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118-566: Emathia initially was the region of the Macedonian capital, Pella , also of the capital of the Macedonian League , Beroia . In portraying these poleis moderns often based and still base their conclusions upon the modern map. Core samples and radiocarbon dating confirm that 19th and early 20th century literary analyses often had not taken into consideration changes in the terrain and the latest available archaeological data. Pella

236-554: A UNESCO World Heritage Site , lies 12 km (7 mi) south-east of the city centre of Veria. Every summer (August 15 to September 15) the "Imathiotika" festivities take place with a cultural program deriving mainly from Veria's tradition. The site of Elia has an extensive view of the Imathia plain. Neighboring Seli is a well-known ski resort and a few kilometers outside the city is the Aliakmonas river dam. Veria has one of

354-649: A lead scroll, dated to the first half of the 4th century BC (c. 375–350 BC). It was published in the Hellenic Dialectology Journal in 1993. It is one of four texts found until today that might represent a local dialectal form of ancient Greek in Macedonia, all of them identifiable as Doric. These confirm that a Doric Greek dialect was spoken in Macedonia, as was previously expected from the West Greek forms of names found in Macedonia. As

472-880: A Haliacmon tributary that provides hydroelectric power to the national electric power transmission network and irrigation water to agricultural customers of the Veria plain. Veria has a humid subtropical climate ( Köppen climate classification Cfa ) that borders on a cold semi-arid climate ( Köppen climate classification BSk ). Since the city lies in a transitional climatic zone, its climate displays characteristics of continental, semi-arid and subtropical/Mediterranean climates. Summers (from April to October) are hot (often exceptionally hot) and dry (or mildly humid, with rainfalls that occur during thunderstorms), and winters (from mid-October to March) are wet and cool, but temperatures remain above or well above freezing (meteorological phenomenon of Alkyonides ). Snow typically falls once or twice

590-661: A center of medieval Greek learning; signs of this prosperity are reflected in the many Byzantine churches that were built at this time, during which it was a Christian bishopric (see below). In the 7th century, the Slavic tribe of the Drougoubitai raided the lowlands below the city, while in the late 8th century Empress Irene of Athens is said to have rebuilt and expanded the city and named it Irenopolis (Ειρηνούπολις) after herself, although some sources place this Berrhoea-Irenopolis further east, towards Thrace . The city

708-661: A certain Lyzikos, in turn surrendered the city to the Ottoman Sultan (perhaps Bayezid I ). After the Ottoman conquest he and his relatives were settled at Zichna . This story explains the presence of Gagauz people in Veria and its environs. The Ottoman chroniclers report that the town was first captured in 1385, while the Byzantine short chronicles record the date as 8 May 1387. The city changed hands several times over

826-466: A dampened sinusoidal curve excursing cyclically above and below sea level. This fluctuation explains why the white layer appears above sea level. Currently there is no subsidence, explaining why aggradation has the upper hand. The flood basins are all full of silt, extending the shorelines outward. There is dating available on NN. The earliest settlement there, termed "the Early Neolithic" (EN),

944-549: A disturbed layer over the undisturbed layer of 0.5 m (1.6 ft). The silt was classified by the excavators as lacustrine . It was pollen-free. Although it had accumulated under a lake, it was high and dry at least at that location when the first Neolithic settlers built their village upon it. This same layer was found at the bottom of an excavated drainage ditch 100 m to the SW, the layer's top surface being at 6 m above current sea level ( asl ). NN seems to have been constructed on

1062-401: A large number of points are usually available, often enabling the application of techniques such as curve fitting . In cores and other columns of sedimentaty layers points of known date are few and far between. The core only gives a sequence of layers associated with depths. The rates of sedimentation and the times of the layers remain to be determined. Radiocarbon dating of suitable materials in

1180-511: A lion hunt and Dionysus riding a panther. In modern times it finds itself as the starting point of the Alexander The Great Marathon , in honour of the city's ancient heritage. The site was explored by 19th-century voyagers including Holand , François Pouqueville , Félix de Beaujour , Cousinéry, Delacoulonche, Hahn , Gustave Glotz and Struck, based on the descriptions provided by Titus Livius . The first excavation

1298-463: A mound of it. The layer in the ditch, however, represents ground level. In 1965 a core, subsequently named GIANNITB, taken by Sytze Bottema from the central area of the alluvium 7.5 km (4.7 mi) to the NW along a line to Gianitsa , revealed a physically similar white clay layer, believed to be of the same surface. This white layer occupied the 13th meter of the core, with a nominal depth of 12.52 m,

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1416-680: A near-circle around the shores of what was then the Thermaic Gulf . It was not only near the sea, it was around it, on a strip of shoreline between the sea and the mountains. They were apparently independent as no one came to their aid, and they fell piecemeal. The Macedonians began by attacking the Pierians of Pieria in the Pierian Mountains between the Haliakmon and Mount Olympus . They escaped by founding Piereis beyond

1534-508: A new field of study, Paleo-Balkan languages , which is not a single language group. These are believed remnants of previous successive immigrations down the Axios. Settlements in Emathia are mainly towns of prehistoric antiquity placed around the edge of the plain, except for Nea Nikomedeia, which extended out into the plain. It was Bintliff's hypothesis that at the time ancient NN was founded,

1652-836: A number of Ottoman public buildings of the late 19th century. The city's famous bezesten , however, burned down in the great fire of 1864. Museums in Veria include the Archaeological Museum of Veroia , the Byzantine Museum of Veroia , the Folklore Museum of Veroia , a museum of modern Greek history and the Aromanian cultural museum. There is also a 19th-century Jewish synagogue in the protected former Jewish neighbourhood in Barbuta. The archaeological site of Aegae/Aigai (Αἰγαί; modern name Vergina ),

