The City of the Europaeans: An Emerging City of Bottiaea

In this lecture, given in Greek, Georgia Stratouli (Head of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Kilkis) presents the archaeology and public presentation of ancient Europos in Bottiaea, Central Macedonia. Situated west of the Axios River and 18 kilometres from Pella, Europos was the birthplace of Seleucus I Nicator and is named as the 'City of the Europaeans' on a 2nd-century BC honorific base for the Roman proconsul Marcus Minucius Rufus.

Stratouli outlines the settlement's history from Neolithic traces and an Early Iron Age foundation through Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman phases until its 6th-century AD abandonment. While only 550 square metres of the upper town have been excavated, work between 1989 and 2006 in the southern cemetery uncovered over 500 Roman and Early Christian burials, a 5th-century funerary basilica, and a 4th-century AD pottery kiln.

The talk then examines aristocratic burials along the road to Pella. An early Hellenistic cluster includes a single-chamber Macedonian tomb, a painted cist tomb holding a gold bracelet, and an unlooted burial chest containing a cremation, a gold olive wreath, and a silver drachm of Alexander III (328 to 323 BC), alongside a 5th-century BC metal kantharos. Further south at Mesia, geophysical survey preceded the 2020 to 2021 excavation of a tumulus holding two adjoining late 4th- and early 3rd-century BC monuments: Tomb A, a monumental cist grave with interior niches, and Tomb B, a small barrel-vaulted Macedonian tomb built against it.

Stratouli concludes with site management plans, digital cultural routes across Kilkis, and an eight-minute film on Europos.