ANTROPHOLOGY

We will start our tour with the department devoted to the Numismatics. A small
part of this exhibition is for the Anthropology and we have several skulls from
different eras, and based on the skulls and its anthropological features 3D
reconstruction was made. And the drawings here are reconstruction of the look
of this people made based on the archaeological and anthropological finds
related with the era that each one of these skulls belonged to.
The first skull comes from the Neolithic period , than we have skulls form the
Bronze age, Iron Age, roman period, and the middle ages.
Although archaeologicaly is quite difficult to follow, anthropological analyzes
confirm the movement and the arrival of the Slavs in these territories. The last
skull is prove of these analyses.

NUMISMATICS
Now we can talk about and see the numismatics collection of the Archeological
museum of Macedonia. All these coins are found on the territory of Macedonia
and most of them are single finds but we also have many deposits of coins. The
coins shown in the central showcase are all a deposit coins. And the coins in
these showcases are all a single finds ordered chronologically from the first
coins minted and used in Macedonia to the coins of the Otomanic Empire.
First coins that were minted in our country were the coins of the Paionian tribes
Laiai and Deroni. They all had big dimensions and weight a lot because they
were made for the Persians as a tax. The Persians invited and conquered these
parts of the Balkans at the very end of the 6 th century BC and their domination
lasted till the first third of the 5th century BC. After that we have coins minted and
related with the Paionian kings.
After the rising of the Macedonian kingdom, paionian coins are minted in small
amount. First Macedonian king who minted his own coins is Alexandar I Filhelen.
After him every Macedonian king minted coins with his own face on them. The
first king that started minting gold coins was Filip II and the most beautiful coins
in this early antique period are the coins minted in the time when Alexandar the
Third ruled. Coins from the greatest Macedonian king are also minted after his
death.
In the roman period after the division of Macedonian Kingdom into four Merida,
every capital city of these Merida (Pela, Tesalonika, Pelagonia and Amfipolis )
minted their own coins but in 148 B.C. Macedonia becomes the first roman
province on the Balkans and the production of the coins in was forbidden until
the second half of the first century A.D when the town of Stobi gets municipal
character and right to mint its own coins.

There is the same basic iconography on these coins. The only differences are the
roman letters on them and the representations of other gods or motives.
In the Byzantine empire we have big changes in the iconography of the coins. In
this era the greatest Mints were Tessalonika and Constantinopol and there was
no coin production on the territory of Macedonia, but there was a circulation of
byzantine coins and these are the proves of that. In this period the emperor was
always Anfasno represented. In these period the first Christian symbols appear.
At the Late byzantine period most of the coins have representations of
Pantokrator or saints that were worshiped in some of the towns where coins were
minted.
At the end of the Byzantine era there were lots of independent rulers and cites.
All of them had their own coins that are shown in this showcase here. One of the
rarest coins are the coins of King Marko who ruled in the second half of the 14 th
century with the territory of todays western Macedonia. On these coins on the
front side of the coins on the avers we have representation of the ruler, or Christ
or Virgin Mary or even some of the saints and on the back side of the coins there
were prayers inscribed.
And we finish up with the coins form the Otoman period. In this period till the 17 th
century there were three towns that minted their own coins and they were Ohrid,
Skopje and Kratovo (region rich with silver, gold and other metal minerals).
STARES
Part of architrave from the temple of Herakle in Isar Marvinci near Valandovo. On
this architrave makedonijarsi are mentioned. The Macedoniarsi were local
Macedonian rich people aristocrats that were awarded with some of the roman
rights. The temple dates from the 181-2 A.D.
PALEOLITHIC PERIOD
The first people that lived on this land and we have material proofs of their
existence are the people from the middle and upper phaleolith. Based on the
lithic and fauna material that you all see here and was found fund in the caves
Makarovec and golema Pesht archaeologist think that the people who lived in
these site were neandertals. As you all know they were mostly haunters. Diars
were the most hunted animals but archeologists have also discovered bones
form cave bear, hyena, and other smaller animals. All of these material
originates from 40 000 to 30 000 B.C that is the period of middle and upper
Paleolithic.

NEOLITHIC PERIOD
In Macedonia that is the period that starts in the middle of the 7 th millennium B.C
and ends at the end of the 6th millennium BC. That was the period when people
made the first ceramics items, their first permanent settlements. That was the

time when they started to domesticate some of the animals and they mastered
the art of making textile.
Most of the items, things that you all see here are coming from the site tumba
Madzari near Skopje, but there are lots of other sites that were populated in this
era for example Rug Bair, Barutnica, Anzabegovo, Vrsnik in eastern Macedonia .
Govrlevo, Rakotinci near Skopje and Mogila, Velusina Porodin in Pelagonia.
Macedonian neolith is famous basically because of two things. The decoration of
the ceramics vessels with white color in Macedonia appears in the early Neolithic
period and in the other regions thet appears much later.
The other objects are one of the most beautiful representations of the Neolithic
art and items that best embody the the philosophy and psychology of Neolithic
man. They are called Great Mothers and they are some kind of altars. At the
upper part we have representation of a woman and the lower part is made as
walls of the Neolithic houses but it also symbolizes the uterus. With these altars
people wanted to highlight the role of the woman , the mothers in the family,
houses and at last the society.
There were also zoomorphic figurines, but figurines of a man were really rare
which is understandable because it was time when woman was a dominant
figure. The most famous of these mans figurines is this figurine here in
Macedonia known as Adam from Govrlevo.
In the Neolithic period there is no separation
ENEOLITHIC
This is the first metal period in the prehistory it is also known as chalcolitic or
Copper era. In Macedonia started at the begging of the 5 th millennium and it ends
at the middle of the third millennium B.C. This was the time when new
populations from north are coming to these lands ( Balkans) and they bring with
them a whole new culture that is mostly recognizable because of the new ways
of making the pottery, new forms and new decorations. Because of all this period
is also known as cubisam at the Prehistory. Neolithic people are not fully melted
with these new people and we still have settlements that are at the end of their
Neolithic development but we also have new settlements that are mostly built
along water. One of these settlements is Ustie at Drim, Palafit settlement where
people were fishers. Proof of this is the material found on this site. We have
pottery for baking fish and harpoons for fishing made from dear bones.
These new people brought with them these new way of understanding the
society. Men had a higher reputation. They were leaders of the genus that now
had farming character. So because of this there are lots of figurines with mans
characteristics like some of these figurines that you all see here.
At these times we have the first separation of the sacred from the living space.
Till today we discovered two such sanctuaries Burilcevo and St. Atanasius.