1770-503: A permanent basis, whether privately or collectively. They also reared farm animals. The fact that they were able to grind stone tools is only incidental. They could perform a large variety of domestic arts, such as weaving, and pottery-making, that required fixed facilities. Stone, mud, wood, and thatch were the first durable materials employed. Before the Neolithic but few sources are willing to consider any country as being settled. By

1888-700: A place of worship for the Romans. Diocletian made the large and populous city one of two capitals of the Roman province of Macedonia , eponymous in the civil Diocese of Macedonia . Within the city there was a Jewish settlement where the Apostle Paul , after leaving Thessalonica , and his companion Silas preached to the Jewish and Greek communities of the city in AD 50/51 or 54/55. The Bible records: As soon as it

2006-411: A relatively major movement of people from there into Emathia. One might infer that it was not very far away. At the beginning of the passage Thucydides already hints that there are Macedonians in upper Macedonia., practically within sight of the lowland villages. An ancient Macedonian language is known to have existed, whether a dialect of Greek (current theory) or a distinct language close to Greek. It

2124-668: A result, the Pella curse tablet has been forwarded as a strong argument that the Ancient Macedonian language was a dialect of North-Western Greek , part of the Doric dialects. Veria Veria ( Greek : Βέροια or Βέρροια , romanized :  Véroia or Vérroia ; Aromanian : Veria ), officially transliterated Veroia , historically also spelled Beroea or Berea , is a city in Central Macedonia , in

2242-555: A season. Major temperature swings between day and night are seldom. The modern town has cotton and woolen mills and trades in wheat, fruit and vegetables. Lignite mines operate in the area. The largest wind farm in Greece is to be constructed in the Vermio Mountains by Acciona, S.A. It will consist of 174 wind turbines , which will be connected to the national electric power transmission network, generating 614 MW. Veria

2360-417: A series of rooms around a central courtyard, generally with porticos. The oldest parts date from the time of Philip II, 350-330 BC, and the palace was further developed over time. The south facade of the palace, towards the city, consisted of one large (at least 153 metres long) portico, constructed on a 2 m-high foundation. The relationship between the four principal complexes is defined by an interruption in

2478-554: A stag, a familiar motif also of Scythian art, another depicts Dionysus riding a leopard. These mosaics adorned the floors of rich houses, often named after their representations, particularly the Houses of Helen and Dionysus. The palace is situated on a 70 m high hill north of the city, a strategic position commanding the entire area and occupying a vast area of 75,000 m . It consisted of several large architectural groupings on terraces ascending from south-west to north-east, each with

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2596-667: A stone foundation; some of which has been located North of the palace, and some in the South next to the lake. Inside the ramparts, three hills occupy the North. In pride of place in the centre of the city is the Agora, built in the last quarter of the 4th century BC and an architectural gem, unique in conception and size; it covered ~ 7 hectares or 10 city blocks. Pella is one of the first known cities to have had an extensive piped water supply to individual house and waste water disposal from most of

2714-422: A suitable biomass (such as wood) can be dated by radiocarbon dating , or C-14 dating. It is based on the fact that the atmosphere contains a certain proportion of the radioactive isotope of C, Carbon-14 , which it passes on to living biomasses through regular chemical interchange and reaction, which ceases on the death of the biomass. Due to regular radioactive decay the amount of the now isolated isotope depends on

2832-416: A top surface of 12.39 m, and a bottom surface of 12.65 m, which was the very last of the core. It is described as consisting of "light-grey, marly clay." A meter of the core should not be confused with a meter of sea level. In this case the core began at 1 m asl, so its 13th m of the core was 12 m bsl (below sea level). Subsequently, the white layer began to turn up in other cores and at other locations around

2950-653: Is a frequently used name by Latin poets for Alexander the Great , as in Milton , the Emathian conqueror . Strabo relates that "what is now called Macedonia was in earlier times called Emathia" but since Homer, the earliest source considers Emathia only a region next to Pieria, Strabo's reference should be interpreted in the Roman era context of Emathia's name reviving. The same stands for Latin writers who name Thessaly as Emathia;

3068-596: Is connected to the motorway system of Greece and Europe through A2 Egnatia Odos , the Greek part of the European route E90 . It is also connected to more than 500 local and national destinations via the national coach network ( KTEL ). Veria is linked to Thessaloniki by the Thessaloniki- Edessa railway , with connections to Athens and Alexandroupoli . Thessaloniki International Airport "Macedonia"

3186-468: Is dated 5500-5300 BC based on C-14 dates, which, allowing 1950 for the AD time, would be 7450-7250 BP, the 8th millennium BP. A subsequent layer of detritus suggests an abandonment followed by a "Late Neolithic" reoccupation during which the ditch was dug. The EN, being directly on the white layer, places the layer at settlement in the 8th millennium BP. There is a problem with applying the general rate of subsidence to specific instances of subsidence, such as

3304-594: Is further mentioned by Polybius and Livy as the capital of Philip V and of Perseus during the Macedonian Wars fought against the Roman Republic . In 168 BC, it was sacked by the Romans , and its treasury transported to Rome. Livy reported how the city looked in 167 BC to Lucius Aemilius Paulus Macedonicus , the Roman who defeated Perseus at the battle of Pydna : Pella was declared capital of

