An Unconventional Take on the Vergina Tomb: Is it Alexander’s?

[Sweetmemory41]

https://www.thearchaeologist.org/blog/d ... -philip-ii

(Given how respectable Ahrweiler (https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educa ... -ahrweiler) is, her assertion about the Vergina Tomb is rather surprising to me.)

[Alexias]

This isn't a very detailed article, but Ahrweiler is currently 97 years old. With no disrespect intended, I suspect her view that Tomb II is Alexander's is not a recent view but probably one put forward following the tomb's original discovery in 1977. Scientific analysis not available then would probably be able to demolish her theory, but it would be interesting to know more about the timeline discrepancy. But in any case, the remains in Tomb II were cremated, whereas Alexander appears to have been mummified because Augustus is said to have broken the nose off the corpse in Alexandria.

Incidentally, I have been thinking about Hephaestion's funeral lately and the pyre described by Diodorus I think, must refer to Alexander's planned monument. A pyre that size would have reduced any bones to ash, and it seems to have been the Macedonian custom to gather the large bones and inter them in the deceased's tomb. Alexander would surely have wanted to do this rather than gather an indisciminate heap of ash that would have been mostly material from the pyre. Also, a pyre that big within the city walls would surely have set fire to the whole city with drifting sparks.

[chris_taylor]

Incidentally, I have been thinking about Hephaestion's funeral lately and the pyre described by Diodorus I think, must refer to Alexander's planned monument. A pyre that size would have reduced any bones to ash, and it seems to have been the Macedonian custom to gather the large bones and inter them in the deceased's tomb. Alexander would surely have wanted to do this rather than gather an indisciminate heap of ash that would have been mostly material from the pyre. Also, a pyre that big within the city walls would surely have set fire to the whole city with drifting sparks.

that's a really good argument.

[Sweetmemory41]

Alexias and Chris, you may find the following articles on Hephaestion’s funeral pyre interesting. Due to copyright considerations, I am mostly providing the references, unless the articles are found on the net.

Angeliki Kottaridi - https://www.academia.edu/5870380/Macedo ... _the_Great. (She has a section on Hephaestion’s funeral and how Alexander mimicked Achilles’ mourning for Patroclus, and followed “traditional funerary customs.”)

Ciordia, J. M. (2020). The Ship in the Cave: The Greek and Nautical Origin of Buddhist Architecture. Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering, 19(1), 48-69. (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10 ... 19.1697698.) This article also has a wonderful section on the pyre.

Buchanan, S. (2010). Visualization of Classical Architecture from Literature: Cultural Motifs and the Case of Alexander's Monument. International Journal of the Humanities, 8(5).

Palagia, Olga, '6 Hephaestion’s Pyre and the Royal Hunt of Alexander', in A. B. Bosworth, and E. J. Baynham (eds), Alexander the Great in Fact and Fiction (Oxford, 2000; online edn, Oxford Academic, 1 Jan. 2010) - (https://www.academia.edu/843515/Hephaes ... _Alexander)

A debate between scholars about Hephaestion’s pyre.

McKechnie, P. (1995). Diodorus Siculus and Hephaestion's Pyre1. The Classical Quarterly, 45(2), 418-432.

Hammond, N. G. L. (1995). The Death and the Obsequies of Hephaestion. LCM, 20.3-4, 36-41.

McKechnie, P. (2001). Harmonizing the Alexander-Gospels: a Reply to NGL Hammond. L'Antiquité classique, 70, 161-168. (https://www.persee.fr/doc/antiq_0770-28 ... _70_1_2463)

Jona Lendering on the Lion of Hamadan - https://www.livius.org/articles/place/e ... cbatana-2/

Enjoy!

[Jeanne Reames]

Jonathan Hall also has made an argument that Tomb II was intended to be Alexander's, but was never finished, then repurposed by Kassandros when he recovered the remains of Arrhidaios and Eurydike. If I remember right, it's in his book Artifact and Artifice. It's not an illogical argument.

[Sweetmemory41]

Thank you for the reference, Dr. Reames. I have ordered it.