Ancient Mycenaeans and Minoans genetically related

A serious hint in that direction was described by Maitland Edey in his book “The Lost World of the Aegean” in the mid-1970’s and thanks to a recent study we are most fortunate to obtain a confirmation of his theory through modern DNA analysis.

[Minoan woman dancing, in a fresco from 1600-1450 BC. 

Credit: Wikipedia/Photo by Wolfgang Sauber is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0]

Over the centuries many theories have been elaborated and we are now able to establish that both Minoan and Mycenaean populations originated in Anatolia and moved west prior to the Bronze Age. The Minoans settled in Crete as early as five thousand years ago while the Mycenaeans reached mainland Greece a thousand years later. 

DNA samples were taken from the teeth of 19 remains that were positively identified as Minoans from Crete, Mycenaeans from mainland Greece and from people who lived in southwestern Anatolia. Thorough analysis and study show that the Minoans and the Mycenaeans are genetically very similar, although not identical and in the end, today’s Greeks are descendants of these Anatolian populations.

Researchers were even able to establish that the Minoans, Mycenaeans and modern Greeks are related to the ancient people living in the Caucasus, Iran and Armenia. The Mycenaeans have an additional though minor component in their genes linking them to Eastern Europe and northern Eurasia, whereas the Minoans are missing this genetic part.

Greeks on the mainland are somehow related to the ancient North Eurasians and the people from the Eastern European steppe before and after the time of the Minoans and the Mycenaeans. What’s more, modern Europeans also partially belong to the ancient North Eurasians.

All this means, that the Mycenaeans do not descend from a foreign population in the Aegean and that today’s Greeks do indeed descend from the Mycenaeans. The peoples of the Greek mainland possess all the ingredients of mixed ancient North Eurasians and Eastern Europe genes both before and after the appearance of the Minoans and the Mycenaeans. This may explain the relation of Greek speakers with their linguistic relatives elsewhere in Europe and Asia. We are all one big family! 

The Lost World of the Aegean by Maitland A. Edey

In the series The Emergence of Man, Time-Life has edited this book, The Lost World of the Aegean by Maitland A. Edey (ASIN: B000SZQWW2) in the mid-1970s but the subject and the results achieved are still very current.

At the time of my purchase, I was introduced to the Minoan civilization which is nicely developed and pictured in this book. In fact, the package offers much more than this slice of the history of mankind and is a wonderful introduction to the history of the Greek people and their origins. There are many theories but nobody really knows who the people were who would become the Greeks, where they came from, or when they arrived. In his book, Maitland Edey refers to a great study made by a British archaeologist who specialized in the Bronze Age Aegean and more specifically the Cyclades, Colin Refrew.

The thorough study based mainly on shards of pottery has led to dividing those early ages into three distinct periods:

- The Early Bronze Age (3000-2000 BC) with a parallel comparison of Early Cycladic, Minoan and Helladic vessels;

- The Middle Bronze Age (2000-1500 BC) with a similar comparison between Middle Cycladic, Minoan, and Helladic; and finally

- The Late Bronze Age (1500-1100 BC), showing parallels between Late Cycladic, Minoan, and Hellenic which is also known as Mycenaean

The Bronze Age in the Cyclades is carefully examined with their enigmatic and typical marbles. An evolution in the art of these statuettes can be established ranging from the violin-shaped females with their long necks to the figurines with stumpy arms and legs with minimal facial features to figurines standing with crossed arms and showing prominent noses.

This culture was gradually absorbed by the Minoans of Crete and the author details the vestiges of the Great Minoan Royal Palaces discovered and excavated by Arthur Evans. Strangely enough, although the Minoans knew how to read and write as early as 2000 BC their language remains an enigma as it has not been deciphered. However, the many frescoes and vestiges that were recovered from palaces at Knossos, Malia, Kato Zakro, Haghia Triada, and Phaistos turned out to be very helpful in creating a picture of daily life and the overall organization of this civilization. Unfortunately, these palaces met dramatic and mysterious fates and the Minoan culture suddenly disappeared.

