Ivory heads from Aegae

[Alexias]

Recently I went to Greece on holiday and met the lovely System1988 and her son - thank you for the museum tour!

The museum shops in Greece are selling replicas of 6 of the ivory heads from the chryselephantine couches found in the tombs of Aegae. Two of the heads, a man with a long beard and a woman with a tear running down her cheek, come from the largely destroyed Tomb IV dated to the 3rd cent. BC. The other 4 heads come from the tomb ascribed to Philip.

According to the book I bought, there were 4 couches in Philip's tomb, two of which were burnt, presumably bearing the bodies of Philip and Meda, his Thracian wife who took her own life at his death. One of the couches was decorated on all 4 sides with generalised battle scenes, chariots , griffins and nikes, and was found in the antechamber. The other one, from which the heads came, came from the burial chamber and was only decorated on the front, one of the long sides, the other long side being placed against the wall in daily life.

The decoration principally comprised a hunting scene carved in wood, gilded and painted, with 14 male figures, the heads and limbs of which are carved from ivory. The quality of the workmanship and the time required to create the decoration means that the couch was unlikely to have been commissioned for Philip's burial but was a prized possession used in life. The heads, 2 of which are in poor condition, show individual characteristics and are identified as Philip, Alexander and 12 Companions. But how would only 12 of the King's Companions have been chosen? Other members of the King's family must surely be there.

The remaining 4 heads being sold by the museum shops show the bearded head identified as Philip, and 3 young men. At £25 each, I couldn't justify buying all of them, but I bought 2 of them. This is the one usually identified as Alexander:

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But this is the one that was sold to me as Alexander:

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There appears to be a family resemblance here, perhaps Alexander and a brother, Arrhidaeus as Hiphys has suggested, or perhaps Caranus, possible if the couch was created a year or two before Philip's death.

The other head being sold is also beardless, although with sideburns and thus appears to be slightly older than these two. It also has broader features, resembling Philip slightly - perhaps his nephew Amyntas?

My question is, does anyone have any photos of the couch, or know of any publication which details these heads and the overall composition of the hunt? The only other head I've seen illustrated does not share the same mouth as the heads I bought, but does seem to share the same large nose, but appears older and is also beardless. Another relative?

Also, is it a possibility that the couch was a family heirloom, and maybe represents Philip's father and brothers?

Just a word too on the couches. The book I bought says the couch in the burial chamber was 7' long, 3' wide and over 3' high (including the headrest). With the addition of a matress or cushions, this would place the main body of the couch at about modern table height. Couches were also placed on a slight platform against the walls around the room - small wonder an inebriated and angry Philip fell over getting off it and trying to draw his sword at the same time. Any idea why so high? So that there was no bending when food and drink were served? So that you could effectively roll on and off it? Also, at only 3' wide, smaller than a modern single bed, that doesn't leave room for two adult males to recline together, unless you top and tailed them. This whole arrangement must have quite limited the number of guests attending a symposium if they all reclined, unless you had people sitting up on the couches as Cassander supossedly was required to. Just trying to get a visual picture here.

[athenas owl]

Thank you for posting this.....very interesting...but my head snapped when I read this:

According to the book I bought, there were 4 couches in Philip's tomb, two of which were burnt, presumably bearing the bodies of Philip and Meda, his Thracian wife who took her own life at his death

Have I missed this completely over the years?

[agesilaos]

It is pure supposition that the body is Meda, based on the a priori argument that it is Philip II and that one has to supply him with a wife youthful enough to match the remains, since Kleopatra is an imposibility, a suicide a la sutee is all that remains, on scanty evidence of the practice amongst the Thracians.

[5.] G And Philippus the Macedonian did not take any women with him to his wars, as Dareius did, whose power was subverted by Alexander. For he used to take about with him three hundred and fifty concubines in all his wars; as Dicaearchus relates in the third book of his Life in Greece. "But Philippus," says he, "was always marrying new wives in war time. For, in the twenty-two years which he reigned, as Satyrus relates in his History of his Life, having married Audata the Illyrian, he had by her a daughter named Cynna; and he also married Phila, a sister of Derdas and Machatas. And wishing to conciliate the nation of the Thessalians, he had children by two Thessalian women; one of whom was Nicesipolis of Pherae, who brought him a daughter named Thessalonice; and the other was Philinna of Larissa, by whom he had Arrhidaeus. He also acquired the kingdom of the Molossians, when he married Olympias, by whom he had Alexander and Cleopatra. And when he subdued Thrace, there came to him Cothelas, the king of the Thracians, bringing with him Meda his daughter, and many presents: and having married her, he added her to Olympias. And after all these, being violently in love, he married Cleopatra, the sister of Hippostratus and niece of Attalus. And bringing her also home to Olympias, he made all his life unquiet and troubled. For, as soon as this marriage took place, Attalus said, 'Now, indeed, legitimate kings shall be born, and not bastards.' And Alexander having heard this, smote Attalus with a goblet which he had in his hand; and Attalus in return struck him with his cup. And after that Olympias fled to the Molossians; and Alexander fled to the Illyrians. And Cleopatra bore to Philippus a daughter who was named Europa."

