The burial borders the ancient Aegean port of Amphipolis (near modern-day Amfípoli), which once served as the base for the fleet that Alexander the Great took on his invasion of Asia.
After nearly two years of digging at the site (known as the Kasta tumulus after the name of the hill it lies beneath), archaeologists are now exploring its inner chambers.
This past weekend the excavation team, led by Greek archaeologist Katerina Peristeri, announced the discovery of two elegant caryatids—large marble columns sculpted in the shape of women with outstretched arms—that may have been intended to bar intruders from entering the tomb’s main room.
“I don’t know of anything quite like them,” says Philip Freeman, a professor of classics at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.
The curly-haired caryatids are just part of the tomb’s remarkable furnishings. Guarding the door as sentinels were a pair of carved stone sphinxes, mythological creatures with the body of a lion and the head of a human. And when archaeologists finally entered the antechamber, they discovered faded remnants of frescoes as well as a mosaic floor made of white marble pieces inlaid in a red background.
The finely crafted floor, says Ian Worthington, a classical scholar at the University of Missouri in Columbia and the author of two books on Alexander the Great, “is a clear sign of wealth. The palace of Pella [where Alexander the Great was born] yielded a number of mosaics, and they were all very costly.”
A photo of two statues of females on the wall of a recently excavated tomb in Greece.
Two female figurines, known as caryatids, once guarded the entrance to the tomb with outstretched arms.
Opulence Points to Prestige
A big question now is: Who was interred in the inner chamber? Peristeri and her colleagues have yet to break the seal over the entrance, so archaeologists can only make educated guesses. Most agree, however, that the tumulus is unlikely to hold the remains of Alexander the Great, the Macedonian king who defeated the Persian army, invaded Asia and Egypt, and created one of the ancient world’s largest empires.
Historical texts agree that Alexander the Great died in Babylon in 323 B.C., possibly of an infectious disease such as malaria or typhoid fever. Mourners then reportedly preserved the king’s body in honey and placed it on a funerary cart destined, according to some accounts, for his home in Macedonia, now northern Greece.
But along the way, says Worthington, one of Alexander’s favorite generals, Ptolemy, “kidnapped the corpse and buried it somewhere in Egypt. So I will bet you ten dollars that Alexander the Great is not in the tomb of Amphipolis.”
Instead, the smart money among archaeologists is on a member of the king’s immediate family—perhaps his mother, Olympias; his wife, Roxana; or his young son, also named Alexander.
After the king’s death, his generals divided up his empire. One of them, Cassander, executed all three of the king’s next of kin in order to secure his own reign over Macedonia. But it is very possible that Alexander’s well-heeled followers constructed an opulent funerary mound at Amphipolis for at least one of their own.
“It is an enormous tomb, and one assumes that it was built for some prestigious and wealthy person,” says archaeologist Hector Williams at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. If the tomb proves to be unlooted, and the clues to the original owner’s identity remain intact, some history buffs may soon be able to collect on their bets.
Και η απάντηση των Σκοπιανών (!)
Oliver Meskov
The ancient Macedonians were a distinct European people, conscious and proud of their nationality, their customs, their language, and their name. The same applies to the modern Macedonians today.
The ancient Macedonians regarded the ancient Greeks as neighbors, not as kinsmen. The Greeks treated the Macedonians as foreigners (“barbarians”) whose native language was Macedonian, not Greek.
The Macedonians spoke their own native language which was unrecognizable by the Greeks. The very label barbarian literally means a person who does not speak Greek. Though Alexander spoke also Greek, loved Homer, and respected his tutor Aristotle, there is much evidence that he hated the Greeks of his day, just like his father Philip II. Philip had razed to the ground the Greek cities on Macedonian territory (including all 32 Greek cities in Chalcidice) and enslaved their inhabitants. Alexander the Great thoroughly destroyed Thebes. His Asian empire has not once been described as “Greek”, but is correctly called Macedonian for he won it with an army of 35,000 Macedonians and only 7,600 Greeks, and similar numbers of Thracians and Illyrians who were all forced to fight with their Macedonian overlords. The overwhelming number of Greeks however, 50,000 in total , had however, distinguished themselves on the side of the Persians and fought fiercely till the end against the Macedonians. For instance, at the battle of Granicus there were 20,000 Greeks, out of which the Macedonians killed 18,000 and the 2,000 survivors were sent in chains to Macedonia.(Quintus Curtius Rufus,
Roman Historian) Arrian
(Ancient Greek Historian
The Campaigns of Alexander)specifically speaks of the “old racial rivalry” between Macedonians and Greeks that characterized this battle. At the battle of Issus, there were 30,000 Greeks on the side of the Persians to fight Alexander.
Also, Macedonia was never a region of Greece. On the contrary, ancient Greece was subjected to Macedonia. In 1913, modern Greece and her Balkan allies partitioned Macedonia. If today a portion of Macedonia belongs to Greece, it is by virtue of an illegal partition of the whole and occupation of a part of Macedonia.