Inevitably, history leads us to the Lost Atlantis, once an island empire that sunk into the sea after the catastrophic eruption of the volcano on which it was built. What remains, according to the author, is the island of Thera (modern Santorini) and it has been established that its fate is linked to that of Crete. The volcano ashes buried Crete under a thick blanket that destroyed crops and fields for years. Among the cities recently unearthed from its ashes is the site of Akrotiri – a situation not unlike that of Pompeii. Thera itself has disclosed a great treasure of lively frescoes depicting people and animals, even an entire 20-ft-long maritime scene of the Libyan coast and a pastoral scene including a series of soldiers marching off towards the battlefield.

As one civilization disappears, another is on the rise and, in this case, it is the Myceneans who are taking over the power in the eastern Mediterranean, confirmed and illustrated by the masterpieces recovered from the Royal Graves by Heinrich Schliemann. Besides cities like Tiryns and Mycenae, attention is given to the beehive-shaped tomb known as the Treasure of Atreus which Schliemann took for belonging to Agamemnon. The many, mainly gold treasures found at Mycenae are well documented.

When this period of glory crumbled, Greece slumbered into the dark ages which lasted for three or four hundred years and are said to have been darker than the Middle Ages in Western Europe. Rooted in the once so glorious Mycenaean civilization, eventually, the Age of Pericles and Socrates emerged, laying the foundations of our Western civilization.

The book concludes with a great chart entitled The Emergence of Man (the actual subtitle of the book, and rightfully so) putting Geology, Archaeology, Time (in millions, then thousands, then hundreds of years ago), and Places/Inventions on one line.

It makes fascinating reading!

From Agamemnon to Alexander the Great, Exhibition in North America

A brand new exhibition The Greeks – Agamemnon to Alexander the Great has started at the Montreal Archaeology and History Museum at Pointe-à-Callière, Canada (12 December 2014 – 26 April 2015). From here it will move to the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Canada (5 June 2015 – 12 October 2015), followed by the Field Museum in Chicago, U.S.A. (26 November 2015 – 17 April 2016), to end at the National Geographic Museum in Washington DC, U.S.A. (till 9 October 2016).

It is clear that this original exhibition spans over 5,000 years of Greek history, from the cradle of Western civilization up to the fascinating era of Alexander the Great. On display are more than five hundred artifacts, collected from twenty-one different Greek museums.

This exhibition is divided into six specific periods to meet famous men who shaped Greece, like Homer, Leonidas of Sparta, Plato, King Philip II of Macedonia, Aristotle, and, of course, Alexander the Great. Our heritage is still felt in our politics, philosophy, arts, architecture, mathematics, medicine, and sports, and this exhibition just proves it.

Starting as early as 6,000 BC, they quickly moved to the legendary players of the Trojan War, with Agamemnon sailing to Troy to recapture beautiful Helen, who is residing with Prince Paris. A war that lasted for nearly twelve years involved much more than a girl, even a princess. Attention is given to the early discoveries by Heinrich Schliemann of the treasures of Troy and the Royal Tombs of Mycenae.

The visitor is then taken to the days of Alexander the Great, who succeeded his father, King Philip II of Macedonia, at the age of twenty. By conquering most of the world as it was known then, he turned that world into an entirely new one with new ideas and new fashions. His legacy is still being felt today, 2,500 years later.

About twelve centuries separate Agamemnon and Alexander, and in between Greece knew its Golden Age in which Pericles “invented” democracy, a democracy by the people and for the people. During the 5th and 4th centuries BC, Greece and Athens in particular saw their first great philosophers, while theatre and arts, in general, flourished to an unknown level. The exhibition also makes room for the Olympic Games, which were founded in 776 BC and attracted athletes from all over Greece to compete every four years.

Some exceptional pieces have left Greece for the first time and constitute highlights at this exhibition. Among them are gold offerings from the Tombs of Mycenae, including the famous mask attributed to Agamemnon; a typical figurine from the Cycladic island of Amorgos dated to 3,000 BC; a superb Minoan ritual vase from Crete; bronze helmets and gold funerary masks from Boeotia; and, a very illustrative funerary vase from Delos showing how Achilles avenged the death of his friend Patroclus. The scene would not be complete without a statue of Homer and other famous historical figures, a convincing votive relief of Asclepius with his staff around which a snake is coiled (an emblem still used in medicine today), and finally, a marvelous gold wreath made of lifelike branches of myrtle, the symbol associated with Aphrodite.

The absolute topper, for me, is Alexander himself! Two statues of this great man have left Pella for the occasion: Alexander represented as Pan and the Head of the Young Alexander. 

