Situated at the coast four kilometers West of the Strymona delta, the ancient city of Argilos occupies a hill called « Palaiokastro » (Néa Kerdhília, Serrai, Greece) . The hill, culminating in an acropolis at an altitude of 80 m. high, is naturally protected by ravines on its West and North sides, while its Southeastern side gently slopes down towards the sea. The site of Argilos was first recognized by P. Perdrizet in 1883, basing his identification on the writings of Herodotus, who says that when the Persians crossed the Strymona on their way towards Athens which they wished to conquer, the first city they encountered was Argilos. The site was revisited by P. Collart and P. Devambez in 1930, but no excavation took place. At the end of the 70′s, a few tombs belonging to the necropolis of Argilos were uncovered by the Greek archaeological service. Systematic research only began in 1992 by a joint Greek-Canadian team.
General view of the site and Acropolis
The Greek-Canadian archaeological mission at Argilos is a vast collaboration project between the Ephoria of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities of Kavala and the University of Montreal. Under the direction of Zisis Bonias and Jacques Perreault, the mission numbers more then 20 students from various Canadian and European universities participating in the excavations every year, with assistance of qualified workers and scholars specialized in various areas of greek archaeology (architecture, pottery, numimatics, etc.). The results are brought to the atttention of a wider public by articles in greek and foreign scientific periodicals and by lectures given yearly in Europe and Canada.
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Archaeologists Unearth 2,700-Year-Old Portico in Argilos, Greece
The portico (stoa in Greek) is a long, open structure that often housed shops and delineated public squares from the city – the agora.
“Porticos are well known from the Hellenistic period, from the 3rd to 1st century BC, but earlier examples are extremely rare. The one from Argilos is the oldest example to date from northern Greece and is truly unique,” said Dr Jacques Perreault from the University of Montreal, who is a specialist of the Greek Archaic period and the Argilos project director.
The archaeological site of the ancient city of Argilos is located on the edge of the Aegean Sea. Argilos was the first Greek colony established in this area around the great Strymon River. At its peak in the 5th century BC, Argilos was one of the richest cities in the region.
Archaeological digs in 2013 unearthed a roughly 40-m length of the portico at the site. The open area once contained 7 rooms, five of which have been excavated, each measuring 5 m wide and 7.5 m deep, with a 2.5-m high back wall.
Since Argilos was prosperous, it is plausible that the portico was commissioned and built by the city. If this were the case, an architect would have overseen the construction and architectural integrity of the structure; there would have been no differences in the size of the stones used, and all the rooms would have been identical.
“The construction techniques and the stones used are different for one room to another, hinting that several masons were used for each room. This indicates that the shop owners themselves were probably responsible for building the rooms, that private enterprise and not the city was the source of this stoa,” Dr Perreault said.
In the Iron Age, northern Greece was an Eldorado. The valley of the Strymon River, whose mouth is located less than 3 km from Argilos, overflowed with gold and silver mines. With its ports and nearby mines, Argilos was a strategic location for trade in precious metals. But its prosperity declined rapidly from the mid-5th century BC, when the Athenians founded the nearby city of Amphipolis. In 357 BC, Philip II conquered the whole region and deported the inhabitants from Argilos to Amphipolis, the new seat of the king of Macedonia.
Thus deserted, Argilos remained frozen in time, which is why it is possible today to discover its buildings and the many vestiges of human activity that characterized them.
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Discovery of a 2,700-year-old portico in Greece
Néa Kerdhília, Serrai, Greece
A 2,700-year-old portico was discovered this summer on the site of the ancient city of Argilos in northern Greece, following an archaeological excavation led by Jacques Perreault, Professor at the University of Montreal's Centre of Classical Studies and Zisis Bonias, an archaeologist with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports.
In ancient Greece, the portico—stoa in Greek—was a long, open structure that often housed shops and delineated public squares from the city—the agora.