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Μπείτε στο facebook, αναζητήστε το National Geographic και απαντήστε στους Σκοπιανούς που θέλουν να αποκαλούνται Μακεδόνες και εμείς, ως Έλληνες, να «θεωρούμε τους Μακεδόνες» βαρβάρους (sic).
Μαγδαληνή Ντούκα Μοντεσάντου για την ΟΔΥΣΣΕΙΑ
Το θέμα απασχόλησε και τον κ. Μιχάλη Ιγνατίου:
Στο παγκόσμιο ενδιαφέρον που έχουν προσελκύσει οι ανασκαφές στον τύμβο της Αμφίπολης αναφέρεται δημοσίευμα του NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC με τίτλο «Who’s Buried in Largest Tombi n Northern Greece? New Finds Raise Intrigue» σημειώνοντας ότι οι περισσότεροι αρχαιολόγοι θεωρούν, με βάσει τα έως τώρα ευρήματα, ότι πρόκειται για κάποιον συγγενή του Μεγάλου Αλεξάνδρου.
Όπως επισημαίνεται χαρακτηριστικά οι θαυμαστές της αρχαίας ιστορίας βάζουν στοιχήματα για την ταυτότητα του νεκρού που κρύβεται στην σκοτεινή ‘καρδιά’ του τεράστιου μαρμάρινου τάφου ο οποίος αποκαλύπτεται σταδιακά στη βόρεια Ελλάδα και ο οποίος χρονολογείται στα ταραγμένα χρόνια του θανάτου του Μεγάλου Αλεξάνδρου, μεταξύ του 325 και 300 π.Χ. Ο τάφος είναι ο μεγαλύτερος που έχει βρεθεί στη βόρεια Ελλάδα, ένας μνημειακός ήσυχος τόπος ιδανικός για κάποιον βασιλιά.
Όπως επισημαίνεται, μεταξύ άλλων, ο τύμβος συνορεύει με την αρχαία πόλη της Αμφίπολης από την οποία ξεκίνησε ο στόλος του Μεγάλου Αλεξάνδρου με προορισμό την Ασία.
«Δεν ξέρω τίποτα που να μοιάζει με αυτά» δήλωσε ο Philip Freeman καθηγητής κλασσικών σπουδών στο LutherCollege της Αϊόβα αναφερόμενος στα έως τώρα ευρήματα, τις δύο Καρυάτιδες, τις Σφίγγες, σε συνδυασμό με το άγαλμα του λιονταριού με το ανθρώπινο κεφάλι.
Οι αρχαιολόγοι επίσης ανακάλυψαν απομεινάρια τοιχογραφιών και ένα μωσαϊκό δάπεδο που φτιάχτηκε από κομμάτια λευκού μαρμάρου εγκιβωτισμένα σε κόκκινο φόντο. Όπως επισημαίνει ο IanWorthington, καθηγητής κλασσικών σπουδών στο University of Missouri και συγγραφέας δύο βιβλίων για τον Μέγα Αλέξανδρο, το λεπτοδουλεμένο δάπεδο «αποτελεί σαφή ένδειξη πλούτου. Το παλάτι της Πέλλας, όπου γεννήθηκε ο Μέγας Αλέξανδρος, έφερε πολλά μωσαϊκά, τα οποία ήταν πανάκριβα».
Σχετικά με την ταυτότητα του νεκρού που κρύβει ο τάφος της Αμφίπολης το δημοσίευμα κάνει αναφορά στις ιστορικές πηγές που αναφέρουν ότι ο Μέγας Αλέξανδρος πέθανε στην Βαβυλώνα ενώ το σώμα του προορίζονταν να ταφεί στη Μακεδονία, τη σημερινή βόρεια Ελλάδα. Στο δρόμο όμως προς τη Μακεδονία, σημειώνει ο IanWorthington, ένας από τους αγαπημένους στρατηγούς του Αλεξάνδρου, ο Πτολεμαίος «έκλεψε τη σορό του και την έθαψε κάπου στην Αίγυπτο. Συνεπώς στοιχηματίζω δέκα δολάρια ότι δεν βρίσκεται ο Μέγας Αλέξανδρος στον τάφο της Αμφίπολης!».
Αντίθετα σημειώνει το δημοσίευμα οι περισσότεροι αρχαιολόγοι «ποντάρουν» τα λεφτά τους στο ότι πρόκειται για κάποιον συγγενή του άμεσου περιβάλλοντος του Μεγάλου Αλεξάνδρου, όπως τη μητέρα του Ολυμπιάδα, τη σύζυγό του Ρωξάνη ή τον νεαρό του γιο που ονομάζονταν επίσης Αλέξανδρος.
Μιχάλης Ιγνατίου – Εστάλη στην ΟΔΥΣΣΕΙΑ, 10.9.2014