[Pictures from the Montreal Museum of Archaeology and History]

Bactrian Gold, the Hidden Treasures from the Museum of Kabul

Bactria, to me, is Alexander-country, the lands of Central Asia where he spent two years of his life in 228 and 227 BC. The exceptional exhibition “Afghanistan, hidden treasures from the National Museum, Kabul” covers this period and is presently traveling worldwide. It centers on four excavation sites covering roughly 2,500 years, i.e., from two thousand BC to the third century AD.

[Map from National Geographic showing Alexander's Route]

I knew French and Russian archaeologists had been working in the area for years, entrusting their treasures to the National Museum in Kabul. That is till 1979 when the troops of the USSR invaded Afghanistan. Archaeological diggings by Frenchman Paul Bernard at Ai-Khanoum, for instance, had to be interrupted abruptly, and when he returned to the site recently, it was thoroughly plundered and destroyed. Most damages were, however, done a few years later when the Taliban considered it their duty to obliterate every image of people wherever they found it: on frescoes, mosaics, paintings, reliefs, or statues. We all have witnessed what happened to the giant Buddha statues in Bamyan. Still, not many people know that the Museum of Kabul was one heap of rubble after the Taliban had thoroughly ravaged it – a frightening experience! A precious heritage that survived for centuries is being totally destroyed with just one single blow!

To use the old name, Bactria is located in Central Asia right on the crossroads of old caravan routes, later the Silk Road, the meeting point of all trade routes between East and West. It is not surprising that Alexander the Great put so much time and effort into the conquest of this area, for it meant not only a way to secure his back while heading for India but also an economic asset precisely because of the geographic location of Bactria. His marriage with Roxana, the local chief's daughter, was, after all, a high political move rather than real or impulsive love, as some suggest. Who knows?

The first objects I encounter as I enter the exhibition are three statues from the Musée Guimet in Paris, dating from Buddhist times but showing a definite Hellenistic influence. You can’t miss them; the way they are presented in the floodlights against a black background instantly gives you a taste of what to expect. This tremendous high relief of a Genius with Flowers from the 4th-5th century AD was found in the Buddhist monastery of Hadda in remote northern Afghanistan, yet still magnificently Hellenistic.

At a right angle, right in front of me, stands a showcase filled with one hundred Buddhist heads, sorted by size, i.e., the smaller ones on the lower steps and the bigger ones at the top. It is a fascinating group, for all the heads are different, and as I take a closer look at each and every one of them, either at eye level or from the side, I see how they stare back at me or ignore me, looking away in an absent glance. I take my time to inspect and admire each face, some more Hellenistic than others, with a more elongated or rounder face, longer ears, closed eyelids, or just peeping at us visitors. All in all, an amazing group!

From here, the way leads to the movie theater, where this French documentary is shown about their exploration and excavations in the magnificent Afghan landscape. It is well documented with clear maps and a captivating view behind the scenes – absolutely worth watching. 

The oldest finds (2,000 BC) come from Tepe Fullol. There are only a handful of gold bowls and beakers made of thinly beaten gold that somehow reminds me of old Mycenae and the death mask of Agamemnon. Archaeologists disagree about the origins of this form of art, and the link to other cultures remains obscure. To complicate things, most of the treasures had disappeared, first because the gold was split up between the local tribal chiefs of Northern Afghanistan when it was discovered, and secondly, because the entire collection at the Museum of Kabul fell apart. These pieces are a little out of the way. That is unfortunate, for they deserve better after being hidden for four thousand years, don’t they?

The section about Ai-Khanoum is the most important one, at least in my eyes, for it is the reason for my visit, as this city was built in the wake of Alexander the Great’s conquest of the area in 328-327 BC. I am very much impressed by the idea of discovering this Hellenistic city at the banks of the Amu Daria River (modern Oxus River), complete with a Gymnasium, Citadel, Theater, and temples. It is not as evident as it would seem! The Greeks even built a Palace here. It is unlike anything else, for they never had a king to build it for. This one is based on the Persian model but decorated in Greek style with monumental Corinthian capitals on top of the columns and flat roofs with the so-called antefix decorations at the edge. A capital and several antefixes are on display here, together with objects like a water jet in the shape of a theatrical mask, a couple of sundials (which I didn’t expect to find here at all), a Hellenistic Hermes pillar of high quality from the Gymnasium; a face of either a man or a woman; bronze decorative elements; etc.

