Mygdonia is a suburb and a former municipality in the Thessaloniki regional unit, Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Oraiokastro

Oraiokastro

Oraiokastro is a municipality in the Thessaloniki regional unit, Greece and a suburb of Thessaloniki.-Municipality:The municipality Oraiokastro was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 3 former municipalities, that became municipal...

, of which it is a municipal unit. Population 7,239 (2001). The municipal unit of Mygdonia includes three communities, Drymos (Δρυμός), Liti (Λητή) and Melissochori (Μελισσοχώρι). The seat of the municipality was in Liti.

According to archaeologists, the area has been inhabitied since the Mesolithic era

Mesolithic

The Mesolithic is an archaeological concept used to refer to certain groups of archaeological cultures defined as falling between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic....

 (9000-7000 BC). The first inhabitants were Pelasgians

Pelasgians

The name Pelasgians was used by some ancient Greek writers to refer to populations that were either the ancestors of the Greeks or who preceded the Greeks in Greece, "a hold-all term for any ancient, primitive and presumably indigenous people in the Greek world." In general, "Pelasgian" has come...

, followed by Thracian tribes

Thracians

The ancient Thracians were a group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting areas including Thrace in Southeastern Europe. They spoke the Thracian language – a scarcely attested branch of the Indo-European language family...

 such as the Mygdones and the Edoni

Edoni

The Edoni were a Thracian people who dwelt mostly between the Nestus and the Strymon rivers in southern Thrace, but also once dwelt west of the Strymon at least as far as the Axios. They inhabited the region of Mygdonia before the Macedonians drove them out...

, until Alexander I of Macedon

Alexander I of Macedon

- Biography :Alexander was the son of Amyntas I and Queen Eurydice.According to Herodotus, he was unfriendly to Persia, and had the envoys of Darius I killed when they arrived at the court of his father during the Ionian Revolt...

 conquered and annexed the area.

Archaeological discoveries have been made in the area, near the Liti village and at the location Derveni. Discoveries include the ruins of the ancient city of Lete, ancient Macedonian tombs, tombstones, altars, statues, clay statuettes, coins, etc. Perhaps the most important discovery is the Derveni papyrus

Derveni papyrus

The Derveni papyrus is an ancient Greek papyrus roll that was found in 1962. It is a philosophical treatise that is an allegorical commentary on an Orphic poem, a theogony concerning the birth of the gods, produced in the circle of the philosopher Anaxagoras in the second half of the 5th century...

, an ancient Greek papyrus scroll, found in the city's necropolis in 1962 - a philosophical treatise on Orphic religion

Orphism (religion)

Orphism is the name given to a set of religious beliefs and practices in the ancient Greek and the Hellenistic world, as well as by the Thracians, associated with literature ascribed to the mythical poet Orpheus, who descended into Hades and returned...

.

External links

• Local news, cultural events, sports and educational activities can be found at http://www.mygdonia.gr, an active local web site.