“Porticos are well known from the Hellenistic period, from the 3rd to 1st century BC, but earlier examples are extremely rare. The one from Argilos is the oldest example to date from northern Greece and is truly unique,” said Jacques Perreault, who is a specialist of the Greek Archaic period (7th and 6th centuries BC.)
Located on the edge of the Aegean Sea, the ancient city of Argilos was the first Greek colony established in this area around the great Strymon River. At its peak in the 5th century BC, Argilos was one of the richest cities in the region.
Since 1992, Professor Perreault and Dr Bonias have excavated the hill covering Argilos and the University of Montreal has acquired some of the private land sitting on it. Acquisitions were made on behalf of the Greek government, but the excavators retain the rights over scientific research. The remains of the Argilos portico are located on one of these sites, at the northern end of what was the city's commercial district, 50 metres from the port area at the time.
Traces of the inhabitants' entrepreneurship
Archaelogical digs in 2013 unearthed a roughly 40-metre length of the portico. The open area once contained seven rooms, five of which have been excavated, each measuring 5 metres wide and 7.5 metres deep, with a 2.5-metre high back wall.
Since Argilos was prosperous, it is plausible that the portico was commissioned and built by the city. If this were the case, an architect would have overseen the construction and architectural integrity of the structure; there would have been no differences in the size of the stones used, and all the rooms would have been identical.
However, examination of the remains indicates just the contrary.
“The construction techniques and the stones used are different for one room to another, hinting that several masons were used for each room,” Perreault said. “This indicates that the shop owners themselves were probably responsible for building the rooms, that ‘private enterprise' and not the city was the source of this stoa.”
A prosperous city falls into oblivion
In the Iron Age, northern Greece was an Eldorado. The valley of the Strymon River, whose mouth is located less than three kilometres from Argilos, overflowed with gold and silver mines.
With its ports and nearby mines, Argilos was a strategic location for trade in precious metals.
But its prosperity declined rapidly from the mid-5th century BC, when the Athenians founded the nearby city of Amphipolis. In 357 BC, Philip II conquered the whole region and deported the inhabitants from Argilos to Amphipolis, the new seat of the king of Macedonia.
Thus deserted, Argilos remained frozen in time, which is why it is possible today to discover its buildings and the many vestiges of human activity that characterized them.
A popular practicum location
Since it has been under the responsibility of Perreault and Bonias, the Argilos site has provided a practicum location for some 450 University of Montreal students under their supervision.
“Each year, 20 to 30 students spend four to six weeks at Argilos to learn excavation techniques and analysis of archaeological material, and to visit various archaeological sites in northern Greece,” says Perreault.
And the experience is far from over. The portico itself has not yet been fully excavated, and according to the results of a three-metre deep geophysical survey, the structure appears to continue, and more discoveries thus await the archaeologists.
Notes
This document is a translation from a text originally published in French. The University of Montreal is officially known as Université de Montréal.
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MONTREAL, CANADA—A team of archaeologists and students from the University of Montreal’s Center of Classical Studies and the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports is excavating a 2,700-year-old portico at the ancient city of Argilos in northern Greece. “Porticos are well known from the Hellenistic period, from the third to first century B.C., but earlier examples are extremely rare. The one from Argilos is the oldest example to date from northern Greece and is truly unique,” explained Jacques Perreault of the University of Montreal. Argilos was a thriving Greek colony in the fifth century B.C., fed by the gold and silver mines in the valley of the Strymon River. Five of the portico’s rooms have been excavated; the variety of stones and construction techniques used in the building suggest that each shop was built by a different mason. Eventually, the city was deserted in 357 B.C., when Philip II conquered the region and deported the residents to nearby Amphipolis - Néa Kerdhília, Serrai, Greece
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A 2700-Year-old Portico Discovered in Greece
Archeologists digging at the site of the ancient city Argilos in Northern Greece found a 2,700-year-old structure known as a portico, a row of shops and other businesses. According to a news release from the University of Montreal, the find is unique in northern Greece and one of the oldest such structures known to man. Jacques Perreault, Professor at the University of Montreal’s Centre of Classical Studies, said, “Porticos are well known from the Hellenistic period, from the 3rd to 1st century BC, but earlier examples are extremely rare. The one from Argilos is the oldest example to date from northern Greece and is truly unique.” Perreault and Zisis Bonias, an archaeologist with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, are leading the excavation of Argilos together. The city flourished in the 5th century BC, a wealthy seaside trading city located on the Aegean Sea.