Eye-catcher is the Disk of Cybele from the 3rd century BC made of gilded silver picturing the goddess Cybele on a chariot in Greek style mixed with several eastern influences featuring the fire altar and Helios.

What excites me is the stone pedestal bearing the Delphic precepts. This wisdom comes from 5th century Delphi and teaches us something along the lines of “As a child, learn good manners. As a young man, learn to control your passions. In middle age, be just. In old age, give good advice. When you die, do so without regret.” Can you imagine the impact of this old text, this old wisdom that traveled from Greece to resurface unexpectedly 2,500 years later at the very edge of the desert steppes? That leaves me utterly speechless for a while!

Next comes the collection from Begram, a small town north of Kabul. In the years before WWII, two sealed chambers were uncovered, still containing their treasures of ivory furniture from India, plaster medallions, and, most strikingly, an extensive collection of glasswork of Hellenistic origin. Here too, each archaeologist seems to have their own theory of whether these chambers were set up as storage areas (since all the ivory was put together, and so was all the bronze and all the glass), as religious offerings, or maybe this is a hidden treasure. 

In any case, the glasswork alone is absolutely fabulous and unique in shape, color, and decoration. There are, for instance, these three goblets (they look more like vases to me, so tall). The countless pieces have been glued back together, but just by looking at the colors of these fishing and hunting scenes, you would swear they were painted only yesterday – so vivid and lively! Now try to imagine the impact of such a find, for these drinking beakers were produced in Alexandria in the first century AD and traveled all the way from Egypt to Kabul.

You have to admit that you are looking at something very exceptional. We all know there was an active exchange of goods in antiquity, and it comes to us like a simple statement from a history book, but here you are faced with the very product of such trade! I keep staring at this glasswork with wide-open eyes. Wow! Next to these painted glasses are a couple of glass drinking goblets or vases in the shape of fish, blue and off-white, with shiny eyes and sharp fins. I’ve never seen anything like this. There are glass-blown vases with honeycomb motives or wrapped in a net of glass lace; an elegant black glass vase with a high handle next to a translucent one covered with designs applied with gold leaf; for me, an unprecedented variety of delicate, colored, and painted glass that makes the cut-crystal bowl look rather primitive and dull. Amazing!

In another showcase, all the ivory artifacts have been brought together.

These objects from the first century AD originally all come from India but again are drenched in a Hellenistic sauce. Unique is the ivory River Goddesses approximately 45 cm high, clearly from a Buddhist background, among the exquisite openwork ivory panels showing Indian ladies in exotic gardens with fountains and temple-like buildings, a few monster figures, etc. Strange is the odd-shaped earthenware jar with blue-green glaze representing a bird-woman, for I cannot tie this style or shape to anything I have seen before.

The bronze artifacts somehow don’t add anything new. I only remember the cute figurine of Amor carrying a lamp and the young rider who seems to refer to Alexander the Great because of the way he is sitting on the horse that is lost from underneath him.

I stop to admire the row of plaster medallions, each about 15 cm in diameter, also dating from the first century AD. They look like oversized molds for the production of coins but were used to create the bottom motives for silver plates and goblets as the silver was poured and hammered around these molds. There are a few striking designs, like the Winged Amor or the high relief of a youth. Just imagine these portraits staring back at you from the bottom of your silver goblet filled with water or wine. I certainly would love to give this a try, wouldn’t you?

Finally, there is the gold treasure from Tillya Tepe, a tomb hill just outside the Greek Bactrian city of Emshi-Tepe in the oasis of Sherberghan. The content of these six tombs was barely rescued when the Soviet Union entered Afghanistan in 1979, and it was safely transferred to the Museum in Kabul. There was a seventh tomb on that hill at the Turkmenistan border, but Viktor Sarianidi, the Russian archaeologist who had led these excavations together with his Afghan colleagues, ran out of time, and when he recently returned, the tomb had been thoroughly plundered. Such a shame! Luckily for us, Sarianidi managed to travel to the Museum of Kabul in the 1980s in order to take pictures of all 20,000 excavated objects, and he published an impressive book. So at least we know exactly what was found at Tillya Tepe.

