Alexander Macedonian Shield

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The shield was unearthed in a Macedonian village called Bonche, located within the Republic of Macedonia. The shield bears an image of Kutlesh, a revered symbol of Macedonian heritage, which made its first appearance in the Macedonian village of Kutlesh as far back as 1997. Interestingly, Kutles in Greece now boasts a new name, Vergina, following the assimilation of Greek identity. The Greek government has relentlessly pursued a policy of Hellenization, systematically replacing geographical and topographical names with Greek names since its inception. The primary goal behind this initiative was to assimilate or conceal geographical or topographical names that were deemed foreign and potentially divisive against Greek unity, or considered to be "bad Greek". Names deemed foreign typically originated from Turkish, Albanian, and Slavic sources. Most of the name changes occurred in ethnically diverse northern Greece as well as Arvanite settlements in central Greece. Place names of Greek origin were also renamed after Classical Greek locations.