Thursday 9th May 2024 – Vergina, Greece

 

Just a short distance from Ioannina is the site of Dodona, where the most ancient and important oracle in the Greek world. Here was the prophetic oak tree and the Great Goddess (Mother Goddess) lived in its roots. The prophesies were interpreted from the rustlings of the oak leaves and the birds that lived in the branches. Presumably because she got lonely, the Great Goddess was joined later by Zeus Naios (dweller) and she was given the name Dione. The cult is thought to have started in the Bronze Age (2600 – 1500 BC) and continued until the 4^th century AD.
We remember a visit many years ago when our son was young and I had to steer him away from a very large snake that was basking on the seats of the theatre. Unfortunately, for such an important site, there is not a huge amount to see. The highlight is the theatre but renovation work is currently underway and there is no access to the seating area. It looks as though the work started some time ago and there was little sign of recent activity. Still, it was interesting to see the site of the sacred oak and the remains of the temples close to it.
We moved on to Vergina, the most famous archaeological site of Macedonia where there is a private parking area that is open for motorhomes, providing water, electricity and dumping facilities. The site itself is open until 20:00, so we were able to park up in the camperstop and wander up to the palace of Aigai. This has been closed for a long time whilst the ruins were consolidated and reconstruction carried out. It was only reopened earlier this Spring and this was the reason that we decided to visit. When we visited in the late 80s, the palace was an open area and it was possible to walk anywhere. Now, after all the work has been done, it is only possible to walk in the central courtyard and the columned walkway around it, the many side rooms are strictly out-of-bounds. The reconstruction work is very impressive with columns reaching their full height and the mosaics restored or largely replaced with replicas. Signage was very poor and it was obvious that the palace had been reopened before the information boards were ready – difficult to understand given that they had years to design them.
The Macedonian cemetery is absolutely enormous – over 200 hectares and included burials of citizens of all statuses. Only part of the cemetery is open to the public and it is the high status burials including royal tombs that are on display. The guardian on duty was very enthusiastic, spoke good English and gave us lots of information about the site. She told me about another tomb further down the site and I went off to investigate. The tombs in the cemetery are covered with small tumuli and this one had 3 graves from the 7^th century BC and three from the 4^th century BC. Many of the tombs have been robbed in antiquity but one of the 4^th century cist graves was found intact and was the burial of a very wealthy and important man, probably a priest.
Photos: The sacred oak tree (a modern replacement!) at Dodona; The Dodona theatre; The less-impressive theatre at Ancient Aigai where Philip of Macedon was murdered; The agora of the palace of Aigai with its reconstructed columns – the poshest rooms were behind those columns; A beautiful pebble mosaics in one of those posh rooms; The so-called ‘Tumulus of the Priest’.