Europe’s past is inextricably linked with ancient Greece. In the heart of Macedonia, close to the city of Pella (the capital of the ancient kingdom of Macedon) and Axios River, lies the ancient city of Europus, an important urban center of the ancient Bottiaea region. It was a prosperous city in the heart of the Macedonian kingdom, and the birthplace of Seleucus I, one of Alexander the Great’s most important successors and founder of the legendary Seleucid Empire.
The city’s inhabitants are said to have been the first to bear the ethnonym “European” – as the name Europus has the same root as the name Europe. The rather obscure history of Europos is highlighted in the special exhibition “The City of Europeans”, the result of cooperation between the National Archaeological Museum and the Ephorate of Antiquities of Kilkis, as part of the “National Museum Encounters” initiative. The exhibition will run until Sunday March 16, 2025, and will be accompanied by lectures, guided tours and other activities for the public.
Visitors to the exhibition will have the opportunity to discover key features of the ancient city through Hellenistic tombs, as well as installations and laboratories that shed light on many little-known aspects of daily life.
Europus: an ancient crossroads between the Aegean Sea and the Balkans
The ancient city of Europus lies southeast of Mount Paiko, west of Axios River. Its location allowed it to control the waterway between the southern Aegean and the Balkans. The region’s dense forests and the possibility of transporting timber across the Axios contributed to its early development as an intermediate trading post with southern Greece.
The first traces of human settlements date back to the prehistoric period (c. 3000 BC). In classical times, the town was part of the administrative region of Bottiaea, and Thucydides refers to it in his account of the Peloponnesian War. In Hellenistic and Roman times, the town was put to the test by repeated invasions, as witnessed by the honorary statues of Roman officials who helped repel the invaders.
Excavations and unexpected discoveries complete the evidence of aspects of the city’s public, private, economic and religious life.
The archaeological site includes an excavated part of the Europus cemetery, where the good preservation of surface structures and enclosures has made it possible to track social stratification, the latter being traced in the selection of category, size, building material of funerary monuments (Macedonian, carved or brick, vaulted or with a simple tile roof) over a long period of use, from the Classical to the early Christian period (4th B.C.). Χ.- 4th-6th).
Translated from the original article which appeared on Grèce Hebdo (Intro photo: Panoramic view of the ceramic kiln in the workshop area of the ancient city. Source: Ephorate of Antiquities of Kilkis)
TAGS: ARCHEOLOGY | DESTINATIONS
