The Royal Macedonian Tombs and the Paraphernalia of Alexander the Great

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3938719
AutoresEugene N Borza (autor de correspondencia)
Año1987
Volumen41
Número2
Páginas105
Fecha de publicación1987-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaPhoenix (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0031-8299 • E-ISSN: 1929-4883
EditorialJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/1088739
OpenAlexW2333598836
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas38

THE FOLLOWING PAPER raises two related points about the identification of the remains in the royal Macedonian tombs in the great tumulus at Vergina (ancient Aegae). One is that the evidence now seems to point toward a date for Tomb II later than the death of Philip II. The other is that some of the materials found within that tomb may have belonged to Alexander the Great.' Following the chronology suggested by the excavator-that all three tombs belong to about the last third of the fourth century B.c.-only a few royal personages were eligible by birth, status, or marriage for burial at Aegae in that era.2 If the identification of the human remains in Tomb III as a teenaged male is correct, the structure is probably the final resting place of Alexander IV, son of the Conqueror and the Bactrian princess, Roxane (see Endnote A). He was the last Argead, and his murder by Cassander ca 310 marks the end of the dynasty. The male-female burial in Tomb II is the only main chamber-antechamber double burial thus far recovered from a Macedonian tomb. There are only two sets of candidates for this unusual interment: Philip II and his wife, Cleopatra, and Philip III Arrhidaeus and his wife, Eurydice. Immediately following Philip II's assassination in 336, Alexander was declared king, and went off to put down frontier rebellions. In his absence, Olympias, Alexan

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Macedonian · Paraphernalia · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Byzantine Studies and History · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classics · History