Archaeological Sites in Macedonia, Greece : Α museum for the “prisoners of Acanthus”

The Athos Peninsula in Macedonia, Greece (Photo@ Wikipedia.org)

Α museum for the “prisoners (Gr: Δεσμώτες) of Acanthus” is about to be built in Ierissos of Chalcidike. More than 18,000 graves have been discovered in Acanthus during the last decades. Many of them contained remains from the dead with bonds, a mystery which archaeological research has not solved yet. “Its unknown whether this has to do with slaves or with people

sentenced to death” announced Lillian Achilara, Director in the Ephorates of Classical antiquities in Thessalonike, during a session of an archaeological council. After the municipality granted 500 s.m, an excavation will bring to light some of these remains, which will be further known and protected in a roof.

The necropolis of Acanthus 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.

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