Introduction

The archaeological site of Palatiano is located 20 km northeast of the city of Kilkis, on the mountain range of Krousia. It covers two neighbouring hills linked by a narrow passage, dominating the area between the villages of Kentriko and Palatiano. The residential remains occupy the summit and the eastern side of the north hill while the south hill was probably occupied by the city’s cemetery. It is a crucial location along the River Gallikos (known in antiquity as Echedoros) to the east and the Krousia mountains to the northeast, which offered control over the passages from north to south and from east to west.



The first attempts to reveal the archaeological past of the region of Kilkis were conducted by the allied military troops of the Army of the Orient during the First World War, while the archaeological site became widely known in 1960 when four marble statues were found there along with inscriptions. The first excavations took place in 1961 by Foteini Zafeiropoulou, in 1965 and 1966 by Fotios Petsas and in 1977 by Liana Parliama, bringing to light small parts of buildings and a fortification wall, while the finds dated the city to the Hellenistic and Roman eras. Systematic excavations commenced in 1993 by Electra Anagnostopoulou-Xatzipolichroni and continued approximately until the end of the decade, while some additional work took place in 2003. Palatiano was incorporated into the 3rd CSF with the design of works that aimed to make it an accessible archaeological site.

It has been suggested that the discovered settlement is identified as ancient Ioron, which is known from ancient sources (Ioros means mountain village, with a connotation to the fact that it functioned as a guarding location, but this identification has not been documented through an inscription so far).