On October 17, 2024, Antonis Bartsiokas published an article in which he claimed to have identified the sacred tunic that Alexander of Macedonia used when adopting Persian dress (Plutarch, 1986) among the funerary goods from the Tomb II at Vergina.
Few figures in history have left as significant an impact as Alexander the Great. This young man of barely twenty years old who set out to conquer the Persian Empire owed much to his father, Philip of Macedonia, assassinated before his son at the theater of Aegae and, according to Manolis Andronikos, buried in Tomb II of the Vergina Tumulus (Agudo, 2024).
The appearance of his sacred tunic in the context of the Vergina tombs is just one of many discoveries at this tumulus that have been linked to the figure of the Macedonian conqueror and which sparked debate when Professor Bartsiokas published the aforementioned article. It is precisely this tumulus that we aim to analyze in this work. The objective is to describe the Vergina tombs, comment on the main discoveries and the most interesting contributions about this Tumulus so as to place in context the latest publication by Bartsiokas, once again on the Vergina Tombs.
The Vergina Tombs
The first discoveries were made in 1977 and four tombs were uncovered:
- Tomb I: Also known as the Tomb of Persephone, for the fresco that decorates it, a cist tomb.
- Tomb II: A monumental tomb accompanied by a heroon and accessed on November 8, 1977.
- Tomb III: Also known as the Prince's Tomb.
- Tomb IV
The one that interests us is Tomb II, which according to Andronikos contained the remains of Philip II of Macedonia. Tomb II has a facade measuring ten meters wide and five and a half high, two pilasters closing the exterior part of the facade, and two fluted Doric columns (Agudo, 2024). The most striking feature is the fresco on the facade, depicting a hunting scene in which seven men are shown on foot; four carry spears, one at the far right wears chlamys and kausia, typical Macedonian headgear, while the rest are nude. Another three are depicted riding horses.
The interior of Tomb II is completely vaulted, consisting of an antechamber measuring 4’46 meters wide by 3’36 deep and a main chamber measuring 4’46 meters on each side. Opposite the marble door leading to the main chamber, deposited on the floor was found a gorytos, or golden quiver containing 74 arrows; in the southern part of the antechamber, next to the object described above, a sarcophagus with an larnax inside adorned with the silver star and which contained a gold diadem, a purple and golden mantle, and beneath this, surviving cremation remains. In the main chamber, which Andronikos believed had been hastily finished, another sarcophagus was found containing an larnax much more decorated inside; they also found a wreath of oak leaves and acorns in gold with a purple mantle along with further bone fragments (Agudo, 2024).
The Academic Debate
The apparent haste with which Tomb II was completed, the richness of its contents, as well as the relationship between Homeric and Macedonian culture led Andronikos to identify Tomb II as the resting place of Philip II and his wife Cleopatra Eurydice.
The first criticisms came in the same year of the discovery, but it was not until 1978 that we find the first alternative theory. Zachos proposed that the remains buried in Tomb II belonged to Philip III (half-brother of Alexander the Great and his successor) and Adea-Eurydice (Agudo, 2024).
Following Alexander's death in Babylon in 323 BC and the ensuing conflict that led to the Babylonian Compacts, it was agreed that Philip III (son of Philip II with Thessalian Philina) and half-brother of Alexander, would be king until Roxana (Alexander’s wife) gave birth; if she bore a son, joint kingship between both rulers would take place. (Anson, 2014; Bennet and Roberts, 2008).
Philip III was assassinated by Olympias of Epirus (Alexander's mother) in 316 BC, during the Second War of the Diadochi (319 – 315 BC) at the age of forty years old (Diodorus, 2015).
According to the thesis put forward by authors such as Eugene Borza and Olga Palagia (among others), Tomb I would be the burial site of Philip II, his wife Cleopatra, and their daughter Europa (Borza and Palagia, 2007). According to these two authors, the funerary goods in the antechamber of Tomb II, which include the quiver, arrows; as well as a pectoral, all accompanied by the bones of a woman – note that in Tomb II there are no remains of a minor, which could undermine the theory that Tomb II was Philip II's. The immediate relationship between warrior and Argive dynasty led to thinking about Adea, daughter of Cynane and granddaughter of Philip II (Molina, 2007).
Adea would have married Philip III Arrhidaeus, so we already have the equation: if Adea is buried in the antechamber, then Arrhidaeus must be buried in Tomb II.
Borza and Palagia add to their list of arguments the construction in vault form of Tomb II, placing them on the line of Thomas Boyd, who argued that this type of construction was only introduced into Macedonia after Alexander's conquest (Borza and Palagia, 2007) however, Antonio Ignacio Molina Marin, in an article published in the same year 2007 recovered the argument put forward by Hammond that this type of burial was not new when Alexander conquered the Persian Empire, so this argument could be eliminated (In favor of that vaults were incorporated after Alexander's campaign: Borza and Palagia, 2007; against: Molina, 2007).
It is here where we must introduce the conclusions of Professor Bartsiokas' latest work. Antonis Bartsiokas is a staunch defender that Tomb II is the burial place of Arrhidaeus and Adea, while Tomb I belongs to Philip II, Cleopatra, and Europa. In 2015, Juan Luis Arsuaga collaborated with Bartsiokas in a forensic article analyzing the bones from Tomb I (Bartsiokas, Arsuaga et al., 2015); but in his October article, Bartsiokas analyzes the textiles found inside the larnax of the chamber of Tomb II. According to Bartsiokas, these textiles are none other than the sarapis, or Persian tunic that Alexander began to use upon reaching Parthia-Hircania (Bartsiokas, 2024).
Conclusions
The discovery of the sarapis of Alexander in Tomb II, according to Bartsiokas, would result in Arrhidaeus indeed being buried there. Bartsiokas relates in his article the possession of the sarapis of Arrhidaeus with other elements from Alexander's paraphernalia such as the shield of Achilles and Penthesilea, oak leaf wreaths – which Bartsiokas aligns with Alexander rather than Philip – and further items from the funerary goods (Bartsiokas, 2024).
The debate thus remains far from over, and many hypotheses still remain, especially now that it begins to be seen that in Macedonia the Persian court culture did not seem as exotic as it once appeared (Molina, 2007). Therefore, all we can do is wait to see what new finds and analyses these fascinating tombs may bring forth, which in one way or another are a milestone in the history of archaeology of the twentieth century.
Bibliography
Agudo, M. (2024). Philip of Macedonia. Desperta Ferro Ediciones.
Anson, E. (2014). Alexander’s Heirs: The Age of the Successors. John Wiley and Sons.
Antela-Bernárdez, B. (2021): Philip and Thessaly. In Antela-Bernández, B. & Mendoza, M. (eds.): Philip II of Macedonia (53 – 63). UAM Ediciones y Editorial Universidad de Sevilla.
Bartsiokas, A. (2024). The Identification of the Sacred “Chiton” ( Sarapis ) of Pharaoh Alexander the Great in Tomb II at Vergina, Macedonia, Greece. Journal of Field Archaeology, 1-13.
Bartsiokas, A., Arsuaga, J. L., Santos, E., Algaba, M., & Gómez-Olivencia, A. (2015). The lameness of King Philip II and Royal Tomb I at Vergina, Macedonia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112 (32), 9844-9848.
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