TFAHR • P.O. Box 2688 • Canyon Lake, TX 78133-0028 PUBLICATION OF THE TEXAS FOUNDATION FOR ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL RESEARCH September 2008 -- Canyon Lake, Texas THE 2008 TFAHR INTERNATIONAL FIELD SCHOOL, THE TEXAS FOUNDATION FOR ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL RESEARCH THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS AT BYLAZORA and THIS PUBLICATION thanks the following participants in our 2008 excavations: were made possible by generous financial assistance from the following: THE TFAHR INTERNATIONAL FIELD SCHOOL MAJOR FUNDING Lucie Broncova (Czech Republic) Diane Mattly (California, USA) Sean and Stefanie Moore Viktoria Chystyakova (Ukraine) Sonia McLaughlin (Canada) Teresa Southwell Tomas Davidov (Slovakia) William Neidinger (Texas, USA) Joe and Lisa Turano Amy Donaldson (Australia) Joseph Noffsinger (Texas, USA) David and Lucia Warden Adela Dornakova (Czech Republic) Nikolas Noffsinger (Texas, USA) Michael Warden and Mercedes LeGrand Padraic Emparan (California, USA) Rose O’Sullivan (Australia) Ivy Faulkner (Arizona, USA) Matej Pavlacky (Czech Republic) DONATIONS Gail Gant (Texas, USA) Magnus Persson (Sweden) Susie Doe, in memory of Ursula M. Hild Jenny Jurica (Texas, USA) Nicholas Shelden-Setten (Washington, USA) Anita Doyle Jana Kopackova (Czech Republic) Paul Sirota (Texas, USA) The ExxonMobil Foundation Veronika Kristofova (Slovakia) Adela Soukupova (Czech Republic) Russell and Maarit Harp Karel Kut (Czech Republic) Teresa Southwell (Texas, USA) Eulah Matthews Jana Lohnicka (Czech Republic) Jo-Simon Stokke (Norway) Diane Mattly Francis Malec (California, USA) Petra Tuslova (Czech Republic) Richard Moiel and Kathy Poeppel Mari Malmer (Norway) Tatiana Votroubekova (Slovakia) William Neidinger Eulah Matthews (Texas, USA) Jakub Zezule (Czech Republic) Paul Sirota AND OUR MACEDONIAN COLLEAGUES CONTRIBUTIONS Aleksandar Danev Ira and Brenda Allen Stefan Danev Ford and Hazel Bankston Boban Husenovski Sarah Glasscock Zvonimir Nikolovski Robert and Dorothy Neidinger Workers from Sveti Nikole and Knezje: Hobart and Barbara Osburn Grozde Davidov, Dejan Dimovski, Angel Gligorov, Stojce Jakimov, Sase Kostadinov, Chris C. Pappas Dalibor Manev, Panev Milorad, Nikolce Sandev, Goran Stamenkovski, Autry Ross Zoran Stamenkovski, Filip Stojkovski, Mishko Tosev Stylus Productions 2008 PUBLICATION CREDITS TFAHR also received invaluable assistance from the Text: William Neidinger and Eulah Matthews Sveti Nikole community, and would like to acknowledge: Photographs: Eulah Matthews, William Neidinger, Aleksandar Danev The People’s Museum of Sveti Nikole Cover Photo/Inside Back Cover Photo: Boban Husenovski The Municipality of Sveti Nikole Finds Drawings: Teresa Southwell The Sveti Nikole Fire Brigade Site Plans: Amy Donaldson Additional Maps: Robert Neidinger, William Neidinger For more information about the Pottery Identification: Boban Husenovski The Texas Foundation for Archaeological and Historical Research, Publication Design and Layout: Teresa Southwell visit our website at www.tfahr.org or write to BIBLIOGRAPHY TFAHR Petrova, E. Paeonia. Skopje, 1999. PO Box 2688 Mikulcic, I. “Die Lage von Bylazora,” Annuaire de la Faculte de Canyon Lake, TX 78133-0028 USA Philosophie de l’Universite de Skopje, Tome 2 (28), 1976. The 2008 Excavation INTRODUCTION n January of 2008 Mr. Boban Husenovski, an in archaeological excavations. The participants pay archaeologist with the Museum of Gevgelija, for their transportation to Macedonia, and TFAHR relayed an offer from Mr. Aleksandar Danev, pays for their room, board, and equipment, as well as Director of the People’s Museum of Sveti transportation on occasional field trips to other historical Nikole, to Mrs. Eulah Matthews and Dr. William sites, and evening lectures. TFAHR’s program is unique Neidinger of the Texas Foundation For Archaeological in this respect, differing from most summer archaeology and Historical Research (TFAHR). That offer was for programs where students and volunteers are seen as a co-operative venture to excavate an archaeological a source for unpaid labor or as a source of funds for site near Sveti Nikole, in the Republic of Macedonia. professors’ archaeological projects. The site, at the village of Knezje, is widely regarded by modern archaeologists to be the fabled city of The participants in the TFAHR International Field Bylazora, the capital city of the Paionians, the people School are involved in all aspects of the archaeological who inhabited ancient Macedonia before the arrival of process from actual digging to documentation and the Macedonians. After discussions of logistics, finances, pottery analysis. For the 2008 expedition to Bylazora methodology, and responsibilities, TFAHR agreed to a TFAHR sponsored 33 teachers, students, and volunteers