Archeologists digging at the site of the ancient city Argilos in Northern Greece found a 2,700-year-old structure known as a portico, a row of shops and other businesses. According to a news release from the University of Montreal, the find is unique in northern Greece and one of the oldest such structures known to man.
Jacques Perreault, Professor at the University of Montreal’s Centre of Classical Studies, said, “Porticos are well known from the Hellenistic period, from the 3rd to 1st century BC, but earlier examples are extremely rare. The one from Argilos is the oldest example to date from northern Greece and is truly unique.”
Perreault and Zisis Bonias, an archaeologist with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, are leading the excavation of Argilos together. The city flourished in the 5th century BC, a wealthy seaside trading city located on the Aegean Sea.
Roughly 40 yards of the portico — or “stoa” in Greek — have been unearthed this year. There were 7 open rooms to the portico, five of which have been excavated. Initially, archeologists expected to find that the rooms of the portico were all identical, but in fact, they’re all different from each other.
“The construction techniques and the stones used are different for one room to another, hinting that several masons were used for each room,” said Perreault. “This indicates that the shop owners themselves were probably responsible for building the rooms, that ‘private enterprise’ and not the city was the source of this stoa.”
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What kind of residential, political and commercial structures did the Greek colonies on the northwestern coast of the Aegean have 2,700 years ago? Which language prevailed when the colonists mixed with the local Thracian population and what was their relationship to the rest of the Hellenic world?
An ongoing joint Greek-Canadian excavation at ancient Argilos – the oldest of the four colonies (the others being Sani, Akanthos and Stageira) established in the region of Macedonia by people from the island of Andros in 655 BC – began in 1992 and the research team, headed by Zisis Bonias and Jacques Perreault, is now able to piece together the first historical narrative about the colony’s gradual Hellenization, its commercial and artistic activities, its heyday in the 5th and 6th centuries BC and its demise in the late 3rd century BC, attributed to the establishment of Amphipolis by the Athenians in 437 BC, just 6 kilometers away.
Argilos was made up of homes in the traditional Aegean style, roads that resembled the small streets of the islands, a commercial center, a system for draining rainwater and a three-story building that in Classical times served as an olive press, the best preserved of its kind in Greece.
Recent evidence, however, has also revealed ceramic objects on which words are written that resemble the Ionic dialect but also point to a variety of different languages and dialects having been used there.
Engravings, symbols and epigraphs on the surfaces of clay objects used in trade or domestic life not only identify the name of the city but also tell us a lot about the evolution of writing in northern Greece and about different aspects of life there from the mid-7th century to the early 3rd century BC.
There are only a few entire words that have been salvaged: a private journal of quantities and payments, a vessel used as a measuring unit, invocations, names and a non-Greek epigraph that is probably a declaration of love, stating that Astiagus is “ugly” and Epigenes “handsome.”
The findings were examined by Yannis Tzifopoulos, a professor of ancient Greek philosophy and epigraphy at Thessaloniki’s Aristotle University, who says they are a variation of the Ionian dialect. Some of the finds suggest that the colonists from Andros used the island’s alphabet in Argilos, though it is not at all certain that this eventually became the colony’s official language.
“The different shapes of the letters point to the likelihood, if not proof, that this was a colony that spoke various languages and dialects,” Tzifopoulos explains, adding that the use of letters can be likened to that of Latin letters to write Greek words, or “Greeklish.”
The 15-hectare site of ancient Argilos stands atop the hill of Palaiokastro, above the Strymonas River delta – a strategic spot, particularly for tapping into Thrace’s natural wealth, and especially its gold and silver. The Thasians and Persians sought to control the city, but as archaeologists explain, only the Athenians managed to establish a foothold in the region.
