Po redaktohet Damastion

'''Damastion''' ({{lang-grc|Δαμάστιον}}) was an ancient city in the area of central [[Balkans]], known for its silver coins dating back to the 4th century BC. It is attested only in [[Strabo]] who says that the city had silver-mines and locates it in [[Illyria]].{{sfn|Lippert|Matzinger|2021|p=75}}<ref>Wilkes, J.J. The Illyrians, 1992, {{ISBN|0-631-19807-5}}, Page 223,"... Among the southern Illyrians the deposits which provided Damastion (Strabo 7.7, 8), somewhere in the Ohrid region, with a silver coinage may be the same ones that attracted Corinthian ..."</ref><ref name=Inventory/> The ancient author reports that the city was under the authority of the [[Illyrians|Illyrian]] tribes of [[Dyestes]] and [[Enchelei]],<ref>{{harvnb|Shpuza|2022|pp=109–110}}</ref> and that [[Aegina]] colonized it.<ref name=Inventory/> At 356-358 B.C. the mines came under the control of [[Macedon]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Treister |first1=Michail Yu |title=The Role of Metals in Ancient Greek History |date=1996 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-10473-0 |page=285 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dcTexDa4I0kC&pg=PA285&dq= |language=en}}</ref>

The exact site of Damastion is not yet identified with certainty. Various sites in [[Serbia]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://av.zrc-sazu.si/pdf/58/AV_58_Popovic.pdf |title= Numismatic finds of the 4th-3rd centuries BC from Kale at Krševica|date= 2007|website=av.zrc-sazu.si |access-date=2021-01-09}}</ref> [[North Macedonia]] and [[Albania]] have been considered as the location of this ancient town.

==Location==
[[File:Ancient Greek coin of Damastion.jpg|thumb|Silver coin of Damastion, 4th century BC. Obv.:Apollo head, laureate. Rev.:Tripod, letters ΔΑΜΑΣΤΙΝΩΝ (''of the Damastians'') - ΚΗΦΙ.]]
Damastion was issuing silver in the form of coins bearing the head of Apollo on the obverse and a tripod with the inscription "ΔΑΜΑΣΤΙΝΩΝ" on the reverse. These coins have been found in many places in the Balkans, mainly in southern [[Serbia]], north-eastern [[Kosovo]], eastern North Macedonia, west [[Bulgaria]], [[Shkodër]] in Albania and as far as [[Romania]], [[Trieste]] and [[Corfu]]. They are dated in the 4th century BC. Most attempts to locate Damastion are based on the study of the coins and their distribution. One author, Dr Imhoof-Blumer, endeavoured to find modern derivatives of the name and assumed that Damesi, a village in Albania, could have been Damastion.<ref>May J.M.F. The coinage of Damastion and the lesser coinages of the Illyro-Paeonian region. Oxford University Press, London, 1939</ref> There are a number of other hypotheses<ref>Barrington atlas of the Greek and Roman world: map-by-map directory, Tome 1,by Richard J. A. Talbert,page 758,near Resen?</ref><ref>The Illyrians
by John Wilkes,page 128,"north or northeast of ohrid"</ref> about its location somewhere near [[Resen (town)|Resen]] in ancient [[Paionia]],<ref>The Odrysian Kingdom of Thrace: Orpheus Unmasked (Oxford Monographs on Classical Archaeology) by Z. H. Archibald, 1998, {{ISBN|0-19-815047-4}}, page 107,"of Paion- ian Damastion"</ref> modern [[North Macedonia]].

The most recent location that was proposed was at Serbian archaeological site [[Kale-Krševica]], south-east of [[Vranje]] (southern Serbia) <ref>(Popovic, P., Kale-Krsevica excavations 2001-2004, Bulletin of the National Museum Vranje, 33: 25-49, 2005.)</ref> where 5th-century BC foundations of an Ancient Greek urban town have been unearthed.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=20160361 |title=Numismatic finds of the 4th-3rd centuries BC from Kale at Krsevica (Southeastern Serbia) |access-date=2009-11-16 |archive-date=2012-06-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120612065724/http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=20160361 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=PL>{{Cite web|url=http://www.politika.rs/scc/clanak/113748/Kale-iznova-iznenaduje-naucnike|title=Кале изнова изненађује научнике|website=Politika Online}}</ref>

Dr. Petar Popović from the Institute of Archeology in [[Belgrade]] says that Kale-Krševica could very likely be the city of Damastion.<ref name=PL/> He added that monumental building was found made from semicircular blocks 9m long and 3 m high. He estimated that only 5% was excavated and said that the town probably had 3.000 people.