Since the marriage was meant to be in 341 Meda would have had to be fifteen at the time, although her father may have been born around 410 making him 54 at her conception all of which are possible but strain credulity.

[Alexias]

The female remains in the tomb are supposed to be of a woman in her early twenties. They could be Cleopatra/Eurydike, but I thought she had survived Philip by about a year before Olympias did away with her when Alexander's back was turned. I need to do some research as I don't know if there was any evidence that the tomb was reopened.

[system1988]

My knowledge as far as the findings and in general the maybe-Philip II- tomb are concerned, they might be considered outdated (according to the last article I read the evidence suggests that this is indeed the tomb of Philip), So, concnerning the bed as well as the ivory heads I will refer to what Andronikos worte inb his book "Vergina- the Royal Tombs' - 1984", Athens Editions "Εκδοτική Αθηνών ΑΕ Αθήνα 1984".

I present to you here a representation of the bed as imagined by the excavator. The bed length was about 1,8 to 2 meters and its width o,80 m or more. It was decorated with gold, glass and ivory. According to the excavator and as we can see from the photo, to the left and the right you can see mythological scenes and in the middle there are reliefs made from ivory and gold. The heads depict portraits of certain people. From those figues, 14 heads were saved of which 7 are in very good condition but none has its hair. The excavator suggests that the hair was made of gold and was thus removed for reasons uknown. Two of the heads can be almost 100% be identified as Alexander and Philip. The third one is Olympias while for the rest only speculations can be made as we are unaware of how Alexander's other relatives looked like. The excavator is also certain that there was a wooden table in front of the bed. On the table the valuable vases were placed. After the natural decomposition of the wood of the bed and the table, all the objects fell down and rolled.

Here is the link:

http://s1246.photobucket.com/user/IamSy ... t=3&page=1


As it is known the tomb vestibule contained the certain sarcofagus which in turn contained the second golden larnax. The excavator found many wooden remains and suspects that there as also there a wooden bed and other furniture. More than 100 golden small discs were found that must have been sawn on some kind of cloth, a unique golden fibula and a golden wreath as well as weapons. 74 arrows were also found wrapped amongst these weapons. The presence of weapons in a woman's burial has been given some answers by drawing conclusions from the female warrior Meda but the excavator suggests that the weapons belonged to the deceased man as well because the tomb's construction proceeded in two phases and the weapons must have been placed in some sort of delay. The greaves that were found next to the woman's tomb do not correspond to the physiology of a woman's leg.

As far as the width of the bed goes it is for one person, perhaps it was one of the real beds of Phlip? After all he was a soldier. This is just my speculation.


PS

Thank you for your kind words Alexias. In the museum I forgot to talk to you about over a million things. Among those there was this: On Aristodiko's head (end of 6th BC) there was a small half-moon (μηνίσκος) in order to scare away the birds that would have sat upon it.

[Alexias]

Thank you very much for your reply.

The book I bought was written by Angeliki Kottaridi, whom I'm sure you've heard of, and dated 2011. It is written for a general audience, so not hugely detailed. She does say though that the antechamber is especially large to accomodate the couch for the woman's burial. This would seem to indicate that the woman died at about the same time as the man. Kottaridi does not mention any rebuilding of the tomb itself, but she does mention that the tumulus covering the tomb was firstly extended in about 308 BC to cover Tomb III (ascribed to Alexander IV) and then considerably enlarged in about 275 BC after Antigonas Gonatos recovered Aegae following the looting by the Gauls of Pyrrhus.

Kottaridi also suggests that the gold gorytas (combined quiver and bowcase) found in the antechamber was a wedding present from Meda's father to Philip at the time of their wedding. Such items were made by Greeks for Thracian and Scythian nobles, but Macedonian nobles considered the bow and arrow as a weapon beneath them. The other armour in the antechamber would appear to be a lesser duplication of the sets in the main chamber. Amongst the armour were two gold-covered leather gorgets which (something I wasn't aware of), were "most probably a distinctive piece of armour of the aristocratic Macedonian cavalrymen".

As for the heads, the second and fifth heads you posted appear to be the same and identical with the second head I posted above (and second from right below). I beg to differ though that this is a female head: the nose is too big, the brow too craggy, and there appears to be a distinct Adam's Apple on the throat. As for the head ascribed to Olympias, it does have the look of a mature, forceful woman, but I am not so sure it is feminine from this angle (second from left) -

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As for the head of Philip, I wonder if the nick in the eyebrow (left as we look at it, his right), is actually damage to the ivory rather than a scar as it looks rough and too deep to be an actual scar on a portrait. The bone would have been damaged at that depth. There are however some deep lines emanating from the corner of the eye up the temple, which might represent a scar.

[system1988]

http://www.lifo.gr/team/evrymata/42021

Since you mentioned mrs Kotaridi.... I hope the translator option works

[Alexias]

Thanks for the link - I agree with her about the humour in Philip's portrait . Two interesting links - although the websites don't appear to be finished yet http://www.aigai.grand http://www.pella-museum.gr.