The Sphinxes Guarding the Lion Tomb Entrance at Amphipolis

[agesilaos]

I have just received a guide to the previous excavations at Amphipolis and I just have to enlighten Andrew about something he could not have discovered otherwise, but the base of the reconstructed Lion is totally modern the original was girt with Doric order half-columns, four per side the source I'll PM you being away from my booklet pro tem; I have not read the original papers but only the booklet which was published before the latest stage of excavation. Nothing is mentioned therein about a Roman destruction of the lion which makes me wonder (it is a quite incongruous detail; Trajan thought himself a Roman Alexander, Hadrian was too hellenophilic to destroy a Greek monument, Antininus and Marcus are hardly likely candidates for such vandalism, nor Nerva and Domitian would have been blamed for any such act had it been perpetrated under his reign.

[Taphoi]

I have just received a guide to the previous excavations at Amphipolis and I just have to enlighten Andrew about something he could not have discovered otherwise, but the base of the reconstructed Lion is totally modern the original was girt with Doric order half-columns...

Well, thanks agesilaos. But actually I am well aware that the modern base does not reflect the original. I have always gone by Jacques Roger's reconstruction of the original (below). You can see the blocks with bands of drafting that I referred to in my 2012 book in its base. Yes, it was Doric (I haven't said otherwise - I only discussed Ionic in the context of the scrolled pilasters in the tomb's entrance.) There are blocks unused in the physical reconstruction that were recovered from the river with such bands of drafting too. I do not now believe that the Roman re-use of the blocks was sinister - they simply used the best available masonry to repair the banks of the Strymon, when it was needed.

Reconstruction of the Lion Tomb Monument at Amphipolis

LionTombAmphipolis.jpg (79.31 KiB) Viewed 8755 times

Best wishes,
Andrew

[hiphys]

I would like to know the dimensions of this lion. Is it bigger or not than Chaeroneia's Lion? May someone put a photo of this latter, near the Amphipolis' Lion? Thank you!

[Taphoi]

The Chaeronea lion is 3.8m and the Amphipolis lion is 5.3m. The 2nd century AD Roman date being cited for the Amphipolis lion's destruction looks as though it is actually the date of the structure that its fragments were used to build in the River Strymon 5km from the mound. But this is just a latest date for the destruction of the original lion monument. As far as I can see at the moment, there is no reason why the damage to the sphinxes and the destruction of the lion could not have been simultaneous (but it is possible that there is evidence or there are arguments of which I am unaware or which have yet to emerge).
Best wishes,
Andrew

[gepd]

According to the article in the link below, Michalis Lefantzis (architect involved in the excavation) reported that a drawing of the tomb has been identified in a wall painting of a 2nd century BC house that was recently excavated south of Amphipolis's acropolis.

http://www.agelioforos.gr/default.asp?p ... tid=212825

[Taphoi]

Bit of an stunned silence from dig itself! In the meantime it is interesting to note the very striking parallels between the facade of the lion monument at Amphipolis (as reconstructed in the 1930s by Roger) with the facades of Tomb II (Philip II, Alexander's father) and Tomb III (Alexander IV, Alexander's son) from the Great Tumulus at Aegae/Vergina. Essentially, the Amphipolis facade is a combination of features from the latter pair, although Amphipolis is a bit grander in scale and detail than its Aegae parallels. Additionally, notice the very top of the facade of Tomb III from Vergina in the photo below. It has a simulated roof edge for this "House of the Dead". This has an exact parallel both on the top of the enclosure wall of the tomb at Amphipolis and also above the line of rosettes on the inner wall of the newly excavated vestibule of the entrance in the tomb at Amphipolis. Whereas in isolation none of these features (and other parallels noted in previous posts) is uncommon in late 4th century Macedonian tombs, in combination they are suggestive of a very close association between the occupants at Amphipolis and the Great Tumulus at Aegae - almost like members of the same family.

