New important archaelogical findings in Vergina

Callisto · Post by **Callisto** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 1:52 pm

Hello, just two days ago new archaeological findings came to light in the sanctuary of Eukleia. Archaeologists discovered a number of vessels. One of them was a golden one and included a wreath similar to the one of Philip II and human bones. The findings are estimated by archaeologists to be during Philip's II era and especially the golden vessel was characterised by archaeologists as unique. I havent found anything yet in the net but i am certain soon we will have more news about it.

Vergina Sun · Post by **Vergina Sun** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 3:04 pm

Wow, that's very exciting! I'm glad you posted this, because I looked it up online, and found a couple of news articles:

Exceptional find in Vergina

Greek Archaeologists Uncover Rare Golden Wreath at Vergina Site

They say that they're still undergoing studies on indentifying the materials and dating the bones. I look forward to hearing about what they find out!

smittysmitty · Post by **smittysmitty** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 9:05 pm

Facinating news, thanks for that. I wonder if the bones will end up being those of a
40-60 something female. If so, could they be those of Eurydike , the mother of Philip.

Is it possible that the sanctuary of Eukleia has been wrongly identified and the rubble is that of an actual tomb rather than temple.

Oh well, as per usual we will just have to wait until a proper examination of the finds and area is undertaken. The cylindrical container certainly seems unusual - I wonder what scholars will make of that. No mention of a lid for it - although that doesn't mean their wasnt or isn't one.

Great suff anyway, thanks for sharing this with us.

Hey I just had a thought. It would be great if Pothos could some how put together an 'archaeology of Macedon' section where relevant news reports could be stored for people to consult from time to time. I don't know how you'd go about it or the effort involved - but would find such a facility great.

just my thoughts

cheers!

amyntoros · Post by **amyntoros** » Sat Aug 30, 2008 3:37 am

smittysmitty wrote:Oh well, as per usual we will just have to wait until a proper examination of the finds and area is undertaken. The cylindrical container certainly seems unusual - I wonder what scholars will make of that. No mention of a lid for it - although that doesn't mean their wasnt or isn't one.

AOL News has an article with a photograph of the container and, yes, there is a lid, seen in the upper left of the photo. I think that the link will work, but you never know with AOL. It's the strangest thing, but the container and lid look for all the world like a semi-squooshed modern, metal garbage can!

Hey I just had a thought. It would be great if Pothos could some how put together an 'archaeology of Macedon' section where relevant news reports could be stored for people to consult from time to time. I don't know how you'd go about it or the effort involved - but would find such a facility great.

It sounds like a great idea, but I'm not sure of Pothos' policy on having pages on the main site which would either duplicate news articles or include links to them. The other mods will likely know because they've much more experience of writing for the site itself. Here's a thought though, maybe instead we could have a "Sticky" thread for archaeological news and then any member could post whenever they find something new - and the thread would always be available on the first page of the forum. What do you think?

Best regards,

jan · Post by **jan** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 6:15 pm

August 26, and how soon will the public be able to view it I wonder...oh well, I find its location the most interesting aspect...wonder why it was planted there...perhaps Philip was wearing those golden leaves that day....just musing.

amyntoros · Post by **amyntoros** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 8:54 pm

David Meadows wondered if the remains may be part of a heroon. I think it a reasonable suggestion given that the container was found on or about the site of a temple. However, if the physical remains do belong to a heroon then it would be the burial place of a historical hero (or heroine) rather than a mythological one.

Best regards,

marcus · Post by **marcus** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 10:06 am

amyntoros wrote:David Meadows wondered if the remains may be part of an heroon.

RogueClassicism has now included a very interesting picture of a helmet. As it says, it doesn't look like any previously seen Macedonian helmet - but there has to be a specific funerary element to it, surely, with the gold leaf covering the eyes (not much use in a battle, or any other activity ...).

ATB

smittysmitty · Post by **smittysmitty** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 4:53 am

I'm pretty sure the helmet and death mask depicted in R.C are not from Vergina, rather they appear to be remains found from the cemetery at Archontiko - just outside of Pella. If they are from Vergina there is certainly a striking similarity. Nice picture!

cheers!

Nearly forgot, I think a sticky thread for Macedonian archaeological discoveries as mentioned by Amyntoros would be great (not really sure what a sticky thread actually is though

)

agesilaos · Post by **agesilaos** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 3:35 pm

The helmet shown is of an Illyrian type, whether the gold leaf over the eyes is a bad reconstruction of appliqué elsewhere on the helmet - maybe around the crest holder - or a death mask harking back to those of the Mycenae shaft-graves I'd not care to venture the former seems more likely to me though, darn it I ventured anyway!

rocktupac · Post by **rocktupac** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 4:03 pm

More links:

http://tinyurl.com/3hz3cc
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... photo.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080911/sc_ ... overy_dc_1
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26643490/
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 728277.ece
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Science/200 ... 81-ap.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceN ... 0920080911
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080910/ap_ ... bX07.s0NUE
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/ ... 7348.shtml

Sorry if there are any repeats, or if some links aren't accessible.

smittysmitty · Post by **smittysmitty** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 1:23 pm

I can’t work it out – whenever I try to post some URL’s my post does not appear? Perhaps best not to post them eh! See how this goes.

As Karl has said, the helmet is of an Illyrian type and I know of at least two others which were found at the Sindos cemetery just outside of Thessalonike. The gold leaf is most definately a death mask and common amongst elite type warrior graves in Macedon. The gold leaf designs have considerable variations from full face to covering selected parts of the face. From what I can gather, no Illyrtian type helmet has been found at Vergina (Aigai) so far.

I would appreciate if moderators could delete the phantom postings - assuming this post gets through.

Cheers! (sorry for any inconvenience).

amyntoros · Post by **amyntoros** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 4:04 pm

smittysmitty wrote:I would appreciate if moderators could delete the phantom postings - assuming this post gets through.

Cheers! (sorry for any inconvenience).

Done! And no inconvenience at all.

Wonder why the site is giving you problems posting URLs though. If you want, do a "test" post containing the URLs, but before you hit the "Submit" button, copy and paste the post to an email. If the test post comes up blank again just send the email to me and I’ll see if I can figure out the problem.

Best regards,

Callisto · Post by **Callisto** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 9:21 am

smittysmitty wrote: From what I can gather, no Illyrtian type helmet has been found at Vergina (Aigai) so far.

I can remember another Illyrian type helmet found during the first months of 2007.

pothos.org

New important archaelogical findings in Vergina

New important archaelogical findings in Vergina

Just discovered

Interesting helmet