Speculation surrounds the
fact that the skeleton’s pelvic region appears to have been particularly
heavily fractured. Olympias was stoned to death at the order of usurper General
Cassandros in 316BC
“The study of
skeletal material, found in the fourth place of the burial monument on the
Casta hill, is commissioned to a team of scientists from the Aristotle and
Democritus Universities … The analysis of this material is part of a broader
research program, which includes the holistic approach of a sample of about
three hundred skeletons, coming from the area of Amphipolis and chronologically
cover the period from 1000 B.C. to 200 B.C”
“The results
— such as sex, age, stature — the macroscopic study of skeletal material from
the fourth place of the burial complex, will be announced in January,” the
statement reads.
Chief
excavator Peristeri has a much more pragmatic point of view: She states that
the lion statue which once sat atop the mound was male and that the wall
encompassing its base was once covered in engraved shields. This indicates the
mound was made for one of Alexanders’ generals, she says.
Others point
to a legend recorded by the Greek historian Plutarch which states King Philip,
Alexander’s father, dreamt he had put a seal of a lion upon Olympias’s womb.
This was interpreted by soothsayers as predicting she would bear a bold and
lion-like son.
Placing a
statue of a lion above a pregnant belly-shaped burial mound fits this imagery.
But the
answer may be amid the remains of the burial chamber itself.
Unreadable
traces of inscriptions have been found on the columns and marble plates about
the stone tomb in the third chamber. These will undergo ultraviolet analysis in
an effort to trace their outline, and hopefully a name. The process is
scheduled to start early next year.
AGE
OF EMPIRES
Alexander the
Great swept through Europe and Asia on a conquest like no other seen before his
time. Nothing could stop him — except possibly poison, or more probably a
terminal bout of typhoid fever.
His untimely
death meant wrack and ruin for his fledgling empire. His generals immediately
set about carving out pieces for themselves.
The body of the
great general is said to have been preserved in a vat of honey before setting
out for his homeland, Macedonia. It would be diverted several times before
finding its final resting place, somewhere near the city erected in Egypt in
his name — Alexandria.
The location of
his tomb has since been lost to history.
Left struggling
to hold the strands of empire together was his mother, Olympias. A devoted
follower of religious mysteries, she had been divorced by Alexander’s father —
King Philip II after a 20 year marriage. She, and Alexander, had been restored
to power after his murder.
But the queen
frequently clashed with the trusted adviser Alexander left behind as his regent
for Macedonia: General Antipater.
On Alexander’s
death, Antipater’s son — Cassander — wanted the crown.
Olympia asserted
her authority as the regent for Alexanders young son. She then sought to
strengthen her hold on power by marrying Alexander’s sister, Cleopatra, to a
succession of generals opposed to Cassander.
An attack on
Cassander’s corner of Macedonia at first appeared successful with the rout of
his army. But a surprise counter-attack toppled Olympia from the throne and
Cassander arranged to have her murdered. Alexander’s wife and son, Roxana and
Alexander IV, were imprisoned at Amphipolis where they were later executed.
3-D
WALKTHROUGH
The stunning
scale of the new archaeological discovery has inspired recession-wracked
Greece, harking back to an era when Alexander the Great ruled half the known
world.
This fascination
has been seized by a government desperate for any morale-building leverage it
can find.
As a result, it
has thrown significant funding at the excavation of the monument — and its
promotion.
Such is the
excitement that full 3-D reconstructions of the tomb was being produced even as
excavators advanced.
With digging
completed for the season, a full digital reconstruction of the sphinx-guarded
entrance, the female caryatids supporting the inner door and the elaborate
mosaic of the main room has now been released.
Amphipolis Tomb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kgm9yxJQDTw
see more in parts 1 and 2
see more in parts 1 and 2
SOURCE : http://www.news.com.au/