3422-529: Is known from onomastic and epigraphic evidence of the 1st millennium BC. Subsequently, it disappeared in favor of koine Greek , the lingua franca of the region. Since there was a Macedonian language, Thucydides' passage implies that the change in population was also a change in language; otherwise, the displaced indigenes would have been thought Macedonian also. As to the many tribes displaced, they must have taken their languages with them. Attempts to define these languages from epigraphy and onomastics have created

3540-467: Is mentioned as the seat of a strategos , and it apparently was the capital of a theme in the 11th century. The city briefly fell to Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria at the end of the 10th century, but the Byzantine emperor Basil II quickly regained it in 1001 since its Bulgarian governor, Dobromir, surrendered the city without a fight. The city is not mentioned again until the late 12th century, when it

3658-476: Is reputed to have been named by its mythical creator Beres (also spelled Pheres) or from the daughter of the king of Berroia who was thought to be the son of Macedon . Veria enjoyed great prosperity under the kings of the Argead Dynasty (whose most famous member was Alexander the Great ) who made it their second most important city after Pella ; the city reached the height of its glory and influence in

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3776-548: Is the closest international airport, located 88 km (55 mi) east-northeast of Veria. The city has a number of Byzantine monuments, as well as post-Byzantine churches built on Byzantine foundations. The most significant Byzantine monument is the Anastasis Church (Church of the Resurrection) with its "spectacular frescoes" from 1315, bearing comparison with some of the finest works of Palaiologan art in

3894-424: Is to compare a run of C-14 dates with dates from tree rings. The calibration curve soon made its appearance. It is a plot of uncalibrated dates on the y-axis with calibrated dates on the x-axis. The worldwide graph of sea level versus millennia bp shows a slope approximating a straight line at a steep angle until about 8000 bp, when it breaks, becomes shallow, and at about 6000 bp ceases to show subsidence, except for

4012-533: Is up to 15 metres wide. This street is the primary access to the central public agora , which occupied a space of ten blocks. Two North-South streets are also a bit wider than the rest, and serve to connect the city to the port further South. This type of plan dates to the first half of the 4th century BC, and is very close to the ideal in design, though it distinguishes itself by large block size; Olynthus in Chalcidice for example had blocks of 86.3×35 metres. On

4130-580: The Hellenistic period , during the reign of the Antigonid Dynasty . During this time, Veria became the seat of the Koinon of Macedonians (Κοινόν Μακεδόνων), minted its own coinage and held sports games named Alexandreia , in honor of Alexander the Great, with athletes from all over Greece competing in them. Veria surrendered to Rome in 168 BC. During the Roman empire , Veria became

4248-619: The Loudias River as a remnant. Consequently, the courses of modern rivers there, as well as the alluvial area, now called "the Central Macedonian Plain," are modern and cannot be used to elucidate the details presented by the literary sources. Today most of the C. Macedonian Plain is occupied by the Axios Delta National Park, mainly a collection of wetlands. Modern Imathia, etymologically from

4366-518: The Pierian Mountains , where it is dammed in a few places to impound reservoirs. The last, Haliakmon Dam, creates an artificial lake. From there it crosses the plain to the NE, being joined by its tributary, the Moglenitsas , which ends there. The Haliakmon flows from there to the gulf at Delta Aliakmona. On the west of the plain the Vermio Mountains form a wall of hills trending NNE. They extend from

4484-528: The Trojan War . Homer , who makes no mention of Macedonia, places Emathia as a region next to Pieria . but Hera darted down and left the peak of Olympus; on Pieria she stepped and lovely Emathia, and sped over the snowy mountains of the Thracian horsemen, even over their topmost peaks, nor grazed she the ground with her feet; and from Athos she stepped upon the billowy sea, and so came to Lemnos ,

4602-445: The ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon . Currently, it is located 1 km outside the modern town of Pella . Pella was probably founded at the beginning of the 4th century BC by Archelaus I as the new capital of Macedon, supplanting Aigai . The city was the birthplace of Philip II in 382 BC, and of Alexander the Great , his son, in 356 BC. Pella quickly became the largest and richest city in Macedonia and flourished particularly under

4720-615: The disintegration of the Serbian Empire, it passed once more to Byzantium by ca. 1375, but was henceforth menaced by the rising power of the Ottoman Turks . According to a tradition preserved by Yazıcıoğlu Ali , the two younger sons of the Seljuk sultan Kaykaus II were settled by Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos in Veria, and made its governors. One of their descendants converted to Christianity, and one of his progeny,

4838-428: The geographic region of Macedonia , northern Greece , capital of the regional unit of Imathia . It is located 511 kilometres (318 miles) north-northwest of the capital Athens and 73 km (45 mi) west-southwest of Thessaloniki . Even by the standards of Greece, Veria is an old city; first mentioned in the writings of Thucydides in 432 BC, there is evidence that it was populated as early as 1000 BC. Veria

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4956-552: The regional unit of Imathia and the seat of a Church of Greece Metropolitan bishop in the Ecumenical Patriarchate , as well as a Latin Catholic titular see . The extensive archaeological site of Vergina (ancient Aegae, the first capital of Macedon ), a UNESCO World Heritage Site containing the tomb of Philip II of Macedon , lies 12 km (7 mi) south-east of the city center of Veria. The city

5074-400: The 2nd or 3rd century BC. Overall, archaeologists have uncovered 1,000 tombs at Pella since 2000, but these only represent an estimated 5% of those at the site. In 2009 43 graves containing rich and elaborate grave goods were found and in 2010 37 tombs dating from 650 to 280 BC were discovered containing rich ancient Macedonian artifacts ranging from ceramics to precious metals. One of the tombs