Dr. Viktorija Sokolovska, Archaeologist, has located Damastion near Kosovska Mitrovica, on the site of Socanica, where many years ago have been discovered three epigraphic monuments on which is noted abbreviation MUN.D.D. on which she sees MUNICIPIUM DAMASTION DARDANORUM. (for reference see bibliography below)<ref>{{cite news|title=Damastion kod Bujanovca!?|url=http://www.rts.rs/page/stories/ci/story/6/%D0%9D%D0%B0%D1%83%D0%BA%D0%B0/9359/%D0%94%D0%B0%D0%BC%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BE%D0%BD+%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B4+%D0%91%D1%83%D1%98%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%86%D0%B0+!%3F|access-date=5 September 2014|agency=Radio Televizija Srbije|date=4 August 2014}}</ref>

==History==
The [[Illyrians|Illyrian]] state controlled the mines of Damastion at least from the 5th century BC.{{sfn|Šašel Kos|1993|p=129|ps=: "It is known that the mines were under the control of the Illyrian state at least from the 5th century onwards."}} The silver mines of Damastion increased the interest of the Greeks in Illyrian territory.{{sfn|Zimi|2006|p=377}} In the 431 BC [[Greeks]] from [[Aegina]] had colonised the city.<ref name=Inventory>In An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis by Mogens Herman, {{ISBN|0-19-814099-1}}, 2004, "As a long-distance trading community, Aigina was not an active coloniser, but colonised Kydonia (no. 968) in 519, Adria (no. 75) c.C61, and Damastion in Illyria after 431 (Strabo 8.6.16)."</ref> In 4th century BC the city (''Damastini'' its citizens) were subjects to Illyrian king [[Bardylis]]<ref>The Cambridge Ancient History Volume 6: The Fourth Century BC by D.M.Lewis, {{ISBN|0-521-23348-8}}, 1994, p.429 "Bardylis combined military and economic developments. His subjects, the Damastini, began to issue a fine silver coinage c. 395, which adopted a version of the standard and some emblems of"</ref> and its inhabitants were called the ''Damastini''. The city was known in antiquity for its silver mines, whose exact location, like that of the city itself, is today unknown.<ref>The Cambridge Ancient History Vol.6: The Fourth Century BC by D.M.Lewis, {{ISBN|0-521-23348-8}}, 1994, p.422: "... Silver was mined in antiquity by the Damastini to the east and the north east of Lake Ochrid.</ref><ref>Wilkes, J.J. The Illyrians, 1992, {{ISBN|0-631-19807-5}}, p.128, "Nothing is so far known of the extraction of silver, and the location of Damastion, with its remarkable silver coinage, remains a mystery"...."</ref> The circulation of the coins of Damastion included [[Dardani]]a (today's [[Kosovo]] and its surrounding areas) up to the west, to the southern Adriatic coast.<ref>The Illyrians - p.176 by J.J. Wilkes {{ISBN|0-631-19807-5}}</ref> The city and its silver mines were captured by [[Philip II of Macedon]] after he defeated Dardanian King [[Bardyllis]].<ref>The Role of Metals in Ancient Greek History, p.285 by Michail Yu Treister, {{ISBN|90-04-09917-4}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of ancient cities in Illyria]]

==Bibliography==
*{{cite book|last1=Lippert|first1=Andreas|last2=Matzinger|first2=Joachim|title=Die Illyrer: Geschichte, Archäologie und Sprache|publisher=Kohlhammer Verlag|year=2021|isbn=9783170377103|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0N9SEAAAQBAJ}}
*{{cite journal|last=Šašel Kos|first=Marjeta|title=Cadmus and Harmonia in Illyria|journal=Arheološki Vestnik|volume=44|year=1993|pages=113–136}}
*{{cite book|last=Shpuza|first=Saimir|title=La Romanisation de l'Illyrie méridionale et de la Chaônie|series=Collection de l'École française de Rome|publisher=Publications de l'École française de Rome|year=2022|isbn=9782728310982|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-l9iEAAAQBAJ}}
*Viktorija Sokolovska, Pajonskoto Pleme Agrijani i vrskite so Damastion, Maced. acta Archaeologica 11, Skopje 1990, 9-34. (with summary in French).
*Viktorija Sokolovska, The localization of Damastion revisited, MACEDONIAN NUMISMATIC JOURNAL 5, Skopje 2011, 7-13.
*Viktorija Sokolovska, USTE EDNAS ZA UBIKACIJATA NA DAMASTION, KOMENTARI Za nekoi prasanja od Antickoto minato na Makedonija, Skopje 2005, 69-81.
*Viktorija Sokolovska, The Coinage of Agrianes, MACEDONIAN NUMISMATIC JOURNAL, No. 2, Skopje 1996, 13-22.
*{{cite encyclopaedia|last=Zimi|first=Eleni|editor-first=Nigel|editor-last=Wilson|encyclopaedia=Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece|entry=Illyrians|publisher=Routledge|year=2006|pages=376–377|isbn=9781136787997|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_TzjAQAAQBAJ}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Ancient Greece topics}}
{{Illyrians}}

[[Category:Illyrian Albania]]
[[Category:Dardania (Roman province)]]
[[Category:Geography of ancient Paeonia]]
[[Category:Archaeology of Illyria]]
[[Category:Archaeological sites in North Macedonia]]
[[Category:Archaeological sites in Serbia]]
[[Category:Former populated places in the Balkans]]
[[Category:Greek colonies in Illyria]]
[[Category:Cities in ancient Illyria]]