No Longer Slaves and Subjects: Hellenistic Funerary Architecture of Pelagonia

Submission note: A thesis submitted in total fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, College of Arts, Social Sciences and Commerce, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia.

The Pelagonia valley is located in the south-west corner of the Republic of North Macedonia. In antiquity, the valley occupied part of the northern fringe of the Macedonian kingdom, yet little is known about the peoples inhabiting the region. This thesis elucidates Pelagonian society and confronts the perception that these peripheral groups amounted to little more than a series of illiterate primitive chiefdoms, who kowtowed to their civilised superiors. The dissertation constitutes the first synthesis of epigraphic, textual and archaeological material of pre-Roman Pelagonia. This includes the composition of the first history of Pelagonia from the time of Alexander I (498-454 BCE) to the valley’s conquest by the Roman Republic in 146 BCE, and the first survey and systematic excavation of Pelagonian Hellenistic tombs. The evidence presented here shows the Pelagonians as shrewd operators, appearing throughout their history as staunchly autonomous with military families constituting the nobility led by a local basileus. Their fidelity to the Macedonian kingdom was hardly secure, but still the Macedonians understood the strategic importance of the Pelagonians. The textual history is reinforced by the mortuary evidence that includes a long tradition of elite burial construction with deposits of military paraphernalia and prestige goods. This practice culminated in the Hellenistic period with the construction of one tomb of ‘Macedonian’ type and the creation of a ‘Pelagonian’ rock-cut tomb. The excavation of one such tomb, ST-3 at Surun, revealed heretofore unknown eschatologically complex rituals including deliberate breakage. The excavation also facilitated the dating of the tomb to 275- 225 BCE. This dissertation concludes with identifying the Pelagonians as protagonists in the political arena of the nascent Macedonian empire. They were a resilient warrior stock, with their burial customs highlighting a clear trajectory to social complexity prior to ‘Macedonianisation’. The textual and archaeological evidence presented here, reveals, in fact, that the Pelagonians were neither “subjects” nor “slaves” (as Alexander the Great put it, Arr. An. 7.9.2-3) to anyone.