Archaeological Site of Dion:

A votive statue of Ιοulia Phrougiane Alexandra from the sanctuary of Isis. (All the statues on the site are replicas placed where the originals stood, while the originals are either in the museum or in storage). 

The excavation of the sanctuary of Isis proved a particularly difficult task since it was under a river originally. The river bed had to be moved for the excavation to be completed, but subterranean springs still flood the site, demanding a complicated and expensive drainage system for the study of the site to continue. In the antiquity a spring was actually housed in one of the shrines, and the water of another passed in a basin under the statue of Aphrodite Ypolympidia. 

To be quite honest most people do come to see the statues submerged in water. At the shrine of the egyptian gods in Brexiza (Marathon, Attica), the sanctuary was actually built on an isle in a marsh with imported birds and egyptian flora so as to resemble the nilotic landscape, Perhaps the choice of a marsh-like environment here was no accident either, and the flooding was controlled to create a similar setting.

These murals from the Archaeological Museum of Naples (Italy), found at the Temple of Isis in Pompeii, depict islands with small shrines and fishermen. The multiple shrine system can be found at Dion too, with the sanctuary of Demeter- close to the sanctuary of Isis- as it would have been in the Classical period. 

Archaeological Museum of Dion:

Funerary stele depicting a young hunter with his dog. From Kitros. (4th century B.C)

Archaeological Museum of Dion:

The People

A total of 170 people were employed at the rescue excavations in Pieria during the construction of the new highway from Maliakos to Kleidi, a total 273 kilometers, covering 9 different specialties (archaeologists, excavation workers, draftsment, conservators, topographers,secretaries, accountants,computer technicians, guards/nightguards).

This created an excavation team with a highly skilled staff working under the difficult conditions of a road construction worksite, stressful deadlines, and difficult weather. Based on the principles of archaeological science, tasks of maintenance, recording, planning and studying were transformed into museum objects.

As this project is drawing to its completion, with the personal effort and enthusiasm of the employees for the protection and presentation of our cultural heritage  we borrow the words of the poet:

Ithaca gave you a splendid journey

Without her you wouldn’t have set out.

She hasn’t anything else to give you

And if you find her poor, Ithaca hasn’t deceived you.

So wise you have become, of such experience,

that already you’ll have understood what these Ithacas mean.

Konstantinos Kavafis, Ithaca.

Archaeological Museum of Dion:

Head from a bronze staute of the emperor Alexander Severus (222-235 A.D)

Archaeological Museum of Dion:

A marble table support depicting Medea and a nurse protecting a child. 2nd century A.D

Archaeological Park of Dion:

Fragments of mosaics from the Great Baths of Dion, a building complex with a bathhouse, a small theater and an odeon, built in the 2nd century A.D. It was destroyed by an earthquake in the 3rd century A.D

The baths’s suspensurae, a system of underfloor heating. These small columns would aid the flow of hot air from furnaces beneath the floors of the baths.

Archaeological Museum of Dion:

A mosaic with head of medusa, from a patio next to the banquet room from a private residence in Dion. From Dion’s Roman period.

Archaeological Museum of Dion:

From the house of “Zosas”. A mosaic with a grouse and in inscription: ΤΩ ΕΥΤΥΧΙ ΖΩΣΑ (for lucky Zosas). The second mosaic depicts birds on the rim of a kantharos. 2nd A.D. From the site of Dion. 

Archaeological Museum of Heraklion:

Figurines of erotic couples and scenes of childbirth with figures assisting the mothers. From Inatos, Cave of Eileithyia. Protogeometric-Early Archaic period. 9th-7th century B.C

These are also some childbirth scenes from the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. They depict midwives aiding pregnant women, and they are from Cyprus. Early 5th century B.C 

Archaeological Museum of Heraklion:

Shrine model with a triad of female deities, a well-known cult group of the Archaic period in Crete. Large-scale divine triads are also depicted on two limestone plaques from the same sanctuary. 

Gortys, temple of Athena. Early Archaic period, 7th century B.C