Herodotus in his narrative of the Persian campaign against Greece informs us that: “ὁ μὲν δὴ ναυτικὸς στρατὸς αὐτοῦ περὶ Ἄξιον ποταμὸν καὶ πόλιν Θέρμην καὶ τὰς μεταξὺ πόλιας τούτων περιμένων βασιλέα ἐστρατοπεδεύετο, Ξέρξης δὲ καὶ ὁ πεζὸς στρατὸς ἐπορεύετο”
Two objects from the ancient settlement of Toumba, Thessaloniki—identified as one of the polismata, if not the central one, of ancient Therme—serve as evidence of the presence of the Persian army in the area of the Thermaic Gulf. These objects include a fragment of a vessel from a local pottery workshop (ΜΘ 34508) which has been found in a pit at the settlement and a fragment of a roof tile (ΜΘ 34362), which was handed over to the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki by a resident of Toumba. Both are dated to the early 5th century BCE.
The first fragment preserves the head of an incised figure wearing a tall rounded headdress decorated with diagonal lines. A similar figure appears on the second object: a bearded man wearing a similar headdress, beneath which his long hair is visible. He is standing and facing right, holding a long object in both hands. He is wearing a long robe and an overgarment. As for the inscriptions on both objects, they are oriented from right to left and consist of symbols—eleven on the first object and sixteen on the second—that do not correspond to the Greek alphabet.
The headdress with the curved outline seen on both figures, the long garment and the way in which the figure holds the object with both hands—an object that could be interpreted as either a spear or a scepter—resemble similar depictions of soldiers or royal attendants of the Persian court known from Achaemenid art, such as the reliefs from Persepolis or those from Susa. Moreover, the similarity between some of the symbols in the inscription on the roof tile and those in the Carian inscription found in the ancient settlement of Karabournaki suggests the possible use of the Carian alphabet. After all, as Herodotus informs us (7.89.1–7.98.1), among those who participated in the Persian army and fleet were soldiers from Lydia, Caria, Cilicia, and Phoenice, who would have encamped around the Thermaic Gulf before Xerxes' invasion of southern Greece. It is also possible that some of these soldiers remained in the area as a kind of garrison to secure the rear of the Persian army.
You may see the exhibits in the permanent exhibition “Thessaloniki, The Metropolis of Macedonia” (Showcase: 3).
