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The city wall of Edessa

• Χρυσοστόμου, Αναστασία

The city of Edessa, occupying the most important passage connecting the Upper mountainous Macedonia with Lower Macedonia was called by Diodorus Sicelus andTitus Livius "significant and nobilis”. The city occupied two terraces of different altitudes. The western is the level of the rock of modern Edessa. The Prehistoric settlement, the Upper city or Acropolis(citadel) of the Classical and late Roman period and finally the Byzantine city which was developed into the modern city, were all located by the edge of the rock.The lower city is expanded by the base of the rock called Logos. There is just scattered evidence and almost no written record concerning the city from thePrehistoric period down to the 4th century B.C., probably due to destructions created by the floods of the river Edessaios, or to change of the location of the settlement or finally, to sediment covering. The city-wall marked a new era for the plan and security of the city, which became a fortified and organized settlement. The shape of the citadel wall is an isosceles triangle surrounding an area of 35000 sq. m. The natural rock formed the base of the triangle, while a tower marked the upper angle.The wall is 2.20 m. thick and is built with the isodomic system.Though the evidence is scattered, it seems that the fortification of the Lower city formed an oblong polygon (1200-1300 m. long) surrounding an area around 230000sq. m. The wall (2.40-3 m. thick) follows the level of the rock, the inner being higher than the outer. The various systems of construction, the scanty excavational data and the lack of written documents indicate a dating before the 3rd century B.C.Meanwhile, an extended repair of the wall in the mid-3rd century B.C. is documented,probably due to the danger of Barbaric tribes: the thickness is decreased, a whitish mortar together with pieces of tiles and bricks fill the joints between the stones, while smaller stones were used for the inner sides of the wall. The construction of the towers is similar. The southern, northern and eastern gates of the wall were either repaired or built in the same period, while the barrier in front of the northern wall of the Lower city and the wall of the citadel must be dated to the earlyByzantine period.However, the fortification could not prevent the invasions of the Abaroi and theSlavs in the late 6th or early 7th century A.D. The capture of the city is documented by a destruction layer in the area of the southern gate, the coins and the Christian inscriptions. The scattered post-Byzantine finds indicate that the city of Edessa was restricted in the area of the citadel, as a city-castle, mentioned in various historical events.

• History and Archaeology

• Ανασκαφές (Αρχαιολογία)

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