Huge Tomb Unearthed in Greece
Kapellmeister
Posts: 41,322 Forum Member
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This is a great news story!
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28758920
The excavation has been on-going for a while but the full extent of the tomb still seems to be unknown. Even more exciting is the possibility that the tomb wasn't looted in ancient times.
Nice website here with a lot of pix and the latest developments:
http://www.theamphipolistomb.com/
Archaeologists unearthing a burial site at Amphipolis in northern Greece have made an "extremely important find", says Greek PM Antonis Samaras.
Experts believe the tomb belonged to an important figure dating back to the last quarter of the Fourth Century BC.
A large mound complex has been unearthed at the Kasta hill site in the past two years.
Lead archaeologist Katerina Peristeri said it certainly dated from after the death of Alexander the Great.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28758920
The excavation has been on-going for a while but the full extent of the tomb still seems to be unknown. Even more exciting is the possibility that the tomb wasn't looted in ancient times.
Nice website here with a lot of pix and the latest developments:
http://www.theamphipolistomb.com/
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Comments
That's just what I like about it
If correct in that it dates to just after Alexander's death, it is a really exciting find.
There seems to be some speculation that it might be Alexander's mother, Olympias (unlikely), or a prominent general.
Who knows! The tomb has yet to be fully excavated. It's certainly a major site though. The tomb mound itself is surrounded by an almost perfectly circular 500m-long, 3m-high marble wall.
Someone of immense prestige must've been buried here. Let's just hope enough remains to give us some indication who it was.
Archaeological discoveries like this are very rare indeed.
By the way for anyone interested in the world's first 'computer' the famous 'Antikythera Mechanism' here are a couple of links.
http://www.antikythera-mechanism.gr/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism
There is also going to be a new survey and (fingers crossed) more remains of this ancient artifact - an astonishing example of advanced technology from over two millennia ago.
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/15745/20140917/high-tech-diving-gear-explores-ancient-shipwreck-world-s-oldest.htm
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/the-deepwater-search-for-the-antikythera-mechanism--the-world-s-first-computer-183309729.html
http://www.theamphipolistomb.com/second-chamber
Excavation is on-going!
They must be in the vicinity somewhere (if it actually happened) but probably not in the tomb. ;-)
It helps to see smaller artefacts, I think. I went to seethe Alexander exhibition at the Ashmolean. There were many artefacts from the tomb and somehow they made the people of the time less remote and 'legendary' and mofe human.
...unlike many of the dead rulers' OWN citizens - who had nasty graverobbing habits in all ancient societies that buried their dead, often before the bodies were properly cool!
Hopefully a full docu about the entire excavation will be forthcoming.
Absolutely stunning stuff - the sheer quality of the mosaic is remarkable - I will be following this excavation with great interest.
It looks as if it were built yesterday in places.
I do wonder what caused the damage in the centre of the mosaic. The obvious answer is grave robbers, but why dig just there and leave the rest intact? Someone else has mentioned an altar that might've once stood there.
I had hoped that the tomb was intact and hadn't been plundered but now I'm not so sure. The archaeologists seem to think the tomb was filled with soil after it had been completed to prevent robbery, but there's a hole at the top of one of the walls. I've also read that the soil might've washed in from outside if the tomb was open to the elements for centuries. And if it was open then it has probably been pilfered.
The only way to be sure is to keep on excavating. At this point in time literally no-one knows what they'll find! Until a few days ago the mosaic hadn't been seen by anyone for over two thousand years.
Quite a good Daily Mail article on the mosaic and background info with some decent photos (if you don't mind clicking on a DM link):
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2797052/alexander-great-era-tomb-s-chariot-hell-latest-images-mystery-mosaic-shows-persephone-driven-hell.html
Also, a really good computer-generated walkthrough of the tomb which shows what has been uncovered so far. Obviously the mosaic hasn't been included as it's such a new discovery!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHNqhGflskk
I do agree with you to a certain extent. I love archaeology and history but it's hard not to feel uneasy when bodies are removed from their original burial sites. No-one would want people to dig up the remains of Elizabeth I or Henry VIII and put them in a museum or in a cardboard box on a shelf in a storeroom and yet we happily go and see Egyptian mummies or Iron Age skeletons that have been put on display.
I have been to a lot of archaeological sites in Greece, and this wall is simply superb and of a tooling quality to rival any construction I have seen, a masterpiece in itself.
As for the mosaic, the round hole screams tomb robber to me, what a shame.
Also, thank you Kap for keeping us updated.
Actually, it's done very differently nowadays; ever notice on Time Team repeats how, if human remains are found any way intact...the work stops and in comes the English Heritage representatives etc.? Bodies or remains that are disinterred are analysed and eventually re-interred somewhere....unless a VERY good case can be made for not doing so. For instance - the bodies from the very large Anglo-Saxon burial ground they found in one series were all interred in a piece of specially purchased land alongside the old waste ground that had been earmarked for development...which was when the burial ground was originally discovered.
In the vast majority of cases, mummies "on display" in museums, or other human remains date from the early days of archeology, the 18th and 19th wave of popular enthusiasm for all things Egyptian...and the 19th century first wave of amateur excavations barrows and mounds in the UK. Museums display them now because basically - they've already got them!
You're welcome
Re. the hole in the mosaic, and I read a far-fetched theory that it was caused by water dripping off the roof. Another theory is that it contained an image that was deemed offensive to later Christian or Islamic sects and so it was destroyed (I know this happened elsewhere). Apparently the archaeologists have found large pieces of the missing part, some up to 20cm in diameter, so the damaged bit can be restored.
It just seems odd that it was damaged right in the centre and nowhere else. I just don't believe the archaeologists' theory that the tomb was deliberately filled with earth soon after it was completed. Even if it has been plundered though, hopefully there will still be enough stuff left to give us some idea of who was buried there.
The mosaic has now provided the best evidence so far that the tomb does indeed date to c400 BC and the time of Alexander the Great. So that's one mystery solved at least!
Kapellmeister, that website you linked has this sublink on it - a 3D representation of the chambers so far, and it's fantastic. I know you've probably seen it, but I posted it because it really gives an insight into the walk-through to the next chamber - gotta love that question mark on the next bit.
http://www.theamphipolistomb.com/3d-model
It would be great if there were steps leading down into a subterranean chamber, as some archaeologists suspect there might be. I do wonder though, if the lovely mosaic is only in the second chamber then what else could be lying waiting to be found further into the tomb? They're currently excavating the 3rd chamber and we know that there's at least a 4th chamber behind it, totally unseen as yet.
From all the pictures so far released, this tomb looks to be of a better standard of construction than the ones at Pella and Vergina which I visited many moons ago, although some of those were robbed in antiquity so some of their glory would have been lost.
My own take on the mosaic damage is a robber hole, it seems far too regular to be from water ingress. In one of the Vergina tombs (sorry cant remember which one) there was a hole very similar to this which was explained to me as the result of robbers in antiquity as Greeks were known to place goods under the floor.