Methoni ( el, Μεθώνη Πιερίας) is a village and a former municipality in
Pieria regional unit,
Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality
Pydna-Kolindros, of which it is a municipal unit.
History
The ancient
Eretrian settlement of
Methone, located at the interface between the
Thessaloniki plain, the hilly terrain of Pieria and the shoreline of
Thermaic Gulf, has gone through numerous wartime situations over the past centuries. Methone has been well known as an important harbor during the Greek times closely affiliated with the
Athenian Alliance. According to historical manuscripts the urban settlement was distanced from the harbor. However, there exist no historical references about either the distance or the potential locations of the harbor.
Identification of the precise location of the port of Methone holds great significance from a
geomorphological
Geomorphology (from Ancient Greek: , ', "earth"; , ', "form"; and , ', "study") is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of topographic and bathymetric features created by physical, chemical or biological processes operating at or n ...
point of view, but above all represents a major archaeological concern. The port infrastructures appear to have been disconnected from the rest of the city: Several decrees (notably in 430 and 423 BC) provide us with information on the matter (Queyrel, 2003). These infrastructures had been seized by the powerful city of
Athens, in order to leave Methone a degree of commercial autonomy with regards to the Kingdom of
Macedon which was in full development at the time. One of these decrees, dated 430 BC, mentions that "the Methoneans must enjoy unrestricted rights to use the sea and
he Macedonians
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
must allow them, as before, to import goods on their territory".
We also know that in 359 BC,
Argeas, former enemy of
Amyntas (father of
Philip II of Macedon), or according to certain historians (
Diodorus, XVI, 3, 5.) one of his sons, had just obtained a fleet of 3,000
hoplite
Hoplites ( ) ( grc, ὁπλίτης : hoplítēs) were citizen-soldiers of Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Polis, city-states who were primarily armed with spears and shields. Hoplite soldiers used the phalanx formation to be effective in war with ...
s from the
Athenians: The troops disembarked and then set up in Methone. No more references to the city are to be found in the texts after the seizure, then destruction, of the city by Philip II's armies during the summer of 354 BC. There are signs of occupation during the Imperial period but there is no evidence of a continuous presence in the sector after the 4th century BC (Papazoglou, 1988).
Research efforts aiming to locate ancient Methone were undertaken from the 19th century, first by the famous English explorer W.M. Leake (Leake, 1967) who had traveled Macedonia at length and then by Léon Heuzey (Heuzey, 1876), who thought he had found the port of former Methone, "marked by a small creek forming the shore not far from the mouths of Haliacmon" (Heuzey, 1876). Their respective research remained imprecise and no definite occupation site was ever identified. Their research was more focused on the quest for the royal tomb of Philip II and the
necropolis
A necropolis (plural necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'', literally meaning "city of the dead".
The term usually im ...
of the
Temenid
In Greek mythology, Temenus ( el, Τήμενος, ''Tḗmenos'') was a son of Aristomachus and brother of Cresphontes and Aristodemus.
Temenus was a great-great-grandson of Heracles and helped lead the fifth and final attack on Mycenae in the P ...
and Macedonian kings: Aigai, identified in the 1980s with the site of modern
Vergina.
In the middle of the 20th century, Hammond used the descriptions of
Strabo
Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could see ...
(Strabon, VII, fragments 20 and 22), positioning the city of Methone at 70
stades (14 km) from
Aloros (the original city of
Ptolemy of Aloros) and at 40 stades (8 km) from
Pydna (
Pydna (Ancient Site)),
[Hammond, 1976] to produce the hypothesis whereby Methone must have been located nearby the current eponymous city. Later, during the 1980s, two occupation sites were confirmed: The first, dating from the
Archaic
Archaic is a period of time preceding a designated classical period, or something from an older period of time that is also not found or used currently:
*List of archaeological periods
**Archaic Sumerian language, spoken between 31st - 26th cent ...
and
Classical periods (Site A), was identified using archaeological material that had been found and then analyzed. The second site, located slightly further north, dates from the Imperial period (site B) and presents a smaller spatial extension than the first (Hatzopoulos et al., 1990); nevertheless, no hypotheses concerning the location of port infrastructures were formulated, or even suggested.
Geography
Administrative division
The municipal unit of Methoni consists of the communities of Makrygialos, Methoni, Nea Agathoupoli and Palaio Eleftherochori.
[ The seat of the former municipality of Methoni, that ceased to exist after the 2011 local government reform was in Makrygialos.]
Population
The population of the community of Methoni is 746 people and that of the municipal unit of Methoni is 3,169 people as of 2011.
External links
apport et intérêt de la modélisation numérique de terrain en géomorphologie : étude du site antique de Méthoni
Use of DEM in locating potential harbours of Ancient Methoni
References
*
{{Pydna-Kolindros div
Populated places in Pieria (regional unit)
Greek colonies in Pieria
Eretrian colonies
Members of the Delian League