EPIGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIVE TESTIMONIES / ARTIFACTS FROM THE SITES OF THE VARDAR REGION RELATED TO WINE, GRAPEVINE, AND THE DIONYSIAN

Povzetek

The subject of this paper is the cultural and historical significance of wine and grapevines in Macedonia along the river Vardar (Via Axia), including the pre-Roman period. In this regard, the epigraphic illustrative testimonies/artifacts from Macedonian archaeological sites are considered, revealing the key role of the grapevine in both the material, spiritual and social domains, centralizing around the archaeological sites. Here, due to the current level of research on this issue, our primary focus is put on the Stobi site near Gradsko, but findings from other sites along the Vardar valley, especially the lower part of its course, such as Vardarski Rid (ancient Gordynia) and Milci near Gevgelija, the Isar near Marvinci (Doberos) have been taken into account. They abound in epigraphic illustrations of traditions related to the process of winemaking and grapevine cultivation, though we have also included sites that incorporate Dionysian features in a broader sense, including various representations of Dionysus himself,. Through the prism of archaeological field research that confirms the widespread distribution of wine ceramics, consisting of kantharos, kylix, amphora, krater, authepsa, and other types of wine vessels, as well as painted mosaics, the conclusion is that ancient Macedonian wine ceramics from different historical periods were characterized by their own authentic features that distinguish them from ancient Greek and Roman ones. Among the direct evidence pointing to the proposition that is the basis of  our analysis of wine ceramics, is the fact that wine residues have been found at the bottoms of many such artifact vessels. The wine tradition of this region testifies to a cultural continuum within which wine and grapevine motifs have been transposed into various forms of spiritual and socially-oriented fine art that include paintings, inscriptions and decorative elements carved into various forms of wine vessels, wall or floor mosaics, columns, capitals, tombstones, marble pieces located around entrances or other parts of buildings that once represented a religious and cultural stamp of their time. In this sense, one of the essential goals of the study is to improve the understanding of the cultural-historical, i.e. symbolic meaning of wine and grapevine in the Vardar region as a heritage that permeates not only the material historical artifacts, but also the collective memory in which mythology, civilization and viticulture, as an important agricultural branch, merge as an inseparable amalgam.