The Sphinxes Guarding the Lion Tomb Entrance at Amphipolis

[Zebedee]

The depths given seem to be taken from the mound surface down as they vary quite considerably, presumably from how close to the centre or not the find has been made. Having rechecked again, the pyre suggestion is in inverted commas a few years later, so it may just be a cremation of something (and not necessarily human) and, of course, may not be linked to this tomb. It just stands out, amongst the lists of iron age and archaic graves and grave goods being found down through the years, as the last activity before someone plonked a huge mound on top of the old graveyard.

The thing which struck me about the image of the door is the absence of columns, or indeed any hint of a facade at all. Not a huge thing (two other Macedonian tombs at Amphipolis are also missing the facade but chickens and eggs there - those are both late C3rd!), but, from what's been reported so far, not even a hint of a nod towards one? It's also a bit strange that there doesn't seem to have been any reports so far of anything to block up the door. If the filling of the tomb was intended as part of a pre-conceived plan to prevent entry then they'd have needed some poor soul inside the chamber to buttress those doors from the other side or else the pressure on the doors would surely have forced them open? As perhaps has happened?

[Paralus]

Also of note, another contender for the tomb is Laomedon who was allegedly from Amphipolis, was chased by Nikanor and found refuge in Karia where Alcetas gave him Amphipolis. Still, i don't see how this massive tomb could be for a general. My vote is still for Alexander the 4th and Roxanne.

No, I can't see Laomedon. Last heard of fleeing to Alketas in Karia, the complete lack of any mention of him afterwards might well indicate that he died at or subsequent to Kretopolis.

[Efstathios]

3D depiction of the underground of the mound from the seismic tomography made in 1998 by Mr. Polymenakos. The red square is the excavated entrance of the tunnel with the sphinxes, there seems to be another tunnel - entrance on the west side, and the blue arrows point to positions of possible burial structures.

Meanwhile the architect Virginia Kavraki has constructed this unofficial hypothetical representation using the data from the 1998 seismic tomography.

[Efstathios]

"Tell, lion, whose tomb do you guard, you slayer of cattle? And who was worthy of your valour?" Antipater of Sidon, poet and writer, 2nd century B.C. This allegedly comes from when Antipater of Sidon visited Amphipolis.
It seems that maybe even at the 2nd century B.C. they didn't know whose tomb it was.

[ariadne]

Hello !

I haven't been here for a while, so please forgive my lack of knowlegde, as my bad english.

Learning the fantastic new of the tomb discovery, I read that many people think Olympias or Roxane is buried into.
It will be great, but it don't seem logical to me -according only to common sense - that Cassander, after killing one or another of the two queens, gave her such a magnificent grave. I believed Olympias' men had been defeated, and she had to be forgotten. Nobody remained to give her such a great honour, that, of course, should had been different if she'd died during her son's life. Near the same for Roxane, who was the foreign queen.
I believed also that Alexander IV was buried near Philip's tomb. Now he may be in this one with his mother ? So who is the young prince buried in Aigai ?

With my very little knowledges, I think it's "just" one of the diadochoi's tomb. Wich one, I don't know. Antipatros or Cassander ? Both father and son ?

Or maybe it was the tomb initially build for Alexander, and he never went into because Ptolemy stole his body, etc, so the new masters of Macedonia used it for the rest of the family -the two queens and the boy - as soon as they killed them.
I also read somewhere thath a greek college professor think it's the grave initially build for Hephaestion. In this case, the building must have been interrupted on learning Alexander's death (who cared about Hephaestion after that? ), and reused for someone else : Alexander in first intention, then the queens or the hypothetical diadochos... It explains that in IIth century BC they didn't remember who was in...
Pure "romanesque" thoughs .

Please can you help me clear my mind with that ?

Read you soon,
Ariadne

[Taphoi]

...I read that many people think Olympias or Roxane is buried into.
It will be great, but it don't seem logical to me -according only to common sense - that Cassander, after killing one or another of the two queens, gave her such a magnificent grave. I believed Olympias' men had been defeated, and she had to be forgotten. Nobody remained to give her such a great honour, that, of course, should had been different if she'd died during her son's life. Near the same for Roxane, who was the foreign queen.

The real history is not as simple as your outline. In particular there were a number of powerful people with a burning interest in giving Olympias a fine tomb. Alexander IV, her grandson, and Roxane were actually living at Amphipolis for 6-7 years after her murder. Alexander IV was in theory the king. Although it is clear that the political control was in the hands of Cassander, it is not clear that Cassander would have been averse to Alexander IV and his supporters being distracted into activities that did not pertain to actual rule, such as mausoleum construction. From a cynical point of view (and I think that Cassander, unlike some other Diadochi, was profoundly cynical) it was in Cassander's interests to promote reconciliation with Olympias's supporters and the Royal Family. He probably did not know as early as 316BC that he would ultimately murder Alexander IV - that decision seems to have been prompted by the conference of the Diadochi in 311BC, which pressed for Cassander to hand over the rule to Alexander IV when he came of age (Diodorus 19.105.1). In fact we actually know that it was Cassander's policy to promote reconciliation, because we know that he married Thessalonike, another daughter of Philip II. It is possible that Thessalonike, who was in Olympias's train for at least a year or so, pushed for a fine tomb for the former queen. Furthermore, Cleopatra, the daughter of Olympias was still an influential player in imperial politics and will absolutely certainly have used all her power to ensure a fine tomb for her mother. The other Diadochi will also have been pushing in the same direction. Frankly, there is nothing surprising about Olympias occupying this tomb from a political point of view. Its size is surprising, whoever the occupant, but it is least surprising for Olympias, given her near divine status. Alexander had said he would like to make her a goddess (Curtius 10.5.30) and Alexander himself had become a god by the time she died.
Best wishes,
Andrew

[Paralus]

Wishful thinking does not a tomb occupant make. Much wishful thinking informs the speculation in that post.