The facade of the lion monument which once stood atop the tomb in the great mound at Amphipolis (reconstructed from fragments found in the Strymon)

Amphipolisfacade.jpg (26.49 KiB) Viewed 8718 times

Facades of the tombs of Philip II and Alexander IV at Aegae

TombII&IIIIfacades.jpg (77.75 KiB) Viewed 8718 times

Inner wall of the vestibule of the lion tomb at Amphipolis with a simulated roof edge and rosettes

amphipolis19.jpg (136.38 KiB) Viewed 8718 times

Best wishes,
Andrew

[Taphoi]

There is today a new bulletin from the Ministry of Culture. (Thanks to gepd for alerting me!) They seem to be saying the three chambers are filled with sandy soil up to the level of the arched vault and that they believe the holes in the dividing walls were created under the plan to seal the tomb. They have put a lot of scaffolding in to shore up the barrel vault, because their photos show that large blocks of the barrel vaulting have fallen in onto the sandy soil in the middle(?) chamber. A new floor of chips of marble in some kind of reddish cement matrix has been uncovered.
Best wishes,
Andrew

Inside one of the chambers (probably the middle one) in the Amphipolis tomb

amphipolismiddlechamber.jpg (79.38 KiB) Viewed 8704 times

New marble chip floor surface inside the tomb

Amphipolismarblechipfloor2.jpg (96.93 KiB) Viewed 8704 times

[Taphoi]

It's no surprise by now to find a late 4th century BC royal Macedonian parallel, but the new marble chip floor in the Amphipolis tomb has a direct parallel in the palace of Philip II at Aegae. The patch at the lefthand side of the mosaic in the palace shown in the photo below appears to be extremely similar.
Best wishes,
Andrew

Floor of white marble fragments in a reddish cement (at the lefthand entrance to the room) in the Palace at Aegae

PalacePhilipIIAegaeMosaic.jpg (165.48 KiB) Viewed 8696 times

Close-up of marble fragment floor at Aegae

Marblechips.jpg (45.38 KiB) Viewed 8696 times

[Efstathios]

Hello, it's been a while. According to the latest info the tomb is possibly unlooted. The latest findings suggest that it is a royal tomb, and not of a general, but that remains to be seen. It's dating (325-300 b.c) along with the other findings surely indicate that it may be the tomb of Alexander the 4th and maybe Roxanne's too.

There is still of course the scenario that it's ATG's tomb but it's the least possible. This hypothesis was made by the greek historian Kargakos who said that the evidence about the Roman emperors visiting Alexander might not be valid and also that Alexander possibly wanted to make Amphipolis the new capital of Macedonia due to it's position and other factors. That of course is all speculation. Nevertheless, the discovery is already big and it will be interesting to see what they find.

[gepd]

Hello, it's been a while. According to the latest info the tomb is possibly unlooted. The latest findings suggest that it is a royal tomb, and not of a general, but that remains to be seen. It's dating (325-300 b.c) along with the other findings surely indicate that it may be the tomb of Alexander the 4th and maybe Roxanne's too.

There is still of course the scenario that it's ATG's tomb but it's the least possible. This hypothesis was made by the greek historian Kargakos who said that the evidence about the Roman emperors visiting Alexander might not be valid and also that Alexander possibly wanted to make Amphipolis the new capital of Macedonia due to it's position and other factors. That of course is all speculation. Nevertheless, the discovery is already big and it will be interesting to see what they find.

I have seen the interviews of Kargakos, many of the things he says about this subject make no sense to me. For instance he stated in one of those interviews that only a couple of visits/reports to the Soma took place, while he invalidates the reference of Octavian's visit to the tomb because he finds it strange that he dedicated a golden wreath to Alexander (not sure I understand why). That's only a couple of his problematic arguments.

There are several Greek articles or blogs trying to fit an ATG solution to the Amphipolis tomb problem, most as expected make no sense, but the only one where the author at least makes an effort to not ignore the references to Soma is here (if anyone thinks its not a waste of time reading such theories with Google translate): http://www.empedotimos.blogspot.gr/2014 ... -post.html
What this person finds peculiar is that there were no complaints or discussions that came up at the meting of the diadochoi at Tiparadisus, regarding Ptolemy's possession of Alexander's remains. So his idea is there was an agreement for transferring the body secretly back to Greece, with Ptolemy keeping a random mummy (no photos then) as a replacement for Alexander, just to build the Alexander cult. At least this guy made correct assumptions in other articles that the missing walls at Amphipolis may have been there intentionally for sealing the tomb with, before there was any relevant statement by the archaeologists.