5192-459: The 3rd administrative division of the Roman province of Macedonia , and was possibly the seat of the Roman governor. Activity continued to be vigorous until the early 1st century BC and, crossed by the Via Egnatia , Pella remained a significant point on the route between Dyrrachium and Thessalonica . In about 90 BC the city was destroyed by an earthquake ; shops and workshops dating from

5310-473: The C. Macedonian Plain compared with core studies from the whole Mediterranean have established that throughout the Aegean the rate of subsidence is on the average a little less than a metre per thousand years, which expresses itself as a rise in sea level to an observer at the surface. Bintliff calls this a "eustatic rise." The shoreline at any isochrone ; that is a line on the basin wall every part of which has

5428-525: The Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, they went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up. The brothers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea. The men who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible. In December 2021, archaeologists announced

5546-494: The Macedonian Plain. It was clear that at some geologic time prior to the Neolithic the white layer had been deposited at the bottom of a lake and that it was continuous. Subsequently, subsidence dropped the greater part of the bottom, which then alluviated. The edges, such as NN, having been found at the surface, can be presumed not to have dropped. The difference in altitude between the exposed settlement layer at NN and

5664-589: The Macedonians: Eordaeans , Almopians , Anthemians , Crestonians , Bisaltians , and others. Thucydides, however, raises as many questions as he answers. Hammond says, "The extraordinary thing about this account is that Thucydides does not tell us where the Macedones started from on their career of conquest." If extraordinary to modern historians, it may have been well known to Thucidides' target audience. From wherever it was, there must have been

5782-590: The Nazis. Postwar Veria saw a significant rise in population, and a greatly improved standard of living. The 1980s and 1990s in particular were a period of prosperity, with the agricultural businesses and cooperatives in the fertile plains around Veria successfully exporting their products in Europe, the US and Asia. The discovery of the tomb of Philip II of Macedon in the nearby archaeological site of Vergina (ancient Aegae,

5900-532: The Roman province of Macedonia included Thessaly. In 12.462 of Metamorphoses , an Emathian named Halesus is killed by the centaur Latreus and in Catullus 64. 324, Peleus is Emathiae tutamen (protector). Probably because of its use as the name of the most powerful and most influential state of ancient Greek history, Macedon is one of the most commonly folk-etymologized and mythologized names of ancient Greek. One hears of this or that ancient hero assigning

6018-590: The Slavs invading Greece laid claim to the name creating a country called Macedonia, and then another, North Macedonia , despite Greek protests that Macedonia had never had a north in that location. The issue is a contentious one today (see Macedonia naming dispute ). Because the Macedonian Empire was the last one of ancient Greece before the Roman Empire, Macedonia has the reputation of being late in

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6136-553: The Strymon to the east, leaving Pieria to become the first district of Lower Macedonia. Next in order was Bottiaea . The Macedonians could not, as some modern authors suggest they might have done, follow any modern routes across the plain. There was no plain, only the Thermaic Gulf, to which access was impeded by swampland. This was a natural set-up for a victory, as only one tribal state at a time appeared before them, and there

6254-655: The W bank of the Haliakmon northward into Almopia , being paralleled the entire distance by the Moglenitsas River. Various smaller streams drain the Vermio Mountains from west to east, becoming tributaries of the Moglenitsas. The region derives ultimately from a calcic lake in a subsiding region during the Pliocene (5.33-2.58 Mya ). The white, calcareous layer crystallized out of solution and

6372-425: The amount of $ 1.000.000. Since then, the library became a role model for other libraries in Greece. The Department of Spatial Planning and Development Engineering of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki was located in Veria since 2004, but in 2013 it was relocated to Thessaloniki. Veria is twinned with: Veria is home to many sports clubs. Most prominent is the handball team of Filippos Veria, competing in

6490-401: The bottom of the core is calculated at 7.5 m asl + 12 m bsl = 19.5 m (64 ft). The marker layer can be used to determine dates and depths as well as the general type of terrain. Typically the data is presented in a graph of sea level depth in m on the y-axis and numbers of millennia on the x-axis. Thus the slope at any point is a rate, m/mill., called the rate of aggradation. It is also

6608-474: The catalog of ancient Greek ascendencies. To the contrary, the name of Makedonis is among the earliest of Greek literature. It appears as a place in the works of Hesiod , a contemporary of Homer . Hesiod represents ethna by mythological ancestors. Ethnic history then becomes the personal narrative of the figures. Most of his works now only survive in fragments. In Fragment 5 of Catalogues he says: And she [Thyia, daughter of Deukalion] conceived and bare to Zeus,

6726-549: The catastrophe have been found with remains of their merchandise, though the city was eventually rebuilt over its ruins. Cicero stayed there in 58 BC, though by then the provincial seat had already transferred to Thessalonica Pella was promoted to a Roman Colony sometime between 45 and 30 BC and its currency was marked Colonia Iulia Augusta Pella . Augustus settled peasants there whose land he had usurped to give to his veterans. But, unlike other Macedonian colonies such as Philippi , Dion , and Cassandreia , it never came under

6844-598: The city near the lagoon continued to be occupied until the 4th century. In about AD 180, Lucian of Samosata could describe it in passing as "now insignificant, with very few inhabitants". It later temporarily bore the name Diocletianopolis . In the Byzantine period, the Roman site was occupied by a fortified village. Excavations there by the Greek Archaeological Service begun in 1957 revealed large, well-built houses with colonnaded courts and rooms with mosaic floors portraying such scenes as

