Macedonia ( ) is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. The modern region at its maximum extent is considered to span the largest part of northern Greece, known as Greek Macedonia, all of North Macedonia, a large part of southwestern Bulgaria, known as Pirin Macedonia, and small parts of Albania, Serbia, and Kosovo.
In classical antiquity, the kingdom of Macedon rose into an empire under Alexander the Great during the second half of the 4th century BC, signaling the start of the Hellenistic period. In the 2nd century BC Macedonia became a province of the Roman empire. During the medieval period, a Byzantine theme under the name of Macedonia was carved out mostly in Thrace.The migrations during the early Byzantine centuries also changed the meaning of the geographical term Macedonia, which seems to have moved to the east together with some of the non-Slavic population of the old Roman province. In the early 9th century an administrative unit (theme) of Makedonikon was established in what is now Thrace (split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey) with Adrianople as its capital. It was the birthplace of Emperor Basil I (867–886), the founder of the so-called Macedonian dynasty in Byzantinum. Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia, Dimitar Bechev, Scarecrow Press, 2009, , p. Iii. Macedonia came to be defined by European authors as the modern geographical region by the mid-19th century while under Ottoman rule.The region was not called "Macedonia" by the Ottomans, and the name "Macedonia" gained currency together with the ascendance of rival nationalism. Collective Memory, National Identity, and Ethnic Conflict: Greece, Bulgaria, and the Macedonian Question, Victor Roudometof, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002, , p. 89.
Etymology
Both proper nouns Makedṓn and Makednós are morphologically derived from the Ancient Greek adjective makednós meaning "tall, slim", and are related to the term Macedonia.Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), "μακεδνός", in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), volume I, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, page 894
Boundaries and Terminology
Prior to its expansion under Philip II, the ancient kingdom of Macedonia, to which the modern region owes its name, lay within the central and western parts of the current Greek province of Macedonia.The Ancient Greeks: New Perspectives, Stephanie Lynn Budin, ABC-CLIO, 2004, , p. 12. The Roman province of Macedonia consisted of what is today northern and central Greece, much of the geographical area of the Republic of North Macedonia and southeast Albania. In late Roman times, the provincial boundaries were reorganized to form the Diocese of Macedonia, consisting of most of modern mainland Greece, Crete, southern Albania, southwest Bulgaria, and most of Republic of North Macedonia.
In the Byzantine Empire, a province under the name of Macedonia was carved out of the original Theme of Thrace, which was well east of the Struma River.The migrations during the early Byzantine centuries also changed the meaning of the geographical term Macedonia, which seems to have moved to the east together with some of the non-Slavic population of the old Roman province. In the early 9th century an administrative unit (theme) of Makedonikon was established in what is now Thrace (split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey) with Adrianople as its capital. It was the birthplace of Emperor Basil I (867–886), the founder of the so-called Macedonian dynasty in Byzantinum. Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia, Dimitar Bechev, Scarecrow Press, 2009, , p. Iii. This thema variously included parts of Thrace and gave its name to the Macedonian dynasty.By the beginning of the 9th century, the theme of Macedonia, with its capital at Adrianople consisted not of Macedonian but of Thracian territories. During the Byzantine period the parts of Macedonia proper under Byzantine rule corresponded to the themes of Thessalonica and Strymon. The Ottoman administration ignored the name of Macedonia. It was only revived during the Renaissance, when western scholars rediscovered the ancient Greek geographical terminology. Brill's Companion to Ancient Macedon: Studies in the Archaeology and History of Macedon, 650 BC – 300 AD, Robin J. Fox, Robin Lane Fox, BRILL, 2011, , p. 35. Hence, Byzantine documents of this era that mention Macedonia are most probably referring to the Macedonian theme. The parts of Macedonia, on the other hand, which were ruled by the First Bulgarian Empire throughout the 9th and the 10th century, were incorporated into the Byzantine Empire in 1018 as the Themе of Bulgaria.When the barbarian invasions started in the fourth through seventh centuries AD in the Balkans, the remnants of the Hellenes who lived in Macedonia were pushed to eastern Thrace, the area between Adrianople (presently the Turkish city of Edirne) and Constantinople. This area would be called theme of Macedonia by the Byzantines... whereas the modern territory of R. of Macedonia was included in the theme of Bulgaria after the destruction of Samuels Bulgarian Empire in 1018. Contested Ethnic Identity: The Case of Macedonian Immigrants in Toronto, 1900–1996, Chris Kostov, Peter Lang, 2010, , p. 48. With the gradual conquest of southeastern Europe by the Ottomans in the late 14th century, the name of Macedonia disappeared as an administrative designation for several centuries and was rarely displayed on maps.
