055, the monastery Kanalon was founded. According to the French archaeologist Heuzey, the foundation could have been even earlier.
• In the 12th century, the name Heraklion was replaced by Platamon.
• In 1204 Franconian knights, during their conquest of Constantinople, founded the kingdom of Thessaloniki, which included the castle of Platamon.
• Foundation of the monastery Agia Triada in Sparmos. Records indicate that the monastery was inhabited at least since the year 1386. The exact date is unknown, it may be older.

Important excavation sites of the Byzantine period are the castle of Platamonas, Louloudies and the castle of Pydna (originally a basilica), which was built by Frankish knights above the ruins of the ancient city. Furthermore, there are numerous churches, such as the Holy Trinity (Agia Triada), located above Vrondou, and the Church Panagia in Kondariotissa.

The main finds from this epoch are mainly of ecclesiastical origin. They are exhibited at the Archaeological Museum of Dion, at the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki or in the museums of the monasteries.