Dorothy King's PhDiva:Let's Talk About Amphipolis ...

Dorothy King's PhDiva

http://phdiva.blogspot.gr/2014/08/lets-talk-about-amphipolis.html

Let's Talk About Amphipolis ...

... so a dig is a bit like Fight Club, and the first rule of Fight Club is that you don't talk about it. I've been following the dig for a few years now, and the archaeologists have been kind enough to show me some of their finds, but obviously I have not discussed them, and will not until they themselves announce them. So whilst I appreciate the sentiments of those who were kind enough to send me enthusiastic emails ... Sorry, the first Rule of Archaeology Club is not to blab about others' finds.

Having said that, over the last few days there has been some wild speculation on the internet about finds from the Lion Tomb at Amphipolis. Again, I will limit myself to discussing the sphinx sculptures flanking the entrance, photos of which were released today because Greek PM Samaras visited the site.

The seated sphinxes - as opposed to the lying sphinxes in Egyptian art - are unusual. The closest parallel I can think of are those from the Hecatomnid Androns at Labraunda (photo below), about a quarter of a century earlier. The Hecatomnid figures are bearded and Archaising, and very much a reflection of Persian royal iconography; fragments of similar figures have been found at Sidon, where the sarcophagi in the royal tomb in turn copy the elements from the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus.The Amphipolis sphinxes seem not to have beards, and since we have not been shown the pieced heads it is difficult to tell if they were similarly archaising. The Macedonian sculptures are also of higher quality, and are more Classicising. The wings also appear to have been pieced. The Amphipolis seated 'sphinxes' also are in the same pose as the colossal lion that crowned the tomb.

Phillip II arranged an engagement between his son Phillip (later IV) and the daughter of Pixodarus, the heiress of Caria. Alexander (later the Great) tried to step in and pinch her - and her kingdom - for himself. There were strong artistic as well as political links between Macedonia and Caria from the time of Phillip II onwards, for example the sculptor Leochares working first on the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus' sculptures, and then creating the portraits of Phillip and his family for the Philippeion at Olympia.

The mound is huge, as is clear from this photo, indicating that someone extremely powerful was buried there, and this is supported by a perfectly circular retaining wall of fine masonry.By now I hope people are noting "round wall, mound of earth ... hmmm, that's a bit like the Mausoleum of Augustus" 

Who was buried in it? There's a board in the local cafe where they are laying odd on everyone from Alexander the Great to Roxanne to Lysimachus and a dozen others.

What I can tell you 100 % for sure is that Alexander the Great was not buried in the Lion Tomb at Amphipolis as every single ancient source says that Ptolemy hijacked the body on it's way back to Macedonia and that Alexander lay well into the Byzantine period in Alexandria.

But - and I must stress that this is very much my personal opinion and should not be taken as the opinion of the archaeologists working hard on the site - if Alexander was on his way to being buried in Macedonia when Ptolemy pinched his body ... to me that suggests that there was a tomb that had been or was being prepared for him in Macedonia. It need not have been at Vergina, and for a number of reasons would more likely to have been at a 'new' city.

This would be almost impossible to prove without an inscription, but after a big chunk of my career spent looking at fourth century tombs ... if I were to imagine what kind of a tomb Alexander the Great might have planned for himself and his family, then it would pretty much look like the Lion Tomb of Amphipolis.