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Vergina Sun

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Vergina Sun
File:Vergina sun.jpg
The orginal 12 ray 'Vergina Sun' from Vergina in Greece

The Vergina Sun or Star of Vergina is a symbol of a stylised star with sixteen rays. It was unearthed in 1977 during archaeological excavations in Vergina, in northern Greece, by Professor Manolis Andronikos. He discovered it on a golden larnax in the tombs of the kings of the ancient kingdom of Macedon.

Andronikos described the symbol variously as a "star", a "starburst" or as a "sunburst". [1] He proposed that the larnax on which it appears belonged to King Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great; other historians have suggested that the tomb actually belonged to the later King Philip III Arrhidaeus. [2] The larnax is on display at the archaeological museum in Vergina, very close to where it was found. Another version of the Vergina Sun, with 12 rays, was found on the larnax of Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great.

Interpretations of the symbol

The significance of the Vergina Sun is unclear. Archaeologists do not agree whether the sun was a symbol of Macedon, an emblem of Philip's Argead dynasty, a religious symbol, or simply a decorative design. Andronikos repeatedly interprets it as the "emblem of the Macedonian dynasty", though Eugene Borza has pointed out that it is widely used in Macedonian art [3].

John Paul Adams cites its long-established use as a decorative element in Greek art (as well as in the Middle East and elsewhere) and concludes that it cannot definitively be said that it was either a "royal" or "national" Macedonian symbol. [4]

Flag controversy

File:Hoplite.jpg
5th Century BCE depiction of an Athenian Hoplite. His shield is decorated with a symbol very similar to the Vergina sun
Vergina Sun flag as used by the three peripheries of Greek Macedonia.
Vergina Sun flag at the Kozani Prefecture, along with the European flag and the flag of Greece.
File:Flag of Macedonia 1991-95.svg
The official flag of the Republic of Macedonia between 1992 and 1995.
The revised flag (since 1995), with a stylized sun.
File:Vergina sugar.jpg
The Vergina Sun is now widely used on Greek commercial products, such as these bags of sugar.

Following the discovery of the larnax, the Vergina Sun was widely adopted by Greeks as a symbol of continuity between ancient Macedonian culture and modern Greece. The Vergina Sun on a blue background is commonly used as an official emblem of the three peripheries, the prefectures and the municipalities of the region of Macedonia. It is also used by organisations of the Macedonian Greek diaspora as well as numerous commercial enterprises.

The symbol had also been adopted by organisations in the overseas Slavic Macedonian diaspora, and it was adopted by some nationalists in Yugoslavia's Socialist Republic of Macedonia. When Yugoslavia broke up in 1991-1992, the newly independent and renamed Republic of Macedonia¤ designated the Vergina Sun as its national symbol and displayed it on its new flag.

The decision caused controversy both within the republic and outside it in its relations with Greece. The republic's large Albanian minority complained that it was an ethnic symbol of the Slavic Macedonian majority and was not suitable for a multiethnic state. [5] Greek opposition was even more vehement. The Greek government and many Greek people, especially in the Greek province of Macedonia, saw it as the misappropriation of a Hellenic symbol and a direct claim on the legacy of Philip II. [6]. A Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman claimed in January 1995 that "the symbol is Greek and has been stolen." Nationalists on both sides subsequently associated the symbol with the (much later) Star of Bethlehem and have argued that their respective communities have used the symbol for sacred purposes before the Vergina discovery. [5]

Others have argued that the symbol has been appropriated by the Greeks as a means of asserting continuity between modern Greece and the ancient Greek states. Peter Hill, a professor of Slavic studies at the University of Hamburg who has published extensively on the Macedonian Slavs and their language and actively promoted their cause, asserts that

The Star of Vergina is not a Greek symbol, except in the sense that it happens to have been found on the territory of the present-day Greek state. The modern day Greeks appropriated ancient Greek cultural symbols because they happen to live in more or less the same part of the world as the ancient Greeks did." [7]

Speaking on the BBC World Service's The World Today programme, archaeologist Bajana Mojsov from the Republic of Macedonia comments that "the symbolic weight attached to the Vergina Star was archaeologically absurd - but politically inevitable," arguing:

The star of Vergina applies to the 3rd century BC northern Greece - a very different situation, not related to the 21st century AD. I think it's modern politics, and we're witnessing the use of an archaeological symbol for history that it's really not related to.[8]

Although the authorities in Skopje denied any ulterior motives, the flag became a major issue in the wider political dispute between the two countries of the early 1990s (see Foreign relations of the Republic of Macedonia). Greek objections led to the flag being banned from use in a variety of places, including the United Nations, the Olympic Games and offices of the Republic of Macedonia in the United States and Australia. [5]

