Alexandria's founded by Alexander

Alexandria's founded by Alexander the Great (by year BC): 334 Alexandria in Troia (Turkey) - 333 Alexandria at Issus/Alexandrette (Iskenderun, Turkey) - 332 Alexandria of Caria/by the Latmos (Alinda, Turkey) - 331 Alexandria Mygdoniae - 331 Alexandria (Egypt) - 330 Alexandria Ariana (Herat, Afghanistan) - 330 Alexandria of the Prophthasia/in Dragiana/Phrada (Farah, Afghanistan) - 330 Alexandria in Arachosia (Kandahar, Afghanistan) - 330 Alexandria in the Caucasus (Begram, Afghanistan) - 329 Alexandria of the Paropanisades (Ghazni, Afghanistan) - 329 Alexandria Eschate or Ultima (Khodjend, Tajikistan) - 329 Alexandria on the Oxus (Termez, Afghanistan) - 328 Alexandria in Margiana (Merv, Turkmenistan) - 326 Alexandria Nicaea (on the Hydaspes, India) - 326 Alexandria Bucephala (on the Hydaspes, India) - 325 Alexandria Sogdia - 325 Alexandria Oreitide - 325 Alexandria in Opiene / Alexandria on the Indus (confluence of Indus & Acesines, India) - 325 Alexandria Rambacia (Bela, Pakistan) - 325 Alexandria Xylinepolis (Patala, India) - 325 Alexandria in Carminia (Gulashkird, Iran) - 324 Alexandria-on-the-Tigris/Antiochia-in-Susiana/Charax (Spasinou Charax on the Tigris, Iraq) - ?Alexandria of Carmahle? (Kahnu)

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Thinking out loud about the Amphipolis Tomb!

The most sensible words I have read so far come from David Meadows, Rogueclassicist and appeared on September 1, 2014. This is what he said:

Thinking Out Loud About the Amphipolis Tomb ~ The Rogueclassicist Speculates
School starts tomorrow so I don’t know whether I’ll have time to flesh this out today, but I want to put this suggestion out there. It actually builds on assorted things proposed by plenty of folks but adds something original, I think. Here’s my speculation on the tomb based on recent things:
1. It is  not implausible that it was intended for Alexander and would have been started while he was still alive
2. Of course, Alexander ended up getting buried in Alexandria
3. So Amphipolis ends up with this big tomb and no one to put in it; but putting ANYONE other than the intended occupant in that tomb would be making a political statement
4. The latest news from the site suggests there were great efforts made to seal the tomb in an unprecedented way (I’ll be posting on this later today or tomorrow) … so:
5. Rogueclassicist goes out on a limb to suggest the Amphipolis tomb will turn out to be EMPTY (wall decorations might be there); not looted but intentionally not used.
6. The tomb/mound was transformed into a memorial monument of sorts (everyone knew it was there), with the lion put on top as a sort of generic marker of sorts. The ‘sphinxes’ were beheaded when everything was sealed up because they weren’t guarding anything. Perhaps a symbolic ‘deterrent’ for folks who might have been thinking about using the tomb for themselves.
… I’m hoping I’ll be proven wrong in the next few weeks and we’ll have a magnificent, occupied, Macedonian tomb but this is going to be my working hypothesis for the next few days.


11 comments:

  1. http://www.yppo.gr/2/g22.jsp?obj_id=58312

    Amazing

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    1. Thank you for this link. I could not react earlier to it, but just added a short notice on my blog.

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  2. Completely hallucinating my friends..... Besides the magnificence of the new discoveries and the beauty badge of caryatids, we have an answer: the grave was not plundered because the second septal wall is intact. The fever is thus going to rise very seriously. I understand why the archaeologists asked to the police for a strengthened surveillance!

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    1. Yeap! Our hopes are running high!

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    2. When you say second wall, which wall do you mean? The archaeologists on the site define the wall in front of the sphinxes as number 1. The room behind wall 3 also appears to have a dividing wall which also has a hole, as revealed a few hours ago by a ministry official.

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    3. There, the link you posted :photo number 4 : no hole in the left part of the wall: http://www.yppo.gr/2/g22.jsp?obj_id=58312

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  3. The more the works of excavation move forward, the more I have the impression that attempts of destruction and plunder of the grave took place but that because of the efficiency of the very well organized defences, the looters did not reach their purposes. Indeed, the last wall the top of which situated just under the vault is of more reduced size than on both previous ones seems perfectly intact, according to the photography. Obviously, compartments were filled by someone (?) with sand later to strengthen even more the safety.

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  4. Plato?

    http://www.enet.gr/?i=news.el.article&id=446205

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    1. A rather interesting theory, which adds to King Philip's genius and good judge of people! I hope to read more about these calculations. Maybe when the excavation has revealed its treasure we will be entitled to a full report - I hope.

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  5. May the Romans sealed the Tiomb after having plundered it? Cassius Dio wrote this:

    13 1 Severus. After conducting the siege for twenty days, he then went to Palestine, where he sacrificed to the spirit of Pompey. Thence he sailed to Upper Egypt, passing up the Nile, and viewed the whole country with some few exceptions; for instance, he was unable to pass the frontier of Ethiopia because of a pestilence. He inquired into everything, including things that were very carefully hidden; for he was the kind of person to leave nothing, either human or divine, uninvestigated. Accordingly, he took away from practically all the sanctuaries all the books that he could find containing any secret lore, and he locked up the tomb of Alexander; this was in order that no one in future should either view Alexander's body or read what was written in the above-mentioned books. So much, then, for what Severus was doing.

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  6. Yes, but Septimus Severus' son, later named Caracalla, in his adulation for Alexander most probably had the tomb unsealed for his visit, but it is also likely that he had it resealed afterwards. It is said that he was even more jealously protective of the tomb's content than his father.
    In any case, Caracalla seems to be last recorded witness to have seen the remains of Alexander.

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