ICS/British School at Athens Lecture: Pella. The Great Capital of the Macedonian Kingdom

31-10-2017 Institute of Classical Studies
http://www.sas.ac.uk/

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ICS/British School at Athens Lecture: Pella. The Great Capital of the Macedonian Kingdom

Dr Elisavet Bettina Tsigarida
(Director of the Ephorate of Antiquities of the County of Pella)

Sixty years of continuous archaeological research have uncovered evidence for many aspects of the life Pella, the second capital of the Macedonian kingdom. The paper will present its history from its origins as a small, coastal city on the NW shore of the Thermaic Gulf, which Archelaos made his capital around the end of the 5th century BC, through its period of glory between the conquests of Alexander and before the Roman defeat of Macedon in 168 BC, until its eventual abandonment around 30 BC. Among the new discoveries are luxurious houses, many named after the famous mosaics that decorated them; the royal palace; and the rapid transformation of the surrounding landscape in the late Classical and the Hellenistic periods.