The name was again revived to mean a distinct geographical region in the 19th century,The ancient name 'Macedonia' disappeared during the period of Ottoman rule and was only restored in the nineteenth century originally as geographical term. The Oxford Handbook of the History of Nationalism, John Breuilly, Oxford University Press, 2013, , p. 192. defining the region bounded by Mount Olympus, the Pindus range, mounts Shar and Osogovo, the western Rhodopes, the lower course of the river Mesta (Greek Nestos) and the Aegean Sea, developing roughly the same borders that it has today.The region was not called "Macedonia" by the Ottomans, and the name "Macedonia" gained currency together with the ascendance of rival nationalism. Collective Memory, National Identity, and Ethnic Conflict: Greece, Bulgaria, and the Macedonian Question, Victor Roudometof, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002, , p. 89.
History Neolithic period While Macedonia shows signs of human habitation as old as the Paleolithic period (among which is the Petralona cave with the oldest European humanoid), the earliest known settlements, such as Nea Nikomedeia in Imathia (today's Greek Macedonia), date back 9,000 years.R.J. Rodden and K.A. Wardle, Nea Nikomedia: The Excavation of an Early Neolithic Village in Northern Greece 1961–1964, Vol I, The Excavation and the Ceramic Assemblage, British School at Athens Supplementary Volume 25, 1996 The houses at Nea Nikomedeia were constructed—as were most structures throughout the Neolithic in northern Greece—of wattle and daub on a timber frame. The cultural assemblage includes well-made pottery in simple shapes with occasional decoration in white on a red background, clay female figurines of the 'rod-headed' type known from Thessaly to the Danube Valley, stone axes and adzes, chert blades, and ornaments of stone including curious 'nose plugs' of uncertain function. The assemblage of associated objects differs from one house to the next, suggesting some degree of craft specialisation had already been established from the beginning of the site's history. The farming economy was based on the cultivation of cereal crops such as wheat and barley and pulses and on the herding of sheep and goats, with some cattle and pigs. Hunting played a relatively minor role in the economy. Surviving from 7000 to 5500 BCE, this Early Neolithic settlement was occupied for over a thousand years.
The Middle Neolithic period ( to 4500 BCE) is at present best represented at Servia in the Haliacmon Valley in western Macedonia, where the typical red-on-cream pottery in the Sesklo style emphasises the settlement's southern orientation. Pottery of this date has been found at a number of sites in Central and Eastern Macedonia but so far none has been extensively excavated.
The Late Neolithic period ( to 3500 BCE) is well represented by both excavated and unexcavated sites throughout the region (though in Eastern Macedonia levels of this period are still called Middle Neolithic according to the terminology used in the Balkans). Rapid changes in pottery styles, and the discovery of fragments of pottery showing trade with quite distant regions, indicate that society, economy and technology were all changing rapidly. Among the most important of these changes were the start of copper working, convincingly demonstrated by Renfrew to have been learnt from the cultural groups of Bulgaria and Roumania to the North.A.C. Renfrew, The autonomy of the south-east European Copper Age, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 35 1969: 12–47. Principal excavated settlements of this period include MakryialosStella G. Souvatzi, A Social Archaeology of Households in Neolithic Greece: An Anthropological Approach Series: Cambridge Studies in Archaeology, 2008, 166–178 and Paliambela near the western shore of the Thermaic gulf, Thermi to the south of Thessaloniki and SitagroiColin Renfrew, Marija Gimbutas and Ernestine S. Elster 1986. Excavations at Sitagroi, a prehistoric village in northeast Greece. Vol. 1. Los Angeles : Institute of Archaeology, University of California, 1986, Monumenta archaeologica 13; E. Elster and C. Renfrew, Prehistoric Sitagroi: Excavations in Northeast Greece, 1968–1970, vol. 2: The Final Report, Monumenta Archaeologica 20 (Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, 2003), and Dikili Tas in the Drama plain. Some of these sites were densely occupied and formed large mounds (known to the local inhabitants of the region today as 'toumbas'). Others were much less densely occupied and spread for as much as a kilometer (Makryialos). Both types are found at the same time in the same districts and it is presumed that differences in social organisation are reflected by these differences in settlement organisation. Some communities were clearly concerned to protect themselves with different kinds of defensive arrangements: ditches at Makryialos and concentric walls at Paliambela. The best preserved buildings were discovered at Dikili Tas, where long timber-framed structures had been organised in rows and some had been decorated with bulls' skulls fastened to the outside of the walls and plastered over with clay.
Remarkable evidence for cult activity has been found at Promachonas-Topolnica, which straddles the Greek Bulgarian border to the north of Serres. Here a deep pit appeared to have been roofed to make a subterranean room; in it were successive layers of debris including large numbers of figurines, bulls' skulls, and pottery, including several rare and unusual shapes.Stella G. Souvatzi, A Social Archaeology of Households in Neolithic Greece: An Anthropological Approach Series: Cambridge Studies in Archaeology, 2008, 217–220
The farming economy of this period continued the practices established at the beginning of the Neolithic, although sheep and goats were less dominant among the animals than they had previously been, and the cultivation of vines (Vitis vinifera) is well attested.
Only a few burials have been discovered from the whole of the Neolithic period in northern Greece and no clear pattern can be deduced. Grave offerings, however, seem to have been very limited.
History from the 7th century BC to Roman conquest