Anyone know how was Alexander embalmed?

[Taphoi]

Hi Kenny,My reply did not reach you because your mailbox is full.Best wishes,Andrew

[pam]

What DNA would they use for comparison in order to determine who is actually in the tomb?

[Taphoi]

Hi Pamela,I did not say DNA testing, but carbon dating, which is quite different. Basically, cosmic rays impinging on the atmosphere turn some of the nitrogen atoms into radioactive carbon-14 isotope. This gets absorbed by plants via CO2 especially and animals eat the plants etc etc. It is present at a relatively steady concentration in all living things whilst they are alive, but decays away at a steady rate after they die. If you measure the concentration in dead things, that tells you how long ago they died. Obviously, if St Mark were found to have died at the end of the 4th century BC, that would be significant evidence. As you see it's really much simpler and more sensible than DNA testing.Best wishes,Andrew

[pam]

Thanks for the information. That makes a lot more sense than DNA testing. I had heard somewhere that since they believe they have found Philip that they may be able to use that as a source for comparative DNA analysis. However, I had trouble with this idea since you cannot be certain it was Philip found in the tomb as well as be certain that Philip was his actual father.

[marcus]

Hi Pamela,I think we can be pretty sure that Philip was Alexander's father. There's nothing to suggest any doubt about that ... unless you choose to believe that he really *was* fathered by a god.All the bestMarcus

[alejandro]

Well, Marcus. You donGÇÖt need to believe in his divine conception to cast some doubts about PhilipGÇÖs being his father.Olympias is almost universally characterised as someone devote of Dionysos (sp?) and must GÇômost likely- have experienced the dionysic extasis/trance. It is assumed that during these extases, some GÇ£less-religiously-boundGÇ¥ men who happened to be around the area (usually forests) took advantage of the women.In fact, Olympias may very well have imagined that in one of those trances she was visited by a god, though actually a rather more earthly creature was the true visitor!Kind regardsAlejandro

[marcus]

I'm not convinced. Philip must have believed that he was Al's father, which ultimately is what is important; but anyway, no-one can do more than speculate about it.All the bestMarcus

[alejandro]

Hi MarcusFor sure, we can only speculate about it. However, I think we talk about different matters. I only say that even if you accept that Philip II is entombed in Vergina and GÇôletGÇÖs assume- Alexander in Venice, a DNA test may well fail if Alex was effectively conceived in the (100% with you here) hypothetical scenario I presented in the previous message. And AlexGÇÖs DNA wouldnGÇÖt have to have Jovian DNA for this to be the case, thatGÇÖs my only point.But sure, for Philip, whether he was a bastard or not (and, to my knowledge, we have no reason to believe he considered him a bastard, except for some literary pieces like RenaultGÇÖs) was not relevant.BestAlejandro

[pam]

No, too funny though, I don't think his father was really Zeus. I was just commenting that you can never be 100% sure of these things.