February 2015 limestone coffin set into the floor. This brings us to the real mystery of Amphipolis, which may well be solved in the course of 2015 – who is the high-ranking occupant of the coffin? No inscription that might reveal the person’s identity has so far been discovered and looting may have deprived us of other potentially identifying evidence. Adding to the mystery, there are centuries-old references to Kasta Mound as the “Tomb of the Queen”. If so, which queen might be a possible candidate? Initially it was hoped that it might be the (a?) wife of Alexander, or perhaps even Alexander’s mother, Olympias. (Wonder of wonders – it was even hoped originally that the coffin might contain the remains of the world-conqueror himself!) On 20 January it was revealed that the skeletal remains belonged to a woman of approximately sixty years of age, sparking immediate speculation that Olympias rested here. But a bigger surprise was the announcement that there were at least four other people also present in the tomb: bones from two males and an infant, and a cremation were discovered. The bones of the younger male show a number of deep knife marks which betray the vicious manner in which he met his death.
CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND significant travellers passed through, little or no mention is made of the Mound. Saul of Tarsus (Paul of the New Testament) makes only very scant mention of the whole area: Acts 17:1 refers to “Paul and Silas… pass[ing] through Amphipolis and Apollonia on the way to Thessaloniki.” But they clearly paid no attention to the Mound and did not refer to the tumulus, nor do they seem to have bothered preaching there. Pausanias some two centuries later is of no use on the subject of Kasta Mound either. So much for the past – what of the coming years? We can certainly expect exciting developments in Greek Macedonia. Drs Andrew Smith and Joan Wright led a group from the Classical Association of Ireland to the area some years ago – a most exciting and enjoyable tour focussing on Vergina; and we look forward to the prospect of further CAI exploration there. Notes It is 100 km N.E. of Thessaloniki. See Oscar Broneer, The Lion Monument at Amphipolis (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1941), Figs 28 and 29. Available at: http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89095909818;vi ew=1up;seq=1 3 Somewhat controversially, some coins of this kind from the region were to be auctioned in Germany in October 2014, coinciding with some of the most exciting moments of the excavation, with allegations that they were possibly loot from the Amphipolis site. See, for instance: http://www.grreporter.info/en/coins_amphipolis_be_au ctioned_germany/11773 (last accessed 22 January 2015). 1 2
Sources Ongoing information on the excavations at Amphipolis can be found readily on the internet, including at:
To date, only about one tenth of the Mound site has been excavated or even surveyed, and geophysical scans suggest that there may well be further tombs underneath the Mound. The Greek government departments involved have great expectations for the area in terms of tourist potential: land plots in the region are already being snapped up by speculators – mostly Germans – while the site itself is currently under military protection.
http://greece.greekreporter.com/?s=Amphipolis http://www.theamphipolistomb.com/
Historical Knowledge of the Mound Despite the reference to the site as the “Tomb of the Queen”, for centuries apparently the Mound was regarded as nothing more than a natural feature of the local landscape. Although
TAKE A VIRTUAL TOUR of the Amphipolis Tomb: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kgm9yxJQDTw
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