Eastern Thrakia during Archaic, Classic, and Hellenistic periods

The study of "Eastern Thrakia in Archaic, Classic, and Hellenistic Periods" include the Aegean and Propontis Sea to south and southeast, the Pontus Euxinus and Asticus Mountains to the north, Bosporos Thrakios to the east, and the Hebrus River to the west. Although this geographical border it is located in the ssoutheastern Europe and Thrace, this region is preferred to be named here as "Eastern Thrace" as since it because a widely accepted name. The Eastern Thrace, which is located on a slightly rugged terrain, except for the Asticus Mountains on the north and the Ganos and Koru Mountains on the south, is irrigated by Hebrus and its branches of Tonzos, Agrianes and Ardeskos. Starting from the Neolithic Age, the geographical structure of the region substantially affected the distribution and the characteristics of the settlements. While the Balkan cultures dominated in the 7th millennium in Chersonesos, which is in the inner part of the Eastern Thrace where coastal regions and inland differ considerably from each other, the cultures in the Aegean Basin that we call the Western Anatolia dominated the Northern Aegean coastal regions. The area was highly affected by this formation throughout the first millennium. The Thracians, who consisted of many tribes ruled on the whole area in around the 1200s. However, after a short while, except Pontus Euxinus, large and small settlements were established by people coming from Propontis, the North Aegean coasts, the Aegean basin in Chersonesos, especially the Western Anatolia, the nearby islands of Samos, Chios, and Lesbos, and the Greek Mainland. Most of these settlements were re-inhabited in an already present Thracian settlement. While the colonists lived in Chersonesos and the coasts of the Eastern Thrace, excluding Pontus Euxinus, the Thracians continued their existence in the inner part, behind the coastal regions up until the Late Antiquity. In this study in which the Archaic, Classic, and Hellenistic Periods in the Eastern Thrace were examined, the research was conducted through the data obtained mainly from museums and field surveys. Moreover, the study benefited from various ancient and modern literary sources on the region. Within this scope, archaeological the data from the museums and field research, the literary evidence, as well as the geography of the region and the political events that affected the region were evaluated as a whole.