6962-416: The city of godlike Thoas The Homeric name was renewed mainly in Roman times and Ptolemy mentions some cities of Emathia. In Nonnus , Dionysiaca 48.6 Typhoeus having stripped the mountains of Emathia, he cast the rocky missiles at Dionysus . In Ovid, Metamorphoses 5.313 the daughters of Pierus say: "we grant Emathia's plains, to where uprise Paeonia's peaks of snow". The Emathian or Emathius dux

7080-427: The city was peaceful, without walls or garrison; it had 4000 houses, 16 Muslim quarters, 15 Christian quarters, and 2 Jewish congregations. The city was a prosperous center of rice production. According to the 1881/82-1893 Ottoman General Census, the kaza of Veria (Karaferiye) had a total population of 25,034, consisting of 15,103 Greeks , 7,325 Muslims, 2,174 Bulgarians , 393 Jews , and 39 foreign citizens. Veria

7198-525: The city's incorporation to Greece), and was officially annexed to Greece following the signing of the Treaty of Athens in November 1913. During World War II , Veria was under Nazi occupation between 1941 and 1944. An important resistance movement developed in the city, with the left-wing EAM gaining the sympathy of the inhabitants; the people of Veria took part in resistance activities, such as sabotaging

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7316-418: The city. The agora was surrounded by the shaded colonnades of stoas , and streets of enclosed houses with frescoed walls round inner courtyards. The first trompe-l'œil wall murals imitating perspective views ever seen were on walls at Pella. There were temples to Aphrodite, Cybele and Demeter . Pella's pebble-mosaic floors are famous: some reproduce Greek paintings; one shows a lion-griffin attacking

7434-447: The core is still the common method of determining test points of the core. These are expensive, and must therefore be carefully selected. Having perceived the contradiction, and realizing the need to calibrate the plot of core meters versus BP dates; that is, to associate points within the plot with known data, Bottema acquired two carbon dates from material in the core, one from 6.525 m, and one from 9.950 m. Very likely, both were done in

7552-493: The core, however, indicate a contemporaneous slope of the layer between NN and there. The sea level was 6–9 m bp. At the C-14 date of 7270 bp the plain would have appeared as a dry, bright surface with a mound at the future NN. There were none yet to settle it. The Neolithic is by definition a time of agricultural settlement. Such a settlement built permanent villages in which persons lived who tilled fields they considered theirs on

7670-510: The discovery of an unfinished Roman-era statue of a young athletic man at Agios Patapios. The headless marble statue is about three feet tall. According to the Greece's Culture Ministry, the sculpture has similarities to statues of the Greek gods Apollo and Hermes . Under the Byzantine Empire Berrhoea continued to grow and prosper, developing a large and well-educated commercial class (Greek and Jewish) and becoming

7788-428: The early Plain of Central Macedonia is as follows. It was not originally a plain. The orogenesis of the NW-SE trending ridges of the Hellenic Orogeny created geosynclines that became river valleys. They led from the high country of the Balkans down into a region of sub-ridges next to the Thermaic Gulf that were beginning to subside along with the rest of the floor of the Aegean. They became notches from which alluvium

7906-425: The events described by Thucydides (Book II.99), considered their most credible narrator, because his account corresponds to that of Herodotus , their first author. Thucydides describes also Upper Macedonia (epanothen) as Macedonian also, but the original Macedon, he says, was the lower. According to Thucydides, The Temenid Dynasty of Argos formed a new "country by the sea" by defeating tribal states arranged in

8024-487: The excavation of Nea Nikomedeia (NN), 1961, 1963–64, under the direction of Rodden and Grahame Clark . NN is a Neolithic site at 40°36′15″N 22°15′54″E  /  40.604156°N 22.264982°E  / 40.604156; 22.264982 , within the borders of Veria (Beroia), ancient capital of the Macedonian League, at the SW edge of the Plain. The mound of NN rose to a height of 3.5 m (11 ft) over an undisturbed subsoil layer of "white carbonate silt," with

8142-403: The hub. They are some of the first settlements in Greece, dating from the Early Neolithic. A brief review follows, starting from the SW of the wheel, moving CW, and ending on the SE, with the Thermaic Gulf as the exit notch. On the SW the upper Haliacmon River drains the east slopes of Mount Pindus on the southern border of Macedonia. At points closer to the plain it flows to the north side of

8260-449: The hurler of the thunderbolt, two sons, even Magnes and Makedon, rejoicing in horses, who had their dwellings around Pieria and Olympos. Homer does not mention Macedon, nor is there any word that might be interpreted as it in Linear B , but the Catalogue of Ships in the Iliad mentions that the Magnetes had moved away from Pieria (B756) before the Trojan War and were living in Magnesia . The Macedonians were left "around ... Olympus,"

8378-410: The interior to Pella and the seas," which is used now to demonstrate Pella was on the gulf. On the opposite bank of the Axios was Mygdonia east to the Strymon . It was held by the Edonians . They obliged the Macedonians by escaping across the river and founding Edonis on the other side. Thus Thrace became Macedonian. There are more tribes displaced over the Axios leaving their former districts to

8496-416: The jurisdiction of ius Italicum or Roman law. Four pairs of colonial magistrates ( duumvirs quinquennales ) are known for this period. The ruin of the city is described by Dio Chrysostom and Lucian though their accounts may be exaggerated, as the Roman city occupied the west of the original capital and coinage indicates prosperity. Despite its decline, archaeology has shown that the southern part of

8614-532: The largest public libraries in Greece. Originally a small single-room library with limited funds and material, it expanded into a four-story building offering multimedia, and special and rare editions. Veria's public library collaborates with many international organizations and hosts several cultural events. In 2010, it won the Access to Learning Award (ATLA) prize nominated by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and

