DHERVENI
Macedonia, Greece.
Situated 11
km NW of Thessalonika. It is the only viable pass
from the bay of the Thermaic Gulf to the region
of the Langada and Volvi Lakes (the region of ancient
Mygdonia). Along the narrow way and on either side of
it there are ancient ruins and several discoveries have
been made from time to time, probably belonging to
Lete, a very ancient town with a series of silver coins
dating to before 500 B.C. The town Lete received this
name according to Steph. Byz. “from the temple to Leto
erected in the vicinity.” A Letean cavalry troop took part
in Alexander the Great's expedition. A gate on the W
branch of the Thessalonika walls was called Letean. The
identification of the town is made possible by a famous
inscription referring to a vote of Lete in favor of the
quaestor M. Annius. It was found in the village of Aïvati
(now Lete) near Dherveni and is kept in the Istanbul
Museum. The inscription refers to the Assembly and the
People of Lete as well as to the joint administration of
the rulers of the city. It is dated ca. 119 B.C.
The most important remains of the site are the Macedonian tombs, the best known of which is the tomb of
Langada. Movable finds from this tomb were taken to
the Istanbul Museum before the liberation of Macedonia
from the Turks (1912). Another Macedonian tomb less
well known and incompletely excavated is to be found
in the village of Laïna. Valuable finds from the Hellenistic period (reliefs, inscriptions, etc.) from the Temple of
Demeter and Kore are in the Thessalonika Museum.
Under the Turkish name for passage (dherveni) the
site became world-famous particularly from 15 Jan.
1962 on when amazing artifacts were discovered accidentally and later excavated. They came from about six rectangular tombs which had not been looted. Most of them
are bronze (not gilt as originally thought) or silver vessels, implements, and arms. There are also gold jewelry,
clay, alabaster, and glass vessels, gold coins (among them
half-drachma pieces of Philip II and Alexander the
Great), a head of Herakles made of gold plate, and
other small objects. An especially valuable find was a
papyrus discovered among the remains of a funeral pyre.
It is the only papyrus found in Greece and may be the
oldest one in existence (mid 4th c. B.C.). It preserves the
scholia on orphic theogony of an unknown writer. The
most precious discovery of the Dherveni tombs is certainly the famous bronze krater with relief ornamentation representing dionysiac rites. An inscription, in Thessalian dialect, informs us that the krater is the property
of one Astion, son of Anaxagoras, from Larissa. Because
the krater has not yet been published, as well as the other
finds of the Dherveni tombs, its dating and evaluation
are still tentative. Some date it to the third quarter of the
4th c. B.C., others tend to bring it closer to 300 B.C. All
the finds of the Dherveni tombs are kept in the Thessalonika Museum, where most are on exhibit.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Th. Macridy, “Un tumulus macédonien
à Langaza,”
JdI XXVI (1911) 193ff
PI; Dittenberger,
Sylloge3 (1918) 700; cf.
AntCl 35 (1966) 430; E. Oberhummer, “Lete,”
RE XII.2 (1925) 2138; Ch. I. Makaronas,
Χρονικά Ἀρχαιλογικά Μακεδονικά 2 (1953) 616ff, nos. 42 and 44
PI; id.,
Ἀρχαιότητες και Μνημεῖα Κεντρικῆς Μακεδονίας,
Deltion 18 (1963),
Χρονικά, 193ff
I; D. Kanatsoulis,
Ἡ ἀρχαία Λητή (1961); E. Vanderpool, “News Letter from Greece,”
AJA 66 (1962) 389; S. G. Kapsomenos,
“The Orphic Papyrus Roll of Thessalonica,”
The Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 2.1 (Oct.
1964); id.,
Ὁ ὀρφικό πάπυρος τῆς Θεσσαλονίκης,
Deltion 19
(1964) 17ff; I. G. Daux, “Chronique des Fouilles,”
BCH
(1963); Ph. M. Petsas,
ΧρονικάἈρχαιολογικά 1966-1967,
Μακεδονικά 7 (1967) 293ff, nos. 46,52,87 and 88
I; id.,
Χρονικά Ἀρχαιολογικά Μακεδονικά 9 (1969) 136ff, nos.
37,42,46 and 64.
PH. M. PETSAS
