Ancient city, Nekropoleis
Hall B is devoted to the ancient city of Samothrace, through which the prospective initiates made their way, emerging from its southwest side to follow the Sacred Way to the sanctuary. Apart from small-scale rescue and trial excavations, the ancient city remains essentially unexplored. The material exhibited, except for a few surface and excavation finds, comes mostly from the excavation of the city’s rich cemeteries, especially the South Nekropolis, outside the west leg of its walls. A selection of Samothracian coins is also exhibited, together with coins of other cities.
The ancient city
There were two waves of Greek settlement in the ancient city of Samothrace: the first Aeolian, in the 7th century BC, and the second Ionian (Samian), in the 6th century BC. The enclosure wall of the ancient city is built of huge boulders, and there are sections of isodomic or pseudoisodomic masonry with ashlars, as well as masonry in polygonal style. Among the six known gates of the wall, the so-called “West Gate,” with a significant number of stelai cuttings, provided the main access to the Sanctuary of the Great Gods; it may well have been the gate where the prospective mystai and epoptai set forth on their journeys of initiation. In the eastern part of the harbor of the ancient city, the ruins of a three-aisled Early Christian basilica are preserved, the central aisle of which is occupied by the remains of a second single-aisled church. The ancient mole was constructed of huge trachyte blocks.
A trial excavation sought the sanctuary of the goddess patroness of the ancient city, Athena, on a plateau-terrace dotted with marble fragments, a short distance southeast of the Gattilusi fortification. A large number of fragments of marble architectural members from at least two buildings, one Doric and one Ionic, were excavated. The pottery found, mostly from the Classical and Hellenistic periods, included several sherds of a 7th century BC fabric with subgeometric decoration, known as G 2-3 ware, which is similar to that found in a sacrificial area in the northwestern part of the later (ca. 340 BC) Hall of Choral Dancers in the Sanctuary of the Great Gods (Hall D).
In the lowest part of the ancient city, near the coast, a trial trench made in 1938 investigated constructions dating from the late 4th century AD onward. This excavation unearthed a large building and early Christian tombs; the latter were dated up to the 6th century AD. During a more recent trial-rescue excavation, five more tombs, dating from the 1st century AD to the Early Christian / Early Byzantine period, and four construction periods were documented. The upper layers contained pottery of the Middle Byzantine period (9th–12th cent. AD); pottery of the 1st–7th century AD, and of the Hellenistic and Classical periods was also recognized. The coins found date from the 4th century BC to the 10th century AD.
The South Nekropolis
The South Nekropolis is, so far, the richest and longest-used cemetery of the ancient city of Samothrace. It was excavated in 1957, 1962–1964, and 1966 by E. Dusenbery and A. Vavritsas. The burials date from the middle of the 6th century BC to the 2nd century AD. Most of the activity of the ritual, including funeral pyres, various ceremonies, and interments, took place in a roughly rectangular area of less than 300 m². The South Nekropolis may have been reserved for priests and administrators connected with the sanctuary and their families.
The North Nekropolis
Graves have also been found at other sites besides the South Nekropolis: at the site of the former Xenia hotel (H Nekropolis), in a field south of the church of Ayía Paraskeví (K Nekropolis), and in the pipe run that brought water from the source in the ancient city to the village of Palaiopolis (W Nekropolis). The H, K, and W nekropoleis are part of an extensive cemetery called the North Nekropolis, part of which (ca. 400 m²) was excavated in 1992 north of the coastal road, west of the ancient city. This area contained 31 burials of four types: 19 tile graves, 2 cist graves, 1 pit grave, 7 burial amphorae and 2 monolithic sarcophagi. Strong evidence of burning in three regions of the excavated area are presumably connected with funeral pyres or burial rites. There was no rule for the orientation of the burials, which date from the 6th century BC to the 1st century AD.
Coins
Samothracian coinage includes rare silver issues dating to the Late Archaic/Early Classical period (early 5th cent. BC–465 BC).
The local mint reopened two centuries later with two bronze issues minted in the last quarter of the 4th century BC or the very beginning of the 3rd century BC. The head of Athena appears on the obverse, to the right or the left, wearing a Corinthian helmet, with a prow or a ram’s head with an upright caduceus on the reverse.
Slightly later (3rd–2nd cent. BC), a series with a half ram on the reverse was issued.
The best known of all Samothracian issues, with a wide distribution inside and outside the island, is that with the head of Athena (more rarely a bust) wearing a Corinthian helmet on the obverse, and a goddess seated on a throne or stool on the reverse. The deity on the reverse is traditionally identified as the Great Mother or the goddess Cybele. According to recent research, this type was introduced in the 2nd century BC.
The bronze issue with a bust of Athena on the obverse and the seated goddess on the reverse, with the ethnic ΣΑΜΟΘΡΑΚΩΝ, probably dates to the early years of the Roman Empire (1st cent. AD).
More than 1200 legible coins have been found during the excavations on Samothrace, with dates ranging from the early 5th century BC to the early 19th century. Two-thirds of these were minted on Samothrace during the Hellenistic period and early Roman Empire. Only a small sample from the issues of other ancient Greek cities, mostly from Thrace, Macedonia and Troas, as well as from the Roman imperial period, is exhibited here.
