North Greece and the Balkans in the Early Iron Age

The northern part of the Aegean is practically absent from every handbook known on the Greek Early Iron Age (ca. 1100-700 BC), making a synthesis on Early Iron Age Archaeology in North Greece and the southeastern European hinterland necessary. This can be achieved through a new evaluation of the former and recent excavations in North Greece and the southern Balkans. By means of new vertical stratigraphies and closed contexts a sequence of regional interrelated and synchronized typo-chronological systems from the Adriatic to the Black Sea will be constructed. The starting point will be the construction of a solid typology of the Macedonian Protogeometric and Geometric pottery and the other North Greek and southern Balkan decorated ceramic wares and their correlation with the contemporary styles of the Central and South Aegean. Thereafter a reliable analysis of further aspects of the local material culture will be possible. The study of particular groups of artefacts (e.g. transport amphorae, cooking vases, dress accessories, weapons etc), of the settlement patterns and mortuary practices will shed light on a range of economic, socio- political, religious issues as well as on some recently much-discussed identity issues in North Greece and the South Balkans during the Early Iron Age. For this purpose new information will be incorporated into the study thanks to the participation of the author in independent publication projects and his cooperation with archaeologists from North Greece and the South Balkan countries. The proposed research project will focus on the cultural integration phenomenon of the Greek and non-Greek populations. By means of the evaluation of the developments and transformations in every material and ideological aspect of the cultures in the North Aegean and its hinterland (Epirus, Illyria, Macedonia, Thrace) during the Early Iron Age it will be possible to thoroughly explore this contact zone and to define the factors that determined the establishment of numerous Greek colonies from the late 8th century BC onwards. The aim is a modern historical interpretation of the socio-political factors that shaped the contacts between the Greek Aegean and the Balkan area. The proposed research project could demonstrate how far the cultural integration in the North Aegean was the result of the gradual construction of creole identities during the Early Iron Age.