Assiros

Assiros (Greek: Άσσηρος, before 1926: Γιουβέσνα - Giouvesna,Bulgarian: Гвоздово, Gvozdovo) is a village and a former municipality in the Thessaloniki regional unit, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Lagkadas, of which it is a municipal unit. The 2011 census recorded 1,975 inhabitants in the village of Assiros, 2,216 inhabitants in the community and 3,861 inhabitants in the municipal unit. The community of Assiros covers an area of 55.369 km², while the respective municipal unit covers an area of 76.657 km².

Administrative division

The community of Assiros consists of two separate settlements:

The aforementioned populations are as of 2011.

History

The archaeological site of Assiros Toumba, a 4000 yr old settlement mound, is located within the territory of modern Assiros. Excavation between 1975 and 1989 at this site has made a major contribution to understanding the nature of settlement, society, economy and material culture in prehistoric Macedonia. In addition a combination of radiocarbon and dendrochronological research on building timbers and radiocarbon dates for animal bones recovered from the site has provided one of the few accurate dates for the transition from Bronze to Iron Age in the Aegean area c.1070 BC, see Dating the End of the Greek Bronze Age: A Robust Radiocarbon-Based Chronology from Assiros Toumba