Building on the discoveries of the Greek Archaeological Service at the site of Methone in northern Greece (2003-2013), this presentation focuses on the archaeological fieldwork at ancient Methone, conducted as a collaboration of the Ephorate of Prehistoric & Classical Antiquities of Pieria and UCLA, under the auspices of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, from 2014 to 2017, and especially the 2017 season by way of a film made about the project by Jeff Vanderpool. Located at the mouth of the Thermaic Gulf, Methone enjoyed a strategic position throughout its long history, from the closing stages of the Neolithic period (ca. 4000/3500 BC), attracting various traders, prospectors, colonists, and conquerors from various parts of the Greek world and the broader Mediterranean beyond down to 354 B.C. when the site was destroyed by Philip II, a siege that cost him his right eye. In addition to the excavations on the West Hill or Acropolis of Methone, the presentation will focus on the intensive surface survey of the site, the geoarchaeological and geophysical surveys and coring project to determine the location of the ancient harbor, as well as the terrestrial LiDAR mapping of the site and its landscape.
