PERMANENT EXHIBITION
The permanent exhibition of the Museum is chronological arranged into four sections. Its aim is the presentation of the region’s historical continuity through its political and social transformations, evolving from a loose union of related tribes (“nation”) into an independent kingdom, an element of the Macedonian kingdom, and, finally, a “free” territory within the Roman state.
SECTION 1 The origins of Orestis (1100-550 BC)
Classical literature tells us very little about the history of the Greek lands during the five and a half centuries following the Trojan War; while as regards Orestis in particular, the information is both sparse and conflicting. Is there, one wonders, any truth in the later accounts of Dionysius Periegetes and the Strabo commentator, who say that the region is named for Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, who, fleeing the Furies after murdering his mother, reached this land and there founded Argos Orestikon? Did the region derive its name from its very mountainous terrain (oros = mountain)? And why does the historian Appian say that the Argead Dynasty of Macedonia sprang from “Argos in Orestia”, when most ancient historians name the Peloponnesian city of Argos as its place of origin and Temenus as its founder? With the elegance of a well-polished narrative, Herodotus repeats an older story, according to which three brothers of the lineage of King Temenus left Argos in Argolid and, having traversed Illyria, came to Lebaea in Upper Macedonia whence, led by Perdiccas, they continued eastward and eventually founded the city of Aegae, on the site of present-day Vergina. The historians Diodorus and Theopompus name Caranus –brother of King Pheidon of (Argolid) Argos– as the leader of an expeditionary corps that reached Orestis and founded Aegae, following a Delphic oracle. From Herodotus’ narrative we may retain as realistic –and applicable to all of Upper Macedonia in the 7th century BC, and not Orestis alone– the image of a society composed of kindred tribes, governed by a king and council, with an economy based largely on livestock raising, an activity that in their case, thanks to the nature of the terrain, did not require long migrations. Circa 500 BC the geographer Hecataeus described the Oresti as “a Molossian people”, that is, one of the Hellenic tribes that lived to the east and west of the northern Pindus massif. Since 1997 the excavation of cemeteries from this period, particularly at Dailaki (Municipality of Kastoria) but also at other sites (e.g. Krepeni Mavrohoriou and Fotini), has added considerably to our store of knowledge about the period 800-550 BC.
The section includes a wide variety of artifacts, mainly grave goods that accompanied the dead, which are fine examples of the art, the crafts and the everyday life of the ancient Orestes, such as jewelry, weapons, vessels etc.
SECTION 2 The Kingdom of Orestis (6th Century BCE)
In the middle of the 6th century BC, the picture of a frugal society that is in contact only with its immediate neighbors, changes. The founding of Apollonia, a Corinthian colony on the Adriatic coast, was accompanied by the development of a trade route opening up the hinterland as far as the city Lychnidos (on Lake Ohrid) and the silver mines around and north of Damastium. Most scholars think that the Corinthians traded luxury goods and metal utensils made by their craftsmen for the silver they needed for their coinage. To secure trade routes, they entered into treaties with some of the local rulers, who thus gained in status as well as in military strength, and sooner or later became kings. Over the course of the 6th century BC, this process led to the emergence of the kingdoms of Upper (mountainous) Macedonia, one of which was Orestis. The exhibited artifacts reflect the above transformations and confirm the increased communication between the cities as a result of trade. The visitor has the opportunity to study the reliefs, which provide valuable information on the characteristics and topography of Orestis during the classical period, as well as on its cultural similarities with the populations of southern Greece and their ritual perceptions on life and death.
Additionally, the visitor can observe artifacts related to the military equipment and sport activities, jewelries, vessels made by the local workshops, as well as from Attica.
SECTION 3 Orestis as part of the kingdom of Macedonia (359-200 BC)
Neither these armed forces nor the kingdom’s alliances with the Molossians and –from time to time– the Macedonians were enough to defend them against the Illyrians, who in 359 BC annihilated the Macedonian army and with it King Perdiccas III. This disaster, however, brought to the throne a new king, Philip II, who reorganised the army, defeated the Illyrians and extended his borders to include Upper Macedonia, whose kings became generals under Philip’s command, thus securing their territory against the Illyrians. The stiff-necked Orestian warriors exchanged their traditional arms for those of the Macedonian phalanx, and together with the men of Lyncestis (from the Florina area) formed a 1500-strong unit in the army that Alexander the Great led to the banks of the Indus! This unit was commanded by Perdiccas, son of Orontes, the last king of Orestis, while his brother Alcetas attained high rank during the Asian expedition. After the death of Alexander in 322 BC, Perdiccas was named regent of the kingdom and governor of Asia and Egypt, while another Orestian, the distinguished general Craterus, was appointed guardian of the kings Philip Arrhidaeus and Alexander IV. Over the next 120 years Orestis frequently found itself at the epicentre of the conflicts among the diadochoi, the generals who shared out Alexander’s empire among themselves, and was also repeatedly attacked by the Illyrians and Dardanians, until it was finally subsumed into the Roman state in 200 BC. According to a votive inscription from Delos, the “Koinon of the Oresti”, a provincial assembly made up of delegates from the cities and towns, which considered local matters and represented the Oresti in their external relations, was founded in the 3rdcentury BC.
The section presents the Macedonian sarissa, and the shield used by the phalanx, engraved by the name of the kind of Paeonia, as well as funerary monuments from the region of Kastoria.
SECTION 4 A free territory within the Roman state
In 200 BC a Roman army under Sulpicius Galba separated Orestis from the kingdom of Macedonia and declared it a free territory, i.e. one with special privileges. Orestis, therefore, was not included in the new province of Macedonia and its assembly, the koinon of the Oresti, continued to function, albeit with some minor restrictions on its political powers. No Roman colony was established on its territory, nor have any Latin inscriptions been found within its boundaries. Its monuments continue to bear Greek inscriptions and attest to the continued use of Greek names and cults of the Greek Gods. Moreover, the long period of comparative tranquility that began with the reign of the Emperor Augustus led to new economic growth. Excavation finds from riverside locations include luxurious villas with private baths, vaulted grave monuments and public buildings. The barbarian raids in the latter part of the 3rd century put an end to this expansive development and drove the population into a few fortified cities, like Diocletianopolis.