Once more, we interrupt our posting schedule for an announcement:
From 23 to 28 April, we will be hosted by the Ephorate of Antiquities of Drama, in the Archaeological Museum, for a first overview of the finds from the Drama tumulus cemetery.
The tumuli were located in the Industrial Zone of the modern city and were first explored in 1979. They are no longer visible, but they remain one of the key Early Iron Age sites of eastern Macedonia to this day.
Our main interest lies with the ‘warrior graves’ that were explored in the tumulus cemetery. They offer an excellent counterpoint to the Early Iron Age burials in Kastri (Thasos) and may provide some insight into what may have been a Thracian warrior ‘elite’.
At least two Naue II swords (of a type that is very popular in the Aegean world, but also in Late Bronze Age / Early Iron Age Europe in general), two spearheads, and two iron ‘picks’ are mentioned in the early excavation reports. Some of these finds are exhibited in the Drama Museum, but they have yet to be studied and published.
We are very grateful to the superintendant of the Drama Ephorate, Dr. Eustratios Papadopoulos, for his kind welcome and his valued support. Please stand by for upcoming photographs and our first impressions of the finds!