In its heyday, Argilos had a busting commercial center that also traded in art and helped fund the Delian League. Its influence, however, began to wane as nearby Amphipolis grew more powerful, so that by the end of the 3rd century BC, Argilos was practically deserted. It was never rebuilt in full, even after being conquered by Philip II of Macedon in 357 BC, except in and around the acropolis. The ruins of a mansion at the top of the hill that was built for one of the Macedonian king’s “hetairoi” (influential families and army generals) is a wonderful example of Hellenistic architecture.
There are also a few parts of the olive press still in evidence, such as the millstone, while a replica of the device has been built by the Piraeus Bank Cultural Foundation for the Museum of the Olive and Greek Olive Oil in Sparta in the Peloponnese.
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Discovery of a 2,700-year-old Portico in Greece
A 2,700-year-old portico was discovered this summer on the site of the ancient city of Argilos in northern Greece, following an archaeological excavation led by Jacques Perreault, Professor at the University of Montreal's Centre of Classical Studies and Zisis Bonias, an archaeologist with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports.
"Porticos are well known from the Hellenistic period, from the 3rd to 1st century BC, but earlier examples are extremely rare. The one from Argilos is the oldest example to date from northern Greece and is truly unique," said Jacques Perreault, who is a specialist of the Greek Archaic period (7th and 6th centuries BC.)
Located on the edge of the Aegean Sea, the ancient city of Argilos was the first Greek colony established in this area around the great Strymon River. At its peak in the 5th century BC, Argilos was one of the richest cities in the region.
Since 1992, Professor Perreault and Dr Bonias have excavated the hill covering Argilos and the University of Montreal has acquired some of the private land sitting on it. Acquisitions were made on behalf of the Greek government, but the excavators retain the rights over scientific research. The remains of the Argilos portico are located on one of these sites, at the northern end of what was the city's commercial district, 50 metres from the port area at the time.
Traces of the inhabitants' entrepreneurship
Archaelogical digs in 2013 unearthed a roughly 40-metre length of the portico. The open area once contained seven rooms, five of which have been excavated, each measuring 5 metres wide and 7.5 metres deep, with a 2.5-metre high back wall.
Since Argilos was prosperous, it is plausible that the portico was commissioned and built by the city. If this were the case, an architect would have overseen the construction and architectural integrity of the structure; there would have been no differences in the size of the stones used, and all the rooms would have been identical.
However, examination of the remains indicates just the contrary.
"The construction techniques and the stones used are different for one room to another, hinting that several masons were used for each room," Perreault said. "This indicates that the shop owners themselves were probably responsible for building the rooms, that 'private enterprise' and not the city was the source of this stoa."
A prosperous city falls into oblivion
In the Iron Age, northern Greece was an Eldorado. The valley of the Strymon River, whose mouth is located less than three kilometres from Argilos, overflowed with gold and silver mines.
With its ports and nearby mines, Argilos was a strategic location for trade in precious metals.
But its prosperity declined rapidly from the mid-5th century BC, when the Athenians founded the nearby city of Amphipolis. In 357 BC, Philip II conquered the whole region and deported the inhabitants from Argilos to Amphipolis, the new seat of the king of Macedonia.
Thus deserted, Argilos remained frozen in time, which is why it is possible today to discover its buildings and the many vestiges of human activity that characterized them.
A popular practicum location
Since it has been under the responsibility of Perreault and Bonias, the Argilos site has provided a practicum location for some 450 University of Montreal students under their supervision.
"Each year, 20 to 30 students spend four to six weeks at Argilos to learn excavation techniques and analysis of archaeological material, and to visit various archaeological sites in northern Greece," says Perreault.
And the experience is far from over. The portico itself has not yet been fully excavated, and according to the results of a three-metre deep geophysical survey, the structure appears to continue, and more discoveries thus await the archaeologists.
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WELCOME TO NEW KERDYLIA - nea KERDILIA - SERRES - GREECE
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Néa Kerdhília, Serrai, Greece