Isar, Marvinci

Isar is a fortified hilltop settlement near Marvinci village in the Valandovo valley, occupied continuously from the Iron Age (7th c. BC) through Late Antiquity (6th c. AD). Identified as the ancient Paionian city of Doberos or Idomene, the site covers roughly 10 hectares with a necropolis extending over 100 hectares containing over 200 excavated graves. Key finds include cultic bronze jewelry from a so-called "Paionian Priestess," terracotta figurines of Cybele and Aphrodite, a Hellenistic funerary stele of the hoplite Zoilos, and a Roman architrave from a temple of Hercules inscribed with the word "Macedonia" in Greek. Systematic excavations from 1961 to 1986 revealed the city peaked during the Hellenistic period and became a Roman military castrum in its final phase.