Archeologists said on Friday they had unearthed a lavish burial site at the seat of the ancient Macedonian kings in northern Greece, heightening a 2,300-year-old mystery of murder and political intrigue.
The find in the ruins of Aigai came a few meters from last year’s remarkable discovery of what could be the bones of Alexander the Great’s murdered teenage son, an expert said.
Archeologists are puzzled because both sets of remains were buried under very unusual circumstances: Although cemeteries existed near the site, the bones were taken from an unknown first resting place and re-interred, against all ancient convention, in the heart of the city.
PHOTO: AP
Excavator Chrysoula Saatsoglou-Paliadeli said in an interview that the bones found this week were inside one of two large silver vessels unearthed in the ancient city’s marketplace, close to the theater where Alexander’s father, King Philip II, was murdered in 336 BC.
She said they arguably belonged to a Macedonian royal and were buried at the end of the 4th century BC.
But it is too early to speculate on the dead person’s identity, pending tests to determine the bones’ sex and age, said Saatsoglou-Paliadeli, a professor of classical archaeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
She said one of the silver vessels is “very, very similar” to another found decades ago at a nearby royal tumulus, where one grave has been identified as belonging to Philip II.
Alexander was one of the most successful generals of all times.
In a series of battles against the Persian Empire, he conquered much of the known world, reaching as far as India.
After his death in 323BC, at the age of 32, Alexander’s empire broke up in a series of wars by his successors that saw the murder of his mother, half brother, wife and both sons.
Archeologist Stella Drougou said the new find is “very important, as it follows up on last year’s.”
“It makes things very complex,” she said. “Even small details in the ancient texts can help us solve this riddle. We [now] have more information, but we lack a name.”
Drougou said the fact the funerary urns were not placed in a proper grave “either indicates some form of punishment, or an illegal act.”
“Either way, it was an exceptional event, and we know the history of the Macedonian kings is full of acts of revenge and violent succession,” he said.
Drougou, who was not involved in the discovery, is also a professor of classical archeology at the Aristotle University.
Saatsoglou-Paliadeli believes the teenager’s bones found last year may have belonged to Heracles, Alexander’s illegitimate son who was murdered during the wars of succession around 309BC and buried in secret. The remains had been placed in a gold jar, with an elaborate golden wreath.
“This is just a hypothesis, based on archaeological data, as there is no inscription to prove it,” she said.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
RSS