8732-509: The leading families to Bulgaria. After Kalojan's death in 1207, the city may have reverted to Latin rule, but there is no evidence of this; at any rate, by 1220 it had been occupied by the ruler of Epirus , Theodore Komnenos Doukas , for in that year the doux Constantine Pegonites is attested as governing the city in his name. It changed hands again in 1246, being taken by the Emperor of Nicaea John III Doukas Vatatzes , and formed part of

8850-484: The local see to an archbishopric after 1261, and it advanced further to the rank of a metropolitan see by 1300. The diocese of Berrhoea was nominally restored in 1933 by the Catholic Church as the titular bishopric of Berrhœa (Latin) / Berrea (Curiate Italian). It has been vacant for decades, having the following incumbents: The municipality Veria was formed at the 2011 local government reform by

8968-772: The main Byzantine centres of Thessaloniki and Constantinople . Of the city's thirteen mosques, eight survive, including the Old Metropolis , which had been converted into the Hünkar Mosque, as well as the Orta Mosque , Mendrese Mosque , and the Mahmud Çelebi Mosque . Four other mosques, the Subashi, Bayir, Yola Geldi, and Barbuta mosques, are now used as private residences. The Twin Hamam also survives, as well as

9086-544: The map, the Plain is the green area at the mouth of the Axios River. Stretching across the Axios, it extends E-W from Thessaloniki to Naoussa , a distance of about 73.42 km (45.62 mi), and N-S from Giannitsa to Vergina , about 34.53 km (21.46 mi). This is approximately the location of modern Imathia . The latter country, however, is distinguished from the ancient by not having been there. In its place

9204-541: The merger of the following 5 former municipalities, that became municipal units: The municipality has an area of 796.494 km , the municipal unit 359.146 km . Veria is located at 40º31' North, 22º12' East, at the eastern foot of the Vermio Mountains . It lies on a plateau at the western edge of the Central Macedonia plain, north of the Haliacmon River. The town straddles the Tripotamos (river),

9322-421: The name to a new race of warriors, perhaps "the tall men" or "the thin men." To the Romans they seemed special indeed because they would not accept Roman rule; consequently the Romans cleared them out to resettle the land with more tractable populations. The question of where the stalwart race of conquerors had actually lived went on into modern times until modern scholarship took a hand in locating them. Before then

9440-548: The next decades, until the final Turkish conquest around 1430. The Ottomans called Veria Karaferye ("black Veria"), because of its characteristic morning mist during the humid winter seasons. In 1519 ( Hijri 925) the town had 231 Muslim and 578 Christian households. Under Ottoman rule, Veria was the seat of a kaza within the Sanjak of Salonica ; by 1885, the kaza, along with Naoussa , included 46 villages and chiftliks . The 17th-century traveller Evliya Çelebi reports that

9558-589: The one starting point for the conquest of Emathia not mentioned by Thucydides. If the places of the Iliad are a reasonably accurate representation of Bronze Age Greece, as they are currently believed to be, then the Macedonians date to at least as early as the Late Bronze Age. Pella Pella ( Greek : Πέλλα ) is an ancient city located in Central Macedonia , Greece . It served as the capital of

9676-519: The other hand, later Hellenistic urban foundations have blocks comparable to those of Pella: 112×58 m in Laodicea ad Mare , or 120×46 m in Aleppo . The city is built on the former island of Phacos , a promontory which dominated the sea to the south in the Hellenistic period . The city wall mentioned by Livy is only partly known. It consists of a rampart of crude bricks (~ 50 cm square) raised on

9794-419: The palace. Designed on a grid plan as envisaged by Hippodamus , it consists of parallel streets which intersect at right angles and form a grid of eight rows of rectangular blocks. The blocks are of a consistent width—each approximately 45 m—and of a length which varies from 111 m to 152 m, 125 metres being the most common. The streets are from 9 to 10 metres wide, except for the middle East–West arterial, which

9912-469: The poet Timotheus of Miletus and the Athenian playwright Euripides who finished his days there writing and producing Archelaus . Euripides' Bacchae was first staged here, about 408 BC. According to Xenophon , in the beginning of the 4th century BC Pella was the largest Macedonian city. It was the birthplace and seats of Philip II , in 382 BC and of Alexander the Great , his son, in 356 BC. It

10030-410: The portico occupied by a triple propylaeum , 15 m high, which gave the palace an imposing monumental air when seen from the city below. Archaeologists have also identified a palaestra and baths dating from the reign of Cassander . The size of the complex indicates that, unlike the palace at Vergina , this was not only a royal residence or a grandiose monument but also a place of government which

10148-487: The prefix "α" it forms the word ἀπέλλα , apella , "fence, enclosure of stones". Robert Beekes relates the word πέλλα with the name of the city, but suggests that it probably has pre-Greek origin. In antiquity, Pella was a strategic port connected to the Thermaic Gulf by a navigable inlet , but the harbour and gulf have since silted up, leaving the site inland. Pella is first mentioned in relation to Xerxes ' campaign and in relation to Macedonian expansion and

10266-702: The railway, assassinating SS members, and burning Nazi war material. The town asked Prokopis Kambitoglou to become the Mayor of Veria during the occupation. His role in attempting to mitigate the oppression of the Germans was rewarded after the war by the award of the Order of the Phoenix in recognition of his efforts. During the Occupation almost all of the Jewish community of the city was deported and exterminated by

10384-467: The rate of subsidence, as aggradation cannot occur without subsidence. The meters do not distinguish between the two. A high slope is a rapid rate; a low slope is a low rate. All measurement devices must undergo a finalization procedure in their manufacture called calibration . The device is designed to generate a number that is quantitatively proportional to a value of the natural variable being measured. However, due to accidental factors not understood

