Pistiros and Thasos: revisiting the foundation narrative of the settlement at Adzhiyska Vodenitsa (Vetren)

The discovery of the Pistiros inscription (SEG 49. 911) in 1990 dramatically changed the interpretation of the nearby ancient settlement at Adzhiyska Vodenitsa. The site came to be identified as the emporion Pistiros, a Greek trading post founded by settlers from the Thasian perea. Based on historical and archaeological arguments, the excavation director Mieczysław Domaradzki proposed that after Thasos lost its continental possessions to Athens in 462 BC, Thasians settled in the interior of Thrace in pursuit of new riches. This foundation narrative and the hypothetical Thasian link have significantly shaped subsequent scholarship not only about the settlement at Adzhiyska Vodenitsa but also about Thracian-Greek relations more widely. This paper examines the alleged role of Thasos as a founder and main commercial partner of Adzhiyska Vodenitsa. A re-evaluation of the key underlying arguments, namely the historical evidence, the fortifications and the foundation date, the coins, and the transport amphoras shows that the idea that Adzhiyska Vodenitsa was a Thasian foundation or that it had a special link with Thasos does not stand up to scrutiny. The settlement was well connected to north Aegean trade networks, and its fortifications followed trends in late 5th and 4th c. BC Greek cities, but there are no grounds to think of these connections in colonial terms, nor to emphasise the role of Thasos. Instead, we see Adzhiyska Vodenitsa as a Thracian city with a mixed population, under Odrysian economic and political control. The idea about a Thasian emporion opened opportunities for research over the past 37 years. We hope that re-evaluating this hypothesis will likewise move our understanding of the site forward, and open new avenues for interpretation.