The medieval cemetery of Ierissos was discovered only in 1984, while the excavations in the cemetery of Akanthos, which was located in the same area, had begun in 1970. The most competent to give us information about this is the archaeologist Joachim Papaggelos who participated with other colleagues in those first excavations. We report excerpts from Dr Papaggelos’ presentation at the 8th Symposium on Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Archaeology and Art, organized in Athens by the Christian Archaeological Society, a few years after the discovery of the archaeological site.
“The tombs were simple pits, dug in the sandy soil of which most of the walls were supported by slow slab-like stones or fragments of early Christian chests or fragments of late Roman sarcophagi, and the covering slabs were of the same material. Their orientation was always W-E and each burial contained a single deceased (except for a children’s one which had two) lying on his back, with his arms crossed over his chest or, rarely, one on his chest and the other on the middle of the pelvis. Several pieces of jewellery were found, most of them bronze (earrings and rings), a few pieces of silver (earrings) and necklaces made of glass beads. A few coins (Acanthus, unidentified -probably Roman) found in the soil of the embankments. Pottery was discovered only outside the tombs. There were fragments of ancient vessels and only one characteristic early Christian shell. Published jewellery from all Balkan countries similar to ours, dating from the 6th to the 12th century AD.
According to the prevailing view, the area of Ierissos was uninhabited before 883 when the monastery of Kolovos was founded on the ruins of the castle of Akanthos, or next to it. In 924, inhabitants of Ierissos are clearly mentioned for the first time, and we know that the much-discussed ‘Slaves (or slaves?) Bulgarians’ settled in the area before 959. From Ierissos also comes the oldest dated Glagolitic text, dated 982) [S.S. the Glagolitic alphabet also known as Glagolitsa (Russian:Глаголица) is the oldest known Slavic alphabet].
This finding raises again the twofold question: Around the beginning of the 10th century. a new population settled in the deserted Akanthos, in which there was (at least) a strong Slavic presence, or at the same time and for reasons we do not know, the population of Akanthos-Ierissos was reinforced with new settlers, including a number of Slavs? The identification of our cemetery is probably the beginning of the answer, for the moment we can only point out the following:
It should be considered as certain that the ancient cemetery was shrinking and a “conglomeration” of the cemetery towards the East, i.e. towards the limits of the settlement, where the cemetery of Ierissos was maintained until the terrible destruction of the village by the earthquake of 1932. The preservation of the burial tradition in the same place for 26 centuries, as well as the preservation of ancient place names such as Stratoni, we think that it points us to a possible uninterrupted continuation of life in the same place.
Bearing in mind that in the same area, above classical burials, the Turkish cemetery of the 17th-18th century was also found. The same conclusion is supported by the fact that in 982 the inhabitants of Ierissos, with clearly Slavic names, sign their names in wonderful Greek. Should we consider that these are the enviable results of some possible educational effort of the newly created “Diocese of Erissos”, or that the isolation of the newly settled aliens in a Greek environment contributed to this? We believe that the continuation of the excavation provides the only real chance of answering our questions.”
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