Prehistory
The area where Giannitsa was later developed is located at the southern foothills of Mount Paikos, on an ancient natural passage that connected the coast of the Thermaikos Gulf with the mountainous country of the west. Today, the city seems to occupy the first low hills of this passage, while in front of it lies the great plain of central Macedonia, also called the plain of Giannitsa.
In prehistoric times, this was an area without fixed coasts and with a variety of natural formations. As the natural topography of the area is a natural crown of mountains, from which rivers come together, the large natural depression, which is now a fertile plain, has at times been a sea, lagoon, lake and marsh.
Archaeological research has shed much light on the earliest human settlements in the area, for now from the Neolithic period onwards. On the southern edge of Giannitsa, at the Old Agora, a settlement of the earliest Neolithic period, the 7th millennium BC, has been identified and partially investigated. Together with the settlement at Axos and the much larger one, which is systematically excavated at Archontiko, they constitute the best-known archaeological sites in the area. There are many more located, from the Neolithic period, even a second one in Giannitsa, up to the Bronze Age. The inhabitants lived in smeared houses, literally “woven” with lattices of thin branches or reeds and coated with clay. Many objects made of bone and stone were found, as well as vases. They lived from wheat crops, wild fruits, kept sheep and pigs, and hunted. They also consumed seafood and fish – the sea was not far away. Their environment had large forests of oak trees, and the waters were abundant. Until the dawn of historical times, there were periods when these settlements, especially the lowland ones, experienced interruptions in their development, mainly because the conditions of the natural environment were changing.
The tradition
The earliest historical accounts are linked to the Votians, a people that the Argean Macedonians met on their descent from the Pieria Mountains. The Votians inhabited the hilly and lowland zone between Aliakmon and Axios, in a horseshoe-shaped area around the lake. To the south they were adjacent to the Pieres, to the west to the so-called Phrygians, to the north to the Almopes, while higher up on the Axios were the Paeonians, who are attested as allies of the Trojans in the Iliad. After the Axios, there were Thracian tribes. Around the site of today’s Giannitsa, there were the cities of Kyrros, Tyrissa, Vounomos (later Pella), Ikhnes, Atalante. As for the Votians, they believed that they took their name from Votto, who was a Cretan, and maintained a tradition that they were either descended from Minoans rescued from a campaign against Sicily or that they were descendants of the children of Athens who escaped from the Minotaur, hence their song “Iomen to Athens”. The tradition reflects the close contacts of the place with the Creto-Mycenaean culture. At that time, the most important comma of the place was the mound outside the present Archontiko, six kilometres east of Giannitsa. The Macedonians, in the years of Archelaus, in the 5th century BC, moved the capital of their state from Aigai to Pella, which was the primary reference point for the entire classical and Hellenistic world. It was the center of Philip’s diplomatic and military operations and the birthplace of Alexander the Great.
The Land of Pella
The development of Pella was impressive after its selection as the capital of Macedonia, despite periods of instability until the reign of Philip. Renowned artists and creators were invited, and important local workshops for metalworking and pottery were established. Significant temples attracted attention, and at the theater of Pella, Euripides’ “The Bacchae” and “Archelaus” were first performed. During the time of the great political conflict between Athens and Pella, frequent references were made, related to the diplomatic history and the existence of the lake, which had been fully formed by then. In the Periplus of Scyllacus the Younger (around 360 BC), Pella is mentioned as a city with palaces, connected by the navigable Lydias River to the sea (against the stream). Surrounding the large city, organized around the palace and the agora with Hippodamian building blocks, were settlements, estates, and smaller villages, while Macedonian tombs, shaped like tumulus-signs, began to characterize the landscape, especially along the main road, which would later be known as the “Via Egnatia” During the Hellenistic period, Pella and its region experienced remarkable prosperity. After the Battle of Pydna, the area came under Roman control.
Roman Era – Via Egnatia
At the beginning of the 1st century BC Pella suddenly declined after an earthquake. The city moved further west, to the area where the so-called “Baths of Alexander the Great” are preserved, which is a large water tank that served a Roman watermill. It had strong walls and functioned as a colonia, i.e. a settlement of wrestlers of the Roman army. Between 146 and 120 BC, the Via Egnatia, which connected the Adriatic cities of Dyrrachios and Apollonia with Kypseela, a city near the Evros and the Propontis, passed through the area, connecting Edessa with Thessaloniki. This paved road, with its stations, road signs and horse changes, contributed decisively to the change in the layout of the cities of Macedonia. The road network of the region already existed (proof of this are the numerous Macedonian tombs in the area of Giannitsa and Pella that mark the landscape and belong to the Hellenistic period), but it was the first time that the steep development of Thessaloniki took place, while Roman Pella and Kirros (in Paleokastro, south of Aravissos) flourished as stations of Via Egnatia. From now on, the whole history of Giannitsa depends on Via Egnatia.
The region no longer functions as the center of a static economy. It is located on a thriving road axis, where people and goods move safely and quickly. Along with armies, of course. Cicero, Cassius and Brutus, and all the great protagonists of Roman times, passed through Via Egnatia. Life continued to develop even after the advent of Christianity. Pella has a bishop who participates in an Ecumenical Council, and an important early Christian basilica has been excavated. The climate changes dramatically at the end of the early Christian period. Political instability, Byzantium’s temporary military weakness and a series of natural disasters led to a change of scenery.