These are items found there and it is believed that the women in real life in some
kind of a ritual tattooed their bodies too.
And as I said this was the time when people started using copper. Here we have
three copper axes. But the copper was really soft metal and people were trying
to make something that is strong enough to cut trees, kill animal, and so on.
BRONZE AGE
So the next metal era is the bronze age where they achieve all that. This is the
most unknown period in the prehistory of Macedonia. Based on the archeological
excavations and analyses it starts in the middle of the third millennium B.C and it
ends at the 12th century B.C.
These was the time when another great migration happened. In archaeology it is
known as Aegean Migrations. There were three waves of these migration and
they were the last migrations before the final constitution of the tribes started.
The tribes that came in that time on the Balkans were the tribes that mixed with
the local population and after that they will be mentioned in the first historic
sources.
The first two waves of these migrations are not very significant for our territory
and they happened in the early and middle bronze age . From these time we
have really little material mostly ceramic vessels that are lagging behind the
vessels from the previous periods. Also the variety of forms is reduced.
This pottery comes from different sites near Kumanovo and Prespa. The forms
that will developed in this tames are forms that are going to be used in the iron
age and are foundation for the early antique pottery also.
From this period we dont have metal items but we have mold for metal objects.
It was found on the site Taticev Kamen, Kokino near Kumanovo , an prehistoric
observatory protected by UNESCO.
The late bronze age is most known based on the burials from that time. In this
period (from the 15th till the 12th century b.c.) we have the first imported pottery
made on a pottery wheel. It is a small alabastron brought from some of the
Mycenaean (majsinian) colonies. It was painted in a way that was popular in that
time in the Mycenaean world and all of the local pottery was made manually
based on this example.
Painted pottery is always typical for the womens burials and the monochromatic
was found in the mans burials. Deceased is always laid in a fetal position and
based on the gender it is turned on the left or on the right. In the mans burials
besides vessels there is always a bronze knife and sharpener that are part of
shaving kits.
The womans graves are a lot richer. We have found lots of different types of
adornments. We have the first earrings from pure gold, jewelry made from

seashells and amber that is a proof of the commercial relations between bronzeage people that lived here and people from the other parts of the Balkans.
But the most intriguing are the belts made from double axes labryses . Symbol
that is known from the Minoan civilization and here we have belts that are only
found in the womens graves.

TRANSITION PEROD ( 12-11 century B.C.)

Time when all of the settlements along the river Axios were destroyed by tribes
that invaded this territory for really short time but the consequences were fatal.
They are known as the first people that practiced cremation in our territory. And
the most famous site with this type of burials is Klucka Hipodram near Skopje
from which come these urns.

IRON AGE:

Wax sculptures
Philip II
Born 383/2 in Pela
Died 336 bc
Ruled from 359 until 336 bc
He founded Heraclea Lyncestis near Bitola
Main battle at Charonea 338 bc when he defeated the united helenic
forcesof Athens and Thebes and he establishes the most powerful
European kingdom known in that time
Because of that Diodorus from Sicily recognized Philip as the greatest
European king of the classical period
Philip is assasined by his own bodyguard Pausanius in Ajga the ancient
Macedonian capital during the wedding of his daughter Cleopatra with
Alexander I of Epirus. His assassin was paid by either Greek or Persian
gold. Immediately after the murder the rule was taken by his son
Alexander the Great
Born in 356 bc in Pela
Died in 323 bc
Main battles
334 at the river Granik (against Persia)
333 the Battle of Issus (against Persia and Darius III)
332 he enters Egypt where he is declared as son of Amon Ra the god of
sun, Egyptian pharaoh and a liberator of Egypt
331 the battle of Gaugamela he defeats Darius III for the last time and
he enters Babylon as a Persian king
326 he enters in India he defeats the indian king Por and he establishes
the greatest empire in the ancient world.
He dies in 323 in Babylon at the age of 33 by poison or malaria.
He is buried first in Memphis in Egypt and in a grand mausoleum in
Alexandria after that.
His mummified body was visited and honoured by many roman
emperors like Octavian August, Nero, Trajan and many others.
The great Gaius Iulius Cesar when he visited the body of Alexander fell
to his knees and started to cry because Alexander at the age of 33
succeeded to realize much bigger goals than Cesar when he was in his
late fourties.
Olimpia
Queen of Macedonia and noblewoman from Epirus.
As a mother who raised Alexander she is the main reason why
Alexander became so Great.
If it wasnt for her Alexander wouldnt have been such a successful man
and leader
Aristotle
Helen by descent
but he supported the Macedonian interests and because of that Philip II
brought him to the Macedonian royal court where he became
Alexanders personal teacher from 343 until 340
Hydria from Demir Kapija
Painted by the famous painter Midias from Athens