10502-403: The readings may differ from the true values by logically consistent amounts. The application of consistent corrections is the calibration. To determine the amount of the correction the calibrator arbitrarily adjusts the readings to conform to test points known to be true. Of course, the more test points in calibration, the more confidence one can have that the readings are accurate. In archaeology

10620-516: The restored Byzantine Empire after 1261. The 14th century was tumultuous: the area was pillaged by Karasid Turks in 1331, and captured by the Serbian ruler Stephen Dushan in 1343/4, when it became part of his Serbian Empire . It was recovered for Byzantium by John VI Kantakouzenos in 1350, but lost again to the Serbians soon after, becoming the domain of Radoslav Hlapen after 1358. With

10738-543: The rule of Cassander and Antigonus II . In 168 BC the city was sacked by the Romans during the Third Macedonian War and entered a long period of decline, its importance eclipsed by that of the nearby Thessalonica . The name is probably derived from the word pella , ( Ancient Greek : πέλλα ), "stone" which seems to appear in some other toponyms in Greece like Pellene . Julius Pokorny reconstructs

10856-516: The same ancient word, is a new creation of modern Greece, as is modern Macedonia. The Aegean Sea Plate undergoing subsidence because of back-arc extension behind the Hellenic arc , the Aegean Sea is a classic example of drowned terrain: islands fronted by steep cliffs formed from mountain-tops, submergent coastlines with long estuaries formed by flooding from the sea. Acting contrary to

10974-430: The same date, obviously depends on the configuration of the surface between the location of the foot of the core and the concurrent shoreline. The more core samples that are available, the better the geologist can detail the surface. All models retain an element of speculation. In the case of the C. Macedonian Plain, Bintliff combines geological data with historical sources to develop a brief history of shorelines there. On

11092-410: The same year, 1965. The 6.525 m date was 6590 ± 110 BP, which falls into the 6th millennium within the layer 6.58-6.8 m, described as "blue-grey clay," with an average depth of 6.69 m. The 9.950 m date was 7.27 ± 70 BP, which falls into the 8th millennium within the layer 9.74-10.91, described as "grey or blue-grey clay + shell fragments," with an average depth of 10.325 m. Bintliff's reconstruction of

11210-507: The submergence is aggradation . Drowned rivers dump their sediment into their new estuaries creating river deltas . The deltas eventually combine to form alluvuial shelves and valleys, which, in the Aegean, typically became agricultural areas. Over any period, an aggraded shoreline is the result of an equilibrium between subsidence and aggradation. Subsidence pushed the coastline inland; aggradation brings it out. The equilibrium may be cyclical, or it may trend in one direction. Core studies in

11328-624: The summer capital of the Argead Dynasty of Macedon , now a UNESCO World Heritage Site ), also made Veria a tourist destination. Veria has a significant immigrant population, mainly from countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Berrhoea was a suffragan diocese of the Archbishopric of Thessalonica , in the sway of the Patriarchate of Constantinople . The names of five of its bishops appear in extant contemporary documents: The Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos promoted

11446-486: The time Emathia appears in history, it is already gone. In its place stands kato Makedonia, " Lower Macedonia ," as it was when it was about to be attacked by Sitalces , Thracian king of the late 5th century BC. Perdiccas II of Macedon of the Temenid Dynasty was the Macedonian king. Alexander I of Macedon , his father, "and his forefathers" had conquered Emathia earlier and had renamed it to Macedonia. These are

11564-539: The time since the cessation of interchange. Laboratories that do C-14 dates first determine the amount of the isotope left in the sample, expressed as a percentage of atoms, then look up the date on a chart such as that shown in the figure. The purity of the sample is of the greatest concern. The first C-14 dates were welcomed enthusiastically. The inventor received a Nobel Prize for his work. Subsequently, more careful comparison of C-14 dates with known historical events turned up some major discrepancies. A conflict ensued over

11682-536: The uprising included Athanasios Syropoulos, Georgios Syropoulos, Dimitrios Kolemis and Georgios Kolemis, among others; however, as was the case with the rest of Northern Greece, eventually the uprising was defeated, and Veria only became part of modern Greece in 1912 during the Balkan Wars , when it was taken by the Hellenic Army on October 16, 1912 (October 16 is an official holiday in Veria, commemorating

11800-443: The validity of C-14 dates, especially where the dates of some of the better known historical artifacts were concerned. It was time to move on, but fortunately the discovery that the discrepancies were mainly a matter of calibration restored confidence in C-14 dating. It was possible in many cases to offset the raw, or uncalibrated dates, in such a way as to produce accurate calibrated dates. A favored method of calibration of wood samples

11918-471: The war against Sitalces , the king of the Thracians . It was probably built as the commercial capital of the kingdom of Macedon by Archelaus I , complementing the older palace-city of Aigai although there appears to be some possibility that it may have been created by Amyntas III . Archelaus invited the painter Zeuxis , the greatest painter of the time, to decorate his palace. He also later hosted

12036-409: The western plain was dry. As wetlands occupied the plain from ancient to modern times, and was only recently turned to agricultural uses, there are now no cities in it. Polybius (23.10.4) mentions that Emathia was earliest called Paeonia and Strabo (frg 7.38) that Paeonia was extended to Pieria and Pelagonia . According to N. G. L. Hammond , the references are related to Bronze Age period before

