History

According to archaeological discoveries, the island of Thassos is inhabited since the Stone Age, while samples of human presence and marks of metallurgic action continue and in the prehistoric era. At the antiquity, the island had rich deposits of coper, gold, lead and iron. Sources report that in the island lived Thracians until the 7th century BC, when settlers from Paros founded in the northern part of the island a coastal settlement. During the Archaic and Classic period, Thassos exploiting its rich natural wealth and its important geopolitical position managed to develop into an important commercial and economic center of the Aegean Sea. Later on the island appended with the Pan-Hellenic Macedonian state of Phillipos II and had a new period of prosperity during the Roman occupation. The island was attacked and raided from Slavs and Arabs, and at the Middle-Byzantine years it was other times the naval base of the Empire and other times the base of operation of pirates. Thassos was conquered from Venetians, Turks and Egyptians and was finally annexed with the Greek state in 1913.