Macedonia, southern part

TIB 11 deals with the southern part of the historical region of Macedonia, situated in the territory of modern Greece. This area is approximately identical with the Roman province of Macedonia Prima. The region of TIB 11 – encompassing nearly 33,000 square kilometers – is bordered to the north by Albania, FYROM and Bulgaria, regions which are largely treated in TIB 16 “Macedonia, northern part”. The neighboring regions are Epirus, Thessaly and Thrace. In the south TIB 11 extends to the Aegean coast. Within the TIB 11 are included, among others, Thessalonica, which was for centuries the second city of the Byzantine Empire, and Mount Athos, since the 10th century a monastic center of great importance for the Orthodox Church. The immigration of a Slavic population in the 6th and 7th centuries had considerable influence on the settlement structure and toponymy of the region and Macedonia became zone of contact between the Greek and the Slavic populations (Bulgarians, Serbs). At the end of the 14th and in the first half of the 15th centuries the region fell under Ottoman rule. The early Ottoman tax registers are an important source for the settlements and placenames in the Macedonian countryside. Several descriptions of important monuments and archaeological remains were written by Andreas Pülz in the years 2000–2002. Travels to the region have yielded further insights.

The core of TIB 11, i.e. the catalogue with entries about the names of places, settlements, monuments, archeological excavations etc., will be ready for publication by the end of 2017. The introductory chapters will be published later, together with TIB 16 “Macedonia, northern part”.

Publications