Description:

This volume is the first in a four-part series presenting the final results of the Molyvoti, Thrace, Archaeological Project (MTAP), a Greek-American synergasia project in northern Greece. The project is centered on a site often referred to as “Ancient Stryme,” which ancient sources identified as an emporion (trading post) and polis settled by Thracians.

Focusing on the 2013-2015 field seasons, this volume offers a detailed presentation of the site’s stratigraphy, material culture, and historical development. It proposes a revised chronology, including a 4th-century BCE reoccupation after destruction possibly associated with Philip of Macedon, and traces diachronic change through the Early Byzantine period. Among the project’s notable discoveries is a complete Classical house—one of the few uncovered in Aegean Thrace—offering valuable insights into domestic architecture and material culture. An intensive urban survey sheds light on the city’s 4th-century BCE fortifications and harbors, significantly enhancing our understanding of the scale and function of coastal settlements in the region. In the surrounding chora, the area’s first geomorphological study examines landscape use and shifts in the ancient coastline.

Contributions from more than 20 scholars present the site’s architecture, stratigraphy, ceramics, small finds, and geographical data. Together, these studies illuminate Greek-Thracian interactions, patterns of settlement and trade, and environmental change from prehistory through the Early Byzantine era in this understudied region of the northern Aegean.

About the Author: Nathan T. Arrington is Professor of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University. Domna Terzopoulou is the director of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Evros. Marina Tasaklaki is an archaeologist in the Ephorate of Antiquities of Rhodope. Thomas F. Tartaron is Associate Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.