Macedonia, history of Macedonia, Macedonia is Greece, Aiani, Kozani, west Macedonia,Μακεδονία, Ιστορία της Μακεδονίας, δυτική Μακεδονία, Κοζάνη, Αιανή, αρχαιολογικός χώρος Αιανής

I welcome you here in this part of my web area to show you some photos from the archeological region of Aiani in prefecture Kozani in west Macedonia. After my photos you can read some historical information about this region and all Macedonia.

At first you see some photos from the landscape around the archeological place.

Hi Friends.
In my daily trip to prefecture Kozani I visited the ancient city Aiani.
There is a big area where since the beginning of 80’s are getting excavations in a place it is inhabited since Paleolithic Age.

From this point on the right-behind side is the modern village with the same name, Aiani.
The findings are to see in the museum of Aiani.

Here you have some historic information about the area.
I have these information from the book it is in the big museum and the book is published from Ministry of Culture.

Upper Macedonia, which was distinguished by ancient historians from the plain and coastal area of Lower Macedonia, includes the modern nomoi (prefectures) of Grevena, Kozani, Kastoria and Florina. and extends to the north beyond the modern boundaries of Greece as far as the river Erigon and the Ochrid and Prespa Lakes.
This geographic area, bounded by great mountain ranges, was occupied by a series of related Greek tribes:
The Orestai, Lynkestai, Pelagones, Elimiotai and Eordoi.
Each of these tribes had a ruling house and a socio-political system based, at least in the early centuries after their emergence, on an agricultural –pastoral way of life. It is clear from references, to local ethnic names, such as Elimiotes Makedon, Eordaios, ex Orestidos, etc., that they retained their tribal division down to late antiquity, despite the unification of the Macedonian state, the evolution of cities as administrative canters, and the Roman conquest.
The district of Elimeia, or Elimiotis, was bounded on the north by Orestis and Eordaia, and occupied the southern part of Upper Macedonia, to right and left of the main stream of the river Haliakmon, though its territorial extent is difficult to determine. During the Hellenistic period, the region of Tymphaia is said to have been annexed to it to the west, and the north part of Parrhaibia withTripolis (Pythion, Azoros and Doliche) was possibly appended to it at an earlier date.

The information to be derived from the written sources, both for Elimeia and for the other districts of Upper Macedonia, is scanty and indirect.
According to Herodotus (1.56, 8.137-139) and Thucydides (2.99) the area of Upper Macedonia was one of the places that the much-traveled Greek nation, to which the Makedones belonged, halted during its wanderings. One branch, the Argeadai Makedones, whose rulers were the Temenids, descendants of Herakles and Temenos, settled in the area around Olympos after a series of moves.
In the early 7th century BC, they founded the state of Aegae, the first known king of which was Perdikkas. Based on Aegae, which was founded by the Argive Karanos in the 8th century BC according to a later tradition, they continued to expand for many centuries.

It may be concluded from Herodotus ‘ account of the Persian Wars, and also from Justin (7.4.1) that the political predomination enjoyed by the Argaedai over the related tribes of Upper Macedonia, began with the appearance of the Persians on European soil, and was consolidated when they departed, under Alexander I (498-454 BC)
Herodotus specifically states (7.185.2) that the Eordoi, whose territory had been conquered and the population decimated by the Argaedai (Thucydides 2.99.5) followed Xerxes to southern Greece.

The township of Aiani is 23 km south of Kozani and about 5 km north of the main stream of the river Haliakmon, which was converted into a reservoir by the construction of the Polyphytos dam in 1973.

Here you can read some words generally about the tombs.

A total of twelve built chamber tombs and smaller cist graves have been investigated.
Four of these are encircled by grave enclosures, consisting of rectangular structures made of corner-stones. Three more enclosures encircled pit graves.
The largest tomb, has a chamber measuring c. 4x4 m, and sides of c. 3 m, built alternatively of three and two series of courses. The chamber had a flat roof of long rectangular stone-blocks probably resting on a wooden beam. The sockets to seat the beam can be made out on the walls of the tomb. The roof was probably also supported by an unfluted column, part of which was found fallen into the chamber, and by a lattice of planks.
Some tombs are smaller, and were also robbed in different times. The insides are coated with whitish plaster and decorated with bands, usually of a red colour. In two of them were found Ionic columns together with their bases

In some photos you see a detail from the royal tombs of Αιανή=Aiani city, from the time between 6th and first century BC. The most of them are desecrated at the roman time and first Christian time, also at the time of the Second World War and after it.