What followed were uncertain times for the art world, and we owe it to a handful of brave Afghans that this treasure was rescued, safely locked away in the vaults of the Presidential Palace. They managed to keep the place a secret. The Museum itself has suffered a great deal from the civil wars as it was repeatedly plundered and artifacts were stolen, and in 1994 it was hit by a rocket setting it on fire. How dreadful! The worst, however, was still to come when in 2001, the Taliban decided not only to destroy the huge Buddha statues at Bamyan but also to annihilate the 2,500 statues and reliefs of the Museum. We had to wait till 2004 when the government of Afghanistan decided that the situation was safe enough to bring the gold treasures out in the open again, but as the Museum in Kabul could not shelter this precious collection yet, they contacted the Musée Guimet in Paris. Together they agreed to send these rich finds on a traveling tour. After Paris and Turin (Italy), the collection can presently be seen in Amsterdam, moved on to the United States, and is now touring Australia.

  

The tombs are beautifully presented in high rectangular boxes covered with a glass plate showing the contours of the deceased with underneath each piece of jewelry in its original place. They unearthed one warrior and five women, the man lying at the top of the hill between the two most beautifully dressed women, the other three women being found on the hillside, which should have looked like a kurgan according to the nomads’ rituals.

This part of the exhibition clearly states that Northern Afghanistan was the melting pot of different cultures where the influence of China and Greece are interwoven with the lifestyle of the steppe people. Each tomb is an exploration by itself, where all kinds of artifacts of different origins keep each other company in breathtaking harmony.

Of course, they all have gold bracelets and anklets inlaid or not with semi-precious stones, but I notice how some women hold a Chinese mirror, from the Han Dynasty apparently; gold pins with on top a gold flower with open petals and vibrant pistils; hairpins as I know them from Japanese geishas but executed in thin flaky gold and tiny pearls; a ring engraved with an Athena figure and Greek inscription, and rings inlaid with precious stones; ornaments for the neck of the robe laid out as a necklace made of gold, turquoise, garnet, carnelian, and pyrite; gold earrings preferably inlaid with turquoise; pendants like those of the Dragon Master with turquoise, garnet, lapis-lazuli, carnelian and pearls in a rare symbiosis of Greek, Indian and Chinese elements; a set of gold clasps showing Amor riding a dolphin with turquoise and mother of pearl; even gold foot soles! 

The warrior, supposedly a prince, carries an iron dagger with gold covered handle depicting animals and inlaid with turquoise. His belt made of braided goldthread-strings connecting nine gold medallions showing a warrior riding a lion is an exceptional masterpiece. His head rested on a phial, a plate used for offerings, made of pure gold and measuring nothing less than 23 cm in diameter!

       

The list seems endless, for besides the most striking objects, the collection contains numerous coins, pendants, and various decoration items. As the most recent coin found in these tombs is that of Emperor Tiberius (who ruled from 14 to 37 AD), they could be dated with certainty to the first century AD. We see a true amalgamation of art from the steppes (I would personally call this Scythian art), Greek, Indian, and Chinese art.

I am terribly excited to finally catch up with the Aphrodite of Bactria, a five centimeters high gold appliqué inlaid with turquoise. I know the piece from pictures and references, but here she is. I go down on my knees to look closer; for an instant, she is mine alone. The piece de resistance, however, seems to be the gold crown with gold spangles and flowers. It is, in fact, a travel crown that can be taken apart as it consists of five separate pieces mounted around a tiny stem holding flattened branches that fit into the band of the crown itself. The spangles gently shake as people walk by, so imagine this crown in the open steppe where the wind can play freely with every tiny detail! A true gem!

It is still unclear to which nomad tribes the tombs of Tillya Tepe belong and how far this melting pot of civilizations reached out. Generally, these steppe people came from northwestern China or Parthia (now part of Iran and Turkmenistan), but who knows? Further investigations will tell us. For now, we have to accept that this territory is vast, for we have jade from China, garnets from India, turquoise from eastern Iran, and lapis lazuli from the mines of Badakhshan (today’s Afghanistan), all found together in this area. And yet we have not mentioned the traders and artists who were constantly moving between China, India, and the Roman Empire to produce these beautiful artifacts. It’s a small world – or is it not so small after all?

Anyway, I am convinced that this wide exchange of art and knowledge would not have been possible without Alexander the Great conquering these territories and organizing his Empire as he did.

