Pergamos, Macedonia (2024-ongoing)

Ancient Pergamos is located in the Pieria valley, close to the modern village of Moustheni, on the southern slopes of Mount Pangaion. The site is spread over a low hill, known locally as Koules or Alonaki, and is surrounded by fortification walls of the Archaic and the Late Roman eras. In places, the impressive walls are visible to a height of almost four meters. These periods, the Archaic and the Late Roman eras, probably represent the main chronological phases of the site, but preliminary studies indicate human activity on the hill as early as the Neolithic era and as late as Byzantine times. The site’s long history can probably be partly attributed to its advantageous position, which gave its inhabitants access to the area’s rich natural resources. The valley is well-irrigated thanks to the Marmaras River which, together with excellent soil, offers ideal conditions for agriculture. In addition, Pangaion is widely known for its mines, mainly gold and silver. These were known and used by the population of the area since the Neolithic period. Since Pergamos is mentioned only once in the ancient written sources (Herodotos 7.112), almost all of our knowledge of the site is based on the available archaeological material.

Fig. 2: Panoramic view of the Pieria valley from Pergamos.

Archaeological research

Although the visible remains on Koules/Alonaki hill were identified with ancient Pergamos as early as 1892 by Ioannis Afthonidis, the site long remained unexplored by archaeologists. Yiannis Pikoulas visited the site in the late 1990s, and commented on the strong fortifications as well as on the surface pottery from the Late Bronze Age, Classical and Hellenistic periods, and to a lesser extent the Roman and Byzantine periods. About 15 years later, Keven Ouellet visited the site. He made some preliminary observations about the fortification walls, noting that the Archaic walls were built using a technique associated with the Cycladic islands and the Greek colonies in northern Greece.

In 2024, a five-year collaborative research project (The Ancient Pergamos Project, APP) was initiated, between the Ephorate of Antiquities of Kavala, represented by the Head of the Ephorate Stavroula Dadaki, and the Swedish Institute at Athens represented by Dr Patrik Klingborg (Uppsala University) and Dr Georgia Galani (Swedish Institute at Athens). The project investigates the important site of Pergamos with the aim of clarifying its various chronological phases, to better understand its role in the wider area, as well as to make its history known and available both to the academic community and to the current residents of the area. During the initial stage of the project, the site’s massive fortifications were measured and documented, a limited surface field survey was conducted, and excavations inside the southern walls were carried out.

Fig. 3: The fortification walls of Pergamos.

The history of the site

The first traces of human activity in Pergamos and the surrounding area date back to the Late Neolithic period (roughly the 4th millennium BC). The chronology is based on pottery finds at the site, as well as on the existence of a Neolithic settlement that has been found just over a kilometre south of Pergamos, at the modern church of Ag. Paraskevi. Important Late Bronze Age (1500–1000 BC) evidence has also been found, and it seems likely that the site was more systematically inhabited from this period.

However, the first solid indications that Pergamos was inhabited with built infrastructure come from the Late Archaic period (around 500 BC), when the great fortification walls were built. The walls can be dated by their characteristic construction technique, known as “ladder-pattern” or “stack-work”, whereby the exterior face is built up from thin stacked slabs held in place by large irregular blocks. The archaeological dating is probably corroborated by Herodotos (7.112), who mentions the walls in the context of the march of the Persian king Xerxes to southern Greece in 480 BC: “Passing through the land aforesaid Xerxes next passed the fortresses of the Pierians, one called Phagres and the other Pergamos. By this way he marched under their very walls, keeping on his right the great and high Pangaean range, wherein the Pierians and Odomanti and the Satrae in especial have mines of gold and silver”. In addition to providing a terminus ante quem for the walls, 480 BC, the relevant passage from Herodotos offers two additional important facts about the history of the site. On the one hand, it appears that the main road of the region ran through the valley below the walls of Pergamos during Archaic and Classical times, placing the site strategically in the wider road network. Secondly, Herodotos considered the place important enough to mention it to his readers in the wider Greek world.

Fig. 4: Detail of the Late Archaic walls of Pergamos.

We know much less about the history of Pergamos after the Archaic period. Surface finds at Pergamos confirm that the site was still active during Classical and Hellenistic times, and literary sources make it clear that a turbulent period followed in the region: Greek city-states, including Athens, and soon after also the kingdom of Macedonia, competed for access to the natural resources of the Pangaion mountain. From the 2nd century BC, Rome had a strong presence in the area, especially after northern Greece became the first Roman province in the eastern Mediterranean (148/146 BC). About a century later, Pergamos and the area it controlled probably fell under the sphere of influence of the Roman colony of Philippi (founded in 42 BC), which became by far the most important city in the region.

The next major phase at Pergamos can be dated to Late Roman times (c. AD 300–600), when the Archaic walls were restored and strengthened, testifying to the continued importance of the site and suggesting that the inhabitants still had access to substantial resources. At the same time, a large fortification was built on a nearby mountain top, the so-called Tsali, just north of Pergamos. Although we know very little about life at the site in the Late Roman period, it is clear that this was a period of significant investment in the area and that the site remained important. We hope that the research that will be carried out in the coming years will be able to shed light on the history of Pergamos in much more detail.

Fig. 5: Detail of the Late Roman walls of Pergamos.

Bibliography

Afthonidis, I. 1892. ‘Ακριβής τοποθέτησις πόλεων τινών της Μακεδονίας’, Παρνασσός 15, 461–464.

Klingborg, P., G. Galani, J. Blid, S. Dadaki & P. Malama (forthcoming). ’Pergamos. An unexplored fortified site in north-eastern Greece’, OpAthRom 17.

Nikolaidou-Patera, M. 1997. ‘Τοπογραφία της Πιέριας κοιλάδας’, in Αφιέρωμα στον N.G.L. Hammond (Παράρτημα Μακεδονικών 7), Thessaloniki, 309–319.

Ouellet, K. 2019. Les défenses de la Grèce du Nord. Architecture, géographie, histoire et phénomènes régionaux aux périodes archaïque, classique et hellénistique, Ph.D. thesis, Université de Montréal.

Pikoulas, Y. 2001. Η χώρα των Πιέρων. Συμβολή στήν τοπογραφία της, Athens.

Psoma, S. 2003. ‘Πέργαμος, τείχος Πιέρων’, ΗΟΡΟΣ 14–16, 233–243.

Unger, H.J. 1987. ‘Das Pangaion. Ein altes Bergbauzentrum in Ostmakedonien’, Praehistorische Zeitschrift 62, 87–112.

Zannis, A.G. 2014. Le pays entre le Strymon et le Nestos: Géographie et histoire (VIIe–IVe siècle avant J.-C. (ΜΕΛΕΤΗΜΑΤΑ 71), Athens.