THRACIANS ON THE NORTHERN AEGEAN ISLANDS: WRITTEN TESTIMONIA AND CURRENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE
THRACIANS ON THE NORTHERN AEGEAN ISLANDS: WRITTEN TESTIMONIA AND CURRENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE

Summary/Abstract: The assumption that the Northern Aegean islands of Thasos and Samothrace have become part of the broader Thracian realm, in regard to their pre-Greek population, is relatively well attested in ancient literary tradition. Similarly, the written sources name at least part of the population of Lemnos as Thracians, suggesting that they reached that part of the Aegean as well. How does this information match, however, the archaeological picture that emerged after the active exploration on those three islands in the last thirty years or so? It is a well-known truth that the attempts to employ the archaeological data and the written evidence as complementary to each other in order to restore a more varied and vivid picture of the ancient societies may lead to a serious discrepancy rather than to perfect harmony. Despite the debatable nature of such methodological approach, it provides at least two different viewpoints: the objective archaeological record (subjectively interpreted, however) and the ancient perception of the people and practices which led to the accumulation of these same material data.

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