Information about Ierissos

Acanthus or Akanthos (Greek: Ἄκανθος or Modern Greek: Aχανθος) (modern town of Ierissos, also Erisso) was an ancient Greek city on the Athos peninsula. It was located on the north-east side of Akti, on the most eastern peninsula of Chalcidice. Strabo and Ptolemy erroneously place Acanthus on the Singitic gulf, but there can be no doubt that the town was on the Strymonic gulf, as is stated by Herodotus and other authorities: the error may have perhaps arisen from the territory of Acanthus having stretched as far as the Singitic gulf. The name of the ancient city (derived from the acanthus bush) is due to the thorny nature of the area or to the thorny nature of the town's foundation.

History

Foundation

It was founded by 7th century BCE (the archaeology suggests 655 BCE) by colonists from Andros, according to Thucidydes.^[1] Plutarch, on the other hand, referred to it as a mixed colony of Andrians and local Chalcidians, which was founded on the "Coast of Drakontos", in place of a preexisting civilization. He writes that settlers from Andros and Chalcis arrived on the shore at the same time. The natives of Acanthus, seeing the crowed of settlers, became frightened and left the city. The settlers sent an explorer each to see what had happened and, as they approached the city and realized it was empty, ran to be the first to take over the land for their fellow countryman. The Chalcidian was the fastest but the Andrian, seeing he was losing, stopped and threw his spear on the walls gate, before his opponent arrived. A court case followed, which was won by the Andrians, because as they protested, they had just about taken over the city first.

Growth

Its growth during the Archaic period is reflected by the wide circulation of its currency, first minted around 530 BCE with the distinctive emblem of a lion killing a bull – an allusion to Herodotus’s account (vii. 125) that on the march of Xerxes from Acanthus to Therma, lions seized the camels which carried the provisions - at least 92 different types of coins have been found. Its economic resources emanated from the mining and wood from the nearby forests, but also through agricultural and vegetable goods that were transported through the sizable harbor.

The first historical reference, in Thuycidides, from mid-6th century BC, connects the city with the Persian Wars, during which the townsfolk officially welcomed the Persians and willingly helped with the digging of the canal for Xerxes, 480 BCE, for which Xerxes richly rewarded them. They declared one of his relatives who died in the area, named Artahei, a hero, and willingly took part in the expedition against Greece. After the Persian wars Acanthus became a member of the Athenian Alliance, paying tribute of three talents. In 424 BCE, after a short siege and oratory by Brasidas, the city was convinced to ally itself with the Spartans, although Thucydides remarks the greater likelihood that it was the threat to destroy their profitable vineyards, rather than Brasidas's rhetoric, that truly moved the Acanthians.^[2]

Situation

4th to 2nd centuries BCE

During the establishment of the Chalcidice Alliance, the townsfolk refused to join it, in part due to the old quarrel with the Chalcidians.^[3] Under threat from the Chalcidians, Acanthus called in Sparta's help, which came in 382 BCE when the Spartans and Acanthians captured and destroyed Olynthos and the alliance, at least temporarily. Acanthus's staying-out of the alliance meant that in 350 BC, when it was conquered by Philip II of Macedon, it was not destroyed. Later it was incorporated to the region of Ouranoupolis, a new city that was founded by Alexarchos (Cassander's brother), in the isthmus, between the Strimonic and the Singitikos gulfs.

According to Livy, Acanthus was attacked by a Roman-Pergamene fleet in 199 BC during the Second Macedonian War and then besieged, captured and sacked by Rome in 168 BCE.^[4][5] A little later, it was reestablished as a Roman colony of legionary veterans.

Roman period

The Romans later exploited all the natural sources of wealth and its harbor, and the town continued through the Roman and Byzantine period. Around the start of the 1st century, Acanthus's renaming began, with its name translated into the Latin Ericius, from which was derived its Byzantine and modern name of Ierissos or Erissos.

As Ierissos

During the Byzantine era Erissos was the seat of a bishopric, evidenced from 883. From the 10th century onwards, the town's history is indissolubly linked with that of Mount Athos. In 942 there were disputes between Ierissos and the monks of Mount Athos over the borders between Ierissos and the monastic community's lands and, the following year, the differences were settled in person by a large commission of major politicians and church officials.

In the summer of 1425 Ierissos came into the hands of the Turks. During that time the Venetians, starting from Cassandreia, landed on the coastline of Ierissos, burnt down Ierissos (by then only a large village) and its surroundings and (on departure) set alight the castle and five towers. In 1821 Ierissos took part in the Greek War of Independence and during the repression the village was burnt down by the Turks and a large number of residents killed.

In 1932 the village was destroyed by a powerful earthquake, with 121 people were killed and approximately 500 injured. After the earthquake the new Ierissos was built in its current position, a little north west of the ancient city.

Description

The ancient city extended along a sheer hillside, about 0.6km south-east of modern Ierissos. Remains of walls, an impressive citadel, and Hellenistic buildings survive, along with a deserted Byzantine church and two post Byzantine churches.

Necropolis

The city itself has not been excavated, but the necropolis (graveyard) has, starting in 1973, since when more than 600 graves have been discovered. Particularly extensive is the sight of the cemetery along the seaside of Ierissos.

The graveyard seems to have been used for a long period, starting from the Archaic period (or perhaps even the 17th century BCE) right up to Roman times and later, perhaps with certain intervals in between each period of time. The graves occur in at least two or three layers, either shallow in the earth, or deeper in the sand, usually parallel with the line of the seashore. The orientation of the dead (that is, skulls of the dead - and the tops of jugs) is, in most cases, southeast.

In Acanthus both adults and children were buried in the same area according to ancient burial customs. Various grave types have been discovered - some are simple dirt holes, others coated with clay or undecorated or painted clay urns, yet others are shaped like boxes, covered in clay or jug-shaped (jug-shaped most probabaly constituted the majority of infant or child burials). The grave goods, usually placed in the graves next to or above the dead, are varied and sometimes in earthen containers. Often they were personal or related to their occupation (such as jewels, pins, buckles, mirrors, weapons - though these are rare - , needles, hooks, bill-hooks, knives or - very often in female and child graves - clay figurines representing various animals, foodstuffs, or human forms, such as actors). Some of the goods are locally made whilst some are from other commercial centres and workshops of the ancient world. Burial customs, and similar types of graves which have been discovered, resemble many other cemeteries in other ancient cities of Macedonia and Thrace, revealing the connection through trade to so much of the Greek-speaking East as well as to other well-known centres of the Peloponnessus (especially Euboea, Athens, Corinth and Boeotia).

References

Footnotes

Other sources

• Local government website (English)
• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography by William Smith (1857).
• Official web site of Ierissos city (Greek)

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