写真

Hi Friends.
In my daily trip to prefecture Kozani I visited the ancient city Aiani.
There is a big area where since the beginning of 80痴 are getting excavations in a place it is inhabited since Paleolithic Age.

In the beginning of this series I will show you some photos from this place, the landscape from Aiani.

This shot is from the place Megali Rachi where the most excavations done. And here you see a part of the landscape of the Aiani territory.
From this point on the right-behind side is the modern village with the same name, Aiani.
My next shots I will show you few places from the excavations and very few findings. The findings are in the museum of Aiani.

Here you have some historic information about the area.
I have these informations from the book it is in the big museum and the book is published from Ministry of Culture.

Upper Macedonia, which was distinguished by ancient historians from the plain and coastal area of Lower Macedonia, includes the modern nomoi (prefectures) of Grevena, Kozani, Kastoria and Florina. and extends to the north beyond the modern boundaries of Greece as far as the river Erigon and the Ochrid and Prespa Lakes.
This geographic area, bounded by great mountain ranges, was occupied by a series of related Greek tribes:
The Orestai, Lynkestai, Pelagones, Elimiotai and Eordoi.
Each of these tribes had a ruling house and a socio-political system based, at least in the early centuries after their emergence, on an agricultural 朴astoral way of life. It is clear from references, to local ethnic names, such as Elimiotes Makedon, Eordaios, ex Orestidos, etc., that they retained their tribal division down to late antiquity, despite the unification of the Macedonian state, the evolution of cities as administrative canters, and the Roman conquest.
The district of Elimeia, or Elimiotis, was bounded on the north by Orestis and Eordaia, and occupied the southern part of Upper Macedonia, to right and left of the main stream of the river Haliakmon, though its territorial extent is difficult to determine. During the Hellenistic period, the region of Tymphaia is said to have been annexed to it to the west, and the north part of Parrhaibia withTripolis (Pythion, Azoros and Doliche) was possibly appended to it at an earlier date.

The information to be derived from the written sources, both for Elimeia and for the other districts of Upper Macedonia, is scanty and indirect.
According to Herodotus (1.56, 8.137-139) and Thucydides (2.99) the area of Upper Macedonia was one of the places that the much-traveled Greek nation, to which the Makedones belonged, halted during its wanderings. One branch, the Argeadai Makedones, whose rulers were the Temenids, descendants of Herakles and Temenos, settled in the area around Olympos after a series of moves.
In the early 7th century BC, they founded the state of Aegae, the first known king of which was Perdikkas. Based on Aegae, which was founded by the Argive Karanos in the 8th century BC according to a later tradition, they continued to expand for many centuries.

It may be concluded from Herodotus � account of the Persian Wars, and also from Justin (7.4.1) that the political predomination enjoyed by the Argaedai over the related tribes of Upper Macedonia, began with the appearance of the Persians on European soil, and was consolidated when they departed, under Alexander I (498-454 BC)
Herodotus specifically states (7.185.2) that the Eordoi, whose territory had been conquered and the population decimated by the Argaedai (Thucydides 2.99.5) followed Xerxes to southern Greece.

The township of Aiani is 23 km south of Kozani and about 5 km north of the main stream of the river Haliakmon, which was converted into a reservoir by the construction of the Polyphytos dam in 1973.

You can take here more information and images about Aiani