Groups of graves have been located not only on the hill of Megali Rachi but also at a large number of sites around it, as have also some extensive cemeteries dating from the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic period. These cemeteries, that is, cover the entire life of the city. We may dwell for a time on the cemetery found at the site of Tskaria, 1 km to the east of the hill, on the right of the road to Kaisareia. Here were excavated eighty pit graves, simply dug into the earth or the soft limestone, belts of which are to be found in the area, and two cist graves, built of cornerstones and slabstones respectively. They date from the 4th to the 1st century BC.
The grave goods found were mainly clay pottery and a small number of metal objects, most of them placed around the feet.
Other finds includes a few weapons, mainly spearheads, bronze jewellery such as bow
Fibulae and double pins, and bronze strigils. Special interest attaches to the bronze strigil with the name ΑΔΑΜΑΣ stamped on the handle and a group pf clay pots from local workshops.
One of the cemeteries that we consider worth visiting is the Archaic and Classical Cemetery at Leivadia, to the north of the hill of Megali Rachi, with its monumental funerary architecture.
A total of twelve built chamber tombs and smaller cist graves have been investigated.
Four of these are encircled by grave enclosures, consisting of rectangular structures made of corner-stones. Three more enclosures encircled pit graves.
The largest tomb, has a chamber measuring c. 4x4 m, and sides of c. 3 m, built alternatively of three and two series of courses. The chamber had a flat roof of long rectangular stone-blocks probably resting on a wooden beam. The sockets to seat the beam can be made out on the walls of the tomb. The roof was probably also supported by an unfluted column, part of which was found fallen into the chamber, and by a lattice of planks.
Some tombs are smaller, and were also robbed in different times. The insides are coated with whitish plaster and decorated with bands, usually of a red colour. In two of them were found Ionic columns together with their bases.

The pottery collected here includes a large number of vases of the so called Macedonian matt-painted ware and Mycenaean pots. The quality of the painted decoration and the variety of colours and motifs suggest that the area of ancient Aiani was a notable production centre for tottery of this type. This pottery makes its appearance from the 15th-14th centuries BC in the settlements of central Macedonia, and is encountered at almost the same time in western Macedonia.
According to the findings of recent research, its origins are to be south in Middle Helladic models of similar matt painted pottery from south Greece.

Generally speaking, the archaeological finds that have come to light add a new dimension to the history of Upper Macedonia. It is only a natural in the case of an area like this, for which, as we have seen, there are few written sources, that some of the views that have been advanced should be strengthened in the light of the new discoveries, while other views have to be revised.
One view that has had to be revised, for example, is the theory universally held by both earlier and more recent Greek and foreign historians that Upper Macedonia was an isolated region, with a political and social system based exclusively on a nomadic-pastoral way of life. The recent finds reveal a different reality, furnishing incontrovertible evidence for the nature of the religious institutions and the social and political structures of Upper Macedonia.
At the same time, they are of assistance in achieving a more complete evaluation of the earlier finds, such as the rich graves in the cemetery at Kozani and Trebeniste in Lychnitis-Ochrid, which had been previously interpreted as isolated rich burials with a large number of goods imported from isolated commercial routes.

A public building of the classical period has been revealed underneath later structures. It consists of rectangular rooms on various levels and a stoa (20m.long), inside which five pillar bases were found. The wall of the stoa is built of big regular stones (megaloi domoi in Greek); in this area we also discovered kilns with several phases.
Among the interesting finds of this area is an Attic skyphos with the name ΘΕΜΙΔΟΣ (Themidos) inscribed on its base a fragment of a roof tile with an incised inscription and many fragments of imported and local ceramic vases of the 5th century B.C.

An other building has the plan of a stoa with two L-shaped sides measuring 25 and 20 m. accordingly. The stoa has been built over earlier structures while two ellipsoid structures of the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age were also discovered to the east. On a higher level just behind the wall of the stoa, a series of double rooms was discovered.
Although most of the building material has already been removed, many architectural remains such a Doric and Ionic capitals, double columns and other members of superstructure were preserved, indicating the early dating and the monumentality of the building.
The use of the stoa remains unknown. It could have been either the administrative centre of the city ruler, or the Agora of the ancient city.
In the lower area of this terrace we can see small buildings which has built later, incorporating earlier building material in its walls (a big part of a column can be seen).