In response to the dispute, the symbol was introduced in many new contexts in Greece. It was added to the Greek 100 drachma coin in early 1992 and appeared on the arm patches of police in Athens. The Thessaloniki based Makedonia television station used it to replace the letter omicron in its logo and the Bank of Macedonia-Thrace adopted it as its symbol, as did some Greek military units. [9] In February 1993 the Greek parliament passed a bill designating the Vergina Sun as an official Greek national symbol. [5] In July 1995, Greece lodged a request with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) for exclusive intellectual property rights to the Vergina Sun. [10]

The dispute was partially resolved in October 1995 under a compromise brokered by the United Nations. The symbol was removed from the flag of the Republic of Macedonia as part of an agreement to establish diplomatic and economic relations between the two sides. It was replaced by a new flag, which is currently in use, displaying a stylized eight-pointed sun. The discovery of a Bronze Age stone carving of a similar eight-pointed sun, found in an archaeological excavation at Kratovo in the Republic of Macedonia, has led to some suggestions that this eight-pointed symbol (rather than the sixteen-pointed version found at Vergina) is a truer symbol of ancient Macedonian culture, despite the fact that Kratovo lies in what was the ancient land of Paionia, which was only incorporated into Macedonia many centuries after the end of the Bronze Age. [11] The eight-pointed symbol has also been used by Aromanians in the republic. [12]

Outside of the Republic of Macedonia, some nationalist groups continue to use the Vergina Sun as a symbol of Macedonia's Slavs. In Canada, for instance, the United Macedonians Organization uses the sun as part of its logo [13].

References

  1. ^ Danforth, L. M. The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World, p. 163. Princeton University Press, 1997
  2. ^ Borza, E. N. In the Shadow of Olympus: The Emergence of Macedon, p. 260. Princeton University Press, 1990
  3. ^ W. Lindsay Adams and Eugene N. Borza, eds. Philip II, Alexander the Great and the Macedonian Heritage, p. 82. University Press of America, 1982
  4. ^ Adams, J.P. The Larnakes from Tomb II at Vergina. Archaeological News. 12:1-7
  5. ^ a b c d Danforth, L. M. The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World, p. 166
  6. ^ The dispute was exacerbated by clauses in the Republic of Macedonia's constitution that Greeks saw as a territorial claim on the Greek province of Macedonia
  7. ^ Peter Hill, 'Levelling the Levendis', The Age, Melbourne, 20 April 1994; quoted by John Shea, Macedonia and Greece: The Struggle to Define a New Balkan Nation, p. 6. McFarland & Company, 1997
  8. ^ BBC News (2004), When archaeology gets bent, BBC World Service, 2004, The World Today programme, Accessed 12 October 2006
  9. ^ Borza, Eugene N. "Macedonia Redux", in The Eye Expanded: life and the arts in Greco-Roman Antiquity, ed. Frances B Tichener & Richard F. Moorton, p. 260. University of California Press, 1999. See also : Greek military :1st STRATIA and -34 Μ/Κ ΤAX.
  10. ^ "Greece petitions for int'l rights to Vergina Star", ANA, 31 July 1995. See also WIPO registrations: [1] [2], [3].
  11. ^ Shea, John. Macedonia and Greece: The Struggle to Define a New Balkan Nation, p. 6. McFarland & Company, 1997
  12. ^ Cowan, Jane K. Macedonia: The Politics of Identity and Difference, p. 124. Pluto Press, 2000
  13. ^ United Macedonians Organization website

Sources

  • Philip II, Alexander the Great and the Macedonian Heritage, ed. W. Lindsay Adams and Eugene N. Borza. University Press of America, 1982. ISBN 0-8191-2448-6
  • The Larnakes from Tomb II at Vergina. Archaeological News. John Paul Adams
  • In the Shadow of Olympus: The Emergence of Macedon, Eugene N. Borza. Princeton University Press, 1990. ISBN 0-691-05549-1
  • "Macedonia Redux", Eugene N. Borza, in The Eye Expanded: life and the arts in Greco-Roman Antiquity, ed. Frances B Tichener & Richard F. Moorton. University of California Press, 1999. ISBN 0-520-21029-8
  • Macedonia: The Politics of Identity and Difference, Jane K. Cowan. Pluto Press, 2000. ISBN 0-7453-1589-5
  • The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World, Loring M. Danforth. Princeton University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-691-04357-4
  • Macedonia and Greece: The Struggle to Define a New Balkan Nation, McFarland & Company, 1997. ISBN 0-7864-0228-8
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