long term co-operative effort to excavate Bylazora. from 9 countries, and employed 12 workmen from Sveti Nikole and nearby villages. Not only was the 2008 One of Mr. Danev’s desires was to develop the Bylazora Bylazora excavation an archaeological success, but the site as an archaeological training school for aspiring project was also able to make gains in international students and teachers. This dovetailed nicely with teamwork and understanding. TFAHR’s already established International Field School, which we had organized in previous years in our We have received numerous thanks from participants excavations in the Republic of Macedonia. in the 2008 TFAHR International Field School and “alumni” from other years. We would like to pass those The TFAHR International Field School is an annual thanks on to those of you who have generously funded project in which TFAHR enables teachers, students, TFAHR to make these projects possible. and volunteers from all over the world to participate THE 2008 BYLAZORA EXCAVATION TEAM 3 he Paionians (also: Paeonians) Paionia (VIII:115). Herodotus (V:12-17) also lists the were the people who inhabited names of various Paionian tribes and speaks of their Macedonia before the arrival of the subjugation at the hands of Darius’ general, Megabazus. ancient Makedones (Macedonians). When referring to “Macedonia” in this article, we Thucydides (II:99) mentions that before the Makedones mean the Vardar / Axios River basin that drains through left their ancestral homeland near the Pindos Mountains, the modern Republic of Macedonia and modern Greece. the Paionians inhabited what would become the core The ancient Greeks and Macedonians referred to the of the ancient Macedonian Kingdom of Philip II and river as the Axios (Αξιος), as do the modern Greeks. Alexander III. From Herodotus and Thucydides it Since the Middle Ages, Slavic-speakers and the Ottoman seems that in the sixth century BC, some of the various Turks called the same river the Vardar. Paionian tribes had become united under a single leadership, while others remained independent. The The earliest mention of the Paionians in ancient Greek precise location of the homelands of many of the Paionian literature is in Homer’s Iliad, in which the Paionians tribes is uncertain, and which of them were conquered appear as allies of the Trojans against the Greeks (Iliad by the Persians in the late sixth and early fifth centuries II:848 seq.). Here Homer mentions the Paionians as BC is also a matter of dispute. What is certain is that the being from Amydon on the “broad stream of the Axios,” Paionians, at this time, were gradually coming into close fighting with curved bows (again mentioned in Iliad contact with the Hellenic world, both through peaceful X: 428 seq.), and being led by a certain Pyraichmes. trade contacts as well as through military confrontation Other Paionian heroes are mentioned, like Apisaon with the Macedonians, who themselves were being (Iliad XVII:348) and Asteropaios (Iliad XVII:351). “Hellenized” at the same time. Asteropaios seems to be the greatest of the Paionian warriors. In Iliad X:140-188 Asteropaios is described The sixth century BC was a period of great power and as a son of Pelegon (a son the river god Axios), from importance for the Paionians, in whatever type of polity the fertile lands of the Paionians watered by the Axios. they may have organized themselves. Asteropaios, a fighter with a long spear, newly arrived (just eleven days previous) at Troy, was slain by Achilles, along with a number of other Paionians. Traditionally the Paionian presence at Troy has been interpreted as two different Paionian tribes, from two different regions of the Axios Valley, led by two chieftains (Pyraichmes and Asteropaios), and arriving at two different times during the war. Such an interpretation would be entirely consistent with what is known about the Paionian tribal structure from later Greek sources. Herodotus mentions, inter alia, some of the Paionians as living near the Strymon River (V:97), that the Paionians were originally from the Troad (V:14), and that Shah Xerxes abandoned some of his materiel and troops in 4 But the fifth and fourth centuries BC saw the gradual dethroned in 285 BC and forced into exile amongst Macedonian conquest of the Paionian tribes. Amyntas the Dardanians, the barbaric northern neighbors of I (reg. 540-498 BC) subjected the Paionian tribes west the Paionians and Macedonians. Another catastrophe of the Axios all the way to the sea. Alexander I (reg. was about to descend upon Paionia, the invasion of the 498-454 BC) continued the conquest up the Axios River. Gauls. In 280/279 BC a massive migration of warlike There is no evidence, however, that the Macedonians Gauls swept through Paionia and Macedonia before exterminated or severely