[Pictures from The Australian by Ollivier Thierry]

Birth of a Legend - In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great

This is a new tour organized by Peter Sommer Travels, meant to replace their previous (longer) trip From Boy to King. From what I understand, many people found it difficult to take a three-week vacation to complete the original thorough pilgrimage in the homeland of Alexander the Great. As a result, the plans have been revised and redrawn and PST has come up with a brand-new tour of eleven days for 2013, Birth of a Legend.

It is obvious that all the key locations where major events in the life of Alexander took place had to be preserved. The starting point is the Greek province of Macedonia with Alexander’s birthplace Pella and the site of Aegae with the tomb of his father, King Philip II, at today’s Vergina, followed by Mieza where Aristotle taught the young prince and a look at the spectacular site of Aiani. Several museums here in Northern Greece are as a matter of fact included beside the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki.

Another important stop is made near Mount Olympus, the residence of the Greek gods, at the nearby site of Dion, Macedonia’s religious sanctuary which Alexander visited in great pump before he crossed over to Asia.

Further south, PST will stop at the battlefield of Chaironeia where the 18-year-old Alexander annihilated the Theban Band and where his father gained the hegemony over all of Greece. From there the route runs further to the oracle site of Delphi and onwards to Olympia where King Philip ordered the construction of his famous Philippeon to house the family statues, including that of Alexander.

Homer is never far away when it comes to Alexander and tribute is paid to this great writer at the site of Mycenae, once at the heart of the myths of Troy so much admired by Alexander. Corinth is another key location since it is here that both King Philip II and, after his death, Alexander the Great were recognized as leaders of all the Greek cities and states.

The tour ends in Athens, as a matter of course I would say, with a visit to the Acropolis and its newly built museum, as well as to the National Archaeological Museum.

As usual, there are plenty of relaxing moments with wine tasting and a free day to be filled with interesting sites and more sightseeing. All in all, a wonderful opportunity to grasp the essence of young Alexander and to realize how this environment has helped to shape the greatest conqueror the world has ever known.

Alexander exhibition at the Louvre, Paris

« Au Royaume d’Alexandre le Grand. La Macédoine Antique. » Quite a mouthful for an exhibition, but definitely one that was worth seeing. Such a pity it ran for so short a period of time (from 13 October 2011 to 16 January 2012), and I wasn’t able to visit the Louvre till near the very end. Consequently, there was no point in sharing my impressions anytime soon.

I found the title of this exhibition rather confusing: was it about Alexander the Great, or was it about Macedonia? Well, in the end, it was about both, of course, but the accent was set around old Macedonia, and it was a well-deserved recommendation. Today, like in antiquity, it seems that Macedonia is some kind of stepchild, not entirely part of Greece or worthy to be part of it. The excavations of the past thirty years or so prove much to the contrary.

The very first excavations date back to 1861, when two French archaeologists (of course, we are referring to France and the French here!), Léon Heuzey and Henri Daumet made their first discoveries under the close watch of the Ottoman rulers. They uncovered the remains of the Royal Palace of Aegae, not knowing that this was Aegae, the old Macedonian capital, in what is called today Vergina. After that, we have to wait till after the First World War when Konstantinos Rhomaios started new diggings in the area in 1920. He is the one who put Pella on the map, the second capital of Macedonia, about 25 kilometers further inland than expected because of the silting up of the Axios River. He also discovered several tombs in the Vergina area. By far the largest and most sensational discovery happened in 1977 when Manolis Andronicos localized the unspoiled Tomb of King Philip II, Alexander’s father. Huge quantities of precious gifts were found in his burial chamber as well as in the nearby tombs underneath this same tumulus. In the wake of this discovery, other promising diggings were generally started elsewhere.

Strangely enough, new finds show that the art in archaic Macedonia was closely akin to what we have seen in Mycenae, here only one hundred years later. Clear traces of this influence can be found mainly in the area of Pieria, in the westerly region. But meanwhile, it is obvious that the so-called Hellenistic art first and for all originated here in Aegae and in Pella at the court of the Kings and in the houses of the Macedonian elite. As early as the 5th century, the Macedonian Kings attracted notable artists like Zeuxis of Heraclea, who decorated the Palace of King Archelaus, or Euripides, who wrote his Iphigenia in Aulis, Archelaus, and The Bacchantes here. Later on, we find more famous artists at the Court of Pella, like Lysippos, the official sculptor of Alexander, and Apelles, his official court painter; but also top painters like Aristides of Thebe or Philoxenus of Eretria. Even if the names had come to us, we still had no idea about the quality of their work till the now famous frescos in the Tomb of Persephone were discovered in Vergina; they give a totally unexpected image of their craft, in this case, the skills of Nicomachus of Thebe – a most lively and unique testimony. Wall paintings from the houses in Pella, on the other hand, turn out to be of such high quality and colour that they are considered as the precursors of the Pompeian style, which we meet in Pompeii – yet five centuries later!

