Johane Derite
Regular Member
- Messages
- 1,851
- Reaction score
- 886
- Points
- 113
- Y-DNA haplogroup
- E-V13>Z5018>FGC33625
- mtDNA haplogroup
- U1a1a
"Tombs of the family of Alexander the Great finally giving up their secrets"
Quite cryptic. But some revealing things in this article. Greece apparantly has so far not allowed DNA testing of the most important bones.
Some excerpts:
"
The ages of the deceased in Tomb II were determined from wear and tear on bones: the main chamber contained a middle-aged male and the antechamber a far younger female. This narrowed down the list of kings and queens either side of Alexander?s reign.
But an ?unfortunate symmetry? obscured the background to the double burial in Tomb II?, says London-based historian David Grant who collaborated with the scientists studying the skeletal remains. This led to a ?battle of the bones? among historians, causing a rift which divided the academic community ?obsessed? on proving their identities.
The Tomb II occupants could either be Alexander?s father Philip II and his final teenage wife Cleopatra, or Philip?s half-witted son Arrhidaeus who was executed twenty years later when of similar age and with an equally young bride. Questions of ritual or forced suicide raised their head, because kings and queens rarely died together.
Philip II was a national hero who befitted such a tomb and he had seven wives we know of. But Grant?s research points out the elephant in the room: none of the ancient sources mentions any women being buried with Philip at Aegae. ?What superficially appears to be a two-phase construction of Tomb II, plus the different cremation conditions the female bones underwent, suggest she was buried later than the male in the still-empty or incomplete second chamber.?
On the other hand, Arrhidaeus and his young bride Adea-Eurydice were executed together by Alexander?s mother Olympias when she regained political control of the state capital. She also murdered Philip?s last wife, Cleopatra, along with her new-born child. This ?double assassination? of Arrhidaeus and Adea-Eurydice explains the ?double burial? given to them after Olympias was herself executed.
The Antikas team found new incontrovertible age evidence on previously unanalysed bones, as well as undocumented trauma, which further narrowed down the list of candidates. The woman?s pubic symphysis aged her at 32 +/- 2 years at death, ruling out Philip?s teenage wife Cleopatra and discounting Arrhidaeus and his wife completely.
Dispelling the case of ?archaeological gender bias? was an overlooked shinbone wound providing proof that the armour and weapons belonged to the women, because the unevenly sized gilded-bronze greaves were fashioned to fit her shortened deformed leg. She was, indeed, being honoured as a warrior at death.
A final ?identity-shattering? discovery was made by the Antikas team. ?Forgotten? and unanalysed skeletal remains from Tomb I were found in storage below the Vergina laboratory; they were probably consigned to thirty-five-years of obscurity in the aftermath of the ?great? Thessalonica earthquake of 20 June 1978 when the preservation of unlooted Tombs II and III was the focus of attention. These additional bones from Tomb I contained the remains of at least seven individuals, not just two adults and a baby.
The team?s finds were published in an academic journal 2015. Although hampered by underfunding and a lack of support from those fearing unwanted results, they continued to push for ?next-generation? forensics: DNA testing, radiocarbon dating, and stable isotope analysis on the Tomb II and Tomb III bones.
Permission was denied in 2016, Grant reveals. Instead, the scientists were allowed to test the scattered bones found in looted ?Tomb I?, but with no formal funding provided. Although these bones lay exposed in soil for over 2,000 years, dating and DNA results were successfully extracted, disproving yet more of the identity theories. Moreover, controversial leg bones, which supposedly evidenced the terrible a knee wound Philip may have suffered in Thrace, appeared to be ?intruders? from a completely different tomb. The results have yet to be published and Grant says they will amaze everyone.
What has become clear is that the great earthen tumulus at ancient Aegae was bitten into by looters on more than one occasion, and when exposed, Tomb I became a dumping ground for the dead.
Now Grant?s new book is revealing all, the pressure will certainly be on the Greek Ministry of Culture to take a new progressive stance on permitting the outstanding forensics on the ?royal? bones from the unlooted tombs. With the possible identities greatly narrowed down by the Antikas-team study, new DNA, radio carbon dating and stable isotope analysis of the ?king?, ?queen? and ?prince? may solve the puzzle once and for all."
