Macedonia: Wednesday May 31 2017, Final Day (Day 11)

Archaeological Museum

300 denar, about $5.50. Took about an hour taking notes.

Paleolithic 50k-10k BCE. Earliest tools found 50,000-35,000 BCE in Veles and Gorno Porece. Worked bone and quartz, flint, basalt, opal.
Neolithic 6300-4200 BCE. Ceramic bowls, vessels and masks, small representative stone ornaments, jewelry. Some painted on outside
Eneolitic 4200-2200BCE, sophistication increases. Figurines depicting women with tattooed bodies, broken in fertility rituals.
Bronze Age 2200-1150BCE -- Ceramic relics from Bitola, elsewhere. Bronze knives, spear heads, jewelry
- Paeonians identity develops in late Bronze Age, conquered by Persian and them Macedonian Kingdoms. Latter assimilated them, leaving a small kingdom in the north. Disappeared as separate identity when Romans conquered in 168 BCE.
Iron Age 1150-550 BCE: Gold leaf plating, most relics still Bronze (I assume iron artifacts didn't keep as well). Reconstruction of grave with bronze bracelets, shield, symbolic vessels. Iron swords, razors, knives much more poorly preserved. Swords were short, 2ft including haft
Classical Period 550-400 BCE -- Pottery has ornate figurative decoration, finely crafted. Beautiful old burial mask found in Ohrid. Silver, gold, glass and amber jewelry. Heavy iron spears, decorated bronze and iron helmets.

Hellenistic Period 323-168 BCE -- beautiful representational statues in bronze, ceramic. Rough marble workings. Glassware. Iron relics more common. Funerary urns.
Middle Age 5th-6th c CE -- bronze and silver artifacts with Christian symbolism, Terra-cotta icons
Early Medieval Period 6th-7th c. Slavs settlement in area. Artifacts in many respects cruder than in Hellenistic and Roman periods
Byzantine Period 9th-12th c. -- Constantinople fell in Fourth Crusade in 1204, disintegration followed and final collapse to Ottoman rule in 1453.
Late Medieval Period 13th-14th c.
Ottoman Period end of 14th c-1912 -- just a few artifacts from this period.

Coins

Early 400s BCE Macedonia one of the first regions in Europe to mint coins. Small silver size of a dime
Tetradrachms issued by Alexander the Great became key currency in Mediterranean. Gold bronze and silver.
In Roman times bi- and tri-metallic coins in gradations of value: staters, drachms, bronze chalks and obols, gold aureli and solidi, silver denarii, bronze sestercii.
Since metal was actually intrinsically valuable, common for people to cut coins in partial fractions

Roman Statues and Marble Relics

Heraklea in Bitola: Titus Flavius Orestes, high priest and benefactor of the city. Remains from Bitola, Prilep, Skopje, elsewhere. Replica (!) of Alexander Sarcophagus from Sidon, Phonecia. Inscribed Bust from Prilep Decree from Bitola, that Marcus Vettius Philonos left 1500 denarii to the Council on his death so that they would celebrate his benefactor's birthday each year.

Holocaust Museum

Free, no photos and guard made me turn iPad off. Beautiful stark glass and marble building on the center square of Skopje.

Balkan Jews came largely from Spain and Portugal. Sephardic, spoke Ladino. Rabbis, merchants, doctors, pharmacists. All Urban population: no Jewish farmers. Concentrated in Bitola, Split and Skopje. Under Ottoman rule were tolerated. Had self rule to a significant extent: community raised own taxes, judged Jew-Jew disputes, etc. Jews had to pay a tax to exempt from military service but otherwise government didn't harass them. Occasional outbursts of violence from general people or extortion from a corrupt politician.

Some Jews took part in Ilinden uprising and were involved in partisan warfare during WWII, one is a Macedonian Hero of the People. However nearly every Macedonian Jew (70k+) was deported to Treblinka and executed. The few remaining emigrated to Israel and today fewer than 500 Jews exist anywhere in Macedonia.

Old Bazaar

Amazing warren of stalls with everything from shoes to suits to hardware and auto parts. Leads into a daily green market with ridiculously good organic produce.

Used a cheat day to get a full meal of kebab, fries, bread and fixings with two sodas for 230 denar -- a bit over $4.

Mother Teresa House

1910 Born Skopje
1922 receives call to God,
1929 moves to India, Teaches geography and catechism
1946, receives "call within a call" to serve poorest of the poor. In 1948 receives permission to start mission of her own.
1949 First candidate sister, Subashini Das (St Agnes MC) joins Mother Teresa
1950 Missionaries of Charity Sisters officially established, 12 members
1979 Nobel prize; 1980 Jewel of India; 1983 Order of Merit from QE
2016 September Sainthood!

Things to see in Skopje

Old bazaar, holocaust museum Marcos Monastery beautiful and where you can get Rakia Macedonia for 91 days Archaeological sites all over city Gallery seven by the white mosque, lakhmajoon Stone Bridge by the horseman (Alexander the Great) bridge Mother Theresa

Ethnographic Museum Bit bazaar -- old bazaar -- other end of the golden street -- totally chaotic market

201705 - Balkans - Statue of a Saint by Vardar River - 58 of 66 - Skopje - Skopje, May 31, 2017