12154-440: The white floor of the plain of Emathia. According to the general rate of 1, the whole layer should be dated to the 13 millennium BP. At NN, it is dated to the 8th. Obviously, the standard rate cannot apply to the core if the layer at both places really is the same. Further, the total displacement of 19.5 m would seem to require a time of 19.5 millennia, not 13. Obviously, no standard rates can apply. In radiocarbon calibration curves

12272-497: The word from the Proto-Indo-European root peli-s, pel-s, Old Indian : pāsāna, stone (from *pars, *pels), Greek : πέλλα , λίθος , stone, Hesychius (*pelsa), Pashto : parša (*plso), cliff, Germanic  : *falisa, German : Fels, Old Norse : fell (*pelso), Illyrian : *pella, *palla. Solders in an essay on Hesychius glossary has referenced πέλλα (pella), λίθος (stone) as an ancient Macedonian word. With

12390-459: Was already a walled city in the time of Philip II and he made the city of great international importance. It became the largest and richest city in Macedonia and flourished particularly under Cassander 's rule who redesigned and expanded it. The reign of Antigonus most likely represented the height of the city's prosperity, as this is the period which has left the most archaeological remains. The famous poet Aratus died in Pella c. 240 BC. Pella

12508-458: Was an important possession for Philip II of Macedon (father of Alexander the Great ) and later for the Romans . Apostle Paul famously preached in the city, and its inhabitants were among the first Christians in the Empire. Later, under the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, Veria was a center of Greek culture and learning. Today Veria is a commercial center of Central Macedonia , the capital of

12626-465: Was an important regional center of Greek commerce and learning, and counted many important Greek scholars as its natives (e.g. Ioannis Kottounios ) The presence of a large, prosperous and educated bourgeoisie made Veria one of the centers of Greek nationalism in the region of Macedonia, and the city's inhabitants had an active part in the Greek War of Independence ; important military leaders during

12744-531: Was apparently held by the Bulgarian Empire at some point in the late 9th century. The 11th-century Greek bishop Theophylact of Ohrid wrote that during the brief period of Bulgarian dominance, Tsar Boris I built there one of the seven cathedral churches built by him and refers to it as "one of the beautiful Bulgarian churches". In the Escorial Taktikon of c.  975 , the city

12862-417: Was begun by G. Oikonomos in 1914–15. The modern systematic exploration of the site began in 1953 and work has continued since then uncovering significant parts of the extensive city. In February 2006, a farmer accidentally uncovered the largest tomb ever found in Greece. The names of the noble ancient Macedonian family are still on inscriptions and painted sculptures and walls have survived. The tomb dates to

12980-781: Was briefly held by the Normans (1185) during their invasion of the Byzantine Empire. After the Fourth Crusade (1204), it briefly became part of Boniface of Montferrat 's Kingdom of Thessalonica , and a Latin bishop took up residence in the city. In c.  1206 , the city was taken by the Bulgarian ruler, Kalojan . Many inhabitants were killed while others, including the Latin bishop, fled. Kalojan installed Bulgarians as commandant and bishop, and resettled some of

13098-569: Was deposited over the bottom in a layer about 1 m thick. The phase lasted through the mid-Pleistocene (1.25-0.7 Myr). In the Late Pleistocene (129,000-11700 ya ) through the Early Holocene (11650-8200 bp ), the lake dried up, exposing the white layer, from which weathering removed the pollen. This is the time when the white layer was probably continuous and simultaneous, with no detritus over it, at NN. Two m of alluvium at

13216-407: Was either a shallow estuary of the Thermaic Gulf , or a lake in a marsh, from prehistoric times to nearly the present. Ancient Emathia can only have been further north, but of course at the time when the name was changed, Emathia was all of Macedonia. Geologists of the 19th and 20th centuries formulated a number of geologic models of the central Macedonian plain, but few were as useful those based on

13334-533: Was eroded to be deposited into the valleys between the smaller ridges until a smooth surface covered both valleys and sub-ridges. Bintliff uses such language as "the Almopias Furrow" and "the Axios Trench." In short the plain serves as a sink for the drainage of the surrounding highlands. Fortuitously it is roughly wheel-shaped with the rivers as spokes. The human settlements are where the spokes join

13452-580: Was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men. When

13570-483: Was no place where a group of them could concentrate. The Bottiaeans also were driven out. They formed the new state of Bottike on Chalcidice . Inevitably the Macedonians reached the Paeonians , an ancient Balkan state on the Axios. All they managed to take from them was a strip of land on the right bank of the Axios, and the north shore of the gulf, including Pella. Thucydides says the purloined land extended "from

13688-407: Was not a late classical or Hellenistic settlement, although rendered into a legitimate polis by Philip II. Mycenaean surface sherds support at least a Bronze-age provenience, or close to it. Moreover, Pella until quite late in the classical period had been a port city of the Thermaic Gulf. Subsequently, its estuary became a lake until it was dispensed with by agriculturalists of the 20th century, with

13806-499: Was required to accommodate a significant portion of the administrative apparatus of the kingdom. The question of what language was spoken in ancient Macedonia has been debated by the scholars. The discovery of the Pella curse tablet in 1986, found in Pella, the ancient capital of Macedon , has given us a text written in a distinct Doric Greek idiom. Ιt contains a curse or magic spell ( Greek : κατάδεσμος, katadesmos ) inscribed on

13924-461: Was the final resting place of a warrior from the 6th century BC with a bronze helmet with a gold mouthplate, weapons and jewellery. Since 2011, much of the Palace of Pella has been excavated and from 2017 parts of it have been restored. It is expected to open to the public in 2024. Many artefacts are displayed in the Archaeological Museum of Pella . The city proper was located south of and below

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