2) is equally unpersuasive.
The frankest part of the book is without doubt the epilogue signed by all three authors. I shall quote here, in translation, only a few sentences: “waves of colonizers settled at Methone with the full consent of the locals” (who according to their theories were Macedonians) (pp. 324–325); “pottery as well as inscriptions attest that Eretrians lived side by side in Methone not only with the locals (Macedonians) but also with Greeks from other regions. The role of the locals was not diminished but improved after the settlement of the colonizers” (pp. 325)… “The finds reject old views…and prove that…Macedonia was an integral part of the united Aegean world of the Panhellenes” (pp. 327). The conclusion of the book – based mostly on misinterpretation ofpottery distribution – is that Macedonians not only traded in the 8th century as far as Pithekoussai together with other Greeks (as Kotsonas implies), but they also received settlers from many regions of Greece as friends and civilizers during the 8th century BC in Methone. The authors imply that this is a strong argument for the identity of Macedonians. It becomes thus clear that while an intensive discussion on the manipulation of archaeology for nationalist and colonialist purposes is going on globally, the good old Balkan nationalism is still haunting North Greek archaeology.
1. J.K. Papadopoulos, The Early Iron Age Cemetery at Torone (Los Angeles 2005) 9.
2. See M. Tiverios, Greek Colonisation of the Northern Aegean. In: G.R. Tsetskhladze (ed.), Greek Colonisation: An Account of Greek Colonies and other Settlements Overseas, 2. Mnemosyne Suppl. 193 (Leiden/Boston 2008) 18.
3. In this book Bessios avoids referring to the extensive use of a bulldozer for the excavation of the pit – as he did in his preliminary reports – that resulted in the loss of its upper levels and destroyed once and for all the archaeological landscape by removing the earth around it.
4. For similar comments see A.L. D’Agata, Review of Antonis Kotsonas, The Archaeology of Tomb A1K1 of Orthi Petra in Eleutherna: The Early Iron Age pottery. Gnomon 83, 2011, 337–341.
5. S. Gimatzidis, Πρώιμοι ελληνικοί εμπορικοί αμφορείς. In: Thasos. Métropole et colonies. Symposium International à la mémoire de Marina Sgourou, 21–22 septembre 2006, Musée Archéologique de Thasos et „Καλογερικό“ de Thasos (forthcoming).
6. S. Gimatzidis, Die Stadt Sindos. Eine Siedlung von der späten Bronze- bis zur Klassischen Zeit am Thermaischen Golf in Makedonien. Prähist. Arch. Südosteuropa 26 (Rahden/Westf. 2010) 262–264, fig. 82; 375– 376.
7. Cf. supra.
8. Furthermore, there are significant grammatical shortcomings such as “επιπεδούμενος ώμος” (instead of “επίπεδος”) [pp. 141; 142], “Ο ώμος...φέρει...ομάδες γραμμώσεων...” (instead of “γραμμών”) [pp. 135], “...τα αγγεία... παρουσιάζουν ελαφρά, αμελή τροπίδωση” [pp. 129], to mention only a few.
9. See R. Janko, From Gordion and Gabii to Eretria and Methone: the rise of the Greek alphabet. In: A. J. Strauss Clay/Rengakos/Y. Tzifopoulos, Panhellenes at Methone: graphê in Late Geometric and Protoarchaic Methone, Macedonia (ca 700 BCE) (forthcoming). I owe many thanks to Prof. Richard Janko for his kindness in letting me refer to his unpublished manuscript.