The Louvre has done a thorough job with this exhibition, and they have not limited themselves to collecting a random number of objects from the Greek Museums. It all starts right at the entrance with a splendid copy of the pebble mosaic showing a lion hunt with Alexander on the left and Craterus to the right. A great welcome from the homeland, Macedonia!

I recently traveled through Macedonia myself, visiting many of the museums, and seeing all these objects over here was like meeting old friends again. Purely from memory, the following is what I remember having seen again in Paris (the Louvre didn’t allow any pictures!)

• From the Museum in Aiani (Pieria), clay figures and vases;
• From Vergina, silver jars, a bronze lamp, gold crowns with delicate leaves and flowers, or tied with Heracles’ knot;
• From Amphipolis, a multicolored vase, a dashing terracotta dancer, and a true-to-life painted head of a terracotta woman;
• From Polygoros, one of the arrows engraved with “Philippou”, i.e., with the compliments of Philip (used during the siege of Olynthus);
• From Veroia, the intriguing bust of Olganos of Kopanos, which reminded me of Alexander;
• From Pella, molds for terracotta statues and finished clay statuettes, pots, jars found around the Agora, earthenware roof decorations, and pieces of burial furniture in wood, bone, and ivory;
• From Dion, a striking relief of Demeter;
• From Thessaloniki where evidently most of the objects came from, with gold masks in the style of Agamemnon; bronze helmets with or without a gold trimming; an earthenware pyxis painted with a garland of flowers on a black background; gold jewelry like bracelets, necklaces, earrings, fibulae, etc; gold, silver and bronze coins; a lovely bronze medallion of Athena in high relief; the painted inside walls of a tomb; etc.
• From the Louvre, a small bronze Alexander with spear (not very resembling); a drum and capitals of columns from Aegae (brought back by Heuzey and Daumet but apparently never exhibited) which are now placed in the frame of a life-size drawing of the colonnades surrounding the central square of the Palace of Aegae. It’s as if you are truly walking inside. In the very center, I find the head of Young Alexander from the Museum of Pella.

Also, a showcase filled with Greek vases, bowls, drinking vessels, pots, and jars, all beautifully decorated, of course. And all around this on the walls, I recognize pictures of the frescos from different tombs in and around Vergina, Pella, and Lefkadia.

The Louvre has unveiled more hidden treasures from their catacombs, i.e., remains from the Palace of the Roman Emperor Galerius (305-311 AD), who promoted Thessaloniki to the capital of his tetrarchy. These are tall square marble pillars, approximately two meters high, with on the front and back a relief of a recognizable figure, like a Menead, Victory, Dionysos, Aura, Ariane, one of the Dioscuri, Leda with the Swan, and Ganymedes. The building to which the pillars belonged is called “Incantada” and once stood at the northern entrance to the Agora of Thessaloniki. This is all new to me and very revealing.

At this stage, I wonder why Alexander the Great is supposed to be the central personage of this exhibition, since, besides the head from Pella and the scanty bronze statue with the lost lance, I haven’t seen him. He turns out to be the surprise, probably meant to be the very climax … not very successful, if you ask me! When I’m about ready to leave, I discover a rather narrow window in a black box where Alexander is waiting for me. Gee, why cramp him behind this one window? They could have put him in a full-size showcase entirely made of glass, no? Anyway, this is where I find the true treasures of the entire exhibition (in my eyes, that is, of course), Alexander in person! For a start, there is the most striking Azara Hermes from the Louvre – after all, this is a copy of an original made by nobody less than Lysippos! Also, Alexander as Pan from the Museum in Pella, the Guimet Alexander from the Louvre, a torso that is being attributed to him, and an inscription from Thessaloniki, of which I remember nothing. And finally, at the very corner of this same dark showcase, a long narrow glass étagère with the gold medallions of his Royal parents, King Philip II of Macedonia and Queen Olympias – precious pieces pushed aside in an almost forgotten corner. True sacrilege, I would say!