[Xenophon]

Especially since, as I pointed out earlier, there is very suggestive archaeological evidence that Olympias was buried at Pydna, from inscription fragments from the tombs of her descendants. ( her family settled there subsequently).

See page 10 of this thread, my post September 9th for more detail. As the data suggests, this would make it unlikely in the extreme that Olympias was buried at Amphipolis......that suggestion is almost as wild as the idea that Alexander lies there !!

To Efsthatios: Thank you for the those 3D diagrams of the site which are most interesting. In the black and white plan, do you know what those odd geometric shapes labelled "H3", "L2" and so on represent ?

[agesilaos]

A link to Edson's paper identifying the epigraphic evidence is on page 2 of this thread from 20 Aug. H and L refer to high and low resitivity, I think low indicates spaces and high solid constructions like walls but that's just a guess.

[Efstathios]

Enjoy: http://amfipoli-news.com/3dmap.php#keyboard-controls

[Zebedee]

L(number) is an area where the likelihood is that it's a space filled with loose material (eg a trench filled with soil) and H(number) is more solid and likely to be some form of stone structure with 'tails' radiating out from it. H = high velocity, L = low velocity as the seismic waves (caused by dropping a 30kg weight on the mound) change speed as they go through the mound. I'm not convinced by the attempt to link the various H numbers on the blog. Readings from 2.5m higher still show H2, H6 and H7 but everything else seems to vanish.



Seems to point towards different things going on in different places, which would fit well with a tumulus built over a graveyard where a few metres below 'ground level' for the mound you're not really going to be tell whether something is archaic or iron age or part of this tomb until it's excavated.

If we're looking for parallels, I guess the closest may be at Pydna? If nothing else, it highlights just what an odd one this is.


(image from Belinda D'Angelo's The Evolution of the Macedonian Tomb)

[Taphoi]

Especially since, as I pointed out earlier, there is very suggestive archaeological evidence that Olympias was buried at Pydna, from inscription fragments from the tombs of her descendants. ( her family settled there subsequently).

See page 10 of this thread, my post September 9th for more detail. As the data suggests, this would make it unlikely in the extreme that Olympias was buried at Amphipolis......that suggestion is almost as wild as the idea that Alexander lies there !!

The paper in Hesperia by Edson offers zero evidence that Olympias is buried at Pydna:
1) Only one of the three main inscriptions in this paper even mentions a tomb of Olympias. Nearly 2/3 of it is missing and Edson cites two completely different prior reconstructions of its text before offering his own which still does not tell us where the tomb of Olympias is. His reconstruction is: "As you pass the memorial of Neoptolemus, stranger, stay, that you may see the tomb of famed Olympias. Helenus, bewailing the race of impetuous Aeacides, buried his son in the bosom of measureless earth..." All the red text is invented by Edson! Are we really to believe that this constitutes evidence to make it "unlikely in the extreme" that Olympias the mother of Alexander was not buried near where this inscription was found (perhaps somewhere near ancient Pydna)? Really?
2) Even supposing there was a tomb of Olympias at Pydna (and there is really no evidence), there was another queen of Epirus called Olympias in the third century BC, much closer in time to the inscriptions. Why not her tomb? And there were undoubtedly countless other women named Olympias in honour of these queens in northern Greece. Why not the tomb of one of them?
3) I myself have discovered an antique inscription (below) seemingly preserving the words of an ancient poet. Unfortunately there is damage in the areas filled with red characters. One so-called expert in the works of this poet has reconstructed the missing text as shown on the left. But these words are near nonsense. How can you have a sea made of troubles? Everyone knows that seas are made of liquids or at least fluids. I have a special theory that the ancient poet suffered from flatulence and irritable bowel syndrome. On the basis of that special knowledge I have made the far sounder reconstruction on the right, which I am sure everyone will agree makes much more sense. It is nice to be able to prove my flatulent theory with a type of evidence that makes any other conclusion "unlikely in the extreme"
Best wishes,
Andrew

Proof!!!

Soliloquy.png (11.57 KiB) Viewed 6202 times

[agesilaos]

Nice try, but ampersand is only used in cursive and not Elizabethan inscriptions, so the reconstruction fails. What you seem to have overlooked is that there is preserved ‘…you may see the tomb….Olympia…the race of impetuous A…’ and that his reconstruction too is guided by metre and line length and also funerary formulae. The reconstruction ‘the tomb of Olympias ‘seems unavoidable, which makes ‘Aeacides’ a strong candidate and what epithet should attach itself to an Olympias that is not the mother of Alexander and yet be worthy of the passer-by’s interest and reflect glory on the house of Helenos? Add the fact that Kassandros definitely captured and most probably executed her in Pydna with no motive for giving her anything but a criminal’s grave to go with her criminal’s death.

If you wish to dispute Edson’s reconstruction you have to address the Greek of the inscription not cod up a bogus Hamlet. Or is your position that anything restored should be rejected? It is certainly fair to bear in mind what has been supplied may be wrong but an alternative has to suggested that makes more sense; that’s the rules of the game in Epigraphic Countdown.

[Paralus]

"Post mortem" flatulence has broken out I see. Wishful becomes wilful...

[Efstathios]

Can anyone confirm that the phrase of Antipatros Sidonios about the lion was said in Amphipolis? If it was, then it possibly indicates that the burial was done with anonymity and the tomb was sealed right after. For which purpose i do not know, but if this is the case it surely leaves a lot of scenarios open.