On other articles (while waiting for more updates from the Ministry of Culture):
http://amfipolinews.blogspot.gr/2014/09 ... ost_2.html

Here you can see some paintings from Esprit Marie Cousinéry from around 1831, depicting the region surrounding Amphipolis. That painting includes the region where the Kastas hill is, but not much is visible. What might be interesting though, is that if all elements in the painting are taken to scale, one may assume that the Strymon river was much more extended then, reaching very close to the hill. If that was true also in Hellenistic/Roman times, it may explain how it was possible to move around all the huge block from the tomb and the Amphipolis lion, several kilometers away from their original location.

[Paralus]

What this person finds peculiar is that there were no complaints or discussions that came up at the meting of the diadochoi at Tiparadisus, regarding Ptolemy's possession of Alexander's remains. So his idea is there was an agreement for transferring the body secretly back to Greece, with Ptolemy keeping a random mummy (no photos then) as a replacement for Alexander, just to build the Alexander cult. At least this guy made correct assumptions in other articles that the missing walls at Amphipolis may have been there intentionally for sealing the tomb with, before there was any relevant statement by the archaeologists.

That would be because it was Perdikkas who changed the destination of the corpse. The royal army had just fought and lost (to the Nile) a battle to recover the body for one ambitious Marshal. I doubt anyone was about to tilt at it again. Ptolemy had the body and Antipater, eventually, the Kings. The rest were interested in power bases from which to launch their own bids. Ptolemy and Antigonos would be next. Not to forget Eumenes.

[amyntoros]

Another tomb with parallels to the facades of Tomb II and Tomb III at Aegae. There seems to be a fairly consistent style of facade whether royalty was involved or not so I'm not getting overly excited yet about who might be buried at Amphipolis. Or is there also a claim that royal family members were buried at Eordaia, the site of the photograph?

[Callisto]

It's no surprise by now to find a late 4th century BC royal Macedonian parallel, but the new marble chip floor in the Amphipolis tomb has a direct parallel in the palace of Philip II at Aegae. The patch at the lefthand side of the mosaic in the palace shown in the photo below appears to be extremely similar.
Best wishes,
Andrew

I read today an interesting article found here. I dont know if google translate really makes sense. Anyway the author claims there is another Macedonian tomb which was found some years ago in the hill Kasta of Amphipolis. This tomb is also dated in the last quarter of the 4th century.

The article uses as its primary source a book published in 2010. From a blurry picture of the older tomb, we can see some resemblance in the antechamber mosaics of both tombs. The article says there is a high possibility the mosaics were created by the same workshop. Mosaic workshops in general probably started in Olynthus, but later they transfered to other major cities of Macedonia like Aigai, Pella and Amphipolis. Sometimes the workshop or the person who created a mosaic placed his "signature" on it.

I found the original source here. If someone scrolls deep down, he can find some 40+ awesome mosaics from all over Macedonia.

[Taphoi]

Another tomb with parallels to the facades of Tomb II and Tomb III at Aegae. There seems to be a fairly consistent style of facade whether royalty was involved or not so I'm not getting overly excited yet about who might be buried at Amphipolis. Or is there also a claim that royal family members were buried at Eordaia, the site of the photograph?

You have found another tomb with some similarities to Amphipolis and Tombs II & III at Aegae, but there is actually overall a great deal of variation in style among the hundred or so high status Macedonian tomb facades of this period that have been unearthed (a few of them below). Triangular pediments as possessed by your example are a typical but not a universal feature and are missing from Amphipolis and Tombs II & III at Aegae. The horizontal simulated roof edge is present in both the Aegae and Amphipolis tombs, but absent from your example. If there were royal tombs at Aegae and Amphipolis, it is perfectly possible that another member of the royal family was buried in Eordaea: for example Ptolemy was an Eordaean and the illegitimate son of Philip, so his mother Arsinoe was probably buried in Eordaea. Not sure that your example is not the exception that proves the rulership therefore Pity not to get excited about the excavation of the greatest tomb in Greece, which might yet prove to be at least partially intact

High status Macedonian tomb facades

HighStatusMacedoniantombs.jpg (150.22 KiB) Viewed 8559 times

[Alexias]

Ptolemy was .... the illegitimate son of Philip

I didn't think anyone believed that anymore. From memory, Philip was about 13 when Ptolemy was conceived and possibly in Thebes.