The Archaeological Park of Dion is the most important archaeological site at Mount Olympus in Greece, located in Dion (Greek: Δίον). In the area comprised by the Archaeological Park of Dion, sanctuaries were found from the Hellenistic and Roman periods. The park displays the importance of ancient Dion in the history of Pieria.
Location Dion is located at the north-east foot of Mount Olympus. It is five kilometers from the sea, 15 kilometers from Katerini and 17 kilometers from the ancient Leivithra. In Hellenistic times the distance to the sea was only 1.5 kilometers. Dion is connected with the Thermaean Gulf by the once navigable river Baphyras.
Archaeological facilities
The archaeological Park
The park has an area of 150 hectares, of which nearly 50 hectares belong to the urban area and 50 hectares to the sanctuaries. The other area has not yet been explored archaeologically. In the former urban area residential buildings, a market square, public buildings, churches, bathhouses, shops, workshops and toilets have been found. The sanctuaries, the theaters and the cemetery are located outside the city
The archaeological museum Half a kilometer west of the archaeological park, in the modern village of Dion, is the archaeological museum, built in 1983. Here the finds of ancient Dion and other archaeological places are exhibited. On the first floor there are also exhibits from Pydna and other archaeological sites of Pieria. In a small cinema, visitors will be audiovisual informed about Dion.
The archaeotheke The building was erected directly behind the museum on the western side, specifically for the exhibition of the Dionysos mosaic. On the upper floor, a gallery is arranged around the mosaic so that the visitor can view it from all perspectives. In showcases recently found exhibits are displayed.
History 424 v. Thucydides mentions Dion as the first city reached by the Spartan general Brasidas, coming from Thessaly (Tempi) in Macedonia.Thukydides. The peloponesian war Pausanias mentioned Dion as one of the places where Orpheus had lived.Pausanias 9.30.4
In the Hellenistic period, Dion became the religious center of Macedonia. Zeus was venerated here, and Olympic games were held in honor of Zeus and the Muses. The village of Dion gained a certain importance within Greece through the sanctuary and over time developed into a city. Alexander the Great sacrificed to Zeus in Dion before he began his campaign against the Persians.Hellenic Republic, Ministry of culture and sports, Onassis Foundation USA: Gods and Mortals at Olympus. Edited by Dimitrios Pandermalis, page 67and 68, Later, he had 25 bronze statues of the cavaliers fallen in the Battle of the Cranicos, erected in the Zeus Olympios Shrine. In the year 219 BC, the city was destroyed by the Aitolians. Philipp V had the city rebuilt immediately. The Romans took the city 169 BC. Gradually, Roman settlers came to Dion and brought their officialdom, their units of measurement and weight units with them. In the course of the changing owners, more sanctuaries were built. After the middle of the 3rd century AD, the decline started by the raids of neighboring tribes, earthquakes and floods. In the fourth century AD, Dion (Dium) experienced a last flourishing when it became the official seat of a bishop. The place is last mentioned as an administrative district of the Byzantine emperor Constantinos Porphyrogennetos in the 10th century.
Recent history
At the end of the 18th century, the French consul Felix de Beaujour visited ancient Dion without knowing the ancient site that was abandoned and covered with the remains of buildings and columns.
In December 1806 the ancient Dion was rediscovered by the English explorer William M. Leake. He identified the ruins of ancient Dion near the village of Melathria, a small village inhabited by farmers and cattle breeders (Melathria was later renamed Dion).William Martin Leake: Travels in Northern Greece. Band 3, J. Rodwell, London 1835, pages 408–413. He recognized under the vegetation the ancient Hellenistic theater, the stadium and parts of the city wall. The French archaeologist Léon Heuzey confirmed the discovery in 1855. He mapped parts of the city wall, found the foundations of some towers and noted the inscriptions of some tombstones.L. Heuzey et H. Daumet, Mission Archeologique de Macedoine (1876)
From 1912, the year of the liberation of Macedonia by the Ottomans, the ancient Dion was given more attention. The archaeologist G. P. Oikonomos collected and published all the inscriptions he found in the vicinity of Dion.
The Rector of the University of Thessaloniki and Professor of Archeology, Georgios Sotiriadis, began with the first excavations. They began in June 1928 with the aim of finding the sanctuary of Zeus Olympios. He found and examined several of the tumuli within the city walls. Also, a basilica from early Christian times was discovered. The assumption that a temple was under the basilica proved to be deceptive after which one had dug five meters deep. The most important find of this first period of excavation was a Macedonian vault from the 4th century BC, Which had already been plundered by grave-robbers in ancient times. The excavations were discontinued in 1931.
Charalambos Makaronas found a second Macedonian grave in 1955. A third grave was discovered a year later.
From 1961 Georgios Bakalakis resumed the works. In 1962, a large part of the city walls and the defensive towers were discovered during the mapping of the previously known excavation site. During the excavation phase under G. Bakalakis, the Roman theater was located, which extends southeast of the Hellenistic theater. The excavations at the early Christian basilica were completed by Stylianos Pelekanidis.
