Skapte hyle

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Skapte Hyle (also Skaptehyle, ancient Greek Σκαπτὴ Ὕλη or Σκαπτηςύλη , Latin Scaptensula ) was in ancient times with its gold and silver mines as a synonym for the precious metal wealth of the southern Greek Rhodopes in the area of ​​the Thasitian Peraia . It is the name of a place, a mine or a mining area .

Ancient sources

Herodotus describes Skapte Hyle as the gold and silver mines in the great and high Pangaion Mountains . At the end of the 6th and beginning of the 5th century BC The highest yields are said to have been achieved from the mines of the Thasitian Peraia . The annual funding was 80 talents , which was the equivalent of 160 kg of fine gold. In addition, there was a somewhat lower output from the mines on the island of Thasos . The discovery of the gold mines in the northeast of Thasos, under the Acropolis of Limena and in the east in the area of ​​Kinyra confirmed Herodotus' statement.

Numerous other Greek written sources refer to the wealth of precious metals in the Pangaion Mountains or the mines of Skapte Hyle:

  • Aeschylus : "The ray of lightning fills the pine, silver-sheltering hill of the Pangaion."
  • Euripides : "When we came to a gold-bearing mountain on earth, the Pangaion ..."
  • Euripides: "... hidden in the caves of the silver-rich earth."
  • Thucydides : "... and the mine that was assigned."
  • Thucydides: "... giving up the mainland and the mine."
  • Strabon : "... and the mountains themselves have gold and silver mines."
  • Plutarch : "... and he won the otherworldly gold mines for the Athenians and he conquered the land over which the inhabitants of Thasos ruled."
  • Plutarch: "... to have died in Skapte Hyle - that is a place / a place of Thrace."

The mines were also mentioned by Romans and Byzantines:

  • Lucretius : "... where in the depths of Scaptensula they trace the silver and gold veins."
  • Festus : "... the place Scaptensula in Macedonia, where silver is being excavated by Greek miners."
  • Markellinos : "... but from there he also went away and, staying in Skapte Hyle, wrote under plane trees."
  • Markellinos: "... but later after the exile in Skapte Hyle, a village in Thrace."
  • Stephanos of Byzantium : "Skapte Hyle, a small Thracian town across from Thasos."

As an early traveler, Pierre Belon in 1553 and Turkish sources from the late 17th century referred to Skapte Hyle in the Pangaion mountain range , and in the 19th century also to Georges Perrot . Perrot's assessment was eventually adopted by other authors.

In 1976 and 1980, based on their investigations, Heinz Josef Unger and Ewald Schütz came to the assumption that the legendary Skapte Hyle is located in the central south (Moustheni), in the high mountains (Mati and Koutra) and / or in the northeast (Palaiochori) of the Pangaion could have.

Despite the knowledge gained, the Ephoria Kavala ruled out in 1990 with a high degree of probability that Skapte Hyle would be found in the Pangaion Mountains. The search should be extended to the northern part of the western Pangaion, in the hinterland of Galypsos .

According to more recent investigations, M. Vavelidis, G. Gialoglou, B. Melfos and G. Wagner expressed the assumption in 1996 that the mountain and hut area of ​​Palaia Kavala in the Lekani Mountains with the locations Zygos, Kastanies, Kryoneri is located , Giolia, Goritza, Makrovouni, Mandra Kari, Tria Karagatsia and Pistirma / Chalkeroin could have been Skapte Hyle.

The École française d'Athènes suspects the gold of Skapte Hyle also northeast of Kavala , in the Lekani Mountains.

Web links

Commons : Thasitic Peraia  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Herodotus 7, 112.
  2. ↑ Herodotus 6:46.
  3. ↑ Herodotus 6:46.
  4. ^ Aeschylus, fragment 12.
  5. ↑ Euripides, Rhesos 921.
  6. ↑ Euripides, Rhesos 970.
  7. ^ Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 1, 100, 2 and 1, 101, 3.
  8. ^ Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 1, 101, 3.
  9. ↑ Strabon, geographica 7, 331, Fragm. 34.
  10. ^ Plutarch, Kimon 14.
  11. ↑ Plutarch, Kimon 4, 2.
  12. ↑ Lucretius 6: 808-811.
  13. ↑ Festus 442-443.
  14. ^ Markellinos, vita Thukydidis 25-26.
  15. ^ Markellinos, Life Thukydidis 46.
  16. ↑ Stephanus Byzantinus sv
  17. ↑ Pierre Belon: Les observations de plusieurs singularitez et choses mémorables, trouvées en Grèce, Asie, Judée, Egypte, Arabie et autres pays. 1553, p. 57 ( digitized version ).
  18. ↑ Georges Perrot: Mémoire sur l'île de Thasos. Paris 1864, p. 16 ( digitized version ).
  19. ↑ Heinz Josef Unger, Ewald Schütz: Pangaeon, a mountain range and its mining. In: Bernhard Hänsel , Helmut Geißlinger (Ed.): Southeast Europe between 1600 and 1000 BC Chr. Prehistoric Archeology in Southeastern Europe Vol. 1. Moreland, Berlin 1982, pp. 145–172.
  20. ↑ Polis kai Xora, Ephoria Kavala, 1990, p. 493
  21. ↑ M. Vavelidis, G. Gialoglou, B. Melfos, G. Wagner: gold mine in Palaia Kavala / Greece: discovery of Skaptehyle? In: Erzmetall. 49, 1996, p. 547.
  22. ^ École française d'Athènes (ed.): Guide de Thasos. Boccard, Paris, 1967, p. 179.