LINK: https://archaeologynewsnetwork.blog...DbDv4sFtQ3kbswvlcldt9YmaI#eSYtf7LB6mS4M9V5.97
Quite cryptic. But some revealing things in this article. Greece apparantly has so far not allowed DNA testing of the most important bones.
Some excerpts:
"
The ages of the deceased in Tomb II were determined from wear and tear on bones: the main chamber contained a middle-aged male and the antechamber a far younger female. This narrowed down the list of kings and queens either side of Alexander?s reign.
But an ?unfortunate symmetry? obscured the background to the double burial in Tomb II?, says London-based historian David Grant who collaborated with the scientists studying the skeletal remains. This led to a ?battle of the bones? among historians, causing a rift which divided the academic community ?obsessed? on proving their identities.
The Tomb II occupants could either be Alexander?s father Philip II and his final teenage wife Cleopatra, or Philip?s half-witted son Arrhidaeus who was executed twenty years later when of similar age and with an equally young bride. Questions of ritual or forced suicide raised their head, because kings and queens rarely died together.
Philip II was a national hero who befitted such a tomb and he had seven wives we know of. But Grant?s research points out the elephant in the room: none of the ancient sources mentions any women being buried with Philip at Aegae. ?What superficially appears to be a two-phase construction of Tomb II, plus the different cremation conditions the female bones underwent, suggest she was buried later than the male in the still-empty or incomplete second chamber.?
On the other hand, Arrhidaeus and his young bride Adea-Eurydice were executed together by Alexander?s mother Olympias when she regained political control of the state capital. She also murdered Philip?s last wife, Cleopatra, along with her new-born child. This ?double assassination? of Arrhidaeus and Adea-Eurydice explains the ?double burial? given to them after Olympias was herself executed.
The Antikas team found new incontrovertible age evidence on previously unanalysed bones, as well as undocumented trauma, which further narrowed down the list of candidates. The woman?s pubic symphysis aged her at 32 +/- 2 years at death, ruling out Philip?s teenage wife Cleopatra and discounting Arrhidaeus and his wife completely.
Dispelling the case of ?archaeological gender bias? was an overlooked shinbone wound providing proof that the armour and weapons belonged to the women, because the unevenly sized gilded-bronze greaves were fashioned to fit her shortened deformed leg. She was, indeed, being honoured as a warrior at death.
A final ?identity-shattering? discovery was made by the Antikas team. ?Forgotten? and unanalysed skeletal remains from Tomb I were found in storage below the Vergina laboratory; they were probably consigned to thirty-five-years of obscurity in the aftermath of the ?great? Thessalonica earthquake of 20 June 1978 when the preservation of unlooted Tombs II and III was the focus of attention. These additional bones from Tomb I contained the remains of at least seven individuals, not just two adults and a baby.
The team?s finds were published in an academic journal 2015. Although hampered by underfunding and a lack of support from those fearing unwanted results, they continued to push for ?next-generation? forensics: DNA testing, radiocarbon dating, and stable isotope analysis on the Tomb II and Tomb III bones.
Permission was denied in 2016, Grant reveals. Instead, the scientists were allowed to test the scattered bones found in looted ?Tomb I?, but with no formal funding provided. Although these bones lay exposed in soil for over 2,000 years, dating and DNA results were successfully extracted, disproving yet more of the identity theories. Moreover, controversial leg bones, which supposedly evidenced the terrible a knee wound Philip may have suffered in Thrace, appeared to be ?intruders? from a completely different tomb. The results have yet to be published and Grant says they will amaze everyone.
What has become clear is that the great earthen tumulus at ancient Aegae was bitten into by looters on more than one occasion, and when exposed, Tomb I became a dumping ground for the dead.
Now Grant?s new book is revealing all, the pressure will certainly be on the Greek Ministry of Culture to take a new progressive stance on permitting the outstanding forensics on the ?royal? bones from the unlooted tombs. With the possible identities greatly narrowed down by the Antikas-team study, new DNA, radio carbon dating and stable isotope analysis of the ?king?, ?queen? and ?prince? may solve the puzzle once and for all."
LINK: https://archaeologynewsnetwork.blog...DbDv4sFtQ3kbswvlcldt9YmaI#eSYtf7LB6mS4M9V5.97