From the summer of 1973, the work was continued under the direction of Professor Dimitrios Pandermalis (University of Thessaloniki). His first goal was to explore the remains of two buildings south of the city area. The excavations revealed the Demeter sanctuary. In the same year, finds of statues of Asklepios, Hygeia and Telesphoros showed that also the Asklepios cult was practiced in Dion. On the main street the armor and the shields were released. The orchestras of the Hellenistic theater were then freed from the overlying layer of the earth. The theater dates from the 5th century BC; the Bacchae of Euripides were premiered here.
In the summer of 1976 excavations were carried out in the southeastern sector within the city wall. One came upon the great thermae. These were obviously destroyed by an earthquake. The mosaic of a bull in the frigidarium was separated into two parts, the lower part of which is 50 cm lower than the upper one. On the northern side of the baths were statues of the children of Asklepios.
Under difficult conditions the excavation work on the Isis Shrine took place. Spring water and mud caused the trenches to collapse frequently. A dam was built to continue the work. Again, there were signs of destruction by an earthquake with subsequent flooding. The excavations were completed in 1984.
The stadium was excavated in 1995 under the leadership of Giorgos Karadedos. Beside the playing field, several rows of seats were found.
In June 1987 the Dionysus mosaic was cleared and then protected by a roof construction against weather influences.
The sanctuary of Zeus Olympios was finally discovered in 2000 when investigations were made on the site near the Roman theater.
After a flooding of the Isis Shrine of Archaeological Park in 2002, was decided to move the river Vaphyras a few yards westward, so that future floods can no longer harm the sanctuary. In the course of this, artifacts were found which ultimately led to the excavation of the sanctuary of Zeus Hypsistos, the Almighty God. As the work approached its end, the cult statue of Zeus Hypsistos was found in the mud.
Beginning in 2007, under the leadership of Semeli Pingiatoglou, excavations were carried out with the aim of finding the oldest structures of ancient Dion.
The Dionysus mosaic was removed from its original place of discovery in 2015 and transferred to a specially built building (Archaeotheke).Hellenic Republic, Ministry of culture and sports, Onassis Foundation USA: Gods and Mortals at Olympus. Edited by Dimitrios Pandermalis, Ancient Dion: A chronicle of the excavations, pages 19-29,
The works are still continuing under the direction of the University of Thessaloniki.
The sanctuaries
Vaphyras Although no special sanctuary was erected to him, the river Vaphyras was considered a divinity. About east of the park entrance is its source. The holy grove of the Muses probably grew here. The head of a statue representing the personalized river was found in the spring area. According to Hesiod, the Vaphyras originates from the cosmic river Okeanos, dominated by the primeval goddess Tethys.Hesiod, Theogony 337-70
An Artemis shrine discovered near the river is considered to be dedicated to the goddess Artemis Vaphyria. She watched the transition of young girls to the stage of marriageable women.
The river Vaphyras is interwoven in Greek mythology with Orpheus and the Muses. In the second century AD, Pausanias writes that the upper part of the Vaphyras bore the name of Helikon.Pausanias 9.30.8. Two-thirds of its length ran underground, before returning to Dion. According to Pausanias, however, this was not always the case. The inhabitants of Dion claimed that the Helikon flowed past Dion. But when the women who killed Orpheus wanted to wash the blood from their hands in the Helikon, the river dried up, for he did not wish to have any part in this act. Only in Dion did he appear again on the surface.
Demeter sanctuary
It consists of several temples and is dated from the archaic period up to the Roman period. The sanctuary of Asklepios is located in the immediate vicinity. The connection between the two sanctuaries is also evident at other archaeological sites in Greece.
In the open, walled-in area, the goddess was offered liquid sacrifices. The oldest remains of the sanctuary are also found here. End of the 4th century BC two archaic temples were replaced by two Doric temples. Small, one-room temples (Oikos) were consecrated to the gods of the earth like Baubo and Kurotrophos. They were hoped for rich harvest yields. Another temple was erected in honor of Aphrodite. The faithful hoped for increased fertility. In front of the temples there were altars on which carnal sacrifices were offered to the respective gods. Vegetable sacrifices, such as grain or fruit, were spread out on so-called cult tables. Archaeological finds and ancient records have given the water an important role in the Demeter cult. It was among the duties of the priestesses to ensure that pure water was always available. In addition to cleaning rituals, water was seen as the necessary element to allow plant growth. Two circular wells are among the oldest structures of the temple.
In addition to the usual finds such as statues, pottery, jewelry, oil lamps etc., one found a ring stone from Mycenaean time. It dates from the 14th to 15th century BC, and shows a schematically represented lion in front of a tree. The artifact is a reference to the earlier settlement of Dion.Hellenic Republic, Ministry of culture and sports, Onassis Foundation USA: Gods and Mortals at Olympus. Edited by Dimitrios Pandermalis, page 102, 1990 the foundations of an altar were discovered east of the temple; At this point 1973 the head of a statue of the goddess was recovered.Greek ministry of culture and sport, Aristotle University Thessaloniki, Το Αρχαιολογικό Έργο στή Μακεδονία και Θράκη (The archaeological work of Macedonia and Thrace) Volume 4, 1990, page 190.
In the Late antiquity there were kilns on the grounds of the Demeter Shrine.
Asclepios sanctuary